Class celebration

Next week will be busy and we will be attempting to cover as much curriculum as possible between

distractions.

One 'distraction' will be our own class celebration next Wednesday, December 21st. Part of the celebration will be a form of gift exchange. An information form / permission slip will be coming home today with more explanation. An electronic version of the form will be added to the 'Forms & Handouts' page this weekend.

Have a great weekend!

Free period!!!

The free period, earned by the class for their efforts towards modelling the Right to Play motto, will be awarded tomorrow. It will take place outside so please ensure appropriate (WARM & DRY) clothing comes to school.

Thank you!

CYC classroom involvment

Our class has loved having our school CYC join for many different activities and discussions. She is now pleased to offer a more formal partnership with myself and the class which will continue into the new year. A letter explaining her involvement in more detail will be coming home today.

Should you have any questions, don't hesitate to email.

Keep practising!

During the parent-teacher-student conferences, many proud moments and strengths were shared. In addition, students were able to articulate their goals and next steps for improvement. Some individuals have begun to follow through with their action plans for growth, while others need to follow through with their talk.

This class does not have a regular homework program. That being said, there are certain actions that should take place on a consistent basis at home in order to consolidate learning and/or improve on learning that takes place at school. There are some ideas listed on the 'Homework' page of this site.

Recently, a Math package was sent home to be worked on for a week or so. Completing a few questions of each type per night (or so) would have been appropriate. Students were also asked to experiment with different strategies in order to develop more 'tools' for their repertoire as well as to determine which strategies are best for different numbers and problems. More students than not had difficulty following this model. The package was left until the last minute and the work was rushed in many cases.

Proper practice is vital if students hope to see improvement in their abilities and understanding. Please help support this homework model at home.

For practising Language skills at home, students are encouraged to purposely think about their reading, even when reading for enjoyment. Using stickies to jot down ideas while reading is a great strategy to focus reading using reading strategies such as visualizing, making connections, asking questions, and making predictions. Parents can ask meaningful questions beyond retell-type questions. Examples are on the 'Homework' page, and if more explanation or examples are desired, please email.

Great conferences, busy month

Thank you to all of the students and parents for the very successful week of student-parent-teacher conferences. I was very proud of the students' ability to take responsibility for their own learning and articulating their own strengths and areas for improvement. I truly hope that the goals and action plans set out will continue to happen through Term 1 until the end of the year. A good start would be to work through the Math homework package thoroughly, experimenting with a variety of strategies and determining which are most accurate and efficient.

Today marked the first day of December - one of the busiest months at school and at home. The first event of the month is tomorrow - the annual fundraising dance-a-thon. Pledge form can be brought to the school as well as any money to purchase small items at the dance.

Please keep up with school work this month and keep track of important dates and events on this site and the school calendar.

B.R.A.V.O. graduation for Gr. 6s

B.R.A.V.O Graduation: 

In order to celebrate your child's completion of the B.R.A.V.O program, there will be a brief graduation ceremony on Monday, November 28 at 9:30 am. It will be held in the auditorium. You are invited to the celebration. Please confirm your attendance by emailing us no later than Friday (November 25). We look forward to seeing you there!

Progress Reports

The Progress Reports were sent home today.

Interviews are set for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. I look forward to meeting with everyone to share successes and next steps for improvement.

Right to Play assemblies

This past Friday, Mr. Pritchard and Mlle Farquhar, hosted the inaugural Right to Play assembly, promoting the motto to "Look after yourself, and look after one another" as well as all of the greatness that Pineland has to offer.

A large component of the assemblies is the awarding of the Red Ball Award to classes who exemplify the Right to Play motto, especially around students' learning skills. Our class has demonstrated tremendous growth since the beginning of the school year, so I nominated our class and invited Mr. Pritchard in to interview, video, and ultimately determine if class 5/6-1 was in fact worthy of the Red Ball.

Not knowing what to expect from his visit, the class was simply instructed to answer his questions as honestly as possible. The camera was turned on and so was the pressure as he posed many thought-provoking questions. When all was said and done, I didn't know how he felt about the interview, but I was certainly a very proud teacher who believed that we had a strong chance of winning based on the class' participation and strength of their responses.

In the end, they became one of the first recipients of the Red Ball Award, acting as a model class at
Pineland (and earning themselves an extra gym period in the process!)

In addition, two individuals in the class were among a select handful to be awarded individual Red Ball Awards for their outstanding demonstration of the Right to Play motto, by looking after themselves and others in exemplary fashion!

Pajama Day for a good cause

The Me to We club at Pineland has been promoting Sleep Country's initiative

"Sleeping Children Around the World".

On Friday, November 4th, in preparation for Daylight Savings Time, Sleeping Children Around the World is encouraging Canadians to participate in the first ever Sleep Day by wearing their pajamas to work or school for a small donation of $2 in schools. Sleeping Children Around the World believes that it is the basic right of every child to have a comfortable night’s sleep and this national fundraising initiative is aimed at improving the lives of countless children worldwide. Sleeping Children Around the World encourages you to get involved in Sleep Day as a simple yet impactful way to change the life of a child.

On Friday, November 4, if students bring a toonie to school (or $2), they can dress up in their pajamas to come to school on that day.

Sleeping Children Around the World official website

Halloween

Tomorrow is Halloween...

There have been reminders on the announcements and communication from the office sent home regarding costumes. Below is a relevant bit of information that was sent out by the office:

"Students will be invited to watch the parade and are also welcome to wear simple costumes, black and orange or Pineland colours.  We ask that costumes not include ‘scary’ masks, props, blood or gore and be appropriate with the normal expectations of school. Any students who come to school with inappropriate costumes will be asked to change immediately. Students will be allowed to wear their costumes for the morning."

Our next bit of writing will focus on descriptive detail based on Halloween... So be observant while out trick-or-treating!

 

Apeldoorn Student Connections

Yesterday we had a wonderful presentation about the Netherlands and the special connections to Canada, primarily centred around WWII. Burlington is also the twin city of Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.

To further develop the relationship between the two countries and the two cities, our class will be partnered with a class in Apeldoorn and write back and forth to one another. The students will hopefully improve their letting/email writing skills as well as learning more about another country, more about their own country, and initiatives undergone by the government at home and abroad.

What we're up to

It has been busy at school and many learning opportunities keep presenting themselves. Below are some of the topics, activities, skills, ideas, etc. that we have been developing and sharing:

• reading "Dunk" to develop reading strategies (Making Connections, Visualizing, Asking Questions / Predicting, Determining Important Details)
• completing reading responses based on personal reading choices
• continued using peer editing and revising to improve writing tasks (including working with class 5/6 FI)
• improving basic Math computation skills (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing) and then experimenting with a variety of mental Math strategies to better understand computations (e.g., decomposing numbers, doubling and halving, finding compatible numbers)

Up next in Literacy and Numeracy:

• letter writing for pen pals in the Netherlands
• applying numeracy skills to identify, extend, and create numeric patterns

Also...

• BRAVO has continued for the Grade 6s and issues related to alcohol and effects on the body has continued to be looked at by the Grade 5s
• Invasion Territory games are the focus in Phys. Ed. as is the continued focus on active participation, safety, and fair play
• for Science we have discussed the Big Ideas for the Grade 5 and Grade 6 units on Human Body Systems and Space respectively

Please discuss these concepts at home and if any questions or clarification is required, don't hesitate to contact me.

Community Circles

In an effort to create a safe environment in which to take risks and learn about ourselves and others, we sit in circles so that everyone can have an equal say within the group. We can see everyone's face within the group and know that we are all listening to one another and caring about each other's thoughts and feelings. We have been using community circles in the class since the beginning of the school year as a place to discuss classroom expectations of ourselves and one another, activities going on at school and at home, and goals set out for the year, as a class and as individuals.

Yesterday we were fortunate enough to have our community circle lead by Ms. Lewis. She helped us establish clear norms about how we should act when part of the circle. She also helped us to relate most of our ideas back to the Right to Play motto: "Look after yourself. Look after one another."

The students were very receptive and offered many personal thoughts based on questions and statements posed. Ms. Lewis and I will work together to determine the needs of the class and how we can use community circles to further develop the students' understanding of themselves as individuals and as learners.

Please talk to you son and/or daughter about their reflections on community circles, and don't hesitate to ask me for any clarifications.

Take care!

Learn to type! and more

Typing / keyboarding - an invaluable skill that is no longer taught explicitly in schools

I have signed each student up with an account on an online typing program that tracks progress as far as speed and accuracy. There is a link titled typing.com listed on the right of this site. Students will be taken directly to the log in screen from there. Their log in and password is the same as their school log in and password.

This is an optional activity, however, extremely worthwhile. The only way to learn to type is by practising on a consistent basis.

Students should also become very familiar and comfortable with their school-based G-mail account. Included with the same account is access to Drive online storage, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. Getting familiar with the functions of Google Read & Write would also be extremely beneficial, especially while typing skills are still being developed.

Open House Tonight

Tonight Pineland is hosting its annual Open House, welcoming family and friends into the school and teacher's classrooms for meet and greets and to get a sense of the learning that is taking place. All teachers will also have a hand out explaining what is going on in their class as far as curriculum, learning skills education, and any other activities or bits of information to help parents and guardians support and extend learning at home.

I will include an electronic version of my hand out on the "Hand outs and Forms" page of this site.

I have tried to make contact with all families by phone, and if I have not yet, I apologize, and will continue to make calls to give everyone an opportunity to discuss their student's start to the year. Please try to refrain from asking personal questions in the open house setting.

As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Hopefully I will see most of you tonight, and if not, there will be many more opportunities throughout the year!

Learning Skills

The Provincial Report Card includes marks for both Subjects and Learning Skills. By now, students have likely heard all about the importance of developing solid and hopefully strong Learning Skills. There is an almost inseparable relationship between strong learning skills and success at school and the rest of kids' lives.

In our class, we will be really focusing on Initiative and Collaboration and relating these learning skills to the Right to Play philosophy of "Looking after yourself and Looking after each other." Please take some time each day to discuss these skills at home as well as successes had at school during the day.


***Unrelated note: Picture Day is tomorrow (Wednesday, September 21)***

So far...

It has been a great start to the year and the class is already developing positive and respectful routines around the class and towards learning.

Here are some of the activities and topics that have been introduced/covered so far:

• lots around safety and expectations around the school
• Right to Play - an organization with a motto/philosophy about "Looking after yourself and Looking after others" - this way of thinking is being adopted by Pineland
• Reading Strategies (there are 6 specific strategies we discuss - test your kids!) are being taught and practised through a class read aloud novel called "Dunk" by David Lubar
• Math - exploring whole numbers and developing an understanding of magnitude and various ways to represent numbers (Gr. 5 - up to 100 000, Gr. 6 - up to 1 000 000)

Welcome letter

Below is the welcome letter that I sent home on Friday with the students. Hopefully it arrived at home safe and sound.

Welcome!

Class 5/6-1

Dear families,

Our class has begun the year on a very positive note. Everyone seems very excited about the year ahead and has participated enthusiastically and respectfully. I will do my best to keep these attitudes and actions going throughout the year.

I will be encouraging the class to take ownership of their learning this year and will provide them with ample opportunities to develop their skills. Their thinking will be challenged and they will be supported in setting high, achievable goals.

Information about what is going on in the class is readily available by accessing my blog/website mrmoskalsclass.blogspot.ca which is upadated very often. There are numerous pages on the site with a variety of information and resources. Please encourage your child to incorporate reviewing the site into their daily routine. It would also be very beneficial for parents to access the site regularly in order to support students at home.

Should you have any questions, concerns or comments, don’t hesitate to contact me through email (moskald@hdsb.ca) or by calling the school (905-634-2311). If the method by which I communicate information changes at any time, I will notify families immediately.

Sincerely,

Mr. (Dave) Moskal

Day 1 - School Year 16/17

As I'm sure it was the case for all of my students and their families, I began the day with mixed emotions, but mostly nervous excitement. I was thrilled to see all of the faces of the students in my class whom I have known from across the hall for the past two years. It was also a pleasure meeting so many parents, and those I did not have the opportunity to meet, I look forward to meeting at the open house on the 22nd of the month if not sooner.

It was flattering to have a class so excited to have me a their teacher. So many of them had done their homework, asking questions of my previous students about what to expect. My expectations were exceeded as the entire class spent the whole first day showing off tremendous respect for me and one another, participated wholeheartedly, and began to demonstrate the depth of thinking that I expect from all of my students. I was thrilled and proud of them after just one day and have no doubt these feelings will continue throughout the year.

Homework!

Parents/Guardians - Please help our class win the challenge presented by the office by completing and returning the information package sent home today ASAP. The first class with all packages returned wins!

This blog/website contains a lot of valuable information already and I update it regularly. Please get accustomed to checking it frequently. ***This means STUDENTS and PARENTS***

If you have any questions/comments/concerns or just want to say "hello," feel free to email me (moskald@hdsb.ca) or call the school.

Looking forward to a great year!

Sincerely,
Mr. (Dave) Moskal

And it begins once more (September 2016)

I wish to extend a huge welcome to my new class of grade 5 and 6 students as well as their families. I have enjoyed a very long and hot summer mostly at home with my family and am sad to see it come to an end.

You all enjoy your one last day on Tuesday. I will be at the school with the rest of the teachers and principals preparing for the year ahead. I eagerly await your arrival on the black top on Wednesday morning when we begin this year's school adventure together!

See you soon!

Mr. Moskal

Getting ready

Another busy week and more to come...

Wednesday

• Senior Track & Field meet

All week

• preparing / reviewing / practising for EQAO
• continue to stay up to date with homework, including Book Mark Book Report

Saturday

• Pantherama 11 am - 2 pm

Next week

• EQAO Tuesday May 31 - Thursday June 2 (inclusive)
• please arrive to school on time each day and plan to be present
• Friday - PD Day

EQAO information

Please visit the EQAO site for FAQs, tips, and practice tests. Contact me should you have further questions and/or concerns.

Lots going on this week!

Monday

• presentation by Halton Women's Place on "Gender Stereotyping"

Tuesday

• Junior Band members performing a dress rehearsal of the Spring Concert for the Primary classes

Wednesday

• Forest of Reading club trip to Toronto for the Silver Birch Awards
• Junior relay meet

Thursday

• Junior Band and Intermediate Choir members performing a dress rehearsal of the Spring Concert for the Junior classes
• Spring Concert - performances Thursday evening by: Junior Choir, Junior Band, Intermediate Choir, Concert Band, Jazz Band, and Dance Club

Keep up!

With the end of the year fast approaching, and the EQAO testing coming with it, it is extremely important for students to keep up with their homework, particularly in Math. Should there be any concerns with the difficulty or amount of homework, please bring it to my attention ASAP.

Overall, I feel that the students are well-prepared, but staying fresh and keeping up with practice is very important.

Encore! Encore!

What an amazing field trip! The Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts was a tremendous venue with extremely friendly and professional staff that made the trip truly memorable. I had personally never been there before, but will definitely book future trips there as well as recommend it highly to others.

Our class spent the morning warming up under the guidance of three experts in each of their fields of the arts: dance, music, and drama. Following that, students were divided into roles and taught their responsibilities for a final performance. After almost an hour of what looked like overwhelming chaos from the perspective of an on-looker, the students pulled off an exceptionally successful performance that included the three areas of art.

After lunch, the group headed to the basement of the 108 year old building, for guided instruction in visual arts. Our theme for the day was First Nations Peoples and Early Settlers, and our visual arts activity was specifically geared around the art of Norval Morrisseau. Just like in the morning, the class made me extremely proud by listening attentively and putting forth their best efforts. They produced some fine art in a short amount of time.


I've sent home brochures for the Conservatory as they offer evening classes as well as summer camps. I'm sure your children can fill you in if you have any further questions.

Math, Math, and more Math!

In order to ensure that the students feel as prepared as possible to write EQAO in about a month's time, we will be spending a great deal of class time working on Math and reviewing skills learned earlier in the year and from previous years. I anticipate sending home more homework than usual to serve as practice and review.

As always, I encourage students to take not of skills and/or individual questions that posed difficulty and discuss their thinking with me on a very timely basis.

With regard to EQAO, I am trying to provide them information about what to expect and reassure them to calm their nerves. Writing EQAO is vastly different from how students typically learn and are tested in school, but I will help them to remember that they have amassed many skills since becoming a junior student that will help them with writing the test.

Please feel free to ask any questions or pose any concerns about homework and/or the EQAO testing.

Take care!

Field Trip Form Due Monday

The permission slip and payment for the grade 6 field trip to the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts is due Monday, May 2. At this point, more than half of the class have not brought the form in... Please do so for Monday.

An electronic version will be put on the "Forms" page of this site and I will send out an email blast to all families. Please disregard the email if you have already returned the form.

Thanks for your cooperation!

Have a great weekend!

In Math...

Our unit is on Fractions, Rate and Ratio, and Percents...

Try to recall what you have been taught in the past... What do you already know?

Parents, talk about where these concepts come up at home or in day-to-day activities. Building comfort and confidence in learners will lead to greater successes and feelings of accomplishment.

Upcoming...

Probability - a logical follow-up to Percents.

Don't hesitate to ask for additional information and/or next steps.

NGOs - Making a Difference

As part of the Social Studies unit around the topic of Canada's interactions with the global community, the students were introduced to NGOs and their role within Canada and internationally. Through our discussion, many students realized that they already possessed some background information on some larger, well-known NGOs, such as the Red Cross and WWF, as well as the efforts of more locally based organizations that organize food and clothing drives.

Students will now have the opportunity to choose an NGO to research and present their findings. We will develop questions in class that will help guide our research, then gather, analyse, and synthesize information to use when presenting findings.

Based on what students learn about their NGO of choice, its mission, and their own interests and abilities, students will then create an artistic 'momument' that represents the NGO. A speech will accompany the 'unveiling' of their work, which describes what they have learned about the NGO as well as an explanation of their piece of art and how it relates.

More information will be posted to the 'Assignments' page, and as always, if there are any questions (students and/or parents), please ask.

Can't wait to see where this assignment goes!