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Numeracy at Home and School

We are excited to once again safely welcome parents to be more involved in our school programs. In-person interactions between parents and school staff help to build the bonds necessary for a strong school community. 

We had a great turnout of parents for our Terry Fox Run in September. Some parents watched and cheered from the sidelines while others joined the run. Together we were able to have fun while raising money for a great charity. We are grateful for the parents that helped out with preparing the food at the barbeque station.

The ongoing library program has received great interest from parents in volunteering in our school library. Ms. Powell has trained parent volunteers on how the library and our library book checkout system operate. Students are so excited to see their parents volunteering in our school.

The PAPO executive and volunteers have organized a uniform sale at the school as well as set up our school for Fall and Winter celebrations. It made such a difference to be able to run this sale inside the school and come together to decorate and support these school-wide initiatives.

I am grateful to all parents who are volunteering and coming to take part in school events!

Mr. Michael Bouchard
Head of School 

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Messages from Across the Grades

Junior Kindergarten "JK" 

Junior Kindergarten students have been learning about team work and responsibility with grades 7/8 students. Often, you will find them expanding their imagination and learning through play. Other times, you will see them participating in a reading buddy program, where older students are able to share some of their knowledge in different ares of interest, while students build new friendships and mentorship skills. 

Grades K/1

In Kindergarten, students are exploring different patterns with a variety of manipulatives. As they analyze the patterns, students are learning to identify the core and extend and label them. In addition, students are also discovering that there are so many patterns around us in our school environment and in nature. In Grade one, students are learning about addition and subtraction, using number bonds and number lines to solve equations. They experienced real-world situations on when to use addition and subtraction.

Grades 2/3

Grade two students started off their number sense unit by exploring numbers in the world around us. They learned about numbers found them in the kitchen through baking mini pumpkin pies, by exploring numbers in various counting collections as well as on one hundred charts. Grade three students explored financial literacy skills through comparing currencies from around the world. The looked closely at bills, coins and the different values of currencies in many countries.

Grades 4/5

Grade four students explored patterns and considered multiple meanings of the word “patterns” when looking for examples in nature and at home. Students went on a nature hunt around the school playground and learned that patterns can sometimes be modelled mathematically and they include symmetries, trees, spirals, meanders, waves, foams, tessellations, cracks and stripes. Grade 5 and 6 students completed the Student Numeracy Assessment and Practice (SNAP) to deepen their understanding and demonstrate their number sense and operational skills. 

Grades 6-8

Grade 6 students have been developing their skills in the numeracy competencies of communicating, connecting and reflecting on mathematical ideas by tackling rich and open-ended problems. For instance, students used proportional thinking and their knowledge of big numbers to determine, if in our Solar System we could shrink it until the sun was the size of a marble and how it would fit into the Pythagoras Academy school yard.

Grade 7 and 8 students are working on the numeracy competencies of reasoning and analyzing by examining the characteristics of geometric shapes in order to create a dichotomous key that sorts figures according to their unique features. They are developing their skills of understanding and solving by working on rich problems, such as the questions from the Foundation Skills Assessment and upcoming math contests.

Numeracy at Pythagoras Academy

Mathematic education has changed a lot since I was in school. 

I was a good student when I was a child and math was no exception– I could follow the teacher’s instructions correctly and I had a good memory for procedures, so I could usually get the answers right. But I don’t think I ever stopped to think why numbers work the way they do.

It was really only when I started teaching math in elementary school that I started to ask questions. Why do we ‘invert and multiply’ when we are dividing fractions? What are we doing when we ‘borrow’ in subtraction? Why does the sign change when we bring a number to the other side of an algebraic equation? With these questions I began to recognize that getting the right answer is only a small part of understanding mathematics. 

As the Numeracy Coordinator and Intermediate math teacher at Pythagoras Academy, I spend a lot of time reading and thinking about effective ways to bring students to a deeper understanding of how numbers work. Rich, open-ended questions, collaborative exploration and opportunities to struggle and make mistakes give students of all levels the chance to engage deeply in numerical thinking. 

At home, you can support your child’s numeracy development in holistic ways by playing games of strategy with cards or dice, or by noticing patterns or proportional relationships in everyday activities. 

As parents and teachers we share the exciting task of equipping our children with the mathematical skills that they will need to flourish in the future. 

Ms. D McIver
Grade 6 Homeroom Teacher
Numeracy Coordinator; Grade 6-8 Core Math

Wellness at Pythagoras Academy

With changes in weather patterns from a warm start to fall to some rainfall, change in our well-being and mood is common. With daylight savings time ending, most of us will have turned our clocks back an hour, giving us an extra hour of sleep and making the next couple of weeks an adjustment for families. For me, adjusting to the change in weather and loss of daylight can impact my mood or how effective my sleep is; however I have found things that help me accommodate this new shift. For instance, I find that making myself a warm bath, drinking a cup of tea and reading a book helps me shift into sleep mode. During nights when I feel more restless or awake I listen to a bedtime story using the app Calm or I listen to calming music, with the app Better Sleep. (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/relax-melodies-white-noise/id314498713)

According to an article from Parents.com, while the process of adjustment does take time, there are some healthy tips that families can use to help with the stress of sleepy children: 

How to cope with daylight savings time? 

https://www.parents.com/kids/sleep/tips/daylight-saving-time/

Sincerely,

Miss. Una Miljevic
Vice Principal of Student Life
Grade 4-8 Team Lead/ Grade 4 Homeroom Teacher
Wellness Coordinator

Visual Arts at Pythagoras Academy

As the cold winter season moves along, Pythagoras Academy students have been warming up their art engines by creating beautiful pieces with an added numeracy element. 

Students have been discovering the beauty of the straight line by using a ruler, how to arrange different shapes, how to properly measure paper or how to divide origami paper into 9 perfect squares to then create radial reliefs. Throughout the process, students have conversations about how math has an application to not just their math homework, but to their everyday life- including their artwork!

By increasing their numerical literacy, they also grow artistically.

Ms. Arpan Dhaliwal
Visual Arts Specialist

 Upcoming School Events and Important Dates 

December 2: Lockdown Drill  
December 5 and 6: Parent Teacher Conferences 1/2 day
December 6-8: JK Parent Teacher Conferences
December 9: Breakfast with Santa
December 13: Tacky Christmas Wear
December 14: JK Fire Drill
December 15: Winter Concert
December 16: Last Day of Term 1 Classes 1/2 day 

 Upcoming Community Events and Important Dates 

November 23- December 31: Christmas Glow- Langley
December 14-23: PNE Winter Fair- Vancouver
December 19: Christmas Land Pop-up Market- Richmond, Lavenderland
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Our mailing address is:
8671 Odlin Crescent, Richmond, BC V6X 1G1

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