It is time for the biennial Cascade Heights walk-a-thon! If you are new to the school, like me, you will discover that this is a big deal here! This event happens once every two years, and is a major fundraiser for the school. In the past, the money raised from the walk-a-thon has been put towards great projects for Cascade Heights.

This year our school goal is to raise $10 000! The money raised will be put towards Outdoor Learning Centres around our school. Students have the next three weeks to collect pledges. Pledge forms are due May 19th. There are great opportunities for students to win prizes if they raise money! On Friday, May 21st all classes will be participating in the walk-a-thon.

A notice and pledge sheet came home with your child today with more information. If you are familiar with this event you will notice that some changes have been made this year due to COVID safety regulations.  **We are not allowing parents to accompany classes on the walk this year.

Thank you in advance for supporting Cascade Heights!

We celebrated by walking to Wesburn Park to enjoy nature and do some math in the great outdoors! Both math groups are learning about fractions right now so students worked in groups to represent fractions found in nature. See some of their ideas below:

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I hope you were able to get out in the sunshine today and enjoy this beautiful Earth of ours!

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.

Today was a day full of energy and rich learning! (Is that why I feel so exhausted?)

We were very fortunate to have Mr. McKillop, the district’s ADST teacher, come to our classroom for the full day to teach us how to make treasure chests out of wood. Apart from the many practical woodworking skills we learned, this also helped us understand that all skills are developed through practice, effort, and action. It was hard work, but I saw a lot of proud faces at the end of the day!

Students started by carefully measuring the pieces we needed to cut. This required using a ruler and a square. The advice was to measure twice and cut once! That did not stop a few pieces from ending up in the scrap pile…

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Next, students used a mitre box and saw to cut the pieces for the base of their chest. This was hard work and took most of the morning! I am happy to report that all fingers survived this step.

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Mr. McKillop then taught the students how to use an electric drill and driver to screw their pieces together. We found that you had to be quite precise to make sure the base ended up straight. It was also easy to split the wood if the screws were tightened too much. Some students preferred to use a screwdriver instead!

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After that, it was time to attach the bottom of the chest using a hammer and nails. This was more challenging than it looked! The nails had to go in perfectly straight or they would end up poking out the sides. We ended up cleaning many bent nails off the floor at the end of the day…

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Finally, it was time to attach the lid and sand the chest to perfect smoothness. I had many students coming to me to showcase how soft their treasure chest ended up! We will be painting our treasure chests later in the week and students will be bringing them home once they have dried.

Way to go, Division 7! I would say you demonstrated every core competency in the book today as well as some next-level crafting skills!

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!

Here are a few things we have been up to in Division 7 lately:

Yesterday, we reviewed the difference between a physical and a chemical change. Students used the scientific method to answer the question “How can we tell if two substances have a chemical reaction?” After reviewing safety procedures when dealing with unknown substances in science, groups tested six mystery powders with a mystery liquid and looked for signs of a chemical change.

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Here is the grand reveal of what the mystery powders were:

1. Sugar
2. Salt
3. Cornstarch
4. Baking Soda
5. Icing Sugar
6. Powdered Eggshell (I bet you didn’t guess that one, Division 7!)

And the mystery liquid was… vinegar with blue food colouring! The vinegar reacted with the baking soda and the powdered eggshell. You could tell because bubbles were produced when they were mixed together! Ask your child to tell you what the difference is between a physical and chemical change.

Today, students started a group research project on a European explorer. As we continue to examine Canada’s story, we are beginning to understand that interactions between First Peoples and Europeans lead to conflict and cooperation, which continues to shape Canada’s identity. Each group is responsible for learning about an explorer’s interactions with a particular Indigenous group.

We have accumulated a small library in our classroom to assist with research.

Finally, I would like to share our artwork that we started before spring break and has finally made it up on our bulletin board. We were inspired by the work of Canadian artist Bernadette McCormack who uses shapes and layers of watercolour to create nature scenes.

Take a closer look below:

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Thank you for tuning in!

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.

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!

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

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/