Padlet: Let us know what you are up to this summer!

Last week of school...

Wow! I can’t believe we are in our last week of school. It has been one of the ‘greatest’ years of my teaching career because the kids of 5B are great young people! I can very honestly say that every day was filled with great energy, great enthusiasm, great thinking, great friendships, great laughs and great fun. I’m sending out many thanks to the scholars who made this possible and also to all the parents for the tremendous support all year long. There is no question, this group will be missed!



Last week was filled with... a farewell assembly, an outstanding field trip to Calgary –special thanks to all our awesome parent volunteers (did anyone leave their headphones on the bus?), and an excellent Wetlands/Disc Golf field trip to Nicholas Sheran Park!



A request: Books please!

I’m incredibly proud of the growth this group has experienced in reading this year. They have truly developed a great love of books! On that note, I am asking that every student and parent do a final look through their houses and especially their bookshelves. I love to share my books but often find that many go missing through the year. It is very possible that some may have accidentally landed in your space. Please double check and send back any book that belongs to me, personally, or to our school this week. I sincerely thank-you!



Here's a brief rundown of this week:



Monday: Our last day of regular classes! Students should make sure they have their scholar dollars for this day as we will be having our final sale and raffle. The last hour of this day students will be going to visit their MMH grade 4 teachers for a quick trip down memory lane and to show them how much we’ve all grown! 



Tuesday: Sports Day! Come dressed for activity, fun, and whatever the weather may have in store for us! Be sure to pack along a water bottle labeled with your name!

Thank you to Mrs. Flexhaug for offering to help out in the morning. If anyone else would like to come help, I’d be happy to put you to work at the most fun station: The Bucket Brigade! Please email me if you can come help!



Wednesday: Our objective on this day is to go through all of our grade five work and make choices about what we would like to include in our grade five memory book. Ms. Bourassa will give every student a ‘portfolio’ inside which they will paste/secure items that will help them remember our year together (a white pencil crayon or special marker for labeling on black paper and glue sticks are needed!) This is also the day we will be cleaning up, packing up and taking all of our belongings home. It would be wise to bring an extra strong bag (canvas grocery shopping bags work well) for this day (perhaps in addition to your back pack)!



Thursday: Last day of school!

We will start our day with our ‘Farewell to Grade 5’ assembly at 8:30 in the gym—parents, please join us! It will be during this assembly when students will be presented their certificates for completing grade five. Students have been asked to dress up (this is not a formal event, but students are encouraged to wear something that would be considered dressier than every day school clothes).

After the assembly we will have a small breakfast (see below) and review our time together with a few pictures that were taken throughout our year.

Thank you to the following people who have volunteered to contribute to our breakfast:
Muffins: Munkhu and Spencer

Fruit: Kiyus

Juice and Napkins: Brooklyn



We will be celebrating our 'last recess--ever!' with some time outside before we head to the gymnasium for our 'Year-End Assembly' beginning at 10:30 a.m. Parents, you are absolutely welcome to join us for this as well! There will also be a few special awards presentations for our school.

After the presentations, we will watch the MMH slideshow and then students will be dismissed from our classroom for the summer at around 11:40 a.m.



Of special note:

**In the report card envelope, please keep an eye out for an invitation to our reunion taking place after the first week of school in September. This is an optional activity, and not every grade five class has elected to do it this year. Students from Ms. Bourassa’s class are invited to walk over from G.S. Lakie (or come from whichever school they are attending) after classes on Friday September 6th and bring along their own lunch to share summer happenings as well as the events of their first week in middle school (time: 12:15-1:00). I find this activity to be key in reducing anxiety around saying farewell to elementary school. Instead of saying good bye, we say ‘see ya soon!’

Padlet:

Doing something cool this summer? Going on a ‘once in a lifetime’ adventure or just hanging out? Use our Padlet page to let everyone know! Just check out ‘Padlet’ above (or click on the following link), double click on the brick wall and leave a message to share what you are up to! Be patient, Ms. B. will need to approve the post before it shows up, but feel free to use it to stay in touch this summer!

Ms. Bourassa’s Class: Summer Activities

Final two weeks!

Hold on to your hats, these are two BIG weeks in Grade 5!

Students, thanks for keeping up with your sleep, we still have great learning happening at school every day and not only is it easier, it’s a whole lot more fun for everyone if you are rested and ready to go! Monday is our farewell assembly for staff members leaving MMH and Thursday is our big trip to Calgary(see details below)! Friday will be our walking trip over to Nicholas Sheran Park to do our Wetlands study (please return your form before Wednesday) and some Disc Golf (parents if you would like to come help, we could use an extra pair of hands or two)!

Thursday is our big trip to Calgary! Parents, if you’ve signed up to come, we can’t wait to see you bright and early on Thursday morning (we are meeting in our gym between 6:40 and 6:50am). We will assign you a certain group of amazing young people for which you will be responsible for most of the day, thank you for your help! We will share expectations and a more detailed itinerary of the day with a handout that will go home Monday. It will be jam-packed with fun and learning, so students, be prepared by getting a great sleep the night before, packing great snacks and a healthy bagged lunch, good walking shoes, sunscreen, some kind of entertainment for the bus ride; great ideas include books, drawing paper, word puzzles, electronic devices (only if you understand that there’s a risk that things can get lost or broken) and the same fun-loving spirit you’ve brought to school every day this year! Also keep in mind that we will show one G-rated movie on the way up and one on the way back. If you have one you’d like to bring along, that would be great! We will be returning between 5 and 5:30 pm. Students, be sure you’ve made arrangements with your parents so you know if you are going to be picked up or if you will be walking home. We are all excited; this is a trip that will be remembered for a very long time!

Sneak Peek at the Final Two Weeks:

Language Arts:

Wow, our poetry writing has been really amazing! A special thank you to Lily’s grandma for joining us last week and sharing her own poetry as well as some of her favourites! This week we will finish up our stations, select our best piece, and ‘prepare it for a showcase’ soon!

French:

This week we will finish ‘les vetements’ with a quick written assessment, and then introduce our mini-unit on ‘la maison’ (the house). Students will learn the words for the rooms and some furniture inside the house and then begin to create/draw a floorplan of our own homes and possibly our ‘maison des reves’ (dream homes) if time allows.

Math:

Our measurement will roll along through our final two weeks with lessons on perimeter and area, volume, and capacity! We will be squeezing in any time we can to get through these lessons!

Social Studies:

Last week we were introduced to the Cordillera region of Canada. We learned about the building of the railway and how it helped unite our great country from sea to sea! This week we will have another listen to Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Canadian Railroad Trilogy’ before we embark on our final scavenger hunt of the year on Thursday; Heritage Park, here we come! We will take some class time to prepare for the awesomeness that awaits us in Calgary! Students can check out the park via the following website. Be sure to scan the map and click on locations if you want an advantage when we get to the park on Thursday!

Heritage Park

The Final Week: June 24, 25, 26, 27

Monday This is our last ‘regular day of classes’ and will include our final Scholar Dollar sale when students will have the opportunity to use up their scholar dollars on small items and/or tickets for a chance to go out for a special ice cream treat next week! We will also make a special visit to our former grade four teachers on this day (assuming they are at MMH)!

Tuesday is Sports Day! Parents, if you would like to help by working at our station (bucket brigade—probably the best station out there), please let me know! We would love to have you! Students, please come dressed for the weather and some awesome active fun! Hats, sunscreen, running shoes, water bottles and healthy snacks and lunch all immediately jump to mind!

Wednesday is a day filled with reflection. We will be creating our grade five portfolios by looking through all of the work we’ve done this year and choosing pieces to place in the portfolio. It is essential that students have a glue stick or two for this day!

*At the end of this day students will be packing all of their stuff up and taking it home. It would be wise to bring an extra bag (a canvas grocery bag would be perfect!) to help haul stuff home. The only thing students should be taking home on Thursday is their report card.

Thursday is our final day of school. As mentioned previously, we will have our grade five farewell assembly from 8:30-9:30 (families please join us!), after which our class will gather back at the classroom for a small breakfast (special thanks to those listed below for the goodies). We will have our last recess of elementary school before heading to the gymnasium for the whole school end-of-the-year assembly and slideshow. After the assembly, we will be handing out report cards and then saying ‘see you soon’ with our final dismissal at 11:35.

Muffins: Munkhu and Spencer

Fruit: Kiyus (anyone else?)

Juice and Napkins: Brooklyn

There’s no doubt in my mind, it’s going to be an awesome wrap-up to an amazing year!

Week of June 10-14

Greetings!

Students, please make sure you are getting plenty of rest these days and taking good care of yourselves as we still have some great learning to do! Many curricular outcomes are still to be achieved in the next couple of weeks, so give yourself the best chance at success by staying on top of things—especially your health!

Sneak Peek at the Week:

Language Arts:

What a week we have lined up for us in poetry! Last week students were exposed to many forms of poetry, and only had a chance to begin writing with each format. This week we will move through several poetry stations that will allow us to continue to work with the formats learned last week, as well as check out a couple more kinds of poetry including ‘Book Spine Poetry’ and ‘Black Out Poetry’. Students, to prove you read the blog, research what these kinds of poetry are and report to Ms. B. with a note explaining them on Monday morning for a special reward!

On Thursday we have a guest poet visiting! We can’t wait to listen to her read some of her poetry and share what inspires her. I am certain that we will all be inspired by her!

French:

This week we will be wrapping up our clothing unit with a mini-project before turning our attention to studying 'the house' and the rooms found inside next week!

Math:

We’ve launched ourselves into the final unit: Measurement! Students can get a head start on the unit by checking out the area and perimeter lessons from:

Math 5 Live

We will explore vocabulary from this unit this week with presentations on Monday and will be ready to explore perimeter and area later in the week!

Social Studies:

This week we will wrap up our study of the Interior Plains region with a trip to the foothills of Alberta as part of a transition to our final region: The Cordillera (Rocky Mountains). Next week we will take a fingerwalk through this region before learning all about the building of the railway.

Students are getting very excited about our big field trip to Calgary next week. It would be wise to check out the following website to get a sense of the amazing historical village we will be doing our final scavenger hunt through!

Heritage Park

It’s going to be another amazing week!

Welcome to June!

...Welcome! 

*School Council is treating all students to a free hot lunch this Wednesday!

Sneak Peek at the Week:

Language Arts:

This Group of Grade Fives

So much depends

Upon

This group of grade

Fives

Embracing their

Learning

Making every day

Fun

Scholars, to prove you read the blog, write a new “So much depends upon” poem for Ms. B. and present it to her on Monday morning!

So much poetry, so little time! We will happily engage in poetry stations this week learning about many kinds of poetry and trying them all out! Mixed in with these final bits of poetry, students will be asked to consider all the books they have read through grade five in order to choose one that they would like to promote to their classmates! In the coming weeks, we will be writing about our choices and creating a 5 minute book-talk presentation to showcase our greatest reads!

French:

Les animaux etranges etaient....tres etranges! Our strange animal creations were beyond strange... These creatures are now on display on the bulletin board outside our classroom, check them out when you have the chance!

We will now begin focusing on ‘les vetements’ (clothing) and will explore articles of clothing so that we may describe what we are wearing!

Math:

Last week we started estimating sums and differences and adding and subtracting decimals. We will wrap up this unit on Monday with a review and a test to follow on Wednesday before launching into our final unit: Measurement!

Social Studies:

Last week students had the opportunity to demonstrate their level of understanding as well as their skills in locating and interpreting information in order to answer questions in an open-book format of an assessment for the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Lowlands region. These skills require great thinking, perseverance, and some patience. It is not easy to scan for specific information and do the thinking to make sense of it all at the same time. Great job, scholars! You will receive your assessment back on Monday.

.And then…If you’re not from the prairie, you don’t know the sky…

We are mixing some Language Arts in with Social Studies in the next couple of weeks as we explore our own region: The Interior Plains and  David Bouchard’s ‘If You’re Not From the Prairie’! We can’t wait to learn about the NWMP before we get set to travel through the Foothills to our final region of Canada: the Cordillera!

Looking Ahead…

Friday, June 14^th: Beach Day: Dress like you are heading to the beach!

Thursday, June 20^th: Calgary Trip: Heritage Park and Telus Spark

We are getting VERY excited about our trip to Calgary on Thursday, June 20^th! If you haven’t already sent in your permission form or paid on School Cash Online, don’t worry! It’s open until Wednesday of this week! Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you!

Friday, June 21^st: Wetlands & Disc Golf Day

On Friday, June 21^st, our grade five classes will be heading over to Nicholas Sheran Park to investigate the wetlands and play disc golf! Parents, if you have a deep desire to walk with us or help out, please let Ms. B. know, we’d love to have you join us!

Tuesday, June 25^th: Div II Sports Day

As is tradition at MMH, all our grades 3-5 classes will be participating in many different activities both indoor and out on this day. Students should come prepared by wearing activewear, good running shoes, and a hat. Sunscreen, a water bottle, positive spirits and smiles are musts!

Grade 5 Farewell:

Parents, your scholar should have brought home an invitation to our Grade 5 Farewell Assembly. We invite you to join us on the final day of school (Thursday, June 27^th) at 8:30 for our Grade Five Farewell. It will be at this time when we will be presenting our students with certificates for completing grade five. All family members are welcome as we will not be inviting the rest of the school to attend. (If there are siblings in other grades that you would like to attend, please check in with their teachers.) We anticipate the assembly to be about 45 minutes to one hour in length. We hope you can join us! *Please note that this assembly is separate from the Year End assembly that will take place later that morning. Final dismissal is at11:40am.

Thank you to the following people who have volunteered to contribute to our breakfast on the final day of school:
Muffins: Munkhu and Spencer

Fruit: ? (please contact Ms. B. if you can contribute)

Juice and Napkins: Brooklyn