Each month we study several current events that are taking place in our province, our country, and our world. We analyze several articles together and complete a map focusing on what of the places. At the end of each month we have a quiz to review the info. I just wanted to clarify how the grade 5 and 6 quizzes will be set up.
The grade 5 students will have easier study material overall and less of it; in addition, their quiz will be all multiple choice, true/false, or fill in the blank with a word bank. This will help them focus on the information that they learned rather than testing spelling, writing, etc. Each month I will tell them the information that they need to study and they will have a week to review at home and in class before the quiz.
The grade 6 students will have more challenging study material and a little more of it than the grade 5’s. Their quiz will be a variety of multiple choice, short/long answer, and true/false.
As always, any discussions that you have at home about current events in our world will be very beneficial to your child’s understanding and will help further support their learning. Thank you for your support. If you have any questions about current events, please talk to Mrs. Derksen or e-mail at mderksen@highroadacademy.com.
KNIGHT DAY: Mark your Calendars
Our first Knight Day of the year will take place on Thursday, Oct 9. Knight Day is Highroad’s version of school spirit day. We celebrate the different school events such as sports team kick-offs, etc. On Knight Day, all Highroad students may wear their Knights t-shirts or hoodies with their choice of pants (jeans are allowed) & shoes. If students do not have any ‘Knight’ clothing, it can be purchased at the school store on Wednesdays afterschool from 3-3:30 or on Knight Day morning from 8-9am. If the students do not wear their Knight clothing, they are required to wear their regular uniform.
As part of our devotion time we are doing sword drills. Many students do not know the order of the Books of the Bible so I showed them this video on Tuesday. We will be watching it over the next several weeks as it is a fun way to help us learn the where the different books are located.
Enjoy!
Mrs. Goosen
This Tuesday, September 23rd we will have having our Terry Fox Run. Our class will be running either 5 or 6 laps around the field, depending on the grade of each student. After our run we will enjoy some oranges. We are also asking students to bring a ‘toonie for Terry’. The money raised will go to the Terry Fox Foundation.
Today we started a classroom mailbox! This was an exciting thing for the students – they are actually allowed to write notes in class! Each student received a hand written letter from Mrs. Goosen and were introduced to our letter writing area – complete with a rural mailbox! It was so much fun seeing the student’s excitement as they opened and read their letters… and the class was pumped when the time came for them to write letters of their own! Who said you can’t have fun in class and cover curriculum at the same time! I have attached some pictures for you to enjoy!
We have begun our spelling program this week. Students were assessed and put into two spelling groups. Both groups will be working on grades 5 & 6 spelling words. Students know which lists they are in and will be tested on their words each Friday of a full week. Below I have the spelling words:
September 11th. A day that I will never forget. Forever, I will remember where I was, the thoughts running through my head, and the ache for the victims and their families.
Today in class we had a class discussion about the tragic events that took place on September 11, 2001. Most of the grade 5/6 students were not yet born, but I felt it was important that we talk about the tragedy that we remember on this day. I showed the students a short tribute video and we had a great discussion about the cause of the events and the importance of showing love to others. Spreading love in this world, not judgement or hate, can solve a multitude of problems. This will be a common theme that we discuss in Social Studies this year.
I encourage you to continue these discussions with your children, as I’m sure most of you remember vividly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news of 9/11. Mrs. Derksen
Well, we all survived our first week back. 🙂 In fact, we did more than survive it, I think we learned a few new things and had some fun too. The students kicked off the year in math with some place value centers. Here are a few pictures from the first day working on them.
Metacognition – Be sure to ask your child what it means. Today we learned a little about it and also what fake reading and real reading look like. Fake reading is when we sound really good reading aloud but we don’t really understand what we just read. Real reading means that we are actually THINKING while we are reading. We made a reading salad together (not very edible though) and talked about what it ‘sounds like’ to think while you are reading a text. Remember students, we always want more lettuce (thinking) than tomatoes (text).
We can’t wait to continue working together to try new things, challenge each other, to celebrate our achievements and encourage each other when we fail. We ‘love’ how failure reminds us that we still have so much to learn.
Thanks for a fabulous first week back, Grade 5/6 students! Looking forward to an incredible year together.
Yesterday we did a very fun exercise that helped us look at the importance of working together as a team. Each pair was given four straws, two paper clips, two pieces of newspaper and 19 small strips of tape. The task was to build the tallest tower…with two minutes to plan and five minutes to build! The kids were SO excited for this task and had a lot of fun building their towers! We also had a great discussion afterwards about what it means to ‘work together’…take a look for yourself! Well done, grade 5/6!
