Dear families,

They say that time flies when we are having fun and that we are! How are we already in the middle of April?

We are learning how to research.

Mrs. Paulich and Mrs. Papapanagiotou taught us about the importance of citing our references. We will be doing a simplified version but they will be expected to learn how to properly cite in the intermediate grades.

Another important part of researching is recording what we find by paraphrasing so we learned what this meant and practiced with our Passion Project partners. I was so impressed with how quickly they grasped this! Give it a try at home! When reading a non-fiction book together or researching something online. Ask your child to take a sentence and practice paraphrasing. This is an important skill when showing others you understand when truly listening.

We learned about microplastics.

Students learned about and how they enter the environment. They analyzed samples of water from an urban area and graphed their results. They learned what microfibres are and where they came from. Lastly, they brainstormed ways to help reduce microplastics in the environment. Thank you to the Institute of Urban Ecology at Douglas College for coming to Gilmore to teach us!

We learned about autism and stuttering.

This month at Gilmore, we are focusing on learning about accepting differences. Every morning on the PA, we learn more about different ways that people are different. This past week, we learned about Down Syndrome too. In our class, we read two books and reflected on each one. I invite you to listen to the story and have a conversation with your child about what they learned and how they can accept and empathize with others.

Passion Projects

It is SO exciting to see students work so collaboratively with their partners during this time! This week, they worked hard on their proposal for their research.

Here are a few of the ideas they will be working on and teaching us in a few weeks!

• Blobfish
• Speaking French
• Chihuahua
• History of video games
• Tigers
• Lions

Next week, they will be adding this to their SpacesEDU e-portfolio as a record of their progress. If you have not yet activated your parent accounts to view your child’s reflection posts and the Hip Hop video, please do so. If you’d like me to re-send the invite, please let me know. It’s a quick click of a button!

Passion Project time is a great way to develop their core competencies:

• I can communicate in order to collaborate.
• I can apply critical and reflective thinking to acquire and interpret information, and to make choices about how to communicate their ideas. (paraphrasing)
• I can reflect on my work and experiences and tell others about something I learned. (We will be reflecting on our progress!)

Grade 2 Mathematicians

This past week, we learned how to subtract with regrouping. Some of you may know it as “borrowing”. Whether your child is in grade 2 or 3, this is a great time to review and reinforce this at home. For grade 2s, they subtract up to two-digits (75-38=__) and for grade 3s, they subtract up to three-digits (755-388=__). Our goal is that your child will be able to explain how this is done and to not simply solve the equation. As Einstein said, ““If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Just a reminder to continue to practice learning addition and subtraction math facts at home.

Thank you for your continued support at home!

Please note that our Walkathon date has been changed to May 19 due to the change in date for the all day Track Meet. There is an opportunity for your child’s artwork to be chosen and included in the Yearbook. If your child is interested, please have them submit it to the Community Office early next week.

Sincerely, Ms. Chan