First Week of School!

Dear Students and Parents/Guardians of Division 2,

We are going to have a truly magical school year together! How did I get so lucky to have so many caring, creative and fun students all in one class? I want to thank all students for coming to school each day ready to learn, make new friends and share their positive helpful attitudes. I have really enjoyed getting to know the unique personalities in our class. Already we’ve had lots of laughs and discovered many common interests. Here are some highlights of our activities over the last week:

Brainstorming our own “Big Questions”
Creative brainstorming for fluent thinking (Minute Madness)
Logical thinking (logic puzzles and forming logical arguments)
Baseline Math Assessment
Learning about Place Value with Base Ten blocks and doing open-ended math-engineering challenges
Writing our first essay and setting up our Writing Journals
Learning about the mechanics of a sentence (capital letters to start, a complete idea and proper punctuation)
Schonell Spelling Assessment and setting up personal “Spelling Dictionaries”
Engineering Challenge with candy with Mrs. Cook)
Learning and practicing singing the new “Margaret Jenkins Song”
Painting puzzle pieces for a collaborative artwork
Music with Ms. Awalt and Ms. John
Dance/Drama with Ms. Knapp
Strings for grade 5 students with Ms. Rebstock
Physical Education outside (soccer, running races, and free play) and planning for “P.E. Leadership”
Using a tree metaphor to illuminate the meaning behind our assessment scale (Emerging-Developing-Proficient-Extending)
Discussing and practicing good personal hygiene and keeping our classroom space clean
Watching archival video of downtown Victoria from 1907
Planning to create a “Time Machine” in our classroom
Beginning a Social Studies unit on Canadian Government
Watching the “National Leadership Debate while painting
Savouring time on the field in the sunshine
Riding the “Silent Bike”
And more!

I invite you to keep checking this blog weekly to see more of the learning happening in our classroom! And a special thank you to parents and guardians for all you have done to help your children get back to school this year–from helping prepare school lunches, to coordinating school supplies and filling out all the forms, there are just so many seen and unseen ways that you support your children! We dearly appreciate you.

Sincerely, Ms. Poirier

P.S.

There have been some questions about what HOMEWORK will be like in our class this year. I discussed with the students that my philosophy on homework is that I believe it should be (1.) meaningful, (2.) extend from learning happening in our classroom, and (3.) not interfere with valuable family time at home. Therefore, I recommend that students establish a “homework” practice of READING for 20 minutes each night and make a goal to discuss their day of learning with a family member each day—perhaps prompted by questions like: What did you learn about today at school? What is something that challenged you today? What is something you are proud of today? What questions emerged for you today?

As we go deeper into our units of study, there may be project work students are inspired to bring home to continue working on. As well, if a student is absent and requests catch-up work, this can be supplied as well. Please connect with me to discuss your needs.