Author: Tiffany Poirier

Hello, division 4 families!

I hope you are enjoying a lovely weekend! Here are some highlights from our fun time together on Thursday.

The students finished their Math-Art challenge of designing a “Function Machine”. The creative invitation was for each student to design a one-step, two-step, three-step or four-step “input-output” table and then illustrate a silly machine that would perform the function rule. For example, in “The Number Cruncher 5000” above, when a number 80 is inputted, it gets divided by 10 to make 8. Then that 8 is added with 6 to output 14.

Students had fun noticing the patterns created in some of their tables too. Here are some wonderful examples of student work:

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In Science, we are exploring states of matter (solid, liquid, gas). So it was a special treat for us to make predictions and ask question about dry ice, and then observe some live in class as an example of sublimation, which is when a solid turns directly into a gas (without becoming a liquid first).

Reviewing science lab safety rules, students understood that dry ice (a frozen, solid form of carbon dioxide) should only be used in a well-ventilated area because it sublimates into a gas our body expels when we breath out. Too much carbon dioxide in the air can cause humans to asphyxiate. How fortunate then for humans that carbon dioxide (or CO₂) is the main source of food for plants—plants turn carbon dioxide into sugars (carbohydrates) through the process of photosynthesis.

As well, students learned they should not directly touch the dry ice because at -78.5 degrees Celsius, it could cause frostbite (or a cold “burn”). However, as students experienced for themselves, the “smoky”, “steamy” puffs of gas that came off of the dry ice when it was covered in warm water were fine to touch. The gas felt slightly cooler than room temperature. In fact, this was a great example of what fog! (See the photo and graphic below to extend learning…)

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Division 4 students also enjoyed more time with their kindergarten buddies on Thursday. They read stories aloud, drew pictures with them, and helped them learn to follow correct printing procedures. This printing skills review was important for the older students to reinforce proper technique to form beautifully legible letters.

Happy Wednesday, division 4 families!

Today we enjoyed a powerful and engaging presentation by representatives from LEAD (Lived Experiences Around Disability).

Students learned about the importance of people-first language and heard about strategies and technologies used by people with disabilities, such as blindness, hearing loss, and mobility issues.

Through stories, modelling and hands-on participation, our presenters opened up a window into challenging aspects of life that some people with disabilities encounter.

For example, some student volunteers were tasked with a sequence of steps like tearing a piece of paper and writing a word with a pencil—but they had to do the tasks while wearing mittens.

Debriefing the activity, our students reflected on how frustrating it can be to not have the accessibility tools you need to get a job done. It was a powerful exercise that fostered empathy.

A key takeaway was that most disabilities are not visible. Instead of making assumptions or applying labels to people who may have disabilities, it is better to be caring and curious. For example, it can be rude or hurtful to ask, “What happened to you? Do you have (condition XYZ)?” These kinds of questions are especially harmful in cases when they force someone to explain or relive a trauma they encountered. By contrast, our presenters explained that it is preferable to ask questions like, “How has it been navigating accessibility issues?” and “What could I do to support you right now?”

We reflected on the fact that all of us face challenges of some type at some point. We all know people who benefit from our kind and patient support. The students discussed how our society is better and stronger as a whole when we make an effort to be sensitive to peoples’ feelings and be alert to ways we can be allies to people who have disabilities.

This experience also meaningfully extended the learning we have been doing in Science around the five senses—building appreciation for the nuanced work our other senses can do to compensate when one sense is impacted.

It was inspiring today to see and hear of examples of people with courage and creativity who are adapting to their challenges and complex surroundings.

Hello, division 4 families!

In Math today, we practiced determining and creating function rules for “input-output” tables (using adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing). Please note that we will have a quiz on this content and other patterning concepts on Thursday, October 20th. We are doing lots of review in class, and students are encouraged to take their Math duo-tangs home to practice questions and share their learning with their families.

Today in Art, we continued yesterday’s lesson on pencil drawing techniques—this time with the goal to create realistic animal fur, feathers, scales, and skin (specifically leopard fur).

In Language Arts, we went deeper into how to identify and create a topic sentence. We watched a few demonstration videos about this as well.

The students were challenged to transform examples of sentence fragments into creative topic sentences that had proper capitalization, grammar and punctuation.

We also learned about Venn Diagrams, which are helping in showing logical relationships. We worked with multiple examples of both two-ringed and three-ringed diagrams.

Hello, division 4 families!

Today in Language Arts, we picked up where we left off last week in assessing samples of expository writing on a Halloween theme. We also added to our “Halloween Word Wall”, and introduced the difference between a “hook” and a “topic sentence”. Then students began to compose their own Halloween-themed (or other holiday-themed) paragraphs.

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Last week, I gave small groups of students the following four writing samples to read, think about, and discuss. I said, “Imagine you are a teacher and your students wrote these pieces. What do you notice about these samples of writing? What is working well, and what could be improved? What feedback would you offer to the authors of these writing samples?”

After rich peer-to-peer discussion, I joined in to help the students highlight some key differences between the pieces of writing.

Then, I introduced an Expository Writing Rubric and modelled how to use it to assess the features of each piece. We discussed the features of writing on the continuum through EMERGING, DEVELOPING, PROFICIENT, and EXTENDING.

The purpose of this lesson was to set clear criteria and goals for our writing. It’s valuable when a student can be empowered to “think like an editor” and take specific steps to proofread and enhance their written expression.

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Next we drilled deeper down with a lesson on how to write a topic sentence. We discussed the purpose of a topic sentence as being to “highlight the main idea of a paragraph or essay, letting the reader know what the writing will be about.” The students wrote and shared their own examples.

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In Math, we continued with creating patterns and naming pattern rules. As well, we started reviewing multiplication facts. The students are going to be doing these little self-study packs for extra practice in class, and I will send some home next week.

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In Art class today, I taught students a technique for creating their own “smudgers” with torn paper. A smudger helps create soft edges and variation in tonal value when working in pencil. Connecting to our “five senses” learning, we spoke about the features and geometry of human eye. I modelled an example of how to draw a single eye, and invited students to try drawing their own.

Hello, families of division 4!

We started this week with a spelling diagnostic, which will help inform the focus our spelling program this year. The assessment had 106 standard words and a few extras I added from our recent units of study. We spread the assessment out over two blocks, and I involved students in marking and correcting their own work; so they could benefit from the learning experience and hear me talk through the nuances and rationales for various spelling rules. You can hear how the diagnostic sounds here: https://youtu.be/QYjGbehSmNA.

We have already been doing spelling lessons in the context of our cross-curricular studies (especially with our “Word Wall” vocabulary lists, which we used for our poetry writing). However, we will launch a regular weekly spelling program near the end of the month, and I will post our spelling lists on this blog.

In Math, we explored multiplication using arrays, which led to playing with fun manipulatives to help us understand fact families.

Here is a video we watched in class that students can review about arrays:

In Math, we are now also looking at identifying and creating one- and two-step number patterns with various operations. This kind of numerical sleuthing (“find the missing number”) is wonderful mental math practice and good for fostering a mathematician’s mindset. It can feel like fun detective work for students; and it becomes creative as students create and test the workability of their own pattern rules with increasing complexity. Please see the white board photos and example of worksheet questions below.

In Social Studies, students learned about the daring explorations of Earnest Shackleton through the story, “Ice Trap”—which inspired a rich “Career Ed.” discussion of the most important qualities of a leader with our guest teacher, Mr. Russell.

In Language Arts, students have continued with their independent reading, and explorations of “five senses” writing, poetic forms and conventions of writing. Now we turn to looking at expository writing, which is writing that exposes facts. Expository writing “explains and educates its readers, rather than entertaining or attempting to persuade them.”

Today students worked in groups to analyze and discuss the merits of various samples of Halloween-themes essays. The challenge was this: “Imagine you are a teacher and these are the Halloween essays your students hand in to you. How would you assess these pieces? What specific feedback and advice would you offer?”

Together we are creating a bulletin display board based around an assessment rubric that clarifies specific differences between expository writing at an emerging, developing, proficient, and extending level. I will post more on this next week.

We also enjoyed time with our Little Buddies again today! These connections are so special. I love seeing how students worked hard to help focus and teach the kindergarten students during their preferred play and learning tasks. Families, you would be so proud to see your caring kids in action! I’m happy to report that our grade 4/5 students growing in their confidence as leaders of the school.

Parent/Guardian-Teacher Conferences will happen on Wednesday, October 26th in person. I have now emailed you a link to the online appointment booking app. I strongly encourage families who are able to take advantage of the in person meeting on October 26th. This in person meeting is a chance to see and review a student’s portfolio, notebooks, and work bins—which is not possible over Zoom. Zoom or phone meetings will still be a possibility to accommodate families with extenuating circumstances.

Hello, division 4 families!

Tangy! Sour! Sweet! This week we enjoyed testing and reflecting upon our five senses with a Language Arts and Science inquiry starring lemons.

The students continue to practice creating mind maps as a way to collect and organize their sensorial observations. As well, we worked together to model practical strategies for making that creative leap from data to poetry.

Another science class component was practicing safe and hygienic handling of materials. Students took turns “dissecting” the lemon with a butter knife, using proper technique. New vocabulary we learned included pith, pulp, citrus, acidic, and membrane.

As you can read below, our young writers continue to apply their poetic skills and literary devices to make lovely poems.

It’s a joy to see the grade 4s and 5s teaching, inspiring, and taking good care of their kindergarten buddies. This leadership experience for our students stems from goals in the “Career Ed.” curriculum, and it helps to strengthen bonds across the school, inspire students to bring out the best of themselves, and role model skills and positive behaviours.

Here are some photos of the hands-on, collaborative arts and sciences activities they shared today including building a marble run, KEVA plank engineering, drawing, Megablocks constructions, toy vehicles, Lego, Story Studio (loose parts play), reading, and more.

Hello division 4 families,

Today we began to put together our portfolios of our best work. It is amazing how much we have accomplished together already! As well, the grade 5s enjoyed a presentation by our new Strings teacher.

In Math, we have been reviewing the concepts of place value, telling time, and math facts (+, -, x, and ÷). A fun way we have been practicing multiplication facts is with Multiplication Bingo!

I have requested students bring their math duo-tangs home to review in preparation for the quiz we will have this Friday as a formative assessment. Students who need extra time and supports will be accommodated, and all students will be challenged in ways that are appropriate for their learning needs. We spend a lot of time in the minutes and days in advance of any quiz discussing mindset and strategies for success. Students are aware that they can demonstrate their learning in many ways beyond testing, especially through in class participation.

After any quiz, students are always welcome to (1.) do their quiz corrections, (2.) get more teaching support at school and at home, and then (3.) do a quiz rewrite. Alternatively, students may also demonstrate their math understanding in one-to-one “math meetings” with me instead of doing a quiz rewrite.

In Language Arts today, we focussed on finishing our “Five Senses Autumn Poems” and “Rock Garden Poems”.

As well, we reviewed “end marks” (punctuation at the ends of sentences), and we went deeper with the rules of capitalization. The video below provides an overview.

For extra practice, you could ask your child to correct the following sentences* to add capitals and end marks:

i would love to go to paris, france

we live in victoria, british columbia

“joanne, can you please tell mom i want her to pick me up at oaklands elementary today”

did you see kathy and marco at hillside mall yesterday

watch out for the falling rocks

*See the bottom of yesterday’s blog post about “Bubble Science” for the answers.

Hello, division 2 families!

Exploring the world as scientists is so much fun! We are learning more about the scientific method and how to collect data we perceive through our five senses. Here are some highlights from our ongoing “Bubbles Inquiry”.

We began our learning with a group brainstorm of what we already know about bubbles. Then students jotted down all of the bubble-related questions they could conjure.

Next, we explored some text about bubbles and learned new vocabulary, and then we watched a Science World video about fun bubble tricks and special moves.

We discussed the movement of the molecules in bubbles and compared soap bubbles versus air bubbles. Key words we learned were: film, surface tension, water vapour, globules, hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and hygroscopic.

Then came the time to make and test our own bubble solution*. It was one part water (approx. 1.5 tablespoons) with a 1/2 teaspoon of glycerin. Students mixed their solutions and made bubble wands of various sizes with pipe cleaners. We discussed the importance of safe practices in science class. (I did need to mention, “Please don’t eat the bubbles.”)

*A solution is a liquid mixture in which the minor component (the solute) is uniformly distributed within the major component (the solvent).

It was valuable to experiment to see how important the proper ratio of ingredients is to ensure big bouncy bubbles. Students often came back asking for more soap if they discovered they used too much water.

Students noticed that trying to blow bubbles into the wind was hopeless as they popped immediately. Yet, blowing bubbles in the direction the wind was blowing was way easier and lent lift to the bubbles— which helped them soared up several stories high.

We also marvelled at the swirling rainbows of light reflected off of the bubbles.

It was interesting to observe all the blobby shapes bubbles would contort into in the initial blowing up phase. Yet the bubbles always become spheres eventually.

We will continue exploring the science behind bubbles this week—check back on Friday night for more photos of student artwork and updates!

Answers to Oct. 5th Extra Practice Sentences:

I would love to go to Paris, France.

We live in Victoria, British Columbia.

“Joanne, can you please tell Mom I want her to pick me up at Oaklands Elementary today?”

Did you see Kathy and Marco at Hillside Mall yesterday?

Watch out for the falling rocks!

Hello, division 4 families.

This week in a Social Studies, Language Arts, and Art, we have been learning about the history and meaning behind “Orange Shirt Day” through stories, videos, and dialogue. We are exploring the question: What does reconciliation mean to you?

The students created individual orange shirt artworks and contributed to a collaborative artwork. Below you can see information and links to the videos we watched in class…

What is Orange Shirt Day? “Since 2013, September 30th has been known by many as Orange Shirt Day. This is an event that grew from Phyllis Webstad, from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation, sharing her story of having her new school clothes – including a very special shiny orange shirt – taken from her at the age of six when she arrived at St. Joseph Mission residential school. Her story created an opportunity for discussion of the residential school legacy. The combination of Orange Shirt Day with the new National Day for Truth and Reconciliation allows Canadians to show their acknowledgement of the legacy of the residential school program by wearing orange shirts and purposely engaging in the Calls to Action identified in the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.”

In Language Arts, we have been analyzing sentences and sentence fragments, and we played a “thumbs up, thumbs down” game to reinforce and show our learning. We also had fun with the challenge to transform boring sentence fragments in creative sentences. We reviewed that sentences should are made up of a subject and predicate and that they always begin with a capital letter and end in a punctuation mark (period, question mark, or exclamation point). I announced the expectation that students should try to always write in complete sentences with appropriate capitalization and end punctuation—except when taking creative license in writing poetry. We will work on this goal all year.

https://youtu.be/2UAUweZHOUA

In math, this week I introduced the idea of creating and sharing “Math Stories” using fun toys and math manipulatives. Math stories can be simple word problems brought to life with props, but with creativity they can evolve in complexity and have more interesting narratives with classic story features. Math stories are a fun way for us to deepen and enrich our math learning, develop our math vocabulary and oral language skills, and make more real world math connections. There will be more information on this to come.

As well today was our first day of meeting our Buddy Class. Each student was paired with a kindergarten student to mentor. Today the big buddies read aloud in the school’s courtyard garden from books that their little buddies chose, and then they played games. They all did a great job building new connections. It was heart-warming to see how happy the little buddies were to be treated with such kindness by the leaders in division 4. The purpose of having a buddy class is to offer a valuable act of service to younger students while providing new opportunities to practice leadership skills and collaboratively engage with curriculum in fresh ways. As we explore different activities with our buddy class, we will cover many curricular goals, especially in the areas of Language Arts, Science, Career Education, Art, and ADST.

Below are some questions and discussion topics you might want to explore…

• Tell me about your experience meeting your little buddy.
• What is the meaning of “Orange Shirt Day”?
• What is the difference between a sentence and a sentence fragment? Which of the following are sentences?
  • Let’s go to the store.
  • The big angry, hairy bear.
  • On the top of the refrigerator
  • Cheese tastes delicious!
  • Do you like going to the beach?
  • I exist.