31st August

The next step in writing to socialize is making greeting cards. The students began to work on their cards today. They have planned and drafted their greeting note and will be creating the cards tomorrow.

Moving on with the unit of Inquiry, the students were grouped according to the art form they usually use to express themselves. We have five groups: Verbal communication, Music, Dance, Drama and Visual Art. The children will be inquiring deeper into these from tomorrow.

30th August

The day went on very brisk....

In the morning, all the students shared withe rest of the class how their weekends were... This gave an opportunity to every one to 'express themselves' and enhance their communication skills as the children usually feel most comfortable when they speak about themselves!

We then went ahead with our Math assessment. It was a very interesting way of assessment through differentiation. The students were paired level wise and they were asked to create questions for their partners based on the pattern of questions given to them. It was amazing to see how this assessment not only gave a clear picture of how much the students knew but also portrayed their critical thinking skills; as you might know, the highest order of thinking is when a child evaluates!!

I would also like to bring up a point here.. a lot of parents were unsure what binary, octal and hexa - decimals numbers were and you might be wondering if it was appropriate for the children to be learning about the same. I would like to mention that this topic was done only to challenge the students' thinking abilities. Only when they learnt that there are various ways of grouping the numbers, did they begin to appreciate the Base 10 system (that we usually use!). It was a topic done also to foster academic rigor in grade 5.

Let me know what you all think... we can always use this medium as a "Forum" for parents too... :)

27th August

We revised number systems in math today. We looked into conversions in Hexa - Decimal, Octal and Binary numbers.

The children watched the movie 'Fame' today. This was about how people express themselves through Dance, Dance and Music. It linked very well with our unit of inquiry.

Unfortunately, the day ended a little abruptly as some children were late from a Football match. Due to this, I was unable to explain the home work to the children. Here is an explanation for the same. You can still call/email me for further queries.

Math: Assessment on Monday. Refer the worksheets given earlier. It will be very simple one. Revision was done in class today. The children are thorough with the concept.

UOI: The children have been asked to interview 20 different people about how they express themselves (Speech, Dance, Drama, etc.). The students have to then represent this data in the form any graph.

English: Based on the book the children have read, the children need to do activities given in the reading bingo (Bingo is a game where you form lines through the blocks in any direction; here, since there are 9 blocks, you need to form 3 lines - that will be a minimum of 7 activities). This is due on 31st September (Tuesday)

I hope this will help you all to get a clearer picture. Please feel free to get in touch with me any time.

26th August

Today the students presented their UOI work from yesterday in groups. There was a discussion on the definitions of "Art", "Feelings" and "Expressions" and the connection between these.

We also began watching a movie "Fame" as it sinks in very well with our unit (how we express ourselves).

We also gained a deep understanding of punctuation in English Grammar.

We discussed the Math assignment on doubles and halves. The students have an assessment on 'Place Value and Number systems' on Monday (30th August). There will be revision for the same in the class tomorrow.

HINDI

25th August

Based on the pre unit assessment in UOI, the children were grouped according to their understanding. They then used a graphic organizer (Hexa-drant) to come up with definitions for "Art forms", "feelings", "Expressions" and the connection between them.


The children also presented their visual representations, which was very interesting.


The drafts for the informal letters were corrected and the children wrote the final copies.

MI test - 25th August

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/choose_lang.cfm

Click -> Take the test -> Note down the code you receive/email the same to your teacher.

24th August

The day went briskly as the students had many specialist classes. They wrote informal letters today. They were asked to write a letter to a real/imaginary friend and discuss a problem that they face with him/her.

We follow a writing procedure: Plan, Draft, Edit, Publish and Refine.

In Math, we discussed Binary numbers and watched some 'funny math' videos.

23rd August

The settings have been modified for you all to leave comments..

The first day of the week, the students involved themselves in some mental math. They were taught some strategies to calculate mentally, viz., Halves and doubles, breaking numbers according to place value, multiplying by powers of tens, etc.

The children today brainstormed the various art forms and the feelings they can express through these art forms. Home work was discusses as well. The children received there folders too today.

20th August

The 5'ves had a day full of quizzes.. There was a quiz on place value in math and prepositions in English. They also watched a PowerPoint presentation on prepositions. The children realized how no topic is ever 'easy'!

The children watched a video on an Indian Dance form. They posted questions based on the video on the Inquiry wall. These questions were re-visited to make them more directed to the understanding of the Central Idea.

19th August

It was a day full of numbers for the fifth graders today. They got practice for writing number names, converting number names to numbers, expanding numbers and writing numbers in standard form. The students are now clearer with the concept of 'place value'. They will soon be solving word problems and puzzles related to the topic.

In UOI, the children also wrote a reflection on the ways in which they express themselves usually.

18th August

The students of grade 5 learnt the Indian and International place value system today.


We did a very interesting activity in Language/UOI:


The student picked a class mate's name through a lucky draw. They then wrote letters to them asking if they can be friends. They then replied to the senders and also guessed their names


Here are a few pictures from the day...


Feel free to give feedback through commenting on the same page.

17th August

It was a fantastic day for the fives today!!


In math, we had a very interesting activity based on numbers. The students first made a mind map on what their questions on the word "Numbers". They were all given a situation (based on the famous book "The king's commissioners") where they had to imagine that they all worked for a king and the king's army had a problem with counting the number of soldiers, horses etc. The students were asked to assume that current day numbers were not yet been invented. In groups, the students came up with their own number system!!!


Few groups made groups of 26 (and called them after the 26 English alphabets), other made groups of five, eleven, etc.


The students were then introduced to the various number systems: Binary, octal, hexa - decimal and the base 10 number systems. For assignment the students have been asked to write the hexa decimal numbers till 100.


In Language, we had a discussion on "Conjunction". The students have been given some practice with conjunctions for HW. The students will also begin their reading log from today. They will tabulate their "Reading data": Name of the book and Author, minutes read, etc. The students have been asked to write any new words that they find in their Spelling and Grammar book. They will also write a short reflection on the read text in their journals.


Our first unit kicked off today with a "Carousel activity". The central idea (the BIG understanding) of the unit i.e. 'Through the arts people use different forms of expression to convey their uniqueness as human beings' was broken into four parts. In groups, the students brain stormed each part of the central idea in turns. This activity gave an opportunity to the students to scaffold the central idea.


Here are some pictures and videos from the day....

16th August

The very first PYP assembly was done by the Grade 5 students today. The topic was "Ramzan". There were three groups: one group performed a Sufi dance, another group had a quiz on Ramzan and the last one enacted a play showcasing the importance of Ramzan.

With just two days of rehearsal, the Grade 5 students put up a great show!!

The students also continued with their role plays on the Learner Profile. We had a discussion on the Essential elements of the PYP and the six units of inquiry for Grade 5 this year.

It turned out to be a perfect beginning for the week which will involve some genuine academics.

12th August

Today, the Grade 5'ves shared their goals for this year with the rest of the class. They received feedback from their peers on ways by which they can achieve these goals.

In groups, the children came up with 'an imaginary holiday'.

The students then were regrouped and they presented the attributes of "IB Learner Profile" to the rest of the class through role plays. The presentations were followed by Class discussions.

The Grade 5 is also doing an Assembly on Monday on Ramzan. The children rehearsed for the same at the end of the day.

9th and 11th August

A big HELLO to all the visitors to the Grade 5 Blog!!


We will be using this medium to share our learnings in the school and to get feedback from you all. Daily happenings in Grade 5 will be uploaded regularly (including photos and videos). Please feel free to leave any comment. For any further queries, you may contact me @ 8121129397 or archana.gera@indusschoolhyd.com.

9th August:

All students introduced themselves. All new students were assigned 1 or 2 buddies each. The entire class was taken for a walk around school. We then went to the lawns. The students were asked to find out 10 unknown facts about their buddies. Later, the groups merged with each other and exchanged information. Students were given an opportunity to talk about their holidays, likes, dislikes, etc..

Students were ten given an A4 paper each and were asked to draw/make something that symbolizes them. On completion, they shared their work with the entire class.

The students were also taken to the stores to collect their uniforms.

Towards the end of the end of the day, the students were too tired for any activity and watched a bit of the movie ":Alice in the Wonderland" on the smart board.

11th August:

All students discussed the essential agreements for the Class.

They were given their notebooks for the year and the students labelled them as well.

They were then asked to write a page about their desired goals for this academic year and their strategies for the same.

For HW, the children are asked to reflect on their Vacation. The extension is to solve puzzles from any Newspaper or solve puzzles from the website www.coolmath4kids.com.