Month: October 2020

On Friday, October 30th, our class will be celebrating Halloween with a day of fun activities. All students are encouraged to dress up in costume.

The Halloween Parade, which normally takes place in the school hallways on Halloween afternoon, will take place outside this year. Classes will walk along the north side of Fir St. and Pine St. between Smith Ave. and Carleton Ave. Families are welcome to watch our parade from the south side of these streets with physical distancing in mind. We ask that spectators find a spot for just their family at least 2 meters apart from the families near them. Please feel free to dress up too.

If students would like to bring a treat to share with their classmates, we ask that it be a peanut free, pre-packaged candy or other item. For safety, all treats need to be brought to the school by Tuesday, October 27th. If your child is bringing treats, they must bring enough to share with everyone. Please note that I have added a class list tab at the top of the page to help them know how much to bring.

We have been learning about the scientific method and today we got to see it in action! The scientific method is the set of steps scientists use to learn about and study the world around them. The six steps of the scientific method are:

1. Make an observation about the world around you.
2. Identify a question that arises from your observation.
3. Form a hypothesis to predict the answer to your question.
4. Design an experiment to test your hypothesis.
5. Analyze your data collected in your experiment.
6. Form a conclusion based on your data.

Today we borrowed an observation and question from a famous scientist, Galileo Galilei. He wondered whether or not a heavier object would fall faster than a lighter object. Using a collection of balls of different weights and sizes, we put it to the test:

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To our surprise, we found that the size and weight of the ball did not affect how fast it fell! Both balls hit the ground at the same time. As good scientists do, we repeated the experiment more than once to check our findings.

Stay tuned for more scientific discoveries…

In Division 7, we celebrate diversity. Last week we made our clothespin doll classroom inspired by the novel Molly’s Pilgrim. We made our dolls to look like us to show that our strength as a class lies in our differences. I was so impressed by the creativity that the students showed in making their dolls! See below for a closer look:

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In class, we have started exploring the big question “What is your story? How does it shape your identity?” We have talked a lot about how sharing our stories builds community and understanding.

This week, we are looking at the part of our story that is most often the first thing we share about ourselves… our names! Today we read The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi. It is the story of a little girl who is moving to America from Korea. When she arrives, she realizes that her Korean name is strange to her new friends. She carefully considers whether or not she should choose a new name to use in her new home. If you would like to find out what happens, you can listen to the story here.

I have asked the students to find out about the story of their names. They may have a few questions to ask you! They have a worksheet to fill out to help guide them. If you have any information to share with them that is not included on the sheet, please have them write it on the back. I am asking the class to bring back everything they find out on Thursday, October 15th. Thank you for assisting your child with this activity!

This week we are reading the short novel Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen. The story is about a family who is experiencing their first Thanksgiving in North America. It introduces the concept of immigration and reminds us that diversity is something to be celebrated. As the little girl in the story learns, “it takes all kinds of pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving!”

On Friday, we will celebrate finishing the book by making our own clothespin dolls, just like Molly is asked to do in the story. The students will make the clothespin doll to look like themselves so that we can celebrate the diversity in our own classroom. I will be providing the clothespins and materials but if your child would like to bring anything from home to add to their doll, they should bring it on Friday. Some ideas include: fabric scraps, yarn, or ribbon. They will only need a small amount of each materials because the clothespins are quite small (about 10cm).

Stay tuned to see our clothespin classroom!

With Thanksgiving coming up, Division 7 has been looking into how the holiday came to be and what looking at the world with a thankful heart can do!

We started by reading about the History of Canadian Thanksgiving. Many Canadians know the story of Thanksgiving in America, but although there are many similarities between the traditions in the two countries, the reason for the holiday is not the same at all! Ask your child to teach you how Thanksgiving started in Canada.

Then we read the book Thank You, World by Alice B McGinty. It showed us how to be thankful for the little things like the morning sunrise and soft breeze. The beautiful illustrations showed us how those little things might look in different countries around the world. After reading, each of us came up with our own thing (big or small!) that we are thankful for and used our ideas to create the thankful tree you see at the top of this post.

Part of our weekly routine is our Wednesday morning quote response. Each week we look at a new quote and discuss what it means. Then students are asked to respond to the quote in writing by answering questions like:

• Do you like this quote? Why or why not?
• I connect/do not connect to this quote because…
• When I read this quote, I feel…
• This quote reminds me of…

This week our quote is connected to our theme of a thankful heart:

The heart that gives thanks is a happy one, for we cannot feel thankful and unhappy at the same time.”

Talk with your child tonight about the quote and what they think it means.

I hope you can take some time this week and long weekend to think about what you are thankful for in your life!

I am happy to announce that this year our class will be participating in the Scholastic Reading Club program. Reading every day is the best way for children to become independent readers. It is recommended that students in Grade 4/5 read 20-30 minutes every day.

For those of you who are new to the program, it is a great way to discover new books for your family and get them at a very reasonable price. Each month a flyer is released with recommendations of books for every age group. If you purchase the books using our class code, then our classroom gets 20% of the cost of the order in rewards and you get free shipping on your order of $35 or more. The rewards earned can be put towards new books for our classroom library! Our classroom code is:

RC508458

If you have used this program in the past, you should know that there are changes this year. Your order will now ship directly to your home and you can order online whenever you want at scholastic.ca/clubshop. Instead of sending paper flyers home each month, I will be posting a link to the digital flyers.

I will be using the Scholastic Reading Club tab at the top of this page to post links to the digital monthly flyers. It is also where you can find our classroom code and the link to the online ordering page for reference.

I hope you enjoy using this program that can foster your child’s love of reading and benefit our classroom community at the same time. Here’s to a year of great reading!

Tomorrow we will be participating in our annual Terry Fox Run!

We have been learning about character traits in our class and have discussed some of the character traits of Terry Fox. We decided that Terry was:

• • • • • • • kind
            • brave
            • compassionate
            • confident
            • determined

We are honored to continue Terry’s legacy tomorrow by running to raise money for cancer research. If you would like to donate, you can do so online by clicking here.

Please make sure your child is coming to school tomorrow dressed for the weather and with proper running shoes.