Tangram Puzzles

Greetings Grade 5's!

Now that we have wrapped up our Math unit on Data Management, we are going to begin a new unit on Number Sense and Numeration. This is a unit that I can guarantee is going to be a lot of fun, and we will have many interactive activities in class.

In class on Monday we are going to make our own Tangram puzzles and then use them for a series of Math activities. What’s a Tangram puzzle you may be wondering…?

A Tangram puzzle consists of seven pieces, called tans, which fit together to form a shape of some sort. The goal is to form specific shapes with the seven pieces. The shape has to contain all the pieces, which may not overlap each other.

A Tangram puzzle looks like this:

Please read this short paragraph about the origins of the Tangram puzzle and we will discuss it in class further.

Many years ago, in China, there lived a man called Mr. Tan. Of all his possessions, he most treasured an exquisite porcelain square tile. One day, he heard that the Emperor of China was coming to his village. To show his great admiration for and loyalty to the Emperor, Mr. Tan decided to offer his very precious tile to the Emperor as a gift. In great excitement, he began to polish his tile so that it would shine. As he handled the tile in different ways, to polish every surface, he dropped it. The porcelain tile broke into the seven pieces of the tangram puzzle. Mr. Tan was so very unhappy. As he wiped away his tears, he thought that if he could put the pieces back together, he would have the square tile again. Mr. Tan thought it would be easy to do, but it took him a very long time. While he was trying to form the square, he discovered lots of interesting two dimensional shapes. 

Please click on this link to see how we are going to make our Tangram puzzles in class.

Tangram puzzle pieces can be used to make many different shapes:

How many different images can you identify?

Can you guess what we will be doing in class with our Tangram puzzles?

Do you have any ideas about how Tangram puzzles are going to relate to our new unit on Number Sense and Numeration?

I am looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts in class!

Sincerely,

Ms. Greenberg

Wind Power

Greetings Grade 5's!

Wow, what a fantastic in-class workshop we participated in on Wednesday! I learned a great deal about wind turbines, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to build and test my own. Our educator, Sarah, was so knowledgeable and I was grateful that our class was able to share in this together.

I would like everyone to complete a short follow-up activity at home over the weekend. Your task is to read this article on Wind Power from National Geographic online. The article is short, and once you have read it please answer these questions in your Science & Technology notebook:

1. Over the past decade, how much has wind turbine use has increased each year?

2. How many homes in the United States can the biggest wind turbines generate enough electricity to supply?

3. Why is wind energy is a clean and excellent source of renewable energy?

4. What are some complaints people have about wind turbines?

5. Do you think the advantages of wind energy outweigh the disadvantages? Why?

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I am looking forward to discussing this article in our next Science & Technology class.

Sincerely,

Ms. Greenberg

Wind turbines on a cloudy day

Upcoming TREC Workshop

Greetings Grade 5's!

Next week we will participate in an in-class workshop with an educator from The Renewable Energy Co-operative (TREC). TREC is a non-profit, environmental co-operative that develops community-owned renewable energy projects and educates Ontarians about renewable energy, energy conservation and the community power model.

Our workshop focuses on the conservation of energy, and wind power as a form of renewable energy. We will be constructing miniature wind turbines and measuring the amount of electricity they can produce. We will test various blade constructions and learn about the importance of energy conservation as we attempt to power a high wattage versus a low-wattage light bulb.

This will be a great culminating activity for our Science & Technology unit on Conservation of Energy and Resources. I am certainly looking forward to having a chance to design, construct, and experiment with our own turbines!

Can anyone think of where in our city we have a wind turbine? Do you remember seeing one anywhere? Here’s a hint… have you ever gone to the CNE (The Ex) during the summer time with your family?

Parents, here is a link to an article in Professionally Speaking, the magazine of the Ontario College of Teachers, about Environmental Education and TREC workshops in the classroom – please have a read to learn more about our upcoming in-class workshop.

Students, we will need some materials from home, if you can gather them for class on Wednesday that would be greatly appreciated! We will need an assortment of:

·  High and low wattage light bulbs

·  Wire

·  Batteries

·  Switches

·  Wood boards

·  Card Stock

·  Popsicle sticks

·  Tape (masking tape, electrical tape, duct tape, scotch tape)

Anything that you can bring will be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,

Ms. Greenberg

TREC school programs co-ordinator Erin Woods teaches Grade 5/6 students from Earl Beatty Junior and Senior PS to build wind turbines

The Three Ways To Find The Average...

Greetings Grade 5's!

I have come across a great game that you can play to sharpen up your data management skills! After marking your unit tests, I can see that some students are still have a bit of trouble remembering how to find the mean, median, and mode of a set of numbers. I think that for many of you the difficulty is remembering which is which...

A little review:

Data Set: 2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 7, 8

The Mean
To find the mean, you need to add up all the data, and then divide this total by the number of values in the data.

Example: Adding the numbers up: 2 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 5 + 7 + 8 = 32

The Median

To find the median, you need to put the values in order, then find the middle value. If there are two values in the middle then you find the mean of these two values.

Example: Put the numbers in order from least to greatest:
 2 , 2 , 3 , (5) , 5 , 7 , 8

The middle value is marked in brackets, and it is 5.

The median is 5

The Mode

The mode is the value which appears the most often in the data. It is possible to have more than one mode if  here is more than one value which appears the most.

Example: The data values: 2 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 5 , 7 , 8

The values which appear most often are 2 and 5.
They both appear more time than any of the other data values.

The modes are 2 and 5

Try playing the game below to help reinforce what is the mean, median, and mode of a set of numbers...

I hope you enjoy playing this game and reviewing at the same time!

Sincerely,

Ms. Greenberg

If you enjoyed this game, Cool Math 4 Kids has even more great math games - check it out!

Mean, Median, and Mode

Greetings Grade 5’s!

Our unit on Data Management is coming to an end and I am thrilled with everyone’s progress! We will have our unit test on Monday, and I am hope that everyone uses the weekend to study and practice their math skills.

We had a lot of fun surveying the class’ shoe size, height, arm length, and arm span, and then calculating the mean, median, and mode. I think this was one of my favourite math activities so far! Did you enjoy conducting our surveys too?

I wanted to share this music video with you that has a great song about mean, median, and mode. I am warning you though; it is very catchy and will be playing in your head all day long! I keep catching myself humming the tune J

This song is a great mnemonic device – do you know what a mnemonic device is? I would like to see who can tell us what this is tomorrow in class. Here’s a clue, a mnemonic device helps you to study...

Enjoy the video!

Sincerely,

Ms. Greenberg

Election Time!

Greetings Grade 5’s!

As we have been discussing in class, the election is quickly approaching. On Monday, May 2^nd, citizens across Canada will be voting for a new Prime Minister and choosing a political party to represent us.

This week in our Social Studies classes we have been learning about the different levels of government, and what services each one provides. The three levels are Municipal, Provincial, and Federal – do you remember which level of government the Prime Minister belongs to?

It is very important for all Canadians to go out and vote and this is our opportunity to voice our opinions. We have been discussing the rights and responsibilities of citizens in our Social Studies class, and you may recall that voting is both our right AND a responsibility.  Do you remember what age Canadians must be to vote?

We will be working on more activities related to the election this upcoming week, and we will be looking at the different political parties that are running in this election. You may have noticed different signs on peoples’ lawns and around our school – try to notice the different colours and if you can see a pattern. We will be discussing these signs in class on Monday. Some questions to consider...

Do you have an election sign on your lawn?

What is the name of the candidate on the sign?

What are the colours of your sign?

What do you think those colours represent?

I am certainly looking forward to our political discussions!

Sincerely,

Ms. Greenberg

Do you recognize these men?

What is their role in the election?

An worthwhile event...

Greetings Grade 5’s!

I wanted to share an upcoming event in our city with you. From Thursday, May 5^th through Sunday, May 8^th, the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) is hosting its 96^th Annual Graduate Exhibition.

OCAD is Canada’s largest university for Art & Design, and students study there to become professional artists and designers. I was a student at OCAD not too long ago, and I participated in the Graduate Exhibition the year I finished.  

This is a free event that you can visit with your families to see Art and Design pieces of work that will hopefully inspire and excite you! OCAD is right next door to the Art Gallery of Ontario – our province’s collection of artwork. Both the Art Gallery of Ontario and OCAD are really interesting buildings, and OCAD looks like a box floating on pencils, it is really cool to see in person!

We have been focusing on Graphic Design in our art classes, and this would be a great (and free) opportunity to see some fantastic artwork from students living in our city. You will notice many different types of posters, advertisements, and brochures all around you if you visit the show, and please make some observations about them.

I hope you have the chance to visit OCAD, and I am looking forward to hearing about your experiences. I know I am excited to see all of the different work on display!

Sincerely,

Ms. Greenberg

This is a photograph of the

Art Gallery of Ontario.

The builidng has recently had a major renovation and it has a very interesting appearance.

What do you think of this building?

This is a photograph of

OCAD.

Did you know that this funny looking building

was in downtown Toronto?

 Have you ever seen it before?

Hello!

Greetings Parents, Guardians, and Family Members,

I’d like to welcome you to our class’ online blogspot – a portal of information for both students and their families. This blog will provide regular updates on what is happening in our classroom and school, and will feature links for interesting websites, and places to visit (both in Toronto and online).

My name is Ms. Greenberg and I am excited to be teaching grade 5 this year. I have recently finished Teacher’s College, and I am looking forward to sharing my enthusiasm and love of learning with my students. I am not only a teacher, but also an artist, and this year my students will have the opportunity to learn in an arts-enriched environment. I will be approaching all of my lessons with creativity and will try my very best to work to meet each student’s individual needs. This year I hope to collaborate and communicate with parents as often as possible, and please do not hesitate to get into contact with me. Please send me an email if you have any questions at sgreenberg@yrdsb.ca or write a comment at the end of one of my posts. You can also reach me at school between 8am and 4pm at (905) 731-0000 extension 123. Please leave me a voicemail if I cannot be reached and I promise to return your calls promptly.

Please visit this blog regularly with your child, and I will update it often, with news and information on a variety of topics. There are links on the right-hand column to many different resources, both for parents and students that I encourage you to explore.

I look forward to meeting or speaking with you soon, and I am excited for a successful Grade 5 year!

Sincerely,

Ms. Greenberg

- Welcome -

Greetings Grade 5’s!

Welcome to Ms. Greenberg’s class blog, this will be a great opportunity for us to connect and communicate outside of our classroom. On this blog you will find regular updates on what is happening in our classroom, homework info, links to some great websites, and news on upcoming events in our class and school.

I hope that you will visit this blog often, and please share this with your parents and family members. I will post links to interesting places to visit in Toronto, and different events that are happening around our city for you to take part in.

Most importantly, this is a blog you can visit to keep in touch with me outside of school time, and to gain information about our class. Please send me an email if you have any questions at sgreenberg@yrdsb.ca or write a comment at the end of one of my posts. I promise to always write back promptly, and will try to help you to the best of my ability.

I am looking forward to working together, both in class and on our blog!

Sincerely,

Ms. Greenberg