Dear Division 11 Families,

We hope you are enjoying the beautiful snow outside! My son was so excited that we built a family of snowmen even before breakfast. I can’t wait to hear about all the fun the students had in the snow.

Bowling

We had so much fun bowling on Tuesday! A huge thank you to our family volunteers for driving our students and supporting them during the field trip. Our students were so supportive of one another, cheering each other on. Even those who were brand new to bowling said they can’t wait to do it again!

 

 

Social Studies: Lunar New Year

 

 

 

 

 

We wish everyone a happy Lunar New Year and good luck in the Year of the Snake! In Social Studies, our students have been learning about New Year traditions around the world. On Wednesday, our students had the opportunity to learn more about Lunar New Year. They rotated through various stations, participating in fun activities such as using chopsticks to pick up small objects, learning to write Chinese characters, and playing a Korean game. Thank you to all our students for sharing their experiences and knowledge with us, and a special thank you to Mrs. W.R. for planning such a fun afternoon!

Math

Our students have been working on double-digit addition and subtraction. We’ve been focusing on understanding the concepts rather than just memorizing the algorithm. This week, they’ve been using counters to show subtraction with regrouping. I’ve attached a video that explains this process so you can support them at home as well. Developing a strong understanding of this concept is crucial, as it lays a solid foundation for future number concepts and helps them apply their knowledge to more complex math problems later on.

At the end of the week, we moved into 3-digit subtraction too and subtraction across zeros!

How to support at home: Practice subtraction with regrouping together. Ask your child to explain their understanding. In math, one of the curricular competencies is to:

• Communicate mathematical thinking in many ways
• Explain and justify mathematical ideas and decisions

Affirmations

We talk to ourselves. Learning to have positive self-talk is an important part of developing our core competencies of positive, personal self identity. This is especially important when we face challenges or when we are working through hard things in life.

An affirmation is similar to a pep talk you give to yourself. It’s a short, positive sentence that you say to yourself to help you feel more confident, strong, and happy. Saying affirmations can help us all believe in ourselves and remind us of our personal strengths, identity, core values, and what makes us who we are.

On Friday, we started writing our own affirmations on Word in Office 365. We also listened to this affirmations song by Snoop Dog. Our buddy class performed this song with actions at our  last assembly.

How to support at home: Talk to your child about how we can be a good friend to ourselves. There are things we would not say to a friend. We shouldn’t speak to ourselves like that either. Share about how you talk to yourself using positive and encouraging language. If you have affirmations you use often, share those with your child.

One thing Ms. Chan shares often is this: Learn to be your own biggest cheerleader. We have one important job in life. We need to take the best care of our own human: ourselves. Our mental and emotional health is key to taking good care of ourselves!

Thank you for your continued support. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend—wishing you a restful evening and a great start to the week ahead!

Gratefully,
Cailyn and Livia