Research Report

The students have been working on their research reports for the last month. The final copies will be due on Friday. They have received a model of a research report as well as sheets on each part of the report they will have to include:

-Topic Sentence

-main idea sentences

-using quoting and paraphrasing

-introduction paragraph

-concluding paragraph

-bibliography

These sheets should be in their red non-fiction writing folders and can be reviewed to help organize their work.

We have also discussed how to write each paragraph using a main idea sentence, writing the information they want to share in proper sentences, and then writing a concluding sentence. We learned that each paragraph should only include information that relates to the main idea and should include all of the information about the main idea.

The outline the students wrote last month should be in an order which will help the report have a flow. Students should be referring to this and their paragraphs they already have written, to produce their good copy, with a cover and a bibliography.

Picture day tomorrow

Picture day will be tomorrow. If you would like to pick the specifics of the pictures, the students will need to have their forms filled in by tomorrow morning.

Numerators and denominators

Tonight's homework is identifying fractions from a set. Students can choose a group of objects and then remove a number of them, identifying the fraction that was removed or the fraction that is left (or both). The important part of this task will be their skill in identifying what the numerator and the denominator stand for in the fraction. A lot of students might say it is the bigger or smaller number, or may name it as the numerator is the number on top and the denominator is at the bottom, but they need to be able to identify that the denominator represents the number of pieces that make up one whole set or object, and the denominator stands for the number of pieces being discussed. For instance, if we were using a group of 8 tooth picks and I remove 3, I can say I removed 3/8 of the toothpicks. The students should be able to identify the denominator as the 8 toothpicks which made up my whole set, and my numerator as the 3 toothpicks I removed. If it was the fraction left, students should be able to say that the denominator would still be 8, because there were still 8 toothpicks in my whole set, but now the numerator is 5, because the toothpicks we are now discussing are the 5 left behind, so our fraction is now 5/8 left behind. This is something we have been discussing in class, but as we move along in our unit, it will need to be practised to help them.

Grade 5 towers

The grade 5 students were given the challenge to build a tower as tall as they could that would also be able to withstand wind and a mass. They were given 50 straws, about 1m of masking tape, and pieces of pipe cleaner.

Homework for Tuesday, April 19

Students have been working on fractions in math. Today we were learning about creating equivalent fractions. Grade 5 students were learning how to create groups to find equivalent fractions. Grade 6 students were also learning how to multiply or divide the numerator and denominator by the same number to find an equivalent fraction. Students were given 50 minutes to work on the following, and have to finish for homework.

Grade 5 students need to finish #1, 2, 3, 5 on page 259 of the textbook.

Grade 6 students need to finish # 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10 on page 289 of their textbook.

Introductions and conclusions

Today we were learning about how to write a good introduction and conclusion to a research paper. Students examined a sample of each and talked about the important parts of each paragraph. They then had to identify paragraphs as being the introduction or conclusion to a paper, and then identify the important parts. Students were then given time to work on writing their own introduction and conclusion for their paper. We used the following to help guide the writing:

Math tests returned

The math tests have been returned today. There will be a retest given on this same material next Friday. This gives the students one more week to review the material and improve their mark. Please have students go over the parts of the test they had trouble with and practise how to do it. If there is any troubles they are still having, please have them come see me for extra help outside class. This extra help often allows students quiet time to ask questions and solidify concepts.