Dear Div. 5 Students and Families,

Even as I chose the title for this blog post, I found myself second-guessing its tone.  Indeed, I am thrilled to renew our connection as teacher, parents and student; however, I acknowledge this new connection will be renewed under subdued circumstances and without the warm immediacy of personal contact.  Furthermore, I acknowledge that we are living with greater uncertainty and worries; that some of our family members may be far from us, and that we miss our friends, social groups, and routines. 

We are, however, lucky to have so many ways in which to remotely communicate with each other, and we will undoubtedly continue to use old and familiar technology as well as discover many new ones as we create novel pathways of learning and connection.   Lastly, I will also be sending this message out in an email to parents, and I will be reaching out with some questions and a request for some additional information.  Please know that Parkcrest teachers have been reaching out to each other via virtual meetings and that we will continue to communicate our plans as we define them more concretely throughout this week and future weeks to come. 

Salmonid Program: 

I know you are all wondering about our alevin.  Throughout Spring Break, I received regular communication from the Salmonid Program office.  There were long email threads between participating teachers as to what to do about the salmon.  I knew that our custodian, Mr. Harsch, would only have our school open until Wednesday of last week, and at that time I worried that we would not be let in to our schools for a long time following.  So, on Tuesday, full of uncertainty about whether I was doing the right thing, I came in to do a salmon rescue.  I am grateful I did, because on Saturday I received this email from Fisheries:

My son and daughter helped me a lot with emptying the tank and transporting the buckets with the alevin to Stoney Creek.  Additionally, my sister, niece and nephew who are in Grade 1 and 2, came out to help Div. 5 imagine what it would have been like for your age group to be creek side.  As you will see in the photos, we practiced social distancing by being 2 metres away from the kids, and they wore gloves to touch the buckets that my son and daughter had handled.

Mrs. Marto

(Photos would not upload today🤔 )  I will send out this message now and, hopefully, be able to upload them tomorrow.  I will also try to send them out on the email, later tonight.  

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They are now free and beginning to explore the bottom of the tank area.  They are not yet able to swim higher up the tank. They are feeding themselves from their orange yolk sac. 

DOOR DECORATING EVENT

We didn’t win, but we had a lot of fun bringing this book to life on our door.  It is a very funny book that has helped us to better understand the very difficult concept of when to use apostrophes.  We also enjoyed watching the other classroom doors evolve throughout the week.  

We held our own cooperative competition in class to challenge ourselves to more efficiently use our silent reading time and to set a goal of reading a short chapter book for the enjoyment of reading. We did it! It was a great week of engaged and attentive reading, and we will continue throughout next week to finish our chapter books.  In the meantime, we’ll take full advantage of our extra P.E. period prize. 

Thank you Div.5. parents  and students for sharing in all the abundant activities of the week. Your participation was stellar!

Living Things Have Lifecycles Adapted to Their Environment

The above curricular “Big Idea” has us out on a regular basis experiencing, asking questions, making observations and recording our local environment.  The students always manage to surprise me.  On this cold afternoon, they had already been out twice.  I thought it would be a hard sell to get them into their snow gear again, and I was resigned to the possibility that the snow would provide a considerable distraction to the observation sheet I’d given them; however, they threw themselves into their work and reminded me, again, of the importance of spending time outdoors.  

The crisp weather activated our senses, got us moving and got us thinking.  On this day, we were once again looking at our surrounding landscape and the changes winter had brought.  This year, we have done the same activity for each season that has come.  In doing so, the students connect and continue to grow empathy for all living things and the hardships they must endure to survive.  It is my hope that this connection grows responsibility and stewardship of the environment.

Of course, a job well done deserves a reward…  

Some free time in the snow.  

We are now adoptive parents of 55 chum salmon eggs that arrived on Monday from the Seymour Hatchery.  The salmonid program is an ideal hands-on enrichment to our Science program.  It pairs perfectly with our ongoing environmental studies on the Ocean (with Mrs. Rudolph’s/Glavas’ class), but it also serves as a provocation (an activity that stimulates ideas and connections) for Social Studies.  

Through the salmonid program, we will explore some of the Big Ideas of the Social Studies Grade 3 curriculum such as looking at how the indigenous peoples of B.C. value the well-being of our land, and how the salmon connect us to indigenous knowledge, ways of life, and traditions that have been passed down through oral history.  We will also continue to explore characteristics of coastal communities and, in conjunction with Mrs. Mar’s class, look at the Grade 2 curricular Big Ideas that ask us to explore how local actions can have global consequences and vice versa.  We will continue to share out about our projects.  

This field trip provided endless wonders, inspired thoughtful questioning, and gave us an opportunity to be scientists.  At the aquarium, the students from divisions 5 and 6 had a structured 5 minute observation time where they tracked the swimming patterns of a sea creature.  Back in class, they have been working hard to convert their data into graphs and compare it with classmates.  We are even making connections and interpretations as to what the data is telling us about these creatures.  

Some of the students hard at work on their five-minute on-site observation.

Invaluable learning!  Thank you to all the parent supervisors who helped throughout the day and also helped to facilitate the scientific observation. Thank you also to the PAC for your financial support of this type of enrichment in our learning.  

In Div.5, we have been learning our cardinal directions and the features of maps such as legends and symbols. Our pirate maps are really “Piratecrest” maps.  With these maps we have been able to show  that we can create a simple map of our school community, create a legend, and use cardinal directions.  On this bright and beautiful day, we were using a compass rose to give cardinal directions to a partner in order for them to find our hidden treasure! 

Ahoy Div. 5 Families,

It was wonderful to meet you at our Parents as Partners Conferences, and I thank you for making the time to connect and learn about your children.  

In class, we are well on our way, having started our themes on Oceans and Pirates.  Together, we are looking forward to a year of growth and engagement!

Div. 5 Field Trip

Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the resident biologist, Dan.  He appreciated the inquisitiveness, natural curiosity and scientific behaviour of our class (they were good observers and attentive listeners; they were protective of the environment-not disturbing or destroying it, searching for answers from clues, asking questions).  

We spent time in the museum. We learned about the attributes of bird feet, and how they could tell us a lot about the animal they belonged to.  Notice how the white feathers cover the entire foot of the snowy owl to help protect it from the cold.

Barn Owl.  The students learned about the importance of taxidermy to scientists of the past.  Without quality photographs, scientists found it vital to observe animals up close through taxidermy. Some of the animals in this museum go back 100 years.

Spine of a grey whale.

Red-winged blackbird

Evidence of beaver activity.

We climbed the viewing tower to get a full view of the estuary.

The Mouth of the Fraser River Estuary:  Wetland Habitat

From the tower, we came pretty close to a bald eagle.

Some downtime to feed the birds.

Walking back through the forest habitat.

Can you spot the family of 3 Sandhill Cranes on the path?

This is baby Lu.  She is 26 weeks old.  

This is Poxie, another crane, not of the same family.

We ended the day with an excellent lunch time at the warming hut, with a wood burning stove keeping us toasty.   Many thanks to the parent drivers who helped out.  It was a long drive, and we were all grateful that it was a beautiful sunny day.