Grade 5 Composition Unit

The grade five students are currently in their composition unit in Music.  In small groups, the students have been exploring and creating new music using musical concepts, such as syncopation and call and response.  At the end of class, they give each other feedback based on the success criteria.

Parent Sharing Session

For 2 hours on Tuesday, January 24 the fifth grade classrooms and drama room were filled with parents actively participating with their daughters in a range of learning activities. The session was split into 2 parts, the first focusing on mathematics and the second focusing on changes that occur during adolescence.  A bit more on the mathematics session:

Students broke into groups of 2 or 3 to demonstrate a mathematics concept studied in the first semester. Students led parents through an inquiry activity, stopping along the way to explain relevant concepts, algorithms, strategies, and tips to help develop the tools necessary to solve the problems. Here are a few of the inquiries students led parents through.

Here are some photos of parents and students in action

After the mathematics session wrapped up, we switched our focus to explore changes that occur during adolescence. A main goal of this session was for parents and daughters to have fun and work together to develop some strategies that could be used to maintain healthy relationships with each other during the changing years of adolescence.

Firstly, a list of 10 changes was given to each group. We asked groups to rank these changes in terms of most important, concerning, biggest, surprising, etc... Parents and daughters were able to share their perspectives with each other and talk through the changes in more detail.


Next, we role-played a few scenarios to help promote dialogue between parents and daughters. To add a bit of perspective, we had everyone switch roles; parents played the part of daughters, and daughters played the part of parents.



We finished with parents and daughters offering each others bits of advice to remember moving forward.

We want to thank everyone for taking the time to come out and share in these activities with us.  It was clear that everyone learned something and enjoyed themselves.

We look forward to our next session on March 2 when we share our science investigations with parents.

Unit of Inquiry - Growth and Development

Grade 5’s  ‘Growing and Developing’ Learning Continues

Only two more weeks left of learning before the month of February and the beginning of the upcoming Unit of Inquiry of How the World Works theme, Does It Matter. Grade 5 students were first nervous about starting the Unit of Inquiry of Who We Are theme, Growth and Development. As time passed, they displayed curiosities about their physical, emotional, and intellectual changes.

Unit 3 - Who We Are, Growth and Development

Central Idea:  Changes people experience affect adolescence affect their evolving sense of self.

Physical, Intellectual, and Emotional Changes Connections

Line of Inquiry #1:  The physical, emotional and intellectual changes that occur during adolescence.

Success Criteria:  Explain connections between different types of changes.

Students thought back of their learning about the changes and functions of physical, emotional, and intellectual changes that they have learned from homeroom teachers, Mrs. Line (school nurse) and Ms. Carnright (school’s ES counselor). Each student started to make connections between the different types of changes, and displayed their thinking using a graphic organizer of their choice.

Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep and Stress Management Connections

Line of Inquiry #2:  Factors that contribute to well being throughout adolescence

Success Criteria:  Make connections between nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress management

Students thought back of their learning through previous sessions and investigations of specific effects that the following can have during adolescence:  nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management. Each group brainstormed connections between nutrition, exercise, sleep and, stress management and displayed their thinking using a concept mapping graphic organizer.

Selfie Self Esteem Activity

Line of Inquiry #2:  Factors that contribute to well being throughout adolescence

Success Criteria:  Classify behaviors that may contribute to affecting a personś self esteem

Learning Intention:  For students to think of positive comments about themselves and others to promote positive self esteem.

Each student took a selfie photograph using Google Chromebook. Using Google Drawing app, a student will add positive comment text about herself. Selfie photos were then posted on the classroom walls for students to write on each photo a positive comment. In the end, the 5th grade students were quite pleased with their own comments and their classmates comments.

Hexagon Thinking

Line of Inquiry #2:  Factors that contribute to well being throughout adolescence

Success Criteria:  Classify behaviors that may contribute to affecting a personś self esteem

Learning Intention:  For students to sort and classify positive and negative behaviors that may contribute to affecting a personś self esteem

Hexagon thinking is a fantastic activity that pushes students’ thinking. Not only students sort and classify the hexagon pieces, but they also communicate their reasoning and explain the connections. Each group was provided hexagon pieces with various positive and negative behaviors that may contribute to affecting a personś self esteem. Once the main pieces (Self Esteem, Positive and Negative) pieces have been laid down, each member of the group will place her piece that connects with the other pieces.

New Year, New Maths

Students came back to school well rested and full of enthusiasm for the second half of the year. After sharing stories from the holidays-skiing trips, movies, ice skating, play dates and trips to Grandma’s house- we set about investigating a new strand of mathematics. 

Central Idea

Range, mode, median and mean can be used to analyse statistical data

The following questions are being used to guide students through this investigation:

How can we manipulate data?

How can we interpret data?

How can we present our data effectively?

As a getting started activity, students explored the power and versatility of graphs by looking at Hans Roslings' graph of 200 countries over 200 years. Students pondered the question, "Was this data presented effectively?" You can visit the interactive graph here.

To construct meaning, student were asked to investigate the following question: 

                                  Do you have good balance?

As a class, we brainstormed the different aspects of data handling: 

Planning

Collecting data

Recording data

Organising data

Analysing data

Presenting data

Students worked their way through this investigation, pausing along the way to learn different methods of organising data and to practice calculating landmarks to help analyse the data. Finally, students used the collection of data to answer the question. Of course they used the landmarks to help justify their answer. Students experimented with different graphing options to best present the data and highlight the answer to the question.

Here are some students working through the investigation.

Going to the Doctors🏥

In the Japanese intermediate class, the students made a skit by themselves in a scene where they go to the doctor with a condition where one of the students express their condition as a patient and where the other listens and attends as a doctor🚑

As this unit is to inquire about the Human Growth and Development, students learned new vocabulary such as human body parts but also learned how to express what kind of condition there body is in. In addition, students used their creativity to make a skit with the new information they learned but worked amazingly in pairs by communicating.

These are the skits that the students made themselves💖

Group 1  :  Kate and Hana

Group 2 : Claire and Sanskriti

Group 3 : Tanatswa and Gopika

Group 4 : Sunaina and Linnea

Every one of the students did an amazing job and I hope for the best that none of the students will need to go to a hospital any time soon✨