Goal for Grade Six!

Good morning Grade Fives,

This is the last blog response for grade five. I want to take a moment and just let you know how much I have loved teaching you all this year! You are an energetic group of wonderful individuals and it has been a great honour to be your teacher for a year.

Now, as you look forward to summer, I would like you to take a moment to think about grade six. Please write about one learning behaviour you are going to use next year to help you have a successful grade six year.

As always, I look forward to reading your responses.

Love Mrs. French

This Summer!

Hello Grade Fives,

I would love to hear about your plans for the summer. Tell me about what you hope to do and what you are quite sure you will be doing.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Love Mrs. French

Largest Area of Growth

Dear Grade Fives,

Our year together is almost at an end, and as I look back, I see many areas that we have all grown.

For myself, I have learned some new ways to help students develop independent work skills e.g. including 'plan a full day' or 'an extra 1/2 day' work period into our banking system and the 'peel off' system. I have also learned new ways to help students think about their learning and to inform me about changes I need to make as a teacher e.g. the blog.

I would like to hear about the area you feel you have grown the most. Please explain in anyway you choose.

Thank you.

Love Mrs. French

Math Sites

Welcome to June Grade Fives!

We have used a variety of math links this year to help you 'see' math and to practice your math skills. I would like to know which site is your favourite and why.

Love Mrs. French

Science: a time for reflecting

Hello Grade Fives,

Today I would like you to reflect on your own learning during our science mini-experiment unit as well as making suggestions about how I could change parts to make it a more useful learning activity in the future.

As usual, I look forward to reading your responses.

Love Mrs. French

Last Story, a Choice

Hello Grade Fives!

I learned many wonderful things at my Pro D on Friday and as a result I am giving you a couple of new choices for your 2nd (and last story), yes last! In June we will be doing something totally different for reading and writing :)

2nd story choices: (the template pages are still required for all three choices)

1) same format as your first story
2) a ppt storybook for a primary grade level
3) a collaborative story, with a friend, using a private wiki page (I will provide you with one)
4) your own creative idea

Also, please sign your comment using your first name. I have dealt with the privacy issue by removing all old posts and saving them as a word document for my own reference :)

I can hardly wait to see which format you have choices for your last story!

Love Mrs. French

Fractions

Good morning or afternoon Grade Fives!

We have just completed a week focusing on fractions. I would like to know how you felt about that approach. Did you find the three days in a row helped your learning? Did you find that the 'peel off' system helped your learning? If you helped other students, did you find that your 'teaching' helped your learning?

You may not see it, but your responses assist me in determining how to help you learn more effectively and efficiently.

Love Mrs. French

Story Writing Check-in

Hello Grade Fives!

I am so glad to be back and I am anxious to know how your story writing is going. Please share some of the struggles and successes you are experiencing as you have been writing your stories. For some ideas to help you respond: do you find the outline helpful and does it make story writing harder, please explain? What is the hardest part of writing your story(ies)?

Please note that your first story is expected to be completed and in my file by this Friday.

As usual, I look forward to reading your responses :)

Love Mrs. French

Math Muses

Welcome to Monday, April 21st Grade Fives!

Thank you for your thoughtful responses last week about story writing. I found your ideas very helpful in planning what you want and need to know.

This week I would like you to tell me all about your learning math: what makes sense, what are you struggling with, what helps you learn, or what makes it harder for you to learn.

As usual, I really look forward to reading your thoughts.

Love Mrs. French

Story Writing

Hello Grade Fives,

I am interested in how you feel about story writing. I would like to know 1) whether you enjoy writing stories, 2) what you find easy, 3) what you find difficult, and finally 4) what you would like to learn how to do when writing stories.

I am looking forward to reading your responses. They will help me plan lessons to help you write stories.

Love Mrs. French

Welcome Back!

Welcome back Grade Fives!

I trust that you had a restful and enjoyable holiday.

My holidays were spent in two parts. The first week we went south to visit our oldest two boys and other family members. The last week was spent back at home playing in the yard, playing with school plans, and taking my youngest son out driving. I enjoyed both weeks immensely.

I would love to hear about any part of your holiday that you would like to share: what you did, where you went, the best part or anything at all. You might even want to tell me what you would have like to have done.

I look forward to reading your responses,
Love Mrs. French

Fantasy Math Reflections

Hello Grade Fives!

Well, we have worked with Fantasy Math for two weeks now and I would like to know how you feel about it. Please tell me about what you liked, what you did not like, what you learned, or what you found difficult or exciting. Tell me anything that will help me to plan a math activity similar to this in the future. I need to know what worked and what did not work for you.

Thank you for your response. Each of you provides valuable information for me.

Love Mrs. French

Special Gifts

Hello Grade Fives,

We all have special gifts but it is sometimes easier to see them in other people. You have probably seen people who make certain activities look easy: examples include skating, playing the piano, spelling accurately, acting or solving math problems.

I would like you to take a moment to think about your special gift. These are often things we find easy or particularly enjoyable to do.

Please respond to this blog by telling me about your special gift and perhaps some examples of when or how you discovered it or know that you have it.

If you need time to think about this question, you may respond later in the week.

Thank you.

Love Mrs. French

Studying

Good morning Grade Fives!

I am interested in your favourite way to study for a test. I would like you to think about strategies you use to help you prepare for quizzes and tests. If you don't have one, please describe a strategy that you think would help you prepare.

Thank you,
Mrs. French

If only just one!

Good morning Grade Fives,

Imagine that we decide to use technology for just one purpose in our classroom (e.g. learning to type, visualizations during math lessons, research etc). I would like you to respond telling me which ‘purpose’ you would want us to keep and explain why. Think about which ‘purpose’ is most helpful to your learning.

Mrs. French

Technology and Your Learning

Good morning Grade Fives!

I am interested in hearing how technology helps you learn. You may choose to include an example if that helps you explain your thoughts.

I look forward to reading your responses.

Mrs. French

Social Networking

Good morning Grade Fives! This Blog is a new tool we will use to help us learn together. We will share reflections on how we use technology to help us learn. If you read my first entry, you will have discovered that I am a bit hesitant about using this tool. However, I believe that it may be an effective addition to how we already learn together. As usual, I am inviting you to join me in exploring the use of the Blog to help us all reflect on how and when we learn best.

My goal is to write to you each week and share a discovery, a query, or a celebration. You are encouraged to respond.

Given the response to our class wiki, I am very excited about the social growth we will all experience using this Blog.

Mrs. French

Testing the Waters

Well, this is a first. Although I have willingly experimented with a variety of technology tools to use with my students, I have been reluctant to try this one. Somehow, committing my thoughts and queries to text has felt more like a commitment or confession than a process of working through ideas. I am a reluctant writer, constrained by fear about revealing uncertainties while using poor writing conventions. However, these are the very constraints I want my students to brush aside. Consequently, it is time I 'walk the walk'.