Symbols of Canada Power Point Presentation

Here is a copy of a handout I gave the students regarding a power point presentation they will be working on over the next few weeks.

Overview:
You are responsible for creating a power point presentation that will identify and examine three symbols of Canada. You should select these symbols from the Canada Heritage site:

http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/sc-cs/index_e.cfm

Selection:
You may select any three from the following symbols:
The Arms of Canada
The National Flag
The Royal Union Flag
The Beaver
The Maple Tree
The Maple Leaf
The Maple Leaf Tartan
National Colours – Red and White
Origin of the Name – Canada
Personal Flags and Standards
The Great Seal of Canada

Process
You will research your symbols during computer class time. Your final power point presentation will be a minimum of eleven slides long. The first slide will be a title page. It should include your name, and the three symbols you have chosen. The next nine slides should have details of your symbols (three slides each). The final slide should be a bibliography.
You should attempt to make your presentation visually interesting and appealing.

Slide Details
You should include a description or photograph of the symbol (where possible). Your details should include a brief history of the symbol, the date it was officially recognized as a national symbol, and interesting facts about the symbol.

Curriculum Night Monday @ 7:00 p.m.!

Just a quick reminder that the annual Curriculum Night will take place on Monday October 3rd @ 7:00 p.m. This is a great opportunity to come out ans see what your child has been working on so far, and get any questions answered.

I will include details in the agenda this week.

Math Quiz Monday!

There will be a short math quiz on Monday. The topics include:
Place value
Expanded form
Base 10
Numbers represented with words
Comparing and ordering numbers (greater than, less than)

Have a great weekend!

It’s Not Easy Being Green

As part of our look at persuasion, we are listening to and answering questions around “It’s Not Easy Being Green” from CBC radio’s Age of Persuasion show. It is targeted at an older age group, so I thought I would give people an opportunity to listen to the show and preview the questions at home.

The show can be found here: It’s Not Easy Being Green

Questions Related to “It’s Not Easy Being Green: Green Marketing”

1.What was the name of Rachel Carlson’s most famous book?
2.What chemical did she feel was hurting the ecology?
3.What year did Environment Canada begin?
4.What was depleting the Ozone Layer?
5.How many bottled water products failed to meet the same standards of London tap water?
6.In your own words, what is Greenwashing?
7.How did British Petroleum rebrand itself? Why?
8.Why did this fail?
9.What is the elephant in the room with green marketing?
10.What does this show have to do with the concept of persuasion? (consider the discussion around main idea, author’s purpose and viewpoint)

Student Vote Website Update

Today the Student Vote program launched a special election site for Ontario students.

The site focuses on three key learning themes:
1. Major Election Issues
2. Party Leaders
3. Local Candidates

Highlights:
- Provincial party leaders respond through video to questions submitted by Ontario students
- Major election issues are debated through video by ‘experts’ such as politicians, Cabinet Ministers and lobby group leaders
- Connect directly with your local candidates through our ‘Candidate Connect’ application

Although this new site is most appropriate for secondary school students, elementary students can gain some insight into the election as well.

Student Vote Ontario Site

Student Vote Survey

I have registered the Grade 5 class in the Student Vote program which is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that works with educators to deliver experiential learning opportunities to help young Canadians understand and practice the responsibilities of their citizenship. I recieved an email from them today asking for assistance:

“In an effort to assess the outcomes of the Student Vote Program, we have designed an evaluation plan for the Ontario election program. The first component of the evaluation is the administration of a pre-survey among student participants.

The purpose of the survey is to find out more about how students participating in the Student Vote Program view politics, government and voting, and to learn more about their experience with the program. Students will be asked to complete a follow up survey after the program comes to an end. Each survey will take approximately 8-10 minutes to complete.

English
French

To complete the survey, you will need to provide your students with your school ID. Your school ID is 2,194.

Please note that all answers are confidential and anonymous. We can assure you that all personal information collected as a result of this survey is protected under the Privacy Act.

We sincerely thank you for assisting us with this undertaking.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our team.

Thanks,

The Student Vote team
www.studentvote.ca
www.facebook.com/studentvote
www.twitter.com/studentvote”

I think it would be more approporiate for students to complete these surveys with parental supervision, so, if you WANT to, you can do the survey with your child at a time convienent for you. IT IS NOT MANDATORY AT ALL. Please do not feel you NEED to complete this survey, it will not effect the programming in any way.

Mr. Beatty

Classroom Schedule

Here is a copy of the daily schedule that we will follow this year. Please feel free to print it out and keep a copy at home.

timeTable2011

Welcome Back!

Hello, I am Mr. A Beatty, your child’s Grade 5 teacher for the 2011-2012 school year. I cannot tell you how excited I am to teach this bright, excited and energetic group. I think we will have a great year together. From additional duties and responsibilities around the school, to the Albion Hills trip and Graduation, Grade 5 is a very important and special year in the life of a student.

Grade 5 offers a very challenging and exciting curriculum. We will be starting the year with the Canada and World Connections – Aspects of Citizenship and Government in Canada Social Studies Curriculum. With the provincial election coming up in Ontario this October, there should be many opportunities to engage your children in conversations about what we are learning in class. The elections.ca website also has a wealth of information in the “Young Voters” section, so you might also want to check that out with your child.

In Math, we are starting with Number Sense and Numeration, specifically looking at place value and different ways to represent numbers.

In Language we will focus on fundamentals of reading, looking at different strategies to extract meaning from a variety of different texts. As well, we will be looking at persuasive writing, using information we learn in Social Studies to write a persuasive letter to a political figure.

Notes on Homework

Once again homework will take the form of a weekly booklet, focusing on grammar and math, in order to give maximum flexibility to busy families.