The Ghost with the Most

Today we took a look at ghosts for our Art assignment. Rogers is putting on a drawing contest for students to draw "the ghost that scares you the most" or "sketch a scene from Halloween", so we took on the challenge. Students viewed some photos (real, or at least really photo-shopped) of ghostsly images, to inspire their own artistic visions of what a ghostly image should look like. We also looked at the use of ghosts in classic literature, Like Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and William Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which ghosts are used as messengers for the living characters to change their lives for the better, or to seek revenge for a wrongful action. Students were "dying" (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun) to share their own ghost stories with the class, and I was surprised by just how many of them had a story to tell. My grade 5 and 6 students then spent the rest of the art period drawing their own sketches. Students who wish to enter the Rogers contest need to hand-in their completed picture to me, with their contact information on the back, and have the orange contest rules and regulations form signed by their parent/guardian, which should be handed in to me as well on Monday October 22, 2007.

Homework Assigned Thursday October 18, 2007:
Grade 5:
-Read 20 Minutes, update log for tomorrow!
-Spelling test (50 words) tomorrow
-Media Literacy sheet due tomorrow
-Math, page 49 textbook
-Art, Ghost picture due Monday

Grade 6:
-Read 20 Minutes, update log for tomorrow!
-Media Literacy sheet due tomorrow
-Reading Response Journal entry due Monday
-Spelling test (50 words) tomorrow
-Math, page 49 textbook - mid chapter review - Quiz tomorrow!
-Art, Ghost picture due Monday

Stuck in the Middle of the Week

The Leafs Fitness Challenge continues, as we only have 2 more activities to measure our inital performance of. Then, it will be fitness-building exercises to improve for our 4th week re-measurment. We took some time today to finish-up some outstanding, incomplete work in art & writing. In Math, we continued our units in Numeracy, with lessons, and homework take-up. Science involved new assignments for the students to complete at home over the next week, and present next Tuesday. We also had our first Reading Buddies session with Ms. Wai-Hur's Grade 3 class today.

Homework Assigned Wednesday October 17, 2007:
Grade 5
-Read 20 minute and update reading log (remeber, if the log isn't updated every day, you will be assigned a novel study to do over the weekend).
-Spelling Unit 6 + 50 word test on Friday
-Science: Create a Homemade Balance Scale & complete Activity Sheet B - due Tuesday
-Art: One-Point Perspective picture due tomorrow

Grade 6
-Read 20 minute and update reading log (remeber, if the log isn't updated every day, you will be assigned a novel study to do over the weekend).
-Reading Response Journal entry due Monday (remember to apply my suggestions from your previous entries).
Math: Workbook page 15, Mid-Chapter Quiz on Friday
-Spelling Unit 6 + 50 word test on Friday
-Science: Air Compression Product 1 Page Research Paper - due Tuesday
-Art: One-Point Perspective picture due tomorrow

Catching up

Recently, my class has been keeping very busy with the following...

Art - Students have been given a lesson on drawing with One Point Perspective, in which we use a Vanishing Point (blue dot on diagram) in the middle of our paper, and draw a Horizon Line (red line on diagram), as well as a vertical line and several diagonal lines across the page, all crossing through the vanishing point. Once these lines are drawn, we draw several boxes from smaller (around the vanishing point), to larger (just inside the edge of our paper), which begins to give the Illusion of Depth on the drawing. Using this framework, we continue to draw indoor or outdoor scenes in which the objects closer to us are drawn larger, while the objects further away (closer to the vanishing point) are drawn smaller. For more information on drawing using One-Point Perspective, check out: http://www.olejarz.com/arted/perspective/

Language - Students have been continuing their Novel Study of Tuck Everlasting, and have read up to chapter 20. The class has been divided into two groups, and have been debating the issue of drinking the magical spring water that gives the drinker eternal life. The two groups have taken the positions of the Yellow Suit Water Company, who are for (PRO) magic spring water as they wish to bottle and sell it for huge profits, versus Health Canada, who are against (CON) the magic spring water because of the negative effects it will have on Canadians and the rest of the world. Students have made their arguments based on the 4 Square Writing Method, and are currently using computers to complete a Media Literacy assignment of creating flyers that effectively communicate their group's message about the magic spring water to their audience, Ms. Schwartz's Grade 5 students. Our audience will then vote on whether the use of this magic spring water should be legalized or not. The winning group of students will get a one-week supply of spring water!

Math - The Grade 5 and 6 students have been continuing their units on Numeracy. Grade 5 students had a mid-point quiz today, followed by a lesson on decimal points up to the hundredths column on a place value chart (e.g., 1.25). Grade 6 students Had a lesson on renaming numbers using place value concepts, which involves converting units like bytes to kilobytes to megabytes, or millimetres to centimetres to metres, and so on.

Daily Physical Activity - We have finished Chair Aerobics, and have started our Leafs Fitness Challenge (hopefully this helps us more than it has helped the Leafs so far this season). We are measuring our times and number of repetitions in eight challenges during week one:

1. Vertical Jump - measures the height that a student can jump while reaching upward

2. Standing Long Jump - measures the distance a students can jump from a standing position

3. 10m / 20m Sprint - measures the time it takes students to run 10m and 20m distances

4. Illinois Agility - measures the time it takes students to run a course around pylons

5. Line Test - measures the time it takes students to shuffle sideways from line to line

6. Push-Ups - an all time favourite, measuring the number of push-ups a student can do in a row

7. Wall-Ball-Toss - measures the number of repetitions students can throw and catch a ball

8. Sit and Reach - measures the flexibility and reach of students

Over the next four weeks, we will focus on performing exercises that increase our fitness levels in Power, Speed, Agility, Muscular Strength, Coordination, and Flexibility. At the end of week four, students will measure their times and number of repetitions again, to observe their improvement over time.

Homework Assigned Monday October 15, 2007:

Grade 5

-Read 20 minutes & Update Reading Log

-Bookmatch sheet

-Spelling Unit 6 + 50 Word test this Friday

-Math Textbook page 43, # 6-9

-Science: 3 chart pages due tomorrow

-Art: One Point Perspective Drawing due Thursday

Grade 6
-Read 20 minutes & Update Reading Log
-Bookmatch sheet

-Reading Response Journal entry due Monday
-Spelling Unit 6 + 50 Word test this Friday
-Math Textbook page 45, # 6-9
-Science: Experiment pages due tomorrow
-Art: One Point Perspective Drawing due Thursday