Reports, Genius Hour, Holidays, Maths and more!

Dear Parents,

What a busy first half of the year it has been! I have felt privileged to watch your children learn and grow over the past months and I greatly look forward to the new semester and to seeing them journey towards becoming sixth graders.

The last two weeks have seen us continue to work with decimals, write personal narratives and put together our PSA films on Digital Citizenship. Busy, fun times!

I wanted to share a few of thoughts with you before the break:

Reports: You will soon be able to access your child’s report card online. For those of you that were at ZIS last year, you will notice some changes in the reporting system. For Literacy and Math there are a greater number of indicators which aim to give you a more detailed picture of how your child is progressing. Students are placed on each indicator according to whether they are ‘exceeding’, ‘secure’, ‘developing’ or ‘beginning’ their skill or understanding in a certain area. Do be sure to read the explanation for each of these descriptors, included at the top of report card. I felt it worth noting that descriptors are given based on expectations for this point in the school year and that it is possible that your child may have a mix of descriptors within a subject area. As learners, we all have strengths and goal areas within a certain subject or discipline, so this is no cause for concern and helps me and your child to finely tune our work together for next semester.

Genius Hour: After the break, we’ll start our second round of Genius Hour projects, however if your child is already excited about starting his/her exploration of a particular subject then this is absolutely fine. I look forward to inviting you in to see our sharing at the end of this round and will let you know the date soon!

Holidays: Your child’s priority for the upcoming break is to rest, spend time with family and to play and have fun. However, I would like to give a little reminder that everyone should be reading, reading, reading! I’ll be asking students to share what they have read when they return from the break, so it would be worth keeping track please.

Maths: This week we are our math assessment on addition and subtraction of decimals and it will be sent home in the first week after the break. We are still waiting for several students to return the Volume assessment which they took home some time ago.

Finally, I want to thank you for all your support and to wish you a restful winter break surrounded by friends and family. May it be a happy and peaceful time.

Warm regards,
Jamie

Please enjoy the 5R PSA videos here: