Category: General Update

Hello Everyone,

First, overall reminders and updates:

• Field Trip Payments: Please send a cheque for $7.38 for the OWL presentation AND $25.00 for our three dragon boat sessions. One cheque for both is fine, if you prefer. In order to participate in dragon boating, you must have the waiver filled out and returned. I am still seeking drivers for dragon boating. If you are planning on helping with driving, your child should have given you a driver’s form to fill out and return ASAP.
• Animal Research: Be sure to find answers to the questions about your animal! We will have some class time Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. By Friday EOD you should have your notes and the answers to the questions ready to turn in.
• QUIZ: There will be a quiz Friday, May 5th on what we have talked about so far in terms of biodiversity, ecosystems, water cycle, taxonomy, etc. We started the process of reviewing today by making a list of key vocabulary in our journals. We will review more in class. I recommend going through your blue binder and reviewing information. Some of you would benefit from better organizing your papers and may want to take your binders home to organize them.
• Applied Math: Today we will share our charts, diagrams, and graphs from the Earth By the Numbers assignment, and your next task is to complete Numbers in the News, which can be done on your E-Portfolio. You are supposed to be looking for an article in which numbers are used to explain key ideas. You need to answer the questions from the handout in your post and provide a link to the article online. Some more time will be given in class. You should be able to finish this by Friday, April 28th. Tonight work for 15-30 minutes at most on this to stay on track.
• Nature Challenge: Don’t forget the deadline for the nature challenge is April 30th — with the pictures due to Ms. D on May 1st, Monday. Put your photos in a slideshow format. Each photo will need to be clear in terms of location (and be a different location!) in order to be counted.
• Forests Handout: Please read, highlight, and finish these activities by Friday, April 28th. Some time available on Thursday and Friday to finish.

We have been having great discussions about biodiversity, and I think our trips to the watershed and the park really helped us to think about the ecosystem around us. As you do research on your animal and talk about their habitat, the eco province they live in, and find out more about their characteristics and taxonomy, this will help bring the things we have been discussing into focus and make them clear before we move on to the next part of our unit.

So, what’s next? We will look at oceans, moon and tides, weather, climate change, and our impact on the world. We will also continue the book Skeleton Tree, which is all about survival in the wilderness, and I will be challenging you to learn a few skills for survival. We already introduced the compass and how it works. We will be doing some critical thinking activities to discuss how decision making is a serious part of survival. And we will also look for nature’s signs and signals that helps us to get oriented and survive.

TONIGHT HOMEWORK:  Remember, 15-30 minutes of applied math. Library Tomorrow. Pay for OWL/Dragon Boating. Find one example of nature being impacted by humans in B.C. What happened? When did it happen? How did it happen? Why?

Have a great rest of the week!

Ms. D

Hello Everyone!

First, let me thank our parent volunteers who have come with us on our nature walks to Everett Crowley and to the Watershed — Sandy, William, Kathy, Russell, and Candace! Without you, we wouldn’t be able to do the trips, and we appreciated your company!

We had a fantastic trip! Despite being rained (and hailed upon) at the end when we were up at the highest point of our journey near the dam, we had an informative and fun hike in the lower area of the Lower Seymour Watershed protected forest, and we played several fun games to learn about the forest’s ecosystem and the water cycle.

Pictures to come soon! Thank you to all of the students for your excellent behaviour, participation in activities, and thoughtful questions! You were definitely able to extend knowledge discussed in class and take it further during our trip. Ms. D learned a lot! I look forward to visiting the area again on my own with my family.

Please make sure to complete the water audit, as each completed audit online counts as an entry for us into the GVRD contest for a pizza party for the class! Count your water usage on the water audit handout, go to Green Bricks to input your results, and then be sure to put your handout in the inbox.

Also, respond to this blog entry tonight as a homework assignment to tell me your favourite part of the trip. Provide detail about something you learned related to the ecosystem of the forest or the water cycle and the watershed.

Thank you!

Ms. D

Hello Everyone,

As we continue our nature studies, we are learning about ecosystems, biodiversity, and our impact on both. This means taking time to look closely at the plants, animals, and trees around us! We had time to do this during our Everett Crowley Walk yesterday, and we will also see more natural areas during our Watershed trip on Tuesday, April 18th.

Today we had a great visit from O.W.L. in Delta, B.C.! For 90 minutes, we learned all about the types of raptors in the local area, such as bald eagles, golden eagles, barred owls, peregrine falcons, osprey, turkey vultures, and more. Then we visited with two birds — Katie, an American Kestrel and Pokey, a Barred Owl. They were amazing birds, and you can see pictures of them on the O.W.L. website here. Next week, you will receive a notice regarding a fee of $7.38 for the session, as explained in my previous posts and emails. 

We also did more preparation today for our Watershed Trip by talking about the four parts of the water cycle — precipitation, evaporation, transpiration, and condensation. Then we participated in stations provided by a GVRD kit to learn more about how our water gets to us. There were two articles to read on Water in BC and Rivers, and everyone needs to finish answering the questions below:

1. Name the places you can find water (not the names of actual towns or rivers, but rather the places you can find surface and ground water.)
2. What is another name for the water cycle?
3. What do organisms use the salt of the oceans for?
4. How often do tides change?
5. What is a current?
6. What are tributaries?
7. What does anadromous mean?
8. Give a pros/cons chart on dams with at least 3 pros and 3 cons on each side of the chart. What are the good things and the bad things about having a dam?
9. Explain the Elwha River restoration.

Everyone also completed a BACKPACK prep sheet, so you will know what to bring on the Watershed Trip Tuesday. Here are some things to remember:

1. It is colder up there than here at school level. We will be going rain or shine.
2. Dress warm and have a toque/small hat, gloves, rain jacket, warm socks, water resistant walking shoes, comfortable walking clothes in layers so you can remove layers as you get warm.
3. Put an extra pair of socks in your backpack. Sometimes they do a forest walk, so you may need a change. If it is raining a lot on Tuesday, pack a light pair of extra pants, but don’t make your bag too heavy!
4. Have a water resistant backpack. Small is better as you have to carry it the whole time.
5. Antibacterial hand sanitizer, as there is not running water up there. Great idea to have it in a small ziploc bag so it does not spill.
6. BIG LUNCH and SNACKS! Make sure you go with low litter lunch options. No metal containers that require a table, as we will eat outside. Ideas: sandwich, bag of veggies, banana, granola bars, breakfast bars, cheese puffs, etc.
7. WATER BOTTLE — make sure it has a secure lid and will not spill. Make sure it can be put inside your backpack or attached to backpack.
8. Extra plastic bag for garbage. There are not garbage cans up there. Pack out what you packed in.
9. Sunscreen — put some on your face and exposed areas before we head up in the morning.
10. Camera — no iPads/large cameras, go with a small one or a phone. Put it in a plastic bag for protection from rain.
11. Napkins/Tissues to clean up or take care of nose issues if they come up, as there are not bathrooms up there.
12. No umbrellas! No books! No journals!

Thank you, everyone, for doing your best to prepare well for the trip! Please contact me if you have any questions.

Ms. D

Hello Everyone!

Today we had a discussion about the meaning of science. What is it? How would you define it? What does it look like? How is modern day science similar or different from Indigenous Knowledge? Did science happen here thousands of years ago? Does science need to be written down and documented, or can it be passed along in both stories and oral traditions?

While the “science” conducted by First Nations in B.C. looked different than our traditional view of the discipline, aboriginal peoples knew so many things about the land and nature through their observations and surviving in the environment, and some of this knowledge is just now being confirmed or studied by the traditional science we know.

Tomorrow, we are going to Everett Crowley Park, and while there, we may see some of the plants shown to students today in their School Plant Hunt Booklet. There are so many plants we have around us locally that have specific, medical uses or that can be used as food. In the video we watched today, we saw an example of a woman from the Squamish Nation who has a close connection with plants and looks at the landscape in Vancouver as a medicinal garden – when maybe what we see are just weeds! Here is another, shorter version of what we watched:Indigenous Plant Diva. We will see if we can find any of the plants from our guide tomorrow, but please do not taste any plants while on our trip, as we are not plant experts, just observers and learners!

A notice about our Everett Crowley Walk was sent home today letting you know about this field trip. You do not need to sign, as all of you already submitted walking field trip forms at the beginning of the year for local sites in reach of the school. We will be gone from 9:15-11:30. Please bring a light backpack, water, snack, plant guide, light jacket, layers, comfortable walking shoes. It will be 14 degrees and sunny tomorrow — fingers crossed that this does not change!

Today we also spent some time exploring poetry, brainstorming words about nature and putting together our feelings about nature into one class poem, to be published in a future post. Everyone kept a record of it in their journal, which will be collected later in the unit. Please make sure to keep up with entries as the journal will be marked. 

After making a class poem, everyone had an opportunity to look at a large collection of poetry books and chose a favourite nature poem to record, as well. Please continue to look for examples of poetry you enjoy, and feel free to share any books you enjoy with us.

We are doing a read aloud of a new book called The Skeleton Tree. This book by Iain Lawrence involves the adventure of two boys who are the only survivors of a shipwreck off the Alaskan coast. They have no radio, no flares, and no food, so they have to forage, fish and scavenge the shore for supplies. It is an exciting survival story, and the details about how the two use the land to survive link well with our Nature Connection unit.

In Math, we are finishing finding Earth Numbers! Please finish finding these facts tonight. In class, please find a partner to develop a chart, diagram, or graph to illustrate some of the data (choose some of the data, don’t use all of it) and be ready to present this graph to the class. You will need to justify why you chose the format you did for sharing the data.

Tuning In Articles, Deep Cove Notices, and the Food Web Worksheet are overdue.

Don’t forget our nature challenge! As we said in class, the natural locations do not have to be just in Burnaby. Anywhere you visit where you can get a picture of yourself in a recognizable, natural location will work.

Reminder: When putting away technology, please make sure you PLUG IN YOUR DEVICE. Thank you, as this helps us be ready for the next day.

See you tomorrow!

Ms. D

Battle of the Books!

This term we will be having a BATTLE OF THE BOOKS within our own class. You have until June 12th to read as many of the 11 books in our classroom as you can! 

You do not have to read all of them, but do as many as you can and coordinate with your team members so all books are read.

As you read, take some basic notes so you remember what the book is about. We will also be writing questions for our books that will be used as part of the competition.

Each question will begin with, “In what book would you find…..” or, “In what book does….” with the answers always being a specific book title that you have to guess as a team. The questions should not be ones you can find the answer to by just reading the back book cover. We are looking for more depth than that! We will be talking together about asking deeper questions about our reading to help. The questions will show your reading comprehension, and this activity is part of our LA Reading marks for the term.

On June 12th, teams will sit together and answer questions about the books. We will have several rounds over a few days, and the team with the highest number of correct answers wins!

Books can be taken home to finish reading, but PLEASE TAKE CARE OF THEM! They are checked out in your name and the same rules apply as checking out a library book from Suncrest. Thank you.

Always see Ms. D to check in your book before taking another to sign out.

Books we will be reading are:

Wings of Fire The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland
13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison
Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson
Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
A Year in the Life of a Total and Complete Genius by Stacey Matson
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH  by Robert C. O’Brien
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur
Trouble Twisters by Garth Nix and Sean Williams
Arthur The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley-Holland

Hello Everyone!

Only three days until Spring Break! Everyone has been doing great work and projects are almost done. Here are some announcements before we go:

1.  Socials Interview: Due Wednesday EOD

2.  Playground Project & Explanation: Due Wednesday EOD

3.  French Trivia Game: Due Friday EOD

4.  Art Sculpture Contribution:  Due Friday EOD

5.  Independent Project: Start thinking about questions to ask, using the Wonderings Board as a guide.

6.  Blog and E-Portfolios Off-Line: We won’t be able to use both the blog and e-ports from Wednesday – Friday of this week due to maintenance. This will be my last post before the break.

7. Jump Rope for Heart: Fundraising Reminder if you are doing it, and we will have our jump rope event on Friday during our regular gym time.

8. Upcoming Field Trips: April 18th – Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve; May 16,23 and 26th Dragon Boating at Burnaby Lake (notice to come in April); June 20th Kayaking and End of Year Celebration at Deep Cove in North Vancouver.

9. CONGRATS!!! — Congrats to Science Games Team (Jay, Michael, Vlad, Jonathan and Daniel) who took the GOLD MEDAL at Saturday’s Science Games. Two years in a row with a gold medal! Congrats! Thank you for your hard work.

10. Heads Up – Student Leds: Hold the date, April 6th, 2-7 PM Student Leds. More info to come after break to sign up for a specific time.

Have a restful break, everyone!! My goal by end of March is to post more pictures, because I have lots to put up from our CSI unit and the playground work!

Ms. D

Hello Everyone,

Sometimes it is helpful to understand the “why” behind what we are doing, so I thought I would explain some of our current tasks in terms of the SKILLS we are learning that will help us be able to do INDEPENDENT PROJECT work.

Project Work: Today, our schedule said “Stuff” — meaning that all day was a work day. We had a list of things to do, and everyone made a priority checklist to get things done. Being able to manage your time is an important skill! So, everyone had to divide up the day into time periods to get things done; prioritize tasks according to due dates; and be aware of focus, changing up what they were working on if they felt their engagement was running low. TIME MANAGEMENT and AWARENESS!

Playground Project: This project means using the DESIGN PROCESS (Ask what the problem is, Consider limitations to the task, Imagine the possibilities, Plan what you will do, Identify materials, Create your design, Improve the design as needed during the process.) You also need COLLABORATION skills to work with your partners and to come to consensus about the playground design.

Art: You need to learn how to USE TOOLS APPROPRIATELY and SAFELY. Use paint without making a huge mess by planning your workspace. Use materials responsibly, only taking what you need. If you use hot glue or other tools that can harm you, be responsible and careful. Work in an appropriate space. Be aware of people around you. Clean up your workspace when done! And, develop FINE MOTOR SKILLS as you manipulate materials to create new things!

E-Portfolio: Learn to REFLECT on your work. Find a way to document your work process, so you can learn what you did well and what you would change for next time! If you only focus on the final product, then you won’t know exactly what part of the process could have been improved. DOCUMENT YOUR WORK!

Debate: Be an effective and persuasive COMMUNICATOR! Back up your opinions with evidence. Practice what you are going to say before presenting. Choose the right kind of words to express your ideas so people remember what you said to them. Communicate with others when you need things. When you feel things (such as frustration or confusion) use your words to tell people about it rather than allowing the emotions to take you over, which leads to bad decisions. 

Creativity: All of the tasks above required CREATIVITY. Remember, though, good ideas do not come out of magic. Be OPEN-MINDED to others’s ideas and look at things from all PERSPECTIVES. The best ideas occur when we build upon others’ ideas. Add to ideas, don’t take them down. Don’t feel like you need to be alone when coming up with ideas. Group think!

All of this will help us as we lead to our independent project. I look forward to seeing how you use these skills in term three!