Category: Communication

As you know, we have spent the first part of the school year focusing on the big question:

• “What is your story? How does it shape your identity?”

This term we are shifting our focus to examine the question:

• “What is Canada’s story? How does it shape Canadian identity?”

A large part of the Grade 4/5 social studies curriculum is about understanding Canadian history and how it shaped our country. We will be connecting our big question to other curricular areas as well.

As we look at different events throughout Canadian history, we will use a timeline to connect what we learn to the big idea. Students should be able to sequence events and look for continuity and change as well as its positive and negative aspects.

In class, we have read two biography picture books and practiced deciding what would be important enough to be included on a timeline of someone’s life as well as putting the events in order on an appropriate scale. Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein tells about the life of Mary Shelley from birth to when she wrote her famous novel. The Tree Lady tells the story of American botanist Kate Sessions and how her fascination with trees shaped the landscape of modern-day San Diego.

In order to get a better understanding of how timelines work, students will be sharing their own story as a personal timeline showing important events from when they were born until the present. They will have class time to work on the project but will be bringing a sheet home today that asks them to fill in 10-12 important events that have happened in their life. They may need some help remembering the dates of these events. I am asking them to bring their list of events back to school on Wednesday so we can start creating their timelines.

Thank you for supporting your child with this assignment.

Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein by Linda Bailey

The Tree Lady by H. Joseph Hopkins

Yes, it’s true. Colder weather is in the forecast for next week. Division 7 has been working hard to create some wintery cityscapes:

To create this art, the students mixed paint to create a gradient effect for the background, going from dark to light. They then sketched buildings on white paper and fine-lined them in black. To create the shadows on the buildings, they used a chalk pastel that matched their background and smudged it. Finally, they added the snow with white paint. Get a closer look below.

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Please remember to send your child to school dressed appropriately for the weather. Students will be outside at recess and lunch. Students wanting to play in the snow must come dressed in snow pants and boots. All students should be wearing warm winter jackets, gloves, and hats. It is also important to make sure that your child has dry inside shoes to change into. Click here to read about the Burnaby school district winter weather procedures.

Stay warm out there!

Did you know that a competition is held every year to choose the best books for young readers? The Young Reader’s Choice Awards (YRCA) has been going on since 1940 and is the only international reading award with participants in Canada and the United States.

Books are nominated in three categories, junior, intermediate, and senior, and are then voted on by young readers to choose the most popular books for that year. Fiction, non-fiction, and graphic novels can be nominated.

There are some amazing nominees this year and Division 7 has a copy of each book from the junior category in our classroom. We even used our Scholastic Readers Club points to purchase two of the books to keep in our class library! (Big thank you to those of you who have been using our class code when purchasing books from Scholastic!)

This year’s junior nominees are:

• Sweep: The Story of a Girl and her Monster by Jonathan Auxier
• The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta
• Granted by John David Anderson
• Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
• Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire by John August
• Wings of Fire. The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland ; adapted by Barry Deutsch and Rachel Swirsky (Graphic Novel)
• Positively Izzy by Terri Libenson
• Inkling by Kenneth Oppel

If students have read at least two of the books on the nominee list, they will be able to vote using the ballots in our school library. Voting will be open March 15-May 31.

Time to start reading!

Please enjoy our festive winter art that we completed last week! To make this art, the students drew a simple winter or holiday picture and then glued string to their drawing. They then pressed tin foil over top of the string and used an embossing technique to show the design underneath. Finally, they coloured the tin foil with markers. The end result is very striking!

Today is the last day of school before winter break. School resumes on Monday, January 4th. Today your child will be bringing home all of their art projects from the first term.

I want to take a moment to say a heartfelt thank you for the many thoughtful cards and gifts. I feel very touched to be in your thoughts. Although this holiday season feels different than normal, I hope you can all have a restful and joyous break within your bubbles. I look forward to more journeys in Division 7 in the new year!

You may have seen in your child’s planner that they have been assigned homework for over the winter break! Please note that I have given them a week before and a week after the break to work on it as I understand that it may not be possible for them to work on it during the break. This assignment is to be done at home and is not due until January 11th.

I have asked the students to take five photographs that are related to their LiD topic. I have encouraged them to get creative and try to find a variety of subjects to photograph. For each photo, they need to give it a title, explain why they chose to take it, and tell where it was taken. They should write or type this information on a separate piece of paper. The photographs can be taken on any device and do not need to be printed because they will be handed in digitally on Microsoft Teams. More information on the assignment is already posted on Microsoft Teams. ***If your child is having trouble logging on to Teams at home please let me know as soon as possible so I can help them get logged on.

I hope that the students have fun with this assignment. I look forward to seeing what they come up with!

Division 7 has been participating in a kindness challenge during the last month of school before winter break! We were inspired by the book Come With Me by Holly M. Mcghee which is about a little girl who is troubled by all of the negative things she sees going on in the world. She asks her parents what she can do and they show her that small acts of kindess and joy can go a long way. We decided to do our own small part to make the world a better place.

Each morning we choose a kindness quote and challenge for the day. The challenges are simple and something that anyone can do such as “leave a nice message or drawing on someone’s desk” or “find someone to read to today”. Then we add that day’s challenge to our growing chain of kindness. It is a great reminder of all of the good we have already done. The students have been reporting some wonderful acts of kindness that they have achieved and I have noticed some going on right here in our classroom. I wonder if you have noticed any acts of kindness happening in your homes!

This week, Division 7 is exploring how stories have been told since the beginning of time, all around the world.

Today we read the book I Am a Story by Dan Yaccarino. It shows the history of stories from oral storytelling and cave paintings to libraries and e-books. We will be spending some time this week researching the different ways stories have been told throughout history and making our own timeline of story.

On Friday, we will be starting an art project connected to a very important point on the timeline of story: Egyptian hieroglyphs. These picture symbols were one of the earliest forms of writing. We will be learning how to write our names in hieroglyphs and making our very own papyrus (paper used in ancient times). Originally, papyrus was made from the pith of the papyrus plant but we will be making ours from paper bags and paste. I am asking for donations of brown paper bags that we can use for our art project. The bags can be used, but should be clean. Any size of paper bag will work, as we will be cutting them into strips. It is fine if the bags have writing on the outside. If you are anything like me, you may have some Starbucks take-away bags laying around…

Thank you for supporting Division 7’s foray into ancient Egyptian paper-making! If you would like to learn how to write your own name in hieroglyphs, click here!

Today we read the picture book Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester. It connects to our theme about sharing our story. Our race is part of our story. It is part of our identity. It is something that we should be proud to share with others.

Unfortunately, many stories are told about race that are simply not true. The book gives examples of some of the ways race is used to tell untrue stories.

I encourage you to talk to your child about race and racism. It is something they are already hearing about from the world around them and they may have questions. Click here to listen to the book we read in class today. If you have any questions for me or would like help talking to your child about this topic, please reach out at any time.

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.

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!