Category: Social Emotional Learning

Dear Families,

I apologize for no post last week but you will find information from last week here too. Last week, I was preparing for my presentation for one of my District workshops named Using Technology to Enhance Student Writing and then I was focussed on writing report cards. I have always enjoyed this time of year because I have an opportunity to really sit down and reflect on how your child has improved and what the next steps will be moving forward. While it does take many hours to write overall, it’s a rewarding time to see how much growth has taken place in a few month’s time. I also appreciate the way we share student’s progress here at Brentwood Park, in particular, because of how it is strength-based and how it honours student voice. Reports will be going home next Friday, February 14th. 

On Monday, January 27th, we celebrated Family Literacy Day wearing our pajamas to school. We started the day with a quick game of trivia. Then before lunch, we played a few games of animal BINGO with Mr. Ricker announcing the animals over the PA system for the whole school to play. We thought some of the animal sounds were hard to guess! After lunch, it was our turn to read on the mats in the gym. It was great to see some parents come to join us! For the remainder of the week, students were encouraged to participate in any kind of literacy with their family in the evenings. Literacy does not just mean reading. There are different kinds of literacy: math, financial, media, health, physical, and yes, even digital literacy that you can share with your children. We are well on our way with our Home Literacy Club. Some students have now read over 125 days! Please continue to encourage your child to participate. If you need a new form, please let me know. Happy to send a new one home!

Last week, we had the great pleasure to meet our student teacher from SFU, Ms. Grewal. She spent the week getting to know us and observing other teachers in the school. She is back at SFU now but will be returning on February 24 to stay with us for four consecutive weeks (with spring break in between). During this time, she will be teaching a lesson a day leading up to teaching two consecutive half or full days just before spring break. It will be a blessing for our students to have two teachers in the room to support them! Should you have any questions, please contact me. 

We have certainly been working hard on our reading and writing skills by learning about various strategies. In reading, we learned about making predictions and what makes a good one: how our ideas about the story would include thinking about the main characters, where the story takes place, what might the problem be, and possible solution. Then we discussed the clues that help us make these predictions (the title, pictures, headings, or something they have read before that reminds them of the book cover). Finally, we learned about various genres. We discovered that many have not even heard of the word genre before. I follow the teaching strategy: I do, we do, you do. What this means is that I model what making predictions looks like. Then we will do a prediction together. Next, students will have an opportunity to practice making predictions on their own, justifying their predictions with clues they see. If you are interested, click here to learn why making predictions is a good reading strategy to improve comprehension. How can you support your child at home? Before your child cracks open that new book from the book store or library, ask them to make a prediction and have a conversation about what clues they are using to make the prediction. Then watch their excitement when their prediction actually comes true or not!

In writing, we have been practicing writing summaries of stories. This is an important skill to be able to learn how to pull out the main points. Summarizing improves reading skills, critical thinking skills, and writing and editing skills as they draft their summary. I have already seen growth! How you can support your child at home: After your child reads a picture book or a chapter, ask your child to summarize what happened in 1-2 sentences to practice. You can model this as well during your conversations. When your child tells you a story about something that happened to them, for example, repeat what you heard happen but in one sentence and then make it explicit by informing them you just summarized their story! It’ll make them feel heard at the same time too! 

Today, we read a story called Thanks for the Feedback, I Think by Julia Cook. It is about a boy who learns how to appropriately respond to positive and negative feedback. We learned that feedback is just information we can use to help us improve if we have a growth mindset. Click on the link above if you would like to watch the storybook read to you. 

In Math, we dove into addition strategies to become more fluent at mental math. Most of us probably learned how to add by regrouping but now, there is a “new way” of adding two digits plus two digits. Click on the video to view. Please review at home as it will help build their confidence at school. This is one way we practice at school: Take a deck of cards to create random numbers. Flip over two cards for the first number (addend) and then another two cards for the second number (addend). Now this is your addition equation to solve! Then we add the two tens first before adding the ones. Finally, add those together just like in the video. Feel free to ask your child to show you.

Card games to support your child at home with math facts fluency (adding to 20)

(1) Addition War: Take a deck of playing cards and remove the Jack and King. The Queen represents a zero. Divide the deck evenly between partners. Players flip one card at the same time. Whoever calls out the sum first takes the cards. Variation: Each player flips over two cards from their evenly divided deck. Both players add their own two numbers together and compare; whoever has the larger number takes the cards to add to their own deck, like traditional war except compare the sum of both cards.

(2) Today, we played Doubles War to practice our doubles with playing cards. In partners, they took turns flipping over one card at a time (Ace to 10). Whoever calls out the doubled sum first takes the card. I so wish you could have been there to see their excitement and hear their enthusiasm. Many students were popping like popcorn, jumping off the ground, as they called out their sums in hopes of beating their partners. It was so much fun to witness their enjoyment!

(3) Go to my Symbaloo webmix and look at the bottom row. Here, you will find a number of Quizlet flashcards to practice the same math fluency strategies we practice in class like: making tens, doubles, doubles plus one, for example.

Quizlet is one of the top rated quiz websites for review. Try out other people’s quizzes shared in the community or create ones of your own! This site really helped my son practice his French vocabulary so it’s a website to keep in mind for your children in the future too.

Practice math fluency strategies (2 digit addition/subtraction)

We practiced the Adding Ten strategy. Partners took turns to flip over two cards and the first to call out the sum of 10 more gets to take the cards. For example, flip 52. First to call out 62 earns those cards. We also practiced Subtracting Tens the same way. I challenge you to play these games at home to support your child’s learning in math. Who would win? Have your child report back to me. Kids are often motivated to practice when it means they can beat their parents.

In Science, we have continued to learn about landforms, adding islands and plateaus. I am just so thrilled to know they have thoroughly enjoyed learning in this way. I can’t wait for them to share their projects with you during our Student Led Conferences coming up before Spring Break on March 12th. Save the date!

Ice skating next Wednesday, February 12th! We will leave school shortly after 9:00 am. Skating time starts at 9:30 am (1 hour). Click here to view field trip form for more information.

GRADE 3 PARENTS: Your child will need to bring a booster seat to school each time we go skating. This is the law and we cannot ask parent volunteer drivers to take children who do not have booster seats. We only have two students who would be exempt. Thank you.

To bring:

• gloves, ice sport or ski helmet, long socks
• skates (if your child owns a pair)
• booster seat if your child is not yet 9 years old or 4’9″ tall (145 cm)

Thank you so very much to our volunteer drivers! We definitely cannot participate in these skating sessions without your help and support. We are so grateful to the parents of Ana, Eva, Kyle, Lauren, Isaac, Lucas C., Max, and Yunsoo!

Unfortunately, we are still short rides for 3 students on February 18 and March 3. I will be driving on all of our skating days too. If you can help out, please let me know. If you are not comfortable driving other students, even if you bring your own child to and from the rink, that will help too. Thank you. 

Dear Parents,

Your child brought home their report cards today. I thoroughly enjoyed my first time writing report cards like this as it is quite different at other schools because it included their own reflections on how they are doing in the areas of work habits and attitude, personal awareness and responsibility, and social awareness and responsibility. I also thought it was unique approach to write it directly to my students rather than traditionally, about them. It makes it much more of a personal document that focuses on their strengths and ending with next steps. Each of them had an opportunity to read over their report cards and sign them. You may be used to receiving an extra sheet called an Overview. This was a document that outlined what was covered over the course of the term. Since you have been informed frequently each week on our class blog, please refer to our past blog posts for this information and refer to our We Are Learners pages for the curricular competencies that were covered.

On Monday, I introduced the idea of having “focus students” as an opportunity for them to share something about themselves, a chance to formally speak to the class to develop their communication and presentation skills, and to have regularly scheduled individual teacher time. This is not to say that they do not receive teacher time during other days. Here is the schedule:

If your child’s day lands on a holiday or a Pro-D day, their turn will be the next day. For example, Eva and Kiana’s day is supposed to be tomorrow but instead, will be on Monday, November 25. Since we did not begin “Focus Students” until Tuesday, Ana and Alex will also be on Mon. Nov. 25. For our first time, students were asked to bring an artifact to share and talk about. They are to include details including thoughts and feelings. During their teacher time, we have reviewed their progress and set goals for their public speaking skills as well as how they are doing as a listener. I have also listened to them read and provided direct feedback including reading strategies that will help them progress, and we reviewed their goals in reading. As we move along, the focus each week may be different but every other week, your child will have an opportunity to speak in front of classmates. The feedback they receive will inform them of their strengths (so they maintain them) and their areas of opportunity (so they know what to work on to improve).

Also new on Monday, response journals were introduced. A response journal is a type of writing where students make connections to what they read (text to text, text to self, or text to world). Their sheet of paper is divided into half. On the left-side, they record a summary of “What happened” and on the right-side, they record “My thinking”. Here, they not only practice the important skill of summarization, they have an opportunity to respond to text as they are encouraged to question, analyze, relate, respond, and interpret to gain new understandings or at least that is where we are headed!

Starting on Tuesday, we saw our first sets of focus students come up to share. It is not easy to be one of the first but they presented very well. As an audience, we are working on the skill of listening by looking at the speaker, being engaged by absorbing their message in our hearts and minds, and responding by asking pertinent questions afterwards. I have enjoyed learning more about each student already and am looking forward to the rest!

We returned to our book The 7 Habits of Happy Kids to learn about two more concepts. As a review, here are the first three habits covered so far:

1. Be Proactive – Take initiative. You’re in charge!
2. Begin with the End in Mind – Focus on goals and have a plan!
3. Put First Things First – Work first, then play!
4. Think Win-Win – Everyone can win!
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood – Listen before you speak!

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

During our Reading time, students were introduced to a new app called Voice Record Pro [Free app to download]. It’s a basic app that allows them to record their voice. They practiced their reading and then recorded a reading sample and uploaded it to OneDrive. We will be looking for growth over time.

We have been working with Ms. Tas every Wednesday afternoon in our classroom. We noticed that some were overusing apostrophes or placing them incorrectly so based on the common errors we are seeing in student’s writing, we had a couple lessons on the proper use of quotation marks for contractions and possessive nouns. Again, based on the students’ inexperience with using quotation marks, our focus this time was on proper use of quotation marks – why we need them, where they go, and where we place commas and question marks within a quotation. Students were partnered up randomly and worked well with each other as they put the words together with punctuation to form a complete sentence. Once done, they rotated to a different station with a new sentence to put together. They loved the hands-on learning experience! They also enjoyed seeing their own names used in these sentences.

Students had an important lesson on digital citizenship today as we discussed the allure of the internet. Information can be at our fingertips within seconds but we need to learn to exercise our self-control, decision making, and critical thinking skills. With opportunities, these skills can be developed over time as they grow and learn to be discerning critical thinkers who make good decisions about what they search, how to decipher whether it is true, and what sites are trustworthy, for example. It is natural for children this age to be curious about many things. The internet offers many opportunities to learn. However, as much as there is good information, there is also negative, harmful, and false information available. Over time, they will learn that what we see on the internet is not all true. Ultimately, one of our goals is that their integrity will stand up so they will make good decisions about how they access and use the information available at their fingertips.

LOOKING AHEAD

Guest speaker: On Monday, we have arranged for a dental hygienist to come for a classroom visit to teach us about taking care of our teeth.

Thursday: Young People’s Concert & World Ringette Championship game. Thank you to the parents of Kyle, Max, Liliana, Lucas L., and Yunsoo for volunteering to drive! We appreciate you.

Yoga: Next Friday, November 29th, we will begin our first of three yoga sessions with Ms. Gomes. Please have your child wear comfortable clothes and to bring a water bottle. Thank you to Jillian, Brentwood Park PAC and executives in supporting the yoga program. The most important aspect of yoga for children and families are:

• self care
• mindful breathing
• body awareness
• positive thinking
• honour and respect for oneself, others and nature

School Blanket Drive at Brentwood Park: Please support. We are collecting gently used or new blankets or sleeping bags, warm clothing, coats, hats, gloves, scarves, new socks and underwear. Click here for more details.

Report card envelopes: Please sign and return your child’s report card envelope next Monday. Thank you.

Hello families,

We have continued to have new experiences and new learning this week. We learned about our brain and how much it grows in the first ten years of our lives and why new or novel experiences are important to our brain’s development.

MONDAY: Our gym time emphasized moving around in the gym safely being mindful of our bodies as we navigated the larger space. In class, we regularly have movement breaks where we dance to music, do jumping jacks, burpees, or hold a plank for as long as we can; their repertoire of exercises will continue to grow over time. Students seem to enjoy these energized moments to help them reset and increase the oxygen in our brain for further learning.

TUESDAY: We did a team building activity called Ha, Ha, Ha. We all stood in a circle. The one person in the middle tried to make others smile. Once they smiled, they joined the person in the middle to try to get others to smile until almost the whole class was in the middle! We learned how smiles were so contagious and it didn’t take very long before they were all in the middle. They asked to play it again!

We read a book called Your Fantastic Elastic Brain and learned about the different parts of our brain, how it can be stretched, and how important it is to us. Click here to read reflections written by Lucas L. and Steven. Feel free to watch the book:

We had an important lesson on Digital Citizenship. We learned about being really mindful of what we say to others online and to THINK before we post anything. This acronym is great for all of us to think about even before we speak to others face-to-face, isn’t it?

Microsoft Office 365 was introduced. Students quickly learned how to log in to Teams and to find their assignment about describing themselves. This online platform will allow me to support your child’s writing in an augmented way. Students will be given the opportunity to revisit, revise, and revise their work again often after mini-lessons or receiving descriptive feedback. As well, they will be offered options to collaborate with classmates on future projects. Using Office 365 provides students with knowledge and experience that will support all aspects of our revised curriculum’s core competencies: communication and collaboration skills, creative thinking as well as critical and reflective thinking, personal awareness and responsibility, positive cultural and cultural identity, and social awareness and responsibility. To learn more about our Core Competencies, click here.

If your child does not have a set of earbuds with a volume control and a mini microphone, please send to school at your earliest convenience. There is no need to purchase an expensive one; I have seen some at a dollar store. I do have some large headphones students can use. This offers them the ability to listen to their own work privately as well as record their voice without picking up the classroom’s ambient noise.

FRIDAY: We will be going to Young People’s Concert at Michael J. Fox Theatre. All students have been asked to arrive at 8:45 AM. The bus will be leaving promptly at 9:05 AM. Thank you for your cooperation.

FOOD BANK: Our school initiative is to Scare Hunger by donating non-perishable food. The goal for each class is to collect enough to fill two boxes. Please continue to bring food in. Thank you for your generosity!

BOWLING: If you have not yet returned the form and paid for bowling, please do so as soon as possible. If you need another form to fill out (or need details), please click here to print out a copy or simply write a note in the planner giving your consent and record the online payment confirmation number. I am still looking for one more parent volunteer to walk with us to Revs, please. Thank you.

SCHOLASTIC: Orders are due on Saturday, October 12 at noon. To learn how to place an order online, click here. If you need the flyers sent home again, please let me know.

INSIDE SHOES: If your child does not have a pair of inside shoes, please send. With the beauty of our west coast weather, it really helps in keeping our classroom space cleaner. It is also more comfortable for your child to wear runners than heavy boots all day. Thank you.

Finally, our class is complete with our last two students joining us this week. Welcome to our class, twins!

Here were the daily tweets for the week with additional information:

Click on image to learn more about the book.

MONDAY: Staff had a great day diving into our new school goal of writing. We started our day reviewing our social emotional goal with Jillian. There was excitement about maintaining an existing goal and taking on a new one.

TUESDAY: Read The Orange Shirt Story. During our discussion, students quickly came to realize how fortunate they are. It seemed to hit them when thinking about what it might be like to be away from their families for 300 consecutive days during the school year. Although Phyllis only spent one year in a residential school, many other children spent many more years away from their families. It was really quite difficult for them to fathom but I believe they understood why it is important to acknowledge Orange Shirt Day. To learn a little more, click here to read recent CBC article.

Click here to read reflections written by Kiana and Lucas C.

WEDNESDAY: Theme of the day – Trust. Started day with car and driver team building game. In partners, students in front were cars with eyes closed. Students in back drove car around room being careful and mindful not to drive too fast or to crash their vehicles! Great discussion about trust. End of day, learning about solids and matter. Ultimate trust to hold nail while partner hammers!

In Science, we continued our learning about matter to include the three states: solid, liquid, and gas. We all tried hammering a nail, comparing a bottle with air and then a bottle with water in it. Students were amazed at the enormous number of atoms or molecules in just one drop of water. Can you guess how many? Answer is at the bottom of this post.

THURSDAY: Being friendly can be taught. Team building activity: practiced just waving at our partner, then waving & smiling, then waving, smiling & saying hi, then waving, smiling, saying hi & their name. Last bit, created a special handshake. Move to new partner to do the same. Smiles and fun had by all! All smiling was good practice for our individual photos later in the morning!

FRIDAY: Partners used a deck of cards to make random numbers to compare smaller/larger numbers (like war but with 3-4 cards each). Same practice on a worksheet? Yes but so much more engaging and fun to learn together to practice not just a number sense concept but communication and social skills. Students recorded their number comparisons in their Math notebooks. To learn more about our new Math unit on Number Sense, the learning outcomes, and ways to support at home, click here.

We met with our buddy class for the first time in Mr. Jung’s grade 6/7 class. Students enjoyed getting to know their buddies by playing card games and reading with them.

Important Dates:

• Friday, October 11 – Young People’s Concert – bus leaves for Michael J. Fox Theatre at 9:00am
• Friday, October 11 – Scholastic and Revs Bowling permission slips are due
• Monday, October 14 – Thanksgiving; school closed

Answer: It turns out there are over 1.5 sextillion molecules in a drop of water and more than 5 sextillion atoms per droplet. That’s 1 500 000 000 000 000 000 000 or 5 000 000 000 000 000 000 000, respectively in one single drop of water!