Happy Multicultural Day!

Thanks to those many families that were able to share food for today's Multicultural lunch. We had a nice mix of sweet & savory, from all around the world, and it was delicious! If any student went home hungry, it wasn't for a lack of scrumptious food!

This is packing weekend for the Grade 6s who are off to Outdoor School next week. They should be able to carry their own duffel bag, so pack judiciously. The school expects Grade 6 students will be at school Monday morning, March 2 by 8:30 a.m.

No new homework to be completed over the weekend.

Gr. 5s may need to be reminded to brush up on their 9 times tables for next week, which will be our last week before Spring Break.

Report cards will be available after school on Monday, with (where possible) student-led conferences held from 2:20 - 5:30 on Tuesday and Thursday of next week (March 3 & 5). Sign-up sheets went up earlier this week. If you cannot make it in to sign-up, you can call the office at 604.903.3280 and ask if one of the Office assistants can put your name down for a time slot. It is our expectation that students and parents will attend together; students will lead parents through a tour of highlights of their second term's work. It is understood that Gr 6 students will not be able to attend.

HOMEWORK: Thursday, February 26

HOMEWORK:
 1.  Grade 5 Math: Graphing Test (Thurs); Long Division Quiz signed

2.  Science Assessment signed

3. Multicultural Lunch (Fri)

4. Grade 5: Field Trip notice


MR. CLARKE:
1. Grade 5 Socials p. 121 Think for Yourself

Wednesday February 25, 2015

Congratulations to the Intermediate Choir on their performance this morning at Centennial Theatre. That would have been a wonderful and inspiring event for you, and I just wish we all could have attended! Well done.

Thanks to all who wore a Pink Shirt today, to celebrate our Belonging school goal!

Just a reminder: you should have received an email from the school today about Friday's Multicultural lunch!

No new homework today.

Here's a few of our classmates working on their wireframe sculptures that Mrs. Martin has been doing with our class in Art.

Tuesday Februry 24, 2015

Homework:

Math:
Both grades have a math test (W)

Socials:
Gr 5s need to complete the "Think For Yourself" assignment around evolving transportation modes (W)


Student-led conferences will be happening next Tuesday and Thursday. Sign-up sheets will go up immediately; parents and students should plan on attending a 15-minute segment.

For students, tomorrow our focus is on "Pink Shirt Day" as a belonging initiative promoted by Brooksbank's "Do Good" student committee.

Monday 23 February 2015

Homework for the day:

Math:
Gr. 5s: Prepare for the end of chapter test by working through the practice questions on p. 158, 159. The quiz will be on Wednesday of this week. Also, the 11 times tables quiz was completed today and needs to be signed for Tuesday, please.


Socials Studies:
Gr. 5: Complete a good copy of a timeline based on the pp 116-118 of the Chapter "Transportation and Communication" of the Socials textbook (T)

Gr. 6:  Complete Qu & Answer notes based on pp  69-71 of the Gr 6 Socials text, and be prepared to discuss in class (T)

HOMEWORK: Thursday, February 19

HOMEWORK:

1. Math Grade 5: p. 109; Long division quiz signed (Thurs)

2. Math Grade 6: p. 114 #6-7 (Fri)

3. 5 Kingdom Science Quiz signed


MR. CLARKE'S HOMEWORK:

1. Math Grade 5 p. 158 #1-5 (Wed)

Wednesday 18 February 2015

There was no Math period today, so the previous Math homework will simply be due the next Math period next week.

Outdoor School (for Gr. 6s only)
A reminder for families (that's parents and child together) to review the Outdoor School booklet sent home this week.

Reading:
Students were asked to complete a Mood Bar Graph for our novel, "Thunder Cave". Each of 9 "moments" are to be graphed according to how intense the moment was. Many students have handed this in, but several students are still working on it. Here are a couple that students have already handed in:

Students do not need to agree on how intense the various moments are... that is a matter of personal opinion.

Students do need to include a legend of the 9 "moments". For convenience we have named them like this:
1  Mum dies
2  Dad missing
3  Nebraska
4  Amulet from Taw
5  Bike stolen
6  Lion
7  Masai welcome
8  Dying
9  "Seeing"

This assignment can be handed in to Mr. Clarke via Mrs. Weiss if it is completed tomorrow (Thursday)


Reminder:
No school for students on Friday (PD day)

Tuesday, part 2

Math Homework:

Gr. 5: p. 158 # 1-5 (W)
Gr. 6: p. 114 # 1-5 (W)

Reminder:
Gr. 6 students need to get their Outdoor School forms & cheque in to us as soon as possible.

Most students are caught up with assignments. You can see a selection of them online if you use the Fresh Grade link I sent you.

Reminder:
No school this Friday 20 February: it is a Professional Development day for teachers.

Tuesday 17 Februry 2015

That was Bad Science, this is Good Science!

Students are designing an actual do-able experiment in-class, whose outcome is not known, in their same "Bad Science" groups. This time their reporting out of the experiment will be done on paper, typed up following this simplified format:

Experiment Write Up

Friday the 13th, February 2015

Well, we made it through another Friday the 13th, and so far no bad luck has befallen us! Whew!

We had some excellent "Bad Science" presentations today, showcasing excellent teamwork, solid understanding of what makes for good experimental design, and lots of great presentation skills.

No new homework for the weekend.

Gr. 5s should be practicing their times tables; as a class we are working on the 11 times tables.

The order I teach the times tables are:

0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 11, 9, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12.

As a Gr. 5 class we have worked our way up, in that order, completing the 10 times tables earlier this week, and now we've started on the 11 times tables. Soon things will get a bit more challenging, and there is no reason not to spend some time on the harder times tables in advance.

Writing for clarity, vocabulary building, and the mechanics of spelling, punctuation, and grammar should also be an occasional task on a weekend when there is no other homework. The key is for the child to have an adult look it over to gain feedback. If your child does any extracurricular writing, I'd be happy to work with them as long as they bring it in to me.

Reading, as always, should be a daily, or near-daily event. Twenty to thirty minutes of reading at home for pleasure really pays dividends!

I hope your family has a great weekend together.

Happy Valentines!

HOMEWORK: Thursday, February 12

HOMEWORK:

1. Math Grade 6: p. 111 #1-5 (Fri)

2. Math Grade 5: 2 double bar graphs (Thurs); math quiz signed

3. 5 Kingdoms Science Assessment signed


Mr. Clarke:

1. Bad Science (Fri)

2. Math Grade 5: p. 149-150 #1-9 not 4b, c (Fri)

Valentine's Day cards

Students may wish to bring Valentine's Day cards for our class this Friday. There are 29 students in our class:

Charlotte Aiden Charlie Ryan Dylan Natasha William Peter Kailan Ella Cecelia Josie Raegan Olivia Gemma Trevor Nathan Alex Atalaya David Matthew William Bradley Lucas Cassidy Paris Angelina Megan Sebastian.

The usual rules, of course, apply: that is,  this is voluntary, but if your child wants to take part, to include everyone, not just a select few.

Wednesday 11 February

Math Homework:

Gr. 5: p. 149-150 # 1-9 (not 4 b, c), and also have the 10 times tables quiz signed (F)
Gr. 6: no Math homework assuming the 8 long division questions were completed today

Several students have not yet handed in their Quotation writing (F)

Any Jump Rope donations and envelopes should be brought in before the end of this week, please.

For Ms. Weiss:
Gr 5s: Double Bar Graph (Th)

Science: Study Canadian Technology (Th)

"Weekend Update"

I use the title "Weekend Update", not because of "Saturday Night Live" (although they are about to celebrate a huge milestone), but more because I've been testing several ways parents can find out when a new post is published here.

I'm currently trying MailChimp. On the right of this page you can see where you can sign up with your preferred email address, and thereafter you'll receive email notification every day at 6:00 pm if there is new content that day. Recently we were getting a notification in the middle of the night or the next day, which is not helpful when it comes to homework. I've picked 6 pm as a compromise: late enough that I will have had a chance to sit down and write; early enough to be helpful for that evening's homework.

I am also testing another free service called Blogtrottr. The good news is it sends an email within minutes of a new post appearing online, such as this one. The bad news is the email is ad-supported so the email notification has an advertisement embedded in it, over which I have no control. I also can't tell if things will change after the first month of their trial... I don't want to have to pay to have you notified. At the moment it appears "free", and if it stays that way, the timeliness of instant notification may outweigh the annoyance of advertisements. If you want to try Blogtrottr (it's free and there is no need even for an account), go to https://blogtrottr.com and you then enter on their website  the address of my blog, which is http://paulclarkenorthvan.blogspot.ca/   and your preferred email address, and that's all there is to it. You'll receive email notification within a few minutes of a new post going online.

I will continue to monitor how these two systems work. Let me know if you tried one or other and what your experience is over the next couple of weeks by participating in the poll on the right side of this page.

You can also always reach me here:
pclarke @sd44 dot ca

Yet another test of the system

Signing up with MailChimp. How long till I'm notified of this new blog post?

To Chimp or not to Chimp

Yet another attempt to integrate email notifications, this time using Mail Chimp as an attempt.

2nd attempt

This is the second attempt at a quick notification system using email sign-up

This is the first of several tests for a timely notification system.

Thursday, February 5 Homework

HOMEWORK:

1. Science: Study Canadian Technology for Thursday; 5 Kingdom Quiz signed

2.  Grade 6 Math: p. 104 #1-8

3.  Grade 5 Math: Double bar graph (Thurs.); long division quiz signed

4. Jump Rope due Feb. 13


Mr. Clarke's homework:

1.  Bad Science Draft Script (Fri)

2. Panama Canal (Fri)

Wednesday February 4, 2015

Reminder:

Tomorrow the heat in all North Vancouver schools will be turned down for Wear a Sweater Thursday as a district-wide attempt to reduce our energy consumption. Brooksbank is encouraging all to "Wear a silly sweater" (or frankly, any kind of sweater) for all students and staff.

Also, looking ahead, schools will not be in session on Family Day in BC on Monday 9 February.

Homework:
French: practice le, la, les for les fruits

Science:
Have a draft script of the "Bad Science" presentation ready (F)

Writing:
Have a good copy of the Panama Canal writing (see previous day for the 4 framing questions here on the blog) (F)

For Ms. Weiss:
Science (5 Kingdoms) Assessment signed; science technology brainstorm (TH)

Gr. 6 Math: p. 101-102 # 1-6 (Th)

Gr. 5 Math: worksheet p. 107 (Th)

Tuesday February 3, 2015

Math Homework:

Gr. 5: p. 147 # 2-5; also, get 5 times tables quiz signed (W)

Science
Start writing script for Bad Science presentation (Draft due F)

Panama Canal:
Write in paragraph form, answering these questions:

Panama Canal

1.  The French attempted to build a canal at Panama, and failed. What were the major obstacles they faced?

2.  The Americans tried to build a canal at Panama, and after many years, they succeeded in 1913. What contributed to their success?

3.  How was the workforce used to build the Canal similar to and different from the workforce used in slavery?

4.  Write about one interesting part about the Panama Canal that captures your imagination.