Don't be late! We are the first group performing right at 2:00pm!

We are slowly reaching the end of January, so I felt it was time for an update on the goings on of Division 11. Here is a subject by subject break down:

In Language Arts, we have been busy creating our Poetry Anthologies and working on our individual novel study assignments. We are currently about halfway through both projects and hope to finish up before Spring Break. Our Spelling and Grammar lessons continue to progress nicely and improvement is starting to be shown more in our daily writing.

In Math, we are a few weeks into practicing our multiplication and division facts. By the end of grade 4, we hope to have all skills up to our 10 times table questions mastered. We will be using these valuable skills to learn to multiply and divide with larger numbers later this year, so the quicker we are, the better!

In Social Studies we are taking a break from Canadian History to focus on learning a bit more about our Canadian Government. We have had some good discussions and are learning about the different roles and responsibilities of different levels of government in Canada.

In Mr. D's Science class I know the students are presently busy learning about Forces and Simple Machines after completing a lengthy Biology based unit on Habitats.

In P.E. we are currently taking a break from our basketball unit to learn some dance. It seems to be most closely related to jazz dancing, with the class learning a rotuine to the song "Happy" by Pharrell along with Ms. Lam's and Ms. Weatherall's classes. We will resume basketball after dance is done at the end of this week before moving on to start a unit on badminton.

In Health and Career we have currently been focusing on Tobacco Facts and the dangers associated with Tobacco use. I have been both surprised and impressed with how seriously and intelligently the class has participated in our discussions on this serious topic.

In Fine Arts, our visual component is being completed partially in our Poetry Anthologies, but we have also completed some pattern art in the shape of a heart for Valentine's Day that we currently have displayed outside the classroom. The music component has now shifted to recorders, with students busily practicing to earn various "belts" for their recorders to highlight their current level of progress.

For those participating, we will be starting the FSA testing this week. There are a total of 6 tests (2 Math, 2 Reading, 2 Writing) that we will be completng over the course of the next couple of weeks. If students have a calculator/dictionary/thesaurus/electronic spell-checker at home, they are welcome to bring them to use during the FSA. If not, I will provide what I have available for the group to share.

After January, we will essentially have 5 more months to go - the traditional halfway point for the year!

Scary...

The title says it all! I do wish you a happy new year, but I do know that tomorrow (I am writing this on Saturday night) is your last day of freedom before we get back to work! Term two will be fun and busy and I look forward to seeing you all and hearing about your breaks. I won't write too much this time, but I do want to leave you with some New Year's advice from one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman, He wrote books/movies like Coraline and Stardust (among others for children), as well as many adult books, TV episodes, comic books and a whole graphic novel series. In 2011, he gave this advice about a new year, and it is still my favourite:


I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.




I'm ready to make some new mistakes and to have some fun! I'll see you all on Monday!