Category: Indigenous Education

Dear families,

It has been a great first week back after spring break so far reconnecting and listening to our stories about how we spent the break!

We are poets.

This week, we started exploring our creative side as poets. We started the week with writing a poem titled “Who am I?” and then followed up with writing poems about our favourite things. Poetry is a great way to develop our personal awareness and identity (which are our core competencies we aim to develop every day).

We are looking forward to sharing them with you at our Student Led Conference this Thursday!

We are mathematicians.

We are having fun learning about multiplication concepts. Students have learned to demonstrate their understanding in multiple ways. Check them out!

We are artists.

Ms. Kapusta has been working hard to plan different art experiences for your children. Here are some updates from this week:

This week, we hung up students’ finished tulip origami art in the classroom and we can’t wait for families to see them during student led conferences next week!

Students also worked on their springtime animal art (inspired by this blog post: https://www.artwithmrsfilmore.com/springtime-bunnies-and-bear-cubs-2nd-grade/). We finished making our bold and bright backgrounds featuring different flowers blooming. We then painted over the marker and crayon using water, which created a beautiful water colour effect.

We talked about value, an element of art, and how colour changes (it becomes lighter) based on how much water is added when painting. Next week we will be learning about texture and contrast as we create black and white animals to place over top of the paintings.

FROM March 12

This week, students finished their origami tulip art from last week. Students experimented with different sizes, styles, and colours of origami tulips and then glued them down onto a nature-themed background they decorated for a 3D effect. Some students even played with texture, using pine needles they found outside as grass. We also began some springtime bunnies inspired by this blog post: https://www.artwithmrsfilmore.com/springtime-bunnies-and-bear-cubs-2nd-grade/ This week we worked on creating beautiful, bold, bright backgrounds featuring different flowers blooming. We talked about how bright colours will pop in contrast to the black and white bunny that will be placed on top. We also talked about the technique of using markers and crayons as we’ll be painting over their drawings with water to play with the value of colour. Stay tuned for photos of both the origami tulips and springtime bunnies, and please have a restful and refreshing Spring Break. 😊

FROM March 7

This week, students finished their mini spring weavings. By the end of the day, many students had made at least 2-4 separate paper weavings, which was great practice! It takes time and patience to build up the dexterity to weave using our fine motor skills and to get a grasp of the “over, under” pattern, and it was impressive to watch everyone’s resilience. Afterwards, we explored the process of making origami tulips. Students then glued them onto paper for a 3D effect and decorated the backgrounds. These will be hung up just in time for spring around the corner! “Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place) (First Peoples Principles of Learning).” Before we made our tulips, we talked about the signs of spring we’re beginning to notice and what we’re looking forward to in this upcoming season.

We are excited for you to come into the class during Student Led Conferences to see it with your own eyes and for your child to explain the process and their reflections.

Student Led Conferences

Please see my last email regarding sign up for Thursday, April 11 from 3:00 to 6:00 PM. Click here to go to bookings if you do not have an appointment yet. We are looking forward to having you in our class!

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

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Ms. Kapusta

Upcoming dates

• Friday, April 12 – 2 PM Early dismissal
• Thursday, April 18 – Class photos
• Monday, April 29 – Pro-D day; school not in session
• Friday, May 10 – Field trip to Vancouver Aquarium; we will need parent volunteers, please
• Friday, May 17 – Sports Day; early dismissal at 12:30 PM
• Friday, May 31 – 2 PM Early dismissal

Dear families,

So excited for ice skating tomorrow! Please come to school on time. We aim to leave as soon as the bell goes.

To bring:

• Booster seat – CLICK HERE for ICBC child car seat requirements.
• Gloves or mittens to protect their hands (mandatory)
• Wear long socks (Highly recommend! Sometimes the top of the skates dig in to their legs but the longer socks protect them.)
• Ski or snowboard helmet but the rink will have them to borrow.
• Waterproof pants are recommended but this is not necessary so you do not need to go out to buy.
• Dress in layers. While it is cold at the rink, once they start moving around, they get quite warm.

For parent volunteer drivers. We have just enough so if you can’t make it, please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you!

• We have such appreciation for your help to drive us to the rink. We will be leaving right after attendance is taken. When we arrive at Bill Copeland, the rink and skate shop is on the lower floor. There are a set of stairs from the outside that will lead you there.
• BEFORE: Please help children line up to get their skate rentals. The helmets will be in a bin off to the side. For better selection, get the helmets BEFORE they put on skates. Please help children tie skates.
• DURING: Some students may want a break and come off the ice. Please encourage them to take a short break and then ask them to go back onto the ice to maximize their skating time.
• DURING: If you will be on the ice, please support help us support our beginning skaters as much as possible. This is a very large group so everyone’s support during this time will be greatly appreciated.
• AFTER: Help remove skates and wipe down the blade. There should be a towel close to where they return the skates. If you return to school before I do, please bring them to class so they can eat their snacks. Thank you!

Deep Kindness

We talked about the difference between kindness and deep kindness. Showing kindness can be things like holding the door for others and helping others like getting ice or a bandage for a friend. Some of these actions may feel easy to do. When we feel empathy, it can move us to show compassion. We dove a little further into the difference between these two words too. Compassion is empathy with action.

To demonstrate kindness and compassion, we watched a short video about a girl who needed help. In the first scene, the other person chose not to help because she was too into her iPad game. They re-do the scene with the girl deciding that even though she was focused on her game, she paused it to go help. Showing deeper kindness can be doing things when you don’t feel like it.

This was followed up by reading a story called Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson. It’s about a young girl who is new at the school. She tries to make friends with the others but they ignore her and make fun of her. She learns that there are opportunities to show kindness. If you don’t take those opportunities, sometimes you don’t have a chance later.

Parents, I enjoyed reading Deep Kindness by Houston Kraft. He talks about a gap between our beliefs about kindness and the need for intentional actions to show deep kindness. If you like, watch the author as he shares about and encourages us to practice deep kindness in this YouTube video (7:36). Every day, I see many of your children demonstrate this level of deep kindness towards their classmates and it is truly heartwarming.

We are mathematicians.

We continued to solidify our understanding of 2-D and 3-D shapes. Students have learned the difference and can use the vocabulary of faces, edges, and vertices to describe shape attributes. We had fun showing what we know in the form of an active game I made up: Geometry Dash!

First I asked each table group to sort the shapes for part one. Then for part two, they had to retrieve the shape based on the description. For example:

• Which shape has 6 faces and 8 edges?
• Which shape has only 2 faces?
• Which shape has 5 vertices?

They had to use their critical thinking brains to figure out which shape to bring back to the basket.

Your child should be able to identify the 3-D shapes too: sphere, cube, cylinder, cone, rectangular prism, pyramid, triangular prism.

Art with Ms. Kapusta

This week, students learned a new skill in art: weaving! We first began the day by reading a story by the Cree/Lakota author Monique Gray Smith and Cree/Métis illustrator Julie Flett called “My Heart Fills With Happiness.” We then we each shared what filled out hearts during our community circle. Because weaving has long been practiced by Indigenous people, we then had a discussion about Coast Salish groups in BC (including the lands of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh on which we live, learn, and play), the importance of the cedar tree, and how cedar bark is stripped and used by Coast Salish people to make different kinds of weavings, including baskets and mats. 

Dear families,

Our first full week of February was filled with engaged learners!

Ice Skating on Monday, February 12 and 26 at 9:30 AM

To bring:

• Booster seat – CLICK HERE for ICBC child car seat requirements.
• Gloves or mittens to protect their hands (mandatory)
• Wear long socks (Highly recommend! Sometimes the top of the skates dig in to their legs but the longer socks protect them.)
• Ski or snowboard helmet but the rink will have them to borrow. There is no need to go out to buy unless you plan to use in the future. It’s just nice to have your own.
• Waterproof pants are recommended but this is not necessary so you do not need to go out to buy.
• Dress in layers. While it is cold at the rink, once they start moving around, they get quite warm.

For parent volunteer drivers:

• We have such appreciation for the overwhelming response to help drive us to the rink. We will be leaving right after attendance is taken. When we arrive at Bill Copeland, the rink and skate shop is on the lower floor. There are a set of stairs from the outside that will lead you there.
• BEFORE: Please help children line up to get their skate rentals. The helmets will be in a bin off to the side. For better selection, get the helmets BEFORE they put on skates. Please help children tie skates.
• DURING: Some students may want a break and come off the ice. Please encourage them to take a short break and then ask them to go back onto the ice to maximize their skating time.
• DURING: If you will be on the ice, please support help us support our beginning skaters as much as possible. I will be leading a short lesson at the beginning to teach them a few skills. This is a very large group so everyone’s support during this time will be greatly appreciated.
• AFTER: Help remove skates and wipe down the blade. There should be a towel close to where they return the skates. If you return to school before I do, please bring them to class so they can eat their snacks.

How to prepare your child:

• For most students, this will be their first time skating. Please talk to them about having a growth mindset. Falling, getting back up, and perseverance with a positive and “I can do it” mindset is a part of learning a new skill. “Learning involved patience and time.” – First Peoples Principles of Learning
• Feel free to watch these videos to learn more and share with your child: Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset or this Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset.
• There will NOT be enough bars for all beginning students to use as they learn to skate. In my experience, these are often crutches and those who rely on these tend to learn to skate a lot slower. Please encourage your child to try the skills I will teach them during the lesson. They will make the most progress WITHOUT the bars or seals to hold on to.
• Please arrive at school on time.

Passion Projects

Students are excited to continue working and learning about their topics. What excitement a few students shared right at the door on Monday morning! They told me how they were working on their PowerPoint presentations while at home over the weekend. Thank you so much for your support and for fostering their love of learning at home! They are making good progress!

We are mathematicians.

We learned about the passing of time and also learned how to tell time. Your child should have brought home a clock to teach you how to tell time. Please continue to review.

Make it fun! Take turns asking each other what time it is. In Math, I often provide different levels of difficulty. They love challenging themselves!

Time concepts – Grade 3 Math curriculum

While telling time is not expected, it’s a basic skill to know how to tell time.

Lunar New Year

We learned about Lunar New Year traditions and watched a lion dance along with a cool competition.

They enjoyed making bubble waffles on Wednesday! This was one of my mom’s favourite street snacks when she lived in Hong Kong as a child. She reminisced how she would go down to the streets to buy when she was given some extra spending money. These treats have become locally more popular in the past decade. If you would like to try, there is a stall at the Amazing Brentwood food court called Bubble Waffle Cafe.

Click here for the recipe I used from Pampered Chef.

Click here for the bubble waffle maker I purchased on Amazon.

We are authors.

On Thursday, we invited Ms. Sutton, our District Literacy Enhancement Teacher, to teach us about book making. Unfortunately, I was in the office on Thursday and Friday because Mr. Klarich was away so I did not get to see her presentation but I did see their excitement. As soon as I stepped into the classroom, so many of them wanted to share what they were working on!

Valentine’s Day

CLICK HERE to see the notice that was sent home. Thank you for returning the bottom portion to let me know which fruit(s) your child will be contributing. Thank you for your fruit!

Please also send a plastic bowl and spoon in a bag to be environmentally friendly. Feel free to send a container with a lid instead just in case they don’t finish their portion.

Save the Dates

• Friday, February 16 – District Professional Day. No school for students.
• Monday, February 19 – Family Day. School is closed.
• Monday, March 4 to 8 – Hip Hop lessons
• Monday, March 11 – Whole school performance (AM)
• Monday, March 18 to Monday, April 1 – Spring break, school closure, and Easter Monday
• Thursday, April 11 – Student Led Conferences from 3 to 6 PM (Families are invited to celebrate learning. Your child will lead the conversation and show you what they’ve learned so far.)
• Friday, April 12 – Early dismissal at 2 PM
• Monday, April 29 – Pro-D day. No school for students.
• Friday, May 10 – We will be going to the Vancouver Aquarium by school bus with Ms. Santorelli and Ms. Tai’s classes. We will need parent volunteers to help supervise. Thank you!

I appreciate all of the love and care your children demonstrate to me and each other. I really do love and adore your children very much. They bring me so much joy! Many of them often share in our Community Circle time how grateful they are for their classmates. I always feel so very blessed and grateful to be their teacher and to work alongside you too. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Happy Lunar New Year! May you continue to experience love, joy, peace, prosperity, and good health! Sorry, we forgot to send home the Chinese paper lanterns on Friday.

With much gratitude, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

It’s been a great two weeks minus a couple of fun snow days! Welcome back to school and Happy New Year! Thank you for your understanding about no blog post last weekend as my two ringette teams competed in a tournament.

Outdoor Education

Kate from Sierra Club visited on Monday for our in-school field trip. After teaching us about the importance of land stewardship and how the Indigenous People taught us how to respect our land and the animals, we walked to Willingdon Park to learn more about the trees there. Students also had an opportunity to build homes for the bugs.

On Friday, we followed up by studying spruce pine cones. We examined the patterns of the cone and talked about the seeds. We had samples of some that were closed, some that were open, and some that were just started to open. Then we submersed one in water and as scientists, noticed a number of things that started to happen. I loved the curiosity that was brought out. We will find out what happens when we return to school in the morning! After school, ask your child what we discovered!

We are artists.

This is from Ms. Kapusta the first week back:

This week we began an art project tied to New Year’s Resolutions. We began the lesson by talking about what a resolution is and sharing our different goals for the year with the class. Some students chose phrases like “learn to ice skate,” “read more books,” and “become a better story writer” while others chose words like “leader,” “flexible,” and “inventive.” To make the art, we combined two really fun techniques – tape resistance and splatter paint!  I loved watching the students experiment with abstract versus straight lines for the taping, mixing colours to create beautiful new shades, and purposefully playing around with the splattering technique. The next step was removing the tape carefully. Next week, we will be adding our New Year’s Resolutions into the white spaces using Sharpie. Creating a unique and expressive piece of artwork and connecting it to affirmative statements is a powerful way for students to recognize their strengths while reflecting on how they can still grow further.

This is from Ms. Kapusta for last week:

This week we switched things up and connected art to literacy and SEL. We read “Lost and Found” by Oliver Jeffers, a thoughtful story about a boy who finds a penguin who appears to be lost. The boy works very hard to find the penguin’s home, and in the process becomes close to the penguin. In the end, it turns out the penguin wasn’t so much lost but alone and it’s a gentle tale about friendship and connection. We talked about putting ourselves in both the boy and penguin’s shoes (perspective taking). Then, students responded to a creative writing prompt titled “If I Had a Penguin,” as well as made their own penguin companions to attach to their writing. We talked about expanding on our writing by answering questions like who, what, where, when. We also talked about the importance of editing our work and doing our best jobs. I was really proud of how hard everyone worked! 

ADST

The previous week, we got together with our big buddies and worked collaboratively on creating in Minecraft. We will continue this activity this Friday!

On Friday, students were introduced to PowerPoint. I am building up their skills so that when we start our Passion Projects next week, the tools they will use will be secondary learning. It has been a while since we logged in to laptops so please help your child review their login and password. You can have them log into Office 365 at home to practice using PowerPoint too! Students love becoming proficient and they enjoy being mentor leaders in the classroom.

We are mathematicians.

Students have become more proficient with using the compensation strategy in addition. Please check your child’s understanding by asking them to do a few addition questions at home. What is compensating?

33 + 59 =

Look at the number that is closest to the nearest 10. Here, it would be 59 because it is 1 away from 60.

If you +1 to 59, it equals 60. We call these numbers a “friendly number”. Basically, these are multiples of 10 like 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, etc.

So if you add one to 59, then you need to -1 from 33 so this is the new equation: 32 + 60 = ___

Simply add the tens together and then add the ones: 30 + 60 = 90. Then add 2 = 92.

An alternate way is to compensate after you add the friendly number. Here’s what it looks like: Add one to 59 to make 60. New equation: 33 + 60 =  92. Since you had to add 1, you now subtract 1 so 93-1 = 92. I know it may be harder to understand but here’s a short video that may explain it better.

Literacy Week

We are excited that it is Literacy Week this upcoming week! We will be learning that there are multiple types of literacies.

Take a look at the quick overview of what the week looks like:

Monday – We have a whole school read over the PA. The book will be displayed on the projector for all to see. Then we will have a follow-up activity to share what they hope for. If you would like to read the book with your child after school on Monday, click here to view it on YouTube.

Tuesday – All children will be encouraged to wear any outfit that makes them feel happy! Some suggestions might be pajamas, a sports jersey, a costume, a favourite colour, etc. Be creative!

Wednesday – Throughout the day, we will be doing physical activities. We are invited to read the story “The Snowy Day” outside along the fence. After school, please feel free to walk and read the story with your child(ren) too!

Thursday – In the past, people talked about IQ (intelligence quotient or a person’s ability to reason). Then people started talking about EQ (emotional quotient or the ability to understand and manage emotions in positive ways including communicating effectively). A couple months ago when I was doing some research for my presentation, I learned about CQ (cultural quotient or the ability to adapt to new cultural settings). Understanding our personal and cultural identity is one of our core competencies. Anyway, on Thursday, we invite you and your families to join us for family reading in our classroom! Please feel free to bring other family members and books to share. If you have any books from your culture, that would be wonderful too!

Friday – We will have a celebration of learning at 1:00pm.

One of my favourite times of the day is when I pick the kids up from the undercover area. They make me feel so loved by the way they greet me. I also really love seeing parents as you drop off. It brings me joy to see you too! 🙂

I am very grateful for your continued support at home. I wanted to mention again that if you have not seen your child’s report card yet, no worries at all. Please send me an email to let me know and I will send you a PDF copy. Thank you.

The ice skating notice will go home this week. School Cash online may not be set up yet but I can send you an email to let you know when it is open. We will need parent volunteer drivers and supervisors. If you are a confident skater, please feel free to help out on the ice. If not, we will need parent supervisors at the rink too. This is a new requirement this year at City of Burnaby rinks.

Your children bring me so much joy each day! Looking forward to another full week with them!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan