One of the celebrations that many Div. 6 families share is Halloween! Over the last few weeks, we had fun creating haunted houses with Ms. McGivern. We practiced our place value fluency with some Halloween math, acted out some Halloween words with drama games, and created spooky stories and poems in our journals. Friday afternoon, we also got to see the whole school’s costumes during the virtual Halloween parade! What a fun way to bring our community together!

Div. 6 had the opportunity to create stories with diverse plant invitations this week. What do these materials look like, smell like, and feel like? How can we draw them closely? How can we combine them with familiar materials to create new stories? Stay tuned for photos of our wall gallery! Can you create some new stories at home?

In Div. 6, we would like to offer a warm welcome to our student teacher, Ms. Devon! She is a student from UBC and is excited to be working with our class! We look forward to building our learning together. Here is a short introduction note from Ms. Devon:

Dear Division 6 Families,  

My name is Devon Naylor and I am excited to introduce myself as a teacher candidate spending my practicum with Ms. Carley this year. I began my two–week practicum on October 26th. I will also be spending each Thursday working with the class throughout the year. During the spring I will be teaching for two months. The class has been very welcoming. They are gentle and kind and I have enjoyed going outside and connecting with nature together. I look forward to getting to know them more. 

Sincerely,  

Ms. Devon 

Div. 6 scientists, engineers, artists, readers, writers, mathematicians, and problem-solvers were hard at work this week!

We worked on finishing our STEAM turkey obstacle courses! We loved sharing our unique and creative ideas with our classmates! Here is a virtual gallery of the obstacles that some students wanted to share.

A team of our Div. 6 actors created a video for our upcoming virtual Celebration of Learning on Tuesday at 9:45! They created masks, a script, and rehearsed their announcement of Super Hero Day next Thursday, Oct. 22nd! Can you make or wear a superhero costume that day? We had some pretty creative super hero masks being made this week! We look forward to creating a new video project soon!

We took our learning outdoors, making careful observations of types of leaves with particular characteristics. Can you find any examples of simple or compound leaves on your walks this weekend? How about “toothed”, “lobed”, or “toothless” leaf margins?

As “Anywhere Artists”, we used our amazing perspectives to notice some interesting things in the forest. Can you see the fox, the T, and the triangle in the photos below?

We learned a new game called, “Target Thinking” in Math to practice and develop our fluency with addition and subtraction as we move. Let me know if you would like a copy to play at home! And don’t forget to sign up for Epic Reading! Our class code is hqa2214.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Ms. Carley

Dear Families,

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday weekend! This week, our focus was gratitude. Starting the week with a gratitude walk, we shared about the flora, the fauna, and all the biota that we are grateful for. Some of our featured books of the week were Giving Thanks by Chief Jake Swamp and Thank You, World by Alice B. McGinty. These messages and stories helped us explore the interconnectedness and the gifts we find around us in our world. Div. 6 writers took several opportunities to write about their gratitude.

This week, Div. 6 and Div. 8 received our daffodil bulbs and prepared for our journey this year. After careful observational drawings of the inside and outside of our bulbs on Thursday, we planted them on Friday. We are looking forward to their emergence this spring.

While some of our classmates started by planting and weeding, the other half created their land art self-portraits. We carefully chose natural items that represented who we are. Can you find your portrait and show your family? Why did you chose those natural materials? Can you spot your friends?

All throughout our Friday morning adventures, the rain kept us company. It reminded us the importance of bringing clothes (perhaps a change of clothes too) and footwear that is ready for all types of weather, as we will be continuing to take our learning and playing outdoors all year.

You may notice some new faces in Div. 6.  Mr. W’s, a new Education Assistant at UHE, just finished his second week with us, and Ms. Devon, our student teacher, had her first visit on Thursday.

As we enter the long weekend, I also want to share my gratitude for the students, families, and staff who are members of our class community! Thank you for sharing your joy, creativity, and kindness with us!

Div. 6 artists chose special materials for our recent art project. By collecting leaves from the trees we have been studying, we were able to create unique bird art.

Thank you to the families of Div. 6 for joining me at Parents as Partners Conferences this week! It was wonderful connecting with so many of you. I am looking forward to this year with your child and your family!

Div. 6 has been busy getting to know one another during the last few weeks. By creating questions and gathering data, we have explored tallies, bar graphs, and pictographs. We have also graphed our observations outside. What characteristics can we use to group our found materials? How can we organize our data to compare and analyze what we have found? Which ways of representing help us easily recognize the differences between amounts?

Over the past few weeks, we have been exploring our school community, noticing the trees around us. After looking carefully, noticing, and wondering, we chose a tree to observe even more closely. Can you show your tree to your family this week?

Div. 6 scientists love to explore. Here are some of their amazing finds. We love to capture our wonders with photos. Let’s keep collecting!