All week, we have focussed on kindness. Well, we have talked about kindness often since the beginning of the year. On Valentine’s day, we shared our friendship fruit salad. Thank you to all of the families who generously contributed fruit. There was a lot of fruit (two large mixing bowls) but surprisingly, we finished just about all of it! The kids thought it was delicious.
We read a story about how to handle teasing and put-downs called Simon’s Hook. It is about a boy who was teased about a bad haircut by some friends. Then he runs into Grandma Rose who compares teasing to fishing hooks and tells him a story about how fish learn not to bite, which is an analogy to not reacting to teasing and he learns some strategies on how to deal with teasing and put-downs.
We also read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? It’s a story that encourages kindness by using the idea that we fill other’s buckets when we do or say kind things. We learned that it could be the little things we do that either fills or empties someone’s imaginary bucket. When my kids were younger, I would use this language at home about filling and emptying people’s buckets. Sometimes it really helped them understand that their actions and words had both a positive and negative effect on others. Give it a try at home!
In Math, we continued to review our “new way” of adding. This is called decomposing using friendly numbers where we take one of the addends to make it a friendly number like 10, 20, 30, etc. to help us mentally add more efficiently.
We are becoming more fluent in our addition of numbers to 20. Knowing our doubles is an important one: 2+2=4, 5+5=10, 7+7=14, etc. So, when you become fluent with all of your doubles, this new strategy will help:
2+4=6 If you can see that the one number between 2 and 4 is 3, then simply double the middle number (3) to find the sum. Here is another example: 6+8=14 The middle number is 7. Double the 7 and your sum is 14.
If your child is having trouble remembering their doubles, pull out a deck of cards from A to 10. Randomly flip over the cards and have your child call out the number doubled.
All students brought home their report cards last Friday. I reviewed it with each student and discussed in detail the proficiency scale along with their strengths and next steps. They all appeared to be happy about their report cards. Please sign the envelope and have your child return it tomorrow or at least by the end of the week. Thank you.
We start our day tomorrow skating at Burnaby Lake Arena. Please arrive to school on time. Bring necessary items to school. Grade 3’s, please bring your booster seat too. Thank you so much to all of our parent volunteer drivers!
Wow! What a show! We are Hip Hop stars! The kids have worked hard during their Hip Hop lessons with Flo Jo for the last two weeks, learning their dance moves and the routine. They enjoyed transforming their black shirts into skeletons! They had opportunities to watch themselves so they could self-reflect, receive feedback, and make changes to improve their personal performance. The Hip Hop Show is truly a memorable one year after year.
In Math, the grade 3’s continued to learn about linear measurement (mm, cm, m, km) and measuring capacity (mL, L). Next is measuring mass. Please feel free to review these concepts at home to reinforce learning. The grade 4’s reviewed polygons before learning about measuring the perimeter of polygons. They quickly created a new book using the Book Creator app to capture their understanding. Those that completed their books uploaded it to OneDrive so feel free to ask your child to login to view.
In Science, we have continued to learn about landforms. They seemed to really enjoy learning about glaciers and icebergs this week. Some asked if we will continue to learn about more landforms because they are really enjoying it! They have become more confident using the Explain Everything app too. I just love their enthusiasm and have enjoyed learning alongside them as I am creating my very own landforms project on my iPad too; I have learned so much about these landforms that I never knew before! In particular, I love it when someone has researched and found a unique fact and shared it with the class as they look for answers to their own inquiry questions. They certainly are getting better at asking and recording questions on their “I wonder” slide.
In Art, Mr. Baumann has continued to do guided drawings. They have worked on drawing a dog. See some of our examples from Ana, Anna, Tyson, and Yoyo. I love how even though Mr. Baumann walks them through, they all look creatively different!
We have some exciting news to share. Next Monday, we have a student teacher from SFU that will be spending time with us. Her name is Ms. Grewal. The main purpose of the week is to observe, get to know the students, and to learn about the daily operations of the school beyond the classroom. After the week, Ms. Grewal will return to SFU for three weeks and then come back for another four weeks total before and after spring break. Please feel free to ask should you have any questions.
Brentwood Park’s Talent Show will be on February 24. Anyone interested needs to sign up for auditions. This is a great opportunity to showcase creativity!
I apologize for no post last week so this post will cover the last two weeks. I was in a ringette tournament last weekend. My own team lost in the semi-finals and my daughter’s team, who I coach, won gold in their division! It was a very exciting fun-filled weekend.
We welcomed our two new students: Anna and Yoo Joon. I am happy to say that students have been very warm and welcoming.
We listened to a story about making New Year’s resolutions, Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution. Click on image to watch:
Rather than usual New Year’s resolutions, students chose #OneWord2020 and shared on @padlet. Then we dove into our “magnifying glass” writing to record details on why we chose our word, how we are going to remind ourselves, and to come up with strategies when we know we will be challenged. Check out our “one word” resolutions!
For writing, we have listened to a number of stories about snow since we have seen a lot of it lately! Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright, Deep Snow and So Much Snow by Robert Munsch, The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett, and The First Sign of Snow (animated video). After listening to these stories, students were encouraged to use their creativity and were offered a choice in their writing. They could take any part of the story to change what happens next (almost like a build your own adventure) or they could write a continuation (like Part 2) of the story, or like The Three Snow Bears (which is a variation of Goldilocks and the Three Bears), they were given the option to write their own variation with different characters and different things these characters try before they fall asleep somewhere. I so enjoyed reading these stories because their creativity really shine through and I it makes me feel excited to see examples of how they are taking risks to incorporate new techniques in their writing! Click here to read stories written by Ana and Anna. Happy reading!
The class was introduced to a new app called Explain Everything. It’s one of the most downloaded educational apps and is similar to PowerPoint where they create slides, can add images, videos, audio, and record like an interactive whiteboard. Students are using this app to record their learning about landforms in Science. This unit is like a multi-mini inquiry project. First, we recorded what we think we know about mountains. Some students said they learned about landforms last year but when it was time to record what they think, they did not remember many facts. The next step was to be curious about mountains. Students were encouraged to record what they wonder about mountains. Then after some shared reading and a video, we recorded our new learning on a new Now I Know slide. Any questions that are not answered by our whole class learning then, students researched. This makes their learning personalized as they are able to make new discoveries based on their own curiosities. They have really enjoyed this kind of learning, finding images, and being able to show what they learned in this way! This past week, we learned about deserts. Next week, glaciers! Feel free to discuss what you wonder about glaciers. This thinking will help them with their work tomorrow.
We watched a short video on Wonderopolis on how mountains are formed. Click here to watch or click here for deserts.
In Math, the grade 3’s learned about linear measurement (mm, cm, dm, m, km) and practiced our measuring skills while the grade 4’s learned about regular and irregular polygons. As a class, we explored using our creativity and practiced the concept of symmetry and the line of symmetry. Then we examined how First People’s art often has symmetry and balance with various patterns.
As an introduction to early settlers in Canada, we borrowed Ms. Willis’ classroom and proceeded to use and take their things without the class knowing. (Well, actually, Ms. Willis did inform them we would be using their class for this purpose.) My goal was to help them experience something somewhat relatable so that they can empathize what it may have felt like for the First Peoples when the first settlers came to Canada. Looking forward to diving into further discussions and deeper thinking on this topic in Social Studies.
We watched a whole school performance, Hip Hop Hoop Dance. It is a story between two people from different cultures who teach each other about their people, culture, and dance as they develop a friendship. From Artstarts website:
Our collaborative Hip Hop Hoop Dance tells a story, exploring the topic of truth and reconciliation through the art of live theatre. It’s a sharing of cultures, both between the performer and with the audience. With both of us being people of colour, we realized we had both experienced aspects of colonization and assimilation. We quickly recognized the similarities between our respective cultures’ art forms, traditions and beliefs. We thought, we should celebrate this and build a performative piece that would recognize not only the celebration of similarities between cultures, but to celebrate the differences that are so unique. Terrance says, “… part of reconciliation is educating non-native people about Indigenous history. This show provides that information, to better understand the way of life of my people.”
Young People’s Concert on Monday, January 20: We will be leaving the classroom at 9:00 AM sharp to go to the bus. Please plan to arrive early! The bus will not wait for latecomers. This will be our final show in the Concert series.
Hip Hop: Students have been working hard to practice their dancing. It’s remarkable how quickly they learn. This year, students are to wear all black. If your child does not have a plain black top, feel free to take a shirt and flip it inside out or wear navy blue. Please feel free to bring in a black short or long sleeve shirt starting next Monday so we can add “bones” by using masking tape. The performance will be on Friday, January 24 in the afternoon.
Family Literacy Day and Readathon on Monday, January 27: Envelopes went home on Friday, January 17. They are due on Thursday, January 23rd. Regardless of whether you receive any pledges (collect money), your child is expected to return the envelope as this is their ticket in the gym door. This year, the school will be tallying fundraising pledges by division. The division with the most pledges will win a pizza party. Please have your child practice reading for up to 45 minutes so that they can read, uninterrupted for 45-60 minutes. They are to bring or have enough reading material for 45-60 minues and wear pyjamas and bring stuffies and a pillow if they wish.
Save the date and time! Our time in the Family Literacy Day and Readathon in the gym will be at 1:00 to 2:00pm. Families, please join us in the gym during this time. Parents, siblings, and grandparents are welcome!
Ice skating: We still need parent drivers for skating, please. If you have already volunteered, thank you so much. You should find the Volunteer Driver Authorization form in your child’s planner.
Our little scientists started learning about Water and States of Matter last Friday by witnessing the life cycle of a snowman. Since we have had no snow in our forecast, the learning must go on so we gathered some “snow” from the skating rink last Tuesday to create our snowman in the classroom. They watched it go from a solid snowman to liquid water and end up as a gas (steam). Students learned that solids keep its form while liquids take the shape of its container and gases expand to the size of their container. They have also learned about the molecules in solids, liquids, and gases.
We watched Ms. Frizzle teach her students about molecules. Click here to watch the video “Magic School Bus Meets Molly Cule” together at home as review. Ask your child what they already know! Check out our Science page to learn more about what students are expected to learn. Feel free to make a comment to add any questions your scientist at home may have about the states of matter or molecules.
If you haven’t had an opportunity to come by the classroom, we have some cute, unique snowmen hanging by our windows. Come check them out during our Family Reading time this Friday. They sure brighten up the room!
Our other experience with frozen water ended yesterday with our last ice skating session at Bill Copeland. We are so proud of the great improvements our athletes made over only three sessions! Many went from little confidence and experience to skating around on their very own. We are so very grateful to our parent volunteer drivers; without you, this triple field trip would not have been possible. Many thanks to the parents of Fisher, JeanBenoit, Katherine, Leo, Lucas, Myel, Priscilla, Charlotte, Gabby, Hanna, Jeffery, Olivya, and Sasha.
If any families have an overabundance of plastic forks or spoons, please feel free to send to school as our stash has been depleted. Just a note that no utensils are provided for hot lunches and a gentle reminder to pack a fork or spoon with your child’s lunch if they need one. Thank you.
Family Literacy Week begins next week. Be on the lookout for more information about our planned activities including a dress up day! Please save the date and join us for our Celebration of Learning on Thursday, January 31st at 9:00 am.
Arriving Early – Thank you so much to the families who make the effort to arrive on time every single morning. Unfortunately, we also have a number of different students arriving late on a regular basis on many mornings. Some days, we may have up to eight students who are not on time. We love starting our lessons right at the bell. If your child is six minutes late every day, that equates to 30 minutes of lost instruction over a week and over the course of a month, that is over two hours missed. So, we are requesting that families readjust their mornings and plan to arrive early, rather than just on time, please. We really appreciate your support in reaching our class goal.
Dear families,
We also read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? It’s a story that encourages kindness by using the idea that we fill other’s buckets when we do or say kind things. We learned that it could be the little things we do that either fills or empties someone’s imaginary bucket. When my kids were younger, I would use this language at home about filling and emptying people’s buckets. Sometimes it really helped them understand that their actions and words had both a positive and negative effect on others. Give it a try at home!
In Math, we continued to review our “new way” of adding. This is called decomposing using friendly numbers where we take one of the addends to make it a friendly number like 10, 20, 30, etc. to help us mentally add more efficiently. 
