Week #4 Sept. 28 - Oct. 2

Dear Families,

Happy October everyone!!  Fall is such a beautiful time of year and we're so fortunate to live in a community that is surrounded with nature so we can admire the changing colours of beautiful reds, oranges, and yellow!  I absolutely love going on hikes on the many trails that Collingwood has to offer and this is exactly what I plan on continuing to do over the weekend as well!  Perhaps you will too :-)

Character Recognition:

September's character trait was Caring – “We show kindness towards each other.”  

Unfortunately, we are unable to hold school wide assemblies at this time for character recognition.  Please know,  I will take time each month to share and honour our class' recipients on this blog. 

I strongly believe an important part of our learning is to build and instill character in our children.  As a teacher, I will continue to do my best to model these traits consistently in my thoughts, words, and actions as well.

Congratulations to RYKER and CARTER for demonstrating caring all day every day!!  You are both models for 'showing kindness towards your peers and teachers!'  Thank you for setting a positive example in and out of our classroom community!  I am so proud of you both!  

Next month’s character trait is -->

Check out the brief video posted below to get your mind and heart thinking of ways YOU can incorporate cooperation in your life!

Terry Fox Run:
We had a fantastic afternoon on Wednesday to honour our CANADIAN HERO Terry Fox!  Thank you to ALL the staff and students who showed school spirit and wore their Canada gear and Terry Fox t-shirts to show your love and support!  It brought such joy to my heart seeing everyone demonstrating their Canadian pride.

    

Can you believe it's been 40 years of the Marathon of Hope!!  What a remarkable achievement for ALL CANADIANS and people around the world who take the time and energy to do their part by donating to cancer research.

Here at Byng, it was delightful to see staff and students participating and doing our part in keeping Terry's Dream Alive! I was touched seeing everyone run, walk, and jog in support of loved ones and our beloved Terry Fox.  

Thank you to ALL the students and their families for your generous donations!  So far, our school has raised over $1, 200.00 for the Foundation. Amazing!!  If you didn't get an opportunity to donate yet, you still have time!!  Check out the link that I posted in last week's post :)

Together we can all make a difference and help find a cure through raising money for Cancer Research. Unfortunately, more often than not, many of us have been affected by this terrible illness through knowing family members and friends who have fought or are still fighting cancer.  

Let us all remain HOPEFUL and COURAGEOUS that one day there will be a cure as this is what Terry Fox would want ... never STOP BELIEVING!!  I give my thoughts, prayers, and well wishes to all those who have been affected.  

Language:

In Language, we are learning to build upon our reading and writing skills.  This week, students completed a writing piece (see blank template below) about Terry Fox's courageous 'Marathon of Hope' which raises awareness about the importance of cancer research.  

Please watch the video below which helped inspire the many writers in our class to record meaningful facts from Terry's journey to help raise funds for cancer research!

Afterwards, I provided some guiding questions to help get them started: 

Who is Terry Fox?

Why is he considered a Canadian Hero?

Why do we have the Terry Fox run annually?”

Who are you running for this year?

What has Terry Fox taught you?

I had the joy of reading student's completed entries and I am so proud of their thoughts and words!!  

Over the weekend, ask your child to summarize / highlight some of the important parts of Terry Fox’s powerful journey and the writing task he or she worked on in class.  There were some students who used the reading comprehension strategy ‘Making Connections’ to connect their life experiences to Terry Fox.  

It was amazing to hear students' moving experiences and how Terry has positively impacted their life.  These completed pieces will be coming home soon for you to admire and celebrate!!  

Brooklyn:

Thank you Brooklyn for yet again sharing a book from home that relates to what we're learning in class!  We were able to learn so much more about the life and legacy of Terry Fox from this read aloud.  It's a fantastic non-fiction text which honours our HERO!  Your contributions to our class family are valued!!

Kahoot:

Did your child come home this week and share with you about a fun, friendly, and interactive gameshow that we played in class!?  If not, I'll explain the premise of this popular program.  

Kahoot is a game-based learning platform used for educational purposes.  Its learning games AKA "Kahoots" are a series of multiple choice questions based on various topics that I'm teaching in class. 

For example, this week's Kahoots focused on:  Terry Fox, Orange Shirt Day, and Representing Numbers (rounding to the nearest 10 and 100).    

During our Kahoot sessions, it gives me the teacher an opportunity to review students' knowledge and understanding (formative assessment) in areas that I've taught.  This also gives me great insight into how I can further support / challenge students in need :) 

Orange Shirt Day:

Thank you to all students and staff who wore an orange shirt this week to remember and honour First Nations, Metis, and Inuit children who attended residential schools from the 1870's - 1990's.  These were government-sponsored religious schools established to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture.  

Over the past two weeks, we have done a lot of thinking about this experience and I am happy to share that my students have demonstrated such empathy (thinking about the feelings of others) towards all First Nations, Inuit, and Metis men and women who attended residential schools.  This truly demonstrates character and I'm so proud of my students.  

Check out some of the kids holding their dream catchers that they made in art class to help honour the Indigenous people.  They turned out well :)

Reading:

Throughout the week, I've been sharing some stories by Indigenous authors about First Nations and Indigenous children's experiences at residential schools.  When I've been sharing these books, students are fully engaged, attentive, and truly expressed their empathy as they think about the feelings of all the Indigenous boys and girls affected by attending residential schools.  I am so moved by their questions, responses and how grateful we are to be in a school that is safe and fosters equality and love.

Writing:

After listening to the stories, we worked on using a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the similarities and differences of a child's experience as a Nottawa student vs.  An Indigenous student at a residential school.  This was a very powerful exercise as students were making meaningful connections.

  

After this lesson, I provided students with an orange shirt template (see pictures below) and we thought about various adjectives that described how Indigenous children felt attending residential school.  Once this was done, students also wrote a personal message to an Indigenous child.  Check out two examples below!  You will have the opportunity to see these in person when I send them home.  For now, we're continuing to work on this activity and celebrate our messages.

Please ask your child, what some of his or her ideas were!  We're really enjoying learning about our Indigenous people and the history of Canada!  This will be an ongoing discussion in our class :)

Math:

On Tuesday, I sent home a math note with the specific expectations that I will be teaching in Number Sense & Numeration.  Below, you will find the specific expectations.  

Specific Expectations:

• read, represent, compose, and decompose whole numbers up to and including 1000
• describe ways numbers are used in everyday life
• compare and order whole numbers 0 - 1,000
• round whole numbers to the nearest 10 or 100
• count to 1000, including by 50s, 100s, and 200s using a variety of tools and strategies
• use place value when describing and representing multi digit numbers using base ten materials

Below, you will find my math lesson, anchor chart, and what the students worked on this week (their tasks).  Take some time over the weekend to ask your child about what he or she learned about representing numbers in a variety of ways!  Go over the sheets that came home :)

Choose a number between 10 and 1,000 and have your child represent this number in different ways!

Rounding to the Nearest 10 and 100:

This week, we also focused on rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100.  It can be a tricky concept, but we're getting the hang of it!  See questions below of what students worked on in class.  You will have noticed that I provided 2 versions to meet the varying needs of my students.

For additional practice, please provide your child with the following numbers and ask them to round them to the nearest 10 and 100!  As a refresher, watch the video we saw in class before you get started!  See how your child does :)  

Numbers:  68, 473, and 1, 642.  

Brooklyn:

Congratulations to Brooklyn for having her Remembrance Day art poster recognized!  Her piece is featured on a poster that will be displayed at all our area schools.  A fabulous achievement and something we're all so proud of!!  Way to go!!

Ryan:

Thank you Ryan for bringing in some seeds for science with Mrs. Johnson.  We are so proud of you for connecting your school learning and sharing it at home too!  It's really helped get us MORE excited about our unit on Plants!!  Your leadership in this area of learning is valued!!

Mindfulness:

A brief look into a residential school survivor sharing his story.  We cannot change the past, but we can help create a brighter future.  ALL children and adults matter.  No one should be treated unfairly or unjustly.  Let's move forward in the spirit of RECONCILIATION & RESPECT!!

Growth Mindset:

Miigwetch,

Miss Gill