The Latest Scoop!

I'm a little embarrassed to admit, that the issues I have been having with this blog were really nothing major.  In fact, it was simply that I needed to upgrade my internet browser here at school.  Which explains why I could get on the blog no problem at home, but not at school :)  So, the problem is solved and all is well again in blog world! 

Since my last post, we have been very busy in Grade 56!  We wrapped up our Math Unit on multiplying and dividing whole numbers and decimals.  I am very happy with the students progress in this unit.  The beginning was a little scary for some of them.  Many had a very automatic "I hate dividing" response when we even mentioned it.  I think we're over that fear now, and many of them are much more comfortable with it.  So, I consider that a success! 

We are now turning our attention to Geometry.  

The Learning Goals for Grade five are:
-describe the sides of shapes
-describe the faces and edges of objects
-understand the terms: parallel, intersecting, perpendicular, vertical and horizontal
-use attributes to identify and sort quadrilaterals

The Learning Goals for Grade six are:
-construct and compare triangles
-describe and compare regular and irregular polygons
-develop formulas for the perimeters of polygons, the area of a rectangle, and the volume of a rectangular prism.

We have wrapped up our Science unit on Diversity of Living Things.  The students are working very hard on finishing their non-fiction books which will be celebrated with our parents in the Library on March 16th at 1:15 PM.  A save the date invite went home with your child.  You should have received it :)

Our next Science unit is Forces on Structures.  We will begin that shortly.

In writing we are working with Literacy Coach, Robyn MacAulay on descriptive writing.  We are very fortunate to have her working with us over the next few weeks as we become experts in topics of our choice!

As always, if you need to get in touch with me, my email is mrioux@edu.pe.ca.  That is the fastest way to do so.  Or you may call the school and leave a message at 888-8490.

Take care of each other,

Mrs. Rioux

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday season with your friends and family.  I'm sure you are all feeling exhausted after it though.  I know I sure am.   I have to say, this was my son's first Christmas, so it was a little extra special for me this year.  I'm feeling very fortunate to have him.  That's my proud Momma gush for the week :)

Now onto school stuff!  We are starting back at it this week and have so many exciting things happening.  First and foremost, we got a new student today!!  I won't post her name for privacy reasons, but I will tell you she is in grade six and the students have been doing a great job making her feel welcome in her new school.  If you get a moment tonight, remind your child of the little things they can do to help make the life of a new student a little easier.  I have no doubt in my mind that she will love it here as much as we do.  We have a wonderful class and an amazing school environment.  So we welcome her with open arms!

In Math, we are beginning Unit 3 in our text book.  For Grade fives, this is multiplying and dividing.  The general learning goals of this unit are:

-find basic multiplication facts to 81 and the related division facts
-use different strategies to estimate products and quotients
-estimate to solve problems
-use differents strategies to multiply mentally
-multiply a 2-digit number by a 2-digit number.

-divide a 3 digit number by a 1 digit number.

If you are looking for ways to help your child at home with Math, these are the big ideas we are covering.  The best way to help them is to encourage practice of basic facts and to let them show you what they know before you take the pencil and show them how to do it.  I have a grade four student at home, I know how tempting it is to show the way to do it, but fight the urge!

Grade Six Math will be also Unit 3 and it is sort of a double edged sword.  It's covering multiplication and division, but the main focus will be on decimals.  The general learning goals for this unit are:

-use place value to representtttttt numbers less than one thousandth

-multiply decimals by a 1-digit number

-divide decimals by a 1-digit number.

I find a good way to help them understand decimals is t refer to money.  They tend to be interested in money and it makes sense that $2.96 is two whole dollars, but that the .96 is almost, but not quite a dollar.  Any extra practice at home could be geared to this understanding as well as practicing basic multiplication and division facts.

In Science, we are beginning a unit on Diversity of Living Things.  We will be spending one hour everyday in the library for the next 3-4 weeks.  Mrs. Howatt and I are going to team teach this unit.  I have never done team teaching so this will be new for me.  I am very excited to work with Mrs. Howatt.  The library is full of amazing resources and we will be taking advantage of that!  Our end project for this unit will be to create a series of books on living things.  Students will each pick one different living thing.  They will become the expert on that living thing by researching it.  They will then write a report about the living thing they chose, and that report will be published in their own hardcover book!

In Language Arts, we are continuing with Persuasive writing.  The big idea here is that students form an opinion.  I'm sure you know as well as I do that many of them have no problem with that ;)  Once they have an opinion formed and clearly stated, they then must give 3 reasons why they feel the way they do.  They must also be able to give support for their reasons.  This is where most of our focus will be.  We really need to work on the supporting aspect.  Finally, they need  conclusion to summarize what they've talked about and binog, bango, they're done!

In Reading, we are beginning to look at the strategy of evaluating.  This goes hand and hand with persuasive writing.  In order to evaluate, readers need to:

-recognize the difference between fiction, non-fiction and info-fiction.

-recognize if the author has a sound argument or a biased opinion.

-form opinions about the content presented to them

-be willing to confrim or adjust their opinions as they read and learn other's views

-establish viewpoints and see events from other people's perspectives

-back up their opinions with evidence from the text

-critique the author's craft (Was that a good ending?  Did the author explain that clearly?)

As you can probably tell, we are going to be very busy over the next few weeks.  I will likely not have much new to post on here until we start to wrap up some of these big units.  If you don't hear anything from me for a few weeks, assume we're still plugging away at these goals.

As always, if you need to reach me, you can call the school at 888-8490 or you can email me directly at mrioux@edu.pe.ca

Have a wonderful snowy month of January and remember to send warm clothes to school, it has to be -21 with the windchill for us to stay inside....that's really cold!

Mid November Update!

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick note to fill you in on what's going on in our classroom this week.  Our package to be sent to the troops will be mailed tomorrow.  If you have anything you would like to add to it, please send it in with your child tomorrow.  They worked very hard this week on making Christmas cards, and writing letters to include as well.  They are all very happy to be sending this package off...it's heartwarming to see how thoughtful they were when they were writing their letters.  They are all hoping to have a letter written back to them.


It is my hope that our biographies will be finished up this week.  It may take a little time working on them at home if they are not done by Thursday.  There is no school Friday as we have a PD day.  I would like to be able to grade them and send them home next week.

Once our biographies are completed, we will be shifting our focus to persuasive writing.  FYI, in previous years, when I taught persuasive writing, students felt like they could transfer their knowledge of persuading and try it out at home.  There have been a lot of letters crafted about extending bedtime, or having tacos for supper :)  Don't say I didn't warn you!  We will be examining the art of persuasion and learning what techniques are effective.

In Math, we are still working on Whole Numbers.  Our grade fives are focusing on estimating sums and differences and the sixes are looking at prime and composite numbers.  A HUGE reminder to please spend a few minutes every night going over multiplication facts.  I cannot stress the importance of this enough.  As I told the students today, get creative!  The more fun you make it the easier it is to do it.  Grab a deck of cards, you each choose 2 cards, flip them over and multiply them.  Write down the product.  After 5 rounds, tally all of your products, the one with the highest score wins (or you can do the lowest score)  A great website to go on is www.multiplication.com there are so many fun games on there.  The reality is that most kids enjoy playing games on the computer, so why not let them spend a few minutes playing a math game?  It takes the monotony out of Mom or Dad constantly having to ask "What's 6x4?"  I have a child in grade four, I know what these nights are like...trust me!

In Social Studies, we are continuing our unit on Canada.  They are really enjoying it.  We have had so many Ah-ha moments since we started this unit.  It's wonderful!  We will continue with this unit until Christmas vacation, then we will be switching gears to Science in January when we will be working on Diversity of Living Things as our first unit.

A final note, report cards will be going home Thursday.  I had the chance to meet with many of you at Parent-Teacher interviews last week.  If you have any questions about your child's report card, please do not hesitate to call me and we will chat.  Also, there are still a few parents I have yet to meet with.  I'll be sending a note home with your child about a possible make up date for an interview.  It's just so nice to put a face to a name!

Have a wonderful week, dress warmly tomorrow and enjoy the snow!

Long overdue post!

Hi Everyone,

I apologize for the recent hiatus from this blog.  Technology is great when it works :)  I think we're back up and running now so hopefully we can keep using this as a tool for communication.  If not, I will find another site to use.

This week is a short week as you are all aware.  There is only school on Monday and Tuesday.  Parent teacher interviews have been scheduled for Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday.  I sent home a purple slip with your child on Wednesday last week stating your interview time.  If you did not receive yours, please let me know and I will send home another copy.  If the time I suggested for an interview doesn't work for you, please let me know, I am very flexible with the times so we can certainly find a time that works for both of us.  (Even if it's not Tuesday or Wednesday) just let me know!

I will be sending home a quick informal progress report with your child tomorrow.  (Monday Nov. 7th)  This is just meant to give you a little bit of a head's up before our interviews.  Report cards don't go home until the end of the month.  I know myself, as a parent, I like to see in writing what is going on before an interview.  This is a very brief report, not meant as the be all and end all, but rather just a quick glimpse of your child's progress.  We will be discussing them in more detail at the interview.

There is also no school island-wide on Thursday.  It is our Provincial Learning Day. This is my favourite PD day of the year.  We are given a very extensive list of learning opportunities and are asked to choose which sessions will best suit our needs in our classroom.  This year, I have chosen to focus my attention on both Math and Language Arts.  The sessions I will be attending in the morning are "Thinking about the Text" and "Getting the Right Answer For the Wrong Reason".  In the afternoon, I will be attending a session on the Provincial Assessments called "Demystifying the Provincial Language Arts Assessment."  I am really looking forward to taking some new ideas back to school with me after this!

Now...onward to what's going on at school! 

In Language Arts, we are working on our final project of our Self Monitoring Unit.  We are writing biographies.  We have spent some time in class looking at Biographies of famous people, with a large focus on Thomas Prince.  We have been examining the kind of information that goes into a biography as well as the style of writing used.  Students have been asked to choose a close family member to write a biography on.  Tomorrow they will be coming home with their list of possible questions to ask as they gather information for their project. 

In Math, we are about half way through Unit 2 which is focusing on Whole Numbers.  I have changed a little bit of how we do things this unit after some "life learning lessons" in our first Unit.  What I found was that there was so much information provided in Unit 1 that when it came time to test them, it was very difficult to keep it all straight.  Frustration was obvious with a few of the students.  This obviously is not my goal.  So this unit, we are having mini-quizzes along the way to more accurately assess their learning.  I feel like this has lowered their stress level immensely.  Grade 5's have had their first quiz of the unit already and for the most part, they did very well.  Grade 6 will be having theirs Tuesday.  I am also asking them every other day to hand in one question from their practice questions so I can assess their understanding.  I am finding this to be very useful information.  This unit should be finished by the end of the month.

In Social Studies, we are spending some time doing a quick unit on Canada.  Grade 5's will eventually be looking at an ancient civilization, most likely Egypt and Grade 6's will be looking at PEI history and World Cultures.  What I have found in past years, is that students have a hard time with the concepts of some of these units because of their lack of understanding of their own place in the world.  So before we get moving on those units, we are taking some time to explore this beautiful country of our own.  So far we have looked at where Canada is in the world.  I'm sure that sounds kind of silly, but you would be AMAZED at how interested they were and how excited they were to look at the world map, locate the continents, and explore the major oceans.  On Friday we talked about Canada's borders both provincial borders and international.  They were very interested in this.  So we will spend a few weeks on Canada.  If you have any books, souvenirs, pictures from places you've visited in Canada, we would LOVE to see them.  I'll be digging through some photo albums at my mothers to find some old pictures from our family vacations and I encourage you to do the same!

That is all I have for you right now :)  I cannot wait to meet with all of you at Parent Teacher interviews.  I am having a fantastic year with your children and I can't wait to share some of their amazing accomplishments with you!

Take care of each other! 

See you Tuesday and Wednesday!

We're Back!

If there is a technical difficulty, leave it to me to stumble across it!  Sorry for the horrible delay in posting.  We had a few issues with blog posting, but we're rolling again!  I'll be posting a nice, big update this weekend.  Stay tuned! 

Quick Update

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick update for you today.  Our Math Test which was originally scheduled for tomorrow, will now take place on Tuesday October 11th.  This is because the Grade 6's had more outcomes to cover than the Grade 5's and I do not feel we had enough time to review the unit.  So rather than testing tomorrow, we will be reviewing the unit again and looking at any areas of concern to the students. 

Tomorrow is hot lunch day.  A note went home from Home and School outlining the hot lunch schedule for the month of October.  If you did not receive one, please send me a note or an e-mail and I will get you another copy.  Tomorrow's hot lunch is pizza and garlic fingers and the cost is one dollar per item.

Now here is the part where I start asking/begging :)

-Our class has begun studying biographies.  We were fortunate enough to get a stack of biographies from our library, but the students are VERY excited to read them so as you can imagine, they will get through that stack rather quickly.  If you have any biographies at home that you think might be of interest to the students in here, and you don't mind lending them, please send them in labelled with your name.  We would be very grateful!

-The yucky weather the last few days has meant some indoor recesses for the students.  There are a fair number who have a hard time finding something appropriate to do that does not involved rough play or being overly silly.  If you have any board games that you would like to donate to our classroom to give students something to do during indoor recesses, we would gladly take them off your hands!!

Finally,  the cold weather is starting to sneak up on us.  I know they are in grade five and six, but many of the students still require guidance as to what is appropriate outerwear for colder days.  They go outside until the temperature is approximately -21.  I say approximately because I know it is close to that.  My point is unless it's -21 or raining, they are going outside!  Many students arrived today in shorts (yes, shorts) or with a hoodie as their jacket.  It made for some very cold children on the playground this morning!!

I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend with your families.  Eat lots of good food and enjoy each others company!

Mid Week Update!

Hi Everyone,

Here is a quick mid-week update about things that have been going on in our classroom!

In Math, we are finishing up our first unit on Patterns and Equations.  This is right on target with our original plan of finishing by Thanksgiving.  We will tie up loose ends with the final lessons by Tuesday then spend a few days working on review next week.  My plan right now is to have our first Math test of the year on the Friday before Thanksgiving which is the 7th.  That way, when we come back we can get right into our next unit on whole numbers!

One thing you will hear me really preach about this year is multiplication facts.  I cannot stress enough how important these basic facts are.  They are a building block to so many other understandings in math from here on in.  I urge you, beg you, plead with you to please spend a few minutes EVERY night working on these.  There will be a really fun incentive coming up soon to encourage students to learn them, so keep your ears open for the details!  It will be really fun.  If you are looking for a website to practice facts on check out http://www.multiplication.com/ there are lots of fun games designed for fact practice.

In Language Arts, we are still working on our Self Monitoring unit.  In the coming days, we will be turning our attention to reading Biographies.  Students will be examining how biographies are written and then will be working on writing their own biography on a chosen person.  It is my hope that the biography will be completed and ready to go home just in time for Parent Teacher interviews.

As part of our Independent Reading portion of Language Arts, students are being asked to keep a reading log in their desks to record what they read every day during this time.  They are also asked to write a brief response about what they read that day.  It doesn't have to be long, just something they found interesting, they were confused about, something they are still wondering about.  This will help them to be more active readers during this time.  The days of couch potato reading are over in 6Y!

During our Independent Reading block, I have been assessing reading levels of the students in the room.  This is a long process, but it gives me an accurate picture of where the students are when we begin our guided reading groups and in turn, helps us to be able to set realistic reading goals for each child in the class.

In Health we continue our unit on Relationship choices.  We have been talking a lot emotions, appropriate ways to deal with them and expressing emotions to other people.  Most of this unit has been done through class discussions, and some written work. 

On a final note, thank you to all parents who have agreed to help in some capacity with our school's breakfast program.  The success of this program relies heavily on parent volunteers.  We are still in need of more volunteers and donations to the program.  Please feel free to send in your donations or stick a note in your child's agenda if you are able to help out.

Have a great week everyone. 

Take care of each other :)