Category: Field Trips

Hello Division 6 families!

I hope you had a great week like we did at school! I feel like a broken record but the love and joy we share is so appreciated. Today during our Community Circle, we shared something grateful we are looking forward to on the weekend and something we appreciate about our class. Such heartwarming responses with thankfulness for classmates and me. Our daily gratitude practices are a part of our being together as a community. Just yesterday, I had the greatest honour to have my writing published by one of the biggest education websites in the world! Edutopia shared my article about how gratitude is embedded in our classroom. I’d LOVE for you to read it so you can get a glimpse into our day – Click here!

Practicing gratitude is an important part of our social emotional learning! It improves mindset, builds a positive classroom culture, and fosters social awareness. How can you naturally embed gratitude into your daily routine at home?

We are creative.

The theme at Gilmore this month is creativity so we are fully embracing ours with our dragster cars and poetry! This week, we continued to work on our affirmations and CREATIVITY acrostic poems. Today, a student shared that she was feeling a little on the grumpy side when she woke up. Then she read her affirmations and it turned her day to a positive start! I even noticed she came in this morning with big smiles and I was truly thrilled to learn why! As your child is finishing up their affirmations, they will have two copies – one for home to read in the morning and at night for 30 days and one at school. May I suggest that you write affirmations too? Share it with your child and read it as a way to connect. Perhaps you can do the 30 day challenge together! I am excited to see how that changes your child’s belief in themselves and how it builds their personal inner strength.

We are mathematicians.

So far, the grade 5s have learned about division: sets, sharing, how division and multiplication is related, knowing when to multiply and divide, and dividing with remainders. Today, we had such a great lesson in working collaboratively, communicating our mathematical thinking, and using our critical thinking skills as our first discovery lesson on long division. We were placed in three groups to practice our math discourse by explaining, reasoning, and justifying our process and answer.

It warmed my heart how well they worked together and how engaged they were! I may have been smiling the whole time! I loved and appreciated how once they gained a certain level of understanding, I was able to push them a little more to stretch their thinking and build connections to what they already know about addition and multiplication. They got to come to their own discovery and understanding of how they are all related!

Next week, we will break down the algorithm of long division. Please continue to work with your child to practice their math facts. I had a student today feel SO proud of herself because she now knows all of her x6 facts! All it takes is some dedication, commitment, and time. Eventually, with practice, they will learn them all! Thank you for your support!

ADST

This week, we had our sanding party! Many of the cars are much smoother than when they brought them back in. Next week, we will paint. I am so looking forward to seeing their creativity shine through! If your child still has their cars at home, please ensure they are brought back to school on Monday. Thank you!

Outdoor Education

What an awesome day we had with the grade 5s at Camp Jubilee! They had an opportunity to do archery, low ropes, and kayaking. We ended our day with a campfire and of course, silly campfire songs! We are already looking into the possibility of booking for the grade 5s next year (that’s this year’s grade 4s)! Thank you to the fundraising efforts of parents who covered half of your cost. We appreciate you!

It sounds like the grade 4s enjoyed their day too with the others in Mr. Anchor’s class. 🙂

We are swimmers.

On Tuesday, May 17, we have our first of two swimming sessions! We will be leaving the school shortly after lunch. We will walk to Eileen Dailey pool so please have your child dress appropriately for the weather. Children were encouraged to prepare by writing a list of what they need and packing their own swim items the night before so they are not rushing around on Tuesday morning. This teaches them responsibility and organization.

Grade 5s – If your child has a Be Active pass, please bring it to school on Monday. That way, if they forget, they still have a second opportunity to bring it on Tuesday. If your child does not have one yet, please print and fill it out and return to school on Monday. That way, there will be no cost for them. Thank you so much for your cooperation! Click here to learn more and get access to the registration form.

Please review the safety expectations. Click on the image or click here to read.

Reminder: Students will not be making any purchases so please do not send money.

Reminder: Class Photo Day will be this Friday, May 20!

As always, we appreciate you for your support at home and for sharing your wonderful children with us this year. It has been such a phenomenal year so far! Have an awesome weekend!

Grateful for you, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

We hope you had a wonderful and Happy Mother’s day! I had both of my brother’s family come over for the first time in over a year, and I felt so grateful for the opportunity to have our family together again. It filled my heart with gratitude and joy. Speaking of gratitude, I was recently a guest on my friend’s new podcast called Evolving with Gratitude where I got to share what gratitude means to me. I also had the greatest opportunity to talk about how gratitude is embedded in our daily practices in the classroom. If you’re interested, I’d love for you to CLICK HERE to listen. I also wrote a blog post almost a year ago called The Gift of Gratitude if you’d like to check that out too. I truly believe that gratitude is a mindset and a way of living that helps me cultivate joy every day and throughout the day.

First of all, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your generosity and dedication to supporting our students at Gilmore! What an incredible collective effort to raise funds for our Walkathon! They had a great walk around the neighbourhood last Friday! Our hearts are full of gratitude!

Grade 5s to Camp Jubilee on Tuesday, May 10. Please have your child arrive at or before 7:15am. The bus will leave promptly at 7:30am. We will not be able to wait if your child is not here on time because we need to catch the boat on the north shore.

The grade 4s will line up in our usual spot in the morning. Mr. Anchor will pick them up in the morning. Students will be spending the day with the other grade 4s in his class. Sounds like a fun day he’s planned for them!

We are poets.

This past week, we started our unit on poetry. Our monthly theme at Gilmore is creativity so poetry fits right in! We started with a list poem, writing our our personal affirmations. I follow Jon Acuff‘s work and he calls it anthems so some students have chosen to call it that too. Each student had an opportunity to share their favourite statements and wow, they have blown me away with how insightful they are. I am so excited to see their final products so they can use these as anchors in their personal development. By the way, I highly recommend looking into Jon Acuff. He’s written a number of books, his latest called Soundtracks, and has a great podcast called All it Takes is a Goal.) Click here to see a copy of Jon’s Anthem to give you an idea or google affirmations to get a better idea too.

We also tried our hand at writing tongue twisters. We came up with some creative and difficult ones to say out loud!

On Friday, we wrote an acrostic poem with the word: CREATIVITY. This was brought home for homework to finish. This is a poem where the first letter in each line spells out the word.

I think it’s always fun if you do what we do. So, if you’d like to try your hand at writing an anthem or affirmations, a tongue twister, or an acrostic poem for creativity, I would love for you to share it with your child! If you’re comfortable, have your child bring it to school to share it with all of us! I bet the other kids will think it’s so cool!

We are mathematicians.

Both grade 4s and 5s started division. Please continue to encourage your child to practice their multiplication/division math facts. It really does make a world of a difference when they just know them by heart and don’t have to check their multiplication chart, which really slows down their computations.

Reminders

Dragsters – Students were asked to bring their carved dragsters back to school on Monday, ready for our sanding party. Thank you for helping your child prepare their dragsters. I am so looking forward to seeing how their concepts come to reality! Next week, we will paint.

Coffee & Conversation – The Community Room is now open again for coffee time! Since I have Head Teacher time, I get to be a part of this wonderful time to connect with parents. If you are available, I would SO love for you to join us on Thursday mornings from 9 to 10am. It’s a great opportunity to get to know other parents better too!

Thank you so very much for your continued dedication to reading these blog posts to keep up to date. We appreciate your support at home!

Loving being your child’s teacher, Ms. Chan

Dear Division 6 families,

Time is flying by! I cannot believe we are moving into our last week in April! We will continue to make each day count and thoroughly enjoy learning together.

I have different opportunities to share my experiences with people in our district and around the world. One thing I absolutely love sharing is the joy I feel being your child’s teacher and the connection we share. It has been such a memorable year so far and I have been so blessed and honoured to work with you and your children. We are so very grateful for your continued support! Please always feel free to reach out should you have any positive feedback so we know what is effective for your child and we keep doing it but also any concerns so we can better support you and your child.

We are communicators and can reflect on our learning.

Last week, your child had the great opportunity to share their learning with you during their Student Led conference at home. We have thoroughly enjoyed reading the Two Stars and a Wish sheets! Thank you for your time to fill them out so thoughtfully! It was a great opportunity for your child to not just reflect on their learning but to celebrate their progress and also set some goals for the remainder of this year. If you have feedback you’d like to share  or want to elaborate on what was written on the Two Stars and a Wish sheets, please feel free to send me an email at Livia.Chan@burnabyschools.ca. We are looking forward to in-person conferences next year!

We are mathematicians.

Grade 4s are continuing to practice multiplication x 1 digit. The grade 5s had an opportunity to show what they know so far on Wednesday. It was a point of progress for me to check their understanding,  inform me on what I need to review/reteach, and an opportunity for them to see where they are at in their learning journey too. Your child should have brought home their progress sheet with specific feedback along with an answer sheet for you to compare. Most students still need to review the distributive property so we would appreciate your support, thank you! They will have another opportunity to show what they know on Friday, April 29! Please continue to have your child practice their math facts. It makes a world of a difference and helps with their confidence when children know their facts. We will be starting division very soon!

We are scientists.

We learned about the respiratory system. Please feel free to rewatch the video and talk about how the system works. I taught them a movement “dance” to remember. We have two dances so far…one for the circulatory system and one for the respiratory system! Ask them to show you!

Passion Projects

Aside from a handful of students who have yet to present (they will this coming week), most students have started on their next passion project. On Friday, they had an opportunity to formally record. Your child brought it home to work on. Feel free to review it with them this week. Most important are the questions that will drive their research. Please remind your child to return it before Friday. Click the link Passion Project proposal for a copy. It includes the progress sheet too.

We are critical and creative thinkers who design!

This past week, students were introduced to the CO2 dragsters ADST project (Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies). They had some time to investigate other people’s designs and are free to continue to do so at home. This week, they will be:

We are so looking forward to seeing their progress over time!

Swimming Update

Thank you so much for sharing your feedback so quickly on the survey! There was an overwhelming response so we will be planning two swimming sessions at Eileen Dailly pool. As soon as more details are available, we will happily share!

Some reminders:

• Grade 5s: Please sign forms and pay for Camp Jubilee.
• If your child has not returned their Student Led conference envelopes yet, please return.
• Donations for Canucks Autism Network will be closing on April 28. Go to School Cash Online if you would like to donate, thank you.

With a heart of gratitude, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

A lot has happened since the last time there was a post on our blog. I have surely missed providing you with an update on our learning. I want you to have a full sense of what we did for the last three weeks so rather than writing one long post, you will be receiving separate weekly posts to catch you up. Enjoy!

This past week, Ms. Grewal taught the class for two full days on Monday and Tuesday as part of her SFU Education program. She will spend one more week with us after spring break.

Mar. 9 – In the morning, we read the book The Most Magnificent Thing. Click on the link to have the story read to you. This story is about a girl who tries to build the most magnificent thing but experiences repeated failure until she quits but after a break, has a renewed sense of creativity and enthusiasm to continue. Ms. Grewal stopped at the part of the story where she quit so that students could write their own ending before the real ending of the story was revealed.

In the afternoon, the grade 3’s went to Kitchener for Primary Days of Music to present their two songs and sing along with other schools that learned the same songs. This tradition is a long-standing one in Burnaby and another testament to how our District honours the arts and the love of music.

While the grade 3’s were away, the grade 4’s read a story called I Am Not a Number. The author’s grandmother told her what it was like when she went to the residential school. She felt it was important to share what happened through this book. To learn more and listen to the author speak about why she wrote her grandmother’s story, click here (2:33 minutes).

Mar. 10 – We have Music with Mr. Maroney every Tuesday. For the next while, please have your child bring their recorders to school every Tuesday. If your child still does not have a recorder, please pay online for one.

We read a story called My Mouth is a Volcano. Click on the link to have the story read to you. This story is about a boy who has a habit of interrupting. The author teaches children a creative technique to hold onto thoughts to share at an appropriate time instead. Students were given the choice to write about their own experiences or to write a creative story of their own based on this story.

Mar. 11 – To interact further with the same book, My Mouth is a Volcano, students became screen writers and actors. Ms. Grewal selected students to work in groups to create a short skit that demonstrated a scenario where the main character’s mouth was like a volcano and how the issue was resolved. Students worked collaboratively in their groups sharing ideas, recording it on a storyboard, and then practicing their acting skills. I loved listening to their conversations as they worked together on a common goal. I also loved how the audience enjoyed each skit and how supportive they were. At the end, each person had to write their “I can” statements as they self-assessed their own teamwork skills. 

I was truly touched when I came into the room after lunch break. As I walked in to a full room of students, I heard, “Surprise! Happy birthday!” with a birthday banner, a message on the whiteboard, a table set up with my favourite fruit to share, two chopsticks and a blue paper ring to play table ringette, a crown to wear, thoughtful cards, and a wrapped gift. My heart was warmed and I felt loved. My birthday is over the break. This was the best birthday surprise ever!

In the afternoon, we spent some time reviewing our reading, writing, listening, and speaking goals by reflecting on how we were progressing, what we were proud of, what we still need to work on, and whether we were ready for a new goal. I was very impressed with how everyone so thoughtfully and honestly assessed their progress. They were so focussed on this writing as this was evidence of growth we wanted to share with you during our Student Led Conferences.

Mar. 12 – During the day, we were busy preparing for our Student Led Conferences. They thoroughly enjoyed pretending to be a parent as they practiced. I am so grateful to all of you who invested your time to celebrate your child’s learning. It was so heartwarming and endearing to watch your child share their learning and interact with you. I loved seeing the smiles, hearing the laughter, and watching you do your movement break together! Thank you for continuing to be a partner in your child’s education. [Deepest gratitude to Ana for creating our “Welcome to Student Led Conferences” signs. She came up with this idea on her own, created the beautiful signs under my nose, and posted them up! I didn’t even know who put up these lovely welcoming signs until I asked around. Thank you, Ana! Such a thoughtful gesture.]

Mar. 13 – We became potato farmers and potato scientists. First, we read through the list of instructions together which was sent to me in an email from Ms. Hickman. We had to use our critical thinking skills to figure out what steps to take because this was my first time planting potatoes. Just to be sure, we quickly found a short video on YouTube that solidified our understanding. Next, we took pictures of our potato seeds. Then, to capture our observations as scientists, we took notes on what we saw, what it looked like, describing it by colour, shape, size, and smell, for example. Students were given a choice in which app they preferred to use: Book Creator or Explain Everything. I was impressed with their proficiency in using their app of choice and how quickly they were able to record their observations. When I told them we were going to record our observations, they were so anxious and motivated to get started. It was just like a child who couldn’t wait to open their present. Off they went in using their creativity for their title pages and observations. I absolutely love how real their learning is and having the iPads are a great way for them to capture their ideas in photographs and words. While they were diligently working in the class, we took turns outside putting dirt into our pot and planting our seeds!

I hope you have had a good start to your spring break. As I shared with my students, I am looking forward to staying home and spending more time with my family. Enjoy your time as well. Stay healthy and safe! As always, if you have any questions or concerns, my door is open. Please feel free to reach out and contact me by email, in a note, in person, or call the school.

To keep updated, regularly check the Burnaby School District website at http://burnabyschools.ca. For the latest post about COVID-19 including a message from our Board Office and a number of links, click here. 

Sincerely, Ms. Chan

Looking for ways to keep your child occupied? Here are some suggestions:

• Go for a walk together rain or shine. Each day, find ten new things you haven’t ever noticed before in nature or take turns discovering. It may become more challenging the more walks you take together! Bring a little notebook along to record.
• Play Math games with cards to review facts to practice fluency:
  • Making tens – Each player has 5 cards. Goal is to have combinations that equal 10. For example, if you have a 6 in your hand, say, “Do you have a 4?” If not, “go fish.” Take a card.
  • Addition war – Divide deck in two for each player. Flip over one card. First person to say the sum gains the cards. Challenge: Each person flips over two cards at the same time to add!
  • Doubles war – Flip over one card at a time. First person to call out the double gains the cards. For example, turn over a 6. 6 doubled, call out 12!
  • Doubles +1 strategy – Flip over one card at a time. First person to call out the double plus one gains the cards. For example, flip over a 6. The question would be 6 + 7  = 13. (6 doubled plus one)
  • +2 strategy – Flip over two cards. First person to call out the next number counting by two’s gains the cards. The idea is that rather than calculating, the automatic response is to count up by two’s instead. Then practice subtracting by two’s for the -2 strategy.
  • +10 strategy – Flip over one or two cards. First person to call out +10 gains the cards. Then practice -10.
  • +9 strategy – Flip over any number from 1 to 10. Each number, add 9. If they can quickly add +10, then +9 is just one less. For example, flip a 6. Think 6 + 10 = 16 but one less = 15.
  • Addition of larger numbers – Flip two cards and another two cards as random numbers to add (practice using decomposing or compensation strategy or regrouping). For grade 3’s, they are expected to be able to add to 1000 (3 digit plus 3 digit numbers) and for grade 4’s to 10 000 (4 digit plus 4 digit numbers) so using cards, they can create random numbers to add together.
  • Alternative: Go to my Symbaloo weblinks page to practice these math fact fluency strategies. To access, look on the right-hand side under Links on this class blog. Click on Symbaloo and it can be found on the bottom row. I created flashcards using Quizlet.
• Read by taking turns or at the same time together. Children at any age still enjoy listening to an adult read and vice versa. Just a few days ago, my 18 year old son read aloud a short story to me. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
• Keep a journal of what you did each day over the break. Make it fun by asking your child to write and then you write your thoughts afterwards on the same page! We always focus on having an opening and closing sentence with details in the middle that include thoughts and feelings. Another idea is to draw a picture together of what you did like a shared visual journal. I would love to see your shared work!
• Continue writing their creative stories on Office 365, play Prodigy or Tynker. If you need login information again, please email me. We also have a district licence to an online program, called All the Right Type, to learn how to touch type. We will be starting the program as class but if you’d like your child to have a head start, please contact me and I will pass along the login information.

Unfortunately, TELUS World of Science has closed its doors at least until April 6 for a deep clean so our field trip will be cancelled.