A warm welcome to everyone. Thank you for visiting this blog. We hope that you will find this a helpful tool to connect parents with their children and what is happening for them at school. 
We are so happy to have you here with us in Division 6 this year. This blog will be a place to learn about the goings on in Division 6 on a weekly basis. We will be introducing this blog to all the parents at our Open House this Wednesday, September 27th. 
At the Open House, we will be going over our classroom routines and expectations as well as answering any burning questions parents might have about the upcoming year. If you are unable to attend the meeting, this blog will cover some of what will be shared there.
We are a grade 5/6 classroom and the only one in the school! We have a wonderful year ahead of us and we cannot wait to get started. Mrs. Gil works Monday-Wednesday and Mrs. Davis is teaching Thursdays and Fridays. We are partners and we are in constant contact with one another so the transitions between teachers is quite seamless. We have been teaching together for several years now and enjoy sharing the class and working together. We can best be reached by email. Please never hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or concerns. Some other teachers who will be working with your students this year are Ms. Wong for French twice a week and Mr. Chen for music once a week.
Our classroom has a lot of routines and expectations that really help it be a great place to grow and learn. It is important that parents are aware of what is going on in class and we find that this blog is a great way to spark conversations at home as well as keeping parents “in the loop”. Another tool for communication that we should be receiving shortly in the classrooms is planners. Students are expected to fill in a planner daily and show their planner to someone at home. We try not to give out too much homework but sometimes, work comes home that needs to be finished and there is always the expectation of nightly reading. We realize that families are busy with extra curricular activities etc. so if ever something cannot be completed for whatever reason, please feel free to email us and we will happily allow for extra time. It is important that we get information from parents rather than the students because it demonstrates the students awareness of responsibility and lets us know that parents are aware of what is coming due.
Notices will also be found in the planner which are usually the parents’ responsibility to sign and return. Students are given time at the end of each day to fill out planners and complete classroom jobs so there should be a planner for parents to look at every day. Finally, planners will be a place students can write passwords and store their library cards.
As you may have heard already, there is a Mega Market in our class where students can purchase items and learn some real life money sense. T
he students are able to earn Mega Bucks by participating and completing routine tasks. Here are the most common ways:
- home reading program
- km club
- weekly classroom jobs
- weekly blog responses (ON TEAMS)
There will be many opportunities for students to volunteer and participate around the school this year and we hope everyone will try and help care for the community.
Students in grade 5 and 6 can be lunch monitors and peer mediators and we are proud to see how many students from Division 6 are already taking part. Well done! During the year, there may be other ways to participate like joining teams, fundraising and donating.
Students have each been given two very important folders. One is for homework which is meant to travel to and from school daily. 
The other is a “Working On” folder which students will keep in their desk to store any ongoing work until complete. Once complete, students will use binders to store completed work and they each will have a “living portfolio” on our bulletin board where we will be displaying work that we are proud of and want to share with each other. We also have shared school supplies for the students which frees up room in their desks and allows us to ensure all students have the tools they need to complete any task. That being said, because the school supplies 
will be staying in the classroom, we hope the students will have a set of supplies at home to use for any homework assignments that come home. Perhaps supplies left over from previous years? We have suggested to students that they make themselves a supply kit for homework and keep it close to where they like to do their homework.
We know this has been a lot of information but we also hope this is a helpful outline for some of the important routines and expectations of Division 6 for you. We look forward to the year ahead and let us make this our best year yet!
STUDENT BLOG RESPONSE:
Answer the following questions on the word document in our TEAM and be sure to “TURN IN”.
- Who did you read this Blog with?
- What is one question they asked you about our class?
- Do you remember how many Mega Bucks you can earn filling in the weekly blog response?
Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Gil