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New Beginnings:
A New Year and Goal Setting

Dear Pythagoras Academy families and community members, 

I would like to thank all parents for working as strong partners with our Pythagoras Academy teachers and staff. Our collaboration is what makes Pythagoras Academy such a vibrant place for students to learn. 

Our teachers are excited to set new academic and social goals with our amazing students. Students have been excited to share their goal setting adventures, study their unique passions and share their results with myself, teachers and their peers. I am sure you have been hearing about their exciting learning adventures at home or through Seesaw moments. I see students working collaboratively on creative and critical problem solving skills. They are diligently working towards S.M.A.R.T goals, community outreach methods and genius hour targets.

Please continue reaching out to your child’s teacher with any questions you have and any updates you are looking for. Teachers are working with students in helping to ensure they take realistic and attainable steps to achieve these targets.I am happy to share in your excitement as we enter into the new year, set goals for the new term and share in each student’s learning journey of what is important to them.

Warm Regards, 

Michael Bouchard
Head of School

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Which Chair are you Sitting in Today?

"Which chair are you sitting in today?"

That was the question I asked to start the guided reading lesson in the grade 5 classroom on Wednesday morning. Each student responded when I asked the same question as we warmed up for individual learning and working with the other students in the reading group. The original goal for the class was to learn to be aware of each other, respect our sharing space and time and lastly, to work together.

What is The 5 Chairs? 

"It is a mind tool and a learning compass. It consists of 5 chairs which act as a behavioural compass for us, mirroring our daily reactions and forcing us to track what we're thinking, what we are feeling and how we're behaving in any given moment." - Louise Evans

"I feel like I am a Meerkat today."

One of the students shared with the group. "I feel I have some questions about the book and will have to ask my partner some questions." I handed this student a green Meerkat bookmark. The students have used them before in previous lessons when I introduced 5 Chairs 5 Choices during the class Morning Meeting in the Library Commons. 

Another student said, "I am feeling like a dolphin today. I am calm and want to work with my friends."

She took the dolphin bookmark and smoothed it on her desk with her hand over the image of the dolphin and the words: Calm, Detect, Be aware, Assertive, What do I need?

The lesson began with a discussion about using reading strategies such making predictions, summarizing, discovering the theme and forming conclusions. I watched the students start their work. The chatter in the room was about the books.

"Which chapter are you looking in?" "What did the character do to support the theme?

The students were asking questions and sharing the needed responses. Some of them were working together. Others were sharing their thoughts about their responses with the teachers in the room. 

The students were showing positive behaviour and better self-regulation. They were showing how not only to make choices, but make the choice to change chairs.

1. The Attack Chair -The Jackal.    2. The Self-Doubt Chair -The Hedgehog.  3. The Wait Chair -The Meerkat.  4. The Detect Chair -The Dolphin.  5. The Connect Chair -The Giraffe

This transformational program is helping students develop self-awareness, understand other people and manage relationships while learning in the classroom. 

5 Chairs 5 Choices.

Lois Powell
Messages from Across the Grades

Junior Kindergarten "JK" 

After an enjoyable holiday season and with the arrival of this exciting new year we are excited to present new concepts and learning opportunities, like STEM and building Snowflakes, to our curious and engaged students! We have been exploring “The Arctic and its Inhabitants” and we are anticipating the cultural exploration of Lunar New Year and the meaning behind the Year of the Tiger!

Grades K/1

In Kindergarten, our New Years resolution is to show kindness. Our Friendship unit focuses on being kind to others and building strong friendships. To build on our reading skills, we have started our "Home Reading" program and in the classroom we will be adding "Daily 5" routines to our classroom schedule. In Grade 1, we are starting off the New Year by reading our New Year Resolution poems. In our classrooms, we have new routines to follow and new friends to play with!

Grades 2/3

Grade 2 has started off the New Year with a poetry unit exploring sensory and figurative language, as students read and write a variety of poems. In Grade 3, students have been inquiring deeper into the G.R.O.W (Gratitude, Respect, Openhearted, Wonder) behavioural matrix and showcased this learning in their assembly! Are you interested in learning more? If so, please visit: https://youtu.be/5N77BAmsUeU

 

Grades 4-8


Grade 4 students are examining punctuation and practicing various writing strategies to produce clear and interesting writing. They are being introduced to energy in science and numerical and non-numeric patterning in numeracy, building on previous skills. Grade 5 students have been exploring the qualities of leadership by studying the skills that great leaders have. In Career Education, they have been reflecting on how they use these leadership skills in their everyday lives and in their relationships with others.

In grade 6, students have been building on their teamwork and collaboration skills with the focus being on cross-curricular exploration. For example, in visual arts students created individualized mythical creatures that will later on be written in short narratives. Meanwhile, in ADST, students explored and participated in reporting and analyzing while working on the school’s broadcast. In social studies, students explored media literacy while reporting on current events by sharing them with their global community on their Seesaw blogs. 

The Arts: Music

Our Pythagoras Academy Winter Concert was one of the highlights of last term! The students were so excited for their performances and it was inspiring to watch and listen as students walked down the hallway singing along to various songs, such as the “Gingerbread House” singing, “this old house is yummy… yummy…” We held a wonderfully elaborate show with the help of our collaborative teachers and talented students. 

This term, our focus is on musical composition. It is one of my favourite focuses, students bloom musically as they get a sense of the compositional framework of a piece and the creative edge to try something new. They become young explorers of sound and thrive in a more self guided and creative environment. So far, January has been filled with creating intricate soundscapes, like looking at the dynamics and techniques of drumming and understanding the acoustics of a given instrument while composing beats and rhythms. 

We also examine how the Arts affects our social and emotional wellbeing. Specifically, we look at how we can express ourselves, how we can connect with others and how it can alter our way of being. At Pythagoras Academy, we treat music much like a sport. Specifically, we respect and support one another while guiding students to become successful, not only as an individual player/ musician, but also as a member of the greater whole. As stated in High School Musical, "You are only strongest as your weakest link." By providing a supportive environment, students feel a sense of encouragement and the freedom to be who they are. 

-Ms. Corrine Welk
Social Emotional Learning: Setting Goals as a Family

New Year's is the perfect time to talk to your children about realistic goal-setting. Learning to work towards sustainable, positive changes is an essential life skill that benefits people of all ages, from preschoolers to adults. Here are some tips on how you can set age-appropriate resolutions as a family for a healthier and happier 2022 year ahead:

Making resolutions together:

As a family, sit down together and pick maybe one or two goals that you want to set as your New Year's resolutions. If it's too overwhelming to think of them as resolutions, then just talk about them as goals and make it fun. For more information: https://www.verywellfamily.com/new-years-resolutions-for-kids-p2-2634000

Image Title: Verywell By: Jiaqi Zhou

Informational Technology 
We are thrilled to announce that our “Pythagoras Academy First Ladies” team and “Pythagoras Panthers'' team were scored in the top-ranking rounds this year during their virtual qualifier for the BC Lower Mainland competition. Just this past month, our “First Ladies'' team has shown an amazing result by achieving two awards, namely the “Champions Award” and “Robot Performance Award.” We are also very proud of the “Pythagoras Panther” team, winning “The Innovation Project Award.” This is the third year our school’s teams have succeeded in this category. 

For more information on this exciting program, please visit: https://www.firstlegoleague.org/ 

On January 30th, we cheered on our third FLL team "Pythagoras Alpha" during their FLL Challenge Qualifier Vancouver 2. We hope that all three teams will do amazing during the FLL Challenge BC Championship on February 12th at the Meadowridge School. We believe in you teams! As we continue to work towards providing solutions to new challenges, students' confidence and teamwork skills continue to be built and applauded. Pythagoras Academy has held award winners each time they have participated in the program, and we are happy to continue the tradition this year. 

 

Featured Teachers

Grade 6 and Ms. Miljivic are well on their way with Seesaw Connected Blogging. Blogs enable students to share their voice with an authentic and global audience. These learning opportunities allow students to explore areas of interest, like current events. Meanwhile, students actively engage in online digital citizenship by learning how to express themselves to the digital world. Currently, they have partnered with another grade 6 blog in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA and are pending another collaborative effort with a class from Sweden! 

If you could go back in time, what would you like to learn more about in school? Well, this was the question that was posed to our grade 3 students. By replicating the famously successful strategy, Genius Hour, Ms. Malone has given her students the opportunity to explore topics related to their interests or abilities. Using their “Genius Journals” students reflect on their learning and keep themselves accountable in reaching their independent learning goal/s. Some of the actionable questions so far include: “How can I develop and share my own Yugio cards?” and “How can I understand if art is good for me?” 

 Upcoming and Important Dates 

February 3: Lockdown Drill
February 4: Lunar New Year Celebration
February 14: Valentine's Day
February 16: Earthquake Drill
February 18: ISABC Elementary Pro D (No School for K-8)
February 21: Family Day (No School)
February 22: 100 Years Old Day 
February 23: Virtual School Assembly
February 23: Pink Shirt Day
February 25: Report Card Day
 Upcoming Community Events 
February 3 - February 24
Surrey- Positive Parenting Virtual Workshop with Alexandra Neighbourhood House
February 5 - February 6
Victoria- Classical Chinese Garden Festivities
February 11 - February 21
Vancouver - Family Day at the Vancouver Aquarium
February 21 - February 22
Richmond - Aberdeen Centre's Chinese New Year Celebrations 
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8671 Odlin Crescent, Richmond, BC V6X 1G1

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