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