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Tweets by @SWOkemp

End of Year Memories

Reducing our Carbon Footprint

Created with Padlet

#oneword

Instead of New Year's Resolutions, our class participated in the #oneword event that has been going around twitter recently.  We each chose one word to focus upon for 2016 and wrote paragraphs to explain.

Body system research project

Success criteria is below, based on our class meeting to create the expectations list.  We will set the due date closer to the end of the month, based on how each team is progressing.

Structures Research Project

Due Date: November 25th

Time to research will be given at school.  Some items will need to be worked on at home (e.g. if you choose to do a model or Minecraft as your visual).

Welcome back to the 2015-2016 School Year!

Welcome back, Grade 5 Osler Owls!

I'm looking forward to another great year of learning and fun.

Indoor shoes are required for all students.  Proper, clean running shoes are needed to safely participate in physical education.

Our school works hard to achieve a high environmental ranking, so we avoid the use of disposable water bottles. Please bring a reusable water bottle to fill at our water filling station.

Although the school budget provides for many supplies, students are asked to bring the following items if possible.  Not to worry if not; we have some materials to share.

• Tissues and Papertowels
• Skinny Markers, glue stick, pencils, erasers, pencil crayons
• Protractor, calculator
• For French: 1" binder, picture of self, journal (if you'd like to use a special one)

We use a lot of technology in my classroom and at our school.  Students will have many opportunities the school's tech (ipads, laptops, etc.) With parents' permission, my students are permitted to bring their own devices (BYOD) to use during some parts of the day for educational purposes. As detailed in the first part of agendas, students must follow staff instructions and use tech appropriately, or they lose their privilege to access wifi or bring devices in future.  School staff is not responsible for lost or damaged personal items.



One of the forms you will receive shortly has a place for you to give us 'media permission' to use your child's picture online (class/school website, twitter, videos). We never post names or identifying information. I also spend a lot of time modelling and discussing online safety and digital citizenship so students are prepared to make safe online decisions for themselves as they grow older and have more online independence.

Homework: As a parent myself, I know how busy evenings can be for families. So I do not assign much homework. Sometimes, students may have a project to work on, a test for which to study, or some school work they need to finish. Otherwise, I encourage students to read, talk about what they've read or learned, play board games, exercise, enjoy nature, sign up for clubs or teams. I'll post links on our class blog with interesting and fun review activities. 

Timely communication is important and I enjoy sharing moments of learning. I send and post most information electronically and send very few paper newsletters.  Students will also write key info in their agendas to share with you.  (If you don't have access to internet or texts, please let me know and I'll make sure you receive a paper copy of info.)

To receive class updates through text messages and/or email, please sign up at Remind.com or click on this pdf file and follow the directions. This messaging service doesn't share any personal contact information and you can unsubscribe at any time. If you don't want to sign up, the same messages stream on the sidebar of our class blog (swokemp.blogspot.ca).


Follow our class twitter account @swokemp for live tweets/pics of our activities. The twitter feed also shows up on the class blog so you can still view it, even if you aren't a twitter user.


This year, you are most welcome to contact me if you have any questions at kkemp@scdsb.on.ca.  Email is the best way to contact me, as I can check messages quickly and from different locations. It also avoids 'telephone tag' that often happens when trying to contact busy teachers and parents. But of course, phoning or sending a note in your child's agenda works too.  Make sure to ask your child to show me the note, please.

One of the most important skills we focus on in Grade 5 is increased responsibility.  Teachers and parents let students take more ownership and responsibility for themselves. Sometimes, this ends up in small setbacks or 'failures' (e.g. forgotten form, poor mark on an assignment or quiz).  And that's when we, as supporting adults, can offer guidance to help them learn from the experience.  But it's important to allow students to stumble at times. This age is an easier time to learn perseverance and how to overcome setbacks, rather than waiting until they are older and consequences are bigger.

I have one last request. I am very allergic to scented products so if you and your child could avoid wearing perfumed items, cologne or scented hand sanitizers at school, my lungs and I would really appreciate it.

Thanks for your support and I look forward to an exciting and productive year of learning.

Sincerely,

Mrs. K. Kemp

Long Division

Quiz next Thursday on Long Division!  

Some students could use some extra review.  I've attached some sheets for reference, but if you'd prefer a paper copy, let me know.  

Sheet for everyone (2 digit)

Sheet for Grade 5s and keen Grade 4s (3 digit)

Social Studies Menu Choices

Check out the Menu Choices for Social Studies!

Pick 2.

Due April 17th.

Have fun!

Grade 4 Menu Choices

Grade 5 Menu Choices

Power4Bones Public Service Announcements

Internal forces on structures

We had a yummy science lesson today on internal forces on structures. 

Public Speaking Competition

Junior students have the choice to participate in our annual speech competition. In class,we complete oral presentations and work on our public speaking skills as part of many curriculum topics throughout the year. This speaking competition offers students an opportunity to further enrich or stretch their skills, as an extra-curricular activity, if they so choose.  But until Grade 7/8, it is optional.

Students who choose to do a speech should consider the following success criteria:

My speech will be:
*3-5 minutes
*on a topic that is of interest to me and is school-appropriate
*well practiced (cue cards and mostly memorized so I can have lots of eye contact)
*presented with good eye contact, at a good pace and volume

 Please note: Parents can certainly help their child with speech writing and preparation but the final product should sound like the student and the student should be able to answer questions on their topic with confidence and solid knowledge.

CLASSROOM SPEECHES: February 12 

Winners go to Library: February 19th

Welcome to Ms Rahman

We are very fortunate to have Ms Rahman joining our class for a few months as part of her practice teaching experience as a student-teacher.  Please read her introductory letter below and talk with your child about the origins of his/her name, in preparation for her first project with our class.


Dear Parents/Guardians, 

 My name is Lubna Rahman and I am a Teacher Candidate from York University. I will be in your child’s classroom every Monday and Tuesday starting from January 5th until April 29th. During my placement, I will be observing, planning and implementing a variety of learning activities for the children. I have been working with children of different age groups and look forward to spending time with your children. 

For one of my activities, your child will be collecting information on how they got their name and the story behind it. They will also be asked to reflect upon how they feel about the naming process. If your child’s name does not have a meaning or a story behind it, then they may collect information on their parents/guardians or their grandparent’s name. Your help will be really appreciated. Thank you for your co-operation. 

 Best Regards, 

 Lubna Rahman.

What We've Learned from our Inquiry Projects

Epals

We have class epals from Ukraine, Chile, France, India and England.  They have been sending us some interesting videos, pictures and emails about their culture and schooling.  We have been doing the same.  Today, we used an iPad app called EduCreations to make these little slideshows about ourselves.

Coding without Computers

Next week, we will be participating in an international event called "Hour of Code".  Watch this video for more info.

To get a head-start on the event, we did a special Coding without Computers activity today.  We programmed our "robotic" friends to set up cups according to our 'code'.  We created algorithms and then debugged our code when necessary.  So much great problem solving and collaboration happened!  

What a relief... sculpture!

What a super day we had at the Orillia Museum of Art and History. Students were guided through the steps to create a relief sculpture based on famous Canadian artists such as the Group of Seven, in the style of Elizabeth Wyn Wood.  Their focus was intense and the results are diverse and interesting!
Instructions will be sent home with their creations for how to 'bake' the clay in the oven.

Then we went on a tour of the museum -including a visit to the old jail cells in the basement.  To top off our day, we got to hold 400 year old artifacts!

  We want to give Mrs. Wright a big thank you for organizing this trip.  And special thanks to all the parent volunteers who helped out also. 

Inquiry/Research Project Help

When you are working on your project, remember these steps.

(Source: NYC: Office of Educational Technology)

Also, I've attached a copy of the marking rubric and the Gr 4 outline.  

Gr 4 Habitat Assignment

Marking Rubric

The Magic of Palindromes

What is a palindrome?
A palindrome is something that you can read forwards and backwards. For example, the word BOB or the number 15651 are palindromes.

Step 1: Pick a number.
Step 2: Reverse your number (put it backwards.)
Step 3: Add them together.
Step 4: If the answer is NOT a palindrome, reverse that number and keep on going. Soon enough, you'll get a palindrome.

Ripple Effect

We watched this video today and had a great discussion about the ripple effect of positive and negative emotions and actions. As one student described it, this is "mind-blowing and heart-touching".