Ms. Chan's Class Blog – Working Together – To better ourselves, each other, and the world around us
 

Dear Division 11 Families,

We hope everyone is having a wonderful Family Day long weekend!

Week 2: Love Others Nelson, Kadir If You Plant A Seed

This week, we read If You Plant a Seed and discussed how even one small act of kindness can create a ripple effect, inspiring others to spread kindness as well. Our students were encouraged to perform random acts of kindness throughout the week and add a heart to our “Kindness Tree” whenever they did something kind or received a random act of kindness from someone else. It was wonderful to see so many hearts added in just one week! We hope our students always remember how one small act of kindness can have a big impact.

We continued our theme of Friendship and “Love for Self”. Every Thursday is “Thankful Thursday” where they share something they are grateful for during Community Circle. This past week, we shared what we are grateful for about ourselves. We started by giving ourselves a hug to love ourselves. We talked about how the relationship we have with ourselves is the foundation for all other relationships so it is important to be kind to ourselves. What we say to choose to say to ourselves helps us anchor into our own strengths and believe in ourselves too. Last week, we continued to work on our affirmation statements. We are looking forward to sharing them with you!

It is also important to take such great care of the person we spend the most time with. That’s themselves! It’s the most important job they have in their life…to make good choices about eating well, getting enough sleep, staying positive and grateful which leads to happiness.

We Are Mathematicians!

This week, we continued practicing our addition and subtraction skills, focusing on using open number lines. With this strategy, students decide where to start their number line and how to decompose, or break down, a number to add or subtract. There are multiple ways to solve problems using open number lines, allowing students to approach problems in a way that makes sense to them. (As shown in the picture, three different students each found their own way to solve 56 + 37.)

We encouraged our students to use friendly numbers—numbers that are easy to work with when adding or subtracting, such as 20, 50, or 100. For example, in the problem 27 + 9, the student broke 9 into 3 and 6, adding 3 to 27 first to make 30, which made it easier to add the remaining 6.

This strategy connects to the next one we will be focusing on, so our students will have more time to practice and strengthen their understanding.

Here’s a helpful resource for you to learn more about this strategy and support your child at home.

Shelly Gray – Friendly Numbers: Addition Strategy

Social Studies

Our students have been exploring how humans have created inventions and innovations to meet their needs throughout history. This week, our focus was on agriculture, specifically in Ancient Egypt. Students learned about the different ways ancient Egyptians controlled water, then compared these methods to those used in ancient Mesopotamia. To deepen their understanding, they created Venn diagrams to identify connections between the two civilizations.

Writing
On Wednesday, we did a writing snapshot, and we were so impressed with the progress our students have made since the beginning of the year! We’ve been focusing on making writing more engaging, and we encourage students to use the following strategies:

  • Triple scoop words – Choosing more interesting words (e.g., instead of good, using fabulous or fantastic).
  • Similes – Comparing things using like or as (e.g., My brother is as loud as a fire truck. He is wise like an owl).
  • Adding dialogue – Making conversations more dynamic (e.g., instead of writing “How are you?” said Ms. Kim, students learn to write “How are you?” Ms. Kim called out, waving cheerfully).

When you are reading with your child at home and come across examples of these writing techniques, please take a moment to point them out and discuss how they make the writing more engaging. This will help reinforce what they are learning in class and encourage them to apply these strategies in their own writing.

Reading Groups

Students really look forward to our Reading Groups time. Last week, each group performed a script for Reader’s Theatre based on stories that focused on conflict resolution and showing kindness. They learned the importance of reading with expression and performed very well! This week, we continued to read books at our reading levels.

We love seeing how they support each other when they come across words they struggle with. We also appreciate their patience, collaboration, and kindness shown each time they read together. It’s always a great sign when they ASK when we are going to have Reading Groups again!

Friendship Fruit Salad on Valentine’s Day

We are grateful to all families for contributing fruit and to our families who came to support in the classroom.

Students were so diligent to cut the fruit. They were all so keen and worked so hard as they chopped fruit for a solid 45 minutes! No one asked for or took a break!

So what this tells us is that they can help you prepare dinner by chopping vegetables or their own fruit for recess snacks or lunch.

We love it when we hear comments like, “This is the best day ever! Can we make fruit salad every Friday? It can be Fruit Fridays! I wish this day won’t end.”

Welcome, Mr. Evoy!

On this day, we also welcomed our SFU student teacher, Mr. Evoy, to our class. He will be with us until the end of April. He dove right in and got to know the kids. Mr. Evoy is a welcome addition! Please help us welcome him to our warm classroom community.

As always, we appreciate your time and support at home. Thank you for being our partners in your child’s learning.

With much gratitude,

Ms. Kim and Ms. Chan

Dear Division 11 Families,

February is the Month of Love!

Remarkably You: Miller, Pat Zietlow, Barton, Patrice: 9780062427588: Books  - Amazon.ca

We are launching our Month of Love, starting with “Love Myself.” We read Remarkably You by Pat Zietlow Miller, encouraging our students to embrace what makes them unique and special.

 

Next, we brainstormed messages to write on paper candy hearts—messages students wanted to send to themselves.

 

For our art project, we designed our hearts with a base layer of oil pastels, followed by a layer of wet acrylic paint. Then, using sharp pencil crayons, students scratched their messages onto each heart. Our classroom wall is now filled with these heartfelt reminders, reinforcing positive self-talk and self-love.

 

 

Social Studies

We are wrapping up our We Are All Connected unit by exploring our connection to the land. We began by studying the moon—its phases, their names, and the science behind them. Then, we read Taan’s Moon and learned how the people of Haida Gwaii named the moon phases based on knowledge passed down through generations.

Math

We are so proud of the growth our students have shown in the past few weeks! Many are challenging themselves with three-digit addition and subtraction problems. They are doing a fantastic job communicating and representing their learning in different ways. This week, they will focus on another strategy, decomposing.

 

Story Writing

Our students are becoming skilled at writing dialogue using quotation marks! We worked on making our writing more engaging by using descriptive words instead of repeatedly writing “said.” We also explored how to describe a character’s actions and emotions while they speak.

A great example of this is the book How I Met My Monster (part of a series—check out the other books by the same author!). This book does an excellent job of showing how dialogue can make writing more dynamic and engaging.

📖 How I Met My Monster Read-Aloud:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YunBFPyF37U

Please join us tomorrow for our weekly Family Reading in our classroom from 9:00–9:15 AM.

Thank you so much for your support!

Warm regards,
Cailyn & Livia

Dear Division 11 Families,

We hope you are enjoying the beautiful snow outside! My son was so excited that we built a family of snowmen even before breakfast. I can’t wait to hear about all the fun the students had in the snow.

Bowling

We had so much fun bowling on Tuesday! A huge thank you to our family volunteers for driving our students and supporting them during the field trip. Our students were so supportive of one another, cheering each other on. Even those who were brand new to bowling said they can’t wait to do it again!

 

 

Social Studies: Lunar New Year

 

 

 

 

 

We wish everyone a happy Lunar New Year and good luck in the Year of the Snake! In Social Studies, our students have been learning about New Year traditions around the world. On Wednesday, our students had the opportunity to learn more about Lunar New Year. They rotated through various stations, participating in fun activities such as using chopsticks to pick up small objects, learning to write Chinese characters, and playing a Korean game. Thank you to all our students for sharing their experiences and knowledge with us, and a special thank you to Mrs. W.R. for planning such a fun afternoon!

Math

Our students have been working on double-digit addition and subtraction. We’ve been focusing on understanding the concepts rather than just memorizing the algorithm. This week, they’ve been using counters to show subtraction with regrouping. I’ve attached a video that explains this process so you can support them at home as well. Developing a strong understanding of this concept is crucial, as it lays a solid foundation for future number concepts and helps them apply their knowledge to more complex math problems later on.

At the end of the week, we moved into 3-digit subtraction too and subtraction across zeros!

How to support at home: Practice subtraction with regrouping together. Ask your child to explain their understanding. In math, one of the curricular competencies is to:

Affirmations

We talk to ourselves. Learning to have positive self-talk is an important part of developing our core competencies of positive, personal self identity. This is especially important when we face challenges or when we are working through hard things in life.

An affirmation is similar to a pep talk you give to yourself. It’s a short, positive sentence that you say to yourself to help you feel more confident, strong, and happy. Saying affirmations can help us all believe in ourselves and remind us of our personal strengths, identity, core values, and what makes us who we are.

On Friday, we started writing our own affirmations on Word in Office 365. We also listened to this affirmations song by Snoop Dog. Our buddy class performed this song with actions at our  last assembly.

How to support at home: Talk to your child about how we can be a good friend to ourselves. There are things we would not say to a friend. We shouldn’t speak to ourselves like that either. Share about how you talk to yourself using positive and encouraging language. If you have affirmations you use often, share those with your child.

One thing Ms. Chan shares often is this: Learn to be your own biggest cheerleader. We have one important job in life. We need to take the best care of our own human: ourselves. Our mental and emotional health is key to taking good care of ourselves!

Thank you for your continued support. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend—wishing you a restful evening and a great start to the week ahead!

Gratefully,
Cailyn and Livia

 

 

 

Dear Division 11 Families,

Happy Monday! We hope you had a wonderful weekend enjoying the beautiful weather we’ve been having.

Our students did an AMAZING job presenting at the assembly on Friday. Despite having only their first rehearsal in class on Wednesday, they delivered their lines with confidence and poise. Many staff members stopped by our classroom at the end of the day to praise the incredible speakers in our class and admire the amazing artwork they created.

We are so proud to have had the opportunity to showcase the great learning happening in our class. The assembly presentation was entirely their work—from choosing their word for 2025 and brainstorming its significance and action steps to creating Basquiat-inspired artwork. They carefully researched and selected words and symbols to include in their art, and we couldn’t be prouder of their hard work.

If you couldn’t join us in person, we have a recording of the assembly. Please email us to request the link to the video.

 

Our students are also very excited about our bowling field trip tomorrow! Here are a few important details:

  • Family Reading: We will host Family Reading in our classroom from 9:00–9:40. Please join us, even if you’re unable to come on the field trip. We’ll depart at 9:45.
  • Footwear: Please ensure your child wears runners (no boots), as they will stay in their runners.
  • Booster Seats: Please send your child with a booster seat if required. If you have a spare, we’d appreciate it if you could send it along, just in case.
  • Snacks and Drinks: Students should bring their water bottles and a snack. Please do not send money, as they are not allowed to purchase food or use vending machines during the trip.

Feel free to email us if you have any questions about the field trip.

Thank you for your continued support!

Warm regards,
Cailyn and Livia

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