Category: Class News

Dear families,

As we said good-bye to Mr. Evoy, there were mixed emotions of celebrating a successful practicum of teaching and learning together for all of us and knowing we will miss his warm and kind presence. It wasn’t just students who learned from him but both Ms. Kim and I learned about our own philosophy and practices affirming why we do what we do as we supported Mr. Evoy so it makes us better teachers in the process too!

We are so grateful for Mr. Evoy’s dedication, hard work, and connection with us. We wish him continued success in his teaching journey! We hope to see him back as a Teacher on Call at Kitchener!

I, Ms. Chan, thoroughly enjoyed being back in the classroom on Thursday and Friday. What a blessing to spend time with your beautiful children. I am so grateful! It truly is incredible how much learning happens in one day, let alone a week, a month, and a year!

Student Led Conferences

We are grateful for your time to listen attentively to your child show you their learning across the curriculum. Thank you for being active participants and big supporters of their learning all year! We hope you enjoyed celebrating their successes. They worked so hard to prepare for these conferences and have continued to work hard since September. We are so proud of them and their perseverance!

If you haven’t done so yet, please fill out the Two Stars and a Wish sheet and return it to school tomorrow, thank you!

We are mathematicians.

Over the weekend, students were encouraged to teach you about division as we enjoyed our first lesson on Friday. If they haven’t yet, ask them to share what they learned. Pull out some candy, chocolates, or cookies with plates for each person in your family. Ask them to divide by sharing to practice what they learned. Reinforcing new concepts helps to solidify learning and builds a strong initial foundation for learning division.

Here’s what we learned so you can support at home:

Each lesson, it is important for us to post our learning intention so it is clear what they are to learn by the end of the lesson.

Two of the big curricular competencies for math is to communicate mathematical thinking in many ways and to represent ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic forms.

The learning intention for our first lesson in division: I can understand equal groups in division. This concept involved the idea of sharing.

We had plates with our fake gummy bears and went, “one for you, one for you, and one for you” until they were all passed out equally among everyone holding a plate. They enjoyed the real life examples to experience the why and how of division. Then students were given questions to try with partners.

This learning through “play” is one of the most impactful ways for children to learn through discovery. It is one of our favourite types of hands-on and engaging learning where students learn together and practice communicating mathematical thinking with each other. Opportunities like these also help them develop their core competencies of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and social awareness and responsibility. This also aligns with Indigenous ways of learning by de-centering the room with less teacher time talking and more student time exploring the new concepts.

Passion Projects

On Friday, we started talking about Passion Projects. We watched this video by John Spencer that introduced them to what it is although he calls it Genius Hour.

So I asked them to finish this sentence:

I have always wanted to learn more about…

We are at the beginning stages. During this week, please have a conversation about what they would love to learn more about.

Think about what you would really like to spend your time learning about. It should be a topic big enough that you can spend about six weeks on it. Here are some ideas and it’s okay to come up with their own:  

• Learn a new language
• Learn how to  do something  
  • Make a stop motion movie 
  • Photography  
  • Knitting/sewing  
• Learn about something  
  • Architecture  
  • A country or culture – design your dream trip!  
  • The Science of flight  
  • An animal or creature
• Learn about your family history 
• Learn about someone: an artist, athlete, scientist, activist, author , singer

What do you care about in this world? What can you do about “fixing” an existing problem? Think of something you can do that will make this world a better place.  

Next, we will begin to narrow it down . The idea is that they will become an expert and teach the class what they learned.

ADST

Students were introduced to PowerPoint. They learned how to create a new document, rename it, add a new title to the first slide, add an image, choose a design idea, and add a new slide.

How to support at home: Have your child login to O365, open their new PowerPoint project and add more slides. This was good practice to create slides and images. This was to prepare them for learning how to develop presentation slides for their Passion Projects. They loved it and were so excited!

Spring Concert

Our class along with our buddy class look and sound great! We are so excited for you to see them perform on Wednesday!

• Wed. May 7 @ 1:30pm – Afternoon dress rehearsal
  • Have your child wear yellow, orange, or brown tops and black or dark bottoms
• Wed. May 7 @ 6:00pm
  • Have your child wear yellow, orange, or brown tops and black or dark bottoms
  • Bring your child to the Annex, Room A6 (at the far north side of the Annex)
  • Doors to the gym open at 6pm
  • PAC will have cash only concession
• Wed. May 7 @ 6:30pm – Evening performance; bring your tickets!
  • Pick up your child at the end of the performance in the Annex, Room A6

Save the Dates

• Fri. May 16 – Sports Day; early dismissal at 12:30pm
  • Students will be travelling from station to station with our buddy class. They will be divided into 6 teams. More information to come.
• Mon. May 12 – Whole school tennis lessons begin
• Mon. May 19 – Victoria Day; school is closed
• Thur. May 22 – Community Dinner at 6:00pm
  • Everyone is welcome! Bring a dish to share.
• Fri. May 30 – Early dismissal at 2:00pm

We are so grateful for your time and support. It is hard to believe we have less than two months to enjoy each other’s company as we continue to learn together. Rest assured, we will continue to empower your child to develop their identity, be affirmed in their strengths, and grow in their stretch zone as we support them in the process. Can’t wait to continue to share our learning with you! Thank you for your time to read our blog posts!

As always, please reach out should you have any questions, concerns, or would like to share successes.

With hearts full of gratitude,

Ms. Chan and Ms. Kim

Dear Division 11 Families,

We hope everyone is having a great week so far! Apologies for the late update on our learning. It’s been a fun and busy week filled with exciting experiences, including two workshops: a Coding Workshop on Wednesday and a Honeybee Workshop on Thursday.

We are Scientists

Honeybee Workshop

This week, we had the opportunity to learn about Honey Bees! Students learned about the different types of bees and their important roles within the hive. We rotated through different stations; searching for the queen bee, tasting various types of honey, participating in hands-on bee-themed activities, and even trying on real bee suits! It was a great experience that deepened our understanding of bees and the important role they play in our ecosystems.
 

Landforms

We also started a new unit on landforms. Students explored a variety of natural landforms found on Earth. In one of the activities students used loose parts to design and build landforms, developing both their creativity and understanding of physical geography.

We are Mathematicians

Our multiplication learning continued this week with a focus on using arrays and connecting them to real-life scenarios. Students explored how objects arranged in rows and columns can represent multiplication facts in a clear and visual way. Keep an eye out for real-life arrays at home!

We are Inventors
This week, students began brainstorming invention ideas to solve everyday problems they encounter. Over the next few weeks, students will move from planning to creating their own inventions, using a variety of materials to bring their designs to life. We’re excited to see their problem-solving and design thinking skills in action as they build their creations!

ADST (Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies)

Dear Division 11 Families,

We hope you had a wonderful weekend! It’s hard to believe we’re already nearing the end of Term 2 and that this is the last week before Spring Break. It feels like we just met the students, but as they say, time flies when you’re having fun!

Vancouver Warriors
Our class had an incredible opportunity to learn from the pros; the Vancouver Warriors came to our school! We participated in a session where we learned about the history and fundamentals of lacrosse. Students learned the basics of passing, catching, and shooting, while also gaining insight into the sport’s connection to Indigenous history and culture.

Kindness Rocks!
This week, our class took part in a simple but meaningful project; Kindness Rocks! Each student painted a rock with inspiring words and creative designs. We talked about how small acts of kindness can make a big difference, whether it’s a kind word, a smile, or even a painted rock left for someone to find!

Science 
Exploring Ecosystems: Everything is Connected!
This week in science, we learned how everything in an ecosystem is connected! We explored what organisms look like, where they live, and the roles they play. We had the opportunity to observe them up close.

Language Arts

Our students worked on the introductions of their stories. We explored what makes an introduction engaging and focused on three key techniques:

• Sparking curiosity to make readers want to keep reading.
• Creating a vivid picture in the reader’s mind.
• Evoking emotions by incorporating sensory details.

After learning about these techniques, students applied them to their own writing. They also dedicated a day to editing and refining their introductions.

Math

We are wrapping up our unit on addition and subtraction. As a class, we reviewed the three strategies together before going on a scavenger hunt around the classroom to find math problems. Students had to solve each addition or subtraction question using a specific strategy based on the color of the paper. For example, if the problem was on pink paper, they used the compensation strategy.

To conclude, we reflected on which strategies they preferred. Many students chose multiple strategies, demonstrating their flexible thinking and problem-solving skills!

Social Studies

Our students participated in an invention scavenger hunt! Working with a partner, they read about different inventions and identified the need each invention addressed. They were excited to recognize some familiar inventions and discover new ones they had never heard of before.

Primary Days of Music Field Trip – This Thursday!

Thank you for submitting your forms!

Families, we are so grateful for your support! Thank you for being a part of our learning journey.

Warm regards,

Cailyn, Livia, and Jake

Dear Division 11 Families,

We hope you had a restful weekend.

The final theme of the Month of Love was “Love the Land.” During our community circle, students shared what they are grateful for about our land. They then created a fun writing piece, choosing symbols from nature and writing along the outline of each symbol. They were also challenged to complete various random acts of kindness for the land.

Math

We continued exploring different ways to show our learning, with a focus this week on the decomposing strategy. With this strategy, students break apart the numbers they are adding based on place value, then add or subtract each individual place to find the answer.

Below are videos if you’d like to learn more about this strategy. Please keep in mind that since our focus is on showing our thinking in different ways, your child’s approach may look a bit different from the methods shown in the videos!

Adding using decomposing strategy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdMEDX4ra4o

Subtracting using decomposing strategy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVbSJWO8ExI

Social Studies

This week, we explored two different agricultural innovations. First, we examined The Three Sisters, a Haudenosaunee farming method. It is called The Three Sisters because corn, beans, and squash support each other like family when planted together.

We also studied chinampas (floating gardens) used by the Ancient Aztecs. As a check-in activity, students created a Venn diagram to demonstrate their understanding of the four groups we have studied so far. They were able to choose two groups and make connections between them.

This week, we will be exploring architectural innovations. As always, please support your child at home by having conversations about what they learned and making connections to the topics discussed in class.

Typing

Last week, our students practiced to improve their efficiency when using laptops.

If they would like to continue practicing at home, please click on the link below!

https://kitchenerdiv11.edclub.com/

ADST: We Need Your Help!

Our students don’t know it yet, but we will be working on an exciting project during ADST (Applied Design, Skills, and Technology)! The building stage won’t start for another couple of weeks, but we need your help collecting recyclable materials that students can use for their projects.

Some examples include:

• Cardboard (boxes, cereal boxes, snack boxes)
• Egg cartons
• Toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls
• Packaging materials (bubble wrap)
• Plastic containers (including takeout food containers)

Additionally, we would love your help in collecting Styrofoam trays, plates, or takeout containers for an upcoming printmaking art project.

Thank you in advance for your support! We look forward to sharing more about these exciting projects soon.

We truly appreciate your continued support!

Warm regards,
Cailyn, Livia, and Jake