Welcome to 2024 and the bitter cold of winter.  It has been quite exhilarating for Division 10 to experience such below zero temperatures.

Before the holiday break, all grade 2/3 classes gathered together for the winter solstice celebration and we certainly have now come into our winter weather journey. While students were creating Winter Cinquains, that required some deep thinking about a winter environment, the snow began to blow and a Thursday afternoon blizzard brought excitement to the classroom.  This real world experience supported their ideas for creative writing.

A cinquain is a 5 line poem that connects a title to describing words, action words and emotions.

The second term will have a focus on the components of listening and writing from the language arts curriculum.  Speaking and reading were the focus for first term but will of course continue to be part of our literacy learning.

With 10 weeks until Spring Break, students also realize that this is the time of the year to put forth their personal best and demonstrate their learning, understanding and progress from first term connections.

Many of the primary students are also very excited about going ice skating.  We have had to be very flexible though and accepting that not all will be as we hope it to be.  We expected Hip Hop lessons but they had to be cancelled.  We expected a Band Concert but it had to be cancelled.  We expected to have instructors for skating lessons but they too have now been cancelled.  We certainly appreciate your understanding. Notices did go home, sharing this information.

Today, with the freezing temperatures, we took advantage of the cold weather and did some experimenting with phases and stages of matter.  We wanted to see how a liquid changes into a solid.  We placed many different quantities and shaped containers filled with water to see if it would turn into ice.  It did and quickly.  We were able to then see how quickly the ice would melt.  We continued the process throughout the day.  Real World Experience!!!

Literacy Week will be another highlight of January.  Division 10 will be hosting the month end assembly at the end of the Literacy Week, on Friday, January 26 in the afternoon.  There will also be many theme days during that week. Stay tuned for more information.

Please remember to read planners daily, send students in warm clothes for the weather and continue to build upon skills such as reading, spelling and math facts.

As always, thank you for your support and Happy New Year!

The first term has flown by and we are now at the holiday season.  All of Division 10 wish all of our Room 15 families a most happy, joyful and healthy festive season of fun and memory-making moments.  We look forward to seeing you all in 2024.

As the year comes to a close, here are a few joyous moments and activities that students on the Enchelmaier team engaged in.  Always nice to see the smiling faces, except when we had our Grinch Day:)

https://sd41-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/e13432_burnabyschools_ca/Eeru1SFJ9p5ImgIvtKkgQ4UBGb3oa1PP8VKP2oBmeK92Qg?e=xhafB9

Click on the link above to hear our heart filled Grinch recital.

Here are the Winter Games with a Fill Santa’s Sack Game, Snow-Cone Race and Snowball Fights (thanks Ms. Grant for some of the ideas 🙂

We had fun going to the movies when we took a Mouse to the Movies.  We got to watch The Snowman and The Grinch.

We had many story time sessions over the past few weeks and Ms. Hossack in the library gave students the opportunity to take 3 books out over the holidays.  Remember to bring them back.

We also read about the Cobweb Christmas and The Golden Christmas Tree which reminds us that every Christmas tree should have a spider in it.

We ended 2023 with a Winter Solstice Celebration with all of the Grade 2/3 classes, sharing some of these stories.

The Pancake Breakfast and Sing-A-Long, with a song dedicated to Mr. B, will carry us through the holiday season with smiles on our faces and an appreciation for a wonderful year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Pancakes for Breakfast, Pancakes for Supper, Pancakes Pancakes!

Emily Carr – Tree Life

Winter Forests

Festive Hat Day!

Snow is on the Way!   As well as Hip Hop.  Please join us at the gym on Friday, Dec. 15, for the full school Hip Hop Performance at 2 p.m.  Reminder: Thursday, December 14 – Festive Sweater Day!  

Happy December!  It is so hard to believe that we only have one month left of 2023.  What an exciting month it will be.

Students continue to put forth their personal best as they develop and improve both their academic and social skills.

Please keep in mind that Math Flight and Word Quiz activities will soon come to an end but working with numbers and letters can continue each day.  The spelling menu has been added to the Weekly Expectations Page above. Students have built up their reading stamina to 30 minutes.  They are now encouraged to read daily at home and use the strategies they have learned in class when independently reading.

Some of the activities that will be taking place this month are:

Friday, December 8 – Wear your favourite Christmas, Holiday, Winter Hat

Monday, December 11-Friday, December 15 – Hip Hop Lessons – Performance on the afternoon of Friday, December 15 – Parents welcome to attend to watch the performance

Thursday, December 14 – Festive Sweater Day

Tuesday, December 19 – Report Cards Home

Thursday, December 21 – Pajama Day, Pancake Breakfast, Last Day before the Holiday Break

JUST A REMINDER:  THE READING ADVENT CALENDAR WENT HOME YESTERDAY! STUDENTS WILL BE SHARING SOME OF THE ADVENT IDEAS OVER THE P.A. FOR OTHERS IN THE SCHOOL TO ENJOY.  PLEASE TRY TO DO SOME OF THE FUN ACTIVITIES SHARED ON THE DECEMBER ADVENT CALENDAR.

• Next post will share images related to our work with Emily Carr, our creative thoughts related to Pancakes and some of our Festive Fun!

Peace has been at the forefront of our recent lessons.  Students created Pieces of Peace Poppies (thank you, Eugene, for the title of our project) by tearing and ripping apart a variety of colours of red paper to create the poppies on our door.  Students worked together with kindness and care, through the chaos and shredding of paper, to gain an understanding that there are times when things seem torn apart but together we can find beauty in the moment.

After reading the book, I Am Peace by Susan Verde, Division 10 students shared their thoughts on what peace is to them.  Please check out the classroom window to see their thoughts displayed.

The Peace Pledge was the poem of the week.  Students shared a recorded version of this over the P.A.

Click on the link to hear their words.

https://sd41-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/e13432_burnabyschools_ca/EegzurSUStpHvJfEl1oyYQYB8TCccn39EUi_jUWgLDtUDA?e=kZ7zME

During our number sentences to the date routine, we have mixed things up a bit by not only working with “We’re on a roll with Math!” but we have also accessed personal white boards to create our number sentences.  We continue to encourage, “Math Is Fun!”

Our visual art lessons have taken us on a journey through the Aesthetic Window of the elements of design.  Students have been working with LINE.  Inspired by the book, The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds, students created their own art gallery of art featuring LINE!

Ms. Hossack read a Diwali fiction story to us on Wednesday.  It did share many elements of the celebration of light and we lit Diyas in our class today.  We shared information on the P.A. about the traditions and meaning behind Diwali and many of Division 10 students were eager to share their knowledge of their cultural festival.

Special thanks to families for supporting students in Division 10 with math flight practice, word list activity sheets and word quiz preparation.  Linking what we do in class with activities at home really makes a difference.  It has also been a pleasure to see students arriving on time and also being dressed for the weather.  Much appreciated.

Have a lovely, peaceful, long weekend full of light and love.

Good afternoon Division 10 Subscribers:

2 Blog Posts have been created with you as subscribers attached.  Unfortunately, I do not believe the posts were making their way to you.

Therefore, this is a test to see if you are receiving the Division 10 Blogs as they are posted.

I have left the Comments Box open.  If I receive even one comment for this post, I will know that all is working as it should be.

Thank you and hopefully you will also take a look at the previous few posts that have been created since we started the 2023/2024 school year.

Thank you,

Mrs. E.

We have had a “spooktacular” few weeks here in Room 15.

All students at Clinton School helped to create our Diversity Tree that is displayed in the upper hallway.  “The leaves are changing, so are we; what kind of person do you want to be?” Our hands became the autumn leaves of our tree rooted in kindness and care.

We have been progressing with our math knowledge and it was so fun to be On A Roll with Math!  Our rolled paper gave us the opportunity to explore our Number Sentences to the Date!

We also had some fun with Pumpkin Coding and Making Glyphs (pictographs) as part of our STEM activities (Science,Technology,Engineering,Math)

With the chill in the air, it was time to winterize our Garden.  Division 10 and Division 17, Ms. Cheung’s K class, collected leaves to make a leaf blanket over the garden soil.  “As the temperature drops and the leaves start to fall, October is the ideal time to tuck in your school garden for winter! Mulching a garden bed has a multitude of benefits. Spreading a thick layer of deciduous leaves or straw on the surface of the garden keeps soil from freezing and protects the roots of any plants that are overwintering in the garden. In areas with heavy precipitation, a layer of mulch prevents nutrients in the soil from washing away and depleting soil of organic material. Mulching will also prevent many weeds from taking over your garden, as the thick layer of leaves or straw blocks sun from reaching the surface of the soil.”

During our Garden Winterizing, we came across a very unique garden spider with the colour of a pumpkin.  You never know what wonders you’ll find when working out in nature.

We also got to meet our Division 6 Buddies from Ms. Benson’s class.  We did a few Ice Breaker activities and prepared for Halloween Buddy Bingo.

Halloween brought out our goblins and ghouls!  We began our day with the Halloween Assembly.  Division 10 presented a Creepy Countdown with confidence and flair.  Our morning continued with the excitement of Buddy Bingo followed by an afternoon of Ghostly Games.  Click the link to see the rehearsal of the Creepy Countdown performance!  https://sd41-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/e13432_burnabyschools_ca/Ea9W_9m6jbZGuQWMEXi5xNoBJnl7BrvHCEnKxDqaqbJAPQ?e=GxGClb

We hope that your Halloween is safe and full of fun.  Ms. Minoza and I are looking forward to welcoming every one back tomorrow, November 1, as we consider peaceful ways to move forward with the month.

Have a “booooo-tiful” day!

We began October considering all that we are thankful for.  Our Make It Meaningful Mondays give us opportunities to share what we are thankful and grateful for while taking time to appreciate.  We try to add to a gratitude journal from time to time.  Our window display shared appreciations for the wonderful people in our lives and all the experiences we are thankful for.

We also posted our predictions related to our taste test with cranberries.  Many students thought that they would like a raw cranberry until they tasted the sour, tart taste.  Once we added sugar and made cranberry sauce in class, we found cranberries to be much more pleasant.  During our time with this fruit, we learned about bogs, harvesting and flooding the fields to release the red berry named after the bird called a Crane.

During our first few weeks of October, we made use of our permanent markers (Sharpies) and oil pastels.  We made Autumn trees and pumpkins for our Pumpkin Patch. 

We have begun our reading stamina sessions and it is such a peaceful moment in class when all Division 10 students are focused and engaged in their independent reading. 

Students are also getting comfortable with the P.E. warm-up.  One student facilitates the warm-up and all other athletes follow along.  It is nice to see the teamwork taking place.

As we approach mid-October, we look forward to working with our buddy class (Ms. Benson), inviting Ms. Minoza into our room for two full weeks beginning Monday, October 23 and getting ready for Halloween.

We are now fully immersed into our Math Flights and have begun working with our Word Lists.  Students are thankful for the home support and excited to continue working toward their personal best.  Please look for our I Am Poems that will soon be displayed in our classroom windows and thank you for arriving to school on time with the morning bell ringing at 8:55 and the final bell ringing at 8:58.

It has been a very rewarding start to the year with the new class of Division 10, Grade 2/3.  Everyone has settled nicely into the classroom setting and students are becoming comfortable with the routines and expectations of the space.  We began September by sharing the importance of being a Clinton Star.  S – Stay Safe T – Take Responsibility A – Act Respectfully R – Remember to be Inclusive.  So many are shining brightly in Room 15.

The Terry Fox Run raised not only an awareness of what it means to be courageous, resilient and persevere but supported cancer research with generous donations from Clinton families.

The changing of the seasons brought all of the grade 2/3 classes to Ron McLean Park for an Autumn Equinox Celebration on Friday, September 22.  We shared stories, connected with nature, learned about the Harvest Moon and acknowledged the space and place that we teach, learn and live on. It was wonderful to see the 5 classes gather together under one Sun.

Our experience then encouraged us to write a reflection related to saying Good-bye to Summer and Hello to Autumn.  We also created Fall leaves that represented student curiousities and we hung them on our Tree of Learning.

The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation was acknowledged by an assembly on Thursday, September 28.  Students wore their orange shirts and colours and took a step forward with their understanding and knowledge while never forgetting the past, remembering that Every Child Matters.  Division 10 worked with clock buddies to create Feathers of Hope and then made their own personal orange shirts sharing why they matter.

With October now upon us, this is a good time to maintain the expectations set out for the students of Room 15.  Please make sure the planner is brought to school each day and that as often as possible, the planner is read each evening.  Library days are Wednesday and one of the Clinton Star rules is to take responsibility for returning library books on time. As the cooler, wetter days of Autumn set in, please note that hoodies are not jackets and students will often be outside, rain or shine.  Math Flights have taken off and Word Work will soon be coming home.  We will be starting our Reading Stamina practice in class and students will then be encouraged to link what they have learned at school to their reading experiences at home.  Students also have 2 poems tucked into their hippocampus and are working on their third classroom carpet poem.  With Brain Ahead morning activities as well as making use of tools and strategies to support neurological development, the students of Division 10 have a goal of learning 20 poems this year.  Go Team Go!

We will also be welcoming 2 student teachers from UBC to Clinton Elementary.  We know they will enjoy their learning journey here.

Thank you, parents, for taking the time to meet with me during our Parents As Partners opportunity.  Please make use of this blog site to connect with the many learning adventures that Division 10 will participate in.

A very happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

I have been wanting to update the BLOG since May, but June has been so busy and Division 10 has been experiencing the best that the end of the year has to offer.

Sport’s Day was a great day of laughter, competition and joy.

We braved the weather and got to Queen’s Park for a picnic and time at the Sportsplex for some gymnastics fun.

We have been to Ron McLean Park for a class picnic and movie afternoon, watching Into The Spider Verse, was met with popcorn and iced tea.

A walk to 7-11 was a fantastic Slushy Slurpee experience and Math Super Hero Day was full of “Math Is Fun” experiences all day.

There are so many photos that have been taken this month but I can’t upload them all.  My apologies if you are not included in some of the photos taken on a particular day but for the most part, I do believe everyone should be included in one of the photo drops below.

It has been an absolute pleasure working with such a wonderful group of spirited 7 and 8 year-olds.  They have amazed me with their growth and perseverance to learn and explore.  It has been a most wonderful year.  Have a safe, sunny, adventurous Summer and I will see you all in September.