Category: Communication

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

I know exactly how Winnie the Pooh feels. This has been a unique year but a truly special one. Division 7 came together to face every challenge that came our way. I am so grateful to have had a class that was willing to jump in with both feet to learn new things and find new ways of being with each other.

Although I was only at Cascade Heights for one year, I felt extraordinarily welcomed by the school community and am so grateful for my time here. It is a special place and I hope I will be back one day!

Today we watched a special video that I made to commemorate our wonderful year. I have posted a link to the video on our Microsoft Team so that the students can download the video as a memento.

Have a great summer and keep in touch!

As we gear up for the final full week of school, there are a few notices and reminders that I would like to put out there. This information will also be coming home in your child’s planner.

• On Monday, June 21st we will be walking to Central Park for an end-of-year field trip. We will be leaving right after recess and will not return until the end of the day. Students were asked to bring a lunch, water bottle, sun protection, good walking shoes, and a bathing suit/towel if they want to get wet in the sprinklers there. Monday is also National Indigenous Day and students are invited to wear orange to acknowledge this day.
• On Wednesday, June 23rd students should bring a bag to take home all belongings. This will include all of their supplies and work from the year.
• On Thursday, June 24th we will be having a mini sports day with Division 8 at Wesburn Park. Again, we will be leaving for the park right after recess so students will need to bring a lunch, water bottle, sun protection, and good shoes. COVID will not stop us from having a fun sports day together!
• On Friday, June 25th final reports will be sent home. Progress report envelopes DO NOT need to be signed and returned for the final term.
• Monday, June 28th will be our last full day of school.
• On Tuesday, June 29th students will only attend for one hour.

It is going to be an exciting and busy week as we mix in all of these activities with our final LiD presentations. I can hardly wait to see all of the hard work the students have done all year on this project!

Have a great weekend!

You may remember attending a student-led conference for your child in past years. The purpose of a student-led conference is to showcase a child’s accomplishments. It also allows each student to be accountable and to accept responsibility for reporting progress to parents. These conferences provide a meaningful opportunity for children to develop pride in their work, to become effective communicators and to develop leadership skills. Other important skills reinforced through this process are time management, organization, problem solving and decision making.

This year the student-led conferences will take place at home. Students have selected samples of their work to share with you and will bring them home on Friday, May 21st. They are being asked to bring a bag to school on Friday to help carry everything. Please make sure your child brings these items back to school on Tuesday May 25th unless otherwise noted in the conference agenda. Your role, as a parent, is to listen, ask questions, give positive feedback and encourage your child in this reflective process.

Thank you for enriching your child’s learning experience by sharing in the student led conference.

Bonjour!

As we continue to learn French vocabulary for talking about families, we are starting to learn the difference between words we use for our immediate family and words we use for our extended family. I am asking the class to practice using the vocabulary we have learned by creating an informal family tree or family circles (see below for an example of each) and they may need your help! They will be bringing a sheet home today where they will have to plan out who they will include on their family tree or circle.

I have told the students that it is THEIR CHOICE who they will include in this assignment. As we move through this unit we have continued to have the important conversation that all families look different and that we cannot question who others choose to include in their family. I also understand that asking to do an extensive and accurate family tree would be an impossible task for those with large extended families. I have told the class that if they can try to get 10-20 names on their family tree or circle, that will be sufficient for them to practice their vocabulary.

I have also told the class that if they are more comfortable choosing a famous family (like the Adams family!) to represent with this assignment, that is okay too. This option may require a bit of research in order to include the required 10-20 names.

If you have any questions about this assignment, do not hesitate to reach out. I hope you can enjoy learning a little bit about your family (en francais!) together with your child.

A Family Tree

A Family Circle

Welcome back after what I hope was a restful and rejuvenating spring break!

With our return to school came an important change to the COVID-19 safety precautions being taken at school. On March 29th the Provincial Health Officer announced that masks are now mandatory for all students in Grades 4-7 while at school. This is a change for our classroom where in the past, students had a choice about whether to wear a mask or not. The following situations are exceptions to the rule:

• a person is unable to wear a mask because they do not tolerate it (for health or behavioural reasons)
• a person is unable to put on or remove a mask without the assistance of another person
• the mask is removed temporarily for the purposes of identifying the person wearing it
• the mask is removed temporarily to engage in an educational activity that cannot be performed while wearing a mask (e.g. actively playing a wind instrument, high-intensity physical activity, etc.)
• a person is eating or drinking
• a person is behind a barrier
• providing a service to a person with a disability or diverse ability (including but not limited to a hearing impairment), where visual cues, facial expressions and/or lip reading/movements are important

We have talked in our classroom about how this will be an adjustment for some of us and that we need to be kind and gentle with each other while we are getting used to this new way of being together. So far the students have done a great job of accepting this change.

Please make sure that your child is coming to school with a mask that fits snugly around their nose and mouth. I also recommend putting an extra mask in their backpack in case their mask gets dirty or lost during the day. If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact me.

Dear Parents/Guardians of Division 7,

Your child will be bringing their March Progress Report home today. As this will be the first full progress report of the school year, I want to give you some information on its contents.

In the report you will see a term overview giving information on what was covered in each subject this term. Your child will receive a proficiency in each subject. There is information about the proficiency scale on the back of the report. There will also be written comments about your child’s strengths and areas they are working on. If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s report, please email me or indicate that you would like to meet with me on the report card envelope.

Please sign the front of the report card envelope under “First Report” and send it back to school before Friday, March 12th. The envelope should be sent back empty, as its contents are for you to keep.

Take care,

Ms. Rudolph

Tomorrow is Pink Shirt Day! Please remember to wear a pink shirt to stand up to bullies!

Pink Shirt Day originated in Canada when a boy wore a pink shirt to school and got teased for it. Two of his classmates saw what was going on and the next day they showed up to school with pink shirts to hand out to everyone in the school to show support for the bullied boy. If you see someone getting teased or bullied, be the one to stand up and do something about it!

This week we read Angus All Aglow by Heather Smith. Not only is it a wonderful story about the effect that kindness can have on someone who is hurting, it is also filled with wonderful language that leaps off the page. Click here to listen to the story.

In order to inspire kindness, Division 7 worked together to create this agamograph art. An agamograph is a series of images that change at different angles. It gets its name from the Israeli artist Yaacov Agam. This project was a true demonstration of the collaboration core competency. Each student coloured a section of the poster. As a group, we had to decide how we would colour it and what materials and shades we would use so that all the pieces would look the same. It was important for each member of the group to do their part to make it work.

We hope our project inspires kindness in the Cascade Heights community. Stay tuned for another upcoming Division 7 kindness initiative that we hope you will participate in…

On Thursday, students were assigned the novel they will be reading for our Canadian author independent novel study. An independent novel study means that students will be working on different books at their own pace. Each student has a duotang where they will keep all work related to the assignment.

We will be completing the novels over the next 7 weeks. Today, each student divided their novel into six sections. The fifth section of the book is to be completed over the two weeks of spring break. Other than those two weeks, time will be given in class each week to work on their novel study. In their planners, on the Monday of each week, students have written the section they are to complete that week.

For each section of the book, students are responsible for:

• making a prediction (before they read)
• writing at least one new vocabulary word
• keeping a double-entry journal to record their thoughts
• adding to their character analysis page
• writing a summary of the section (after they read)

The best way to increase comprehension of what we read is by talking about it to others. I encourage you to talk to your child about the novel they are reading as a way to check in each week to make sure they are keeping up with the novel study.

If you have any questions about this assignment, do not hesitate to reach out!

We are certainly experiencing some wintery weather in Burnaby this week, but in Division 7, it’s raining hearts! Students made these vibrant suncatchers by melting crayon wax between two pieces of wax paper using an iron. It was exciting to see the effects that different colour combinations could make!

This is a reminder for anyone wishing to bring Valentine’s Day cards for their classmates to be handed out on Friday, that tomorrow is the last day to bring them in!

Are we all tired of hearing “It is going to look a little different this year” yet? As was the case with other holidays, we need to establish some guidelines to make sure we can celebrate Valentine’s Day safely.

Students are welcome to bring cards to hand out to their classmates with the following expectations:

• If you bring cards, you MUST bring one for everyone in the class. There is an updated class list tab at the top of this page to make sure you do not miss anyone.
• Please make sure cards come to school three days in advance so they can sit in quarantine before being handed out. This means that cards must be at school by Tuesday, February 9th as we will be celebrating on the 12th. I will not be able to accept cards any later than that.
• The teacher will be handing out all cards and treats.

Treats may be brought to share with the class with the following guidelines:

• All treats must come sealed and pre-packaged by Tuesday, February 9th. Bring enough to share with everyone.
• No homemade treats can be shared at school.
• Do not send communal food such as cupcakes or boxes of chocolates. Treats must be individually packaged.

Thank you for following these rules so that we can all enjoy the day safely. If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to reach out.