Hello Division 4 & Families

We’ve had a busy few weeks in Div.4 jam packed with learning.

We’ve been continuing in our research into pollinators. Students looked up specific shelters and their dimensions for their chosen pollinator. We’re so excited to start our building process with the support of Alex McKillop today and Friday. You can check out the links below to see some our research. Div.4, make sure you share your blog post about our inquiry process with your family!

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. 5 we’re in the process of creating a bulletin board inspired by Whale Child and highlighting the importance of being green! Check out the beginnings of our board.

In Book Club we’ve been continuing reading our graphic novels. We’ve focused on ensuring that we’re using specific text evidence to support our thinking. In meetings we have been focusing on active listening to our group members and responding thoughtfully.

In writing we’re focusing on paragraphs. 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. After we finished our first draft we discussed how we edit our paragraphs and what tools we can use. Students then used their editing checklist to peer edit someone else’s writing. After receiving feedback, students are beginning to type up their good copies.

Yesterday we had the lovely Ms. Dodd in with us. We listened to a story about Thunderbird and coloured thunderbird poppies. The Thunderbird Poppy was created by Stuart Pagaduan, a Coast Salish artist from the Cowichan Nation to commemorate the contributions and service of over 12,000 indigenous soldiers, peacekeepers and veterans. We focused on using bold colours with some students choosing to play with warm or cool tones.