What a fantastic week we’ve had! Let’s dive into all the fun and exciting things we’ve done together.

New Desk Arrangement

We kicked off the week with a brand-new desk arrangement. We’re back into pods, and I hope everyone is enjoying working in groups. Remember, if we show the right behavior and attention, we can stay in groups instead of rows. Let’s make it happen!

New Jobs and Calendars

We assigned new jobs and created our calendars for the month. Everyone did a great job picking their roles and filling out the calendar. Keep an eye on your responsibilities and let’s make sure everything runs smoothly.

Track Team Training

This week, many of our classmates started their track team training. Practices are on Tuesday and Friday mornings at 8 AM, and our team has over 65 intermediate students this year! There are two after-school zone meets at Burnaby North and a final, full-day meet on the last Wednesday of the month. It’s a short but exciting season, and we are so proud of all of you who decided to give track a try.

Math Adventures

In Math, we worked on our long division skills. We practiced two-by-one and three-by-one division problems, with and without remainders. Here are some examples to help you understand the steps:

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It’s clear to most of you now how important and helpful it is to have your times tables memorized. If you haven’t yet, don’t be discouraged. Get some flash cards or find some online games, even continue with Xtra Math if you can. The importance of knowing those facts by heart cannot be emphasized enough. Math only gets more complex, and multiplication is a skill used in many different areas of math. Knowing the facts will definitely make your life easier. Maybe this should be a goal for some of you this month! Think about it and ask your family to help you if they can!

Science Explorations

In Science, we have been reading about Geological Processes (volcanoes, earthquakes, weathering, and erosion) and how they affect both society and the environment. We used the science content to work on our reading comprehension skill focus for the week, which was to find the author’s claim/message and find the evidence that supports it. Some of you are really getting the hang of it, while others still find it challenging.

Social Studies Fun

We’re becoming Travel Tour Guides!  Our trip around the world ended on the continent of Africa and now we are going to be learning about 9 different countries on this incredible continent!  You chose your own team of 3 people for this project and then through a random draw you chose the country you’d like to dive deeper into.  Africa has 54 countries in it, so we short-listed our options to the top 12 most visited countries in Africa.  The 9 countries chosen are:  Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Madagascar, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and the Seychelles.  This weekend, you took home your first research assignment:  Vital Statistics of that country and learning about the official flag.  Show your parents the “Collaboration Planning” page for them to see all the topics your team will be researching and the 4 areas that YOU are responsible for.  Don’t jump ahead with your research, Mrs. Davis will give you your note-taking pages next week on Thursday.

Fantastic French 

This final term in French we are combining our computer skills with French.  We will be creating a power point presentation called “C’est Moi!”  (This is Me!). This will be a lot of fun as we learn how to describe how we look, our family, and other things about ourselves through a power point presentation.  On Friday we learned how to describe our hair, our eyes, and some accessories we wear on our head.

We played California Kickball in the gym and worked through some of the rules and expectations of this game.  On Friday we split into two teams and played outside!  It was super fun!  We didn’t keep score as we’re still learning how to play, but you sure are catching on to the rules very well.

Career Studies Journey

Our Career studies took us on a journey this week. We talked about what career areas (health, communications, business, technology, agriculture, etc.) interest us and then began to analyze our values and what is important to us in our workplace/career. It was interesting to see how surprised you were at the things you thought you valued versus what actually turned up from your responses.

You also received your progress reports on Wednesday. We hope you are all able to see your hard work reflected in those reports as they are meant to show you how you are growing and changing. We are so happy with the growth you have all shown in so many areas, and we are very excited to see you continue to flourish during this last term of the school year.

Let’s Paint! 

Spring has definitely sprung and the cherry blossom trees are still in full bloom.  This was the inspiration of our Friday afternoon painting lesson.  It’s always fun to see how the same instructions translate into very different looking art pieces!  All of your completed Cherry Blossom trees are on display brightening up our hallway!

Upcoming Highlights

• Class Photos:  Next Wednesday, we’ll be taking our class photos. Make sure to bring your best smiles!
• Jump Rope for Heart Kick-Off:  On April 17th, we’ll start our Jump Rope for Heart event. Get ready to jump and have fun while supporting a great cause.
• Four-Day Weeks:  We have three four-day weeks in a row coming up! Starting with a FOUR DAY WEEKEND for Easter break, we’ll have two four-day weeks. Plus, there’s a professional day the following Monday, so we’ll end the month with another short week. Wow, this month is going to fly by!

Your Blog Response for this weekend is:

What 3 things do you like about Springtime?  Why? 

Have a wonderful weekend Division 7!

Mrs. Gil and Mrs. Davis