Hello families!
Before our weekly review, please see the following notes:
Recipes: Thank you for sharing your family recipes for our class cookbook! It has been so lovely to see what makes these recipes important to each of you. I am looking forward to putting together our cookbook with students’ writing and artwork over the next two weeks!
Winter Concert: On Friday, December 10th, Division 9 will be recording their song for the Winter Concert. They are asked to wear a white or red top with dark bottoms for this recording. Please help your child to select an outfit for this day. Thank you!
Informal Reports: Burnaby School District will continue with the report card pilot this year and the final report card order will be in place in the next school year. The pilot meets the BC Ministry of Education reporting guidelines, achieves the goal of communicating learning so that parents are well informed of their child’s progress, and addresses the challenges of this school year. The reporting schedule is:
September – First Informal (parent intakes)
December – Second Informal
March – First Formal Report
Early May – Third Informal
June – Second Formal Report
Term 1 will be considered an informal point of progress and the first report card parents receive will be December 16th. Teachers will be using a variety of ways to share student progress in language arts and math; for Division 9, I will be sending home informal report cards with an overview of student engagement, behaviour, and social development, and comments on literacy and numeracy development. Individual subject assessment will be included in the following 2 formal reporting periods in March and in June.
Please feel free to contact me or Ms. Aujla if you have any questions regarding reporting for Term 1.
Everyday Speech: Brantford students have access this year to a wonderful program called Everyday Speech, which is a social-emotional learning program for everybody! There are videos, lessons, activities and games for us to work on in class and for you to work on at home. I will be sharing videos and games on our blog for at-home practice. If your child completes a video or game, they may add their first name and last initial to show me that they have participated.
Firstly, here is a Body Scan video: Body Scan
And here is a Mindful Stretching Break video: Mindful Stretching Break
Now, on to our weekly update…
On Monday, we started off the week with the Jingle Bell Walk, delivering flyers to the neighbourhood to ask for food donations. Thank you very much to the parents who were able to walk with us! Your time and energy is greatly appreciated!
In Math, we learned reading strategies to help with word problems, and on Tuesday, created our own questions in partners before sharing with the class and solving another group’s question. We also created our new calendar for December using addition or subtraction problems to represent the date.
We had two confident presenters for Science this week, who taught us about the power of leverage with Lever Lift, and air pressure with Strong Straws. Students made thoughtful predictions and theories as to how a metre stick could act as an efficient lever, and how a straw could cut through a potato.
Students were busy writers and have so far completed 5 paragraphs about their family cultures. We have yet to add our paragraphs about traditions and celebrations, and have been discussing these throughout the term as we learn about celebrations around the world. As Hanukkah celebrations began for many around the world this past Sunday, we learned about traditions such as lighting a menorah, eating latkes, or spinning dreidels. With Grade 1 buddies, we made our own paper dreidels to play with and read a story called Hanukkah Hop!
I am sure that the next two weeks before Winter Break will fly by very quickly! We will be hard at work to finish all of our current projects, and more, before the last day of class. Thank you for all of your support with our social studies projects, community engagement, science presentations, and at-home reading. Your support helps Division 9 to be the wonderful, hardworking class that they are!
Have a restful and peaceful weekend.