Siege of Quebec

The siege of Quebec starts much further back.  In class we prepared a timeline of New France and important events along the way. 

1607 - the first British colony at Jamestown

1608 - first wintering at Quebec by the French

France and Britian never really got along, and by the end of the 1600's were fighting over control of the fur trade, this meant that the colonies were fighting too

1713 - Treaty of Utrecht is signed, France gives up control of the areas around Hudsons Bay, NFL, and Acadia.  The Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island is also built by the French to keep the sea passage open and free.

1755 - Acadians are deported

1756 - 1763 the Seven Year War - Britian and France are fighting each other, each trying to take over the other's colonies.

1758 - general Wolfe captures Louisbourg for the British.

1759 - General Wolfe sailes up the St. Lawrence river and prevents supplies from reaching Quebec

That fall the Battle of the Plains of Abraham - it lasted 15 minutes, Wolfe and Montcolm (British) both die.  The British go on to capture Quebec 

1760 - spring - French try to recapture Quebec, driven back by British reinforcements

Sept. 1760 the British capture Montreal as well

This isn't recognized until 1763 - Treaty of Paris, the war is over and New France is now British

Britain has had a lot of expenses with all these battles and sieges.  The way they try to turn this around is through taxes and other rules imposed on the colonies.

The southern colonies do not like this at all

1760 - the British demolish Louisbourg

1774 - the Quebec Act is passed by the British parliament, it allows the French people to keep their religion, their land system, and civil law

The southern colonists didn't like all of this on top of the other things they weren't happy about

1774 - the first Continential Congress - an airing of grievances by the southern colonists

1775 - the beginning of the War of Independance

Dec of 1775 - the American Continential army attacks Quebec City.  This became the Americans first major defeat.  The Americans had captured Montreal in November, then moved onto Quebec.  The Americans maintained a blockade, but in the spring, British reinforcements arrived.  The Americans were defeated then.

Reading decimals

We have been continuing to work on reading decimals and large numbers with zeros.  We talked about adding and subtracting with decimals. It is very important to add or subtract like values - tenths to tenths.  Line up the decimals to make this easier.  

We also built a cubic meter.  We discovered how many students can fit in a cubic meter.

March 23

In math today, we looked at how one whole is divided up into smaller pieces when we are talking about fractions.  We made a fraction strip that allowed us to compare tenths, hundredths, and thousandths.

 We practiced showing fraction amounts and looking at the components of each.

In writing, we are starting a large inquiry project.  We watched a short video and then talked about what empowerment means.  The small words 'we' and 'power' are in the larger word and they both are part of the larger meaning.  We read about Chris and Marc Kielburger, how Chris read a headline one day, told his class about it, and ended up starting a world wide organization called Free the Children.  

In social studies, we are looking at information on our remaining topics.  From the development of New France into a thriving community, to the Seige of Quebec, the Loyalists, the further development of the fur trade, the Metis, the Red River Settlement, Immigration, British North America of the 1800s, and ending up with Confederation.

Next we'll decide what we'll tackle next.

Chemical and physical changes

We placed steel wool in a test tube over a beaker of water, what will happen?  Lots of predictions happening.

We also looked at our examples of physical and chemical changes.

Physical changes - making a salad, dissolving sugar in water, bending an object, cutting something, melting wax, chewing, cutting wood - sawdust, melting ice.

Chemical changes - baking soda and vinegar (gas produced), burning a candle (heat produced), rusting iron (colour change), burning paper or wood, digestion, cooking food, decomposition.

Decimals

The students are pretty comfortable with place value of whole numbers.  So it must be time to introduce the reading of decimals.  They have seen decimals in our measurement unit, but there were a lot of 'points' being said.

They know that our number system is a base 10 system and that each 'level' going up is 10 more, and that getting smaller means it is ten pieces of.  Now they need to understand that the same thing happens across the decimal.  Next to the decimal is the tenths, then the hundredths, and then the thousandths.  The decimal is where they finally get to use that 'and' that they wanted to say before.

Practice writing numbers up to millions and then with up to three decimal places.  Also writing the number words for each of the numbers.

Science

When a substance changes state, does the mass of the substance change?

We looked at several substances, found their mass, and then we changed their state, mostly by adding heat.  We found that the mass of each stayed the same.  Even in the case of baking soda and vinegar, where a gas is produced, we found that the total mass did not change.

We talked about and watched a movie on physical changes and chemical changes.  

Physical changes alter the characteristics of a substance, but they do not produce new substances.  Physical changes include changes in size, shape, or state.

Chemical changes produce a a new substance with its own characteristics and properties.  Clues that a chemical change has taken place is a colour change or that heat and/or light is produced.

Students made a list of physical and chemical changes.  Later today we'll check their lists and see how they did.

Volume

Finding volume is tricky.  Remembering that the formula for finding the volume of a rectangular prism (box) is length times width times height.  We practiced calculating the volume for a number of different sized boxes.

Book reviews

Scholastic is challenging classrooms to read 100 books.  They will then donate books to those who don't have.  I have upped the challenge for my grade fives.  They have to demonstrate that they have read the book by writing a good book review.  They have until the end of May to read and write 5-6 books and reviews.  The first one is due this Friday.  The second will be due after Spring Break.  Their criteria for good book reviews is in an earlier post.  Their writing must also be neat, easy to read, and edited at a grade 5 level, as discussed in class.

Properties of Substances

In science, we have been working on characteristics of substances.  How scientifically, we can look at texture, flexibility, buoyancy, colour, hardness, strength, solubility and mass to categorize different substances.  Today in class the students were given different substances and they had to categorize or discribe each by the given descriptors.  The students had a tendancy to want to label or identify the substance, they needed to be reminded that, that wasn't today's job.

The Rights of Children

We are starting an area of learning about the rights of children.  The students are brainstorming about what they know or think they know about children's lives around the world.  They came up with quite a list.  They focused a lot on what children don't have.  So I asked the question: What should all children have the right to?

The students have a pretty good grasp on the topic.

Then we brainstormed what we want to find out

We read a book that had a shortened version of the stories of Malala and Iqbal.  Two children from Pakistan.  The students briefly talked to each other about what struck them from the stories.  The. They went back to their desks and wrote about what they were thinking.