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Hi everyone!  I had a wonderful summer holiday, I hope you did too!  I spent lots of time with my family at home as well as sailing, kayaking and swimming when it was nice and warm.  I also enjoyed many walks with my dog Ty. 

This week we are reviewing the 7 Habits while we get to know everyone in our community this year.  That includes welcoming our new principal Ms Henderson as well as some new teachers.  This Friday we will be practicing “Habit 7” or “Sharpening the Saw” by having a games day organized by our grade 7’s, followed by a family picnic for lunch (byol and   blanket!) and then a celebration of learning (COL) at 2pm.  Families are welcome to join us for the day.

Stay tuned for more updates as we get them!  I am thoroughly enjoying my time with all our students this week when they come for their lesson about Habit 5 with me! See the cute movie here about whole body listening!

Yesterday, we had a wonderful walk around Deer Lake, exploring our local habitat and seeing some of the life forms.  

Below are some pictures of things the students found interesting.  You can add your comments below to share what you enjoyed most about our walking field trip.  

Today, we spent some more time, learning about “How to…” writing.  Yesterday was quite entertaining when I tried to follow the students’ instructions for brushing my teeth.  The students learned what needs to be included!  Please help your class mates by giving some tips in the comment section.

You are welcome to also comment on something you enjoy doing at school other than recess and lunch! Try to be specific and explain why you enjoy the activity.

Don’t forget to ask your parents for an email address that we can use to give them access to your e-portfolio which will be coming soon!

This month we have anti bullying day coming,

Chinese New Year, and Healthy Heart activities as well as our focus on Habit #4: Think Win Win.

In class, some of the big ideas we are focusing on learning about are:

• Writing: text features, poems, persuasive writing, and short stories. To see some of our class poems, click here
• Reading: developing good strategies for improving comprehension and fluency. To access the chapter assignments, click here.
• Social studies: Things that have shaped Canada and  past discriminatory practices in Canada
• Science: Resources – renewable and non-renewable and which  is the most important resource
• Math – we are almost finished our unit on developing  multiplication and division strategies –  UNIT TEST will be at the end of next week.
• French- we just finished making some very creative mobiles to explain a little about ourselves, our likes and dislikes.

Technology skills: are helping us communicate our learning, but also helping students develop their understanding of how to be a great digital citizen.

Please comment on which theme you think is most important to recognize and explain your reason.  Write your comment in the format of a short letter to me.

Grade 5 Leadership: We have been hard at work leading our school to reduce the waste they bring in their lunches. We have made posters, prepared speeches and poems and tallied the number of pieces of garbage brought by each class. The big question is, are we making a difference? Here are some facts you may find interesting: 

Please comment on what you think and why.

Thank you to all of you for all your hard work so far! And to those of you who wore ORANGE shirts to show “every child matters”. All of the students wrote their first math quiz today.  It will come home tomorrow for parents to review and sign to let me know they saw it.

Just to catch us up a bit, here are some pictures of things we have worked on this month.

Science challenge:  building a cube that will stand alone using spaghetti and marsh mellows.  This turned out to be more difficult than some students expected.  The team work was excellent to see as their shared their ideas on how to solve the problems.

Another thing we have been learning about is our basic needs and how we meet them. We assume our need for survival (shelter, food, clothing etc) are met, however there are other needs. Sometimes when students are trying to meet one of these needs, they interfere with someone else’s need which can lead to feeling uncomfortable, unsafe, and generally not happy feeling good about learning. Ask your child what their biggest need is and how they can meet this need without disrupting other students in class.

Reminders:

Terry Fox run day is Friday.  Remember to wear running shoes and bring a water bottle.  Families are welcome to come and support this event.  We have a guest speaker (one of Terry’s relatives) and all are welcome to our assembly at 1pm before the run. Don’t forget to open your pockets and donate to such a worthy cause. (Rumour has it the teacher’s may be having to dye their hair wacky colours if we raise enough!).

Homework:  READ read read! and play outside in this beautiful weather. More homework will come, don’t worry!

Hello students and parents of Division 3 2015!

We have a fantastic year to look forward to.  Please check here to see if we have any news and exciting things to report about our class.  This blog is intended to help students develop good digital citizenship by practising using social media in a positive and safe way.  We hope to make connections with the outside world and each other outside of class. Hover your mouse over the text to see if I have added a link to another page for you to learn more about a topic (such as orange shirt day).

Notices:

It seems like there have been hundreds of papers going home requiring signatures, information or money.  Trust me, this will slow down soon.  Having said that, the beginning of the year is always busy as we do what we can to ensure good communication between you  and the school to keep you informed. Please always check the pocket at the front of the planner, and sign the daily page to help your child develop a routine for good organization.

Student comments today:

Mark says – PE is awesome.

Emma says – Our whole class signed up for handball intramural!

Chun says – Today we watched Bill Nye the Science Guy (Simple Machines)

Max says – School is sort of awesome

In the news:      

SS:The federal election is fast approaching.  Have a conversation with your child about what this means to your family.  In class we are reviewing the political map of our country, and will soon be reviewing levels of government.  We will then be looking at other systems of government.

Tomorrow is “ORANGE SHIRT DAY”   In a press release sent out yesterday, the Assembly of First Nations has asked all Canadians to join First Nations in wearing an orange shirt “in the spirit of healing and reconciliation”.

Science/PE:  Next Week is free transit week.  We are currently planning to go swimming at Eileen Daily pool on Wednesday ( 11-3pm) .  Parent volunteers are needed to do this trip.  Please watch for the permission slip coming home soon.  In order to ensure this is a “free” field trip, please make sure your child’s B-active pass is up to date. (Just go to your local Burnaby Parks and Rec centre and sign up.).

Click here to access our Creative Writing Assignment  details.  Good copy due May 25th.

Hi everyone!

I know its been awhile – we are super busy in this class and so we have missed having some guest bloggers. This will resume tomorrow! In the meanwhile:

Tomorrow we have “Speed Control” coming in to our school to share their music and then work with all the students to write a school song.  It should be very exciting!  We will also be eating some healthy snacks as part of our learning about nutrition and healthy food choices. Students have been asked to bring some fruit to share.  I have found the kids seem to love eating while we chat in our class meetings.  In fact some seem to be quite hungry despite all the delicious food you feed them at home. If you prefer to send something other than fruit or vegetables – please ensure it is healthy.

We have been busy learning about Aboriginal culture, new immigrants to Canada and reconciliation in Social Studies. Next week students will begin to create posters of our northern continents timeline including pictures.  If possible please speak to your child about your family heritage so they can personalize their poster to reflect their origins.

Other subjects:

Math 5 – fractions and decimals-  HW should only be 30 minutes. If it takes longer please just write a note in the planner indicating good effort was made. Today’s homework: p. 179: 1,3,4,5,11

Math 6 – Cumulative Review

Reading– we have started novel studies.  Students need to read their book for 30 minutes each day. To date, they should have finished 1 reading response, with the second one due tomorrow.  

Writing- we have yet to hear a few speeches but for the most part, everyone has written and presented a speech.  They were very well done.  Today students wrote a letter home from the perspective of a child at residential school (due Monday if not completed in class today).  Everyone handles this topic differently. Please talk to your child about their writing, what they are learning and any questions they might have.

Reading with Mr. Smith:  Behind the Bulk p.89-90 due Tues Feb 17.

SS – African American immigrants –  #1-4 and creativity corner – due Tues.

HACE – Learning about how to look after our bodies, and mind – self regulation. –  sketch or print a picture of an athlete and glue into your Hace book.  Brainstorm what great athletes all have in common.

Art – Twitter card – make up a name and sketch a picture / avatar for your card. Due tomorrow. ( This will be used to simulate using social media to communicate – and practice appropriate messaging).

Notices:  Jump Rope for Heart forms went home yesterday including pledge forms.  Do NOT lose these.  Please return with your child’s name on it as soon as possible if you do not intend to collect pledges, or when you have completed collecting pledges.

Any questions?  Please feel free to email me, or call the school.

Mrs. C

We hope you had a wonderful relaxing weekend! We are now into the second week of school for 2015.  This term, the grade 6’s will be joining the other grade 6’s for SS (Ancient China), Science (Oceans), and Music (Guitars). This means their schedule has changed to accommodate the other classes. They will also be expected to be terrific independent learners as they work on their projects and novels.

Homework for today -by Laura: 

-our class will now be doing “Cramb bucks” economy. Challenge to design the perfect “buck”. 

-L.A. “Lets think differently” rough draft-due Friday

-Math 5- pg. 94/95 #4 a,c,e,g #5 a,c,e,g, #6,#7 #8 a,b #11,#12,#13

-Math 6- pg 56/57 #1-11-tom.

-S.S.  ethnic backgrounds bar graph

-Science -Ebola out break article- finish vocab,read,make 5 questions-due tomorrow

-Art- cut out picture of memory bag and glue onto blue or green background -due Tuesday

-finish memory bag and jewel

-music $10 recorder and holder    $8 for recorder only

-hot dog forms

-gr.6 guitar forms -wed

French immersion notice – gr 5

This is a place where you can post your own writing.  In class we are giving students a word. They brainstorm ideas or words that come to mind. Then share their ideas verbally with classmates. Finally they write non stop for 5 minutes.  This is a great way to practice writing.

Today’s word:             Special 

Special.  Brainstorm: Friends, helper, people, night, artist, star, movie, …sharing…….unique, artistic,

5 minute write by: Jessica

Everybody says they are special, and some people say they aren’t because they are bully’s, boring, nerds or because they don’t stand out in the crowd. But ever look deep inside of you and  think, well nobody is like me, so I am special! A lot of people can’t do stuff like me.  They can’t think, look or act like me! And that is all because I am as special as can be and unique and there is no one like me . That is all because I’m special!

5 Minute write by: Alyssa

Once upon a time a unicorn named Shimmer didn’t feel very special because she was very small. All the other unicorns made fun of her so Shimmer ran off into the woods.  All of a sudden she heard a small voice. She followed the small voice. When she got near it she realized it was a small puppy stuck in a hole. Shimmer went to help the little puppy out of the hole. The little puppy said “Thank you”, but Shimmer said “no, thank YOU.  You made me realize that being small doesn’t mean its wrong.”                          THE END

Being different isn’t bad.  Everyone is special in their own way.

5 Minute write by: Diya

My Mother always told me,” Everybody is different in their own way”, but now that I’m older I realize that this quote is really true! Everyone is special in their very own way. Some say people are just a skin tone, eyes, a body, and a gender, behind that we are all the same. What if you add all this back we are all unique in our own way. I thought I was the only girl named Diya in the whole entire world but when another Deeya    came I honestly got a bit jealous. Wouldn’t you? But I noticed just because we have the same name doesn’t mean we are the same person   right? I got worried that everyone would play with her instead of me. After a few weeks I figured out I am unique and so are you.

5 Minute write by: Alice