Category: We are communicators.

Dear Division 6 families,

I always feel sad when we have a holiday or Pro-D day that lands on a Monday or Friday because those are the days that I am in the class all day so it’s a lot of time missed with them. Regardless of having a shorter week, we’ve had a great one!

Math

On Tuesday, we reviewed the Math quiz on division in detail discussing common errors. Thank you for reviewing and signing it! As you saw, each child had an encouraging note written on their page with some extra notes specific to the sections that they found challenging. Any student who would like to be retested to demonstrate their understanding is welcome to rewrite.

We continued to dive deeper into the relationship between perimeter and area. We learned that we can have the same perimeter with different areas AND the same area with different perimeter. Last week, they were given a quiz to show what they know and it was great to see how many understood it! The only thing many were forgetting was to include the unit of measure, even though this was emphasized as an important part each time.

We started our review of patterns and are using Book Creator to create our own digital book to demonstrate our understanding of increasing/decreasing patterns using words, numbers, and symbols. They also need to be able to describe the pattern. I’m loving the creativity I’m seeing so far!

Speeches

On Tuesday, students started writing their speeches on what lesson they learned since the pandemic in Word. Here are some of the central themes: gratefulness and having taken things for granted, flexibility, I am braver than I think, to never give up, I can work hard, I can do anything I put my mind to, loyalty, and if I work hard, I can find success.

Kindness Projects

Groups are continuing to work on their kindness projects. They all did a self-assessment on how well they took turns, worked collaboratively, how focussed and how hard they worked.

To the left is a sneak peek into one of the Kindness projects (Ethan, Quinson, Miles, and Brodie). Since I took this image, they have added bees and a bird and nest. It was so exciting for them this week when they saw that some people had written kind words on some of their leaves!!

We have another group that has written over a hundred messages of kindness on sticky notes and put them all over the school! This past week, their group (Gabriella, Shayla, Hailey, and Vienna) went on the PA system to explain to the rest of the school what to do with them. They also created a fun video about kindness that was shared with the class. Loved their creativity and bravery!

We’re looking forward to spending a full week with the kids!

Thank you for your continued support at home,

Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Hello Division 6 families!

We have had another great week! Our Kindness Projects are coming along well! Please ask your child what they are working on to invite conversation at home.

Speeches

Every year, all grade 7’s in Burnaby have an opportunity to participate in the District’s speech competition. This annual event began in 1983 to provide the opportunity to develop confidence and pursue excellence in public speaking. Students are generally given a sentence starter. While your children have had opportunities to present Science and Passion Projects with PowerPoint, we have not practiced writing and presenting speeches yet so I thought this would be great writing practice. This past year, the grade 7’s were given this sentence starter: The lesson I learned in 2020 was…

Since the grade 7’s wrote their speeches in January and we are now in May, students were given this instead: The lesson I learned in 2020/21 was… This is to be a minimum 3 minute and a maximum 5 minute speech. They will be timed.

We started our brainstorm today as a class. Some themes that came out of our conversation were:

• • • Flexibility/adaptability: go with the flow; things happen, move on
    • Be positive.
    • You can learn anything.
    • You don’t always have to be happy.
    • We have taken things for granted: what we missed the most
    • We are braver than we think: I have courage.
    • We can do hard things. I am a hard worker.

Please have a conversation with your child about what they have chosen to write about. They will be encouraged to choose one central idea and write some paragraphs in support. They will be asked to provide details like examples, reasons, explanations and to dive deeper into their ideas. Having a detailed brainstorm sheet will make the writing process flow better. Click here to print out the graphic organizer if you wish.

Math

As Mathematicians, we had to think critically as we dove further into perimeter and area. Click here to learn more about perimeter. Click here to learn more about area. For grade 5’s, they are expected to be able to measure the area of squares and rectangles (area = length x width), and how they are related to but not dependent on each other. So, this past week, we learned that you can have the same perimeter but different areas. If your child did not complete the homework that was due this week, you should have received an email from me tonight. Click here to view page 129 and 130. Students were asked to complete #1, 2, 3 and 7. If you need grid paper, click here to print.

On Friday, students wrote a division quiz to check their understanding. Your child will come home with their sheet for you to review next Tuesday, May 25. Please take note of the sections your child struggled with, review the concepts, sign, and return the next day on Wednesday, May 26, thank you!

Spelling

Your child brought home their spelling test on Thursday. They were asked to share it with you. If you haven’t done so already, please review, initial, and send back to school. Thank you!

Passion Projects

Click here for the criteria. Here is the presentation schedule. After consultation, your child agreed to the following dates. Please help us support your child to be ready BEFORE their presentation date. We are practicing holding ourselves accountable to deadlines. Thank you!

Library

Next Friday, May 28th, will be their last day to sign out library books. ALL library books will need to be returned the following week on June 4th.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Thank you for being our partners in your child’s learning. We appreciate you!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Dear Division 6 families,

I sincerely apologize for missing the last two weeks of updates. A lot of exciting things have been happening since the last update!

First of all, congratulations to all of our doctors for presenting at our successful Medical Conference! A special thank you to our two keynote speakers, Mrs. Helland and Ms. Jiwa. We so appreciate your time with us to inspire us!

All of the presentations were uploaded to FreshGrade. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, please do! All students received small sheets with Two Stars and Wish from all of their classmates too!

I felt so proud of them for all of their hard work! Their presentation skills continue to improve each time they present!

We hope you enjoyed your Student Led Conferences at home! If you have any feedback, please send me an email. Thank you so very much for taking the time to fill out the Two Stars and a Wish for your child. We appreciate you!

This past Friday, it was I Care About You! day. Our class created a collective PowerPoint project where each student was assigned one slide to write a message to their classmates. Click here to view the project!

In Math, we started our unit on division. We are learning how to do long division and dividing in different ways. This weekend, please review this concept with your child. Help check they understand the basic steps. This will go a long way as we move forward next week. You can watch this video by Math Antics on long division or choose a different one on YouTube. You can start with the video on basic division. Another way to help your child is to practice their multiplication facts too. Then they won’t have to rely on the multiplication chart to calculate every question. This will help them in grade 6 and beyond too!

Last week, we started a Kindness Project. Students are working in groups to come up with a project that shows kindness. They are so motivated to work on their ideas and I am so proud of them! You know they are engaged when they ask if they can work on it and they bring it outside at lunch to work on it! Yesterday, they presented their proposals. They received compliments and suggestions on how to make their project even better. I loved the collaborative mindset!

Last week, we also started an Ignite your SHINE course by LaVonna Roth. She encourages us to be SHINEtastic.

Students are learning about themselves through the acronym SHINE.

Self – Know your strengths

Heart – What are you passionate about

Inspire – How to inspire myself when things aren’t going well

Navigate – Take action towards a goal, find a way to make it happen

Exceptional – What makes you exceptional

This coming week is Emergency Response week. Every day, we will focus on one type of emergency response and practice the procedures.

On Monday, May 10, Mrs. Paulich and I will have a parent meeting at 7:15pm on Zoom. The link was sent to you via email last week. We hope you can join us!

Thank you for your continued support at home. We really appreciate it!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Dear Division 6 families,

Tomorrow is the long-awaited day! Our Gilmore Medical Conference where doctors from around the world will present! Here is the criteria [PDF] we co-constructed for presentations. All students are asked to dress up as an official speaker for our conference.

We are so very blessed to have two amazing people in our very own community who will be presenting our keynote presentations! Thank you so very much to Mrs. Helland who will be joining us for our morning keynote presentation and to Dr. Jiwa who will be presenting our closing keynote. We are so looking forward to having you join us for our special day!

Your children have worked so hard on these presentations. Even before they present tomorrow, I am already so proud of them for their perseverance, dedication, and time not only at school but at home. I am SO looking forward to tomorrow!

For the past couple of weeks, students have been working hard on their poetry. This Thursday, they will be coming home with their collection and seeking your feedback. Thank you, in advance, for your time to celebrate your child’s success!

Thank you so very much for your continued support at home. Please continue to have your child practice their math facts! thank you!

With great appreciation, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Monday, April 26 – Pro-D day; school is not in session
Friday, April 30 – Beach Day (dress up day)