Category: Core Competencies

Dear families,

I believe it is important for my students to know that their teacher is a lifelong learner – still learning and wanting to learn more so that I can become a more effective teacher. They listen to me share things I learn from my PLN (Professional Learning Network) on Twitter and the books I am reading. One of the books I am reading is called Grand Conversations, Thoughtful Responses: A Unique Approach to Literature Circles. The author, Faye Brownlie, has a second edition just released on October 29, 2019 so I am looking forward to read the updates.

Students have either been reading with me in our Guided Reading group or they have chosen a book to read and meet in their Literature Circles. The book choices at this time are: Crenshaw, Frindle, and Rules. On Tuesday, they started reading and jotting down connections, questions, interesting word choices by the author or unknown words in preparation for the “Say Something” strategy. On Wednesday, they practiced the “Say Something” strategy for the first time. I thought it went well for their first time. Some shared personal connections, some found interesting word choices like “thought-grenade” from Frindle, and some shared a funny part of the story. I enjoyed the natural responses that classmates had when they felt exactly the same way in response to a certain part of the story. I can’t wait to see how their conversations evolve over time.

We learned about Aboriginal Veteran’s Day and appreciated their service contribution. Students practiced writing their own “tweet” around the theme of pride – how soldiers felt a sense of pride to be Canadian and fight for peace. Later, we made poppies to decorate our class poppy that was displayed at the Remembrance Day assembly. On the poppies, we wrote our personal messages of appreciation. We learned about why we wear poppies. During the Remembrance Day assembly, we listened to a number of moving letters as if they were written during the war from the perspective of a father or mother who stayed home and the father or son who went to war. These letters were written by students in Division 2.

We continued to work on our stories in Office 365. If you are looking for “homework”, they can always read for 20 minutes, work on their stories in O365, practice their Math (see our Math page), or go to Tynker to code.

Today, we went into the Library to practice our coding skills using Tynker. I was so impressed with their perseverance skills. Some found parts of it hard but they kept trying. Learning to code develops not only computational thinking skills in ADST (Applied Design, Skills, and Technology) but goes beyond curriculum and into the core competencies of personal awareness: self-determination, self-regulation, perseverance with challenging tasks, and resilience. There is such value in the struggle.

“Enduring and persisting in the face of struggle are crucial to learning, because learning is a hard and messy business. It’s not an easy expedition. Helping children develop the resilience they need to persist when they bump up against intellectual and social challenges is one of most important ways we can help them make the trek successfully.” – ResponsiveClassroom.org – The Value of Struggle

Coding also dives into the other core competencies of critical thinking: analyze, investigate, develop and design. With all the critical thinking they must have done during this time, if their brains made music, the library would have sounded like a loud rock concert! You know they enjoy an activity when I tell them they have one minute left and you hear a chorus of, “No or aww”.

We finished off the week with tracking our core competencies of Personal Awareness and Responsibility as well as Social Responsibility. Where are we at with our self-determination, self-regulation, and well-being? How do we contribute to our community and care for our environment, how do I solve problems in peaceful ways, how do I build relationships, and how do I value diversity? It will be most interesting to see how they move along on the continuum in these areas.

Click on image to learn more

Enjoy your long weekend, everyone!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

It’s only been two days this week but we’ve already done so much that I wanted to share!

MONDAY: Students completed a self-reflection on their attitude about school, work habits, social awareness and social responsibility. This exercise reinforces the importance and value of regular self-reflections; how they feel about their own learning and self-development. Many heartwarming thoughts were shared about how much they enjoy school.

In Math, we practiced our fractions with a new app named Fractions. Click here for the link to download (free app). Students were able to quickly create examples of various fractions of a whole. They took a screen shot of their pages and used it in their Fractions book using Book Creator to prove they understand fractions. To learn more about what we are learning about, go to our We Are Mathematicians page. Grade 4’s are diving back in to decimals now. For students who wanted to extend their learning, they tried Math Tappers: Equivalents (free app). It was certainly a good challenge!

TUESDAY: Fun with LEGO challenge: Sneak Peek team building activity. Built a structure for students to replicate. One from each group looked at model to memorize and returned to team to instruct without touching. After one minute, sent next person from group to see model and repeat until team succeeds. Students wrote “I can” statements.

• Tyson: I can work well with others.
• Alex: I can help my group.
• Kiana: I can communicate well with others.
• Lucas L: I can work with people.

Dear families,

Your children make work such a joyful place to be. Sometimes I really can’t believe that I have a job that allows me to smile and laugh so often throughout my work day! One thing I am noticing is how new friendships are developing; I am seeing different people spend time with others. Thank you for your continued support at home. I learned this past week that some of the kids have been reading the weekly updates too. What a great real life reason to read!

MONDAY: Last week, students were introduced to numbers with decimals. Since learning about fractions helps with learning about decimals, we dove into fractions this week and will eventually return to decimals next week. I have updated our Mathematicians page to include the learning outcomes for fractions and decimals as outlined in BC’s curriculum so click here to learn more. This page also includes the learning outcomes from the units covered since the beginning of the year.

TUESDAY: In preparation for our Literature Circles, students were taught the “Say Something” strategy. Together, we read a poem about loosing teeth and the tooth fairy (something we all can connect to!). They were encouraged to notice their thinking as they read – their connections, questions, or images they see in their mind. Then they were asked to “say something” to respond to the text. It can be something that reminds them of another personal experience, something that surprised them or an interesting part, an I wonder statement, or comment on how certain words helped create a visual for them (like a movie in their head), for example. This is a great strategy to practice at home so that they become accustomed to sharing thoughts, feelings, opinions, and participate in less structured conversations.

WEDNESDAY: We listened to a story called Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and created our own! Which one scares you the most? Coincidentally, today was the same day that the school veggie program delivered baby carrots. How fitting! I love this program because students may be introduced to fruits or veggies they may have never tried before. We actually had one student who tried a carrot for the first time!

THURSDAY: Hallowe’en Day. After listening to another story by the same author, Aaron Reynolds, called Creepy Pair of Underwear, students were introduced to a new story telling app named Puppet Pals. Working in pairs, they created stories using their own creepy carrots as characters. Such a fun time working in partners being creative and playful with telling their story. In the afternoon, we shared our creative stories with the class.

If you have an iPad, Puppet Pals can be downloaded for free with limited capabilities or purchase Puppet Pals Director’s Pass for a few dollars to have the ability to add your own characters and settings.

Thank you to everyone for bringing in healthy snacks to share! I enjoyed listening to the stories of their Hallowe’en nights.

FRIDAY: Today, we welcomed Ms. Taylor as a volunteer who will be supporting us. I have known her for years through my ringette community because she is also a coach. Last year, she volunteered in my class too. Ms. Taylor has applied to SFU’s Education program to become a teacher.

We met with our little buddies for the second time. So love watching your child practice their leadership and communication skills with little ones!

The District purchased Tynker licenses (coding) for two intermediate classes per school. We are fortunate to have one of these licenses. Some students were interested to take home their account and password information to try out. On an iPad, you can download the Tynker app. Then have your child sign in with their credentials (username and password). I have asked them to download the course named Programming 101 only because this is a beginner course that will help develop their coding skills. Alternatively, Tynker can be accessed on any browser (like Chrome or Safari), tap Sign In, and enter their credentials (username and password).

Dear students,

We have been together for 8 weeks now. What are your favourite activities or lessons so far? What would you like to do more of? Please feel free to write a comment on this blog post.

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan

An update on Grade 4 FSA testing: Most students have completed the two online and three written portions on reading, writing, and numeracy.

I have added some new pages to We Are Learners tab. To learn more about what has been covered in the curriculum, please check it out!

• Comprehend and Connect (new)
• Creators and Communicators (new)
• Mathematicians (updated)
• Core Competencies (I am still adding to this page.)

Field Trip to World Ringette Championships on November 28th. If you have not done so already, please click here to go to the online permission form to fill out. Thank you. To learn more about the field trip, click here.

I recently found out that our Young People’s Concert will be on the same day at 10:45 AM. We should be back shortly after 12 noon and will head to Bill Copeland sooner after. Thank you to parents who have already indicated that you can drive us and help supervise.

Enjoy watching Creepy Carrots and Creepy Underwear at home!

Dear Parents,

MONDAY: As part of our reflection on learning, students used the SMART goals framework to set a personal writing goal and recorded it on a Post-it note. We will be supporting each other in reaching our goal in writing. Anxiously excited about seeing their progress in the next few weeks! 

TUESDAY: We often hear children state, “I’m bored!” or “That’s boring!” When my own kids were young, I would never allow them to use the “B” word. They grew up thinking it was like a bad word. One day, while driving my daughter and her friend to ringette practice, they started talking about this topic. I thought it was hilarious when my daughter didn’t dare say the “B” word and instead spelled it out for her friend! Anyhow, I always believed with all of the books and toys in the house, how can they possibly be bored? So when I heard students in our class bring up this word now and again, I did my own inquiry into what boredom is because it is something I don’t quite understand as I always am doing something or my mind is always thinking about something. I originally believed that there was a solution to the problem of being bored: what children needed to do is simply change their mindset in thinking, so rather than feel bored, they reframe to feel content. I shared my ponderings and findings with the class. What surprised me most was that boredom is not all bad. There were a number of sources that stated benefits to boredom like creativity, problem-solving, becoming more goal-oriented or a better, more altruistic, and happy person to name a few. While I still think that kids can work towards having a feeling of content over boredom, I have encouraged your child to see it as an opportunity. Boredom is an opportunity to:

• contemplate and dream: have time to think about things they don’t normally think about, self-reflect, make plans, discover new hobbies or interests, set new goals, or add ideas to bucket list
• cultivate mindfulness: to be calm, to quiet the mind and the body, replenish energy
• be altruistic: consider what you can do to make someone’s day a little better
• be grateful: count your blessings

So if I were to have one wish, it would be that children stop seeing boredom as a negative state; instead, see it as an opportunity to better themselves, others, or the world around us. We do not need to fill our time with one thing after another to fill up our day. It is okay to feel bored! Please feel free to share your thoughts on this by writing a comment to this post.

This week, we started reading a book written by Steven Covey: The 7 Habits of Happy Kids (same author as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People which some of you may know). It begins with a story about a character who finds himself bored and looks to others to help him find something to do; the character discovers that it is his responsibility to be proactive and not rely on others to “fix” his problem. Here are the first two habits covered so far:

1. Be Proactive – take initiative
2. Begin with the End in Mind – focus on goals

Click here to learn more about the 7 habits we will be learning about.

WEDNESDAY: As part of our inquiry into what makes a good story, we dove into story beginnings. First, each student pulled out a couple books from our classroom library. Some of us shared the first sentence with the rest of the class. Then, we all judged that sentence by our criteria: How engaging is the first sentence of the story? Does it entice or hook me in to want to read more? Next, each student had an opportunity to practice writing a few different story beginnings; many great examples were shared with the rest of the class. This exercise made it very clear to them that we, as authors, write for an audience. Looking forward to see how they revise their own stories to make their beginning sentences more engaging – to hook the reader into wanting to read on to find out more!

Continue to bring in non-perishable food for our We Scare Hunger campaign. Thank you!

Brentwood Park has a pumpkin carving contest. Click here to learn more. Grade 3’s will join the primaries in the gym after recess on Hallowe’en Day for the primary costume parade and dance party.