May 30, 2011   Parents and Guardians of Grade 5 and Grade 6 Math students:   Monday, is the final day of Grade 5 Math assessments.  Your child has worked tiredlessly to complete mental Math, multiuple choice, basic facts and constructed responses.  Students were engaged and I felt they worked very hard to do their best.  Thanks goes to those who helped in any way to prepare your child for this assessment.  After Monday, focus will be put on Probability and more work on Shape and Space.  There will be no tutoring, for the remainder of the year, for Grade 5. Grade 6 is writing a cummulative Math test.  They are working very hard and will finish this on Monday/Tuesday, depending on class.  Mrs. R. Turcotte      “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”

May 14, 2011   Good evening, parents and guardians of Grade 5 and Grade 6 students.  There is only a little over a week before the Grade 5 students begin writing their Grade 5 Math Provincial Assessment; dates are May 25,26,27.  There is much to do to get ready and students are encouraged to work extra hard to review and practice all strands.  Each night the students were given the abc/123 textbook questions as well as the nightly practice of facts.  During class, the students are working on possible assessment style questions as they complete a sample booklet of both multiple choice and constructive response questions.  It is hoped that you revistit these with your child to help keep it fresh and to keep them connected to Math on a daily basis.  I have asked to kids to visit the website, nightly and to work on the sample assessment for Grade 5.  Go to Provincial Math Assessment Grade 5 Sample 2011.   Tutoring will be on Monday and  Tuesday, this week..  there will be no tutoring on Wednesday. Grade 6 are working on cumulative activities..  As well, terms such as Cartesian plane, coordinate grid,successive transformationsand creating designs.. Mrs. R. Turcotte   Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams

April 25, 2011   Good evening parents and guardians of Grade 5 and 6 students.  I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend.  Grade 6 finished their Math test on Thursday and will get tests back on tomorrow, NOTE:Grade 5 Provincial Math Assessment will begin on May 26th. All students will be expected to write.  We still have a lot of work to finish before this assessment.  Students will be completing work on geometry, Space and Shape, as well as Statistics and Probability.  Students will hear words such as, attributes of various polygons, transformation, translation, reflection, rotation, certain, possible, impossible, first hand and second hand data,as well as, interpreting double bar graphs. Please encourage students to share their daily activities and to revisit all operations and strategies.  These are in their Math duotangs.  It is hoped that all children will be present during the next few weeks so that all areas will be delivered and students will feel confident when writing.  Tutoring will be on Wednesday at the usual time.                                                Have a good week, Mrs. R. Turcotte.                                                   If you can Dream... You CAN do it    

March 27, 2011   Parents of Grade 5 and Grade 6 students, we will be continuing in our work on completion iof units, and working on key words and activities for Measurement and Geometry.  Please reinforce measurement units by asking your child to estimate lengths and then to have them find the actual.  An activity to reinforce area and perimeter is to visit the website on www.spyguys and www.virtual angles, and www.polygon game. As well making reference to how many of one unit is in another, is encouraged...example ..10 mm=1cm,  100 cm= 1M,  1000mm = 1M,   1000cm= 1Km,   1 000 000 mm = 1Km.  Talk about the kms when traveling and have your child look at distances on maps to find the differences.  Your child was given a conversion chart to help them with the changing of units.. This week, some of the students experienced problems with the mental math because of the time we have been away from some of the strategies. All students are encouraged to study strategies each night and to reinforce through practice.    PARENT TEACHER: It is hoped that most of you will be able to get into Parent Teacher.  If not, please feel free to call me at any time for a scheduled appointment.  Have a good week, Mrs. R. Turcotte.                                    Today's preparation, determines tomorrow's future    

MARCH 05, 2011 GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYONE!  I JUST WANT TO WISH EVERYONE A GREAT MARCH BREAK!  ENJOY THE WINTER ACTIVITIES AND TIME HANGIN' OUT WITH FRIENDS!  AFTER BREAK WE WILL BE BUSY WRAPPING UP UNITS ON DECIMALS, FRACTIONS, ANGLE MEASUREMENT AND GETTING READY FOR THE REPORT CARDS!!  R. TURCOTTE Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning. Albert Einstein

February 20th, 2011   Math facts, strategies, rules, math language, terminology, concepts, outcomes, charts, graphs, manips, explore, connect!!!!!??? no end to what one can do with numbers..  Math is all of this and much more!! The students are very busy finding out the connections that bind the strands of math together and what is necessary in order to make sense of these strands!! This week the Grade 6 struggled with the term, preservation of equality....making sure both sides of an equation are balanced.  This concept can be further explored on website   www.learnalberta.ca/content.  This will be extended this week with adding variables and using a variety of approaches.  We spent time on value charts and graphs.  In addition, we reintroduced area and perimeter.  It is hoped that this week we will be able to do work on the Shape and Space outcomes.  We will begin with angles, such as identifying, classifying, estimating, drawing and labelling, angles.  Students will need a protractor, for this unit. Grade 5 will continue work on fraction, mixed numbers, equivalent fractions, as well, we will work on decimals.  Students looked at reading decimal numbers into the thousandths.. Students are encouraged to compare decimal numbers, as well as understanding decimals to the tenths, hundredths and thousandths place. Like fractions, decimals have multiple names and students must become proficient at naming and identifying equivalent decimals.  Kids will also represent thousandths, using length measurements.  1 mm=0.001.  Students will be using thousandths grids to model decimals.  All these grids are easily accessed on www.blackline masters. The National Flag Day celebration was very successful and a write- up has been posted on Blackville Talon.  This week, February 23rd, we celebrate 100th Day of school.  Kids are encouraged to dress for the ocassion and to create something of 100.  They are asked to bring in 100 piece puzzles, if possible.  It is hoped that we continue in our quest of learning and continue to see Math in our daily routines.  Have a good week.. Mrs. Turcotte.  

    Good afternoon, parents and guardians of Grade 5 and Grade 6 Math students.  Your child has been busy the past few weeks, as they review concepts taught before the break as they got ready for their unit test.  Some Grade 5 students are preparing for a rewrite by attending tutoring.  The rewrite is on Monday.  The Grade 5 are also coming up to the 100th day of school, which is on February 22nd.  Students are asked to bring in 100 piece puzzles, if possible. This might be a good time to talk to your child about 10's, 100's, 1000's, as it ties in with the next unit, where the focus is on fractions, knowing the meaning, parts of a fraction, how to compare fractions, equivalent fractions and how to describe a fraction.as .1.. a part of a whole,, 2. as part of a set...3.  as part of a linear measurement and how to write corresponding decimals.   This is when we can look at recipes and do the comparisons while having quality time together as a family. The Grade 6 have been busy with ratios, fractions and percent.  They will have their test on Wednesday, February 9th.  The students have been interested in the percent outcomes of the program.  We looked at how to find percent, how to make savings when aware of lowered percents and how to find the hst tax.  February 15th is National Flag Day.  We will be having an assembly for K-8 students, only.  It will be a time to reflect on the pride of being Canadian.  Have a good week, Mrs. Turcotte. AnonymousNever be afraid to do something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the titanic.