This week in Division 3, February 24th to February 28th

What shapes our identity? The natural and digital worlds can both play a part, but at the centre is you. Be nice, always, and connect with those who are kind like you!

AND THIS WEEK LET'S CENTRE ON ACTS OF KINDNESS in honour of Pink Shirt Day.

Dates to note in February and March:

February 24 PAC Meeting in the Library (ALL parents are welcome and are a part of PAC)

Friday's in February and March - DARE Days

FEBRUARY 26th PINK SHIRT DAY 

February 25 and 27th Community Connections Career Afternoons

March 14th to March 29th SPRING BREAK

Funwork this week:

Community Connections: We will be meeting community members, learning about their job and what brings them joy.

Social Studies: First Nations' role model Jeff will be sharing Bannock and stories with our class on Monday. We will be asking Jeff to help us answer our inquiry question: How have natural resources shaped the identity of people in this community?

Language Arts/ Social and Personal Competencies: We will continue working on our Digital Citizenship unit. Students will be asked to reflect on their own media choices using guidelines set out by www.commonsense.org. We will be reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, another piece of historical fiction, to complement My Name is Parvana. These novels allow students to indirectly experience the lives of other children living very different realities. How does our environment shape our identity? 

Math: We are continuing to explore division of numbers to 100 and we are working with larger numbers using the partial quotient strategy. For those of us who learned division differently (Long Division or Bust), here is a video by Khan explaining how the system works. The partial quotient method makes students think about working with the full value of the number which cements number sense. Long Division is another method that is taught after students can show that they understand values into the 1000's.

Here is to a great week of learning and fun!

Your teachers,

Ms Bridal and Ms Powers

This week in Division 3, February 18th to 21st

What is digital citizenship?

Dates to note in February and March:

February 19th Tennis Anyone?
February 20th Mental Health Presentation for Grade 4/5 classes
February 24 PAC Meeting in the Library (ALL parents are welcome and are a part of PAC)
February 25 and 27th Community Connections Career Afternoons
March 14th to March 29th SPRING BREAK

Please share this gentle reminder with your kids: There seems to be some students who are unsure or forgetting about the rules around cell phones. So for clarity: students are not allowed to use cell phones at school. This rule also applies to Journey Middle School. If students bring cell phones to school, they need to be secured in a backpack. Lisa Stone, our front desk clerk, allows students to use our phones to call home, if and when needed. Thanks for your support.

Funwork this week:

Language Arts/ Health/Social Studies/ Social and Personal Competencies: We will be starting a Digital Citizenship unit this week. We will be using a variety of resources, but commonsense.org is a stand-out. Here is a link to it: https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship This site offers advice for both educators and parents teaching and raising kids in this complicated digital age. Here is a link to their media and app review page for parents: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/  The goal of this unit is to develop critical and reflective thinking skills around the use of the digital medium to prevent cyber bullying and to develop a positive sense of self.

Math: We are continuing to investigate division facts using arrays and real-life "sharing" problems (or opportunities, if you are the sharing type :-)

Art: Self Portrait and identity will be the theme as we explore who we are and who we want to be in real and digital spaces.

Assessments:

Math POPS have been posted to Freshgrade. If your child's is missing, it is because we are still in progress because of absences. We are hoping to have all of them up by the end of the week.

PE POPS will be up on Freshgrade by Wednesday as we couldn't make time for them last week. Check out the photos of our Tennis sessions to see the skills that your kids are developing in that workshop.

Here is to a great week in Division 3.

Your teachers,
Ms Bridal and Ms Powers

This week in Division 3, February 10th to 14th

Dates to remember:
February 10th - Victoria Field Trip (The Bug Zoo and the Victoria Film Festival) If you have not sent in permission, please email us stating that you approve of us taking your child via school bus to the Bug Zoo and the Victoria Film Festival. Thank you!

February 13th - PAC Run Red and White Dance in the Gym ***PAC is calling out for parent volunteers.
February 14th - Pro D Day No school for students/ teachers are learning
February 17th - Family Day Holiday
February 25th and 27th 1:00 to 2:45 pm Career Afternoons ( We are looking for people who would be willing to share what they do for a living, their passion in life, to inspire our students to think about their own strengths and interests; thank you to those of you who have already reached out)

Funwork this week:

Math: We will be looking at fractions using arrays as a jump off point. Arrays are visual way to show multiplication (counting by groups of numbers)  and they also can be used to show the relationship between fractions and division in a more concrete way. Ms Bridal went to a coding pro d in Nanaimo over the weekend and she is full of new coding activities to teach the kids.

Language Arts: We will continue to work on developing our proofreading and editing skills by reviewing grammar conventions. To practice, we will be writing summary paragraphs about our trip tomorrow. Readers Theatre groups are performing their scripts.

Science and Social Studies: We will be working on our inquiry question:

How have natural resources shaped and continue to shape the identity of British Columbia's communities (eg. Sooke) ?

Assessments this week (POP = Point of Progress):

Math POP - coding, patterns, multiples (multiplication)

Physical Education POP - movement and manipulation (Basketball); physical and mental health strategies

Here is to a great week of learning!

Your teachers,

Ms Bridal and Ms Powers

Welcome to February, Division 3

(We will ignore the fact that the artist didn't capitalize February!)
Dates to remember:

February 3rd to 6th - Book Fair
February 10th - Victoria Field Trip (The Bug Zoo and the Victoria Film Festival - permission form going home on Feb. 3rd)
February 13th - PAC Run Dance in the Gym ***Volunteers are needed
February 14th - Pro D Day No School
February 17th - Family Day Holiday
February 25th and 27th 1:00 to 2:45 pm Career Afternoons ( We are looking for people who would be willing to share what they do for a living, their passion in life, to inspire our students to think about their own strengths and interests; thank you to those of you who have already reached out)

Funwork:

Math - We will be looking at multiplication in terms of arrays and area models. Real world examples include looking at how arrays are represented in grocery stores.

Language Arts- We will be learning how to use proofreading symbols to peer edit; we will review capitalization and end punctuation grammar points before applying that knowledge to proofing peer writing. Students are continuing to work on their group reader's theatre productions.

Science/Social Studies - Students will continue to develop their understanding of natural resources in BC. We will be focusing on the mining industry this week (Does anyone gold pan in our classroom community?)

Here's to a great week of learning in Division 3.

Your Teachers, Ms Bridal and Ms Powers