Hello, division 4 families!
We have lots of excitement lately! We have had beach trips, board games tournaments, Purple Park picnics, engineering challenges, a year-end dance party, and more learning about government and rich reflection on National Indigenous People’s Day about what it means to be an ally. We even had a visit from Ms. Smith and her cute little black duck that imprinted on her!
Hello, division 4 families!
What do you notice about this sequence of numbers?
0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144
Today we offered some more math enrichment, and our topic was the Fibonacci sequence. Through discussion and experimentation, students learned about this mysterious and wonderful pattern found in so many aspects of nature.
Here are some of the videos students saw:
In ADST, our students have also been enjoying a new coding game and origami
In Art, student have been trying new creative image development strategies—including doing a brainstorming exercise that resulted in making thought provoking art by transforming images of barcodes…
As well, we are deep into our big year-end self reflection process. This involves (a.) writing paragraphs about our most memorable learning moments of the year, (b.) identifying specific evidence of growth in the core competencies (Thinking, Communication & Personal/Social Responsibility), and (c.) setting goals for next year.
Hello, division 4 families!
Here is an overview of some recent learning in our class.
A creative project students have now completed is the challenge to design, make and then play a new board game on the theme of time travel. The games were absolutely wonderful!
In Math, students have been reviewing rounding, decimals, and prisms.
In Social Studies, students have researched and presented their landmark presentations, and now we are in a unit on Canadian government.
We have been looking at the different roles and responsibilities of three levels of Canadian government (municipal, provincial/territorial/federal) and exploring different ways people have a political voice in Canada. This week, students worked in “campaign groups” and nominated a representative to “run for Prime Minister” and then present a campaign speech.
In French, we have lately worked through the French alphabet, numbers, colours, days of the week and months of the year.
Hello, division 4 families!
In Science, Social Studies and ADST, our class has been enjoying a bridges inquiry as a side-quest during our larger “Landmarks Inquiry”.
Through reading, viewing, and hands-on exploration, students have been learning about the engineering, aesthetic, historical, and cultural aspects of bridges around the world.
They learned about the differences between suspension, beam and arch bridges and added new vocabulary related to the mechanics of bridges.
During our construction bridge design challenge with a set quality of materials, students have been testing their own theories about what shapes and structures and will lend more strength. They are building their own model bridges to support as much weight as possible without collapsing or buckling when various toy cars are placed on top.
Students also made their own creative metaphorical connections between humans and bridges in our creative dialogue during Language Arts.
Here are two other videos we watched excerpts of for information and inspiration:
Here is another bridge documentary that students requested we watch; however we didn’t view it since I hadn’t had the chance to preview it, and it is long. However, here is the link in case families wanted to watch it.
Hello, division 4 families!
We’ve wrapped up another sunny week of new learning with lots to share with you. Students have worked together on the fun “build a time machine” collaborative challenge, and we have been using it to spark creative discussion, new writing, and dramatic play.
On Thursday, it was a special time of reflection to celebrate the anniversary of the creation of our school’s totem and it’s meaning. The whole school joined in a singing and drumming session of celebration.
In Physical and Health Education and Social Studies, we have been talking about making healthy, kind, and safe choices, and students have put on their own skits to model appropriate ways to handle challenging situations such as bullying, and social pressure to steal, cheat, or use harmful substances. It is so encouraging and heartwarming to see the goodness of our classmates’ characters on display. We all grow from reflecting, talking and listening together in preparation for life’s challenges and opportunities. These smart and kind kids are going to inspire and change the world!
To Our Oaklands Track Participants:
We are so proud of you for taking on this challenge and representing our school so well. We are cheering for you, and hope you have a great event day on Monday! We celebrate you now for already being winners for your great courage and effort!
Hello, division 4 families!
Today was a big Social Studies day! Core questions explored included:
What is the history of invention in Canada? What is the mindset of a successful inventor?
What is a landmark? What is the criteria that must be met for place to be considered a landmark? What world landmarks most interest you?
We started our day with a wonderful “Artstarts” theatrical presentation in the gym that taught students about the fascinating history of Canadian Inventions, such as zippers, biodegradable plastic, the Robertson screwdriver, snow shoes, basketball and WD40, and 5-pin bowling!
Today we began a new Social Studies inquiry about “landmarks”. We initiated the topic through philosophical dialogue using the P4C (philosophy for children) practice. I showed the students some figurines of world landmarks and asked them “what questions do these objects inspire for you?”
Students are learning how to form and answer their own questions and to participate in respectful, generative and critical discussion with their peers. They are learning to express themselves with clarity and to support their claims with good evidence and logical reasons.
Our process was to first consider what we mean by the word “landmark”. We looked up definitions and shared our own meanings. We looked at some videos, photos, and figurine examples of landmarks. Then students brainstormed and discussed their own questions related to landmarks. Students discussed their ideas and presented examples and logical arguments towards the goal of clarifying their own understanding. We compared natural with human-made landmarks.
I played a video of a group of my former grade 5/6 students in dialogue about landmarks to model what philosophical dialogue can sound like.
Students then enjoyed some Chromebook research time to independently learn more about the various landmarks that most intrigued them.
HOMEWORK TO EXPLORE IN YOUR OWN TIME AND IN YOUR OWN WAY (OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS): Keep learning about and thinking about world landmarks. Choose one landmark that most interests you and research it with print and digital sources. Prepare to be an “expert” on your chosen landmark and teach others about it. What is the significance of this place? What is its history? Why does it deserve landmark status? Does this landmark have controversy surrounding it? Why are you intrigued by this landmark?
Yesterday and today our division 4 students presented their cardboard models of their ideal playgrounds and shared them with other students in the school.
This project inspired students to use their creativity and imagination to come up with unique designs, while also working within the constraints the cardboard posed. Students were also challenged to think through how to effectively communicate the features of their ideal playground to others and then practice their public speaking skills.
Today we also enjoyed some “Little Buddies” time. The students worked collaboratively to do a challenge moving and stacking cups using string and an elastic band. Amazing teamwork!
And here is a look at the math from today…
Hello, division 4 families!
Today was beautiful day for learning! We enjoyed our first of three bonus Physical education sessions this week riding around with the Cycling BC program!
In Math we continued working with decimals. Then we had more research and hands-on creation time for our playground design projects and time travelling board games.
In Language Arts we had a lesson to learn to identify the difference between text that is written in past tense versus the present tense.
A common tendency for young writers is to unknowingly flip back and forth between past and present tense when writing stories, which leads to confusion for the reader. We worked together to edit a piece of text to ensure consistency as a past tense story.
Hello, division 4 families!
On Friday our students enjoyed a dynamic “Career Day” event in the gym. We had four mystery professionals take the stage and students had the opportunity to ask “Yes/No” questions about the nature of their work until they amassed enough information to make good guesses about what each presenter’s job is. Then students got up close to the presentation booths of each profession to ask more questions and see the tools of their trades.
Today we had a wonderful first session with Mr. Churchill, an amazing Chess coach who led our class though our powerful first strategy and tactics session. We will now have the privilege of spending every Monday from 9am-10am in these chess lessons, which help students to sharpen their logical-reasoning skills and learn many transferable life skills.
Hello, division 4 families!
It was wonderful to see so many folks enjoying our classroom and celebrating our students learning yesterday in Student-Led Conferences! Thank you for sharing this time with us!
Here are some more highlights of our recent learning…
In Math, students have continued to explore identifying, comparing, sorting, adding and subtracting decimals. We try to do this in hands-on ways where possible—students have enjoyed our “Decimal Boxing Match” game lately.
We have also started working with polygons: identifying and classifying.
In Language Arts, we continue to edit and polish the time travelling cat stories. As well, we returned to our learning of “parts of speech” by having silly fun with “Mad Libs”. Lots of laughs!
As well, our room is brimming with cardboard projects and creativity since we have students doing their playground design inquiry, board game design project, and “Time Machine” building!
We have also continued our “SEL” (Social Emotional Learning) lessons with Mrs. Ritchie to explore our emotions, self-regulation strategies, and communication skills.
Tiffany Poirier 