Category: Indigenous Education

Dear Division 11 Families,

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

We are continuing our focus on family, and this week our students will be exploring different wedding traditions around the world. Please have a conversation with your child about some wedding traditions from your culture or other cultures you have experienced. Since we are focusing on “aspects of life shared by and common to people and cultures,” discuss the similarities and differences in wedding traditions from your experiences. We will continue using a Venn diagram in class to help illustrate our thinking.

In math, our students are becoming experts at analyzing graphs. They are starting to show more confidence when interpreting bar graphs or pictographs and sharing what they have learned. This week, we will be wrapping up our data analysis unit. Students will go through the entire process on their own: coming up with survey questions, collecting data using a tally chart, representing their data with either a bar graph or a pictograph, and sharing their findings.

In art, our students have been learning about warm and cool colors and have created two watercolor paintings using patterns. This week, we will dive deeper into how patterns are used in art by weaving these two paintings together to create one unique piece!

Thank you, families, for your continued support!

Warm regards, Ms. Kim

We are grateful.

There is so much to feel grateful for. We have many opportunities throughout our day to consider what we are grateful for. We worked on our Thankful Poems inspired after we read The Thankful Book by Todd Parr and Feeling Grateful: How to Add More Goodness to Your Gladness by Kobi Yamada. Watch this book here.

One of my most favourite videos on YouTube is titled Gratitude. This video reminds us to find beauty in the simple things in life like how each day is a gift and the beauty in our world. “Nature’s beauty is a gift that cultivates appreciation and gratitude.” We started watching this video at 4:30.

Many happiness researchers found that practicing gratitude and focusing on the positive aspects of life can enhance happiness. This leads to an improved sense of overall well-being and a mindset we can cultivate. One way we can develop our social awareness and build positive relationships is by noticing and expressing gratitude.

This also reminded me of how Indigenous People honour the land and have a deep sense of place. Louie Schwartzberg stated, “We protect what we fall in love with.” Imagine if everyone fell in love with nature and the unceded land we have the privilege to live on.

Ways to support at home: Regularly practice gratitude by modeling what you are grateful for. I wrote a blog post called The Gift of Gratitude if you are interested to read it and if you’re curious about how gratitude is taught and modelled in the classroom, I wrote a post that was published on Edutopia called Teaching and Modeling Gratitude in Elementary School. These posts may provide you with some ideas on how our gratitude practice at school can be aligned with what you do at home.

We are mathematicians.

We continued to learn about patterns. Last week we reviewed increasing patterns and learned about decreasing patterns. Here are some examples during play and in our Patterns Books.

Students are expected to know the following:

• increasing and decreasing patterns using words and numbers, based on concrete experiences
  • creating patterns using concrete, pictorial, and numerical representations
  • representing increasing and decreasing patterns in multiple ways

Repeating patterns

Increasing patterns

Decreasing patterns

Ways to support at home: Reinforce their learning about patterns – repeating, increasing, and decreasing at home by creating their own and asking them to describe their pattern.

We are scientists.

This week, we learned about the three states of matter.

We watched this video and then practiced being molecules. On the carpet, we were solids where we (as particles) are in a fixed position. Then we were liquid particles moving around on the carpet area only. Finally, we were free to roam around the room in a completely random and much farther apart like in a gas; they loved this one the most!

Students were given the opportunity to add to their Matter Science Books to show understanding in their own way.

Applied Design, Skills and Technologies (ADST) Curriculum

Your children are fast learners! On Friday, we logged into the laptops for the first time. They quickly learned how to login and shut down. All students brought home a blue sheet to memorize their login information and password.

Ways to support at home: Please help your child find a strategy to memorize their username, email address, and password. The next lesson will be to learn how to communicate through email so it will be important to learn how to login to Office 365 with their email address. Thank you!

Stream of Dreams

Have you had a chance to look at all of the fish students of Kitchener painted? They are now on the fence at the front of the school. Enjoy finding the fish your child painted!

Kitchener’s Family Movie Night is this Friday, October 18 at 4:00 PM! Doors open at 3:30 PM.

Please click here to learn more. If you plan to attend, CLICK HERE to RSVP. Hope to see you there!

If you ordered apples, you can pick them up before the movie.

Reminders

• Friday, October 25 is Pro-D day; students do not attend

We are excited to share that starting next week, Ms. Kim will be in our class on Mondays as well! I am looking forward to having some opportunities to be in the classroom to team teach with her on Monday and Wednesday. Thank you for your continued support at home. Should you have any questions, please feel free to ask. We are here as partners and we appreciate you!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan

Dear Division 11 Families,

Our hearts were warmed by your presence at our Families as Partners conversations last week. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting you in person and learning more about your child through your stories. Thank you for your investment of time to share as we journey and work alongside each other this year.

Patterns
In Math, we continued to learn about different varieties of patterns. For example, a pattern can be different by shape, colour, size, and rotation. We started our Patterns booklet where we got to create our own book cover and demonstrate our understanding of repeating patterns including identifying the core pattern. Next steps: Learn how to identify, create, continue, and describe increasing patterns.

Way to support at home: When you are outside, look for patterns in nature. At home, take out items to create varying patterns that change by shape, colour, size or rotation.

One of our core competencies is personal awareness and identity.

We read a story called I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont. Watch the animated video on YouTube of the story. The goal of reading this story was to critically think about our strengths, core values, and character traits we appreciate about ourselves. This isn’t an easy task even for some adults! Students had an opportunity to respond to this story by writing about what they like about themselves.

Learning requires exploration of one‘s identity. – First Peoples Principals of Learning

This principle reflects the importance of identity in relation to learning. Identity is what connects people to each other, to communities, and to the land. The exploration of one’s identity includes developing an understanding of one’s place in the world, in addition to being able to identify all the factors that contribute to how people see themselves. These factors include their strengths and their challenges, their innate abilities (gifts) and capacities to learn. In addition to using this understanding to help one grow in life, knowing one’s own strengths and challenges is a part of the responsibility a person has to his or her family and community, as a people are considered to have a duty to use them to contribute to others (family, community, and land). Taken from https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com/learning-requires-exploration-of-ones-identity/

We are each unique and beautiful but together we are a masterpiece!

Ways to support learning at home: Have a conversation about what they wrote in their writing books. Help them extend understanding of themselves by helping them see some of the positive characteristics they have. Support them in seeing the examples (or receipts in their lives) that demonstrate these positive traits that you see. Developing a positive self image through awareness of strengths and core values is one of the first steps in building a strong foundational relationship with themselves. When they know who they are, what they stand for, and what brings them joy, then they can anchor into these when faced with adversity or challenges. If you were to model this, what would you say to your child?

We are scientists.

Big idea: All matter is made of particles.

You may have seen a yellow sticky note come home in their planner with the word “matter” written on it. We went around the room and in the hallways to “label” everything we saw as matter to demonstrate our understanding that matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. They were asked to tell you what we did with the sticky note and show you examples of matter in your home.

We also talked about atoms. Their minds were blown away when they learned how many atoms are on the top of a pinhead!

Orange Shirt Day

During our Orange Shirt Day assembly on Friday, we learned about why we wear orange shirts. Why? An orange shirt was taken away from a residential school Survivor: Phyllis Webstad. This day raises awareness of the residential school system in Canada. Wearing orange reminds us of the impact of residential schools still felt today. We also went for a short walk around the school.

On Monday, September 30, the school will not be in session for National Day for Truth & Reconciliation. This is an important day of reflection to honour Survivors, families, communities, and remember the ancestors that never made it home. For me as a mother, I can’t help but feel emotional when I think about children being separated from their families. Some children may have emotions about this too when they try to empathize. Please have a conversation to help them understand our history and why National Day for Truth & Reconciliation is an important day. Thank you.

Ways to support at home: Please feel free to visit the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation website to continue the learning and reflection at home. Feel free to watch the video we also watched at our assembly.

Scholastic Book Orders

One of the ways we have built up our classroom library is through the Scholastic Reading Club. The books in these flyers are generally wonderful and are very reasonable. Teachers are awarded points to use toward books and classroom supplies when students place orders. We will be sending home flyers regularly. Learn more.

Our class code: RC235868

Some of our class books were donated by previous students. This is so appreciated! If you have books at home that your child is no longer interested in, please consider donating them to the classroom. Children need an interesting variety of books to be motivated to read and we do a lot of reading! If we cannot use them, we know many new teachers who can. Any unwanted craft supplies, puzzles, or games are also greatly appreciated. 

Thank you for your support at home. If you returned the student information forms that went home last week, thank you! If you have not yet, then please return this week.

Looking forward to another great week at school!

With gratitude, Ms. Chan

A message from Ms. Kim

This week in art, our students learned about the artist Keith Haring. We explored the concept of pop art and discussed his unique style. Next week, the students will create Keith Haring-inspired family portraits and learn about complementary colors through his artwork.

We spent a significant amount of time in class discussing Orange Shirt Day and the importance of this day. This year, the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation event will be taking place on Sunday, September 29th, 2024 at Memorial Peace Park in Maple Ridge, beginning at 10am until 3pm. This will be a good opportunity for students to learn more about the significance behind this day.

In math, we are continuing our work on data analysis. The students have been developing their own survey questions to gather and display data.

In Social Studies, we read a wonderful book called A Family is a Family is a Family by Sara O’Leary. This book celebrates all types of families, and we will continue our conversation about families into next week, eventually exploring family traditions from around the world.

As always, I am thankful for your support in your child’s learning journey.

Kindly, Ms. Kim

Dates to Note:

• Wednesday, October 2: Picture Day
• Friday, October 5: Painting our fish for Stream of Dreams; send children with clothing appropriate for painting just in case. I am not sure if the paint is washable. These fish will replaced the ones currently on the fence along Gilmore Ave.
• Every Friday: Conversation Circles for English Language Learners newer to Canada. Come practice your speaking and make new connections at school!
• PAC fundraiser: Apples! Last day to order is October 9.
• Friday, October 18: Family movie night. Save the date!

This was our writing and art about our names! Look at all of the cool designs we made with our names!

Dear families,

We had a wonderful second week together! One way we start our day is to find our name (magnets on the board) and choose an answer to our “Would you rather…” question. They have been enjoying connecting with each other their choices! They have already shared suggestions on future questions they want to ask classmates!

Meet Your Teacher Night

Thank you to the families who joined us last Wednesday to learn more about us, our philosophy, passions, and shared love for your children and teaching. Even though this is the first year Ms. Kim and I are working as partners, we already know that so many of our thinking, practice, and strategies are aligned so no matter which teacher is in the class that day, it will feel seamless.

All About Me presentations

We are still taking turns presenting our All About Me items to each other. It has been a great way to get to know each other better. Thank you for helping your child prepare what to say.

We are mathematicians.

We started our patterns unit by practicing action patterns and naming them. We worked together to practice creating varied patterns for our partner to copy. For example:

clap – snap – tap – clap – snap – tap – clap – snap – tap (ABC pattern)

The core pattern is: clap – snap – tap

During our Wondering Wednesday time (every Wednesday), we joined other classes outside to make patterns with things we found in nature. They had so much fun learning outside together!

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

How to support at home: Ask your child to demonstrate a simple repeating pattern. Then ask them to teach you what the core pattern is. Find things around your home to create patterns together. Ask them what is the core pattern as review and to check for understanding.

Challenge:  Ask them to create increasingly more difficult patterns or use items in the house to create concrete patterns.

Thank you for your continued support of your child’s learning.

Scent free environment

Please do not send any hand sanitizers or hand creams that have any scents. Two of us in class have fragrance allergies. Thank you for your consideration!

Also, please do not send food items that have nuts. We have a nut allergy in our class. Thank you for keeping us all safe.

Notes & Reminders

• Please go to School Cash Online to pay $8 for planners and $30 for our shared school supplies.
• Please fill out all the forms in School Cash Online.
• Order your hot lunch program by going to School Cash Online.
• Wed, Oct 2: Individual Picture day

We look forward to spending the week with your wonderful children and look forward to meeting with you on Wednesday or Thursday! Thank you for being partners with us. Your child’s success depends on our cooperation and communication.

Grateful for our journey together this year, Ms. Chan

Dear Division 11 Families,

Hello from Ms. Kim!

We had a fantastic first week getting to know each other and building our classroom community through collaborative art and teamwork challenges. I can already tell we’re going to have a great year together!

In Social Studies, we are diving into learning about our identity by exploring self, family, community, and the land, as well as how they are all connected. This week, the students will focus on themselves, and we will be exploring the story behind their names. On Tuesday, they will be bringing home a handout with a few questions about their names. Please help them by answering these questions and talking to them about where their name comes from, who chose it, and any special meanings or stories behind it. Thank you in advance for your support with this activity.

• Learning requires exploration of one‘s identity. (First Peoples Principles of Learning)

In Math, we will be diving into data analysis. We’ve already been learning a lot about each other through surveys and data collection, and I’m excited to continue.

I look forward to seeing all the students again on Tuesday. Thank you!

Greetings from Ms. Chan!

We start every morning with a soft start which we call Heart time because they get to fill their heart with things that bring them joy. I love seeing new friendships begin!  I remind them to thank the people who brought them joy as they clean up before our morning message and community connection circle time. This is our regular daily routine to start us off just right!

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