Math Workshop

We have structured most of our math classes using a workshop method. Students work with M. Sorokowski, work on exercises, or work on math facts via the iPads and XtraMath. I've really enjoyed this and the students have said they do too, as it provides a lot of small group instruction based on student needs.

We are currently working on operations: Reviewing addition and subtraction and learning about multiplication and division strategies. By the end of Grade 5, students should be able to multiply and divide 4-digit numbers by 1- and 2-digit numbers.

Figurative Language

In English, we are looking at figurative language - onomatopoeia, specifically. To demonstrate our understanding, we did a visual arts project. Looking at the work of Roy Lichtenstein, a famous pop artist, we discussed the use of bright colours that pop out at the viewer. We also watched a clip from Batman (1966) to see how the film used onomatopoeia in a pop-art style in some of their sequences. Here are our final projects. Well done!

Creating Mosaics

We have been fortunate to work with Dimitry Melman, a local artist, over the past month. Dimitry engaged the whole school in designing three mosaics that will go up around the school. The kindergarten to Grade 2 classes created one, Grades 3 to 5 created another, and the whole school contributed to another. It's been a lot of fun, and students loved working again with Dimitry, who was here last year. Merci beaucoup, Dimitry!

Wednesday Update

It's been a busy month at ÉRB! We're already at the end of January. Here's what's going on:

M. Vermeylen with his Olympic torch. Each day, students from different grade levels are carrying the torch around the school, leading up to the opening of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games

Here are two Grade 5 students (including our own Kieran and the rest of our class in the background) for this morning's leg of the torch relay! 

In English and Visual Arts, we are working on onomatopoeia art. Discussing different types of figurative language, students had a great time watching an old Batman clip that uses examples of onomatopoeia in its action scenes. You'll see the final product soon! 

Structuring our Speeches

Students are working on their speeches in class for the concours d'art oratoire. Here's how the speeches should be structured so far:

Introduction

...élément accrocheuse (hook)

...intro personnelle (Bonjour, je m'appelle ...)

...3 idées principales (three main ideas)

1e idée

...mot de transition (transition word)

...idée (main idea of the paragraph)

...détails (supporting details)

...phrase de conclusion (concluding sentence)

Students are given ample time in class to work on their speeches but may need to work on it as well at home. Students will likely need to do some research at home throughout the week.

This Week in Social Studies

We are wrapping up our exploration into the lives of the First Peoples in Canada. Groups worked collaboratively to create posters that tell how different nations lived throughout Canada. We learned what types of food they ate and what they lived in. We are now looking at how they governed themselves. Next...the Europeans will arrive and we will talk about all the explorers.

We Love to Read

We've had some special guests lately. Thanks to Mr. Buhay and Mrs. Gerbrandt who donated their time to come share some books with us! Also, thanks to Mme Schmidt, a teacher in her final year at the University of Manitoba, who came to do an activity with her book. Later this week, Mme Clarke will come read, and one of M. Sorokowski's professors will also stop by to lead a literacy activity.

We've wrapped up our novel study on The Report Card and are working on summarizing what the book was about. We've started to read a book called Fake Mustache and will also begin doing independent novel studies in small groups.

Résoudre des équations

Here is the lesson from today.

Body Systems

We had a ton of fun reviewing our body systems today. Here are the diagrams we created.

Character Traits in The Report Card

We've been reading The Report Card by Andrew Clements in class. We're almost at the end of the book, so we've begun reflecting and identifying different character traits and plot elements. Today, using our new iPads (yay) we shared our ideas together. Students collaborated and used a website called Padlet to share their ideas.

Click here to see the full page, as it's a bit squished below! 

Created with Padlet

And here we are using our spiffy new iPads!

Conjugating ER Verbs (Present Tense)

Here's a video that explains how to conjugate verbs ending in ER in the present tense. Happy learning!