We have finally reached the Winter Solstice! This weekend will be our longest days of darkness before the hours of daylight start to come back to us, one minute at a time. We are so excited to send you off for your much deserved two week break. It is a time we look forward to as well. Time spent with loved ones, enjoying laughter and some much needed rest will surely help us start the 2025 year the right way….. Excited and energized!

We want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your gifts and cards. We always appreciate your kind words and thoughtfulness. We are so very grateful for our Division 7 students and families. Thank you all!

After the hustle and Bustle of last week, with all the Winter Concert and Reader’s Theatre preparations and shows, this week has been quite a switch. We spent a lot of time having fun with activities and puzzles centered around the themes of Winter and Christmas. We completed some challenging word searches and math puzzles to keep us engaged and thinking because it can be exceptionally hard to stay focused at such a fun and exciting time of year.  To top it off, we celebrated many birthdays this week as well. We had Sepehr and Ayden celebrating birthday on Tuesday and Wednesday. Also, because we had to say good-bye to Leo this week as he was moving back to Korea, we also celebrated his birthday early with him too. We must thank Leo and Sepehr’s mom’s for the lovely treats they shared with us for the celebrations. Leo’s mom provided us all with a pizza lunch on Tuesday and Sepehr’s mom brought in a yummy cake. We are all sad to see Leo go but it was nice we got to send him off in such a yummy way!

On Monday, we watched the “City of Ember” movie to wrap up our Read Aloud. It was a very interesting movie. Many of you noticed how the movie moved much faster through the story compared to the book. Also, some things, like GIANT INSECTS, were added to the story which we agreed was probably just for special effect and excitement purposes. It is always interesting to read a book and than watch a movie adaptation of it to compare the two. Has anyone in your family read a book and watched the movie version? You should chat with them about what they thought about the differences.

We met with our buddies two times this week. At the beginning of the week, we joined them in their classroom to help them design and draw a Christmas tree. Once they finished, we helped them write a few sentences to describe the tree using some vocabulary given to us from Ms. Di Spirito. We saw them again on Friday, when they came to our classroom to have ‘Breakfast with Santa’ with us. I wonder what we will be doing with them in the new year? Do you have any suggestions of what you would like us to do with them?

Our “Secret Santa” gift exchange was a huge success!  Everyone brought their gifts to school and we enjoyed watching everyone open their gifts one at a time on Thursday afternoon! Based on the responses when gifts were opened, you all did a great job shopping and every gift was a hit!  You also did a great job keeping it a secret as many people were not able to guess who their “Secret Santa” was until it was revealed to them!  Way to go!

This week was also exciting because you received your first progress report of the year. The first report of the year considers all your work from September to December. In our opinion, most of what we have been working on has been foundational. We have been working on being organized, responsible and attentive. You have all come so far already! We love writing the reports because they remind us of all your hard work and success. Although we all have stretches and areas we are working on, many of you set goals for yourselves throughout this first term and, you reached those goals. We are excited for what is to come next term, are you?

Over the next two weeks, we wish  you all a beautiful time with family and friends.  As we discovered, there are so many different ways to celebrate at this time of  year and whatever this season looks like for you and whatever traditions you hold, may they be another opportunity to create lasting memories of special times.  Our hope for 2025 is that it starts well and turns into a beautiful year for you all!

See you all in January!

Mrs. Gil and Mrs. Davis

As you all now know, we are nearing the end of the Fall season. Soon, the Winter Solstice will arrive and so will the shortest day! December 21 is when Winter arrives here in BC and, as it so happens, that will be your first day of Winter Break! In our study of the seasons, we are finishing up our visual note taking work by combining all we learned with Ms. Cummings about the Seasonal Round, with all our investigations about the seasons here in BC. We learned a lot about how the rotation of the earth around the sun affects all living things, big and small. From the earliest times, humans, plants, and animals have had to adjust their behaviours to survive and thrive through all the changes each season brings. Are you and your family ready for winter?

Here at school, we prepare for the season in many ways. We collected warm socks, hats and mittens for those in the community who need our help to stay warm. In Music class, you are also preparing and practicing a song for our school’s Winter Concert. Not only that, we have been making ornaments for our class Christmas Tree and we even made Christmas Tree Ornaments with our buddies to celebrate the season. You also received your completed glass ornaments and hopefully found a place of honour for them in your homes. They were gorgeous!

In Writer’s Workshop, we were given gifts from Great Aunt Gert so we are working on writing her Thank you notes as well. Did you tell your parents what Great Aunt Gert got you? We are sure they would love to hear about some of the crazy gifts she gave  you and your classmates.

Before Winter Break, we are going to be wrapping up our second read aloud novel. In the next week, we should be finishing “The City of Ember”. That means we will be able to watch the movie version as well. It will be very interesting to compare the novel to the movie, don’t you agree? We have our next read aloud picked out and ready to go but, you will have to wait for the New Year to find out what it is!

On Thursday we were treated to a wonderful lesson by Mrs. Dionne ( from our ELL teaching team) as she shared  how Christmas is celebrated in Mexico!  We learned that there are two big celebrations in Mexico at this time of year: Las Posadas and Dia de los Reyes Magos.  Las Posadas takes place over 9 days starting on  December 16 right through to December 24th.  This 9 day celebration is a reminder of the long journey Mary and Joseph made and their search for a place to stay before Jesus was born.  Dia de los Reyes Magos ( Day of the Three Kings)  takes place on January 6th. This is the day that Mexican children receive gifts and is also the final day of the Christmas celebrations. Mrs. Dionne baked us the traditional sweet bread ( Rosca de Reyes) to finish off her lesson! It was delicious!  Do you remember what is special about that bread?  What is hidden in it?  What happens when someone finds the hidden item?

In Math we had some fun with meters! We did some conversion practice to become familiar with how to write/ record centimeters into meters . Example:  345cm = 3 meters and 45 centimeters = 3.45 meters.  Then, in small groups we did some measuring around the classroom, in the hallways of the school, and outside.  We didn’t finish this yet, but, it was good practice learning how to use the meter stick as a tool and to measure accurately using both centimeters and meters.

Thanks everyone for getting your Secret Santa wish lists back to school so quickly.  We were able to do our draw on Friday and everyone who is participating has a person to shop for.  Remember, our budget is between $12-$15  . Please bring your gifts ( wrapped and labelled with who the gift is FOR. )  to school on Monday Dec. 16 or Tuesday Dec 17th.  Our Secret Santa exchange will take place on the 19th or 20th.  That will still be decided as we see how our schedule goes.

Blog Response…

Ask your family members about how they prepare for winter. List at least 5 ways your family prepares themselves and your homes for the coming of the season……

“I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning”  -Plato

This week we attended our first Young People’s Concert! It was fabulous. We were entertained by Leading Ladies Little Big Band . The focus of the performance was to introduce the students to each instrument through musical selections from jazz, swing, and popular classics. The 11-piece ensemble gave students an unforgettable taste of their musical possibilities. The hope is that the students are inspired to study music in Grade 7 and beyond. There were a lot of excited faces and grooving bodies so it looks like the performance was a success!

Your music teacher, Ms. Petrovska, sent us an overview of what you have been doing with her in class this term and boy are we impressed. She told us that, “as musicians you have been practicing the “Lemonade Blues” arrangement on Orff (barred instruments), congas and parts of the drum set (snare drum, hi hat and crash cymbal). Also, you learned and sang songs for the Remembrance Day assembly. Currently, you are preparing for your parts in the musical “I Need a Little Winter Vacation”. The preparation for the musical incorporates aspects of singing, choreography and drama (for some students). You sure have had a busy term with lots of amazing musical opportunities!

In Math, many of you are zooming your way through Xtra Math! Many of you are on subtraction already and some even multiplication. We sure are impressed! Unfortunately, some of you are still having trouble being consistent with your practice. We have asked you to try for 5 days a week as we see this as the best way to improve your fluency. If you have not been doing 5 days a week, maybe talk with your parents right now and decide the days and times you are going to practice. REMEMBER SMART GOALS, if you want to achieve it, you need it to have a plan with times and days in order to stay on track. This week, we were working on four digit addition and subtraction. When we stack the questions, it breaks the numbers down into single digit addition and subtraction so, if you think about it, your single digit adding and subtacting skill fluency  is definitely going to help you be more successful in the day to day work we do in math.  Coming soon, we will be working on multiplication and division so if you can get ahead on Xtra Math, it will help you with those lessons too.  We also began exploring measuring with METERS.  A meter is a much larger unit than mm and cm and is most useful when you are asked to measure the length of something bigger.  Next week we’ll start actually measuring with this unit.

This week we had our Social Studies assessment focusing on the Provincial Government. Through a “Jeopardy” style game, we did a “buddy study”/ open book practice round.  As a class we discussed and went over the answers and then the game was put on TEAMS to practice at home.  The results weren’t as strong as they should have been… especially given all the practice opportunities you were given.  We did have a chat about what YOUR responsibility is when it comes to preparing for tests and that most of the time, teachers will give you a “heads up” and that’s about it!

What do an Advent Calendar, Tannenbaum, and Saint Nicholas all have in common?  They are traditions that are part of Christmas in Germany!  This is our next mini-unit for the month of December as we finish off this term and gear up for all the Christmas festivities. Mrs. Davis was born in Germany and many of the things we learned about are based on what she experienced as she was growing up — and still incorporates into her traditions now.  Each of you went home with an Advent Calendar to start your own countdown to Christmas.  Don’t forget to open the first window of your calendar on Sunday, December 1st!

Our mini “tannenbaum” is looking super cute with the toque ornaments you created!  We spent a bit of time each day this week working on them and everyone has made at least one toque that is hanging on our tree.  If you haven’t yet made one, you can make one at home too!  We’ll be making some other decorations for our tree next week.

Blog reminder. Whenever possible, you should be answering in full sentences. You all need to practice your sentence structure, grammar and punctuation. Any response is an opportunity to get better at this skill so keep at it everyone!

Your blog response this week has to do with our Secret Santa plans.  We discussed the format that we want to do this year and the decision was made to have a specific person that we shop for.  The question that we need to narrow down is the dollar limit that we want to spend.  Talk to your parents and respond to the following questions:

Will you be able to participate if our Secret Santa gift exchange is on Dec. 19 or 20th? ( you are planning on being at school) 

Should our gift limit be $10 or $15 dollars? ( make sure your parents agree to this!) 

Will your parents be able to take you shopping for whoever you are a “Secret Santa” for? 

Have a wonderful weekend Division 7!

Mrs. Gil and Mrs. Davis

This week’s blog is going to start off with someone else’s voice for a change. Ms. Willis has provided us with a little overview of what you have been working on in your art classes with her. She wanted your parents to know just what you have been up to in there because the first term is almost over.  I know, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? Time is moving at light speed it seem.  Here is what Ms. Willis wants your parents to know:

As artists we are learning to use the art studio and its materials in responsible and respectful ways. This term we have learned about the artists Sonia Delaunay and Tim Burton, and we created two pieces of art inspired by their styles. We are developing our artist mindset where risk taking, play, and experimentation are valued; and mistakes can lead us to something beautiful.

In our regular class time we worked hard this week. We have begun finishing up our paragraphs, three drafts altogether, and most of us are ready to publish. It will be exciting to get the paragraphs finished and be able to read one another’s work. Your paragraphs really came a long way. You were AMAZING peer editors and I saw many great additions and changes to your drafts as a result of working with a peer. Hopefully, this week we will finish our final versions with some illustrations and be able to share them with one another.

In Math we worked on estimating strategies as a large group and with partners. The week ended with you showing me what you could do ‘on your own’.  We were learning that:

Have a great long weekend everyone!

Mrs. Gil

We have reached the halfway point of the month and things continue to be bus and jam packed. This week was a short one due to Remembrance Day on Monday. Next week will also be short because there is a Professional Day on Friday, the 22nd.  We hope you are all taking advantage of those days away from school, enjoying some rest and family time. We also hope you are using some of your free time to keep working on Xtra Math and your home reading. It is exciting to see so many of you reaching and passing the 1000 minute milestone. There are only a few students left who are not on the reading chart yet.

We went to the Scholastic Book Fair in the Library on Friday. For 1/2 hour we had the place to ourselves and many of you came prepared. Books, posters, and pens went flying off the shelves. Some of you just did some browsing and found out some things you might like buy and how much you will need to bring with you next week if you choose to shop. Either way, the Book Fair will be open all next week at lunch and after school for your shopping if you would like!

In Science and Indigenous Education this week, we continued to explore how daylight savings time works as well as exploring seasons. We specifically looked at how each of the seasons can affect plants and animals. Next week, Ms. Cummings will be coming in and helping us learn more about Seasonal Rounds. The seasonal round, also known as the annual round, is a pattern of movement that Indigenous peoples followed each year to gather resources. We will be making examples of our own seasonal round artwork starting next week as well.

Our glass workshop went well on Tuesday. The ornaments you all made looked really great. I can’t wait to see them all finished and melted. Starting in a few weeks, we will begin working on some ornament crafts for Christmas. We will be making some on our own in class and, we will be working with our buddies to make ornaments as well. Please keep bringing in those toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls that will help with the projects. Also, yarn will be a part of each of the crafts so bring in your balls of yarn as soon as possible too!

In Math, we worked through some more mental math strategies in partners and large groups and then I asked you to show me your understanding independently. Many of you were able to demonstrate that you can use at least one mental math strategy to solve addition and subtraction problems while some of you can even use several different strategies. Way to go. We are going to be practicing estimating whole number addition and subtraction problems in the coming weeks. I am confident you all will find this pretty simple.

In Language Arts, we are working on completing sentences and creating basic paragraphs. We are going to be working through paragraphs from brainstorming, to draft, to final drafts. I will be editing your first drafts with you, then you will edit your second draft with a partner, and finally, the final draft will be the one you are assessed on. Hopefully, the more paragraphs we complete, the more confident you will become as writers.

Speaking of writing, it is almost time for us to write your progress reports. This week, we asked you to reflect on your learning and growth so far this year. It has been a really full term with lots of new routines and expectations. We like reading your reflections because know one knows you better than YOU! We use your reflections to help us make sure we write a report that really represents your progress. Sometimes, what we see is not what is the most important to you. By using some of your reflections in the report, we make sure your parents know EXACTLY how hard you have been working, what you are most proud of, and what you believe you need to work on most. We also let them know what we see in you, which is important as well, but together with your input, the progress reports really are a celebration of all you have accomplished so far this year.

We had some time with computers this week. You were able to practice typing and some of you also chose to play some math games.  Computers, however, are not all about games. A lot of information can be gathered and work can be done using computers as well. This week, we started looking at digital citizenship and how important it is to be safe and respectful online. Sometimes, people think they can hide behind the screen so they act differently than they would face to face. It is important to understand how to stay safe and kind in the digital world.

Your Blog Response Question for this week is about your life behind the screen. Answer the following questions. Please use full sentences, capitals, and periods to respond to each:

1. How much time do you spend on the computer each day?
2. What kinds of things do you do on the computer?
3. Do you have rules about computer use in your home? What are they?
4. What is one thing you learned about digital literacy in Friday’s lesson?

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Mrs. Gil

We had a very stormy start to the week. On Monday, we were supposed to have an outdoor experience with a member of BC’s Sierra Club. We were going to be learning about our neighborhood’s ecological and cultural structure in the classroom and then we were going to head out to Beecher Creek to explore the environment first hand. Unfortunately, the wind and rain proved to be too much. Fortunately, we have re-scheduled the field trip for early in December. Let’s hope the weather cooperates with us then!

November is here and we have a lot going on. We created our November calendar and looked ahead at what is happening this month. Some highlights are:                    -bowling (happened on Wednesday)                                                                                 -Remembrance Day Assembly (Friday) and Remembrance Day                                  (no school on Monday)                                                                                                         -Glass Workshop Tuesday the 12th                                                                                     -Scholastic Book fair starting on the 15th                                                                         -Professional Day on November 22 (no school)                                                               -Young People’s Concert Wednesday the 27th

We wanted you to read this to your parents and pass on our apologies for all the extra costs we have been asking for in the last few months. The beginning of the school year is always difficult with all the up front costs for planners, Young People’s Concerts, etc. We realize that in this month alone, the extras of bowling, glass workshop and movie must seem like a lot. It was not our intention to throw so many costs at you all at once and we understand if you feel like its a lot. Going forward, we will be more mindful about spreading out the field trips and the costs that come with them. On a happier note, our wonderful Brentwood PAC has provided all the classes with some field trip funds which we will most definitely be applying to our next field trip and this will partially, or even fully, cover the costs for the students.

Bowling on Wednesday was a blast! The weather was perfect for our walk there and back. Our class was very well behaved and we had four wonderful parent volunteers joining us, keeping us safe all the way. It was such a joyful experience, watching all the students in Division 7, playing together, laughing and enjoying their time at the bowling lanes. We were sad a couple of students were unable to attend due to illness, we missed you! It was great to see all of you in a different setting. You were very encouraging to one another and there were too many spares and strikes to count! Well done, everyone.

In Math, we have started a new, XTRA math online program. The idea of the program is to have you work independently online for 10 minutes a day at home to practice basic math facts. These are just straight forward drills to help those of you who are still struggling with fact recall become quicker and more confident. This is really just like using flash cards. For those of you who are confident, you will quickly move through the program and once you are done, you no longer need to do the nightly practice. Everyone is working at their own pace. Our hope is that all of  you will make it through the entire program by years end, at the latest. At school, we are focusing on strategies and skills that take those basic facts and bring them to life with real world problems requiring deeper thinking and understanding. Knowing you basic facts will definitely help make our work at school a lot more manageable.

On Thursday this week, we began exploring measurement of length using mm.  For our purposes, millimeters is the smallest unit of measurement that we will be using.  We looked at the rulers that we have and discovered a variety of measurement systems on them.  Some have centimeters and millimeters ONLY, and others have INCHES as well.  In Canada, we use the metric system so “inches” are not what we will be using here at school.  Our rulers are 30 cm (300 mm) long.   You all had fun walking around the room and measuring a variety of items using mm.  Next week you’ll continue measuring items using different units.

In Writing, we have switched over our Brain Booster time to include some sentence practice. For the next little while, we will be working on reading, writing, and expanding our sentence writing abilities. We had our first trial run of this new structure this week and you all did great! We worked on making sure sentences contain all necessary parts. Our practice also included working on different types of sentences (exclamation, command, statement, and question) and combining sentences.

In Science this week, we talked about Daylight Savings Time. We learned a little about when this time changing started and why. We made some connections between what we know about the earth’s rotation around the sun, seasons, and daylight. It was very fun to do some research about daylight hours in different parts of the world. We made predictions about the hours of daylight in other places around the globe compared to us, here in Burnaby, right now. It was great to see you all applying your knowledge of the equator and the seasons to make your predictions. Our Indigenous support teacher, Ms. Cummings, came in and read us a story about “The Sisters”, which we know to be the “Lions”, the two mountains to the North of us that we can see right outside if we stand on the playground facing North. We heard about how they came to be named that through a Squamish Nation story she shared with us. For the next few Tuesdays, Ms. Cummings will be coming to our class and sharing oral stories and teachings that will help us make connections to our learnings about seasons and this land we are on right now.

Now that the Provincial Election results have been finalized, we asked: What does the Provincial government actually DO?  What are they in charge of and responsible for? Turns out the Provincial government has a LOT of responsibilities like Education, Transportation, Provincial Parks, Tourism, Real Estate, Health Care ( Hospitals, doctors, nurses), making  and enforcement of laws, and all of the natural resources (that are found in our Province. Whew! That’s a lot.  You all started a poster to represent some of these responsibilities.  Most of you have taken it home for homework.  Remember, it’s due next week on Thursday.

Thanks everyone for your hard work creating our Remembrance Day wreath and our hallway display.   We spent some time learning about why we wear a poppy and other important information about Remembrance Day.  We hope you are able to reflect a bit on Monday, November 11th about what this day off means and it’s importance to us living here in Canada.

Here is your BLOG response for this weekend:  Fill in the blanks:

The __________ is a symbol of ______. We wear it to _______ the _____ that fought and _____ in  wars for us.  _____ is a  ____ country because of what brave men and women did to ____ us.   

Word bank:   protect, safe, died, poppy, Canada, soldiers, peace, remember. 

PS:  Mrs. Davis is going to be away for the next 2 weeks. I am on a vacation with my family to Mexico.  I am only missing 3 days with you, but you won’t see me until Monday, November 25th.  Mrs. Gil will be covering Thursdays and Fridays until I come back.

Have a wonderful long weekend Division 7!

Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Gil

We were hit with another short week this week and boy, did it ever fly by!

We continued on our number sense journey this week by doing some work with addition to find out just how much you already know. What is great is that we found out that all of you can add up to three by three digit numbers with and without regrouping!  As we discussed, if you can do that, you can do any large digit addition. Knowing that, it is important for you to “brush up” on your speed with addition as you are now in the intermediate grades. If you are still using your fingers, it might be time to see if you can do some practice work on your own to improve your speed. Next up, we will challenge our addition skills with some problem solving using the mental math strategies we explored earlier this month.  Next week, we will be doing some similar practice with subtraction to see how your skills are in that area. Can you subtract with borrowing? Can you subtract three by three digit equations? Once we see where we are at, we will also challenge those skills with problem solving questions.

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to work with a partner on our GOW to prepare for an assessment next week.  The GOW “Buddy Study” was focused around Pets and the data was already given to us.  With your partner you  discussed how to represent that data in fractions and then how to graph it using a pictograph and a bar graph.  As always, there was a “Write On” component as well.  This was also done in partnership so that you could discuss the best Topic sentence as well as five more informative and interesting sentences about pets in YOUR life.  Your GOW assessment will be on MONDAY ( 28th), so take home your buddy study to practice!

This week we also worked on our School Wide Write samples and the Literacy FSA (grade 4’s). For all students, we used the in class time discuss and then to answer a question about either friendship or nature. All students writing the FSA will have their writing samples taken from whatever they wrote in the personal response portion of the FSA assessment. Everyone else in the class, during the FSA time, chose a question to respond to similar to the question from the FSA, and that writing will be their sample used in the School Wide Write assessments. What is a School Wide Write assessment? That is a piece of writing that teachers will collect in all of the classes in the school. On the November 22 Professional Day, teachers will meet with all their grade group teachers to mark all the samples as a team. Doing this makes sure that all the 4/5 teachers for example, have the same expectations of all the students in those grades. This way, no matter what teacher you have, you will know we all have the same expectations of students in grades 4 and 5. Next week, we will finish our online Literacy FSA and move onto the Math sections.

A lot of you were able to have fun and explore Typing.com during the online FSA. While we had access to our computers, many of you played games and completed practice lessons using that website. It was amazing to see how many of you are developing really great typing habits that will definitely help you as you move up in grades. Being able to type, with two hands on the keyboard instead of ‘pecking’ is an important skill. Please take some time at home to show your parents the website and show them what you can do! For many of you, printing is not easy so, using a computer to process your writing is a great choice! It can be quite quick and easy once you get the hang of it.

Your Haunted Houses are coming along very well. Time is ticking as Halloween is almost upon us! We had a couple of building sessions this week and with only ONE more guaranteed building session next week, we really have to use our time wisely!  Monday will be our last day to do major work unless Mrs. Gil is able to slot in a little more time on Tuesday or Wednesday for final touches.

Halloween is on Thursday!  You may come to school dressed in costume as long as it follows these conditions:

1. Culture is not a costume. So please do not dress up as a person from another country.
2. Weapons are NOT allowed.  If swords, guns, or other weapons are part of your costume, please keep those for trick-or-treating in the evening and don’t bring them to school.
3. .If you are wearing a mask, make sure you can SEE CLEARLY with it on.

4. If you are dressing up as something scary or gory, please keep that for the evening and choose something else for school. We don’t want our younger school mates getting terrified and having nightmares.  Let’s keep our costumes “G” rated and as friendly as possible.

One final note about Halloween:  Many of you donated some Megabucks on Thursday toward our party.  Our goal was to reach at least 40 MB to earn one hour of party time up to a max of 90 minutes which would cost 60 MB.  With your generous donations, it gives us great pleasure to announce that the party is ON!! You donated a total of 71 Megabucks toward it, so that will give you the full afternoon on Halloween to enjoy some free time to play games. We’ll discuss this in more detail on Monday, but well done Division 7!

Your blog response for the weekend is this:  

Why is “culture NOT a costume”?  Why would dressing up as a person from another country/cultural group be inappropriate? 

Have a great LONG weekend Division 7!  See you again on Monday!

Mrs. Gil and Mrs. Davis

Another short week that was far from short on work. After a nice extra long weekend with some pretty great weather and time to rest, we were very busy again this week, especially when it comes to reviewing safety expectations at Brentwood. On Wednesday, we had our first fire drill. The school managed to get outside and organized in just under 5 minutes. Our class did a great job needing only a few reminders to line up straight and stay silent throughout the whole practice. On Thursday, we participated in The Great Canadian ShakeOut. The Great BC ShakeOut is an annual province-wide earthquake drill for everyone to practice how to protect themselves and to be better prepared in the event of an earthquake. Across BC, students practiced,  dropping to the ground, taking cover by getting under a sturdy desk or table, and holding on until the shaking stops(or Mrs. Kimmie tells us it is over).

Our goal setting lessons this week centered around SMART goal setting. We used some example goals to help us see what makes a goal SMART or not. A goal like “I want to read more,” we discovered, is NOT a SMART goal. If a goal says, “I want to read more by reading 30 minutes everyday for the next two weeks,” that would be considered a SMART goal.

SMART goals set you up for success by making goals specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. The SMART method helps push you further, gives you a sense of direction, and helps you organize and reach your goals. Next week, we will be creating some SMART goals for ourselves.

In Science, we talked about the earth’s rotation on its axis and about how it orbits the sun. We learned that the earth completes one rotation on its axis every day, giving us day and night as it changes from facing the sun to being in darkness. Also, as the earth rotates it is also orbiting (travelling around) the sun. I full orbit of the sun takes 365 days and is what gives us the seasons we experience. It was interesting to learn that not all places on earth experience all four seasons.

It’s Election Day in BC on Saturday!  We continued to learn about the Provincial Government and how our system works.  We learned about the number of MLA’s that are going to be elected and that they each represent a riding ( or area) of BC.  We learned the name of the riding that Brentwood Park is in and who the candidates are that competing to become the MLA.  Do you remember who the current MLA is?  You all have election results homework this weekend, so if you are allowed to stay up on Saturday night, the final results should be in by 9 pm.  If you aren’t, you sure will be able to “google” the results on Sunday.

We began working on basketball skills this week. As we move into the intermediate grades, our focus becomes on body awareness, safety, control and of course, skill development. A lot of you demonstrated great skill at bouncing the ball while moving around the gym safely. We worked on passing the ball using the bounce pass and the chest pass as well. Basketball is a game that involves ball handling, shooting, defense, passing, and rebounding so before we can even play a game, we must learn these skills.

Our “maison hantee” projects have officially begun! We spent a good chunk of time on Friday creating our haunted houses.  They are still in the very beginning stages… getting the basic framework/structure created as well as getting a coat of paint on them.  You will have some more time next week (maybe one session with Mrs. Gil, another on Thursday with Mrs. Davis, and final touches will need to be put on during the week of October 28th.  Mrs. Davis will be here on the Monday, and then there may be one last chance to finalize your haunted house before showcasing our creations on Halloween Day!!

This week our Read Aloud took us on a trip through some very “bathroom” related ideas. Farting and vomiting! The boys were involved in both a farting contest in their class and a vomiting prank that turned out very wrong.  The chapters we read this week were definitely laugh out loud funny! What was NOT so funny about “bathrooms” this week was the challenge our class is still having with following the rules! This is a great chance for you to explain to your parents what problems we are having with the bathroom situation in Division 7. This is also going to be your BLOG RESPONSE question this week………

What are the class rules about bathroom use… (hint, you should have more than one rule in your response)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Gil

Time sure is flying by, don’t you agree? We are already through our first week of October and Halloween is just a few weeks away! This week was a short week because of the Professional Day on Friday. Next week is also a short week because of Thanksgiving on Monday. In the blink of an eye, we will be into the middle of October.

This week was pretty busy. In Math, we continued our Place Value work by focusing on comparing and ordering numbers. We used strategies that had us look at the place values of numbers to help us compare numbers. We took things a step further and practiced some mental math strategies for addition using place value as well. Some of you finished the practice work in class, but most of you have some work to do over the long weekend. We want you to learn these strategies so you develop math fluency. We want you to confidently use and apply your knowledge of number relationships, number facts and our number system.

We continued our read aloud from “And Then it Happened; Book 2″. Gordon got the boys into a real mess with the class pet. I felt really sad about how the gerbil died, did you? Maybe tell your family the story. The football story was pretty funny as well. I can just imagine a dog and a turkey playing football with the kids. I am not sure how Paulo’s dad felt about it at the end though.

In Science, we began our study of the Earth and its Orbit. We explored some important terms like axis, rotation, and eclipse. As we continue our studies, we will dive deep and try to understand how the Earth’s movements cause changes that we experience around us everyday. We will discover how the motions of the Earth and the moon cause patterns that affect both living and non-living things. This is sure to be a fun exploration!

Our Social Studies unit was introduced this week as well.  We started with an “anticipation guide” to get our brains engaged and thinking about what the topic of study could be.  You were shown a bunch of images and were asked to answer questions about each image.  You discussed with a partner and then wrote your guesses down.  There was no “wrong answer” as this was just to see what our background knowledge was.  After that, you read a piece of text that incorporated those images and explained what how they connect.  We will continue to work on that next week.  Can your parents guess what we’ll be studying be based on these three set of images?    

We finally met our buddies this week as well. Our buddy class is Ms. Di Spirito’s Grade 1 class. At our first meeting, we got to know a little about each other by creating a BUDDY BOOK that our buddy will get to keep. During the year we will be visiting with them every other Monday. We will be helping them learn to read, we will read to them and with them, and we will definitely be making some cool projects together too! They are so lucky to have such great student role models!

As we get more in the groove of things in Division 7, you are beginning to understand the expectations of you as grade 4 and 5 students. We have been discussing what went well for you last year and also, what you found challenging. Goal setting is an important way to help us grow as students so we have begun exploring our hopes for the year ahead. This week you chose a single word that is going to help you focus and reach your goals. Next week, we will begin to look and short and long term goals and how we can best set ourselves up for success.

On Wednesday afternoon, we spent some time with the computers. You all have your sign in information along with passwords that are on stickers we placed in your planners. We practiced getting onto OFFICE 365 and you all accessed our classroom TEAM. This is a great place for you to connect with each other in positive ways from your homes after school and on weekends. It is also a place where you will be completing and turning in your weekly Blog Responses. This weekend will be your first chance to complete on online assignment, so…. good luck! As the year goes on, we will be using the TEAM and Office 365 in many different ways. During our computer time, we also explored Typing.com. That is a website you can use anytime, if you want to improve your typing skills. You do not need to sign up for an account, there are a lot of games to play that are really fun and help you practice.

All the computer work you did this week is part of our ADST curriculum ( T= Technology) and you all enjoy the time you can spend with computers.  Another aspect of ADST is the “D”  part of the acronym, which stands for DESIGN.  On Thursday you finally were able to begin the planning stages of our first creative design project:  A haunted house! Since we are connecting it to French, it’s called “La Maison Hantee”.  The room was a BUZZ as you chatted, exchanged ideas, and began sketching your plans onto paper.  You have taken this home for the weekend, so that each of you can think of ideas. Next week on Thursday and Friday, you’ll combine your ideas, finalize your plan ( for outside and inside the house) and then move on to the building stage of this project.

Your Blog response this weekend is this: 

What are  you thankful for?  List 5 things that you are grateful for: 

Have a wonderful LONG weekend Division 7!

Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Gil

Wow! Here we are in October already!  Autumn has officially started and the signs of this season are beginning to show.  Cozy sweaters, leaves changing colour, and a crispness in the air are all evident these days.  We’ve been pretty lucky with the rain…and umbrellas, although ready, haven’t been needed as much lately.

We have been pretty busy this week!  After the holiday on Monday, Mrs. Davis started us off this week. Our first blog post was submitted and it was great to see that 25 out of the 28 of us got our response done and handed in!  The 5 MB certainly motivated us to get that one in!  Let’s see if we can keep that incredible record going!

We spent a good chunk of our week preparing for our Terry Fox run on Friday. We completed a flip book about Terry and completed a few more activities in it. We did two writing activities: one paragraph explaining the 5 words we would choose to describe Terry.  Compassionate, caring, determined, heroic, and self-less were some of the words that we came up with.  The list was LONG.  It is so great that even after 43 years, Terry Fox continues to inspire us so that his dream continues to live on.  We used this long list to also create an acrostic poem about Terry.  Finally, we designed a running shoe in honour of Terry with the slogan “No Matter What”.  Did you know that 4 years ago, Adidas released a runner in honour of the 40th anniversary of the Marathon of Hope?  Our run on Friday was great!  It looked at first like we were going to be running in pouring rain–but the rain stopped and our run was DRY.  Thanks to all the parents ( and those from Division 7) who helped out and encouraged us along the route!  Thanks also for all the donations!  Division 7 ended up donating $106.00!! That really is incredible and helped Brentwood easily reach and EXCEED our target goal!  Way to go everyone!

We started French this week and have been focusing on greetings.  Hello, What’s your name?  My name is ____ , How are you?  I am feeling ____ were only some of the many salutations we practiced.  We really enjoyed singing the “Bonjour, Bonjour” song and many of us are humming that around the room too!  It’s a catchy tune and has already gotten stuck in our heads!  French is all about giving a new language a try.  We spend lots of time speaking, listening, repeating, and practicing.  Participation is key and with practice, our pronunciation will continue to improve.

Mr. Maroney was in our class for a day and a half this week, as Mrs. Gil was away for a half day on Wednesday and Mrs. Davis was away on Thursday.  Thank you Division 7 for making Mr. Maroney’s time with us enjoyable.  He had a great report for us about how you were fun to spend time with.

Your blog response for this weekend will need to be done on a piece of paper and given to Mrs. Gil on Monday

What are 5 different things you like about Autumn?

Have a wonderful weekend Division 7!

Mrs. Gil and Mrs. Davis