February, 2010 Issue 7
Current Events
Throughout this month the Grade 5 classes have been collecting pledges to support the Walk-A-Thon
held on Thursday, February 25. All proceeds from the Walk-A-Thon will go to support the Father Ray
Foundation in Pattaya, directly assisting homeless children. The Grade 5 theme was the Olympics to honor
the world-wide sporting event now gong on in Canada. All Grade 5 students wore sports outfits and carried
flags of the countries in the Asian Pacific Rim they have been studying for the past few months. They put
in a huge amount of effort and showed great stamina on a hot morning walk.
Efforts will continue to provide support for the people in Haiti who have lost so much, surviving a strong
earthquake.
Language Arts
The recent DRA reading tests show changes in students reading mastery since September. Just
this week, the Grade 5 classes also did the second school-wide writing assessment. This test will
be passed along to the Middle School teachers to show each student’s strengths and weaknesses as
a writer, using the 6+1 Traits writing rubric. Students continue to use expanding reading
strategies to better comprehend materials read. All classes are working on making clear, well-
organized oral presentations to the benefit of all in each class.
Mathematics
The Grade 5 students are working through exponents, factors and multiples in preparation for
doing a unit on understanding and working with fractions. Connecting fractions to daily items and
events helps everyone have a solid grasp of the concept of the usefulness of fractions.
Social Studies
The close of February sees the end of the extensive research and reporting that all Grade 5 students
have been doing about countries in the Asian Pacific Rim. Students have explored the region with
fellow students and increased their ability to use Geography 5 themes to organize study and
understanding of the world. Starting in March the focus will change to studying human’s
prehistory, early man.
Thai
For Gr.5 class, the students had a lot of fun learning about Thai history. They
learned how to sing a song about Ayutthaya and Krungthep. Next month, the quiz
about Thai history will be arranged for the students. Parents are welcome to
join. The date and time will be informed later.
Science Laboratory
Grade 5 students are nearing completion of their study of mixtures and solutions, learning the effective use
and observation of scientific skills. They will next move into Living Systems!
Elizabeth Library
Hi Everyone. This month the library bought over 300 new books from local suppliers. This
purchase included about 100 new levelled readers. If you have children in KG or grades 1 and
two you might like to come and see these new titles. We have also just placed an order for
over 700 more levelled readers from the Rigby company. Hopefully that will entice our little
ones into changing their books every day! The older students have been viewing interviews
with famous authors and illustrators during February. I'd like to think that one day some of our
students will be inspired to try a career in journalism or perhaps commercial art. If you have a
child with artistic talent, help him or her to explore some exciting career opportunities.
Mr Rick
P.E.
Second semester swimming has started for the Grade 4’s. Many students received swimming certificates for
showing proficiency in the water. Some were skilled at floating and received the Jellyfish award. The Level
3 Dolphin certificate was awarded to many students who demonstrated competence in stroke development.
This semester the Grade 4’s will be aiming for the level 4 Blue Marlin certificate. Ask your child what
skills he or she must attain to receive this award.
Music
We are still in the third quarter of the school year and our second unit of this
quarter is “Composing a Melody”, focuses on composing a short song. The students
had started writing their own songs by following the basic steps on creating a song in
single form based on a minor scale. Although it is quite complicated yet it is very
rewarding for the students to accomplish such project. They will also use the
computer to write the notes and to listen to the melody.
ESL
Your child needs to practice speaking English as much as possible. Try making a special time at
home when everyone in the family gets to practice. It could be as little as the time spent eating
dinner, or as much as a whole day. Maybe you could play a board game together in English, or
read and discuss a book or a magazine together. Keep it light and keep it fun. Take the
opportunity to learn from each other while sharing some family time.
This month, we have been studying conjunctions. Here are some exercises that your children can
do at home for practice:
Conjunctions
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
Counselor Corner
Impulse Control and Problem Solving
We’ve begun a great new unit with Second Step and the children are reviewing Ways to Calm Down when
they are having a strong emotion so that they can Solve Problems effectively.
Practice these skills at home with your child(ren) if you notice they are having a strong emotional reaction
and are unable to solve the problem they are experiencing.
Calming Yourself Down
Stop and Think!
Ask yourself:
How does my Body Feel?
3. Try:
Taking 3 Deep Breaths
Counting Backward Slowly
Thinking Calming Thoughts
Talk to yourself
How To Solve Problems
1, What is the problem?
(state it as a fact)
2. What are some solutions?
3. Ask yourself: Is it Safe? How might others feel? Is it Fair? Will it Work?
4. Pick a solutions and use it.
5. If it is not working, go back to step 4 and pick a new solution.
Art
We are working on the project: Optical Iluusion
Theater Arts
We are done with our short oral communication and presentation. I am proud to say that most
of the students are well prepared and presented their work based from their own idea and
interest. They did pretty well in making sense of their developing skills in communicating
orally to the audience. The delivery technique, the organization and content were clearly
demonstrated by some of the students, others have shown great improvement and few
students had to work a little more on the organization area.
Through this theater arts activity the students gain an experience how motivation, creativity,
self-discipline, collaboration, well thought and organized preparation affect the quality of
effective oral presentation and the overall performance.
I videotaped each presentation to watch and critique own work, see if our goals are
successfully met and find out more on how to be a better speaker.
Next unit is the different dance styles wherein the students are expected to explore and learn
each basics dance moves. We will start with the most popular dance for the kids and teens,
the Hip-Hop dance.
Religion
HAPPY LENT! The 40 days of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. It is the most important and
sacred time of the Church year. To walk closer with Jesus, we will spend more time to pray (read
the Bible and spent quiet time with God), to fast (from what we don’t really need), and to do
almsgiving (reaching out to others). Fifth graders will have their Reconciliation service and
confession next week with father Travis.
Our focus theme for this month would be Lent and Easter. During this month, the students have
many activities in class that will help them to walk closer with Jesus and others.
Check-out new ES Religion website for Lenten activities for the whole family:
[Link] /[Link]
Values
“ Citizenship” is our new unit this quarter. Students will learn about being good
citizens who obey rules and laws, do their part in sharing in the classroom, school,
home and the community and show awareness and help take care of the
environment and other different ways to become better citizens.
Computers
"Web 2.0 extravaganza! The Grade 5 classes have been spending a LOT of time on the internet lately...not
just at home playing Facebook of Hi5...but in the E202 classroom as well. Can all this time on the internet
be good for students? Well, the Grade 5's have recently become experts on various countries of the Asian
Pacific Rim, as they completed their unit on countries of the APR, and created great presentations on
VoiceThread. VoiceThread is an online presentation tool where you can upload images, then record your
voice comments, or type comments for everyone to see. Students then created 10 question surveys in
[Link] - and many students were surprised how well all their friends did on their quizzes!
Next up for Grade 5 is [Link] - another online presentation tool that uses ZOOMING and rotating to
make presentations more interesting and meaningful. You can check out any of these online tools yourself
at home. Or, ask your young person to show you their webpage - it's all there on Posterous! Stay tuned!