Hello Families of Div. 18 !

This weekend I took many walks and am thankful I got the chance to enjoy nature and get outside in a safe way. Did you know that this Wednesday April 22nd is the 50th Anniversary of International Earth Day? It is a day to remind people all across the whole Earth that we are all connected and that we all share a responsibility to the Earth that we live on. Earth Day is important because it is a chance for us to celebrate the wonderful things that live on Earth with us, as well as for us to show how we can take care of the natural world around us. A few of the activities this week will focus on Earth Day, as well as the beautiful outdoors. As always, please do what works for your family – these activities are guidelines and suggestions.

Week of April 20th:

Core Activities

• Read 20 minutes daily – just as we would have every day in our classroom for Daily 5
• Read the assigned book in your Epic profile, and please try to answer the ‘Quiz’ questions about that book on the Epic website. This will help me check everyone’s understanding of the stories they read – just like we do during Daily 5 in school when you ‘Read with Teacher.’
• Check out this book about Earth Day by Todd Parr (we have read several of his books in our class before) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpEc5nHqO2c 
• In your journal, can you tell me about some ways that you can help the Earth? Here is my example :

Please remember to use capital letters at the beginning, periods at the ends of your sentences. Please include the date and a picture if you can. As well, just as we do in our classroom – I encourage you to try to finish as much of your writing independently as you can. If you get stuck on spelling a word remember to give it your best shot by finding letter sounds, underline it and then keep on going. 

• Do the assigned activity on your Zorbit account.
• Next time you go for a walk or bike ride outside, collect some natural items (such as leaves, stones, pinecones or shells) and try to make a pattern. Start with an AB pattern and if you feel like challenging yourself, do a harder one like an extending pattern. Please remember to leave all natural items outside when you are done with them, as their home is outside. 

Here is a picture of one that I did on a beach this weekend – The top pattern is repeating can you guess what it is? The bottom pattern is tricky, it is extending or growing each time it repeats. Can you guess what it is?

Supplementary Activities: 

• We will do another class Zoom meeting on Wednesday April 22nd at 10:00am – join if you can. The link will be posted on FreshGrade to remain private to only Div. 18
• Do some Cosmic Kids Yoga or GoNoodle on Youtube for a Movement Break 🙂 Here are some quick links: https://www.cosmickids.com/category/watch/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl5dRW4E9hc  
• Authour Mo Willems who writes the ‘Elephant and Piggy’ books has done some drawing lessons on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmzjCPQv3y8 If you feel like doing some art, try doing a guided drawing lesson!
• Try this Sensory Mapping activity within Nature : 

The next time you go for a walk, try to be the best nature detective that you can. Using your senses, make a list of things that you can hear, see, smell, and touch. You can write down your ideas, draw them, or even take a picture.

You might see some signs of spring like cherry blossoms blooming, or hear some animals like birds singing. What other signs of living things might you see? 

If you want to challenge yourself, try standing really still for 30 seconds, maybe even with your eyes closed if it is safe to do so. Do you hear or smell even more signs of living things when you do this? 

Please post one or more of the activities you have completed to FreshGrade if you can. If you need anything at all – feel free to contact me as I am always available during regular school hours. I hope to see you at our class zoom soon 🙂

Thanks,
Ms. Vlasic

Hello families of Div. 18,

I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the sunshine on this long weekend 🙂 

Here are the assigned activities for this week. I want to reiterate once more – please tackle these tasks at a pace that suits your family’s needs, there is no ‘due date.’ If there is anything I can do to help – please let me know.

Core Activities: 

• Read 20 minutes daily – just as we would have every day in our classroom for Daily 5
• Read the assigned book in your Epic profile
• Attached are some social stories written for children about Covid – 19.
  • COVID_social_story-younger child
  • COVID-19-I-Can-Help social story -size of virus & hand washing
  • Pandemics & Coronavirus Social Story
  • Watching-a-Pandemic-on-Television-by-Carol-Gray

I encourage you to read as many as you like. Pick one of these topics to write about in your journal: 

1. What are some things you are thankful for right now?
2. What are some things you are doing to feel connected or get outside?
3. Have you celebrated any special occasions during this time? How?
4. What have you been doing at home to keep busy? 

• I did a chalk drawing outside of my house. What shapes do you see? How many triangles are there? Try making your own shape drawing. You can use chalk on the sidewalk, or just paper and pencil.
• Do the assigned math activity on your Zorbit account

Supplementary Activities:

• I have set up a Wednesday 10:00am Zoom meeting for our class. The meeting code will be announced on FreshGrade (so that it is not public for anyone to see on this blog). Join if you can – and if not, don’t worry – we will try to do one every week from now on! 
• Read ‘Rock Monster’ (written by a BC Mom) at https://www.scribd.com/document/454226522/Rock-Monsters#fullscreen&from_embed
• I have painted some rock monsters and left them along Southpoint dr. beside Taylor Park school. If you have time and feel comfortable, I encourage you to go for a walk with your family down Southpoint dr. and try to find all 9 of the rock monsters! Here are some picture clues – There are 9 rocks and they look like this:

They are all hiding along Southpoint Drive between Taylor Park school and Southwynde Avenue:

Here are some picture clues to show where the 9 rocks might be hiding:

If you do go looking for the rock monsters – I ask that you please take care not to touch them as I cannot guarantee who else has picked them up to look at. As well, if you run into another family or people walking, remember to leave 2 meters of space between yourselves to practice social distancing.

Just a hint, Div. 21’s teacher Ms. Dunnett has also placed some rock monsters around the neighbourhood – so you may see more than just these!

• If you have time – make your own rock monster and put it outside for others to see! 

Please post one or more of the activities you have completed to FreshGrade. Let me know if you need anything at all, and I hope everyone has fun with these activities this week! 

Thank you,

Ms. Vlasic 

Hi all,

Our principal Mr. Wall should have sent out an email to families today regarding tomorrow – Us teachers will be driving through our neighbourhood to say hello to everyone! 🙂

We have a planned route that goes through many of the streets in Taylor Park’s catchment zone – so hopefully you will get a chance to see us if you have the time. We hope to begin driving from the school parking lot around 1:00 pm. Here is the map I was given of the route we plan to take:

I encourage families that are interested to seek safe spaces from which to watch. Such as from windows, balconies, front yards or front doors. We aim to get a chance to build our community spirit while respectfully socially distancing to keep everyone safe.

Here is the school website post about tomorrow :  https://taylorpark.burnabyschools.ca/its-a-car-parade-wednesday-april-8th/

Hope to see you 🙂

Ms. Vlasic

Hello Div. 18  Families,

Our new classroom hours will be completely flexible. There may be some days when you choose to do quite a bit of work; perhaps it’s a rainy day? Then there are days when you only do a check in.

Everyone is learning at their own pace. If at any time you need assistance and have questions I will be available during regular school hours by email. Below are some core activities that I will ask students to complete for Friday. There will be supplementary activities for those who would like to extend their learning further.

***Note: As we begin this new phase of education, this week will be a trial run. Therefore, there will be minimal activities so not to overwhelm parents and students. I will reevaluate activities and learning strategies at the end of the week. As we continue moving forward and gather a solid foundation, I will progress activities equal with student development. We will be adjusting and learning together as we go. Feedback from students and parents will be sought throughout the week, but again, please feel free to reach out when you need to!

April 6th – 9th Schedule

Core Activities: 

• Read 20 minutes daily – just as we would have every day in our classroom for Daily 5 (Please note our class reads for 20 minutes each morning, Monday to Friday. To make this more manageable, you may wish to allocate a specific set time each day so students can make this a habit.)
• Read the assigned book in your Epic profile
• Write a journal entry – What did you do over spring break? Anything you would like to tell me? (Remind students of our class criteria – date, coloured pictures, 2-4 sentences with capitals and punctuation. For those who are ready, read and edit where appropriate.)
• Write a list of 5 things you are good at
• Log in to and explore the Zorbit math learning resource
• Go on a number hunt in your house! Record wherever you find numbers (the oven, a clock, a book, labels). Here is an example of some numbers I found around my home:

Supplementary Activities: 

• Draw a picture or poster to thank essential service workers (nurses, doctors, grocery employees, postmen, delivery drivers, bus drivers) for helping our communities right now. Hang this in your window or door to show others
• If you are unable to go outside for a walk/ run/ bike ride, consider exploring Cosmic Kids Yoga (https://www.cosmickids.com/category/watch/ ), or GoNoodle (https://www.youtube.com/user/GoNoodleGames ). These are the sites our class normally uses to do our movement breaks daily to get our wiggles out

Please post one of the activities you have completed to FreshGrade by Friday if you can.  

Please remember – do what you can, and what works best for your family. My main concern is that students are happy and healthy. Please contact me if you need anything.

Thank you,

Ms. Vlasic 

Hello everyone!

It has been wonderful getting a chance to speak with so many of you. I notice that many families have been able to access Epic books, as well as the student FreshGrade platform – thank you for your help! I am also sending an invite to a game – based math platform called Zorbit for your child. They will be able to explore games and math operations for fun, as well as teacher assigned tasks so that I can track their progress based on math curriculum for grades 1 and 2. 

Please go to https://play.zorbitsmath.com/?_ga=2.30562175.1575071744.1585951096-1189171983.1585540571 to log in. Your child’s username and password are both: their first name and the first letter of their last name. For example, mine would be galav for both username and password.

 If you have not done so, please complete the login process for the sites I have sent. Once you have logged on to each website, feel free to explore the website and navigate the space. They are not obligated to begin work at this time, simply explore.

 Obviously, this is a technology rich phase and many parents are worried about screen time.These are challenging times. Please give yourselves a break. 

 When possible, some ideas away from the screen could be; a walk outside, play a card or board game (also good for math and language development), building something out of recycled materials, do yoga on youtube, make a dance routine and share it on FreshGrade…  I will also be including activities offline each week to provide more ideas. 

 At the beginning of each week I will be posting the weekly activities for your child to complete by Friday. This schedule is flexible and you can follow it at a pace that suits your family’s needs. We will start small. 

 As we begin learning in/on our new classrooms/platforms, I would love to stay connected with all of you. One way we can do this is by sharing activities and work we have completed at home on FreshGrade. This is not compulsory but a way to continue building our community from afar.

 In a perfect world, we would have everything done by the end of the week. Not to mention, your children would be able to complete all their work without assistance. However, as this is not a perfect world and our schedules are balancing work, children, grocery shopping, health and safety, a crying toddler, food being thrown on the floor, the dog chewing a slipper and goodness knows what else….

We are going to do our best. If that means you miss a few items on the activity list or are unable to post something on FreshGrade… please don’t stress. Send me an email (when possible) and let me know how I can help. We are in this together.

Stay safe and stay tuned,

 Ms. Vlasic

Hello Families,

Hope the students of Div. 18 are doing well! Us teachers have been learning to Zoom and collaborating in online meetings to learn from each other and to prepare for teaching our students online 🙂

I will be contacting every family individually over the next couple days to say hello and to check in with you. I recognize that everyone may be facing challenges and I hope to support our class and families as best I can through this time.

We will continue our Daily 5 literacy program, although it will look different than before. I have created a ‘class’ through Epic Books with your child as a member, links to log in where just sent to family emails. Each child has a profile through which they can explore thousands of books to be read to them, or to read independently. I will also be able to ‘assign’ individual books for your child to read that will be at their specific reading level, so that they can practice the reading strategies we have been learning all year. For the next few days, I encourage you to explore Epic books at your leisure and to become familiar with the tool if you are able to.

I look forward to talking to everyone soon. 🙂

Please give a big hello to your children for me!

Ms. Vlasic