Our Beliefs

We spent much of September coming up with our class beliefs. Students engaged in activities that showed their strengths as learners (multiple intelligences) and completed teamwork activities to explore what it means to be part of a strong group.

Our beliefs are now posted at the front of the room. These were created by students by exploring their responses to questions such as, "What kind of teacher do you want? What do students in 5-21 have to do every day to make sure class runs smoothly? School is important because ___" and so on.

We use these beliefs to guide our behaviour.

Le respect et la joie sont les règles du jeu. Respect and fun are the names of the game.

Nous améliorons notre français en le pratiquant autant que possible. We become better French speakers by practicing as much as possible.

Nous avons tous le droit d'apprendre. We all have the right to learn.

Ici, nous sommes en sécurité. Nous avons une tolérance zéro pour l'intimidation. We are safe in this class. We have zero tolerance for bullying behaviour.

Assembly Poem

Grade 5s are great leaders. From buddy reading with the kindergarten class to helping with patrol and bussing, the Grade 5s really do see it all! Our class and M. Proulx's also host the monthly assemblies. We also will perform a poem for the school (memorized!). Here's M. Sorokowski reading it for your enjoyment as well as the poem text.

Je voulais dans mon cartable (de Pierre Ruaud)

Je voulais dans mon cartable
Emporter mes châteaux de sable,
Mon cerf-volant, des coquillages
Et le portique de la plage. 

Maman m'a dit:
"Ce n'est pas permis
Et puis tout ça
Ça ne rentre pas!" 

Alors j'ai pris un beau stylo,
Pour le goûter, quelques gâteaux,
Et que des choses raisonnables...
Plus trois petits grains de sable! 

A Look Back

We've been busy, as always, in Salle 21! Here's a peek at what's been going on:

We worked on a project called "pluie des noms" in Arts visuels. Students made it look like their names were raining out of these bright pages. They sure makes the hallway look great!

We have completed our review of the parts of the body in Sciences de la nature. Students played Jacques dit (Simon Says) and bingo. They also created these posters to show the different parts of the body. With this foundational knowledge covered, we can now delve into the different body systems! We'll begin with the digestive system. 

A culmination of a few weeks' worth of collecting, this project has students create, in groups, a poster that shows "les mathématiques dans nos vies" - math in our lives. They will be finishing them soon to show that math is all around us! We have also been working on math facts (addition and subtraction strategies) and numbers up to 1 000 000. Students are catching on quickly!

Colour Days

Colour days have returned to support the kindergarten class in learning their colours! We invite everyone to wear these colours the next two weeks:

• Monday, September 16 - rouge (red)
• Tuesday, September 17 - bleu (blue)
• Wednesday, September 18 - jaune (yellow)
• Thursday, September 19 - vert (green)
• Friday, September 20 - orange (orange)

• Monday, September 23 - PICTURE DAY - anything you want! 
• Tuesday, September, 24 - rose & violet (pink & purple)
• Wednesday, September 25 - gris (grey)
• Thursday, September 26 - noir & blanc (black & white)
• Friday, September 27 - arc-en-ciel (rainbow)

Reading Buddies

We have been working with Mme D.'s afternoon kindergarten class once a cycle. Half of Mme's class comes upstairs while half of Monsieur's class goes downstairs to the kindergarten room. The grade 5 students read books to the kindergarten class - usually in French but the occasional English one too! 

The Grade 5s have REALLY enjoyed it. They are always glowing after, and Mme D. has said they are a fantastic group! Bravo!

Review: French Verbs "avoir" and "être"

Students have a quiz Monday, September 23 on the French verbs avoir (to have) and être (to be). They should be very familiar already with these verbs, as they have studied them in depth in previous years. Below you can see 5-21 working on on their review! They each wrote three sentences using each verb, and then we put them on flip chart paper to share. They did a wonderful job at reviewing these essential verbs.

Check out this online review, which will be very similar to their quiz. They will be provided with various sentences where they will have to choose the right verb and conjugate it to match the personal pronoun.

Students also took home cards in an envelope, which they can use to practice sorting the verbs and conjugations into the correct orders.

Bon travail! 

A Look Back: September 9 to 13

What a great first full week in Grade 5! We worked on so many different topics that Friday came before we knew it. Here's a peek at what we did:

We are still working on our class social contract. In groups, students came up with what the "best class ever" would look like, feel like, and sound like. They also did a My Job / Your Job activity, where they brainstormed individually what the teacher's role is and what students' roles are. We are assembling all these ideas to build the foundation of our classroom. 

Students had to really develop teamwork for this activity, where they each operated a string that pulled an elastic band. The students had to make a structure out of plastic cups using only the elastic band. Here are some words they came up with to describe teamwork: TRUST - RESPECT - SHARE - BE OPEN MINDED - COOPERATE - DON'T FIGHT - LET EVERYONE PARTICIPATE - LISTEN TO OTHERS - DO YOUR PART

Mme D's kindergarten class joined us for amis de lecture - reading buddies! The kindergarten classes are learning about their colours, so the Grade 5s pointed out colours and asked them about them in the books the kindergarten students brought. Afterwards, the Grade 5s said they had a lot of fun reading to little ones! We can't wait to keep this going! 

In Français, we began reviewing common verbs. In Sciences humaines, students watched a video about Canada that showed us many pictures from coast-to-coast. They wrote a long list of all that Canada has to offer. We're reviewing these core skills before moving to our first unit: The First Peoples! 

The First Day of School

We had an amazingly busy first day of school! With an assembly, meetings, éducation physique, and music, it was really a jam-packed day! We spent most of the time together working on team building activities. All in all, it was a fast (and very hot) Friday. Looking forward to Monday! - M. Sorokowski

Students were given sticky notes to respond to a variety of prompts to get some ideas flowing about Grade 5 

The questions included, "What should students in 5-21 do to make sure class runs smoothly? What kind of teacher do you want? What do you need to be successful this year? Our class should be ___ every day. What are you most excited to learn in Grade 5?"  

We finished the day with a spaghetti and marshmallow tower challenge! Table groups had 30 minutes to design and build the tallest tower made exclusively of spaghetti, marshmallows, and masking tape! Here's the winning tower. It was great to see everyone problem solve to build the best structures.

Welcome Back!

It's that time! Twas the night before the first day of school, and all through the house, teachers and students were stirring, maybe even a mouse! I am excited for the first day back. Please check out this Haiku Deck I made to briefly introduce myself and a bit of my life to the students. Bonne rentrée, as we say in French - Welcome Back!  

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

Bonne rentrée! Welcome Back!

Welcome Back from an Excellent Summer! 

J'espère que vous avez passé un bel été - bonne rentrée!

Don't forget to bring a change of clothes for PE classes if you are in grades 3-5. Also proper shoes are a must! Happy 1st week! #gobrowning
— Robert Browning PE (@BrowningPE) September 3, 2013

Wednesday and Thursday, September 4 and 5, 2013

• Opening Day Conferences. Book your conference if you haven't already. See you there! 

Friday, September 6, 2013 (Day 4)

• First Day of Classes! Welcome back to another exciting school year! The first day of school will be jam-packed with activities. Please note: We have both éducation physique and musique!