Ms. Carley's Classroom Blog

Sharing our Learning in Division 12

Page 5 of 24

Giving back to our community with an Earth Day Plant Sale!

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?

   

 

 

Exploring and Learning New Strategies and Tools in Div. 5!

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!

 

Celebrating our February Learning!

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.

Celebrating Literacy in the Great Outdoors!

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!

Exploring tools for learning anywhere

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

Wishing you a happy holiday!

Dear Div. 5,

It has been such a pleasure getting to know your children and your families this year.  My heart is so full with the love, joy, and care in our classroom community. This has been a really special term, full of exploration, inquiry, challenges, and collaboration.  Div. 5 students are so thoughtful, creative, and kind, and we have built a safe, supportive community of learners.

Sending a tremendous thank you for your kind words, notes, and gifts this week .

Wishing you a wonderful winter holiday with your loved ones,

Ms. Carley

Here are a few snapshots of our week together:

Special diversity club visits and whole school bingo!

 

Making holiday card boxes with Ms. Lumby! We also made a secret surprise holiday ornament with yarn!!

Finishing up our amazing winter art with Ms. McGivern!

In grade 4 math, we were creating shops! We can’t wait to continue this financial literacy journey in January!

P.S. Please remember we have All the Right Type accounts (login info in our planners) and EPIC reading (class code is: hqa2214), in case you are looking for some holiday learning activities <3

Sharing our Learning & December Newsletter

Sharing our Learning with Porfolios and Blogfolios

Divisions 4 and 5 have chosen to use Portfolios and Blogfolios as a means of communicating student learning with our families this term.  On Monday, Dec. 13, your child brought home their Portfolio binder. Within this binder and on their blogfolio posts, you will find a variety of examples of reflections, assignments, and assessments. These examples provide a snapshot of your child’s learning at this particular time. Our hope is that you will take time to look through your child’s blogfolio and portfolio binder with them to discuss key learning moments from the term.

At the front of their portfolio binders, you will see a note from me with suggestions for things to consider when you are looking through the binder with your child as well as an invitation for you to write some feedback for your child to read afterwards.

Furthermore, you will also find a student self-assessment and term one reflection. Please note that you will receive your first formal report card in February. We look forward to hearing your thoughts about your child’s progress! Thank you for your continued support along your child’s learning journey!

Family Logins for Blogfolios – Troubleshooting

Many families have had some trouble logging into their accounts. If your password is currently not working please try the following steps to reset:

  • Click the teal “Log in” link on the right of this post
  • Put in your email address and the password “parent2000”
  • Press the blue “Log in” button
  • Then click “Lost your password?”
  • Enter your email address once again and click “Get New Password”
  • You should then receive an email, letting you reset your password.

Families if you are unable to reset please email me at kristina.carley@burnabyschools.ca and alternatively have your child log in to their account to view their reflections on their learning.  Logins can be found in their planners.

Snapshots of December Learning

Div.4 and Div.5 have been working continuously on their pollinator shelter learning. After building with Alex Mckillop, we are now presenting our pollinator shelters. We’ve been focusing on our oral language skills by paying attention to our volume, pacing, expression in our voice and including gestures to engage our audience. Our presenters have done a marvelous job of communicating their learning by presenting to both classes! Audience members have been practicing their respectful listening and giving purposeful and constructive feedback.

Lifted (2006 film) - WikipediaOur Book Club reading for this term has wrapped up and we are now focusing on the elements of a story and creating our own graphic novels. We’ve been viewing Pixar shorts focusing on the exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. Last Monday, we viewed For the Birds, and really enjoyed the falling action and resolution. Div.4 and Div.5 had the giggles on Wednesday when looking at the plot of Lifted – what a conflict! Now, we are creating our own graphic novels!! Ask us about our plot maps!

Special Upcoming Days

  • Wednesday – Pajama day & Concert night (virtual)!
  • Thursday – Winter Solstice celebration & diversity club surprise!
  • Friday – Holiday spirit day, whole school bingo & winter celebration!

Our week in Div. 5!

We were so excited to build our pollinator houses this week and reflect on the process in a variety of ways! We are going to be creating displays to share our learning with the school. Check out the previous blog post and our blogfolio posts to see and hear more!

As a class, we’ve been reading a special book called Whale Child, written by Keith Egawa and Chenoa Egawa. It’s a story about the importance of caring for our world and the impact we’re having on our oceans and lands. In collaboration with Div. 4, we’re in the process of creating a bulletin board inspired by Whale Child and highlighting the importance of our collective action! Here are the beginnings of our board!

In writer’s workshop, we are  focusing on paragraph writing. First, we brainstormed all the elements we could think of that make a paragraph. Next we talked about our writing process, remembering the importance of brainstorming ideas and organizing our thoughts before we begin to write. Then, we started writing! Our first paragraph draft is due on Monday! We will continue our workshop process by  conferencing with a classmate!

It was so exciting to have pajama day today! Congratulations to the UHE leadership team for putting together such a great fundraiser! Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Creating Pollinator Homes

 

This week, we built pollinator houses and hotels with our ADST helping teacher, Alex! Students worked in groups to build the designs they researched and created over the last few weeks. We hammered and drilled holes to create the perfect homes. We have been reflecting on our process – what were challenges we had? How did we overcome them?

There are so many math ideas that live inside this project! In math, we talked about how we can use measurement, geometry, estimation, addition, and multiplication to dream up these projects!

Our first week of November

What a week it has been! Div. 4 & 5 worked to create diagrams of their pollinator houses, thinking about the dimensions, placements, entrances, and inhabitants.

Click here to see more pollinator houses in progress!

As some of our students worked on FSAs, others from Ms. Yee’s and Ms. Su’s classes joined us in creating Green Team projects!

Most of us had our first book club meetings this week too! We shared our ideas and reflected on the process. Some of us even finished our novels and started working on creating “lit bits” to celebrate and share our thinking.

We were excited to do the filming of our Remembrance Day performance, which will play at the virtual assembly next week. A reminder that next Thursday is the Remembrance Day holiday.

Not all of us had a chance to finish our blogfolio posts today, so please feel welcome to finish them at home!

We officially installed our mud kitchen this week too! Please feel welcome to visit the kitchen during after school times, but please be kind and gentle!

Div. 5 had a great week and we look forward to another week of learning and exploring!

PS. Some families were wondering about how to use the School Cash page. Please find instructions here: SchoolCash-Welcome

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