Dear Div. 11 Families,

I am so honoured to have worked with your families this year! It has been such a pleasure getting to know you all.

Div. 11 had a lovely last week together. We visited our favourite forest spaces with our binoculars and magnifying glasses.

We said goodbye to our big buddies with one last art and science project! We created art featuring our favourite forest treasures on cyanotype paper. We were inspired by the story of Anna Atkins and The Bluest of Blues. We were amazed at the chemical reactions in this project!

I hope you treasure these memories and artifacts as special times from our amazing community. We are excited to bring home our portfolios – please feel to add to them from any of the other special things that came home – maybe some Amigos Alados learning can be put into your binders!

Thank you to all the parents and families who have joined us on our field trips and in our learning this year!  We appreciated your help, care… and photos!

I also want to extend another huge thank you for all your incredibly kind and thoughtful cards and gifts from Div. 11. I will treasure them always!

Wishing you so much fun this summer with your loved ones!

Love,

Ms. Carley

On Friday, we had our Div. 11 & 12 Celebration Park Picnic! Thank you to all the students, parents, siblings, and pets who came and made the day so special! I was having too much fun to take many photos! But we especially loved playing with chalk, bubbles, pets, water, and the playground!

On Wednesday, it was National Indigenous Peoples Day! We had Elder Auntie Patti come in to tell us some stories.

We also had a special visit from Ms. Yee on Thursday! She read us a funny book.

We have been exploring forces and motion all around us!

We visited the SFU lab again for a chemistry workshop exploring chemical changes! What were some of the amazing things we saw… and tasted?!

We have finished our amazing poetry and have put it up for everyone to enjoy!

We made some stunning bee art!

We took a photo with our one words from the year before sending them home!

We have been playing with financial literacy by creating our very own shops and buying each other’s amazing products! Here are just a few snapshots!

We always love creating stories and world with our loose parts! Here are a few snaps from the week!

Last week, we had our year end garden celebration! Div. 4 harvested, washed, prepared, cooked, and served amazing dishes from our garden! A special thank you to Pablo, and Niko’s mom and sister for being an integral part of making the day possible!

June is Pride Month and we loved sharing messages of pride inspired by Pride Puppy. Our diversity club put up our inclusive pride flag!

A few more dates to note as the year comes to an end:

• Mon. June 26^th – Special walk to our Aspen forest and beyond at 1:15-2:45
• Tues. June 27^th – Buddies at 9:15-11:15– we will be making a special project and could use some parents to support us! Please let me know if you are free on Tuesday morning to help!
• Wed. June 28^th – Pajama day! Your child can bring their coziest (or coolest) PJs and a stuffy to enjoy our last full day together! You are invited to come in for family mindful minutes at 8:50-9:30 to create something together, see your child’s new stories, or read a book together.
• Thurs. June 29^th – Last day of school for students – early dismissal at 10:00am and report cards are sent home

Div. 11 has such a special community and we have had so much fun learning and celebrating over the last few weeks!

Today, we had sports day and loved playing together with the fun stations created by grade 7s!

This week, we loved reading I have the Right to Be A Child and having a wonderful discussion. Ms. Anna was so impressed with our deep thinking! We also got to watch the grade. 6/7 play! Our big buddies are so talented!

On Monday, we went to Grouse Mountain to visit the Feast House to hear songs and stories with William. We had a thrive and survive workshop, played in the treetop playground, and met Grinder and Coola! We have been learning so much about these two beautiful Grizzly Bears, so it was such a treat to see them in person! Can you spot the salamanders? Tell your family your favourite part!

We have been creating some amazing poetry and we are finding the perfect place to display it! We have also been creating beautiful Picasso-inspired art! We are all so unique!

We had our final gardening session with Pablo and Kana! We loved planting, transplanting, harvesting, exploring the soil and compost, moving soil to our new planters, and searching for amazing native plants around our garden spaces! Please feel welcome to take your families on a scavenger hunt! And we are looking forward to next Wednesday, June 14th’s garden celebration!!

We got a special package in the mail from Alison and we made a new bulletin board to celebrate our thinking! Thank you, Alison and Amigos Alados!!

We had such a wonderful time showing our families around on Student Led Conference Night! Thank you for celebrating our learning with us!

We look forward to the next few weeks together! We hope you can join us:

• June 20th SFU Science workshop 10:45-11:45 (meeting at 10:15)
• June 23rd Potluck Picnic Party in the Park! @1-3 (tentatively at upper grassy park or at SFU)
  • Families and siblings are welcome!
• We will have a few more walks too – stay tuned!

It has been a very special time in Div. 11! We have been watching our caterpillars grow and change over the last few weeks. We have become experts on their life cycle, body parts, and importance for our community! We read them stories and even showed them our art. Then, earlier this week, the butterflies hatched from their chrysalis!

Today, we knew we were going to release the butterflies into the amazing sunshine. We took some time to write our beautiful butterflies some letters of gratitude and well wishes on their journey before we sent them on their way. Many of us chose to read our letters to our butterflies and lay them beside their nets.

We loved watching our butterflies fly away to their new homes.

Last week, we were reminded of Red Dress Day which led us into a wonderful conversation about the importance of the day and the need for change and equity. Kela made the connection to Lilo and Stitch – “no one left behind or forgotten.” The students asked if they could wear red on Friday May 5th in honour of the day. Thank you for your thoughtful conversation, Div. 11!

On May 11th we had Jump Rope for Heart Day! Some of our favourite Story Workshop characters reminded us about the day!

Our authors and writers in Div. 11 have been busy making new books and setting up shop!

They even bravely shared their stories with Ms. Cooper’s Grade 1 Students! The grade ones were so inspired!!

In math, we have been going on all sorts of math walks to see what measurement, geometry, addition, subtraction, estimation that we can find, and more! Tell your families where the trillium gets its name!

We have also been finding math in all our other learning! Grinder and Coola have woken up in time for our June 5 Grouse Mountain Trip! While we were reading about them, we found so much interesting numeracy! Did you know that Coola weighs approximately 1000 pounds more than Colin??

We hope you enjoy the beautiful spring sunshine this weekend as a family! Maybe you will meet one of our beautiful butterflies!

The last two weeks have been full of amazing adventures. April 22 was Earth Day, and we have truly been exploring how we can love our Earth and the creatures in it.

We got to hear one of our favourite books, Be a Good Ancestor, read by one of its authors, Leona Prince! We thought about ways we can be good ancestors.

We welcomed caterpillars into our classroom. They have already grown so big during their time with us – just one week! We love to see how they grow and change every day! How will they transform?

We finished our third and final pen pal letter and sent it to Mexico! We know that learning and teaching about birds helps us advocate for them, their habitats, and their treatment. Some of us also entered the Amigos Alados art contest!

We have been writing poems! Last week we started our opposite poems, all about nature and Earth Day!

In math, we have been exploring geometry all around us! We learned how to draw Tumus (Otter) from Indigenous artist, Andrea Fritz. She taught us how to use traditional northwest coast First Peoples shapes, such as ovoids, U, and split U in our art to represent the shapes we see reflected in the natural environment.

Can you find any shapes this weekend? We have also learned how to add more complexity to our target thinking math game! See if you can play as a family!

On Tuesday, we had a special visit from the SFU Fair Trade Amabassador, Daphne! Our school is a Fair Trade school, so we have a special connection and we learned so much! We sorted and talked about needs versus wants. Then we learned that even though farmers have a very challenging job, they are paid a very tiny proportion. Finally, we found out more about how fair trade and how it can support equity and communities! Be sure to talk with your families and hand in your Fair Trade reflection next week!

On Wednesday, we were the photographers for the Pollinator Garden planting! The grade 4/5s made mason bee tubes, painted garden signs, and planted native, pollinator plants! Our garden is ready to welcome bees, butterflies, birds, and other pollinators! Come visit our special garden!

Today was the UHE Green Team plant sale! The green team worked hard to plant the seeds in March and they were ready to sell today! Ms. Carley was busy helping the green team and we got to come help and buy some plants too! We love our new plants! All our proceeds go towards our school’s learning on the land!

Congratulations to our authors! This week, we had special sharing from Sebastian, Amelia, Mariam, and Maia! Ian, Yuha, and Niko published the next books in their series and are creating a book store! Wow! Next week, Amal and other authors will have a chance to share!

The beginning of spring is full of celebrations! Sending best wishes to everyone celebrating Ramadan this ninth month, Easter this long weekend, and Baisakhi (Vaisakhi) this April 14th!

Here are a few snapshots of Div. 11 learning from each day this week!

On Monday, we measured our pod’s potatoes! We are so excited to see how they grow and change!

On Tuesday, we had the special treat of visiting the Museum of Archaeology at SFU! We learned so much about what it means to be an archaeologist and all the amazing  things that they do! We put together the puzzle of a human skeletons by comparing our bone pictures to a skeleton model! We sorted human skulls from older to younger, learning all about interesting evolutionary characteristics such as skull size and brow bones! We also got to put pieces of a jar back together using play-doh to connect the matching pieces! We ended our field trip with an Easter Egg hunt where we got explore all the different parts of the museum, including some pole carvings, canoes, African masks, and so many more amazing exhibits! A huge thank you to Maia’s mom, Merrill for inviting us, and a huge thank you to our parent volunteers for joining us!

On Wednesday, we had another garden workshop! We learned more about pollinators, and starting creating our own bee models. We prepared our garden beds and loved all the creatures we found! We also created story stones with Niko’s mom, Kana! We are so grateful for these amazing opportunities in the garden to explore science, literacy, and art!

On Thursday, we learned about being kind to each other. We did some role-playing and read a story all about kindness with Ms. Nicyfor. We considered things that we think and things that we say. We want to say kind and helpful things to each other. We brought home an activity to talk to you about and continue our conversations of choices, strategies, and being a good friend. This learning is perfect as we prepare for International Day of Pink on April 12th!

What will our learning look like next week?

What an exciting start back from spring break!

We started our week with some Wishtree, and made our very own key necklaces, just like Samar got from Bongo. We had some amazing conversations about inclusion, discrimination, racism, standing up for others, and kindness. We also had lots of fun thinking of the names we would like if we were a baby skunk (our favourite smell).

This week, we took our math learning outside to measure everything we could find! We noticed changes throughout the week and discovered certain tools worked better than others. We are improving our estimation skills and learning about different referents. We can’t stop measuring! We even found measurement math at our SFU science workshops!!

Our first SFU science workshop was all about the food webs of kelp forests! We learned how kelp forests are homes to many interesting creatures, and that it is important to have balance in the ecosystem. Some interesting vocabulary we learned was that while trees have leaves; kelp have blades, trees have trunks and kelp have stipe; trees have roots, while kelp have holdfasts!  What interesting things can you share with your family?

One of our favourite parts of this workshop was creating Play Doh sculpures of animals that live in kelp forests! We kept creating with Ms. Carley’s loose parts and Play Doh back at school this week!

Our second SFU workshop was all about insects! We learned about how they communicate, their body parts, their senses, and other interesting facts! We also learned how we can support pollinators in our community – some ways were planting native species, not mowing lawns and keeping leaf litter.  Can you find any insects this weekend as the weather gets warmer?

Today was International Day of Trans Visibility and we loved reading Introducing Teddy to start our conversation about recognizing, celebrating, and respecting each other.

We started writing poetry this week! Here are a few of our very first poems of the year! We were inspired to write poems about our warblers and other amazing creatures we have been learning about! Can you write a poem about something that inspires you this weekend? Feel free to post it in the comments, if you’d like!

Looking forward to more fun adventures next week, including:

• April 4th – Museum of Archaeology 1-3
• April 5th – Garden workshop at 1:15

Wishing your family a wonderful, restful weekend!

We loved creating a welcoming feel in the school with our special messages! Here are just a few:

“I can show kindness by being a friend” – Felix

“I can stand up for others!” – Sophia

“We can be kind to mother earth by using less plastic and being kind to others.” – Benjamin

“I can help others when they are hurt!” – Amelia

“I can show kindness by picking up garbage and recycling bottles and cans!” – Ian

“I can take turns.” – Sebastian

“I can help animals.” – Mariam

We had some amazing learning leaders in the class these last two weeks. Maia brought in her new book, Beautiful Oops and read for our class! Thank you for reading with such expression, and sharing such an important message!

Kela and Amal were our storytellers! We had so much fun acting out their imaginative adventures!

We have been exploring measurement and using non-standard measurements this week! We had so many observations of how these strategies worked for us, and why they would be hard to communicate to our pen pals!  Tell your family some of our fun examples! What was your height?

Sophia made the connection to her art class where she used a pencil as a referent to help her measure! Then she brought in her own amazing art to teach us how! We learned so much and noticed so many great math words throughout Sophia’s lesson! We can’t wait to bring our measurement outside again next week with standard and non-standard units!

Measurement, symmetry, geometry, vertical, horizontal, circle, oval, estimate, referent… and more!

Don’t forget to keep looking for tracks in the snow! We loved examining these replicas in class this week. Can your family guess which print is which? Post your guesses in the comments!

Now… time for an even more fun! Can you guess who this scat belongs to?!

We love our dance party movement breaks! Can you dance with your family this weekend?

Wishing everyone a safe and cozy weekend!

We went on some special community walks this week! On Wednesday was our bird walk. We were listening and watching carefully for the birds in our community. We also walked to a forest we had never been to before – the Hidden Aspen Forest! It was so different from the forest behind our school! Tell your family what differences and similarities you noticed! Which birds did you see and hear along the way?

We shared love and appreciation with our classmates and teachers this week! Happy Valentine’s Day!

We had two more zoom presentations about birds – learning about the dangers of migration and also their ecological importance! We wrote thank you letters to the birds for all the amazing things they do for our community and world. Later, we wrote our second pen pal letters, sharing what we learned about our inquiry bird in English and Spanish! We can’t wait to get our pen pal letters back!

After Ms. Carley’s beaver dam story, we went outside to get inspired for our own math stories and problems! What math problems can you find this weekend?

On Friday, we went on another community walk, but this time we looked for animal prints in the snow! We liked making some of our own prints. And then at the very end we found another type of animal print!! What stories did you find on our walk?

Wishing you all a happy and restful family day long weekend! Enjoy these beautiful prints we made with Ms. McGivern, and your special family day art!

February is all about kindness, celebrating our diversity, and taking action!

We have many exciting things coming up in February!

• Tues. Feb. 14 – Valentines Day
  • if you are sending your child with Valentines day cards or treats, please send enough for everyone. Please find a photo of our names above
• Wed. Feb. 15 – please feel welcome to join us for a community science walk from approx. 9:25-10:25
  • please let me know if you can join us – we need parent volunteers!
• Fri. Feb. 17 – please feel welcome to join us for a community science walk from 9:25-10:25
  • please let me know if you can join us – we need parent volunteers!
• Mon. Feb. 20 – Family day – no school
• Wed. Feb. 22 – Pink Shirt Day! Please send your child in pink, if possible!
• Fri Feb. 24 – Pro D Day – no school

February is off to an exciting start in Div. 11! We have reconnected with our Pen Pals and our Migratory Bird Inquiry! We had two bird presentations on Zoom and went on some bird walks in our community. We found so many birds! We are learning so many things about how to identify our orange-crowned, Wilson’s and black-throated gray warblers, and many other birds. What makes a scientific drawing special?

Our storytellers and bookmakers are hard at work and play! Stay tuned for more amazing sharing!

We had a special garden day workshop last week! We learned how to make plant pots and planted cabbage seeds! Then we made our own seed packets for our favourite vegetables! Thank you, Pablo for joining us in our learning!

In math, we have been practicing, learning, and playing many addition and subtraction games!