Ms. Swinton's Class

We had a fantastic first day at Winsport for ski/snowboard lessons! It was wonderful to see students participating so enthusiastically and pushing themselves outside of their comfort zones. Thank-you as well to the parent volunteers who made this day possible! Our next Winsport day is Tuesday, February 18. Important Dates: Family Math Night: *THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6 6:30-8:00 pm* Optional Valentine Card Exchange: *WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12* No School (Teachers' Convention): *THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13 & FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14* No School (Family Day): *MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17* Winsport: *TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18; THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20; TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25*

Some of the stuffed animals students brought as part of our Positive Choices reward today. Today in Math we reviewed two digit by two digit multiplication strategies and then began some practice questions in the textbook. On Thursday we will review these strategies once again and then continue practicing. Examples of multiplication strategies In Science we finished up our electricity and magnetism visual dictionaries. This is now Unfinished Work for students who have not yet completed it. In Language Arts we began exploring "showing, not telling," which will ultimately help to make our writing more effective. We began this work by having students volunteer to act out different emotions and then writing descriptions of how they acted/looked. For example, instead of "Alicia is sad," we wrote: " Alicia thumped downward and crumpled into a ball. She put her head down into her arms, staring at the floor. She sobbed quietly, her hands wiping tears away...

We started the day with Math, where we went over some different strategies for two-digit by two-digit multiplication. We will continue with this work tomorrow. I know that students are finding the number of different strategies a bit overwhelming, but ultimately the hope is that they will find at least one  strategy that consistently works well for them to solve these types of problems. As long as they have some  way to solve these questions accurately, then I am happy! It might be a strategy we've gone over in class, or it might be a personal strategy or one they've learned elsewhere. As long as it consistently works, then that's great! It is not necessary for students to understand and use every single strategy we explore, though I would encourage them to try out some different ones in order to find the one(s) that works best for them. In Science we continued creating our visual dictionaries for vocabulary related to electricity and magnetism. In Social Studies we had a...

Students wrote a math check-in today that covered the multiplication and division concepts that we have learned so far in this unit. The results from this check-in will be very helpful in highlighting which concepts students understand and which necessitate further review and practice. We continued our discussion from yesterday around mental health. Students created four-word affirmations that they can use to build themselves up and calm themselves down. Some examples include: "I can do anything," "I believe in myself," "This can't affect me," and "I'm worthy of love." Then each student filled in a speech bubble detailing an action they are committing to in order to create positive change in terms of their own mental health or in support of others. These will go up on a bulletin board in the classroom in order to remind students to take care of and build up themselves and others. We wrapped up today with an all grade 5 Snack and ...

Today in Math we created and shared number sentences equalling 29 as well as marking Lessons 3 and 4 in small groups. A reminder that we have a check-in tomorrow about all of the concepts covered thus far in the unit. Topics to review include: Basic Multiplication and Division facts (up to 10x10) Multiplying by Multiples of 10 Estimating Products to solve problems Mental Math strategies for Multiplication We also had some quiet reading/unfinished work time and read more of chapter 13 of The Boundless . We left off at a really exciting spot! In Science students began creating visual dictionaries of important vocabulary words from our Electricity and Magnetism unit. We will continue with this work next class and throughout the unit. In Social Studies students finished up their jot notes about the Canadian Shield region.  We finished up the day with some work around mental health for Bell Let's Talk Day . We watched some videos about how we can support others...

Today in Math we reviewed the mental math multiplication strategies from yesterday and then continued working on the practice questions. Students also spent some time writing and sharing number sentences, and we had some great discussion about the challenging concepts some students have begun exploring, including factorials, fractions, decimals, and order of operations. We've been really impressed with the way that students have been pushing themselves to try more challenging number sentences. Keep up the great work! In French we shared the last few fashion show presentations and then played "J'ai... Qui a...?" which is the French version of a game we've played in Math. This game helped us practice saying clothing words. In Social Studies students continued taking jot notes about the Canadian Shield region to highlight important information and unique features about this large region. We are using the textbook as our primary source for information. After...

Today in Math we began exploring mental math strategies for multiplication. These built off of strategies that we have already been working with throughout this unit. Each strategy uses the basic facts that students already know in order to solve a multiplication equation with larger factors. Students brainstormed a number of fantastic strategies with which to find the product of 14x50, and then we highlighted three key mental math strategies. The strategy used for a particular problem will depend on the factors. The three main strategies are: 1. Breaking the number into smaller parts 2. Halving and doubling 3. Using compatible numbers and then compensating Students began solving practice problems mentally using these strategies and will continue with this work tomorrow.  Important math dates to note: - Multiplying by 10s worksheet (lesson 3): due Wednesday - Estimating Products worksheet (lesson 4): due Wednesday - Multiplication Check-in (basic multipl...