This week started with the Victoria Day Holiday. It was a nice day weather wise and we hope you all enjoyed some time with family.
Unfortunately, Ms. Davis had a loss in her family but we are happy she was able to spend some extra time with them last week and over the long weekend. We were happy to have her back on Thursday and Friday this week as well. 
Yes, Thank you everyone so much for your understanding and care! My father-in-law lived to see 94 years of age. His last several were under the grip of Alzheimer’s disease, and although it is always sad to lose a loved one, we know that he is now free from that illness and no longer impacted by that condition. He is now at peace… as are we. Thank you again everyone!
On Tuesday, a new student joined our class. Her name is Sana and she is from Iran. She speaks very little to no English but you all were absolutely fabulous at helping her get comfortable in our class.
Some of you helped her one on one during assignments, many of you ate with her at lunch and invited her to play at break times. We want to thank you so very much for welcoming her into our Division 6 family with such open hearts. She smiled a lot this week and we saw many laughs which are two signs that let us know, she is feeling safe with us. Thank you all!
For our Art studies this week we focused on Drama. We had our last two Young Actor’s Project workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our instructor was “The Maestro” and he was also a magician! 
Wasn’t his rope trick unbelievable!
Tuesday our lessons were all about conveying “emotions” and Wednesday was about “improv”. You were excellent acting students and the Maestro mentioned many times how some of you had really great acting skills already! We hope you enjoyed your lessons and exploring this type of Art.
In our academic adventures, the grade 5’s starting learning some Geometry. This week we focused on understanding Quadrilaterals and Polygons. There are a lot 
of rules about what geometric properties are and how to use them to figure out the names of a number of shapes. We explored Polygons up to ten sided and we discussed how to decipher between Quadrilaterals.
Next week we will be continuing our exploration of Quadrilaterals but also, extend our learning to add Triangles to the mix. What do you already know about the properties of triangles?
We also continued our work with multi-step word problems! Each word problem has 5 steps that need to be worked through to get to the solution. 
Often, word problems give information that you don’t need and can be overwhelming at first glance… breaking down the steps helps focus on what is really needed to figure it out. 
The 5 steps are: Problem, Facts, Strategy(ies), Solve, and Sentence. Working together also helps as you can talk through each step with a friend and share ideas. You were all very focused as you worked on these pretty challenging problems.
We continued with our Novel Study and learned a lot about Ahmet’s story this week. In Chapter 10, we learned about what Ahmet’s journey looked like, escaping Syria and travelling all the way to England.
It was so sad to see the pictures Ahmet drew and to hear his story as he explained it to his classmates. Although he answered many of the narrator’s 11 questions, now there are more questions than answers. Hopefully, we will get the answers we want before the end of the story.
We finished ALL of our poem drafts this week as well. We started the Acrostic poems last week and finished those on Friday. 
Next week we’ll be on the next stage of the writing process… editing and revising. Essentially, you will be making improvements to the poems that you want to take to the final stage: Publishing. Which of the five poems that you learned was your favourite?
Since Mrs. Davis was away last week, your Government power point presentation due date is extended to Monday, May 27th. 
Each of you will submit your power point through a TEAMS assignment. Mrs. Davis will assess them and then our presentations will take place at a later date. We are going to be presenting to other classes because we all have the same information. To keep us and our audience engaged, let’s share with a peer group that doesn’t already know this information. Stay tuned for those dates!
We sent home a notice about swimming this week. Make sure to get your permission slips back as soon as possible because we have 4 sessions in June. Please ask your parents if they are able to volunteer for any of the days to walk with us. It
is important that we get volunteers to help us walk to and from the pool as there are some busy intersections that we must pass and it is helpful to have extra adult eyes to help us cross safely. Also, if you don’t have a B Active pass, you still have plenty of time to get one. It costs you nothing and you get free entrance into the rec center drop ins for the ENTIRE YEAR. It is easy to get. Just head into your nearest rec center and apply!
We ended our week with a slightly misty Jump Rope for Heart session. We had fun trying some new jumping skills and getting our hearts pumping! Thanks Division 6 for being so encouraging towards each other and having a great time together!
BLOG RESPONSE QUESTION THIS WEEK!
Now that we have learned more about Ahmet this week, what are three questions you have for him now?
Have a great weekend everyone!
Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Gil