Ms. Carley's Classroom Blog

Dear UHE families,

Our diversity club students were so excited to welcome you into our school conference with our progress pride flag.

We are so thankful to acknowledge and celebrate  International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia with you all.

Please feel welcome to attend the virtual IDAHAT day celebrations at this link May 17 from 4:00-5:30pm on Zoom: https://sd41.sharepoint.com/sites/SOGI_Construction/SitePages/IDAHAT-Reimagined.aspx

At this year’s event, speakers from the LGBTQ+ community will share thoughts and experiences on the theme of “Authenticity.”

We are so thrilled to be welcoming you into our classroom next week. We are proud of our community, and the creativity, collaboration, and kindness that we share with one another.  Thank you for sending in your preferences – you will be receiving an appointment time shortly.

Look out for our forest art that will guide you into the space!

Div. 5 is learning about different types of writing! We have started a magazine project, sharing our learning with different types of writing!  We love having choice in our learning – choosing topics that are meaningful and interesting to us! Here are some of the elements you might notice!

• letter from the editor
  • we love introducing ourselves and our topics to our reader – who are we, what are our connections to the topic, and what do we hope for our readers?
• articles
  • interesting informational writing about our chosen topic!
• creative story writing
  • how can we weave a story connected to our topic?
• advertisements
  • what elements have we noticed in ads around us? How could we analyze and incorporate them into our magazine?
• persuasive writing
  • can you share an convincing opinion about your topic?
• advice column
  • what advice would you give?
• art & art reviews!
  • we have been exploring some amazing artists and creating amazing art this year! Which special pieces will you include?
• book reviews!
  • which book club book will you share about?
• fun elements such as puzzles, comics, games, word problems, quizzes, and more!

We can’t wait to share our learning with you!

We love learning about each other and our communities in division 5! We were so excited to share in celebrating Eid al-Fitr this spring! Thank you, Umair, Ameena, Khurram, Fatima, Myel, Noor, and Farbod for sharing your culture and traditions with our class. It was a wonderful way to celebrate Ramadan and Eid! Eid Mubarak!

Div. 5 have been amazing big buddies – last week, we created outdoor scavenger hunts for our buddies to solve, and this week we spent the morning reading together. Tell your family about getting to know your little buddy!

For Earth Day, Div. 4 & 5 hosted a UHE plant sale! Prior to spring break, we made paper pots and planted many seeds! By Earth Day, they were ready to share with our community! We considered how we would be able to encourage our community to grow their own food, and to buy locally grown produce! All of our proceed go directly toward our school garden so that our amazing garden learning throughout the school can continue!

What is the story of the food we eat?

This week, we had an amazing time creating woodworking projects to help our learning! We made looms to learn about different styles of weaving. We also made stools to bring outside for our outdoor learning. We look forward to continuing these ADST adventures! Thank you, Alex for teaching us how to use new tools and strategies!

We began an art inquiry – how does our environment influence our art? We studied the art of Emily Carr  and wrote our thoughts, feelings, and wonders about her art. Then, we learned new ways of creating blended, pastel art inspired by her Canadian landscapes.

In March, we started preparing for our plant sale! We planted snap peas, cilantro, spinach, mesluns, lettuce, and swiss chard! We are excited for our Earth Day plant sale on April 21st! We hope to see you there!

We also finished up our Animal Inquiry Projects and presented them to small groups! We were so proud to share our learning.

We can’t wait to see where our learning takes us next!

February was a month for kindness, celebration, diversity, love, and standing up for others! Here are a few hearts we found and made outdoors!

On Feb. 23 we celebrated Pink Shirt Day! We created notes for each other, appreciating things that make our classmates special.

We help our world in so many ways.

Here are a few shots of our display case being created! We displayed the pollinator houses, art, and descriptions for the whole school to see! We celebrated the diversity and biodiversity of these beings and showed the school that we all need different things! Two birds might need completely different sized homes, with different placement, entrances, and heights! When we look and learn closely, we can discover amazing things!

We put up some of our bird houses! Using our measurement skills we are creating a bird house walk. Each house we put up is a home for a different kind of bird!

We were excited to share about our Whale Child Project creations! Div. 5 did a gallery walk to explore everyone’s projects. We noticed that everyone created something unique and different. Some projects were big and some were small, but each had important lessons and details to share. We gave each other feedback on what it feels like to be part of a gallery walk and how we can show our appreciation and care for each other.

In grade 4 math, we have been exploring symmetry! Reflection symmetry, rotation symmetry, and point symmetry! Here are a few photos of our beginning explorations! From here, we created our own drawings, and explored symmetry in the community and in First People’s art. Where can you find symmetry and geometry as a family?

In Div. 5, we care.

This week was Literacy Week! Our theme was “Learning in the Great Outdoors!” This felt like the perfect theme for Div. 5 learning!

We visited our favourite forest places throughout the week to observe, draw, write, and create art! This exploration also helps us understand our inquiry question: “How do animals sense and respond to their environment?”

We learned about gardening by the moon cycles on Monday. We also started indoor planting of parsley and basil.

We guessed our teacher’s favourite books!

This week we finished our class novel, Whale Child and thought about the lessons we want o carry with us and share with others.

In grade 4 math, we have been exploring measurement and geometry in our community! We also created imaginary maps to practice perimeter!

We look forward to continue learning outside and hope you and your family can enjoy the great outdoors this weekend!

Dear Families,

Happy new year! It certainly has been a challenging start to the year. Sending best wishes to you all!

This week, we are learning about some new learning tools that can help us learn at school and at home, if need be!

On Monday, we learned how to login to teams and add a comment in the “communication” channel.

On Tuesday, we watched a mystery science video and completed our first Teams assignment (available on the assignment tab and general channel).

• Teams login
  • username: (student #)@edu.burnaby schools.ca – for example: 12345@edu.burnabyschools.ca
  • password: (same as blog and computer)

On Wednesday, we learned how to comment in our teacher help channel! We also practiced logging in to our EPIC reading accounts and our All the Right Type accounts! You can access these tools on the “TECHNOLOGY” tab of our blog.

• EPIC reading
  • Class code: HQA2214
  • Recently, I found out that EPIC is only available for free from 6am-3pm (at home and school) – so it will be helpful if your child is not at school, but can’t be used after school hours.
• All the Right Type 
  • student login info is in their planners
  • available to practice any time (please ensure your hands are in the correct position to practice!)

Please chat as a family about our new routines, schedules, and tools. If you are at home this week, please feel welcome to join us in our learning on teams!

Thanks for all your care, kindness, and support as we navigate these challenging times.

Ms. Carley