Dear Division 6 families,

We accomplished a lot this week!

Click on image to view the video update.

SPECIAL REQUEST: Please limit the number of sweet treats your child brings to school for a snack. We prefer they bring healthier snacks to school that will help them learn and focus better. We appreciate your cooperation.

HOMEWORK: Library Research Skills – Complete the sheet and put the cited sources in alphabetical order. On Monday, they will be working in a Word document to record these resources in alphabetical order. Please ensure all papers are returned to school on Monday. Thank you! This resource may help!

Gr. 5 MATH HOMEWORK: Complete work on equivalent fractions. Due Monday.

REVIEW: Please have your child memorize their email address and password if they have not done so yet. Thank you! We will be logging into O365 on Monday.

E-Portfolios

On Thursday, we started adding posts to our e-Portfolios. We use the same email and password to log in. We are using FreshGrade Connect to upload and reflect on our learning. Here are the reflection questions they will need to answer for each post this year:

1. What was the task? Explain. Provide enough details so your parents can understand what you did.
2. What are you proud of? What are your strengths shown through this work?
   • I can…
   • I can…
3. What are 1-2 things you can improve for next time?
4. What did you learn about yourself?

So far, they have just added artwork. They felt so proud! In the future, they will be adding their writing and other projects too. Soon, I will be adding your emails to your child’s accounts so that you will receive notifications when they publish a new post.

We are readers and writers.

The whole school Dropped Everything And Read on Wednesday. Everyone in this class looks like they love to just read. While finding joy in reading for a sustained period of time is important, just as important is having the opportunity to speak to others about what they just read. We had an opportunity to do just that this week as we practiced our Say Something strategy to make connections or share personal stories as it relates to what they read. They practiced taking a deeper dive into what they shared by thinking about looking through a magnifying glass, going deeper when partners asked them more clarifying questions.

After that, they took their ideas, thoughts, and feelings and wrote a response to what they just read in a paragraph. Based on the last couple of writing pieces, each child was given a personal goal to meet for this writing. I believe personalized and timely feedback is so important to their continued growth along with an attainable “next steps” goal.

We are scientists. We were encouraged to be curious! Students were grouped to dive into various books on rocks and minerals. Their job was to come up with many questions.

All students went home with their Passion Project proposal sheets. Please feel free to do the proposal with your child. Once you have reviewed it, please initial the top of the page. Click on Passion Project Proposal to see the sheet. This is due on Wednesday, November 3rd.

Friday was a lot of fun with the parades in the morning and some fun social time with classmates in the afternoon. Have a safe and fun rest of your weekend!

Always grateful for your support at home,

Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Dear Division 6 families,

I sincerely apologize for not getting this week’s post out earlier this weekend. Some things came up for my family that I needed to attend to. This post will be written form with no video. You’ll see me again in video form next week though!

What a quick week!

We continued to visit Mrs. Papapanagiotou for our learning about research. This week, they learned how to cite books and images we find on websites. Please review the Library blog page on Referencing Sources. Watching the video again with your child will benefit them as review.

Grade 5 Mathematicians

Wow! I was very impressed with how everyone did on the number concepts test on Monday. Everyone in the class demonstrated a PROFICIENT understanding of the concepts taught so far! I commend the students for working so hard to learn and practice. Thank you for your support at home. Your child should have brought home the test for you to sign. I loved reading the positive and encouraging messages you wrote to your child.

This week we introduced decimals to the thousandths place and practiced reading these numbers. Before diving in further to decimals, we need a solid foundation in fractions so we reviewed fractions of a whole and fractions of a set. Your child should have completed pages 199, 200, and 201. Please ensure these are completed. Thank you!

Math computational fluency strategies for this week: +10 and -10. Using the random numbers page your child created at home, please ask them to practice or have fun practicing with them! For -10, only choose numbers between 10 to 20.

Since we will be learning multiplication in January, it is important to start practicing now so they will be able to focus on the concepts of multiplication without having to struggle with recalling facts too. The goal is automaticity with ALL math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). You will be helping your child immensely by encouraging them to memorize these facts. This week, using the random numbers page, please have them practice multiplying by 0 and multiplying by 1.

We are readers and writers.

We read the next chapter in The 7 Habits of Happy Kids. Put

As a review, here are the habits covered so far:

1. Be Proactive – Take initiative. You’re in charge!
2. Begin with the End in Mind – Focus on goals and have a plan!
3. Put First Things First – Work first, then play!

The lesson this week was to not procrastinate and to put first things first. After great conversations on this topic after listening (pre-writing strategy), they were asked to review their single-point rubric from their gratitude writing last week. The expectation was to take one thing they need to improve and to write it down on their current page at the top or bottom as a goal. For example,

Goal: Write a closing sentence.

I like to have them write it on their current page because it is a great reminder they can refer to. They are to show me they made an effort to improve their writing from last time. All students brought their writing books home to work on and complete their paragraph to hand in on Monday.

The basic criteria: a clear opening and closing sentence. Sentences in between offer some details, develop their ideas by diving in deeper with reasons, explanations, and examples that can include thoughts and feelings. Write in complete sentences with proper use of punctuation, grammar, and spelling.

We are artists. Art is in full bloom! Students experimented with watercolour techniques to create Spooky Cats.

Please check the planner for the upcoming week. Thank you.

We appreciate you for your continued support at home,

Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Dear Division 6 parents,

We had a productive week with lots of learning and connection! Your child’s personal information sheet (from the office) went home on Friday. Please review and return as soon as possible. Thank you!

Almost all students are arriving at school on time. Thank you for respecting our start time of arriving before our first bell at 8:50am. We appreciate it!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO UPDATE

Here are some updates from Mrs. Paulich on the subjects she teaches:

Social Studies

We spent much of September getting ready for the year, organizing our binders, and developing a growth mindset. Each student created their own motto to turn to when they need that extra push and support. We spent time discussing and reflecting on Truth and Reconciliation and what that means to Indigenous and Non Indigenous Canadians. Most recently, we have been digging deep into our roots and origins with a look at Canadian Immigration.

Physical and Health Education

Students have most recently begun developing their Volleyball skills.

French

We have been looking at simple conversation and greetings.  Students are encouraged to practice this simple conversation at home!

We are writers.

This week we dove further into paragraph writing. We learned about opening and closing sentences along with adding details, reasons, and explanations that include our thoughts and feelings too. They were introduced to a single-point rubric for personal writing. This helps them truly see what areas they need to improve, where they are proficient, and strong aspects of their writing (which are strengths and they should keep doing these things!).

Grade 4 – click image to view PDF

Grade 5 – click image to view PDF

We are mathematicians (Grade 5).

I am SO enjoying teaching math this year! They keep me hopping but it’s so much fun teaching math! I was very happy with how they did on their pre-tests because of how proficient they showed themselves to be. I am so very proud of how hard they are working and learning.

This week, we continued to learn about expanded notation and counting up and down by 10s, 100, 1000, and 10 000. HOMEWORK: Finish page 43 & 44. Review Pre-test and worksheets. Test on Monday, October 18. It will look similar to the pre-test. Continue to practice Math facts +1 -1 +2 -2 strategies.

We practiced our math addition facts and comparing numbers by practicing on a new website: 99Math. They absolutely LOVED it! They are enjoying Math Tappers: Finding Sums too. If you have an iPad, please download this FREE app and have your child practice regularly to improve speed and accuracy. We started a tracking sheet this week. You can do the same at home. Thank you!

Career Education

One of the things I really believe in is that every child can develop leadership skills. On Friday, there were a few examples of how people stepped up on their own volition to demonstrate caring behaviours toward others and our classroom. Feel free to ask your child how they have contributed positively to our classroom community and space.

This week, we came back to the book written by Steven Covey: The 7 Habits of Happy Kids (same author as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People which some of you may know). The lesson focused on planning and setting goals. Here are the first two habits covered so far:

1. Be Proactive – take initiative
2. Begin with the End in Mind – focus on goals

They wrote three goals plus small action steps and chose one to record in their planner for next week. Please have a conversation about the goals they set and in particular, the one they chose to record in their planner. Next week, ask them to reflect daily on their goals.

I love the image I showed them. It’s about making seemingly small steps that amount to a big change over time! They can get 1% better every day! We are building healthy and effective habits.

Click here to learn more about the 7 habits we will be learning about.

Personal Information Test

Thank you for taking the time to help your child study. We had 6 students get all of their information correct! Please continue to have your child memorize their O365 email address (login) and password. We will start using the laptops next week! The true test will be whether they can successfully log in.

As for memorizing their address and your cell numbers for safety reasons, we will leave that for you to decide the importance of keeping that by memory. Students will not be tested on this again in class.

Passion Projects

After having three opportunities to share what topic they chose as they went milling to music (ask them what that is!), they had an opportunity to share their 30 second elevator pitch about what they want to learn about. If you are not sure, please ask them what topic they decided. Hopefully it’s something you would LOVE to see them explore too!

Masks – Please have your child keep an extra mask in their backpack plus wear one to school. Thank you!

We appreciate your continued support at home!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Happy Thanksgiving, Division 6 families! This is a great time to reflect on what we are grateful for. We are so grateful to have your child in our class and your support! Thank you for taking the time to watch the video, read the blog post, or both! Your time and investment in your child’s education is very much appreciated.

CLICK HERE to watch the video update for last week.

Sorry, I forgot to mention in the video that students are encouraged to memorize some personal information. Their “test” will be on Wed. October 13. We will be using O365 regularly so it is most efficient with their time to memorize their email address (which is also their login ID) and password. It is also important at this age to know their address and parents’ phone numbers. The other piece of information to memorize is our class code for Epic Books. On this website, they will have access to thousands of high-quality books from 7am to 3pm.  Please help them practice and memorize. Thank you!

We are writers.

This week, we learned about our Writing Thought Process. This is something I created and have presented on a number of times. Click on the image to view the PDF. Writing is a process that takes time and effort. I wanted them to understand that actual writing time is likely only 20% of the time they spend. The other time is on pre-writing (like talking or brainstorming ideas), re-reading and reflecting what they wrote and carefully considering what they should write next (helps with the flow of ideas), and regularly revising as they continue writing. This is a constant cycle of thinking, writing, reading what’s written already, reflecting on clarity and what to say next and how to make writing better, and then thinking some more before writing more. It is in this process they can dive deeper and deeper into thoughts and ideas. I call it “magnifying glass” writing to add details, explanations, and reasons to support what they are expressing in writing.

Here are a couple of heart maps we started our first week together! Thank you to Pilar and Ellis who were willing to share! These are things that are near and dear to our hearts that we can write about because we know a lot about it!

We are Mathematicians in Grade 5 but Grade 4’s are more than welcome to use these strategies too!

This past week, we furthered our understanding of place value: every place has a value, comparing and ordering numbers to the hundred thousands place, and expanded notation.

For increasing our math facts fluency, we continued to practice using our random numbers sheet. Please create one at home to use as practice. The strategy introduced this past week was +2 and -2. Rather than have our minds calculate +2 and -2, I want them seeing this addition strategy as counting up by 2’s (+2) and counting down by 2’s (-2). This makes their calculations much quicker and with greater accuracy. Please CLICK HERE to watch the video on this strategy and check out the Mathematicians Play page for last week’s +1 and -1 strategy along with other games to play at home. Make it fun! Have a friendly competition with your child!

This week, I was introduced to a fun way to practice our math facts. I am SO excited to play with them this week!

We are passionate about Passion Projects!

Students were so looking forward to learning more about passion projects. Click here to watch our introductory video. They brought home an information sheet along with their brainstorm sheet. This week, please spend some time talking through different possibilities. Click here to view the information that was sent home.

Sorry, the information below was not mentioned in the video:

Digital Forms

You should have received an email last week from the office informing you that all beginning of the year information and permission forms are now completed online. On Wednesday, your child’s Personal Education Number (PEN) was sent home. You will need this to complete the forms. If you did not receive the email, did not receive the PEN, or are having any issues, please contact the office.

FSAs – Grade 4s only

Next week, we will be starting the Foundation Skills Assessments with the Grade 4s in Mr. Anchor’s class. Your child will participate in the FSAs unless you send back the opt-out form from the BCTF sent home Wednesday. If you do wish to opt your child out, please return the form on Tuesday, October 12. Thank you.

Looking ahead

Picture Day will be on Thursday, October 14.

We will be learning more about Digital Citizenship. These lessons are very important to develop an understanding of our digital presence, footprint, and how we navigate in any digital space that allows us to stay safe and be true to ourselves.

We will be using FreshGrade Connect as our e-Portfolio. After we have a couple of entries, you will be invited to view your child’s work including reflections and have the ability to comment. More information will be shared at a later date that will guide you in providing positive and effective feedback for your child’s continual growth.

I added all parent emails to receive notification when there is a new post. Should it be sufficient for your family for one parent to receive, please feel free to unsubscribe. If in the future you do not receive weekly notification of blog posts, please check your Junk folder or reach out. In the past, sometimes parents have accidentally unsubcribed. I can quickly add you back!

It always makes us feel extra happy when we see a comment from parents on any of our posts! Thank you!

We are grateful for your continued support at home!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich