Hi families,

This week we have been learning about and discussing Orange Shirt Day. We read a book called “Phyllis’s Orange Shirt” which details the experiences a girl named Phyllis lived through at a residential school. You can read the story below. The friends empathized with the hurt that Phyllis experienced at school when her special orange shirt was taken from her. We discussed how friends should feel at school. We know that all kids have the right to feel safe. Every Child Matters.

What is Orange Shirt Day?
Tomorrow, “Friday, September 30th is Orange Shirt Day, a campaign founded by Phyllis Webstad. Orange Shirt Day grew out of her own experiences and the experiences of other residential school survivors who attended St. Joseph’s Mission near Williams Lake. It’s a day to honour the healing journeys of residential school survivors and their families and a time to engage in meaningful discussions about the history and legacy of the residential school system. Orange Shirt Day is an important opportunity to open up deeper reflection, learning and dialogue on the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is to honour survivors, their families and communities.”

Thank you for having these important discussions with your children.

Here is the art we completed to remember Phyllis’ story.

Love,
Mrs. Kovac

Hello Families!

Welcome to our Kindergarten class blog/website! In addition to the yellow communication folders, I have now created this blog to keep you updated on things happening in our school and classroom. Instead of sending home paper reminders of upcoming events, I want to be more environmentally friendly by using this blog as a way to communicate important information to you. Letters and forms from the PAC, school and community will still be coming home in the yellow folders.

Tomorrow I will be sending home a notice with instructions to access PASSWORD PROTECTED posts. Password Protected posts may have pictures of students in them. Please do not share this password.
**You are welcome to save photos that your child is in, but please remember: if there is another child in the photo you may NOT post that picture on social media (ex. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, your own personal blog, etc.)**

Some posts will also include students engaged in classroom activities and samples of their work. These posts will complement the Kindergarten curriculum and will work as evidence of their learning. I would love to encourage you to comment on the posts!

Tips on Commenting and Supporting the Learning Process

You will notice that I will be making comments about your child’s learning and giving suggestions for their next steps.

I invite you to be partners in your child’s learning process throughout the year by commenting on the posts.

Under any of the posts, there will be a COMMENT link > click to open a box. (You can record in any language.)
Some suggestions for your comments are to:

• Notice thoughts, capacities and growth.
• Connect with your child’s opinions, stories or ideas
• Share your intellectual curiosity; wonder aloud
• Encourage
• Co-conspire… “You are interested in spiders? Me too, here’s an interesting website I’m reading about spiders.”
• I noticed you…
• A few things you did well here are…
• One thing I’m seeing about your work is…

I hope you enjoy future posts we include on our website!

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at Gina.Kovac@BurnabySchools.ca

Many thanks,

Gina Kovac