Welcome to the new school year. This is the beginning of my 26th year teaching. Time flies! Meeting the students and beginning to build relationships with them as they work and learn is no less exciting now than it was back then! Here is some beginning of the year information.
Our school uses a “Four Blocks” or balanced literacy model to deliver language arts instruction. Students spent time each day working in each of four key areas (or blocks). As they move through the grades, the amount of time spent working in each area changes. The first block is called “Self-Selected Reading”. Each morning for 20 minutes students read from material they have chosen. In order to encourage students to read a variety of texts they must choose from a specific genre or type of literature. This month students will be reading autobiographies and biographies. Students log their reading each day in a literature response journal. Two or three times a month they will individually conference with me so I can evaluate their progress. The second block is called guided reading. In the guided reading block students work on individual, small group and whole class activities which focus reading strategy instruction. This month we will be working on a technology based project with students at two other schools called “Everybody’s Got a Story”. Students will also participate later in the year in small group book clubs. Each book club will read a different novel, selected based on reading levels and interests. Writing is the third block and is an area of instructional focus at our school. Students work on becoming familiar with a different text structure during each unit. (autobiographies, stories, poems, comics, reports, newspaper articles, letters). As a class we work through a series of writing mini-lessons each focusing on a different aspect of the writing process. They also learn about the traits of good writing. A program called “6 1 Traits of Writing” is being used by all teachers at all grade levels. The final block is the working with words block. During this time each day students work on spelling skills. The program has a number of strands. The first strand has students review high frequency and commonly misspelled words (eg. because, friends, were). These words cannot be spelled by phonics alone. The second strand focuses on sound patterns or chunks (eg. ight, tion, eal). There will be a weekly word work or spelling test. Students will be asked to review words at home in preparation for these tests which will be on Friday. We will also spend some of our word work time working on curriculum outcomes related to grammar (eg. nouns, verbs) and conventions (eg. commas, quotation marks, colons)
Our first unit in math is place value. Students will be learning to represent, read, write and order large numbers. They will also learn about decimals (tenths, hundredths). Math instruction is delivered to the whole class as a unit with both the outcomes from the grade five curriculum and the grade six curriculum covered each year. Depending on the unit and its curriculum outcomes, different unit tests and quizzes may be used to assess student skill levels. We also complete daily basic facts timings. Watch for one to come home each week. The focus for the first part of the year is addition facts.
We use block timetabling for these subjects. This just means we are either doing a social unit or a science unit, not both at the same time. This year we will start with a grade five science unit before moving on to a grade six social studies unit. Our program is arranged so that students work through the grade five and six science and social studies curriculum during a two year cycle. This means that each year we cover some units of study from each grade level program of studies. Some of the units are integrated into our language arts instructions, too. For example, we will be doing some work on the physical regions of Canada in our first math unit, completing projects on the big numbers that are often used to describe them (population, area).
Your child should come home with a duotang with our first homework calendar in it on Friday. The activities on this calendar are to be completed as homework. They may be completed in any order and do not need to be submitted until the end of the month. This month each student must complete TEN commitments on the calendar in order to attend our month end party. Please have your child complete the assignments on the loose leaf paper in the duotang and then initial either the assignment or the calendar.
Our grade 5/6 students are part of an Alberta Education sponsored one to one computer project. We have a laptop cart in our classroom and each student will be assigned a device for their exclusive use. Once Palliser receives our class lists and new passwords are issued, we will be able to start using them. This year students will be permitted to take them home to complete assignments. You must attend a meeting outlining the guidelines before your child will be given this privilege. Watch for more information on these meetings to come home soon. Bring any questions you have to the parent meeting!
I will make a comment on your child’s progress or conduct about once each week in his/her agenda. Please feel free to write back anytime you have questions or concerns. Completed work will regularly be sent home in the front pocket of the agenda. You can also check the pocket for letters and notes that routinely go home to inform you of school activities.
403-381-3330 darlene.hubber@pallisersd.ab.ca