This week was a special week for all of us! Mrs. Gil is celebrating with her family for an extended holiday and while she was away, I got to step in for the whole week! It sure was a treat to start and end the whole week with you all Division 6! The best part is that it’s not over yet– I’ll be back for Monday and Tuesday next week too! Mrs. Gil will be back on Wednesday the 28th and then we’ll be back to our regular schedule as we move into March.
Even with it being a short week, we sure packed it full of a bunch of learning! Our Viola Desmond test got finished and we also completed our term reflections. Both of these were started last week, but had to be paused as we weren’t finished by the end of Thursday. 
Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Gil will be starting progress report writing so those reflections are really important. Thanks for being thoughtful Division 6 in not only what you want to highlight as successes these past months, but also in the goals you set for yourselves as we move into the final months of the school year.
Our study of discriminatory policies in Canada and how minority groups were treated hasn’t ended just yet. Viola Desmond and the black community was only one of the groups that wasn’t treated equally back when Canada was becoming a nation. We read an article called “Not Wanted” in the KAYAK magazine and discovered a few shameful situations in Canada’s past… and one area that was VERY CLOSE to home… can you remember which area that was and what was “legal” at the time? 
Our study is now focused on how Asian immigrants were treated– and it is very disturbing and shocking to think that Canada once held the views it did. Considering how many people of Asian descent now live here, it says a lot about how strong they were, are still, and continue to be given the treatment they endured.
In Math we learned what the difference is between proper, improper, and mixed fractions. A proper fraction is when the numerator is LESS than the denominator. An improper fraction is when the numerator is GREATER than the denominator. 
When this happens, the fraction needs to be converted into a mixed fraction which is made up of a WHOLE number and a proper fraction. We played “Six Pies for Sale” as a way to practice this as well as some worksheet work to help us learn how to convert one type of fraction to another.
Our big ADST/Careers project is underway! This week you chose business partners and have signed a contract committing to a number of conditions and agreements as you move forward in business together. 
You also presented a business proposal outlining the products you wish to create for sale in your store. Now it’s time to collect your supplies, shop ( if you need to) and bring your materials back to school. Your first “creating” time will be on Tuesday afternoon. There will be several opportunities to work on this in class over the next few weeks.
This leads perfectly into your BLOG RESPONSE for this weekend: Firstly, go over the business agreement you signed and have your parent(s) sign it as well. This is just to show that they are aware of our project and what your responsibilities are. Bring this back to school on Monday.
Then answer the following questions as your blog response:
My business is selling the following products:
Are you a monopoly? Explain why:
If you aren’t a monopoly, how many other businesses are you in competition with?
Have a wonderful weekend Division 6! See you on Monday!
Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Gil ( from a beach in Mexico) 
. It is very important to check in on ourselves and see how we are growing and changing as students. It is important to celebrate our successes and set goals for the future. 
We know you have all been working hard on the goals you created at the end of last term so its time to think about how far you have come.
We had a check-in quiz on Wednesday and it is clear to us you have all improved in your understanding of fractions over the past few weeks. Next up, we will be exploring how to convert fractions into decimals and how fractions are really just division!
Our GOW for this week surrounds the long weekend. The question was, “If you could plan a Family Day weekend, what three activities would you choose to do?” There were lots of options to choose, but the one that most of the class chose was doing a winter sport ( skiing, snowboarding, skating, or sledding). I wonder if you asked your family this weekend if they would consider one of your plans this weekend? This GOW was sent home for homework… due on Tuesday for those of you who didn’t get it done at school.
As we were deeply concentrating and focused, a surprise fire drill interrupted our train of thought— which was very tough to get back when we came back inside. 
Add to that the excitement of having 4 days off… let’s just say that we will need a bit more time on Tuesday to finish that quiz.
Basically, you all conducted your own experiments from start to finish and they turned out great. In the end, you were asked to explain why your findings are useful in the real world. This means that you had to think about the application of your discovery. This activity was science at its best! It was fun watching you all explore, discuss and discover.
Coming up for the next term, we are going to talk about Extreme Environments, have you studied this topic before? What environments do you think would be considered ‘extreme’.
In Literacy, 
we learned about heart and love idioms and explored some figurative language related to love as well. We had fun with Valentine themed word problems in math and even solved some valentine mysteries by finding patterns.
Valentine’s day would not have been complete without some free time to enjoy each other’s company! It was a great day all around and we hope you enjoyed it too.
Family day dreams… An activity I would love to do that might take a few hours or more is ___________________________. Something that can be done at home and includes all of my family is _______________________________. Finally, an activity that I have never done but would like to try is _______________________.
you should all be very proud of your hard work over the past two weeks. All your hard work and practice certainly paid off as you showed off your talents on Thursday and Friday! 
Thursday was dress rehearsal day and your audience was the other half of the school. Then, in the afternoon, we were treated to the dances that the other half of the school did– and it was impressive for sure! Did you have a favourite? On Friday, your audience were your parents! We are sure that they were just as impressed by your dance as well as those of the other classes. The grand finale was fun!! What did your parents think of that?
It is important that we all understand it is important to realize that it is not that easy to get a loan, nor is it something we should take lightly. We discussed some scenarios were you were the person lending the money and had to decide if someone was a good risk or not. We learned that friends and family are challenging to lend to as there are many
emotional factors involved. We also learned that we have to make good life decisions if we want a bank to lend us money because we have to be responsible, trust worthy individuals if they are going to trust us to pay them back. Next week, we will dive deeper into the pay back process of loans. We will explore interest, how it works and even, how to calculate it!
Some of you have really got the hang of it, but others of you are still struggling. We did some group work to see if you could help one another unpack and solve some problems together a
nd it seemed to have you working together as a few of you turned out to be really great teachers! It is so important to remember that we all learn at different rates and in different ways. That is why it is so great to see those of you who are really understanding the concept be able to encourage and help your classmates who need a little more time and practice with the ideas. What a wonderful community of learners you are!
Of course, we were able to hypothesize that yes, in fact, the height helps the toy car travel further due to the increase in gravitational pull on the car as the ramp steepness increases. At the end of the experiment, you were asked to team up to come up with another question to answer through experimentation, only changing one variable from our group experiment. Your groups have come up with some interesting questions to test next week. Remember to bring in your materials on Monday so we can start testing and collecting our data!
Congratulations to our incredible PA announcers Ellery, Erika, Noya, Radin, and Linden for presenting the information we learned about Viola Desmond so well! You spoke clearly and your pacing was fantastic. 
We are sure that our listening audience learned a few new things about Viola Desmond’s life that they didn’t know before. Your mini books on Viola Desmond are completed, have been assessed, and returned to you. Your KAYAK Black History assignments are in the completion stages. If you are still working on that, it has been sent home to finish over the weekend.
On Thursday we said farewell to Kiara! She has been an absolute joy to have as a volunteer in our class and we are going to miss her SO MUCH! She is off to study in Australia and is embarking on a fabulous adventure!
Thank you Kiara for being so generous with your time! We wish you the BEST time in Australia… and we look forward to your check-ins and are especially excited to see you in September when you are back in Burnaby!
Lunar New Year starts this weekend. 2024 is the year of the ____________. How many other animals are there in the Chinese Zodiac? Can you name 5 of them? 
Our class will also be contributing to those announcements — Thursday and Friday. In addition to that, there are lots of other fun and exciting times coming our way. Next Wednesday the school will be having a Spirit Day on which you are invited to wear your favourite Jersey or Team T-shirts.
Also next week, we will be having Hip Hop performances next Thursday (for the school) and Friday (for some of the parents). The following week we have Valentine’s Day on February 14th so we are sure we to find some ways to celebrate the day and have some fun together. 
The following week, you will have a long weekend because Friday, February 16th is a Professional Day and Monday, February 19th is Family Day. 
Finally, we will end the month celebrating Pink Shirt Day on Wednesday, February 28th. Whew, what a busy month!
Many of you were focusing on using part of the question to start your answers to make your writing clear. Others of you were focusing on reading the questions more carefully to ensure you understand what is being asked of you. Some of you had to focus on using evidence from the story to support your answers. No matter what your goals, each of you definitely improved in your ability to clearly and thoroughly respond to what you read and share you ideas in a thoughtful way. Way to go, everyone!
Our Graph of the Week this week was called “It’s Time to Dance” and we collected data around the different dances we have tried. ![ALL DANCE STYLES in the World [ todos los tipos de baile - tipos de danza ] 🌍 - YouTube](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Glw__yfBr8E/maxresdefault.jpg)
All of us have now tried Hip Hop, but there are a bunch of you who have also tried different dance styles too! Using fractions and percentages, we graphed our findings in a pie/circle graph.
We discussed the start up costs involved in running a business and created a draft business plan. Many of you really know yourselves and your skills and were able to come up with some great ideas!
The music is awesome and you all are learning the choreography at lightening speed. Sue, our instructor, has asked us to practice some moves in particular. The Charleston
and the Scarecrow. 
She also mentioned that we will be wearing black bottoms and white tops on our show days which is a nod to the tuxedo style of that era. If you have any bowties at home, she would love to see some of you wearing them!