Category: Class News

Dear students and parents, (please review with your child)

Tuesday marks the first day that some students will return to school on Mondays and Tuesdays until the end of June (except June 1). It will be full days. Please review the checklist sent to you via email about what to bring to school. Students at home and school will have a similar list of tasks for the week.

Last week, we worked on writing self-reflections on our learning and the year. If your child has not completed these reflections yet, please encourage them to hop into OneNote > Hand in to complete. Thank you for your continued support!

For Math, we continued with multiplication. Grade 3’s were to finish up previous levels. Grade 4’s, we learned how to multiply 2-digit x 1-digit numbers up to 3-digit x 1-digit numbers. It was self-paced last week. If you need me to have a special lesson, please indicate it on our Grid Method Div 9 document or email. If I see there are a few students who can take advantage of a special Zoom class, then I will schedule it. I have only had a handful of students ask for the final assessment for multiplying 3-digit x 1-digit so far. When your child is ready, please email and I will upload a copy of the assessment into OneDrive. Thank you! As always, any questions, please ask. This week, we will begin Division – just learning the facts so if you know your multiplication facts, this will be easier. If you don’t know your multiplication facts yet, then spend more time practicing those this week.

For Literacy, we will be working on a short story this week inspired by the Mystery Doug video we will be watching on Tuesday.

Looking forward – 3 Zoom meetings this week, all at 1:30 pm:

• Passion Projects Presentation Day 1 on Wednesday, June 3 at 1:30 pm: If you are ready to present, please sign up to present on our Grid Method Div 9 document in OneDrive. Thank you! Day 2 will be on Monday, June 8 at 1:30pm. After students present on Wednesday, they will be asked to do a self-reflection.
• All Book Club meetings will be on Thursday, June 4 at 1:30 pm: We will start off together and then I will create breakout rooms where students can meet to discuss the book. Please update the Grid Method Div 9 document with the book you are reading this week and prepare a reading response so you have something to share. Remember “say something” strategy. Look for Zoom invite in your Outlook mail!
• Whole class meeting on Zoom will be on Friday, June 5 at 1:30 pm: Mark your calendars! This week’s theme: Picnic with stuffed animal friends! Bring your favourite stuffies and a snack to “share” (not share, haha). Meet Bubba! I’ve had him for 25 years! He will be joining us!

TO DO: Please submit your friend requests for next year. Which friends would you love to have in your class next year? Think about people currently in other classes too. Click here to fill out online form.

Some school news:

• Check out the Virtual Celebration of Learning – featuring our new math teachers Zia, Liliana, and Lucas L!
• Join the Virtual Jump Rope for Heart on June 19!

Thank you for your continued support at home! Soooo very excited to see some of you on Tuesday!!

Warmly, Ms. Chan

Dear students and parents,

Thank you for continuing to work hard and for your continued support at home, parents. As you know, we will be reopening schools on June 1st. Group 1 students will attend on Monday and Tuesday full days and Group 2 students will attend on Thursday and Friday full days. We will need to take a look at the number of students who wish to return before dividing into groups. Rest assured, I will try to put your child in with their friends if possible. If you have not filled out the online form to indicate your return or no return to school, please look for an email sent out last Thursday around 3pm. If you did not receive one in your Inbox, please check your junk mail. Sorry, I do not have the link to share it with you but if you need help, please email me and I will ask the office for the link.

This coming week, you would have received a plan for the week by email. OneNote will be prepared each day in this way:

• There will be a new page created each day in our Collaboration Space. Continue to check the previous day’s contributions before you add to the current day. The questions will be available in the weekly plan so you can think ahead.
• There will be two pages prepared for the Hand in section: Literacy and Math. Here you will record your learning for the week. Enjoy the flexibility but feel free to follow the daily plan as laid out.

Last Wednesday, we learned how to use PowerPoint on Zoom. The link was sent to your Outlook Mail.

Since we moved to remote learning, students have been working hard to learn addition and subtraction with regrouping. Last week, tasks centered around understanding what multiplication is. This week, we will continue with multiplication. Brentwood Park began sharing our Celebration of Learning virtually. Keep your eye out for Division 9’s contribution at the next COLA! Thank you to Zia, Liliana, and Lucas L. for your permission to showcase your work!

Here’s a sneak peek if you can’t wait – enjoy!

• Zia teaches addition with regrouping
• Liliana teaches subtraction with regrouping
• Lucas L. teaches us about multiplication

As always, if you have any questions, please ask. Enjoy your week! Still missing you! Looking forward to seeing some of you in about a week!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan

Dear students and parents,

Students, thank you for your continued work in OneNote. I love checking and reading your work each night because although you are probably asleep at the time that I am typing my feedback and writing messages to you, I feel like it is my special time with you, if that makes any sense. I hope you have enjoyed the new Daily Challenges I added last week!

Parents, I really appreciate you for joining me in our meeting on Zoom last Friday night. To see so many of you there touched my heart! My main goal was to provide us with an opportunity to connect face to face albeit behind a screen. Here are some of the main points:

• Thank you for your continued support at home!!! I hope you can feel in your heart and mind my deepest gratitude.
• Schools will re-open on June 1st. We will be receiving more information from the District about health and safety protocols. Returning to school is a family decision. I am here to support your family regardless of your decision. To learn more, visit BC’s Ministry of Education’s website.
• Tips on OneNote: Use the new checkboxes to indicate completed work. Use the Highlighter to mark important information like instructions. If you haven’t noticed, what you see on the Content Library is exactly the same as your Hand in page for the day so now you only need to go to the Content Library when you login.
• We shared some ideas on how we can celebrate the end of the school year “together”. If you have any other ideas, please let me know!

Last week, we started our new unit on multiplication. Please go to We are Mathematicians to see what is in our grade 3/4 curriculum for learning standards. The gist of it is that students will become more fluent recalling multiplication facts but for grade 3’s, this is not intended so the focus is on understanding the concept of multiplication (repeated addition, skip counting, arrays, groups of) which will be the focus this week. Having said that, learning math facts this year while there is some extra time at home will prepare them for next year. For grade 4’s, they will need to multiply up to 3-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers (example: 826 x 3 = 2,478).

I hope the Passion Projects are coming along. They all had a chance to provide us with an update during our Book Club meeting last week so it sounds like it’s going well! This part of remote learning is probably one of the most important opportunities for your child to take. If they found the right passion project for themselves, then they will be self-motivated to learn. To me, this is one of the ultimate goals of education: to learn how to learn and think for themselves, to be curious and develop a passion for learning, to foster perseverance with a positive attitude as we go through the learning process (it is a process!), and to communicate or share what was learned with others. Please email me if you need any support. Our presentations will be on May 25, 27, and 29th on Zoom. During our Friday Zoom meeting, we will be co-constructing some criteria with students for the presentations.

Upcoming Week Schedule: Check Outlook Mail for invitations!

• Tuesday, May 19: Book Club meetings on Zoom – Check schedule on OneNote
• Wednesday, May 20 at 1:00 pm: PowerPoint lesson on Zoom – All welcome!
• Friday, May 22 at 10:30 am: Whole Class Meeting on Zoom – THEME: Wear a hat or crazy hair!

Please send me an email to let me know your thoughts around your child returning to school in June. I understand that you may not have made a decision just yet. I would just love to hear your current thoughts knowing they may change. Thank you! Email: Livia.Chan@burnabyschools.ca

I hope you enjoyed your long weekend! I have a favour to ask: Please give your child a big hug for me. Thank you! I would love it so much if you upload a picture of you hugging your child “from me” in the email you are sending to let me know your intentions about returning. That would absolutely make my day! 🙂 Thank you so much!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan

Dear students and parents,

First of all, a very Happy Mother’s Day to all of our mothers! I know that probably for many of you, how you celebrate is likely not how you might usually have celebrated. For me, my brothers and their families would always come over to celebrate with my mom (my parents live with me) but unfortunately, this year, it won’t happen as we stay safe in our own homes. There is, however, still much to be grateful for. This time apart from my extended family and friends has truly solidified how much I love and miss them and appreciate them. In the same way, being away from my students, their families (you!), and fellow teachers has made me appreciate you all even more. Every day in my daily tasks when I sign off, “Missing you, Ms. Chan,” it is written with the most heartfelt emotions of affection. I don’t write it because it sounds like the right thing to say. I DO miss every single child. I miss their smiles, their laughter, watching their interactions, having our conversations, the funny things they say, their kindness, the way they make me feel so happy, and so much more to list here. Thank you for raising such wonderful children who bring joy to those around them. I am so grateful for your continued support at home. Please feel free to hit COMMENT to let me know how it is going for you at home or how I can better support you. You are always welcome to send me an email too! I am here to support you and your child.

Here’s a recap of what we did last week:

• So excited we had our very first Digital Book Club meetings which were awesome because I felt they came prepared to share (Say Something) and really understood their role in listening, sharing, and building on each others’ ideas. Click here to read my tweet! Next Book Club meetings will be on Tuesday, May 10. Look for a Zoom invite in your child’s Outlook Mail shortly.
• Students continued to practice writing responses in their double-entry journal to capture “My Thinking” in response to a part of the story. They should be able to include thoughts and feelings and dive in deeper to how they connected to that part of the story by providing an example, reasons, or explanations.
• In Numeracy, we continued to practice subtraction with regrouping and learned how to subtract with zeros using the box method. By the end of the week, students were asked to create a video that explained how to subtract with regrouping. If they can explain the concept, then they fully understand it. This would be considered as “Extending” on our proficiency scale. If your child has yet to complete this video, I will gladly accept submissions anytime from now until the end of the school year for both addition and subtraction. It can be uploaded to OneDrive or shared with me. If you need help or aren’t sure what I am talking about, please ask. This week, we will begin learning our multiplication facts. Students whose subtraction is not yet solidified, please continue to practice.
• Our Collaboration Space continues to be a true highlight not just for me as I frequently check over the course of the day. Guaranteed to put a smile on my face or even a laugh, I get so much joy from reading their contributions. This past week, I saw so many share some heartwarming thoughts too. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s worth a look through! Ask your child to show you. Click here to read my tweet about our Collaboration Space on Star Wars day, May the 4th (be with you).
• Your child was given a Secret Mission on Monday to work on throughout the week. They received their instructions via their Outlook Mail. I hope you were surprised and thoroughly enjoyed reading it! Please feel free to write a COMMENT on this post to tell me what you thought. Thanks!
• On Friday, I asked for a reflection after week 4 of learning at home. If your child has not completed this yet, it is very important information for me. I deeply value learning about how your child is feeling, how they view themselves as a learner, and receiving an update on how they are doing in each of our four areas of Literacy, Numeracy, Well-Being, and Flexible Learning. Students, please go to your Reflections section > End of Week 4 reflection to answer my questions. Thank you for your time!
• This was the second week of working on our Passion Project. Continue working on it! Have fun learning!

Next week, I will add a little excitement each day with a Daily Challenge! I absolutely can’t wait to hear their stories after the first challenge! My daughter and I raced to complete the challenge. Can you guess who won? Yes, I did. I had to use my critical thinking skills to figure it out! Bet you can’t wait to login tomorrow to see what it is!

We will have our weekly class meeting on Zoom on Friday, May 15 at 10:30am. Look for the invitation in your child’s Outlook Mail.

As you have been such an integral part of your child’s learning at home, I can’t thank you enough for your time, effort, patience, and love. I am deeply grateful. I would love to have an opportunity to see you face to face (on a screen, of course), to personally thank you for your support. I am inviting ALL parents to join me in a special parent Zoom meeting on Friday, May 15 at 7:00 PM. The purpose of this meeting is primarily to connect us as a parent group but also to share how you are doing, discuss concerns, ask questions, share tips, and come up with ideas on how to ensure we make the rest of the year a memorable one for our children. I hope you can tell by now, I so love being your child’s teacher. It has been an honour and a blessing. Year after year, we use the words, “parents as partners” but this year, you have truly lived it as you climbed mountains and persevered to truly be my beloved partner in your child’s education. I have needed to lean on you to support me during this unprecedented time. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

My sincerest and most heartfelt gratitude, Ms. Chan