Check out some photos from a successful fundraiser for the Canadian Red Cross Alberta Relief Fund, a trip to the Surrey Food Bank, Barbie Bungee to see linear relationships, dragon boating at False Creek, and so much more!
may 11 - 13, 2016
Camp Elphinstone in Gibsons, BC was a blast! Everything from the food to rock climbing to campfire to working together during skit in a bag was fantastic! A huge thank-you to the parents who fundraised so that the students could attend camp and to the staff at the YMCA for ensuring that everyone had a great time! Check out some photos below!
april 26th, 2016
Today we attended our third workshop and tour of the Vancouver Art Gallery. This time, we toured their MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture on the second floor of the gallery. Some of the works featured were by artists that we had studied in the classroom like Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Brian Jungen. Our highlight of the field trip was becoming Basquiat and Haring and drawing large scale murals with chalk, paint, and using magazines to create a mixed media representation of a strong message. We used similar techniques to Basquiat and Haring and put our own touches on our artwork. After the art gallery, we went to Harbour Green Park to check out F Grass, an art installation which is part of the Vancouver Bienniale Project. A huge thank-you to Colton's dad and Amber's grandma for accompanying us on the field trip!
march 30th, 2016
Wow, Division 3 has wasted no time getting back into learning after spring break! Today, we spent a full day on Mount Seymour courtesy of the Mount Seymour Ski and Snowboard Program. They provided the students in Division 3 with transportation to and from the school, a delicious hot lunch, 4 hours of instructional time with excellent teachers (who had the perfect balance between being fun and being encouraging... not to mention, extremely patient!), and amazing memories! The students could not have asked for a better day to try out a new sport! The weather was simply amazing! Throughout the day, they cheered each other on in their accomplishments and helped out whenever needed! Even though it might have been challenging at times, they persevered and in the end, their hard work paid off! By the end of the day, the students were successfully getting on and off the chair lifts and able to stop and turn on their own! This is definitely a field trip that they are going to remember! A huge thank-you to Amber's dad, Colton's dad, Chelcie's mom, Tyler, and Mrs. Cozza for spending the day with us! Also, thanks again to Mount Seymour for preparing this field trip and providing us with this opportunity! We cannot thank you enough!
march 29th, 2016
Surrey Centre's Liberal MP Mr. Randeep Sarai visited Division 3 to talk about his role in the government, how he balances his work with his family time, and answered some of our questions about political issues. Nick and Arshdeep greeted Mr. Sarai at the doors and welcomed him to Ecole Riverdale. Amber and Colton acted as the emcees for the event and introduced him to the class. Ahmer and Shareen led a question period where they asked questions about local and national issues that the class had generated. Finally, Emily thanked Mr. Sarai for spending his morning with us and taking the time to teach us about our government. What an informative day!
Be sure to ask a member of Division 3 about their experience meeting their MP! Was it getting him to do a special dance move? Was it learning about his thoughts on housing prices in the Lower Mainland? Or was it his thoughts on the voting system and possible alternatives? Ask and see what they say!
march 11th, 2016
Division 3 celebrated Pi Day a little early because it unfortunately falls over Spring Break! Pi Day takes place on March 14th every year which also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday! We made mini apple tarts where we had to half the recipe, we made our own pizza pies and made some calculations along the way (the diameter of the pizza base, the area of the tomato sauce, etc.), created a pi-scape (a pi landscape using the digits of pi), created our own pi raps, and so much more! What a fun day! A huge thank-you to Amber's Grandpa for volunteering his time and making so many trips back and forth from the oven to make sure our pizzas were just perfect!
march 7th, 2016
Division 3 visited Guildford Park Secondary School today to take part in a visual art lesson with Mr. Frampton's Grade 8 art class. They learned about working with clay and how to make pinch pots. What a wonderful experience! Thanks for being so patient, Grade 8 helpers and Mr. Frampton!
february 23rd, 2016
Division 3 visited the Surrey Law Courts today to bring our cross-curricular study of Social Studies and Fine Arts to a close. We participated in a lesson about the Canadian court system, court watching, and in a mock trial (Regina v. Madam Evilyn). Various students in the class played the role of the judge, defence counsel, crown counsel, jury, sheriff, witnesses, court clerk, and sketch artists. It was a very neat experience to see how court rooms look in real life as opposed to what it looks like in Hollywood. We were inspired by everyone that we met today who taught us about their jobs (the judge, sheriffs, and lawyers). Perhaps one day, you'll see a member of Division 3 working at Surrey Law Courts!
Again, a HUGE thank-you to Riya's mom, Colton's mom, Amber's grandma and grandpa, Chelcie's mom and grandma, and Mrs. B for driving us to and from the law courts and supervising!
Head to the video section to see clips from today's mock trial!
february 2-3RD, 2016
Water Polo with Surrey Orcas Water Polo Club was a huge success! Thanks to the Surrey Orcas Water Polo Club coaches for donating their time, our PAC, and Guildford Aquatic Centre for making this opportunity possible for us! Some of us were nervous at first but once we became comfortable in the water, we realized how much fun we were having while we were learning a new sport and working together as a team. And, what a workout it was! We think that we should swim for two hours every day. Most of us also realized how important it was to eat a healthy breakfast in the morning so that we had enough energy to sustain ourselves throughout the whole session.
january 26th, 2016
Division 3 has been playing around with Scratch and participating in an Hour of Code per week! Check out my Flappy Bear game!
january 18th, 2016
Here's a link to help you get ready for the big day!
january 14th, 2016
Thank-you to the Vancouver Art Gallery for another amazing day painting alongside Lawren Harris and Emily Carr. The docents, Christina and Barbara, took us through the gallery and pointed out the careful brushstrokes of the Group of Seven and other famous Canadian artists that helped create our national art identity. After the art gallery, the students ate lunch on the steps of the gallery, walked into Coal Harbour to visit Canada Place, and made a pit stop at the Steam Clock in Gastown. Lastly, a huge thank-you to Chelcie's mom, Amber's grandma, and Nick's Nana for coming with us on yet another wonderful field trip!
january 12th, 2016
Students participated in a science lab today! They dissected chicken wings today to take a closer look at the muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, blood veins, and nerves. They drew connections to how the human arm works.
december 18th, 2015
Check out some pictures from our tree decorating contest! Go to our classroom twitter account to see a picture of the winning tree!
december 14th, 2015
A huge thank-you to Ms. Cozza, Chelcie's mom, Amber's grandma, and Riya's grandma for helping us on this special Winter Day! Some of the stations included a Top Chef challenge where they had to go "grocery shopping" for 5 ingredients and create a healthy snack, a Ted Harrison art-making station where they used a special transferring process to get Crayola markers off of a vinyl sheet, a giving station where the students voted on who to lend money to through KIVA and a holiday singing station where the students had to take a traditional holiday tune and jazz it up! We sure have a lot of fun photos and videos to share!
Let it Go (Ms. Loh-Inspired)
Jingle Bells
Let it Go (Rap)
12 Days of Christmas
november 20th, 2015
Wow, Division 3 has had a wonderful week! We had Sylvie visit us from Science World to teach us about chemical reactions. She brought science goggles and all the scientific instruments that we needed to carry out the experiment.
We also filmed segments for our music video at Robin Park! Thanks to Amber's grandma and grandpa for joining us on your field trip! They got a glimpse of what goes into the making of a music video. The students were bundled up in their winter attire and got right into the festive spirit. You'll have to wait until our Winter Concert on December 10th to see the final video but for now, we'll leave you with a few behind the scenes pictures!
november 16th, 2015
A huge thank-you to Mariee from Translink for coming out to teach our class about traveling smart and the impact our choices on how we travel have on the environment and others. We even rapped about the new Compass card.
october 30th, 2015
Division 3 dressed up as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles today and demonstrated their outstanding community that they have built within the classroom. The students helped conceptualize our ideas for the door decorations and with the making of the costumes. Check out our photos!
october 28th, 2015
Pumpkin Day was a huge success today and we have many people to thank for that! Thank-you to Buy-Low Foods for donating a pumpkin to each student in Division 3. Thank-you to Chelcie's grandma, Blayne's mom, Jessica's aunt, Colton's mom and little brother, Ms. Cozza, Mrs. Ramirez, Mrs. Blandford, and Mrs. Summers for helping us out at the six stations!
Here's a break down of the day:
Pumpkinumeracy: We estimated the height, weight, circumference, and seed count and then found out how close we actually were! Tom Thomson Tragedy: We looked at primary and secondary sources to try and solve the cold case of how the famous artist died. Pumpkin Time Bomb: We conducted a science experiment to see what would happen when we placed elastic bands around a pumpkin. Thanks for the idea, Jimmy Fallon! Watercolour Pumpkins: We used watercolours to paint pumpkins. Harris Burdick Mysteries: We started to create our own mysteries using a picture as a prompt. Iron Chef "Spooky Graveyard" Challenge: We were given a brownie base and had to create our own "spooky graveyard" scene and creatively incorporate a surprise ingredient. The surprise ingredients were persimmons, pomegranates, and ramen noodles.
I attended the BCAMT Northwest Math Conference for professional development in Whistler and it was an outstanding weekend of inspiring talks on interactive tasks to help students explain their thinking. Upon returning from the conference, we used Andrew Stadel's idea of a clothesline in the classroom where students were asked to place decimals, percents, and fractions around the classroom on an open-ended number line. Students were first given 0, 100, 75, 75%, 2/4 to place around the room and then were asked to put 500 up on their number line Then, they had to think about where 75% would move to (left? right?) and so on. Nick and Nathan soon discovered that if you found 10% of a number, you could easily find 20% by doubling the value of 10% or 5% by dividing the value of 10%. Wow! Check out our twitter feed for a video of this!
october 16th, 2015
Thank-you to Division 3 for organizing the polling station for Student Vote in Room 6. M Mountali, Mme Sauder, Mme Maharaj, Mr. Loosemore, and our class exercised our civic duty in the 2015 Federal Election. We talked about difference between having a right to vote and having a responsibility to vote, researched the party platforms, and watched the Globe and Mail Leaders Debate. We were ready to make an informed vote on October 16th in the Student Vote. We even created political comics and ads to convince other students in the school to vote for our preferred party. Check out the results from the province below.
october 7th, 2015
A huge thank-you to the Vancouver Art Gallery for hosting us this morning! What a wonderful way to spend a rainy Wednesday morning. The docents were very knowledgeable while guiding us through The Gund Exhibition. We learned about the strong lines as well as the use of ovoids and other shapes in Northwest Coast First Nations art. A few days leading up to our visit, we started trying to identify animals in First Nations art on paper and we had even more fun seeing the original art pieces. Another big shout out to Colton's mom and Amber's grandma for spending the entire day with us! Last but not least, thanks to Translink for promoting healthy living and the use of public transportation with Free Transit Week!
For now, check out our reflections on the day here!
september 24, 2015
Division 3 collaborated on our first art piece inspired by A. Y. Jackson's Nellie Lake. We learned about bold colours and how the Group of Seven were inspired by Canada's wonderful landscapes. Each student used oil pastels to create their own portion of the art piece.
september 11, 2015
This week, we got settled into our classrooms and are in the process of participating in team building exercises, writing, and art activities. It has been great seeing some familiar faces and welcoming new friends from Toronto and Vancouver to our wonderful school community. On Friday afternoon, we tested out our magic powers with a card trick. Ask someone from Division 3 to show you it!
August 21, 2015
I hope that everyone has had a relaxing summer vacation with their friends and family! Can't wait to meet my new class in September! For now, enjoy the last few moments of summer vacation!