Wednesday, September 22

Math: The grade fives reinforced their skills in division. They began by discussing estimating quotients before calculating with Terra. Terra tells me many of them were confused by the lesson so we asked them to continue practicing with the candy division. I am trying to have a student film me doing the candy division so we can post it on the blog, but we've been having some technical difficulties. We hope to sort this out soon.
The grade sixes discussed factors and products with me. We talked about how multiplication is visually just a rectangle. Than we discussed the difference between numbers that only have one rectangle (prime numbers) versus numbers that can be represented by several rectangles (composite numbers). They reinforced these concepts with work from the text book.

Literacy: Today we discussed context clues and learning to find meaning for an unknown word or phrase from the context surrounding it. We then shifted gears to Social Studies. The grade sixes discussed what imports and exports are. They then worked with a map and a chart from Stats Can to identify our major trading partners.
The grade fives had an active lesson where we identified the major players in our federal government. They were assigned hats and roles to learn about the Queen, the Governor General, the Prime Minister, the Senate, the Members of Parliament, the Speaker, the Mace, the Judiciary branch, and the role of the people.

We finished the day with some fitness stations in gym and a review of some high-frequency commonly misspelled words. Ask them about the tricks we've learned to remember the correct spelling. This month's words are in their agendas.

We are also continuing to read our read-a-loud novel which is Surviving the Applewhites.

Please help make the agenda routine a regular habit.

Terry Fox permission forms were sent out today and I will be putting the Scholastic order in tomorrow.

Have a good evening!

Tuesday, September 21

At the end of the day, we wrapped up and reviewed what we had accomplished and learned today. Here is what the kids said:
I learned a new way to divide that works for me (a video blog to come shortly)
I learned how to summarize each paragraph as I read something. I can use the first and last sentences of a paragraph to help. I can also underline important words.
I learned about voing in Canada and why voting is important.
I learned how some words are spelled illogically and I also learned some tricks on remembering how to spell because, people, they, off, laugh, said, have, want, until, and friend.
I learned how to answer a "Would You Rather" question by starting with an introduction sentence, followed by two or three sentences explaining my choice, and finishing with an interesting concluding sentence.

All in all, a productive day. Please make sure the kids are reading at home and writing it down in their agendas.

Snack Schedule

Here is the snack schedule for September and October.

19	20 Fraser	21 William	22 Nadia	23 Callum	24 Daphne	25
26	27 Julia	28 Sage	29 Mark	30 Eric	1 Josephine	2
3	4 Olivia	5 Matt	6 Nick	7 Imran	8 Jasper	9
10	11	12 Tracy	13 Benn	14 Scott	15 Sophie	16
17	18 Sean	19 Chloe	20 Ryo	21 Desanka	22 Luca	23
24	25 Brayden	26 Jacob	27 Liam	28 Annika	29 Cameron	30

New Beginnings

Hello! We wanted to let you know about some of the things we've been working on.

Mixed Media Art
One of our most recent art projects have had to do with mostly scale.
This art project contains things that represent us.
We used magazine picture to make a back round of sky and land that we thought represented us then we used pictures that Tiiu (the best teacher ever!) took for us and cut our heads out then we chose a body from the magazines thinking about scale and attached our heads on to it.

You can find our pieces of art just out side of our class room.

Mission Statement
310 would like to have fun while learning and respecting each other.

Lattice Multiplication
In class we are learning about lattice multiplication which can be an easier way of doing multiplication. Most of us have been able to use it to multiply large numbers together. Want to know more? Check out this link! http://www.coolmath4kids.com/times-tables/times-tables-lesson-lattice-multiplication-1.html

Newspapers
We are each developing a newspaper about ourselves. We learned that headlines describe a story using big, bold words. The byline is the name of the author. Articles start with an introduction that summarizes the story in a sentence or two. They may also include captions and pictures.

Types of Sentences
We have been learning about the four different types of sentences. We have actions to help us remember them. Ask me, and I will show you! We also wrote and performed little skits about them.

Hello!

Welcome back! I had a lovely “stay-cation” this summer and spent the majority of my time playing with Hayden and Daisy May. I have come to appreciate the boundless energy that toddlers have to share and have really learned to appreciate grandparents and their generosity of time and babysitting help.

There will be a lot of information and details coming at you over the next week. I hope this letter helps to sum it all up for you.

Attached you will find a package of papers from the school. There will be about one million forms to sign and return. Please do your best as a family to return all of the forms and money as soon as possible as it helps us as a school to organize important information for keeping everything running smoothly and safely. I suggest that you keep the package of forms stapled and returned as one bundle. Thank you for your efficiency with all of the forms.

I am looking forward to another fabulous year. I know it will be a year full of entertaining education.

Room 310 Blog

A few years ago I began a very worthwhile project which was our classroom blog. What is a blog you may ask? A blog is similar to an online journal. Our blog will be used as a means of communication and I will update it often with notes about projects, homework, field trips, and other reminders. I may post links to interesting websites that pertain to what we are studying or images of things that we have been working on in class. I hope you will all check it often! I found that many families found it a wonderful tool to keep in touch with our classroom events. The address is: http://room310churchill.blogspot.com/.

This year I will be taking our blogging to the next level. Please stay tuned for more details.

Class Meeting

Our class meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 15^th at 6:30 in room 310. This will be a very important event and I hope that at least one member of every family is in attendance. We will be discussing group snack, volunteers, areas of parent expertise, and classroom and school routines.

Agendas

I rely heavily on the agendas as a means of communication. Please set aside some time as a family to go over the Churchill Guidelines together and sign them after you have read and discussed them. From then on, each student will be expected to record their nightly reading into their agendas (ex: Tuck Everlasting pages 15-27). Each student should be reading a minimum of 20 minutes a night. I will also ask an adult in the family to sign off the agenda each evening.

Our Schedule

As you all know, the beginning of the year is a precarious time. As new students register and our population settles, it is always possible that our classes can be reorganized. Regardless, I like to take the beginning of the year to establish routines and get working. With that in mind, here is our tentative schedule which can hopefully be written in stone soon.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:00	Math	Math	Math	Math	Math
9:20	French	French	French	French	French
10:00	Recess	Recess	Recess	Recess	Recess
10:15	Nutrition 1	Nutrition 1	Nutrition 1	Nutrition 1	Nutrition 1
10:30	Literacy	Literacy	Literacy	Literacy	Literacy
11:30	Literacy Including Sci/SS	Literacy Including Sci/SS	Literacy Including Sci/SS	Literacy Including Sci/SS	Literacy Including Sci/SS
12:30	Recess	Recess	Recess	Recess	Recess
1:10	Nutrition 2	Nutrition 2	Nutrition 2	Nutrition 2	Nutrition 2
1:30	Gym	Gym	Gym	Gym	Arts
2:10					Arts

Terry Fox Day

Terry Fox Day has been a growing success, and a popular event with our community over the past two years. This year we will hold our own Terry Fox run on the afternoon of Thursday, September 30^th at Dovercourt Park.

Shoes and Gym

Footwear that students use outside on the yard is not to be worn in the classroom, library, or gymnasium. This is particularly an issue during the wet and winter months, but it is a practice that we will try to get used to from the beginning of the year. At no time are students to be walking without footwear in the school. Gym shoes must be shoes that can be laced up, are not worn for everyday use outside, and have non- marking soles. This is standard practice for school gyms in order to provide a safe environment for participants.

Group Snack

The group snack program has been a lovely custom here at Churchill and it would be nice to continue it this year. This healthy snack would be shared during first nutrition break and would follow a monthly schedule organized by our volunteer coordinator.

Following the “Healthy Snack” policies that the school promotes, the students in past years made up some guidelines to keep in mind when choosing snack for the class.

· low sugar items

· healthy foods high in vitamins

· variety

· focus on fruits and vegetables

If a relatively “sweet” snack is being provided it should be combined with another item such as carrot sticks, fruit pieces, cheese and crackers, etc.

In the past, we have had nearly one hundred percent participation in this program, but this does not mean that all must take part. If you would prefer to send your child with their own snack each day, and not have them take part in the sharing of snack, simply let me know and I will make sure that your child’s name is not on the schedule. We will probably set a schedule from the second week of school, and try to arrange following months through the volunteer co-coordinators.

Nut Restricted

Please remember that Churchill continues to be a “Nut Restricted” school in an effort to create a safe environment for a number of seriously allergic members of our school community. More information is available through the office concerning the details of this policy, but basically the main item to be aware of are that students are asked to not bring food to school that contains nuts as a major ingredient (especially peanut butter).

Volunteers and Volunteer Co-ordinator

Yes, we still welcome (and need) volunteers in grade 5/6. It may not always be glamorous work, but it is always a valuable contribution that you make to our learning environment when you can find the time to join us in class. You are all encouraged to help out in class whenever possible. If you have a particular strength or area of expertise, please let Tiiu know so that we can make use of it. We are in need of one or two people who are willing to take charge of our volunteer and snack schedule on a month-by-month basis. If you are able to help us out with this please let me know right away so we can start to organize the school year.

I would like to start a read-a-loud program this year which involves students reading a loud to an adult. If you are able to share some time with us, please let Tiiu know at the class meeting.

Wish list

Not everyone can make it in to volunteer for various reasons, but often I am asked if there is anything else that they can do for the class. Here are a few roles that need filling and items that we could benefit from. Let me know if you are able to take care of any of the following “wishes”.

Tissue : If each student could bring in two boxes of facial tissues runny noses would be taken care of for the whole year.

Electric Pencil Sharpener: They actually do a better job of sharpening and save time for the students.

Class visitors : The next best thing to a field trip is a guest to the classroom. If you are (or know) a musician, author, journalist, known athlete, etc. who would be willing to share with the class, please let me know and we can arrange a visit.

Public Library Contact : Go online or in person to the Ottawa Public Library every few weeks and sign out/return books for class use based on the subjects being covered.

Read Aloud Volunteers: Give students in the class a chance to read out loud.

Hand Sanitizer: Our class pump of hand sanitizer sits by the door and gets well used around recess and at other times during the day. Refills are needed two or three times a year.

Books : Both fiction and non fiction to add to the class library.

If you ever have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. You can reach me by phone, here at the school, and leave me a message but the best way to reach me is through email. My email address is tiiu.tsao@ocdsb.ca.

I’m looking forward to an exciting year and working together with all of you.

Sincerely,

Tiiu Tsao

Sorry!

Wow! It's been a bit hectic around here to say the least. The dust is beginning to settle and I have finally found a moment to fill you in on some details.

Interviews: Thank you for your responses to my Parent Teacher Interview requests. It will be difficult to fit everyone in at a convenient time. Please know that I am at school most days until 4:00. If it works better to meet on another day or to arrange a phone conference, I am more than willing to make those accomodations. I am keen to meet with everyone and will do what I can.

Project: We have been discussing persuasive writing in LA. To consolidate some of this information, I will be assigning them an "At Home Project" on Monday. In this project, they will be creating a print advertisement persuading the public to make donations to a charitable organization that they believe in. Please look for the project outline on Monday. I will also send you an electronic copy via email. The final product will be due on Wednesday, December 17th. Please let me know if you have any questions once you've read the outline.


Upcoming Dates:
Thursday, December 4: Interviews/Report Cards go home
Friday, December 5: PD Day/Interviews
Friday, December 12: Next Dulude Skating day, 9:20 to 10:00
Wednesday, December 17: School of Rock Holiday concert, Project due
Friday, December 19: Last day of school

Questions to Ask:
What is fanboys?
Do you think students should wear uniforms? Why or why not?
What is Bernoulli's Principle? (grade 6)
How did your E-Fly work? (grade 6)
What do you need to add in order to turn a solid into a liquid? What do you have to take away to turn a gas into a liquid? (grade 5)
Which friend of Tiiu's did you write a letter to and why?
Who is Channel X and what have they asked you to do?
What do contrasting colours have to do with shadow?

Whew

Wow! That was quite the busy week. Our Haunted House was a great success. It was a long day and the kids did a great job at making each show as scary as the last. I will try and upload the pictures soon. Thank you so much to Matt, Sophia, Lise, Stephanie, Wendy, and Janine for helping us put everything together. Thank you also to all of the donations of boxes and extra props. The kids had a fabulous time.

I'd like to think that things will slow down and get back to a normal pace now but November seems busier than ever. Here are some upcoming dates:

November 10-Play at Summit
November 11-Rememberance Day and Ceremony and the Cenotaph
November 14-PD Day
November 21-Skating at Dulude (10:00 to 10:40)

Our student teacher Carissa will also be back next week for her 5 week placement.

We are wrapping up our unit on Conservation of Energy and Electricity. To do this, we will be having an open book test. Students will be given a worksheet to complete with the aid of the text we've been using in class as well as their notebooks. We will be preparing in class for this exercise.

I haven't received very much feedback on the new math routine of the homework. Please pass on any comments you have for me to my email address.
I am seeing a definite improvement in the reading responses that I have been getting back. Right now I am focusing on the structure of the responses so that the students get used to writing an introduction, a body with a minimum of 2-3 sentences, and a conclusion. I would also like the students to focus on editing their work.

Coming up, we are looking at Properties of and Changes in Matter (grade 5) and Flight (grade6). We will be studying volleyball skills, and persuasive writing.

Keep in touch!