Category: ADST

Dear families,

I feel so blessed to be at Kitchener as your child’s teacher and the school’s Head Teacher. On Thursday, October 5, it was World Teacher’s Day and it made me feel overwhelmingly grateful to have the honour to be in a profession that changes lives and touches hearts every day. I cannot imagine a more rewarding and joyful role for myself. I felt compelled to share my feelings on X/Twitter. See image on the right.

This year, I celebrate my 25th year as a teacher. My life has been enriched because of the love and connections we get to create every day together. Thank you for sharing your children with me.

Social-emotional Learning

Today, I shared my story about the boomerang I have in the class. I call it a joy boomerang. Why? It represents how when we share our joy, it spreads to others, and then their joy boomerangs and comes back to us.

Our emotions are contagious. The more we contribute to our positive and supportive classroom community as caring and helpful leaders, the more we feel good about being a part of the joyfilled space we share. It’s the same boomerang effect with kindness. When we show helpfulness and deep kindness toward others, we cultivate a joy inside of us.

Every morning, we sit together in our Community Circle to share our feelings and our story. One of the common feelings your children share is how happy they feel because they are in our class. It is truly heartwarming to hear.

“Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).” – First Peoples Principles of Learning

Wonder Wednesdays as Scientists

On Wednesday, we went for a short walk outside with Ms. Tai’s and Ms. Santorelli’s classes. This was an introduction to what will be the first of many this year. The purpose is to spark curiosity and wonderment about the place we live and the world around us. It is also to develop place consciousness and foster an appreciation for the land we have the privilege to live.

Here are some of the curricular competencies in the Science curriculum:

Please CLICK HERE to read the notice or click on the image on the right to view the PDF. We may need some parent volunteers on some of our walks in the future, please. Thank you!

How to support at home: Anytime you go for walks or car rides, encourage your child to be curious! Model curiosity by sharing your “I wonder” statements about what you see in your local environment.

City of Burnaby’s Recycling Program

Also on Wednesday, we had a representative from the City of Burnaby’s Recycling program come to teach us all about recycling. Students had an exciting opportunity to see a truck in action too!

How to support at home: Talk about environmental stewardship and involve them in the habit of recycling at home like paper products, metals, plastics, and the management of food and yard waste. Recycling is more than just a routine; it’s a crucial step in reducing our environmental impact. Discuss the importance of reducing waste, reusing items whenever possible, and recycling materials to give them new life. By doing so, we play a vital role in preserving our land and conserving valuable resources.

This year at Kitchener, we have a bigger school recycling program that include plastics like our milk containers, paper products, and food waste.

We are scientists.

This week, we continued to extend our learning about matter. We learned that there are three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.

As we dove in deeper into solids, we discovered that solids can have different properties. They can differ in their shape, size, colour, and texture. We also learned about mass and volume.

Students are working hard in their All About Matter booklets!

How to support at home: Ask your child to explain the different properties to you. Use the image to the left to compare the properties. They each got to hold these items to learn about the different properties of solids.

Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST)

I am so proud of everyone’s patience and perseverance as they had their first introduction to using laptops today! Everyone was able to successfully login and logout. We practiced this a few times to make sure they knew how. Some had an opportunity to launch Google Chrome to visit our class blog too!

I highly encourage you to read these blog posts WITH your child. Better yet, have them read the blog post to you! It’s a real reason to read! That way, you can talk about what they learned too. We know that when children review and can teach you about what they learned, it solidifies their understanding. As Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Your child came home with a blue sheet that has their login information. The first number you see is actually their 7-digit pupil number. This is the same as their username which is what they need in order to login to the laptops.

Their email address is their pupil number and @edu.burnabyschools.ca so it looks something like this: 2951869@edu.burnabyschools.ca. This is one of the trickiest for young children to memorize but grade 2/3s can do it! They will need to have this memorized by next Friday when we log in to O365. I will not have cards made with their login information and I don’t want them to write this private information in their planners either. The best place to keep their password safe and secure is in their brain. Thank you for your support at home!

Epic

Epic is a free website and app that offers over 40,000 popular books. (If you are interested, families can purchase a plan that allows them to use it in the evenings and weekends too.) The free version can be accessed at home starting at 7:00am on school days until 3:00pm so if your child is sick at home, they can still read high interest books on Epic! Of course, only if they have the energy. Their primary focus should be resting and feeling better!

They will have opportunities to read books on Epic while at school too.

Planners

Now that your child has their long awaited planners, please have them bring it to school every day.

How to support at home: Please check the planner every day and initial it so I know it was read. If you have not paid for the planner yet, please go to School Cash Online.

When my children were young, their responsibility after school was to empty their lunch bag, put any food scraps into the food waste bin, put their thermos into the sink, and take out their planners to put it in the same spot every day for me to read and initial.

I encourage families to make it their child’s responsibility to ensure their planner is in their backpacks the night before school. If they do this every night, they will develop a good habit as they will likely have Planners until the end of grade 7! Children this age will sometimes say to me when they don’t bring their planner to school, “My mom forgot to put it in my backpack.” That’s when I say to them, “It is your responsibility. Not your mom’s.” They are ready for this independence at this age. 🙂

Kitchener’s Multicultural Dinner

You are all invited to attend the Multicultural Dinner on Thursday, October 12 at 6:30pm in the gym. It is a great way to get to know more people in our community! Please bring a dish from your culture to share. In order to help us plan for the number of people attending, we ask that you fill out this online form. CLICK HERE to fill it out to let us know how many people will be attending. Click here to learn more.

Reminders

• Monday, October 9: Thanksgiving Day; school closed
• Wednesday, October 11: Ms. Chan will be at an all-day workshop. There will be a TTOC in my place. She is a friend and an experienced retired teacher! They will have a great day! 🙂
• Friday, October 20: Pro-D Day; no school for students
• Thursday, November 2: Photo re-takes
• SAVE THE DATE: Bowling at Revs on Friday, November 17. We need parent volunteer drivers, please. Thank you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am grateful we work as partners in your child’s learning! Thank you for your continued support at home. Please feel free to write a comment in response to this post. I appreciate you for your interest and time to invest in your child’s learning each week by reading our class blog. Enjoy the long weekend!

With great appreciation, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

Passion Project presentations are well underway! Addie started us off with her amazing presentation on foxes on Monday. Later that afternoon, we did a directed drawing on foxes that you would have seen come home that day. I loved seeing their creativity!

Here are other projects we enjoyed:

• Ramen by Chloe and Katelyn – Students even got a taste of ramen after their presentation!
• Space is So Cool! by Nassi and Kiran
• Monkeys by Cooper and Jeremy H.
• Axolotls by Lilly and Chiara
• Kangaroos by Alessandra
• Italian by Cristina

Here are a few more to come next:

• Blob fish
• Swans
• French

This is the first year I taught grade 2s (and second time teaching grade 3s) how to use PowerPoint, Word, and email. Honestly, I am extremely impressed with how quickly they learned! The way they put together slides with titles and information, their creativity and choice in images that match the slide topic, and their overall presentation skills will set them up well for future presentations. One thing they are learning to do better is to reference the resources they used.

Students have provided valuable feedback to help presenters know what they did well and how they can improve for next time. It’s impressive what they notice and how well they articulate this to their classmate in a positive and supportive way. Learning how to give feedback and constructive criticism is an important skill! Please feel free to ask your child about what they have enjoyed about the Passion Project presentations so far!

I also appreciate how they apply their new skills and how they support each other. We have little leaders who act as mentors, and it’s so heartwarming to watch how helpful so many are. I really believe that every child has leadership potential in them. They just need the right mix of opportunity, confidence, courage, plus a hint of coaching and maybe some nudging in order to shine. Once we notice and name it, this leadership trait is nurtured. Soon enough, we have more and more learners feeling like they are supportive leaders. I can often be found saying, “Thank you for being a leader by contributing to our classroom environment.”

Story Workshop
Students practiced oral storytelling with Ms. Lee. I reminded them that the tradition of oral storytelling is an important one in Indigenous families as many valuable stories are passed down from generation to generation. Every day, we share a part of our story with each other during our Community Circle to help us connect with one another. On Wednesday, they all had an opportunity to create a story based on their experiences and stories they have in them.

“Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story.” – First Peoples Principles of Learning

Grizzly Games
On Wednesday, we had our first Grizzly Games house meeting to decide on team names. How exciting! Students are encouraged to wear their team colour on Friday. Their colour was written in their planners. We have our next house meeting this Wednesday where we will practice the team cheer!

We are mathematicians.
For grade 3’s, there is a Math test coming up. Please check your child’s planner for more information. Also, continue to practice addition and subtraction with regrouping to 1000. For example: 567 + 255 = ____ and 231 – 188 = _____.

For grade 2’s, continue to review regrouping with subtraction to 100 at home. For example: 67 + 25 = _____ and 31 – 18 = _____. We have also been creating and solving real-world word problems and having fun doing it!

How you can support at home: Have fun coming up with different scenarios for your child to solve! Maybe you can have fun taking turns creating and solving each other’s word problems! For example: There are 65 ice cream cones to sell at the carnival. You sold 47. How many do you have left to sell? Grade 3’s can do this too except your numbers have 3-digits! Enjoy!

What Pride Means to Me
Reflections are a BIG part of our learning and a part of developing our core competencies like critical thinking. Last week, we discussed what “pride” means to us. Our conversation helped us better understand our upcoming Pride day on Wednesday. We reflected on how we can feel proud of who we are, how hard we work, what we have, and how we can feel proud of others. We talked about what we think and how we feel pride, the emotions that come along with it, and how we celebrate this pride with humility.

We followed this up with writing reflections on how we feel proud of our growth this year in various areas of our learning.

“Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).” – First Peoples Principles of Learning

I also believe that it’s important to regularly celebrate what we feel proud of like our daily small wins. We can often be found giving ourselves a high five and each other high fives. We know that when children are made aware that they are being challenged in their stretch zones and can see their own growth, their level of happiness is increased.

As a result, these increased levels of joy and happiness further activate the learning centres in their brains making it even easier to learn more. We also know that being happy makes an impact on overall well-being and how they interact with others which leads to improved social connections. I do believe that all of these factors play a role in building the positive, safe, and joyful environment we get to enjoy every single day.

“Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors.” – First Peoples Principles of Learning

It is by intentional design that Mrs. Paulich and I create and cultivate a nurturing, playful, loving, and joyful culture where your children thrive and love to come to school. Being with your children brings us both SO much joy, and it’s evident that your children feel the same way! Of course, we cannot do this without your full support at home. With a few short weeks left, our hearts are truly full of deep gratitude for your continued support all year as our partners in your child’s learning.

As I will be leaving Gilmore at the end of this year and heading to Kitchener as their new Head Teacher, I am savouring and appreciating every last bit with your children and this community. They hold such a special place in my heart. I will share more appreciations in my last post at the end of June but for now, please know how much I have loved and appreciated you and your child in our class. I tell them this every single day! I love them so much! 🙂

With deep sincerity and gratitude, Ms. Chan

Upcoming dates:

• Monday, June 5: Pro-D Day; school not in session
• Tuesday, June 6: Wear one colour day of the rainbow. We will be taking a whole school photo first thing after attendance.
• Wednesday, June 7: Gilmore Pride day. Wear something that makes you feel proud like a Gilmore shirt, rainbow colours, or team jersey, for example.
• Thursday, June 8: Business Fair. If you wish, bring money to buy items made by our grade 6/7’s.
• Friday, June 9: Grizzly Games. Wear your team colour. Early dismissal at 12:15pm.
• Thursday, June 15: Confederation Park with our pen pals from Brentwood Park.
• Friday, June 23: Science World field trip. We will need 5 parent volunteers wiling to supervise. Notice will come home on Tuesday.

Dear families,

So much we’ve enjoyed since our last post!

We had a wonderful opportunity to be an artist with Arts Umbrella in our gym. Students took a picture of their art and wrote reflections in their SpacesEDU account so please check there.

Click here to view a video of our beautiful and creative artwork! I co-created one too! It has been decades since I used pastels and paint to create art and it made me feel grateful for the opportunity.

We also had the opportunity to learn about financial literacy with a visit with Nita from Vancity. They learned about saving money and compound interest. You probably saw the can piggy bank they made to keep.

On Wednesday, May 17, thank you to our parent volunteers and the appreciated organization of Ms. Barndt, our class along with others went to Granville Island to watch students from grade 6 to 10 perform Box Car Children. This play was based on a popular children’s book series. We are grateful to the parents of Jeremy H., Addie, Cristina, Ethan, Chloe, Kiran, Sunny, Nassi, and Alex.

Last Wednesday, we are so very grateful for Nassi’s family’s generosity. They invited us to their restaurant, Sfinaki, for a most delicious lunch! This has been my family’s favourite Greek Restaurant for a very long time! We appreciate you, Denny and Crystal!

Grade 2 and 3 Math

Mrs. Pears would like all grade 3s to practice regrouping with addition and subtraction to 3-digits at home, please. For grade 2’s, they can also practice to 2-digits.

Passion Projects (ADST)

We will begin our Passion Project presentations this week! Here is a copy of the rubric we will be using to assess. Click on the image to view the PDF.

Science

We have been doing some inquiry learning about landforms. So far, we have learned about mountains, glaciers, and valleys. How you can support at home: Ask your child what they have learned and then ask them what else they wonder. Model curiosity by sharing some questions you might have. Then enjoy researching together!

Thank you for your generous donations for the Walkathon! It’s hard to believe that we are nearing the end of May. We still have lots of fun learning to do as we look forward to finishing off the year strong! As always, my heart is full of appreciation for your support at home.

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Upcoming dates:

• Monday, June 5: Pro-D Day; school not in session
• Tuesday, June 6: Wear one colour day of the rainbow. We will be taking a school photo.
• Wednesday, June 7: Gilmore Pride day. Wear something that makes you feel proud like a Gilmore shirt or team jersey, for example.
• Thursday, June 8: Business Fair. If you wish, bring money to buy items made by our grade 6/7’s.
• Friday, June 9: Grizzly Games. Early dismissal at 12:15pm.
• Thursday, June 15: Confederation Park with our pen pals from Brentwood Park.

Dear families,

What a wonderful week of celebration! This week, students spent time preparing for our Student Led Conferences. Every day, we meet in our Community Circle where we share our feelings and answer a question of the day. On Wednesday, their question was: What are you most excited to share with your parents? Everyone except for one said they were excited to share their Passion Projects! I do believe they weren’t just copying each other but they truly WERE excited to share! This affirmed the reason why I love offering an opportunity to explore something of great interest.

The collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity I am a witness to is truly joyfilling! When they arrive in the morning to check out our shape of the day, I love seeing their sheer excitement when they see “Passion Projects” on the board. It puts a smile on my face every time! I am impressed with how quickly they learn the tools and develop their thinking and skills.

Here are the curricular competencies for Applied Design at this age level:

Ideating

• • Identify needs and opportunities for designing, through exploration
  • Generate ideas from their experiences and interests
  • Add to others’ ideas
  • Choose an idea to pursue

Making

• • Choose tools and materials
  • Make a product using known procedures or through modelling of others
  • Use trial and error to make changes, solve problems, or incorporate new ideas from self or others

Sharing

• • Decide on how and with whom to share their product
  • Demonstrate their product, tell the story of designing and making their product
  • Use personal preferences to evaluate the success of their design solutions
  • Reflect on their ability to work effectively both as individuals and collaboratively in a group

Applied Skills

• • Use materials, tools, and technologies in a safe manner in both physical and digital environments
  • Develop their skills and add new ones through play and collaborative work

Applied Technologies

• • Explore the use of simple, available tools and technologies to extend their capabilities

Both Mrs. Paulich and I felt so proud of all students for how well they led their conference with you. They communicated their learning so well! We are so grateful for your time to attend to celebrate your child’s learning. We hope you got a good sense of some activities we enjoy in our class!

Enjoy some reflections students wrote today as we reflected on our core competency of communication:

“Yesterday, my parents came to my Student Led Conference. I can communicate by telling them about my Passion Project. I can beat my mom at Math Tappers. It felt good. I can read fluently. I thought I did a good job of reading. I can do a good job at my art. My parents enjoyed the Math Tappers. I like how I shared my Student Led Conference.” – AP

“This is the Student Led Conference from AK’s perspective. This year’s Student Led Conference was amazing! My dad got 18.1 SECONDS on Math Tappers! He’s amazing! I can communicate with people about my learning. I can show off (in a good way) my work confidently. I can share my thoughts and be happy. Lots of things happened this year. I hope next year will be just as fun!” – AK

“Yesterday, we had Student Led Conferences. Student Led Conferences is a place in school where our parents come to school and we show our work like math and art. It was very fun. I can communicate the work that I did in 2023. I can feel happy about my work. I can add more detail in my Passion Project. Other than that, it was fun.” – CS

“Yesterday, the school had Student Led Conferences. I am proud of my Passion Project and I really enjoyed playing Finding Sums. It’s a game that makes you do math. I appreciate my parents looking at my hard work. I can communicate with others and my family. I can be excited by waiting for my parents to come in the classroom. I thoughts that each parent would go one by one. What my parents enjoyed was my Passion Project. I had a great Thursday.” – VRN

“Yesterday, I had a Student Led Conference. My core competencies: talking confidently and I can also talk loudly. I can communicate my learning by explaining. I show things and say details about it. I can show things confidently. It was exciting. I thought it was enjoyable. My parent enjoyed looking at my math. I enjoyed it too.” – KS

“Yesterday, we had Student Led Conferences. It was long, but fun. I can communicate properly. I can use expression. I can read loudly. I think my parents like Add Sums. it was fun. I gave Ms. Chan a green apple (not a real one). – CP

“Yesterday was Student Led Conferences where my parents came to school. I can communicate by learning and explaining what I did. I can also teach my parents my work and I can speak confidently. I felt so happy when I shared my work. My parents were really proud of the Passion project. I enjoyed sharing my math, morning, message, and doing the movement break! I think his was the best Student Led ever!” – CW

More ADST

Today, we enjoyed a creative design challenge! Students were randomly chosen to be in a group of 4 students. Every group was given the same materials: 2 cardstock papers, string, 4 pipe cleaners, 6 straws, tape, and 4 twist ties. Their mission: create an extension to their table. Unfortunately, I forgot to take final pictures except for one because it wasn’t dismantled until the end of the day.

I loved seeing their collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity. The longest extension was approximately 60 cm! There was a creative table extension that was very sturdy and can hold two pairs of scissors plus other things! Ask your child about this challenge and celebrate how they contributed to their team! Click on image to enlarge.

We are storytellers.

For the past few weeks, students have enjoyed creating stories with our story workshop kits with Ms. Lee. I feel like a broken record but your children really work hard at their collaboration, communication, and creativity! It is a reflection of their core values! Click on image to enlarge.

Field Trips

A notice about our Wednesday, May 17 field trip to Granville Island went home this week. If you did not receive one, click here to download a copy. If you would like a paper copy, please send me an email or write a note in the planner.

In-school Field Trip

On Wednesday, May 10, we have a wonderful opportunity to have an in-school field trip! Since 1988, The Van Go workshops have provided free visual arts workshops to Metro Vancouver elementary schools. Arts Umbrella artist-instructors take creativity-inspiring activities and  arts supplies into local elementary schools.

The theme: Underwater Seascapes and Animals

Students will be creating their own mixed media underwater seascape composition utilizing paper, oil pastel and watercolour paint. Students choose what the focus of the piece can be; on the underwater environment of an ocean, lake or river, or of marine life. Students will experiment with different artistic techniques such as oil resist, colour mixing, materials layering and blending, relief painting, and different brush techniques such as dry-brushing, wet on wet, and stippling. Children have the chance to embrace diversity, explore artistic expression and nurture community spirit – all while having fun! Our time will be from 9 to 10:20 am. Please have your child dress in appropriate clothing where they can explore art materials comfortably.

Save the dates

• Thursday, June 15 – Confederation Park to meet our pen pals from Brentwood Park
• Friday, June 23 – Science World field trip with Division 12 (Mrs. Pears). We will need parent volunteers, please.

Deep Gratitude

Our hearts are always so full of gratitude for your continued support at home. Thank you for being our special partners in your child’s learning this year. It is with great sadness that I inform you that I will be leaving the Gilmore community at the end of June. My three years here have been a true blessing and has felt like a home away from home. The connections I have built with staff, families, and children will have a special place in my heart forever. I will surely miss seeing your children in the hallways and classrooms next year.

One quote that has helped me with this news: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss

There are still a several more weeks to savour! So many more smiles and laughs to share with so much learning more to happen! Your children fill my heart with such joy! 🙂

With appreciation, Ms. Chan