Category: Indigenous Education

Dear families,

As we said good-bye to Mr. Evoy, there were mixed emotions of celebrating a successful practicum of teaching and learning together for all of us and knowing we will miss his warm and kind presence. It wasn’t just students who learned from him but both Ms. Kim and I learned about our own philosophy and practices affirming why we do what we do as we supported Mr. Evoy so it makes us better teachers in the process too!

We are so grateful for Mr. Evoy’s dedication, hard work, and connection with us. We wish him continued success in his teaching journey! We hope to see him back as a Teacher on Call at Kitchener!

I, Ms. Chan, thoroughly enjoyed being back in the classroom on Thursday and Friday. What a blessing to spend time with your beautiful children. I am so grateful! It truly is incredible how much learning happens in one day, let alone a week, a month, and a year!

Student Led Conferences

We are grateful for your time to listen attentively to your child show you their learning across the curriculum. Thank you for being active participants and big supporters of their learning all year! We hope you enjoyed celebrating their successes. They worked so hard to prepare for these conferences and have continued to work hard since September. We are so proud of them and their perseverance!

If you haven’t done so yet, please fill out the Two Stars and a Wish sheet and return it to school tomorrow, thank you!

We are mathematicians.

Over the weekend, students were encouraged to teach you about division as we enjoyed our first lesson on Friday. If they haven’t yet, ask them to share what they learned. Pull out some candy, chocolates, or cookies with plates for each person in your family. Ask them to divide by sharing to practice what they learned. Reinforcing new concepts helps to solidify learning and builds a strong initial foundation for learning division.

Here’s what we learned so you can support at home:

Each lesson, it is important for us to post our learning intention so it is clear what they are to learn by the end of the lesson.

Two of the big curricular competencies for math is to communicate mathematical thinking in many ways and to represent ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic forms.

The learning intention for our first lesson in division: I can understand equal groups in division. This concept involved the idea of sharing.

We had plates with our fake gummy bears and went, “one for you, one for you, and one for you” until they were all passed out equally among everyone holding a plate. They enjoyed the real life examples to experience the why and how of division. Then students were given questions to try with partners.

This learning through “play” is one of the most impactful ways for children to learn through discovery. It is one of our favourite types of hands-on and engaging learning where students learn together and practice communicating mathematical thinking with each other. Opportunities like these also help them develop their core competencies of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and social awareness and responsibility. This also aligns with Indigenous ways of learning by de-centering the room with less teacher time talking and more student time exploring the new concepts.

Passion Projects

On Friday, we started talking about Passion Projects. We watched this video by John Spencer that introduced them to what it is although he calls it Genius Hour.

So I asked them to finish this sentence:

I have always wanted to learn more about…

We are at the beginning stages. During this week, please have a conversation about what they would love to learn more about.

Think about what you would really like to spend your time learning about. It should be a topic big enough that you can spend about six weeks on it. Here are some ideas and it’s okay to come up with their own:  

• Learn a new language
• Learn how to  do something  
  • Make a stop motion movie 
  • Photography  
  • Knitting/sewing  
• Learn about something  
  • Architecture  
  • A country or culture – design your dream trip!  
  • The Science of flight  
  • An animal or creature
• Learn about your family history 
• Learn about someone: an artist, athlete, scientist, activist, author , singer

What do you care about in this world? What can you do about “fixing” an existing problem? Think of something you can do that will make this world a better place.  

Next, we will begin to narrow it down . The idea is that they will become an expert and teach the class what they learned.

ADST

Students were introduced to PowerPoint. They learned how to create a new document, rename it, add a new title to the first slide, add an image, choose a design idea, and add a new slide.

How to support at home: Have your child login to O365, open their new PowerPoint project and add more slides. This was good practice to create slides and images. This was to prepare them for learning how to develop presentation slides for their Passion Projects. They loved it and were so excited!

Spring Concert

Our class along with our buddy class look and sound great! We are so excited for you to see them perform on Wednesday!

• Wed. May 7 @ 1:30pm – Afternoon dress rehearsal
  • Have your child wear yellow, orange, or brown tops and black or dark bottoms
• Wed. May 7 @ 6:00pm
  • Have your child wear yellow, orange, or brown tops and black or dark bottoms
  • Bring your child to the Annex, Room A6 (at the far north side of the Annex)
  • Doors to the gym open at 6pm
  • PAC will have cash only concession
• Wed. May 7 @ 6:30pm – Evening performance; bring your tickets!
  • Pick up your child at the end of the performance in the Annex, Room A6

Save the Dates

• Fri. May 16 – Sports Day; early dismissal at 12:30pm
  • Students will be travelling from station to station with our buddy class. They will be divided into 6 teams. More information to come.
• Mon. May 12 – Whole school tennis lessons begin
• Mon. May 19 – Victoria Day; school is closed
• Thur. May 22 – Community Dinner at 6:00pm
  • Everyone is welcome! Bring a dish to share.
• Fri. May 30 – Early dismissal at 2:00pm

We are so grateful for your time and support. It is hard to believe we have less than two months to enjoy each other’s company as we continue to learn together. Rest assured, we will continue to empower your child to develop their identity, be affirmed in their strengths, and grow in their stretch zone as we support them in the process. Can’t wait to continue to share our learning with you! Thank you for your time to read our blog posts!

As always, please reach out should you have any questions, concerns, or would like to share successes.

With hearts full of gratitude,

Ms. Chan and Ms. Kim

Dear Division 11 Families,

We hope you had a restful weekend.

The final theme of the Month of Love was “Love the Land.” During our community circle, students shared what they are grateful for about our land. They then created a fun writing piece, choosing symbols from nature and writing along the outline of each symbol. They were also challenged to complete various random acts of kindness for the land.

Math

We continued exploring different ways to show our learning, with a focus this week on the decomposing strategy. With this strategy, students break apart the numbers they are adding based on place value, then add or subtract each individual place to find the answer.

Below are videos if you’d like to learn more about this strategy. Please keep in mind that since our focus is on showing our thinking in different ways, your child’s approach may look a bit different from the methods shown in the videos!

Adding using decomposing strategy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdMEDX4ra4o

Subtracting using decomposing strategy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVbSJWO8ExI

Social Studies

This week, we explored two different agricultural innovations. First, we examined The Three Sisters, a Haudenosaunee farming method. It is called The Three Sisters because corn, beans, and squash support each other like family when planted together.

We also studied chinampas (floating gardens) used by the Ancient Aztecs. As a check-in activity, students created a Venn diagram to demonstrate their understanding of the four groups we have studied so far. They were able to choose two groups and make connections between them.

This week, we will be exploring architectural innovations. As always, please support your child at home by having conversations about what they learned and making connections to the topics discussed in class.

Typing

Last week, our students practiced to improve their efficiency when using laptops.

If they would like to continue practicing at home, please click on the link below!

https://kitchenerdiv11.edclub.com/

ADST: We Need Your Help!

Our students don’t know it yet, but we will be working on an exciting project during ADST (Applied Design, Skills, and Technology)! The building stage won’t start for another couple of weeks, but we need your help collecting recyclable materials that students can use for their projects.

Some examples include:

• Cardboard (boxes, cereal boxes, snack boxes)
• Egg cartons
• Toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls
• Packaging materials (bubble wrap)
• Plastic containers (including takeout food containers)

Additionally, we would love your help in collecting Styrofoam trays, plates, or takeout containers for an upcoming printmaking art project.

Thank you in advance for your support! We look forward to sharing more about these exciting projects soon.

We truly appreciate your continued support!

Warm regards,
Cailyn, Livia, and Jake

Dear Division 11 Families,

February is the Month of Love!

We are launching our Month of Love, starting with “Love Myself.” We read Remarkably You by Pat Zietlow Miller, encouraging our students to embrace what makes them unique and special.

Next, we brainstormed messages to write on paper candy hearts—messages students wanted to send to themselves.

For our art project, we designed our hearts with a base layer of oil pastels, followed by a layer of wet acrylic paint. Then, using sharp pencil crayons, students scratched their messages onto each heart. Our classroom wall is now filled with these heartfelt reminders, reinforcing positive self-talk and self-love.

Social Studies

We are wrapping up our We Are All Connected unit by exploring our connection to the land. We began by studying the moon—its phases, their names, and the science behind them. Then, we read Taan’s Moon and learned how the people of Haida Gwaii named the moon phases based on knowledge passed down through generations.

Math

We are so proud of the growth our students have shown in the past few weeks! Many are challenging themselves with three-digit addition and subtraction problems. They are doing a fantastic job communicating and representing their learning in different ways. This week, they will focus on another strategy, decomposing.

Story Writing

Our students are becoming skilled at writing dialogue using quotation marks! We worked on making our writing more engaging by using descriptive words instead of repeatedly writing “said.” We also explored how to describe a character’s actions and emotions while they speak.

A great example of this is the book How I Met My Monster (part of a series—check out the other books by the same author!). This book does an excellent job of showing how dialogue can make writing more dynamic and engaging.

📖 How I Met My Monster Read-Aloud:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YunBFPyF37U

Please join us tomorrow for our weekly Family Reading in our classroom from 9:00–9:15 AM.

Thank you so much for your support!

Warm regards,
Cailyn & Livia

Dear Division 11 Families, 

We’ve been having so much fun during our skating field trips! It has been wonderful to see the students’ confidence grow in just two sessions. We’re sad that this Tuesday will be our last session, but I know they will enjoy it to the fullest! One of the staff members last week mentioned that this group of students is easily the most helpful and kind group he has ever seen. The students assisted with cleanup and returned the skating bars without being asked. I couldn’t agree more and am so proud of our Division 11 students! – Ms. Kim

Please note: Family Reading will be cancelled this Tuesday but will resume next Tuesday, December 17th. We are looking forward to having you back in our class!

Here is some of the exciting learning happening in our class: 

We are writers.
In writing, the students have been learning how to make their writing more engaging by using similes. After a group matching activity, they used similes to describe a car they would like to build—they came up with so many creative ideas! In class, we read My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks. The author also wrote My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil, and McGill Library has a copy if you’d like to check it out. 

Ways to support at home: Bring your child to visit the library often. It used to be our weekend family outing when my children were growing up. They have such a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books to choose from!

We have been working on another piece of writing to further develop our own identity. One of our core competencies of building a positive personal identity: identifying personal strengths and abilities. “Students acknowledge their strengths and abilities, and they intentionally consider these as assets, helping them in all aspects of their lives. Students understand that they are unique and are a part of larger, and often multiple, communities. They explain how they are using their strengths and abilities in their families, their relationships, and their communities.”

Last week, we read the story “What’s My Superpower?” by Aviaq Johnston. Click here to watch an animated storytelling of the book.

We followed up this week with two books written, illustrated, and published by one of my best friends, Jillian DuBois: Liv’s Messages and Destiny’s Amazingly Different Dreams. All highlight how what makes us special and different can also be our superpowers (strengths and abilities). There was a lesson on acceptance too.

From Amazon about Liv’s Seashells – Beyond the collection of her treasured seashells, Liv knows that there are people around that need to be shown compassion and empathy. She carefully crafts a plan for a journey that promises to reach out and share hope past the limits of the warm sunshine and sandy beach. Liv has a chance to make a difference and uplift others with joy.

From Amazon about Destiny – The story of one amazing girl who understands that being different is BETTER than being ordinary. We each have different gifts + talents to celebrate. Remarkable human beings deserve to be accepted for WHO they are with great JOY.

Ways to support at home: Follow up this learning by talking about your child’s superpowers and your own. What makes you shine? What are your strengths, abilities, and core values? How can you help your child discover their own? This is such an important understanding to develop especially when we face challenges because during hard times, we can anchor into our strengths and core values as our base. As they grow and become immersed in social media, when children have a strong foundation in who they are and have a strong sense of self-worth, then it takes a lot more adversity to shake how they see themselves.

Word Sorts

We introduced word sorts to the class and started with the spelling rule for regular past tense verbs: We learned about base words (aka root words) and how we add “ed” to the end of regular verbs.

When we sorted the words, we discovered that there are 3 sounds of the past tense ed. They cut and then sorted their own words. We practiced sorting the words so we can see the patterns. They were getting faster and more accurate as the week went on.

When we finish with this word sort, it will go home. Please continue to practice until they are proficient. They can practice spelling these words too.

When looking at the words, there are some with two vowels next to each other. We learned a new song that reinforces that when two vowels to walking, the first one does the talking and says its own name. It’s the same tune as the Addams Family song and catchy. I had it stuck in my head many times over the weekend! Ask your child to sing it to you! Here’s the song:

When two vowels go walking, 
The first one does the talking.
When two vowels to walking,
The first one says its name.

We are Mathematicians.
During Wondering Wednesday, Division 18 students joined our class, and our students helped them learn about fractions. In pairs, they looked for fraction cards hidden in the classroom and compared each fraction to 1/2, deciding whether it was greater than, equal to, or less than 1/2.

Afterward, they played a place value game we’ve been practicing in class. I’ve attached a link below so you can try it at home. To extend the activity, you can include a fourth card to create numbers in the thousands. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi6mVOA2pIU&t=289s 

For place value, we did an assessment to check for understanding, and we were so very proud of how well they learned these number concepts!

This week, they will bring home their Patterns booklets from earlier in the year to show you.

We learned our next math fluency strategy: Adding or subtracting by 2’s is like skip counting by 2’s.

Using our random numbers chart, we practiced adding by 2’s and subtracting by 2’s. It is not as efficient to calculate + or -2 but instead, it is quicker to see a number and see the next number before or after by 2.

For example:

If I am adding by 2, then when I see a 6, I automatically see 8 without thinking, “What is 6 + 2?” Instead, If I know how to fluently count by 2’s, then I know that 8 follows 6.

Ways to support at home: Using a random numbers chart, have your child practice +1, -1, +2, -2. Even if your child practices for a few minutes each day, they will definitely gain fluency by the end of the school year!

We are scientists.

They are excited to bring home their Matter & Thermal Energy booklets to show you what they know too! When they bring these booklets home, ask them to teach you the concepts learned. This solidifies their learning.

We started a new science unit about biodiversity and ecosystems. Stay tuned for more of our learning shared with you!

ADST – We are developing our tech skills!

On Friday, we logged into Office 365 and learned a few tools on Microsoft Word. To reinforce their learning, I encouraged them to practice logging in at home. To do this, go to our Kitchener website.

On the drop down menu, click on Microsoft 365. A sign in box will appear. Have them practice typing in their email address which is their pupilnumber@edu.burnabyschools.ca. Click Next.

A new box will ask for their password. It is the same one they memorized.

Then they were directed to find the list of apps using the icon on the top left corner and find the W (which stands for Word):

Once they launched Word, they were taught to create a new document, rename their document, type their name, and then play! They played with the size, font, colour, alignment, highlighting, bolding, italicizing, or underlining their names. They loved it and thought it was so cool!

I highly recommend that you support your child’s learning by practicing logging into Word at home and having fun together playing with the tools available. This will help them become more proficient at logging in and using Word the next time we use the laptops this Friday. Thank you!

If your child has not memorized their usernames and passwords yet, please spend some time at home to memorize them. It really diminishes their frustration at school when they struggle with the first part of using laptops. The ones who have become proficient are able to have more time on the task too. Thank you.

We are a interconnected community of learners.

One of my favourite tried and true activities that I, Ms. Chan, love to do is our spider web activity. I started with a ball of yarn and shared what I love and appreciate about our classroom community. Then I passed it to someone across from me. Then that person shared what they love or appreciate about our community and so on and so on until everyone had an opportunity to share.

It built a beautiful web which resulted in a powerful visual to see. We talked about how we are all interconnected, which is one of the Indigenous ways of knowing and being. We discussed how what we say and do affects others maybe not directly but indirectly.

Then I gave an example of someone saying something mean to someone else as I shook the yarn. They could see that when I shook the yarn, others were impacted. Others could hear what was said (or see what was done) and that makes others feel sad and bad. We dove into talking about emotional contagion.

Next, I demonstrated how when one person says something kind (they got to go on their knees) and the another person does something thoughtful (they got to go on their knees) until everyone’s name was called and everyone was on their knees. We stood up to demonstrate how we all can uplift each other through positive actions and words. They visually got to experience how since we are all connected, small actions and words uplift not only the other person but everyone else in our community.

When we were finished, we reflected on this activity. My heart melted when I heard about how they enjoyed listening to each other share. They experienced the impact of their actions and words, and how they all contribute to making our classroom community a great place to be. They got to hear exactly what their classmates appreciated about being in our class. One child mentioned how what we shared touched his heart and how he felt teary (and emotional) because of our shared positive emotions.

I reinforced how every interaction makes a difference.

Thank you for your continued support at home! We appreciate you!

Events to note

• Ice skating on Tuesday, December 10
• PAC meeting on Thursday, December 12 at 6:30pm (virtual)
• Reports are available online on Wednesday, December 18. Please ensure you have your login information to access before the date. If you do not, click here to have your login and password reset. It may take a few days.

With hearts full of gratitude, Ms. Kim and Ms. Chan