Division 5 has been learning about how animals have various adaptations to help them sense depending on whether they are nocturnal or diurnal animals, including eye size, ear shape, or sounds they make. We are moving on to learning about how animals adapt to their environments. One of these adaptations is camouflage through patterns and colour. Can you find the camouflaged critters in these photos?
University Highlands enjoyed having tennis instructors come in to teach us the basics of tennis. We just wrapped up this week. Please enjoys some pictures from our sessions!
Division 5 is beginning to explore digital literacy and citizenship skills. We will be learning how to use technology in helpful ways, about our digital footprints and online privacy, how we interact with others, how to find information safely, and how we can keep a healthy balance between media and non-media in our lives.
The following information is from Common Sense Education, a digital literacy resource I have been using for many years. You can also check out this family activity that can help with discussions around digital balance at home.
From phones and tablets to streaming movies and YouTube, tech and media are everywhere. Kids love easy access to shows, games, and information. Parents and caregivers love that kids can learn on the go (and stay busy when dinner’s cooking). But it’s easy to overdo it when the phone never stops pinging and the next episode plays automatically. Families can keep media and tech use in check by following a few simple practices.
Photo by me 🙂
Wishing everyone a peaceful, relaxing, and joyful winter break, and happy holidays to those who celebrate during this time. I hope you get up to lots of fun, big and small: I look forward to hearing about it when you get back!
See you in 2024 for the next steps in our learning journeys.
❤ Ms. Coutts
Author, filmmaker, and animator, Jeff Chiba Stearns, visited University Highlands today to talk about his art. We were particularly interested to hear about his newest book, On Being Yukiko, because we have been learning about the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War 2. On Being Yukiko explores Japanese Canadian family history and cultural identity, and how the impacts of displacement and racism echo into the lived experiences of people today. Jeff worked with artist, Lilian Michiko Blakely, to create this story based on her life and experiences growing up as a Japanese Canadian.
Jeff’s drawing style is a self-described blend of Japanese and American styles that he calls “hapanimation.” He has a lot of fun with his drawings, creating mixed creatures with fun blended names. His mixed creatures are a metaphor for his own experience with “mixed” or “hapa” identity. He showed us some basic drawing strategies, and ways to alter expressions and moods of a character with slight changes to the design. He even did a hapanimation drawing of one of our students!
Students will have an opportunity to buy some of Jeff’s books with an order form going home today. Jeff personalizes each book with a doodle and a message!
They brought the attitude.
Congratulations to Division 5 for an amazing performance last week! You brought the energy and enthusiasm that made your dance entertaining and fun to watch. I hope you had fun, too!
What was your favourite part of our dance?
Today Division 5 and 6 walked over to visit the Trottier Observatory at Simon Fraser University. We were introduced to how researchers study space and each student received a star chart for use the next time they’re looking at the night sky.
Next we went outside to check out the telescope in the observatory. We learned about how the telescope is used and what it can see. We weren’t able to see anything through the telescope today, though, because there was some cloud cover.
In the courtyard around the observatory, there were some interesting features such as a sun dial, some of the basic elements of the universe, picnic tables with detailed moon phases, and big star charts. They pack a lot into this small area!
Here is a link to the SFU Starry Nights page if you’d like to visit again.
Division 5–what was your favourite part of our visit?
Students in Division 5 have been gradually developing their computer skills and learning about the educational tech tools such as Teams, Outlook, and the class blog. Today we embarked on using SpacesEDU to communicate self-assessment and reflections on learning. This will become a digital portfolio for each student as we move through the year. The Core Competencies will be the basis for each student reflection, and will be part of the communicating student learning process.
We are still in the early stages of learning how to log in, and what makes a thorough reflection. I previously used WordPress-based digital portfolios, so I, too, am in the learning process of using this new format–we’re all learning together! At the moment we’re sticking to just text posts to keep it simple, but in the future, we hope to add photos, small videos, and/or audio to our posts. Also, right now, only the student, their family, and the teacher should be able to see and comment on each post.
I hope this will be an interesting and engaging way for students to share their voice in their learning journeys.
Click here for some tips on leaving comments for your child.
Division 5 has been learning speed stacking, and this week we participated in the Stack Up! annual event. This event aims to set the world record for the most stackers at the same time in different parts of the world. The goal this year is 750 000! Division 5 has taught three primary classes how to speed stack this week–amazing!
Families have the opportunity to buy their own set of stacks from Speed Stacks Canada with the link in the “Group Order” image. Purchasing a set through this link helps us get more speed stacking supplies for our school. Ordering closes on December 1.
Happy stacking!
Division 5 has been working on writing a lot about a little. Just like a camera can zoom in on part of a subject, we aim to improve our writing by “zooming in” on important descriptive details when telling a story. This helps a reader visualize and experience what the author is telling them. To help us practice this writing skill, we looked at a couple of different model texts.
The first model text is called The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown. Each item in The Important Book is broken down to its essence–telling the reader all the most important things about that object. The author uses a lot of sensory detail when explaining, telling us what the thing sounds like, looks like, tastes like, etc.
The second model text was a poem called Bat! by Anna Ferguson Montague. In this poem, the poet uses sensory detail, but also captures the movement of the animal by choosing specific verbs to help paint the picture.
Division 5 students chose a wide range of different animals for their poems. Please enjoy some of our poetry.
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