Good Afternoon Everyone!

I hope you had a terrific day! Tomorrow is day 3 (Library). On Friday, for students who are going on our trip to Scooter's please wear your gym clothes. For students who are not participating in the trip, please wear your full school day uniform with your house tie. Summer uniforms will begin on Thursday, April 25th, as we have Earth colours dress up and casual day right after the Easter long weekend. 

A form has been sent home regarding Arts' Night costumes for our upcoming event. Please fill out the form and bring in $15 (Cash only please). Forms and money are due Friday, April 12th. 

Silent dance forms have been sent home. If you would like to attend, please fill out the permission form and bring in $20(Cash only please). Forms and money are due Tuesday, April 23rd. 

A note from Mr. Sawatsky:

After care notices have been sent out. To avoid late charges please make sure your payments are in by April 15th!

Our class is taking the initiative to help reduce our plastic waste.
Did you know that Crayola has a program called ColorCycle? Crayola ColorCycle will accept all brands of plastic markers, not just Crayola markers. That includes dry erase markers & highlighters. Our class will be collecting the dead markers that no longer work and we will be sending them to Crayola ColorCycle to be recycled properly. So, if you have any markers at home that no longer work, you are welcome to bring them into our classroom and put them in our box located beside the homework bin!

Inquiry into Language

Today in language we got called to go and practice for our Arts' Night performance. Students are to work at home on their roles for this week. A kind reminder we will have our spelling lesson #26 test and literature circle meeting on Friday. 

Due dates for Hatchet:

Chapters 1-3 due Friday, March 29^th

Chapters 4-6 due Friday, April 5^th

Chapters 7-9 due Friday, April 12^th

Chapters 10-12 due Thursday, April 18^th

Chapters 13-15 due Friday, April 26^th

Chapters 16-19 will be a culminating activity with due date to be announced.

Inquiry into Mathematics

Today in math we took up the review questions from last nights homework. A kind reminder that our test is tomorrow. 

Points to remember:

Remember what we do to the denominator we must do to the numerator. If we multiply the denominator by 3, then we must multiply the numerator by 3 as well.

Remember to simplify your fractions and convert improper fractions to mixed numbers.

How to add/subtract fractions - if the fractions have the same denominator, we simply add/subtract the numerators. For example, 1/6 + 4/6 = 5/6 & ¾ - ¼ = 2/4 = 1/2. However, if the denominators are different our first step is to find the lowest common denominator. For example, 1/3 + ½ = 2/6 + 3/6 = 5/6 & 5/6 – ½ = 5/6 – 3/6 = 2/6 = 1/3. 

Percents - we want to keep the number 100 in our mind. When changing a fraction to a percent, we use the numerator to help us. For example, 23/100 = 23 percent. If we have a fraction that is over 10, 20 or 25, we need to make it over 100. We will need to multiply 10 by 10, 20 by 5 and 25 by 4. Remember to do the same to the numerator. For example, 6/10 = 60/100 (10 x 10 and 6 x 10) = 60 percent. We also looked at decimals. Remember if it is out of 100, then there will need to be two spots filled in after the decimal point. For example 23/100 = 0.23 and 7/100 = 0.07.

Estimating a percent - remember when we think of percent, we need to think ‘out of 100.’ Here is an example 

–> Sylvie has a collection of 197 sports bobbleheads. About 25 percent of them are hockey players. Estimate the number of hockey players. 

Step 1) Round 197 to 200. 

Step 2) Find 25 percent of 200. 

Step 3) Find an equivalent fraction with the denominator 200…25/100 = 50/200 (25 x 2 and 100 x 2). Therefore, 25 percent of 200 is 50. 

->Of the 30 students in Larry’s class, 14 of them take the bus. Estimate the percent of the students who take the school bus. 

Step 1) Round 14 to 15, which is ½ of 30. Therefore 14 is almost ½ of 30.

Step 2) ½ = 50/100 (percent is out of 100 – 2 x 50 and 1 x 50)

So, almost 50 percent of the students take the bus.

A ratio is a comparison of 2 quantities with the same unit.  A ratio can be used to compare a part of a set to another part of the set or to compare a part of a set to the whole set. For example, there are 9 rabbits; 4 brown and 5 white. The ratio of brown rabbits to white rabbits is 4 to 5. The ratio of 4 to 5 is written as 4:5. This is a part-to-part ratio. An example of a part-to-whole ratio is 4 brown rabbits to 9 whole rabbits, or 4:9, or 4/9.

Equivalent ratios - you can find equivalent ratios by multiplying or dividing the terms of a ratio by the same non-zero number. For example, Kim is planting a border in her garden. She plants 5 marigolds for every 3 geraniums. The ratio of marigolds to geraniums is 5:3. How many geraniums would she need to plant for each number of marigolds 10, 15, and 20? One way to find out is to use a table. 

Marigolds	Geraniums	Ratio of Marigolds to Geraniums
5	3	5:3
10	6	10:6
15	9	15:9
20	12	20:12

We went up by 5s for marigolds and by 3s for geraniums. We multiplied 5 x 2, 5 x 3, and 5 x 4 for the marigolds and for the geraniums we multiplied 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 3 x 4. 

Therefore, 5:3, 10:6, 15:9, and 20:12 are all equivalent fractions.

A rate is a ratio that compares two items measured in different units. For example, Ramona drew 52 stars in 1 minute. We say that her rate of drawing stars is 52 stars per minute and we write it like 52 stars/minute. Per means ‘for every’ or ‘in every.’

Unit of Inquiry 

Today in UOI we read about interdependence when it comes to biodiversity as a class. We learned that sometimes a certain living thing needs to depend on others from their own species to survive, and sometimes a living thing needs to rely on another kind of species to survive. After our reading students did some group research to answer the following questions.
1. What is the benefit of biodiversity to human societies?
2. What is the benefit of biodiversity to other living things
3. What is the benefit of biodiversity to communities? 

Biodiversity is another short unit. We will have roughly 3-3.5 weeks of learning and 1/5-2 weeks for our summative, which will be due sometime during the last full week of April. More information to come in the upcoming weeks.

Our next Unit of Inquiry is Coding. A kind reminder that students will need a working laptop (not an iPad) for this Unit. They will be expected to bring it to school each and every day. 

Homework/Reminders:
- Spelling Lesson #26 due tomorrow

- Math review due tomorrow

- UOI: pop quiz signed and returned tomorrow

- Silent dance due April 23

- Costume form and money due April 12

- Spelling test on Friday

- Literature circles due Friday

Important Dates/Items:

Friday, April 12– Spring Fundraiser trip to Scooter's

Thursday, April 18 – SITS workshop & Easter Spirit

Friday, April 19-Monday, April 22 – No School – Easter Weekend

Wednesday, April 24 – Bake sale & casual day
Friday, April 26 – Rock climbing, bake sale & summer uniforms begin

Tuesday, April 30 – Silent Dance

Friday, May 3 - Grade 6 Exhibition

Tuesday, May 7 - JK-Grade 2 Arts' Night

Thursday, May 9 - Shakespeare Play

Tuesday, May 14 - Grade 3-8 Arts' Night

Friday, May 17 - Monday, May 20 - No School - Victoria Day Weekend

Have a great night!

Love,
Ms. Cass