Ms. Vanessa Agonos is our wonderful student teacher from Simon Fraser University! She completed her short practicum here at Lochdale last year and is now working on finishing her final practicum this fall. She is very passionate about her role as a teacher and has been working hard to get to know all of the students of Division 4. Ms. Agonos holds a Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology and has a wide variety of interests including netball. Fun fact: she used to play for the Canadian netball team! She also loves being outdoors and enjoys snowboarding and surfing. We are lucky to have her and can’t wait to see what exciting new topics we will learn about with her!

If you’ve never played netball or would like to learn more about it, watch this short video clip below and then have a chat with Ms. Agonos :)!

 

Dear Families,

Welcome to Division 4! I am so excited to get to know all of you :). For some of you, this is your first time being in an intermediate classroom and for others you are navigating being in a brand new school. As we discussed today, our class is a family and we will help one another to learn and grow. We will all make sure that everyone feels supported and safe in the space we share together. I am looking forward to this year and to the incredible learning that will take place. As always, if any of you have questions, please feel free to email me at danielle.ramen@burnabyschools.ca.

See you at our welcoming conversations next week! 🙂

– Ms. Ramen

As part of our Student-Led conferences this year, our class decided to create a virtual tour! Please view the video HERE with your child as they take you through their conference itinerary 🙂 Enjoy!

Hi Everyone,

Today is the last day of home learning! I will see you all bright and early at school tomorrow. Here are your activities for today :).

Mindful Morning

We will do this activity together during our meeting today at 11 AM. We will be reading the story, Outside Art. We will be trying to find different items around our homes that we can create natural dyes/paints out of.

 

Language Arts

Hi, writers! Today, your Extreme Writing task is to watch the video above, set your timer for 10 minutes, and write as much as you can about the topic(s) below. Good luck!

1. Have you ever been to a live musical performance (a concert, an orchestra, a recital)? What was it like? Have you ever performed or played a musical instrument in front of an audience? What was it like?
2. What is a song, artist, or genre of music you love? Why do you love it? Would you recommend other people listen to it?
3. Write a story that involves Music. Does the character write a new song? Does the character find a magical instrument? Does this song have an effect on people?
4. You may notice the children in the video use sign language to communicate. What are some other ways we can communicate with each other? Why is communication important?

Math 

Today, your task is to not only be a mathematician but to also put on the hat of an interior designer!

An interior designer is a person who plans how furniture will be placed inside buildings. They also plan the colours, curtains, lighting, pictures, etc. 

Today, your task is to redesign your bedroom! Stand in the door way of your room. Think about the most important pieces of furniture that you need to incorporate.

Ex. Bed, dresser, closet, night stand, etc.

Next, think about what other additions you might like to add to your room.

Ex. a chair swing, a cozy corner, etc.

Please create a draft of your room on a blank piece of paper. You will need this for our in person class tomorrow. Here are some pictures below to help inspire you. Happy designing!

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to Day 2 of Home Learning! Here are your activities for today. I hope at some point you are able to enjoy the sunshine. I know that I will be taking some time to read today out in the yard.

Mindful Morning

Today, your task is to sketch or document at least 5 things that you use in your daily routine. Take your time to observe and document or sketch your objects with lots of details.

Did you know that Canadian musician Leonard Cohen used to do this regularly as a way to practice mindfulness? Check out one of his most famous songs below. Do you recognize this song?

 

Language Arts

Hello, writers! Today, you will have 10 minutes to write as much as you can about the topic(s) below. Please watch the video first, set your timer, and get writing!

1. Would you ever try ‘spaghetti ice-cream’? Explain why or why not.
2. What is the strangest, most interesting food you have ever eaten? Describe it.
3. Write a story about a food that looks like a different food (ex: a person goes to eat a chocolate cake with vanilla icing, but really it is a meatloaf with mashed potatoes). What happens?
4. If you were going to ‘invent’ a new food, what would it be? How would you invent it?

 

Math

Today, we will continue with our investigation into the world of measurement! Your task is to draw a self portrait or an animal of your choice on the grid paper provided. You should colour your work. When drawing, you will need to use the whole square or half of the square as this will make it easier to calculate. Your picture will look like a character from Minecraft. Please see the example posted below. If you are unable to print the graph paper, you can always create your drawing on a blank piece of paper.

Once you have made your drawing, you will need to count the number of squares that make up each and every side of your drawing. Please see the example. The side of each square on the graph paper is 1 cm. Understanding this will allow us to calculate the perimeter of your drawing.

Perimeter means the distance around an object.

Look back at your drawing and count up all the sides around your person or animal. In the example, you can see that after the number of edges are added up, the perimeter was 72 cm.

***Please ignore the section to calculate the area. We will come back to this later.

PerimeterPerson Graph Paper

 

Hi Everyone! I hope you are all having a restful time at home. The following are some activities for you to complete while we are in isolation. I have also posted these activities to our Teams page. Please email me if you have any further questions. See you again tomorrow at 11 AM on Zoom for our class community meeting!

Mindful Morning

This morning (or afternoon) your task is to make your favourite meal! This could be anything from a piece of toast with cheese to a dish you make with your family. As you begin to eat your favourite meal, take the first few minutes to reflect on the following question:

• How does the smell, sight, taste, touch, and/or sound of your favourite food make you feel? Feel free to draw or take pictures of your meal and email them to me :). Happy cooking!

Language Arts

Hello, writers! Your Extreme Writing Topics for today. Watch the video below, then give yourself 10 minutes to write about whatever topic(s) inspire you! You can either keep this writing and hand it in when I see you in class again, or you can e-mail it to me! – Ms. Ward

1. Write a story from the perspective of the beluga whale. What is the whale thinking? Does the whale like the music? Is the whale ‘singing’ along?
2. Do you play any musical instruments? If so, what? If not, what would you like to play (ex: guitar, saxophone, kazoo)?
3. Do you think animals like music? Why or why not?
4. Write a story about an animal starting a band or playing an instrument. What happens?

Math

Recently, we have begun our new unit on measurement! Your task for today is to measure a variety of objects and see if you can find some that fit the following criteria. Remember to think about whether you are measuring in centimeters (cm) or millimeters (mm). Please use a ruler.

1. How many millimeters are in a centimeter?
2. Find an object that is less than 10 cm long.
3. Find a food that is greater than 60 mm long.
4. Find an object around your house that has a length between 90 mm to 150 mm.
5. Find an object that has a width of 5 cm.
6. Find an object that has a width between 10cm and 20cm.
7. What is a trick you can come up with to help you remember the difference between length and width?

Please write down your results on a piece of paper to be handed in on Thursday. You can also email me your answers as well.

Check back here tomorrow for your next set of activities! 🙂

 

Here are some important terms that we’ve learned! We think that they’re important to understand because we need to know about what has happened to our world in the past and what is happening right now. We should know these terms because they help us understand if discrimination is happening.

Slavery: Black slavery started in 1619. A slave is a person who is the legal property of another person and is forced to obey them.

Racial Segregation: That means when two different races are separated. For example, in some parts of the world Black people were/are getting treated worse than the white people by not being allowed to go to the same schools. Did you know that Martin Luther King Jr. led many marches to fight against segregation? Learn more about him in the video below!

Sexism: Sexism is like stereotyping and telling someone that they can’t wear what they want to wear because of their gender.

We’ve read some books that help us to understand these terms better including Henry’s Freedom Box, Intersection Allies, and The Sit In!

-Div.4’s News Crew

In class we read “Henry’s Freedom box” and learned it was based on a real story. It was about slavery and black history and we learned that many families were not allowed to stay together.  We also learned that many slaves were not allowed to know their birthdays, they couldn’t have money, and were beaten if they made a mistake. Slavery was not okay but at that time many people felt that it was necessary because they did not see that Black people were the same as white people. We also learned how slaves used songs to communicate with each other and send each other messages about how to escape while they were working. The song “Wade in the Water” let the slaves know how to get rid of their tracks so that slave catchers could not find them. Hear the song below! After reading “Henry’s Freedom Box”, we now understand more about the lives of people who were enslaved and the very difficult challenges they had to go through.

Thank you for reading our blog!

– Div.4’s News Crew

In class we have been learning about bullying. We read different stories like Simon’s Hook and learned to not take the bait! Taking the bait means not fighting back when people say mean things to you. Instead of taking the bait, we can do things like ignore them or make a joke about it. We also learned about bystanders and how when there is a problem they choose not do anything. Instead of being a bystander we can choose to say something and stand up for our friends. This is important because there have been some problems in our class and at our school and we need to solve them.

-Div.4’s News Crew

 

Today, we had the opportunity to work with microscopes! First, we learned all about the different parts and their uses and then came the part we had all been waiting for. We were able to observe and prepare slides for leaves, salt, and onion skins under a variety of different magnifications. There were some pre-made slides that we were able to look at as well which included fish scales and flatworms. Here are some pictures from our Science adventure!

Can you tell what we are looking at under the microscope in the photo below? Comment and tell us what you think!