​Hello parents & guardians,

Welcome to our class blog and website! Please bookmark this page as it will be a valuable communication tool throughout this year. We will be posting everything from classroom happenings to weekly reminders and so much more!

My goal is to safely integrate digital communications tools to make the home-school relationship as seamless as possible. Students will be learning to use tools effectively and appropriately with mindful digital citizenship at the forefront of their learning.

We will be using several web-based learning options other than this site in our class this year. Not savvy with digital tools? Not to worry! On the class blog, I will be posting some "how-to" videos and informational articles on what you need to do to stay connected with our class! 

Until then, there are several ways to communicate and connect with our class. Feel free to click the social media buttons at the top of this page to explore our EduMinions social media profiles and pages.

After following or liking our various social media accounts, it would be very helpful for you to fill out this short survey about your child. It will help me to get to know them better and get us off to a great start to the school year!

If you're looking for our first newsletter that came home, it can be found below.
​
I am looking forward to connecting, working, and learning with each of you!
-Mrs. LS

At West Langley, we are fortunate to be able to learn about Aboriginal culture and artifacts by having guest speakers come in to teach us about them. Mrs. Gabriel, a local Aboriginal elder, was in our classroom a couple of weeks ago to show us all about the tools of the Sto:lo peoples and will be returning on Thursday December 11th in the afternoon to do a follow-up lesson. 

In the next session with Mrs. Gabriel, we will be creating our own Aboriginal artifacts out of regular household products. But we need your help!

Tonight, if you could rummage through your recycling, we are looking for as many of the following products as we can get our hands on. Please send them to school with your child by Thursday:

• empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls
• pop bottles (plastic, empty, washed, 2L or 591 mL)
• yogurt containers (empty, washed)
• milk jugs (empty, washed, 2L or 4L)
• ruler-sized pieces of wood or straight sticks (30 cm or so)
• cardboard (from either sturdy boxes or cereal boxes)
• string or yarn
• dry scrap newspaper 

Whatever you can pass along to us would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! 
-Ms. Olson

Thank you to everyone for an amazing first week. I am really enjoying getting to know your children and working with them to establish initial assessments after a long three months off. 

But now comes the homework! You will find that I use a myriad of communications in our class to stay connected with parents including a Remind account. Remind is a one-way text messaging service which the kids will be using to send you SMS updates on class events, work due back, or notices to be returned. There will only ever be 1-2 updates per week, so we don't flood your phone with notifications.

The instructions are below to sign up. This is "parent homework" so that you stay connected to what is going on in our class. Parents from last year, this is a new group, so you will need to subscribe to this new class code. 

If you missed connecting with any of our other class social media or class blogs:
Twitter - Follow us @EduMinions
Facebook - Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/eduminions
Our Class Blog - EduMinions.com

Hope to see many of you on my Remind list when we are back on Monday! I will be having the students send their first Remind notification parents that afternoon. I know they will be really excited when you receive our text reminders. Have a great weekend!
-Ms. Olson

EDIT: There was an error on the PINK INTRODUCTION NOTICE that was sent home from me today regarding funds that need to be submitted re: primary school supplies, agendas, and earthquake funds. Mrs. Swerdan made them into a lump sum this year and I mistakenly thought they were all still separate costs. Here are the totals that need to be submitted for each grade:
GRADE 3 - $52.00
GRADE 4 - $14.50
Cheques can be made payable to West Langley Elementary School.
Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience!!! :) 

Hello parents & guardians,

Welcome to our class blog and website! Please bookmark this page as it will be a valuable communication tool throughout this year. I will be posting everything from classroom happenings to weekly reminders and so much more!

My goal is to safely integrate digital communications tools to make the home-school relationship as seamless as possible. Students will be learning to use tools effectively and appropriately with mindful digital citizenship at the forefront of their learning.

We will be using several web-based learning options other than this site in our class this year. Not savvy with digital tools? Not to worry! On the class blog, I will be posting some "how-to" videos and informational articles on what you need to do to stay connected with our class! I am also planning to host some Digital Parent Nights, so stay tuned for dates and times. 

Until then, there are several ways to communicate and connect with our class. Feel free to click the social media buttons at the top of this page to explore our EduMinions profiles and pages (including a new EduMinions Facebook page!). 

Stay tuned for a full informational newsletter outlining information and routines for the school year.

I am looking forward to connecting, working, and learning with each of you!
-Ms. Olson

We have had a wonderful year of Genius Hour passion, engagement, and sharing! Our students were excited to share their project progress with the entire school as well as engage in other student's projects as we celebrated at our annual Inquiry Fair this Tuesday. But we're not finished with this project just yet!!!

As a part of their final assessments, students are required to complete a final presentation of the culmination of their project. The project does not require a completed final product, but evidence of the process must be visible in each student's/group's presentation. In other words, they should be able to show some of the phases of learning that they experienced throughout the time we've spent on Genius Hour. 

By this point, students will have likely chosen a digital medium in which their project will be shared. This can include any presentation, video, or visual software (many are using Google Presentations because it's embedded right in their Google Drive accounts, accessible both at home and at school). You can support your child by helping them to collect and organize photos and to create talking points for their final presentation. Even if your child built something, they need to teach us about their learning and how they got to their final destination!

Our celebratory class presentations will be taking place on Friday, June 6th. Parents will be invited to attend the presentations if they wish. More details will be released on timing soon!

It has been an amazing first week with Division 5! I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know your children and working with them on setting up our classroom community over the past week.  I'm very much looking forward to the Meet the Teacher BBQ on Wednesday, September 18th.  

Below are some friendly reminders for when we return on Monday:

1) $5 for kites -- if you haven't sent it already, please send $5 cash for our kite workshop which will take place on Monday

2) Class Digital Info form -- I sent home a form on Thursday outlining the digital tools we will be starting to use in our class. If you lost the form, it is attached on the right sidebar on our blog page. --->

3) Help Me Get To Know Your Child -- I would appreciate if you took the time to complete this short survey so that I can better get to know your child.  This will help us work together on similar outcomes throughout the school year. 

4) School Verification Form -- This form is a school-wide form due back as soon as possible. This helps Mrs. Swerdan keep up to date with contact information and media release information in the office.

5) Blue contact form -- Attached to the first newsletter I sent home, there is a contact info sheet to be filled out and returned. This is so that I can contact each parent and guardian with their preferred method of communication. If you misplaced this, it is also attached on the blog's sidebar. --->

Thank you for your assistance in helping us get organized for the school year. I know there is always a lot to do, but it certainly gets us on the ground running once it's all complete! Have a great weekend, EduMinions! We will see you on Monday.