Voting!

Students, 

today we covered a lot of material about voting and the electoral process in Canada during our Social Studies lesson. The important aspect to note about our Canadian Government and its voting process, is that because Canada's system of Government is a Democracy, everyone is treated equally. Once we reach the legal age to vote, which is 18 in Canada, we are capable of participating as active citizens within our country. Every vote counts! And if there are going to be changes they are going to have to be made as smoothly and fairly as possible, which is why in Canada we all have the right to vote once we reach a certain age. 

You are probably wondering where I am getting at, think about our math period today when I mentioned that we will be starting our Data Management unit soon! Throughout this unit, you will be introduced to a lot of data results collected through surveying, which is similar to the voting process we discussed in Social Studies. If you are still unsure about what I am talking about, please click on the link below and visit the webpage attached. It has visuals and uses similar methods we will be approaching next time around. 

Data Collection

Remember how we made an agreement that if you all did well on your math tests that I would purchase us a class pet? Well today is your lucky day! I just finished marking your tests and decided to tell you all NOW instead of in waiting until class tomorrow that it looks like we will be getting a class pet! How awesome!? Here is the catch, we need to decided what sort of pet to bring in? I recall several of you asking for either a fish, a hamster, a snake or a rabbit. Looks as if we are going to take a vote! Reread your Social studies page  on democracy and voting, as well as your math note on surveying and collecting and tallying data. As a class we are going to fairly decided which new animal is going to call our classroom home. 

Parents, 

to the best of my knowledge I received all of your blessings and consents to have a class pet as long as it remains in the class and the students maintain their grades. This agreement is completely logical and I agree to withhold me end of the deal so long as the students do. You may have noticed I mentioned that students will be starting their Data Management unit very soon. This voting process we are going to have during our next class targets the following expectations. 

Grade 5 - Mathematics - Data Management 

Overall Expectations:

·         Collect and organize discrete or continuous primary data and display the data in charts, tables, and graphs (including broken-line graphs)

·         read, describe, and interpret primary data and secondary data presented in charts and graphs, including broken-line graphs;

Specific Expectations:

Collection and Organization of Data:

·         Collect data by conducting a survey or an experiment to do with themselves, their environment, issues in their school or community, or content from another subject, and record observations or measurements.

·         Collect and organize discrete or continuous primary data and secondary data and display the data in charts, tables, and graphs (including broken-line graphs) that have appropriate titles, labels (e.g., appropriate units marked on the axes), and scales that suit the range and distribution of the data.

Data Relationships:

·         Read, interpret, and draw conclusions from primary data and secondary data, presented in charts, tables, and graphs

      

      As well, parents, if you are interested in learning more about this new unit in Math please visit: 

      

      Math Gains

      If you have the chance, please navigate through the site, there are plenty of methods on how to prep your child for their grade level mathematics. 

Letter to....

Grade 5's,

as you have noted and expressed during our discussion today, the recreational parks in our neighborhood are looking rather unsanitary, as if little attention has been paid to the cleanliness of its environment! Since you all felt so strongly about how dirty your local parks have been I've decided as a class we will write a letter to someone in charge of this matter, in hopes they will listen and help us.

Your job for the next class is to identify who is in charge of our local parks and garbage/littering. Next, find out this person(s) name because we will have to address them in our letter. Most importantly, come to class prepared with at least 3 ideas as to why we should care about our parks, and why it is important to you and other children to keep our local parks clean!

For this lesson, students, I am combining a language lesson with a social studies lesson. I am interested in knowing how well you know the differences between the three levels of the Canadian government in which we discussed a few days ago. As well, I am interested in reading a piece of your writing. I really want to hear your voices jump out at the page, but I also want there to be strong evidence as to why you truly believe this is an important issue to be addressed.

For more information on how to construct a letter, visit the link below. Remember you are not expected to have a letter completed by next class, just some ideas. However, this link should help organize your thoughts if needed! Check it out :)

Scholastic SCOPE

This is what you should see when you click on the link!

Parents,

for the purpose of this lesson, the grade 5 boys and girls will be targeting 2 overall language expectations for their grade level. These expectations are the following:

Grade 5 - Language - Writing 
Overall Expectations: 
1. generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose
and audience;
3. use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language
conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively;

Three Levels of Canadian Government

Boys & Girls,

you are all doing absolutely fantastic! Today's mini-presentations of your chosen Canadian symbol was excellent to say the least!

I know it is a little early, seeing as we will not be having our next Social Studies period until two days from now, but I would like you all to get a head start as to what we will be discussing next Social Studies period. We are going to be focusing on the 3 main levels of the Canadian Government. You may or may not know this, but Canada's government is divided into 3 levels of Government: Federal, Provincial and Municipal. So, before the next lesson, please visit the following websites. When you visit the first website, please read the information provided on that webpage about Canada's Political System. This will offer insight and basic information about the individual 3 levels of government. You may notice that this website was developed for new-comers or immigrants to Canada. Immigrants are those who have traveled from another country and are or may be residing in Canada. This website helps them learn about the Canadian government before they come to Canada themselves, how helpful! We Canadians Rock don't we!? Well, anyway, let's get started. Click on the highlighted link below to enter this webpage...

Canada's Political System

This is what you should see when you click on the above link! 

Once you are finished reading this, I have a more uplifting link I would like you to view. Make sure your volume is working, or if necessary have your headphones on hand because you may need them! Are you really ready to learn more about what the three levels of the Canadian government service? All three levels are responsible for different duties and areas. Hard to keep up? Well, I think this video will help out! Click on the link below....

YouTube- Who Does What?

Please watch and listen to this 4:24 minute video clip. I bet you  will sing along!

Boys and girls, I hope you have been paying attention, this information is very important! I think it is time for you to really have some fun. Visit the link below and participate in Activity #2 :The Organization of the three levels of the Canadian Government. Click on the link below....

Activity - Government of Canada - 3 Levels of Government

This is the page you should see when you click on the link! Click on Activity #2 

Parents,

your Grade 5 learners have been fully engaged so far throughout the unit. The purpose of these links are to prepare them for the next lesson on the three levels of the Canadian Government. If you visit the Ontario Curriculum document for Social Studies you will notice that this activity targets the first overall expectation. Also, under the specific expectations, this activity targets the first point under the Knowledge/Understanding standard as well as the fifth specific expectation.

By the end of this activity,students should be prepared for their next Social Studies lesson. They are expected to elaborate on information they knew and learned more about, information they figured out for the first time, and information they had NO idea about prior to this activity.

Boys & Girls I will see you tomorrow!

Government of Canada

Government of Canada 

Students,

Today I had mentioned that our Social Studies periods would be dedicated to learning about our Canadian Government. Tomorrow will be our first official Social Studies period. You are going to be learning about basic information and a little bit of Canadian Government history! But do not fear, this is not dull, boring history, this is exciting and fascinating...I promise!

What I am going to ask you is to visit the Government of Canada website. The link to this website is above this message. Just click on it and a new tab will open in your internet browser that will take you right into the website. You will see the heading "About Canada" it is the first heading listed on the far left. Click this heading and enter the "Anthems and Symbols" page. Here you can learn ALL kinds of amazing things about Canada. Browse through as much as you would like to. However, please check out "The Symbols of Canada" pages. From here you will be taken to a Canadian Heritage site.

Step 1: When you access the website, click on the About Canada heading.

Government of Canada website

Step 2: Once you have entered "The Symbols of Canada" page your screen should look like this....

Canadian Heritage website 

For the purpose of tomorrows lesson, I would like you to choose ONE (1) of the Canadian symbols. Read and learn more about the symbol you have chosen. Draw it out as best as you can, use color and descriptive words. Tomorrow's lesson will evolve around our discussion of these symbols. As a class, we will then take what we have learned and create our own class symbol!


Parents,

in Grade 5, students are expected to achieve many learning goals throughout the Aspects of Citizenship and Government of Canada unit. This particular activity is targeted for the first expectation where students identify and describe significant Canadian symbols. For further information, this curriculum document can be found by clicking the link below, or by accessing the Ontario Ministry of Education website.

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/sstudies18curr.pdf


IMPORTANT NOTE: The Government of Canada website is an incredible source to access past and present information, statistics and news for the Canadian government. I would 'bookmark' this page in your internet browser because we will be referring to it quite a bit throughout our Social Studies course and it will definitely be useful for background information in major assignments as well!

Hello! Bonjour!

Dear Students:

Welcome students to Grade 5! I am your Social Studies teacher Ms. Senia (sounds like Sen-ya).  Grade 5's, my goal this year is to make your Social Studies experience as educational, engaging and fun as possible. I promise that the 2012-2013 school year will be very exciting! As a class, we are going to be accessing this Edublog. You are on the Edublog right now, how cool? There are many reasons why I chose to create this Edublog. What is an Edublog you may ask? Firstly, blogs provide a space for sharing your opinions on what you learned through statements, stories, photos, video clips and much more! An Edublog is a great space to share information related to our Social Studies unit. For the first couple of weeks, we are going to be focusing on the Canadian Government. I will be posting important links, extra handouts, activities, and much more that will be related to what we discussed in class that day and that you will be expected to read through and observe when you are at home.

Dear Parents:

Hello, parents of these wonderful Grade 5 students, I encourage you to access this blog with your children; please browse through the webpages and keep up with the postings :) I have linked my Twitter account to this page as well. You can locate the link at the bottom right corner of this page. I understand that you may not feel comfortable with your children creating their own Twitter accounts and that is fine. They will not necessarily need one as long as they access this Edublog. However, the Twitter account I created for this class will be useful and will feature additional links for extra practice and learning information on Social Studies topics. Thank you for your time :)

Ms. Senia