What's happening in Div 9?

This week in Div 9

We have had an extremely busy week preparing to have our guests in for Student Led interviews. It’s felt like a whirlwind and hard to remember exactly what we did! 🙂

The biggest change in our classroom has been our wriggly caterpillar friends transforming into their pupa mode, their chrysalis. We have been learning all about their amazing life cycle and about their adaptations that keep them safe in their environment.  It’s been exciting to see their changes and we should be welcoming some butterflies very soon (maybe tomorrow, even?)

In math we have had a couple weeks of measurement and we are now revisiting place value in order to dig a little deeper into addition and subtraction before summer.  We have also been doing estimation station and each day of the week were offered a new clue to get closer to the number of lolliops we had.  Everyone did a really good job of adjusting their guesses as new clues came up.  The secret number was….24! What will be our number next week?

We read Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox by Indigenous author Danielle Daniel and wrote a short poem on what animal we often feel like, adding a (kinda strange) self-portrait of ourselves dressed as that animal. We will be moving on to some non-fiction writing about animals in the next weeks.

On Friday we had tons of fun with an almost full day project based on the book If I Built A Car. We made blueprints of a brand new car design and then made models using all kinds of materials. SO MUCH FUN. Our class really shows their creativity and passion with activities like these, and they are perfect opportunities to talk about growth mindset, which continues to be an ongoing conversation.

Thank you all for coming to our student led conversations.  I know the students were feeling a lot about it- nervous, excited, happy, proud…the works!

Take care and let’s hope the sun comes out this week!

Living things

Unbelievably, it is May 1st! Time flies- feels like just yesterday we were studying the Coast Salish Fall.

This week has brought some exciting guests to us: our caterpillars.  They are quite fascinating and we are watching them grow and change, heading towards their metamorphosis. We have been learning a lot about life cycles- life cycles of plants and seasons, and now our caterpillars. This Spring is all about living things, their life cycles, adaptations and environments.

To celebrate ‘Earth Month’ we are doing show and share– bring in something from nature that is awe-inspiring and brings you gratitude for our natural world. Each student gets to bring in and present something. It’s a wonderful sharing time.

We are also writing poetry and working on parts of speech.  Poetry is always so much fun to teach as young kids are the best, most inventive poets. 🙂 This week we have been making alliteration poems. We each created a new creature out of recycled materials, and then wrote an alliteration poem about it. Much fun!

In Math we have shifted from geometry to measurement, first studying non-standard measurements and now introducing standard units. Next week we will be coming back to place value, addition and subtraction, expanding our knowledge of grouping and regrouping.

We can’t wait to see you and share our learning on MAY 12th, for student led conferences.  It will be such a joy to welcome you into our classroom.  It has been too long, and I know the students would just love to show you around, if your family takes the in-person option.

Thanks again for all your support of your child and their education. It makes such a difference 🙂 Take care, and see you on the 12th!

It’s Spring!

Happy Spring, everyone!

It’s been a few weeks since we returned from Spring Break, and have we ever been busy! I am getting back in the swing of remembering to take photos and post on SeeSaw- sometimes it’s difficult not to get caught up in the moment with the kids.  They are doing lots of incredible things at the moment, growing leaps and bounds (unlike our bean plants :/ )

Math:  We have had SO much fun with shapes since Spring Break, exploring them in all kinds of ways. 2D and 3D shapes, building from nets, using marshmallows and toothpicks, creating LOTS of art, playing with magnet shapes and so often I am hearing kids discussing different shapes throughout the day, noticing objects around the room: “Hey! Our pencil container is a cylinder!” “I know– so is the pencil!”  Geometry has definitely been a hit!

Literacy:  We have also been enjoying learning poetry– reading it and writing it.  Some real poets have emerged in our class and it’s inspiring! We are loving Shel Silverstein and other poets, and exploring some descriptive words. We are also still working on our daily reading, our word play (most recently learning ‘ng’, ‘n’, ‘g’ and ‘nk’ endings.  Look for and discuss these at home.  They are tricky!

Science: All about plants…. we have been learning about plant parts and life cycles. We are trying to plant and document beans, but it’s been a little slow going.  We are all really interested in plants and living things, so this next month will be fun, moving from plants to animals.

Art: We are always engaging in art, through all subject areas. We have learned about Paul Klee and the Sakura festival. We are doing lots of painting and decorating, and using shape and symmetry to create.

Gym: Soccer was a blast.  The students had so much fun learning from the professionals and (with a little help from Mr. Maan) are practising skills in PE now. We are also trying to get outside as much as the sun will allow!

We continue to learn about the seven sacred teachings, recently learning the 5th sacred law: Honesty.  Using the seven sacred teachings has been so wonderful and on a daily basis the kids are referring to them and asking to learn the next law! Using story to teach and learn how to be your best person in the world really is transformative! Thank you to the Anishanaabe elders and anscestors for sharing these stories and letting us share them with our children. We also continue to explore our emotions and how to self-regulate in class.

This week marks Earth Day, and our students will be celebrating in a few different ways.  One way is that I invite the students to start bringing in a show and tell from something special from the natural world (not a toy).  I will let you know when it is your child’s turn to bring something in to share!

I will also (finally) be sending home some ‘homework’ to try and eat something from all different parts of the plant.  This should be coming home this week!

Thank you for all your support at home.  I can’t believe we are in the last stretch to summer.  This begins the bittersweet time of seeing so much growth in the students but recognizing our time together as a class community will come to a close. This is the time to enjoy each other’s company, the sunshine and be present.

Take care, and thanks again!

Happy Family Day

Dear families,

I hope you are enjoying your Pro-D day with your child today, and that you had a wonderful Family Day on Monday.  Today I am learning about decolonisation of education and Story Workshop.  Feeling excited about some story making and art in the next two weeks before Spring Break.

In the last two weeks we have had lots of fun and inspiration in Division 9.  We have been continuing on in our Night Sky studies.  We met Van Gogh last week and he asked us to do some sketch work.  I truly thought the kids would do some rough sketches but– OH MY!  Their work was absolutely tremendous.  I am putting it up in the hallway next to our Van Gogh Starry Night mural this week and will take photos.  Really beautiful!

We have also been learning about constellations, which has everyone excited.  If you have time, warm clothes and a clear sky, go out with your child for a star gazing adventure.  See if they can find some of the more obvious constellations in Western myth: Ursa major and minor, Casseopeia, Orion, Pegasus…. I showed them an app called Stellarium which has been a big hit.

In morning work many kids have been enchanted by the New York Times game Vertex- a very challenging form of polygon dot-to-dot.

We continue to do some story writing, word play & sight word practice this week.  We are also working on our fine motor skills through a program called Callirobics.  I encourage all the students to do fine motor work at home– small lego, drawing small dots and pictures, beading, rolling clay or playdoh into small beads, etc.

In math we have finished up our addition strategies and are flying into subtraction!  All our work on addition is helping us understanding subtraction!

I can’t believe we have just 2 weeks left until Spring Break AND that report cards will be coming home just before! Wow!  Time flies.

I hope you are all well.  If you have any comments or questions leading up to the reports, or afterward, please let me know!  My virtual door is always open 🙂

Happy Valentines Day!

This week in Division 9 we have been learning lots, as usual!  We have had a particularly good time doing a solar system project involving ADST (applied design science technology), science, art and literacy! On Wednesday we started talking about the solar system and different planets.  We then designed our own planet, first on paper and then in a 3D version.  It was so much fun and the students were VERY engaged in this project.  On Thursday we then made adaptations to visit our planets- what kind of space boots would we have to make to visit each planet?  I.e., for a hot fiery planet you may need fire protected boots with a force field button for falling meteorites.  For an underwater planet you may need flippers and jet boosters to get away from unknown creatures. They designed and created life size 3D boots to adapt to their planet. It was also a hit with the students and they continue to amaze me with their creativity and hard work! The space boot activity will be a great link to animal adaptations soon to come. I wish I had more pictures but I was on hot glue gun duty and was in high demand!

In math we played a very  fun game called Math battle which the kids keep asking to play again. This is a strategy game we all play together where they earn coins for answering math facts quickly. They then have to strategize what they do with their coins. This is a game to encourage quick recall of basic facts and cement some of the addition strategies we have been working so hard on recently. We have also been learning a difficult addition strategy called ‘part, part whole’… or sometimes called missing addends. We are getting it but it can be a difficult one! Some kids are challenging themselves with some hard word problems as well.

We read the book Kate and the Beanstalk this week, working on visualising as a reading strategy. This will be our last fairy tale as part of our fairy tale study. Through fairy tales we have been working on retelling, visualising, inferring and predicting.  Good job, everyone!  We also learned the short i vowel sound which makes it so we have learned and practiced all short vowel sounds in consonant-vowel-consonant words, which will help in our writing.

We have also been learning some emotional vocabulary this week using the Everyday Speech program online and doing art.  I really want to expand our collective vocabulary of ways to express how we feel.  This is a foundation for emotional wellness and I would encourage all of you at home to explore the great continuum of language for discussing feelings.

Happy Valentines Day to everyone and thanks for reading! 🙂

Happy Lunar New Year!

Happy Year of the Tiger, everyone!

We have had a fun-filled week of celebration.  We finished our dragons on Monday and on Tuesday we rung in the new year by bringing our school good luck.  Staff hung lettuce in doorways, inviting our dragons to dance and eat the lettuce as we paraded down the hallway.  We used music to make lots of noise and had a good time.  Everyone was very impressed with our multi-medium dragons.

We continued to celebrate the New Year with a number of activities this week.  We read ‘The Great Race’ to learn about the Chinese Zodiac and retold the story in a couple different ways.  We made banners to decorate the class and hong bao with Mrs Lee.  We did New Year Yoga for gym. We had a good time and our year is sure to be filled with good fortune!

We also worked to finish our stories.  The students really worked SO hard on them and I am very proud.  On Friday we celebrated with a tea party and story reading.  Shifu even brought us timbits.

In Science we learned about the phases of the moon and how the New Year begins on the New Moon.

In math we learned a bit of a tricky concept– near doubles (also called neighbour facts).  We practised getting faster at our doubles facts and also did a challenge activity- toothpick puzzles.

Next week I would like to have a more….low key week and we will return to some of our routines… word play, journal writing, etc.  🙂  There is just so much fun stuff to do together!

Please remember:

-Library is always on Tuesdays

-To ensure your child has a spare set of clothes (2 pairs of socks, one pair of pants, one pair of underwear) labelled and in a bag.

-To try to keep toys at home and if kids do bring toys, please ask them to put them in their backpacks upon entering the class

Take good care and be well!

Big project week!

Dear families,

Xin Nian Kuai Le, Gung Hai Fat Choi, and Happy New Year!  However you celebrate I hope the year of the tiger brings you good luck and good health.

We have had a big week of projects– I am so proud of our students in Division 9.  It is really difficult to sustain energy and motivation for big projects and they are doing SO well.

Fairy Tales:  This week the students have applied their knowledge of Setting & character, Beginning, Middle and End. They are writing amazing stories, using creativity, inventive spelling, risk taking and imagination. I am really impressed with their work, and I think we all have the writing bug.

Growth Mindset: On Monday we used the story of the Three Little Pigs to explore growth and fixed mindset and to build a new home for the pigs with a variety of materials. Students had to design, construct and revise new homes to keep the piggies safe.  They tested the strength of their homes by blowing a strong wind at them (with a hair dryer!)  We are getting so much better at risk taking and are practising using the vocabulary of growth mindset.  Go, Division 9!

Art: Our big project has been working on our mixed-medium dragons to ring in the Lunar New Year.  Our Grade 1 & 2 students have built using papier mache, decorated using 2 mediums of paint, created their own fabric using a batik method and designed their own 3D dragons!  Amazing.  We have some incredible artists in our class.

Math: We have learned our double facts and will expand this week to include doubles plus one.  Doubles are a great thing to practice at home because they are just one of those things you have to practice and memorize! Math is about a lot more than knowing calculations– but the memorization of basic facts and the tools of addition strategies make the more complex problem solving much easier and faster.

We have also been doing some problem solving using pattern blocks– trying to build pictures of space objects– rockets, aliens, satelites, etc.- using a limited number of blocks for a challenge.  So impressed with our students who use growth mindset to approach these more difficult problems.

Happy New Year all- and until next week…. 🙂

This week in Div 9

It’s been so delightful to get to see students who have come back this week, and our group feels like it is slowly coming back together. We’ve had another busy week and were happy to see a little sun come out for us towards the end. 

Welcome back!

Welcome back and Happy New Year, everyone!  It has been SO nice to have kids back in school and have some feeling of normalcy back in the classroom.

We had a really lovely week, albeit one of transition.  There are some changes in our classroom– we all have our own table space, facing foward and we have a different schedule to have staggered lunch and recess.  We are all adapting to the changes, but had a very good week, all told.

We are starting a unit on fairy tales and began our week by learning about predicting and retelling using ‘The Mitten” by Jan Brett. We retold the story using scrambled pictures of the story and then used ozobots to show the sequencing!

In Math, we are revisiting our addition strategies and reviewed Adding with Zero and Counting on.  We are also doing some interesting math problems in some shorter time periods we have, due to the new schedules.  So, we did some tricky logic puzzles and are going to be doing some tangrams next week.

We are continuing on with a study of the sky and have been looking at models of why we have day and night, using a globe and lamp.  We made our own models using paper.  We also learned about why we have the seasons and are categorising the months of the year into seasons, according to where the earth’s position is around the sun.  It’s pretty hard to grasp, but we are enjoying learning about it!

This Friday was Black Excellence Day, which is a day to celebrate the many accomplishments of Black Canadians in all different fields.  Although he is not Canadian, we studied the art of Jean Michel Basquiat as someone who knew how talented he was from a very young age.  He knew he would be a famous artist as a child and followed his dreams to become one of the most well known and innovative artists in North America.  We enjoyed studying his work, reading the book “Radiant Child” by Javaka Steptoe.  Basquiat’s art challenges us to be messy, paint outside the lines, draw with passion and with our hearts and to take risks.  I was wishing each parent was there to see the children drawing with such focus and passion, listening to jazz (as would Basquiat).  I asked Mr. Maan (our afternoon EA) to take a video as my phone was hooked up to the speaker.  The quality turned out not very well, but the feeling in the room was inspirational.  I wish you could have all been flies on the wall!

I am late to post pictures and videos from the week on Seesaw– I’m out of practice!  But will post them now for you to have a look at some of our work this week.

Just a reminder- I will be out of the classroom on Monday and Tuesday and the students will have the same TOC for both days.  Can’t wait to see them again on Wednesday!

AND, do you like getting blog posts with what we are doing?  Is it redundant with Seesaw?  I would love some feedback on the modes of communication coming to you– At the moment I post on Seesaw, send blogs when I am able (weekly/biweekly), a monthly newsletter to print and have at home, and send emails with immediate information and ‘housekeeping’ type things.  If you have an opinion and/or time, please let me know!

Take care, be well, and with gratitude,

Ms. Merkel

Newsletter text for translation purposes :)

Hello all,

Here is the text on the December newsletter if you would like to translate 🙂