Bessie Smith

We've been discussing the "Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith and how she is a great example of the "Classic Blues" genre of music. Here are the lyrics to one of her most famous songs, "St. Louis Blues," you might remember watching it in class last week!

retrieved from redhotjazz.com

http://www.songlyrics.com/bessie-smith/st-louis-blues-lyrics/


One of the important parts of analyzing music, is understanding the form that composers/artists use. We discussed in class that Classic Blues often used the aab form. Can you find an example of this in the lyrics? How does that form feel to you? Why do you think Classic Blues musicians used it? Bring your answer to class tomorrow!

Families,
On page 115 of the Ontario Arts Curriculum we find specific expectation C2.2 which requires students to "identify the elements of music... and describe how they are used." Form, or the way bits of music are organized within a song, is a distinguishing characteristic for many genres of music, especially Classic Blues!

Math

Well we're moving on from patterning... for now. But we will likely see it again and again throughout the year. So just so you don't forget, here is an interesting problem:

Toothpick houses!

We will be looking at a very similar problem tomorrow in our math groups. Study the video carefully. do the problem with Mr. Khan as he does it. You can pause it, rewind it, watch it over and over again if you want! Focus on the strategy he uses to develop his formula using the information he is given.

Families:
On page 93 of the Ontario Math Curriculum we find that students are expected to "determine a term, given its term number, by extending growing and shrinking patte***" WAIT! Let's simplify. What your student will be able to do is: create a math formula based on a pattern, that can predict what that pattern will look like waaaay down the line. They won't be predicting lottery numbers yet, but this is one of the tools to get there ;)

-Mr. McInnes

Blogs abound!

http:/


/Blogs can be great learning tools.
We will be organizing our own class blog! A place where YOU can be a PRODUCER, a CREATOR, a PUBLISHER!
Of course this will take some RESEARCH, and some PLANNING.
Families! Please help out with this:

1. Share our 'Tech XP!' Fill out this form to let me know how comfortable you are with technology:

bit.ly/UDHkAE

2. Share this page with your parents. It outlines the CYBER-SAFETY and guidelines that we will be following to say safe in cyber-space. Safety is just as important here as it is in non-virtual reality!

http://kidblog.org/why-kidblog/

3. Check out some of these fantastic class blogs, and check out the cool things we could be doing!

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/top-20-teacher-blogs

Math Practice

Here's an example of the cool stuff that can be posted here. It's fun, useful for learning, and connected to what we're doing in the classroom!

http://www.counton.org/games/virtualmathfest/dinosaur.html

Practice plotting points on a graph. Make sure you know which numbers correspond to the x-axis and which correspond to the y-axis!

Welcome!

Good Day Grade 5's and 6's!

Welcome to my fantastic EduBlog! This blog will be a great tool for us to communicate and collaborate as we have fun learning! We will 'meet' here to find fun projects, useful information, and starting points for exploring the oceans of internet-information.
We will also "learn about learning," as you and your families can check here to see:

1. Why we're doing the activities we're doing. Certain types of activities develop certain skills!
2. How what we do connects to the Ontario Curriculum Learning goals

Check back often for updates, and when you're surfing around, be on the lookout for cool stuff you can  have me post to help each other out with our e-learning and classroom learning!

Power Button by Petr Kratochvil 

Share these with your family:

What's a blog?! Find out: http://bit.ly/P86oTr
What's the Ontario Curriculum?! Find out:
Grade 5: http://bit.ly/SZudZ1
Grade6: http://bit.ly/SkzJen

Families, please feel free to leave any comments on any of these posts!