Weekly Update - May 1

Thanks to everyone who attended the spring dance last night and shoutout to our Kindergarten friends who held their celebration of learning all about Oceans yesterday.  

Highlights of the Week: 

• ELAL – This week we focused on timed writing tasks. Students were given a prompt in which they had a set amount of time to write using a fiction or non-fiction structure. 
• Math – We learned how to multiply fractions this week and also reviewed for our check-in today. 
• Science –  
• Grade 6 – we continued our ecosystem project this week. Students have finished their research and are in the middle of creating their brochures. We will finish this task next week.  
• Grade 5 – students were introduced to their new unit, Living Systems, this week. We learned about 4 main body systems, including the digestive, circulatory, respiratory and musculoskeletal system. 
• Social –  
• Grade 5 – students explored the idea of informed citizens and how they can act on issues that matter to them. They chose an issue they found important and created an artifact based on how they can make a change.  
• Grade 6 – more time was given to create their project on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Students will have one more day next week to complete it before it becomes homework.  

How you can support at home: 

• Homework – Students brought home their review sheets they worked on in class. 
• Math – Work on basic facts of all operations to support algebra. 
• ELAL – Work on using clues in a text to make an inference.  

Important Dates:  

• Cricket Residency – May 4 – 8  
• Growing Smiles Plant Pick-up – May 5 
• T. B. Riley Performance (walking field trip) – May 6 
• Whole School Photo – May 7 **updated  
• 2nd Round Grade 6 Vaccinations – May 11  
• Commun-I-Tea – May 11  
• Healthy Hunger (Papa Johns) – May 14  
• School Council – May 27 
• Healthy Hunger (Jelly Modern) – May 28 
• Volunteer Tea – May 28 
• TB Riley Student Open House (walking field trip) – June 11  

Grade 6 PAT Dates: 

• ELAL Part A (Writing) – May 25 **updated date 
• ELAL Part B (Reading) – June 4 
• Science – June 12 
• Math Part A (Computations) – June 15 
• Math Part B (All Stems) – June 18 

Reminders: 

• Patrol Field Trip Forms – please send forms back as soon as possible. The deadline is next Friday. If you’d like to volunteer – sign up on the volunteer sheet or let your child’s teacher know. 
• TB Riley Performance – we will be walking to TB Riley for a drama performance on Wednesday, May 6. We will be having lunch early this day to accommodate our walk. 
• PAT Review – we have had several comments and questions about PATs. We will begin review mid May and will be sending home review for Math and Science. You can access practice tests here: https://abed.vretta.com/#/en/public-practice 
• Students will have plenty of opportunity to work on their reading and writing at school, however, here are some suggestions to support at home: 
• Have your child plan a story in 10 minutes with a prompt/theme 
• Give your child 20 minutes to write as much as they can towards a story 
• Practice a preferred style of non-fiction writing when given a prompt and practice planning under time constraints (persuasive, comparative, instructional, friendly letter, etc.) 
• What to focus on – grammar, punctuation, paragraphing, complete sentences 
• Students are given 2 hours to write both a fiction and non-fiction piece of writing during the PAT. They will be given an overarching topic, such as Friendship to write both pieces on. Typically, students will take 5-10 minutes to plan and organize their writing topic for each piece and then spend the remaining time typing their pieces.  
• TRS Flex Time – Wednesdays until 4pm in the library with Mr. B and Ms. Hassen