Author: Tiffany Poirier

Hello, division 4 families!

We hope this blog has been a helpful way for you to feel informed and connected to your child’s learning this school year. Yet, here is another fun opportunity…

We are excited to open our classroom to you and your child this Wednesday, May 3rd from 2:50pm to 6:00pm for STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES. This is an “Open House”-style event with no set appointment times.

These conferences are led by students, and I will be in the room to welcome you, smile, and join you in feeling proud of your child! (For confidentiality reasons, I will not be able to use this time to discuss your child’s performance or needs since the room will be busy. However, please feel free to email to request an individual appointment if needed.)

Arrive when you can, but please note the classroom will be especially busy between 5-6pm. The event ends at 6pm sharp. (However, please feel free to visit our class another time if that works better with your schedule, and/or ask your child to bring home their work to do a “student led conference” at home if you like.)

Using the checklist below, students have practiced being a conference host by role-playing with their classmates. Below is a sneak peek at the plan for the conferences…

Today we had a blast with our ADST cardboard challenge that our librarian, Ms. Mueller, facilitated. Thank you so much for bringing in cardboard! The challenge was to use the design process to come up with an idea for a “robot” that could solve a problem. Students used cardboard and special “safety cutters”, bread clips, twist ties, elastics, and creativity to make model robots.

In Math, we are continuing to learn about fractions, while also exploring the topics of decimals and money. We have been using peer support activities, discussion, games, colourful manipulatives, and a variety of videos to help us understand the concepts.

In Science, we just wrapped up a unit on the Circulatory System.

In Language Arts, we have been continuing with our class novel study of “Time Cat”, by Lloyd Alexander. Taking inspiration from that story, students have invested lots of creativity and time into writing their own stories about time travelling cats. We are emphasizing a thorough and facilitated proofreading process that involves passing story drafts by multiple editing partners for specific feedback. We have discussed how all writers need editing support and that this is an important learning process itself—not just for the purpose of perfecting a story.

This is a SAMPLE of a peer editing sheet.

Hello, division 4 families!

Today the grade 5s will be bringing home a information sheet and permission form about their upcoming SCIENCE WORLD FIELD TRIP!

All grade 5s in the school are invited to attend. The trip will be supervised by Ms. Tessemaker, Mr. Purnell, Ms. Williams, and a number of parent/guardian volunteers. (Ms. Poirier will stay in Victoria with the grade 4 students and take them to Willows Beach for a fun day with all the school’s grade 4 students; there will be more information on this in May.)

Please read over the paperwork coming home today and reach out if you have questions.

Happy Monday, division 4 families!

Today we began our new unit on fractions. Please see the videos and questions below to get a sense of our math learning today.

In Language Arts, we enjoyed a beautifully illustrated retelling of an Inuit story, “The Orphan and the Polar Bear”. We also reviewed our learning of how to correctly use quotation marks when writing dialogue in stories.

In the afternoon, the grade fives went on a field trip skating at Oak Bay Rec, while the grade fours enjoyed a gym class and then we turned our class into a “dojo” for an introduction to karate. We learned about this history of this martial art and practiced some stretching and safety principles and techniques for a correctly formed straight punch.

All martial arts practiced in our class are strictly non-contact, the emphasis of our learning is self-discipline, self-confidence, self-defence, and safety.

Students also enjoyed a bit of time today to show off their “freestyle” fitness moves! It’s so fun to be active in many different ways!

Today our class travelled to the Greater Victoria Water Supply Area for a special day of outdoor learning in Science and Social Studies.

The Greater Victoria Water Supply Area is a large forested environment that is the source of our region’s tap water and that is generally restricted access.

Students saw the water supply reservoir and dam and learned how water gets from the reservoir to their taps and the systems in place to provide safe drinking water. Students also explored and learned about the watershed ecosystem, climate, sustainability, and the importance of personal and social responsibility for drinking water.

It was meaningful to see and learn about the connections between the water collection points and the important technical equipment involved in disinfecting water at the UV treatment facility…before this valuable resource arrives in our taps at home!

A huge thank you to our kind and knowledgeable tour guides,
Kathy and Claire, as well as our parent volunteers, Matt and Melissa!
We appreciate you supporting our learning!

Hello, division 4 families!

Here are some more highlights from our recent learning. Yesterday morning we enjoyed some connections to the PHE and Career Ed. curriculum through a visit from police officers from the Victoria Police Department. They gave us life-saving safety tips and inspired us to think about how we can work together to keep our city safe—it was a useful insight into the law enforcement profession as well.

Yesterday afternoon we had our school’s LST teacher Mrs. Ritchie present a workshop to us on “wellness”, which explored concepts related to mental, physical, and emotional health and identifying zones of regulation.

We also continued our “biome diorama presentations” and learned so much from our hardworking, creative classmates!

In Language Arts, we have continue our novel study on the book “Time Cat”, while also learning more about narrative structure and different types of conflict in stories. Students also had a chance to put their learning into practice with more oral storytelling in small groups using cat figurines for inspiration.

In Math, we are wrapping up our “Perimeter & Area” unit, and students have been doing various quizzes and assessments. Please see previous posts for tutorial videos examples of questions.

Hello, division 4 families!

Wishing you a wonderful long weekend! Here are some photos and video of the super exciting EGG DROP challenge this week. I’m so happy to see how much fun everyone had. What a special way to learn together!

I have done my best to edit out the photos and faces of students for whom I have not yet received parent/guardian consent to share photos on the blog—if you do not see your child featured on this blog and would like to, please let me know to update photo/video permissions.

Also, here are some more wonderful biome diorama presentations! I am so proud of all of our students for their hard work, creativity, and effort sharing their learning. Way to go!

Hello, division 4 families!

Where does our water come from?

What can we do to help ensure a clean, plentiful supply of water for years to come?

Thank you for returning signed permission forms for your child to participate in our field trip to the CRD Water Supply Area on Thursday, April 13th. Please see the attached itinerary to see more about how we will spend our learning time.

This trip will deepen our understanding of Science and Social Studies curriculum related to water systems and natural resource management.

A free round trip bus is provided by the CRD, and it will depart from our school at 9:00am. We will return to before approximately 12:45pm.

We will be hosted by Kathy and Claire, who work with CRD Integrated Water Services who work in the Watershed Protection Div.

No parent/guardian drivers are needed; however, we need ONE MORE parent/guardian volunteer to join us as a supervisor (taking the bus with us). In addition to the two CRD staff, we will have at least 4 adult supervisors for 24 students (1:6 adult to student ratio).

Thank you to Eric (Leo’s dad), Melissa (Levi’s mom), and Matt (Remi’s dad) who are now confirmed to join as parent volunteers.

*PLEASE EMAIL MS.POIRIER IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN OUR TRIP. If we have more volunteers than we need to fill the two spaces, I will do a random draw of names to select the volunteers and two back-up names in case a chosen volunteer is unable to join at the last minute. This trip will go forward with adequate supervision. Email: tpoirier@sd61.bc.ca

*The area and our tour will not open to the public, and so we will not be able to accommodate additional parents even if they drive.

Welcome back! Our division 4 students enjoyed a “soft start” with 35 minutes of reading to get into a new novel. Then we reviewed how to find perimeter and area. Please see our video below to help students practice their own questions at home.

Great news! We are starting a fun, new fantastical interdisciplinary unit on one of our favourite topics: TIME TRAVEL! We began with small table group brainstorm discussion of what we already know about the concept and our own connections.

Next, I began reading aloud the first two chapters of a fun time travelling-themed novel, “Time Cat” by Lloyd Alexander.

Students were invited to doodle their ideas for time machines while they listened to the novel.

As well, we enjoyed seeing some wonderful biome presentations! We invite you to check out the project work done by these hardworking, creative students seen below. We have finish all biome presentations this week.

Hello, division 4 families!

This blog post is to share and celebrate the lovely artwork and deep reflection that has come from our class exploring the work of acclaimed artist, Roy Henry Vickers.

Connecting to our learning about the Salish sea, we enjoyed reading Mr. Vickers’ new book, “Ben the Sea Lion”. We learned more about the award-winning author-illustrator’s background and contributions as an artist from the Tsimshian Nation.

We sought permission from Mr. Vickers through his representatives at his gallery in Tofino to use his artwork as the inspiration for our own artworks for educational purposes—our goals being to (a.) appreciate the cultural meanings and connections of this artwork created by a celebrated Indigenous artist, (b.) study the beauty of the shapes, lines and colour in Vickers’ work, and (c.) explore techniques using paint and pen.

Thank you for inspiring us, Roy Henry Vickers!