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I took a few photos today of Division 7 enjoying the beautiful weather. We played an energetic game of California Kickball during P.E. and when I was looking at the photos later, I was reflecting on how far we have come as a classroom community.

Sportsmanship is something we have been working on as a class throughout the year. We have had lots of conversations about how the games we play together are about having fun, supporting each other, and getting our bodies moving, NOT about winning. Today, I could really recognize the results of the hard work we have done as I saw students cheering on their teammates, letting go of the little things, and helping out those who were new to the game.

Way to go, Division 7!

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Our class is starting an exciting new program called “Classroom Book Clubs”. For the next few weeks, students will be reading books and discussing them in small groups. Each group has 4 to 6 students who selected the same book. Since this is something new, I wanted to share how this program works so that you can best support your child.

Each student has been given a copy of his or her book to read. I will provide 30 minutes of reading time each day, but if they do not complete their assigned reading they will need to take the book home to finish. The reading page assignments are created by the book club groups on a weekly basis and will be written on a bookmark for reference. In addition, students will have a short assignment such as writing a summary, creating discussion questions, or writing notes about parts they want to discuss. It will be important for each member of the group to complete the required reading and assignment each week so they can contribute to the discussion. It is also important that they do NOT read ahead of the assigned pages because this will spoil the discussion.

Ways you can help your child experience success with Classroom Book Clubs:

1. Set up a regular quiet reading time after school or before bed.
2. Check to make sure the weekly assignment has been completed (due each Friday)
3. Discuss the book with your child. Ask questions and show interest in what they are reading. You can even get your own copy and read along!
4. If you feel your child is having trouble understanding the book, take turns reading pages aloud and discussing the story.

I will be assessing Classroom Book Clubs based on completion of weekly assignments and participation during the meetings. Please contact me if you have any further questions. Students received their books today and we will have our first book club meeting next Friday! We are excited to have this chance to read books of our choice and talk about them with our peers!

Today in health class we started talking about puberty. Part of the BC health education curriculum is learning about the physical, emotional, and social changes that occur during puberty, including those involving sexuality and sexual identity.

I know that students can feel very uncomfortable talking about this topic. We discussed that the reason for that may be that we are taught that there are certain topics or words that are considered taboo, or something you shouldn’t talk about. While there are certainly situations where talking about your body is not appropriate, health class is not one of them. Part of our classroom contract is ensuring that everyone feels safe. This includes helping each other to feel comfortable to ask questions and learn about all topics. My expectation is that we can all handle this topic with maturity and understanding.

Your child may be coming to you in the coming weeks with questions about what they are learning about puberty. I encourage you to have open discussions with them about this. You can click here to watch the video that we watched in class today. As always, if you have any questions for me, do not hesitate to reach out.

Bonjour!

Greetings from French class! We are beginning our unit on families. It will provide the opportunity to explore many exciting things about our family while learning new vocabulary and structures. We will learn that families come in all shapes and sizes. We will talk about the things we like to do with our family and other special people. We will discover celebrations that we share. You can help make this unit special by sending family photos for your child to contribute to our Galerie des familles. This is entirely optional but if you wish to contribute, photos can be sent in with your child or sent to me via email. The photos will be shared with the class and we will use them to practice key vocabulary in the unit.

At the end of the unit, your child will be putting together a family scrapbook. This can include photos, small objects, drawings, or cuttings from magazines. We would appreciate your support of this project by helping your child find special items that represent your family. I will communicate via your child’s planner when these items need to start coming in.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in making this unit a success. We look forward to sharing our family scrapbook with you.

Un gros merci!

Yesterday Divisions 7 and 8 took advantage of the beautiful weather we have been having and walked to Wesburn Park. Before we left, we looked at artwork by Andy Goldsworthy, a British artist who uses items he finds in nature to create beautiful, temporary masterpieces. We worked in groups to create our own nature art. Anyone who is walking through the park in the next few days will be able to enjoy our creations. Check out our natural, temporary artwork below:

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Our trip to the park was a wonderful reminder of how important it is to get outside and just play! In light of the new guidelines put forth by Dr. Bonnie Henry yesterday, I hope everyone will find some time to get out in nature over Spring Break.

Today was the last day of school before the break. School will resume on Monday, March 29th.

Have a wonderful break, everyone! Stay safe!

Please see below for an important notice from Ms. Griffiths regarding the spring musical:

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I am pleased to announce that Intermediate students at Cascade Heights are taking part in a virtual musical, “Jukebox Time Machine”. The musical features an old-fashioned Jukebox that doubles as a time machine and transports the cast to different decades where they explore the popular culture of the era and perform a hit song. Each class will perform and be filmed in the gym separately from other classes, and all of the recordings will be compiled to make the musical. Students are working hard and getting excited for their performance. Division 7’s song “She Loves You” will be filmed on Tuesday, April 13th from 1:00- 1:41, and Friday April 16th from 9:36- 10:16. Please arrive in costume for these days.

For the song “She Loves You” we are asking students to work on creating a costume in the style of early 1960’s “Beatles” look. Here are some costuming suggestions.

• Skinny black jeans/pants
• Black dress shoes
• White shirt
• Skinny black tie – provided by school
• Horn rimmed glasses

We hope that students can have some fun creating a costume from what they have around the house, or can borrow from their parents, friends, sibling, etc. Please don’t feel pressure to go out and buy brand new clothes. My sister and I are sewing a class set of ties, and we do have a bag of white t-shirts in the music room if anyone is in need. We are also collecting 3D glasses and punching out the colored lenses for those that need extra glasses to complete their look!

Thank you for your support in helping your child create a costume for their performance!

Elaine Griffiths
Music teacher @ Cascade Heights elementary school
https://sd41blogs.ca/griffithse/

Dear families of Division 7,

This is a note to let you know that I will be sending an interim report home with your child next Friday, Dec. 11th. As you will know from the school notice that went out last week, this will not be a full report card as we would normally be sending home at this time of year. It is just a snapshot to let you know how your child is doing and if there are any concerns. If you wish to set up a meeting with me to discuss the report or anything else, please send me an email and we can arrange a time to meet via Zoom or phone.

As winter break draws near, some students have asked me about bringing in treats to gift to their classmates. We will use the same guidelines as Halloween for those that want to bring something. Due to COVID-19, please make sure that anything to be given out is brought in by Tuesday, Dec. 15 so they can sit in quarantine before being handed out on the last day (Friday, Dec. 18). Everything must be prepackaged and should contain NO NUTS. Please note that it is not expected that you send something in, but I understand that some students may want to.

Lastly, I want to send out a thank you to all of you for your support and cooperation during the first term of the school year. This has been a challenging start for all of us and I appreciate all of the interactions I have had with the Cascade Heights community. Whether you have sent in donations for art projects, commented on blog posts, helped your child with their homework, or simply said hello at pick up/drop off I am thankful to have you all on Division 7’s team!

Sincerely,

Ms. Rudolph

Inspired by the book I Am a Story by Dan Yaccarino, Division 7 made a timeline showing how stories have been shared throughout history. I gave the class a big challenge of using a website called Sutori to create this digital timeline. This was a brand new tool for all of us and we really had to use our critical thinking and collaboration skills to figure it out! I was very impressed with their efforts and am proud that they could work together to create the end product.

Click here to check out our digital timeline!

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…

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!