Mr. Joe's Grade 5 Blog

Sorry it has taken me this long to update my Blog, but I have been really busy as of late. As many of you know I have been completing my Masters in Teacher Leadership. I have also been really busy with schoolwork, grading, not to mention Jameson was very sick this whole last week. But I'm back now to update you on what is going on in Mr. Joe's classroom.

English

We have been doing some great things in English. Students are getting ready for their First Big Write of the year. We have been learning all about how to be a better writer using the Big Writing method of VCOP or Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers, and Punctuation. Each day over the last two weeks we have focused on a different area of writing to help become better writers. I feel that the students are ready to complete their first big write of the year. This Big Write will be a information writing about the topic of Fossils.

What is a Big Write?

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and here is an example of doing Kung Fu Punctuation!

What else have we been doing in English?

The students have been doing a great job listening and using their imaginations when reading the story: Dinosaur Detectives, a Magic School Bus story. This is a connection story with our science unit on Fossils. The story tells about Ms. Frizzles class going back in time to the Jurassic period and encountering different dinosaurs. the students have been instructed to make predictions on what will happen next in the story.

The students have also been doing a great job with their guided reading sessions that I work with them in their guided reading groups.

Math

We ahve been working really hard in math learning about different math concepts such as rounding and patterns. The following videos will help you review our different concepts we are learning in class:

Rounding:

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Also take a look at these Pattern Videos:

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These videos can help you understand the math concepts we are covering in class currently.

We are also going to begin using this new work book for math practices starting this week:

Students will be given assignments from this book to do in class as well as at home.

Science

We are currently learning all about Fossils in our science lessons. The boys even got to make their own fossils in the science la last week.

Here are some videos to make sure you understand what a fossil is:

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The students will not only be tested on their knowledge of fossils, but their Big Write will also be assessed!

The following are pictures from the past week:

Welcome back students! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but its been pretty hectic with all the National day stuff, filling out grades and report cards, and grading journals.

English

We are learning how to write a procedural text. You may remember this from last year in grade 4, but we are taking it a bit further. Students are going to give step by step instructions in their writing of how to prepare a meal/food. Students are expected to use Wow words and describing words as well as adjectives that describe the ingredients they use for their meal they are writing about. This writing will be graded and will be stapled in their English journal. After the students have done the procedural text about the food, they will then do a demonstration of their procedure in class demonstrating doing something of their choice.

Math

This week we are going to be doing more measurement. Students will be learning about all different forms of measurement. Students will review the different forms of measurement in the metric system (we learned in grade 4). We will take this a step further and learn about different geometric angles such as Acute, Obtuse, straight, and Right angles. The following videos are a tool that will help students understand.

Measurement Videos:

Angles Explanations:

Science

We have been working hard learning about the changing Earth. Take a look at our science experiment we completed last week that taught us about Erosion and how Erosion can occur.