What is going on September 8 - September 12 in Mr. Jon's Class?

Greetings from the rain soaked Russian Market!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful long weekend and that the students of Room 37 are refreshed and ready for tomorrow!

This week, we will continue to explore new horizons in Room 37 with more exciting events related to our current unit under the theme of Who We Are  - Belief Systems. Students have been inquiring into the major belief systems of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Judaism. This week, they will be looking into Islamic beliefs and will take a field trip to a local mosque, Al Jamee Al Islami, on Thursday from 10:35 until 12:15. Please help your child to dress respectfully for this trip. Shoulders should be covered and students should wear at least knee length trousers or dresses.

Students are also beginning a small group or individual research project on a belief system of their choice this week; students will present their information next week using a medium of their choice: Keynote presentation, Haiku Deck Presentation, Google Drawing/Poster, hand drawn poster, oral report, poem, etc.

Students will loosely research based on the lines of inquiry of this unit and any other questions they have about the belief system they are looking into. They will gather and organise information on a collaborative Google Doc, record sources of information, make note of key words, and record further questions as the week goes by. Ask your child to show you this research document this week!

In math this week, Grade 5s will be using their knowledge of our base ten place value system and decimals to describe numbers in standard, word, place value, and expanded notation forms down to thousandths. Grade 4s will be doing the same, but with numbers up to hundred millions. You can help your child with these concepts this week by asking him or her to write down numbers that you say in these forms. Here is an example:

Standard form: 3.456
Word form: three and four hundred fifty six thousandths
Place value form: three ones, four tenths, five hundredths, and six thousandths.
Expanded notation form: 3 + 0.4 + 0.05 + 0.006 = 3.456

In writing this week, students are beginning a two week unit on recount writing. We begin this week by recalling and making educated guesses about the features of recounts, sorting texts into recounts/non recounts, analysing recounts to find examples of these features, and jointly planning and writing a recount about our trip to Phnom Chisor. By Thursday, students will be planning and drafting their own recounts.

Have a great week everyone!