I have been really enjoying my conversations with students and their families. It’s been so nice hearing your voices and learning what you’ve been up to during this extraordinary time! I MISS YOU!

Two documents for you:

• Quick Notes for Signing into Office365 and Blogfolios
• Student Guide to MS Teams

Student request:  I am in the process of setting up “Teams” and would like to hear from ONE person (if possible) from each LIT CIRCLE book to contact me to let me know who is in their lit circle group. Unfortunately I don’t have my lit circle duotang with me so I don’t know how many reading groups we have going! I think there are a lot of books going! Please email me at my district email address. Thank you!

Stay well (and stay tuned), everyone!

Welcome back, Division 4 families! And to a new way of doing things…

I’m sure you have many questions! I will be contacting families this week (Thursday or Friday) in order to better assess our various situations. In the meantime, please read my Spring Newsletter.

I have sent this newsletter to all Division 4 families. A couple emails have bounced back already, so please check your inboxes and contact me by email if you have updated information to share with me. 

I look forward to our chats!

~ Ms. L

Students: please don’t forget to video or photograph your science investigations in progress. This will be helpful when posting your progress and results to your Blogfolios!

With extra time on your hands, remember: duplicate experiments (additional trials) add credibility to your results. Try it again! Did you get the same results?

Do you need to change your procedure? You have time to do so! Be sure sure to record all changed procedures. Label you’re trials (Trial 1. Date, Trial 2. Date, Trail 3. Date, etc). 

I look forward to seeing your results posted online next month! 

Stay positive: be safe! 
~ Ms. L 

Spring Break is here, and students and families are encouraged to take the time to enjoy each other and the great weather!

I know there is uncertainty and worry due to COVID-19; we all have questions as to what’s next.  For now, enjoy your spring break and continue to practice healthy social distancing and good hand-washing techniques. Remember, self-isolation does not mean we can’t go outside to enjoy some fresh air! We just must do so wisely. For more information, please visit: Fraser Health Authority

The provincial government announced today that all classes K-12 will be suspended until further notice. Many questions remain to be answered. In the coming days and weeks we will hear more about what is to come. Burnaby School District is currently preparing solutions to support the continuity of learning for students post-spring break. Info will be sent to families and staff as quickly as possible.

For now, enjoy your spring break!

To read that announcement, visit: BC suspends all K-12 classes.

What you need to know about COVID-19 (March 17)

Also helpful: Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry provides daily updates in BC. Search these out on Global or CBC news channels.

February will be a busy month. Students are working to finish their projects and there are plenty of other exciting things happening. Here are some key dates:

• Tue, Feb 4 – Div 4 visits Burnaby South’s Science Fair @ 1:00 pm (walking field trip)
• Wed, Feb 5 – Student-Led Conferences for Div. 4
• Thur, Feb 6 – Early dismissal @ 2:15 pm (no student leds for Div. 4); Ms. Lanaway away
• Fri, Feb 6 – Early dismissal @ 2:00 pm; Ms. Lanaway away
• Fri, Feb 14 – Maywood celebrates Family Day. Parents invited to work with Div. 4 to make Memory Bags with Indigenous resource teacher, April Strickland. Afternoon assembly.
• Mon, Feb 17 – Family Day (no school)
• Mon, Feb 23 – Marks exchange for teachers (end of Term 2)
• Fri, Feb 28 – Professional Development for teachers (no school)

Students – you’ve worked hard to create SMART goals for yourself! Please post these to your blog to share with your families at Wednesday’s Student Led Conferences.

We’ve moved into a critical time for Term 2. Much of the important work we’re doing now will lead us into assessment, then reporting for Term 2. Marks exchange for teachers is Feb 24. 

Projects have begun (Science and Socials) and students are excited about their new inquiries! New information for both these subjects can be found in the subjects tabs. Take a look!

Blogfolios should be up-to-date – look for Blog #12. 

We had our last Young Peoples’ Concert of the year today! It was a fantastic session of African storytelling. Ask your child what kind of wisdom was shared!

Jan 27 is Literacy Day. Come to school wearing a T-shirt with writing on it and enter our contest. We’ll be reading with our little buddies in the afternoon.

STAR assembly is Tue, Jan 28th. Ms. Lanaway will be away Jan 27 + 31st. 

Weather continues to be wet and stormy, and as usual, very changeable. Remind your children that the weather can change quickly, so even if it looks nice in the morning, it could be very different by recess. Maywood continues to have the Westcoast Recess (outside rain or shine). Please dress appropriately – hoodies are not waterproof, neither are cloth runners.

Happy New Year, and welcome back, Division 4!!

I hope you all had a fantastic time with friends and family, doing the things you like to do, resting up, and recharging for a bright, new year (and decade)!

We continue Term 2 from December with some exciting new things on the horizon! This week we will be forming our new Lit Circle reading groups. Students will be placed in similar reading level groups and together will choose a book they can read and comprehend and begin to learn the mechanics of Literature Circles.

This Friday is FOREST FRIDAY (Jan. 10th). Please dress for rain and SNOW!

Wow! This term has just FLOWN by! We’re already in December, and I feel it will be over before we know it! This week marks the end of Term 1.

Learning Tribes will be switched out next week to mark the beginning of a new term. Some subjects, like Math and Science are mid unit, while other units will come to an end.

For example, in Science, we have been focusing on Wolves in the Great Bear Rainforest and SYSTEMS. We continue on with the concept of “systems” but will be saying goodbye to our lovely wolves and moving into BODY SYSTEMS. We will continue on with some of our related INQUIRIES.

Next week in Socials, we will begin to look at Indigenous systems of governance, and then move into Rights and Freedoms.

Key dates:

• Dec. 6 (afternoon) – Forest Friday
• Dec. 9 – Final reports submitted to administration for review
• Dec 9-13 – Winter concert rehearsals begin
• Dec. 11 – last math class of the year
• Mon, Dec. 16th – Report cards go home
• Wed, Dec. 18th – Winter Concert for Division 4,  afternoon (1pm) and evening (6pm)
• Fri, Dec. 20th – Last day of school before the holidays **PJ Day and class party**
• January 6th, 2020 – School re-opens

Apologies for being behind on my news!

• Nov. 11 is Remembrance Day. We celebrated this in the morning of Nov. 8th with a school assembly. Students decorated wreaths with poppies they coloured and left notes of peace. This year we included the Thunderbird poppy in remembrance of the sacrifice Indigenous peoples made during World Wars I and II. No school Nov. 11
• Nov. 15 Potluck BINGO night at Maywood.
• Nov. 22 is a Professional Development day. No school for students.
• End of November marks the end of Term 1 (all marks are exchanged Nov.28th). Outstanding student work but be in before then.

Thank you to those parents who showed up to last nights info session on “Communicating Student Learning“! We had an engaging conversation about Maywood’s shift to a proficiency scale based assessment and reporting model. If you didn’t get a chance to come, and still have questions about how your child’s report card will look in the next reporting period, please don’t hesitate to come see me.

In other news!

• Mr. Wong (UBC teacher candidate) will be observing Division 4 on Thursdays, and will be easing into teaching some lessons and working with students the end of October/beginning of November. In the new year, we will see him increasing his teaching time with us as he completes his full teaching practicum. We wish him all the best and look forward to getting to know him better!
• Oct 25 is the province-wide Professional Development day. There will be no-school for students as teachers across the province in engage in their professional development.
• Oct 31 is Hallowe’en! We encourage students (and teachers!) to dress-up and enjoy the halloweeny festivities of the day, but please refrain from scary costumes (no blood, gore or masks), and avoid culture-related costumes. For more on that, visit here!