On Friday, we met up with our little buddies! Thank you to the hard work and dedication of Ms. Pasqualetto, the Kindergarten teacher, children were given 5 cookies to decorate. They did a great job of making sure their little buddies received help if they needed it.

Learning Updates (aka Report Cards)

Your child’s Learning Update will be available on Wednesday, December 18. You should have access to login to MyEducation BC to access it. If you cannot, then you can request for a password reset by clicking HERE. Should you have any questions or would like to meet with us, please let us know.

We are incredibly proud of all the learning your child has demonstrated since the beginning of the school year. We hope that you enjoyed listening to your child teach you about patterns, place value, matter, and the transfer of thermal energy last week when they brought home their learning. They practiced by pretending to be each other’s parent and had fun doing it!

Feel free to scroll through the 14 weekly blog posts since we started our journey together at the beginning of September. We commend each child (and you) for your contribution to our cohesive and caring community. These blog posts are a great way to connect with your child about what they are learning in class. When I asked them how many have seen them, not many said they did. These posts are written for you both to share in their learning so feel free to have them read it as practice for reading. When students can tell you what they are learning about, they have to remember and explain; this exercise helps them solidify their learning.

Pancake Breakfast 

This Thursday, it is pajama day! Your child doesn’t have to change in the morning and is welcome to come to school in the same clothes! Our pancake breakfast time with our little Kindergarten buddies is at 9:05 AM. Please be on time so that our class can go to the gym on time.

Snacks

Your children are growing!! We are noticing a number of students going to the office asking for snacks. They are saying that they finish their snacks but are still hungry. In January, please have your child bring extra snacks. Thank you!

Sing-a-long

On Thursday at 1 PM, there will be a sing-a-long for odd divisions. The Intermediate Choir will also perform. You are welcome to join us in the gym at this time!

Friday Party

On Friday afternoon, we will be having a class party. Children are encouraged to bring a board or card game from home to teach and share with their classmates. It’s a great way to introduce a fun game to others so that they may buy it to play at home too! It’s also a phenomenal way to practice their verbal communication skills as they try to teach others how the game is played.

If your child would like to bring a treat to share (nothing with nuts, please), they are welcome to as well! Thank you so much for your contribution!

In case we don’t get a chance to see you, we wish you and your family a wonderful winter break. Enjoy this extra time with family and friends. Thank you for reading these blog posts each week and for your continued support. We appreciate you! We love your children and care deeply for them. What a joy and blessing to be their teachers!

With grateful hearts, Ms. Kim and Ms. Chan

Dear Division 11 Families, 

We’ve been having so much fun during our skating field trips! It has been wonderful to see the students’ confidence grow in just two sessions. We’re sad that this Tuesday will be our last session, but I know they will enjoy it to the fullest! One of the staff members last week mentioned that this group of students is easily the most helpful and kind group he has ever seen. The students assisted with cleanup and returned the skating bars without being asked. I couldn’t agree more and am so proud of our Division 11 students! – Ms. Kim

Please note: Family Reading will be cancelled this Tuesday but will resume next Tuesday, December 17th. We are looking forward to having you back in our class!

Here is some of the exciting learning happening in our class: 

We are writers.
In writing, the students have been learning how to make their writing more engaging by using similes. After a group matching activity, they used similes to describe a car they would like to build—they came up with so many creative ideas! In class, we read My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks. The author also wrote My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil, and McGill Library has a copy if you’d like to check it out. 

Ways to support at home: Bring your child to visit the library often. It used to be our weekend family outing when my children were growing up. They have such a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books to choose from!

We have been working on another piece of writing to further develop our own identity. One of our core competencies of building a positive personal identity: identifying personal strengths and abilities. “Students acknowledge their strengths and abilities, and they intentionally consider these as assets, helping them in all aspects of their lives. Students understand that they are unique and are a part of larger, and often multiple, communities. They explain how they are using their strengths and abilities in their families, their relationships, and their communities.”

Last week, we read the story “What’s My Superpower?” by Aviaq Johnston. Click here to watch an animated storytelling of the book.

We followed up this week with two books written, illustrated, and published by one of my best friends, Jillian DuBois: Liv’s Messages and Destiny’s Amazingly Different Dreams. All highlight how what makes us special and different can also be our superpowers (strengths and abilities). There was a lesson on acceptance too.

From Amazon about Liv’s Seashells – Beyond the collection of her treasured seashells, Liv knows that there are people around that need to be shown compassion and empathy. She carefully crafts a plan for a journey that promises to reach out and share hope past the limits of the warm sunshine and sandy beach. Liv has a chance to make a difference and uplift others with joy.

From Amazon about Destiny – The story of one amazing girl who understands that being different is BETTER than being ordinary. We each have different gifts + talents to celebrate. Remarkable human beings deserve to be accepted for WHO they are with great JOY.

Ways to support at home: Follow up this learning by talking about your child’s superpowers and your own. What makes you shine? What are your strengths, abilities, and core values? How can you help your child discover their own? This is such an important understanding to develop especially when we face challenges because during hard times, we can anchor into our strengths and core values as our base. As they grow and become immersed in social media, when children have a strong foundation in who they are and have a strong sense of self-worth, then it takes a lot more adversity to shake how they see themselves.

Word Sorts

We introduced word sorts to the class and started with the spelling rule for regular past tense verbs: We learned about base words (aka root words) and how we add “ed” to the end of regular verbs.

When we sorted the words, we discovered that there are 3 sounds of the past tense ed. They cut and then sorted their own words. We practiced sorting the words so we can see the patterns. They were getting faster and more accurate as the week went on.

When we finish with this word sort, it will go home. Please continue to practice until they are proficient. They can practice spelling these words too.

When looking at the words, there are some with two vowels next to each other. We learned a new song that reinforces that when two vowels to walking, the first one does the talking and says its own name. It’s the same tune as the Addams Family song and catchy. I had it stuck in my head many times over the weekend! Ask your child to sing it to you! Here’s the song:

When two vowels go walking, 
The first one does the talking.
When two vowels to walking,
The first one says its name.

We are Mathematicians.
During Wondering Wednesday, Division 18 students joined our class, and our students helped them learn about fractions. In pairs, they looked for fraction cards hidden in the classroom and compared each fraction to 1/2, deciding whether it was greater than, equal to, or less than 1/2.

Afterward, they played a place value game we’ve been practicing in class. I’ve attached a link below so you can try it at home. To extend the activity, you can include a fourth card to create numbers in the thousands. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi6mVOA2pIU&t=289s 

For place value, we did an assessment to check for understanding, and we were so very proud of how well they learned these number concepts!

This week, they will bring home their Patterns booklets from earlier in the year to show you.

We learned our next math fluency strategy: Adding or subtracting by 2’s is like skip counting by 2’s.

Using our random numbers chart, we practiced adding by 2’s and subtracting by 2’s. It is not as efficient to calculate + or -2 but instead, it is quicker to see a number and see the next number before or after by 2.

For example:

If I am adding by 2, then when I see a 6, I automatically see 8 without thinking, “What is 6 + 2?” Instead, If I know how to fluently count by 2’s, then I know that 8 follows 6.

Ways to support at home: Using a random numbers chart, have your child practice +1, -1, +2, -2. Even if your child practices for a few minutes each day, they will definitely gain fluency by the end of the school year!

We are scientists.

They are excited to bring home their Matter & Thermal Energy booklets to show you what they know too! When they bring these booklets home, ask them to teach you the concepts learned. This solidifies their learning.

We started a new science unit about biodiversity and ecosystems. Stay tuned for more of our learning shared with you!

ADST – We are developing our tech skills!

On Friday, we logged into Office 365 and learned a few tools on Microsoft Word. To reinforce their learning, I encouraged them to practice logging in at home. To do this, go to our Kitchener website.

On the drop down menu, click on Microsoft 365. A sign in box will appear. Have them practice typing in their email address which is their pupilnumber@edu.burnabyschools.ca. Click Next.

A new box will ask for their password. It is the same one they memorized.

Then they were directed to find the list of apps using the icon on the top left corner and find the W (which stands for Word):

Once they launched Word, they were taught to create a new document, rename their document, type their name, and then play! They played with the size, font, colour, alignment, highlighting, bolding, italicizing, or underlining their names. They loved it and thought it was so cool!

I highly recommend that you support your child’s learning by practicing logging into Word at home and having fun together playing with the tools available. This will help them become more proficient at logging in and using Word the next time we use the laptops this Friday. Thank you!

If your child has not memorized their usernames and passwords yet, please spend some time at home to memorize them. It really diminishes their frustration at school when they struggle with the first part of using laptops. The ones who have become proficient are able to have more time on the task too. Thank you.

We are a interconnected community of learners.

One of my favourite tried and true activities that I, Ms. Chan, love to do is our spider web activity. I started with a ball of yarn and shared what I love and appreciate about our classroom community. Then I passed it to someone across from me. Then that person shared what they love or appreciate about our community and so on and so on until everyone had an opportunity to share.

It built a beautiful web which resulted in a powerful visual to see. We talked about how we are all interconnected, which is one of the Indigenous ways of knowing and being. We discussed how what we say and do affects others maybe not directly but indirectly.

Then I gave an example of someone saying something mean to someone else as I shook the yarn. They could see that when I shook the yarn, others were impacted. Others could hear what was said (or see what was done) and that makes others feel sad and bad. We dove into talking about emotional contagion.

Next, I demonstrated how when one person says something kind (they got to go on their knees) and the another person does something thoughtful (they got to go on their knees) until everyone’s name was called and everyone was on their knees. We stood up to demonstrate how we all can uplift each other through positive actions and words. They visually got to experience how since we are all connected, small actions and words uplift not only the other person but everyone else in our community.

When we were finished, we reflected on this activity. My heart melted when I heard about how they enjoyed listening to each other share. They experienced the impact of their actions and words, and how they all contribute to making our classroom community a great place to be. They got to hear exactly what their classmates appreciated about being in our class. One child mentioned how what we shared touched his heart and how he felt teary (and emotional) because of our shared positive emotions.

I reinforced how every interaction makes a difference.

Thank you for your continued support at home! We appreciate you!

Events to note

• Ice skating on Tuesday, December 10
• PAC meeting on Thursday, December 12 at 6:30pm (virtual)
• Reports are available online on Wednesday, December 18. Please ensure you have your login information to access before the date. If you do not, click here to have your login and password reset. It may take a few days.

With hearts full of gratitude, Ms. Kim and Ms. Chan

Dear families,

What a wonderful week full of learning! We are so very blessed to be your child’s teachers. They truly bring us SO much joy each day!

We are writers.

We read a story called If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen. Click here to watch the animated story on YouTube. Then both Ms. Kim and I worked together to support their writing development. First, Ms. Kim demonstrated writing that had little detail. Then she showed them the same piece of writing but with lots of detail that included the five senses. We noticed there were words that came up again and again that really helped us add details and visualize to paint a picture of what we imagined in our minds. Examples: like, when, with, and, so.

Students brainstormed by creating a web of all of the things they would add to their house if there were no limits. Here are some examples:

Students worked so diligently when they described their house. We felt so proud of their imagination and how hard they worked. When they were finished, they were encouraged to DYRIO and read over their writing three times.

This one strategy really helps them look for ways to make their writing better. We have noticed that students are catching themselves to add capitals at the beginning of sentences and finding where they need to add a period to end their sentences. What we love to see are the changes they are making when they are doing their second reading: Read it over like a revision expert. They actively look for ways to add more details or improve your message. This is such an effective way of helping them become better written communicators.

Ways to support at home: When your child practices writing at home, remind them to DYRIO: Read it over three times. Each time for a different purpose.

We are athletes.

Students LOVED their skating experience at Bill Copeland! Thank you to all the parents who came out to support us!

We are mathematicians.

We continued our learning about number concepts and place value. We learned there is a difference between a digit and what makes a number. There are also different ways to represent numbers.

We worked in groups of three to practice these four ways:

(1) standard form: 235

(2) written on a place value chart with hundreds, tens, and ones

(3) represented pictorially with a hundred shown as a square, tens as a line, and ones as a dot so 928 would look like this:

(4) expanded notation: 200 + 30 + 5 + 235

Here are some of our examples when we worked diligently and cooperatively in our groups! Can your child find their examples below?

How to support at home: Use a dice or deck of cards to create random 3-digit numbers like 537, 386, 187. Ask your child to show you the 4 ways to represent these numbers.

Math Fact Fluency

We created our own random numbers chart. It looks like this:

On one side, we have the digits 0-9. On the other side, 10-20. We will be using this to help us systematically learn strategies to add and subtract quickly. These will be practiced and reinforced so that it becomes automatic. We hear from many teachers in grade 4 and above that Math would be easier for students if only they knew their facts. It does take extra time and practice at home so we appreciate your support. We will be teaching them games as well to help reinforce.

To help you understand better, I recorded a video that explains how to use this Random Numbers Chart at home. CLICK HERE to watch. The video shows 0-20 on one side but since making that video, I found it more effective to have 0-9 on one side and 10-20 on the other side. One student decided to write the odd and even numbers in different colours and I thought that was absolutely brilliant! So I will be changing that when I teach this next year! (Thanks, Lara!)

Quick recall is in the grade 3 curriculum:

• At the end of Grade 3, most students should be able to recall addition facts to 20. We will provide opportunities to recall subtraction facts from 20 as well.

Last week, we learned about the commutative property, properties of zero, and properties of one. When adding or subtracting one, I don’t really want them calculating (adding or subtracting). To help with automaticity, I want them thinking what is the number that comes after (+1) or before (-1); in other words, counting on by 1s or backwards by 1. You will see more of these little strategy papers coming home in the future. I recommend you keep them all so your child can refer to them when needed. It’s a good reminder for you so you can remember the strategies too! 🙂

Ways to support at home: Ask your child to create one to practice at home. Then ask them to review or make it fun by doing it together.

We are scientists.

We finished our learning about thermal energy this week. We reviewed the three ways that heat is transferred: by conduction, convection, and radiation. To reinforce this learning, we watched a video. Click here to watch it at home.

We finished our Matter and Thermal Energy booklets by doing some self-reflection on our learning. We recorded (1) what we are proud of (2) what we would do differently next time (3) what we learned about matter and thermal energy OR what we learned about ourselves. They are excited to bring their booklets home to show you soon!

We are readers.

Our reading groups are well on their way now. Each group is working well together in supporting each other. We have been learning phonic rules that help us learn how to approach words that we find more challenging to sound out.

Upcoming Fun Community Opportunities

• Friday, December 6 at 5 to 8 PM – CARNIVAL hosted by Burnaby North’s Christmas Cheer Club. This is an annual event full of games, concessions, arts & crafts and more. To learn more, click here.
  • Location: Burnaby North Secondary School
• Sundays, December 1-22 at 10 to 11 AM – STORYTIME & CRAFTS at Brentwood Mall: Enjoy a family friendly program with festive music, games, and holiday fun!
  • Location: The TAB LAB located on Level 1 of the Interior Centre, across Telus.
• Every Saturday & Sunday from December 7 – December 22 – MOVIES ON THE PLAZA: Showings start at 3pm. Movie Schedule: 
  • December 7 and 8: Arthur Christmas
  • December 14 and 15: Frozen
  • December 21 and 22: Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Live Action)
  • Location: Brentwood Plaza

Dear Division 11 Families,

We are looking forward to our first skating field trip coming up on Tuesday! 

• Thank you to the families who have volunteered to be our drivers. If you have not already done so, please return the volunteer driver form by Monday. Click here to download a copy.
• Read the email that was sent on Friday from Ms. Chan about how and what to prepare for our skating field trip.

• Family Reading will be canceled since our skating field trip will take place on Tuesday. We will resume Family Reading after our field trips. 

Here are some highlights of the exciting learning happening in our class: 

Indigenous Education
On Wednesday, we joined the district-wide Indigenous education session via Zoom. Our students listened to the story The Moccasins by Earl Einerson and had the opportunity to design their own moccasins. Click here to watch the story read to you.

We are Mathematicians.
We are demonstrating our understanding of fractions by representing them in multiple ways: as parts of a whole, parts of a set, on a number line, and in word form.  Each student is working on their own version of the image to show what they know.

We continued our learning about number concepts and place value. We learned the difference between a digit and a number. Digits are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Digits become a number when we give the digit a value. Using our own place value charts and a deck of cards, we worked with partners to compare who had the larger number.

How to support at home:

• Quantities to 1 000 practice: Flip over 3 cards to make a number. Flip over 3 more cards for a second number. Flip over 3 more cards for a third number. Then ask the following:
  • Compare and order the numbers – Which number is the largest? Smallest?
  • How many hundreds, tens, ones in the first number, second number, and third number?
  • What is the value of the hundreds, tens or ones in each number?

We are writers using Triple Scoop Words.
In writing, we learned how “triple scoop words” can make our writing more engaging. Instead of using simple words like good, mad, or sad, we are choosing more vivid words like fantastic, furious, or devastated. This helps make our writing more engaging for readers and expands our vocabulary! Students will use this strategy when editing their own writing during DYRIO: Did you read it over? If you need a refresher as to what DYRIO means, click here to read a previous post that explains our system for re-reading our writing 3 times to make it better each time. Many students in the school are learning about DYRIO too!

We are readers.

We are gathering in reading groups to learn how to read better, support each other as readers, and make connections to what we read. So far, they have learned how to guide their classmate when they come across a word they mispronounced or are struggling with sounding out. They are instructed to not just tell them what the word is. This robs them of the opportunity to try sounding it out with scaffolded help. This is also such a great opportunity for the others in their group to teach, coach, and encourage the one who is trying to sound it out. I loved seeing the kind support so far!

Ways to support at home: When reading with your child and they come across a challenging word, please do not just tell them what the word is. Instead, guide them through noticing which letters are consonants/vowels, breaking up the word into syllables, reminding them that every syllable has a vowel, and figuring out whether the vowel is a short or long vowel sound, which remember the spelling rules (like when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking and says its own name).

Feel free to review last week’s blog post for how to break up longer words into syllables.

Social Studies
This week, our students explored the topic of breakfasts around the world, thinking about similarities and differences compared to their own experiences. 

We are Scientists.

Previously, we learned that thermal energy can be transferred in 3 ways. One way is conduction. This week, we learned about convection: heat is transferred by the movement of liquids or gas (like air). After learning about this, we watched a short video to make it more visible. Click here to review with your child.

Thank you, families, and have a restful rest of your weekend! 

 Grateful for you, Ms. Kim and Ms. Chan