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February News

Hello families!

This month, Maywood’s school theme is acceptance and we are learning about Black History, anti-bullying, and family diversity in February. Here are some of the things that are happening in February!

Canada Field Trip

Have you heard? We are travelling across Canada on a 5 month field trip! We’ll be travelling by school bus, and we won’t be back in BC until June! (haha just kidding!). Keep checking Teams to see our progress across this beautiful country!

Really, we are starting a big project, learning about Canada. We are using our Creative Thinking Core Competency to help us use our imaginations and pretend that we are really travelling on a bus. When children pretend, they learn how to see issues from different perspectives, to act in role, and to have fun! Play is the way that children learn, and this project is a perfect example of a chance to play. 🙂

  • In Social Studies, we will be learning about the diverse regions of Canada (Provinces and Territories), Indigenous people who live in each area, and the culture and history of each area. We will be using mapping skills to help us make connections between people and the land.
  • In Science, we will be learning about important landforms, biodiversity of plants and animals in different ecosystems, Indigenous ways of knowing, and how the land shapes what humans do, and how humans shape the land.
  • In Language Arts, we will read stories from each province and territory, learning about the history and connecting stories with the land. We will also be learning about informational writing as we write about where we go and what we see.
  • In Art, Music and Drama, we will be learning about the culture of each area and will create art, sing songs and act out stories that we read.

Valentine’s Day

Due to COVID-19, we will not be able to have a Valentine’s Party this year. Students cannot bring Valentines from home to give to their classmates, either. Instead, we will do some other fun Valentine’s activities at school.

Family Day

Family Day is on Monday, February 15. School is closed that day, but you are invited to complete a family project called Humans of the Land. Ask your children about this project…they have already done their own one at school!

Central Park Days

We will be going to Central Park on Friday, February 12 for the afternoon. We will also go on Thursday, February 25 for the afternoon (because Friday February 26 is a ProD Day). Please remember to dress for the weather on those days!

Happy February!

 

Informal Report Cards

Informal Report Cards

This year, we are doing a different system for reporting student progress. Tomorrow (Wednesday, January 27), I will be posting your child’s second informal report on their Teams channel. This report will be a writing sample, with a teacher comment about how your child is progressing in writing this year.

The formal report cards will come home the week of February 12.

If you are unable to log into Microsoft Teams, please let me know and I’ll send you the instruction email and your child’s password.

We have been working on our Map of Good Memories since the beginning of January. 

  • First, we talked about our special places, and the memories we had in those places.  
  • Then, we spent a lot of time reading books about memories, then using the ideas from the books to brainstorm, sketch and list our memories and personal special places in the world.  
  • Next, we created a Map of Good Memories (Art and Social Studies).  
  • Finally, we chose one of those memories to write about. We tried to use 5W questions to help us extend and add details (who, what, where, when, why). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out our bulletin board! These maps are amazing.

On your child’s Team channel, you will see a writing sample about one of their memories. This writing was done independently over 3 days. Teachers didn’t edit or help with spelling, ideas, or organization. It is a snapshot of what your child can do in writing at this moment in time, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Your child is growing and changing as a writer every day, and as adults, we must celebrate their amazing growth! 

 Please read your child’s writing and the teacher comments attached, focusing on the strengths that you see. I am so proud of each of our students, and we still have more than 5 months to keep working on things like spelling, punctuation, and grammar. The most important thing teachers want to see is that your child feels like a writer, and keeps practicing writing every day.  

When you are finished reading your child’s work, please make a comment on TEAMS by clicking REPLY and typing something that you’re proud of in their writing, or something that you noticed about their work.  

Thank you so much for supporting your child in their growth as a writer!  

Zones of Regulation

What are the Zones of Regulation?

In Div. 11, we use a program called the Zones of Regulation to help us identify and talk about our feelings.

There are 4 Zones:

Graphic end result for zones of law absolutely free printables in 2020 | Zones of regulation, Emotional regulation, Social thinking

In the morning when school starts, a student might say “I am in the blue zone today because I had a nightmare last night so I am tired.”

If there is an argument with friends at recess, a student might say, “I am in the red zone because my friends were cheating at soccer.”

If a new math idea is very hard, a student might say, “I am in the yellow zone because I am confused and worried that I don’t understand.”

When we are calm, alert and ready to learn, we are in the green zone. While we would like to be in the green zone all the time, this is not possible for anyone. Our feelings change depending on what is happening around us, and all the Zones are okay!

We can use the Zones to help us talk about what we are feeling and why we feel that way, so that we can learn how to calm ourselves down if we are in the red or yellow zone, and so that we can get energy when we are in the blue zone.

Being able to talk about our feelings and work to calm ourselves down is part of this core competency:

 

I can sometimes recognize emotions.

I can use strategies to find peace in stressful times.

Using the Zones of Regulation has helped us talk about our feelings about COVID, school, and problems with friends on the playground.

At home, ask your family to tell you what zone they are in right now.

You could talk about the ways that you calm down when you are at home.

  • Do you snuggle with a stuffed toy?
  • Do you go on your balcony?
  • Do you draw a picture?
  • Take a bath?

My favourite way to calm down is to walk outside in Central Park. I love to be near the big tall cedar trees!

Have a great weekend, Div. 11!

Don’t forget to try to log into Microsoft Teams so that you can see pictures of your Heart Art! 🙂  We will be visiting the computer lab to learn how to log on on Monday if you’re having trouble at home.

(Families, if you’re having a hard time with Teams, please email me and I’ll try to help!)

 

A Classroom Safety Tour

Hi Division 11 Families and Students,

Welcome to our blog!

In a normal year, you would be able to come inside our classroom, see where your child works and plays, and have regular conversations with teachers. It’s so much harder to do that when families must stay outside, we must wear masks, and we have to do the daily health checks in the mornings instead of having conversations.

Hopefully this blog will help us feel more connected! We invite you to check out our classroom, see videos and pictures of your child, their work and evidence of their learning. We hope to post links to different websites and learning activities to support their learning if we have to go online as well.

A tour of our classroom…

At Maywood, we are STAR Learners!

S – Safe       T – Thoughtful      A – Accepting      R – Respectful      LEARNERS!

In September and October, we were focusing on SAFETY – following careful cleaning routines to make sure that everyone stays safe and healthy. Please do the daily health check with your child at home, and to protect everyone, keep your child at home if they have any symptoms.

After we do the health check we go inside and line up on the stars, keeping 1m apart. The teacher sprays water and foaming hand soap on our hands so we can start 20 seconds of washing right away.

Then we rinse at the sink, one at a time. Then we walk to the hand drying station, 1m away.

We wash our hands at least 8 times per day, usually 10-12 times. It takes a lot of time. Sometimes we use hand sanitizer to save time, but not very often. We use it when we go to the gym, music room or library where there are no sinks.

We aren’t using the cloakroom, so backpacks and coats are stored on our chairs. We can’t share anything, so everyone has their own box for pencils and markers, for books, and for math tools.

 

Only 2 people are allowed in the washroom at one time. The water fountain is closed, but you can still fill your water bottle there (or at the classroom sink). Please make sure you have a water bottle at school. If you forget, Mrs. Aprim will give you a cup that you can fill at the sink.

Another way we can stay safe is by wearing a mask. Adults in the school wear masks all the time. Some friends in our class wear masks all the time, some friends wear them sometimes, and some friends don’t wear masks. While we don’t have to wear masks, it is a good idea to have a mask with you – please encourage your child to wear/bring their mask every day.

In Div. 11, we encourage students to wear masks:

  • in the hallways where lots of students are walking
  • in music class where they are singing with the Music teacher who sees lots of students
  • when it is math groups with Ms. Stevens’ class (our safe learning cohort)
  • when they work closely with their table partner at centres or math times

We can take our masks off safely when we are outside. We often work in the garden at Maywood, where we have cleaned up an outdoor space that we can use as an outdoor classroom. The fresh air and open space helps keep us all safe as we learn and work together.

 
Please make sure that your child is dressed for the weather, with a warm coat (preferably waterproof) and boots or an umbrella for those very wet days. A change of socks and pants are also very helpful! 🙂
Let me know if you need outdoor gear for your child as I have a few items that they can borrow.
Thanks, families!

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