Hi parents of Division 2, 
​
We sent home Scholastic orders yesterday and they are due back on Thursday, October 5th in the morning. We will be sending home orders at the beginning of every month, so be sure to look out for them.

For those of you wanting to place an order this month (or in the future), there is a way to pay online! The instructions to set up your online payment Scholastic account are below. Thanks for supporting our Book Club! Our class receives extra funds to buy supplies every time you make a purchase :)

​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

You may have heard your child talking about a new project we're doing at school, Genius Hour. So what is it? And what role do you play as parents in this project? Read on to find out more! 

About Genius Hour

Genius Hour gives students an hour each week on Wednesday afternoons to learn about a topic that they are passionate or curious about. Over the past weeks, our class has had to brainstorm their ideas, ask questions about how their project could be made possible, and even write a formal project proposal for me! Each project idea was thought of and designed by the student, [will be] approved by the teacher, and must be based upon each students' own individual or small group research. 

Throughout the project, I will be holding student-teacher conferences to challenge students to sequence and build their projects in meaningful ways, and to perhaps to throw a wrench in the plan. Writing a book? Well, you might want to know about what a manuscript is. Trying to make a stop-motion video? Perhaps you need to watch some tutorials on creating cool effects and making it look realistic. No matter the project, I try to find ways to push student thinking in our Genius Hour conferences.

Several students are building projects (Lego worlds or objects, stop-motion animation props, robots, etc.), whereas others are creating theirs digitally (making websites, filming stop-motion animation, learning to code, creating an eBook, etc.). Please discuss your child's topic with them and what they would like to accomplish by the end of the year. Their work will be found in their Google Drive folders once we begin this week. (It's not there yet, but will be soon! You can find their log-in for their account on the front page of their agendas.) 

Genius Hour Sharing and Assessment

Students will have an opportunity to share their findings from their topics and central questions at the end of the term.  The final presentation to the class will take place in the middle of June. While that might still seem very far away, it's actually time to start considering what we need to accomplish before then!

Please note that this project is oriented on the documentation of the student's progress and their thinking along the way, not the final product! In many cases, students won't actually be able to accomplish their final goals by June, but should be able to document their learning by taking pictures and writing about their findings. This means they will be carrying an iPad around to take pictures during every Genius Hour class. If you're doing any work on the project at home, please take pictures!!! These images can be used for student presentations at the end of the term. 

In short, I will be assessing: 

• ​their project proposals (due Tuesday)
• ​their questions and research quality and how they deal with obstacles
• their documentation of their project
• their presentation

Final presentations in June must have a digital component involved so that it can be shared on student blogs. Students are allowed to use any presentation or video software they like to present their learning journey. In class, we will be discussing which presentation tools will most effectively demonstrate their learning and I will guide them to one that will work best for them. Chances are that no matter which tool they end up selecting, there will need to be a lot of photo documentation of their project as possible, so, again, please take lots of photos if they are working on this at home!

Thanks, as always, for all of your support. Our class is so excited about this project and those who have their proposals approved already will be starting on Wednesday. If your child wants to work on their proposal at home this weekend, they can do so by logging into their account on Google Classroom. Please let me know if you have any questions at all. 

Thanks,
Mrs. LS

Each week, the Eduminions practice and learn about math in many different ways. We play games, we do whole-class lessons and small group lessons, we complete challenges, and we practice our math skills on IXL. 

IXL is a math application that can be used both here at school and at home. It can be used on a regular desktop computer or laptop and on tablet devices. Below, I will review how it works for the iPad, but this process is generally transferable to all devices. Click here for the iPad app and click here for the Android app (both are free to you - but the school pays for a subscription for your child). To access their website, click here. 

One thing to note is that this is a supplementary app for practice. In no way does it replace the in-classroom mathematics experiences such as working with manipulatives (blocks, cubes, etc), playing games, and solving problems. However, it does help reinforce the concepts we cover. The app is “smart” in that it tailors upcoming questions based on the accuracy of the student. If the student is doing well, it will ramp up the difficulty level; if not, it will simplify the skill again. 

To start, open the app and have your child log-in:

Hello Parents of Division 5, 

Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope that you had an opportunity to spend some quality time with your families! I enjoyed my first week off, finishing up some Masters assignments and attending the CUE Conference in California. The second week brought me the flu, which definitely wasn't as fun, but at least I didn't have to miss any work! :) 

1) Our skating field trips continue tomorrow and we will be leaving by 8:45 AM for the rink. The remaining dates are: 

• Monday, April 13
• Monday, April 20

Please send your child with the following items on those dates:

• skates (or $3.50 for skate rental; child MUST know their skate size)
• a helmet and gloves (they CANNOT skate without these)
• warm clothing (jacket, FULL socks [not ankle socks])
• their car booster seat, if still required

Parent drivers, here is the complete schedule for you to view. Please let me know ASAP if your schedule changes and you are unable to drive! Thanks in advance for this. 

2) Ms. Ledlin, our student teacher will be joining us full-time after the break until June 5th. She will gradually assume more teaching duties over that time under the supervision of myself, Mrs. Nichols, and Mr. Oliver. We are very excited to have her learn along with us this term - please welcome her if you have a chance!

3)  I would also like to welcome a new family to our classroom, the Schroeders. The students are very excited to have their daughter, Robyn, in the world of the EduMinions - be sure to say hello to them if you see them, too! 

4) Just a note that class and team photos are on TUESDAY, March 31.

I think that's all we have to cover for the week for now. I'm sure there will be more but we will let you know as we know. :) You can also check our class calendar for more information about school and class events, too. As always, be sure to fire me an email if you have any questions or concerns before tomorrow.

Welcome back! 

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!

Friendly reminder to the Parents of Division 5 from our PAC:

Only  two more weeks to donate an item or $$ for the SPA! Gift basket. Drop your donation in the pink Donation Box just inside classroom door.

For money donations please email: rodandfranny@shaw.ca or krista@vitous.me.