I hope you had a lovely weekend! Last Thursday and Friday, I gratefully attended a two-day professional development opportunity called The Empowerment Ecosystem Summit with three leaders in assessment who travel around the world presenting for Solution Tree. With their broad reach, they can clearly see that BC is one of the leaders worldwide in standards based grading with an added focus on core competencies and curricular competencies. We are blessed in Burnaby because we have been a lead district in BC.
We measure student’s understanding of the learning standards based on the proficiency scale (emerging, developing, proficient, and extending), which is what you see on their Learning Updates (also called Report Cards) in the subject areas.
Another very important part of learning is focused on core competencies like communication (communicating and collaboration), thinking (creative, critical, and reflective), and personal and social (awareness and responsibility, positive personal and cultural identity). Here we do not assess their competency using a proficiency scale, but your child will do a self-reflection instead. In our class, I often use the vocabulary of core competencies to make this part of their learning more visible. These are the important 21 century skills that some call “soft skills”. I endorse Simon Sinek‘s take on calling these “human skills” because they need these skills to relate to one another. These skills will directly help them be better social beings which will lead to improved relationships in their lifetime.
How to support at home: Use the same language to point out this learning in themselves. Notice – Name – Nurture: Notice prosocial behaviours. Then name it to nurture it. For example, ask them to use their “critical thinking” brain to come up with solutions to problems or thank them for taking “personal responsibility” for making sure their planner is in the backpack.
Assessment is an area of passion for me. I read and listen to a lot of material on assessment and can talk shop all day with colleagues. There are many aspects to how we support our learners equitably, to accurately measure proficiency, and determine next steps to teach so that all students can increase achievement. My core beliefs in assessment are centered around children feeling empowered to take an active part in ownership over their learning through goal setting, reflection, and self-assessment while offering some choice. This directly increases their investment and engagement.
If you are curious about any of this and would like to unpack it some more, please reach out. I am happy to have a conversation with you to help you better understand.
We are mathematicians.
We continued to solidify our understanding of perimeter and area.
How to support at home: Please ask your child to teach you how to measure perimeter and area. In case they don’t remember, it is important to include the unit of measure (e.g., mm, cm, m, km for perimeter and mm2, cm2, m2, km2 for area).
We are scientists.
We are learning about the ladybugs life cycle! We did our first observation record last week. Tomorrow, I am excited to see how much they have grown since we saw them on Wednesday!
Before we went out for our Wondering Wednesday walk, we used our observation and critical thinking skills. We had a great discussion about maple seeds and how they may have adapted to increase their chance of survival.
How to support at home: Ask your child what they wonder about ladybugs. Feel free to come up with questions together to research. This is a great way to model questioning and researching skills.
Dates to Note
Fri. May 31 – Click here to order Pizza for lunch (order by May 28)
Fri. May 31 – 2 PM Early dismissal
Fri. May 31 – Click here to learn more about our PAC’s Freezie sale
Sat. June 1 from 9:30 AM to 4 PM – Hats Off Day. Click here to learn more about this great annual event that happens along Hastings street.
Fri. June 7 – Pro-D day; students do not attend
Fri. June 21 – Revs Bowling and Burnaby Lake picnic (All families are welcome!)
Thank you for your continued support at home! We appreciate you!
I am the luckiest teacher ever to get to work with your children! Every week seems like a busy week full of learning but that’s not the best part. The best part is that we get to do it TOGETHER! What a blessing and pure joy to spend my time with them! Of course, you already know how much joy your children bring. I am always so grateful for their love, joy, and the fun we have as a classroom community.
Habit #5: Seek first to understand. Then to be understood. The lesson this time was about the importance of listening. Take a look at the image for the I statements, in particular: “I don’t interrupt whenever someone is talking.”
This has been an area that needs improvement so one thing we have been working on is being more patient by not interrupting my teaching or conversations. For example, when I am in the middle of a conversation with another adult or classmate. If you experience this at home, please remind them to be patient and to wait their turn to speak. We are working on doing this independently without reminders. Thank you!
The other thing we have been working on is responsibility for our belongings by picking up after themselves. We have many people who are willing to help clean up our classroom but if everyone did their part to begin with, there would be less to tidy up. Any opportunities at home to independently pick up after themselves will be great practice. Thank you!
Jump Rope for Heart
We started the week with Jump Rope for Heart. There is still time to donate. Please click here to learn more. Thank you if you choose to donate.
Thanks to our organizing committee, students had an opportunity to try six different stations with their big buddies and Ms. Allocca’s class. They had so much fun and were sweaty when it was all done!
We are mathematicians.
We continued to solidify our understanding of division and as it relates to multiplication. Further learning this week had us practicing the concept that we can do division by subtraction. After the lesson, we almost always practice the new concept with a partner first. Here it gives them an opportunity to practice their core competencies of communication and collaboration skills. I appreciate how quickly they set themselves up, how well they work together, and how engaged they ALL were in their learning! So proud of them!
It is also a fantastic opportunity for children who don’t know each other well yet or have had differences to learn together. This was what happened last week. A partnership between two people who had preconceived notions about each other ended up asking if they can be partners again in the future. This warmed my heart. This is one of many reasons why we explore new concepts together and with partners chosen randomly. Students have an opportunity to develop relationships and learn with others while developing their personal identities and social competencies.
How to support at home: Please review this video and ask your child to explain this concept to you. When learners can teach you, they demonstrate proficient understanding.
We were also introduced to measurement (mm and cm) and measured things around the room.
How to support at home: Take out a ruler and have fun measuring things around the home! Have your child estimate the length and then measure the items.
We are scientists.
Each week, we continue to check on the growing chum salmon in the library. This past week, we were blessed and grateful to have Ms. Reid give us a lesson on the life cycle of the salmon and to answer our many questions! I really enjoyed how curious they were by asking so many interesting questions.
They went from the egg to alevin to fry stage which is the current stage they will stay in at Kitchener until they are released in a few weeks.
The book We Are a Community was a great way to mesh science with Social Studies and learn more vocabulary about landforms and water sources. Here is an excerpt from Strong Nations website:
This book is about a river. Most rivers start high up in the mountains. As the water comes downhill, it makes little pathways in the rocks and gravel. As the pathways get bigger, they join to make streams. When several streams join, they make a river. Some rivers have waterfalls and deep pools. In some places, fast moving water tumbles over rocks forming rapids. When a river leaves the mountain for flatter ground it starts to slow down. Eventually, a river ends when it flows into the sea. Where the fresh water and the salt water meet is an estuary.
The area in and around an estuary is a good place for plants, animals and people to live because we can all find food and water there. The salmon is an important food for many of us.
People have paid attention to the life cycle of salmon for thousands of years. We have learned that sometimes we can help salmon survive by building a salmon hatchery along a river. Some hatcheries are huge while others are quite small.
There are many sizes of rivers in the world. Some are wide. Some are narrow. Some are deep. Some are shallow.
We are readers, listeners, and writers.
We read a story called A Simon for Salmon about a boy who saves a salmon by helping it get free.
If you would like to listen to the story with your child, click here.
We reviewed the three different ways we can make connections to the stories we read: text to self (a personal connection or something that reminds them of a personal experience), text to text (something that reminds them of another book or movie), and text to world (a connection that reminds them of something that happened in the world).
The Two Sisters is another book we read that is a story about the twin mountain peaks we see to the west of our school. We actually have quite a beautiful view of it from our classroom. Here is a synopsis from Amazon:
For the first time, Pauline Johnson’s “The Two Sisters,” a First Nations legend, is accompanied by sumptuous illustrations that showcase the splendour of the Salish Sea. The universal themes of Creation, courage, and peace run through this legend of two little girls who grow up to be courageous young women who help to bring lasting peace to their world. The story is supplemented by a reference section that will enable a reader, parent, teacher, or visitor to the coast to immerse themselves in the rich history of Coast Salish cultures.
The last few weeks, we have enjoyed our time with big buddies at Willingdon Park. This past week because of the rain, we visited their classroom. After helping them with their entrepreneur project, we played two games of Kahoot! We reviewed questions that tested our understanding of various life cycles and practiced multiplication with arrays. They have SO much fun playing as a team against each other!
Vancouver Aquarium Field Trip
So far, we have more than enough parent volunteers to help supervise. We are so grateful to those who have offered to spend the day with us! We can only take four parents on our trip because of our field trip funds and the number of free chaperones based on the number of students we have. If you have your own membership, please let me know. I know that some of you will need to take time off work so if you indicated you can volunteer but would like to change your mind knowing that we have more than enough adult supervisors, please let me know. Thank you!
Prior to our visit, we will be learning about some of the sea creatures we will see. This week, we started with learning about the sea otter. They really enjoyed viewing the live cam! Click here to watch them live!
Enjoy the long weekend! I am excited for our Pro-D day on Monday! One of the greatest joys this year was working alongside fellow colleagues like Ms. Hardie, Ms. Forbes, Ms. Chung, and Mr. Hunter on the Pro-D Committee to plan our learning days. We have worked hard this year in moving the school forward in terms of our two school goals of social emotional learning and reading comprehension. I love collaborating with others, using creativity, and connecting to improve the learning that happens at Kitchener!
We continue to have fun so time is flying by way too fast! It’s hard to believe it’s May this week! I am deeply grateful for your continued support at home. I love and appreciate you all!
Dates to add to your calendar
Monday, April 29 – Pro-D Day; students do not attend
Today is Earth Day and our Jump Rope for Heart event. To learn more, click here to visit our school website.
On Wednesday, classes all over Burnaby were invited to attend an Indigenous lesson. It was a Virtual Drum Circle and online teachings with honoured Guest Xwaluputhut, Patrick Aleck. As I was away this day, please ask your child about what they experienced and learned.
Mary was four years old when she was first taken away to the Lejac Indian Residential School. It was far away from her home and family. Always hungry and cold, there was little comfort for young Mary. Speaking Dakelh was forbidden and the nuns and priest were always watching, ready to punish. Mary and the other girls had a genius idea: drawing on the knowledge from their mothers, aunts and grandmothers who were all master sewers, the girls would sew hidden pockets in their clothes to hide food. They secretly gathered materials and sewed at nighttime, then used their pockets to hide apples, carrots and pieces of bread to share with the younger girls.
Based on the author’s mother’s experience at residential school, The Secret Pocket is a story of survival and resilience in the face of genocide and cruelty. But it’s also a celebration of quiet resistance to the injustice of residential schools and how the sewing skills passed down through generations of Indigenous women gave these girls a future, stitch by stitch.
After listening to this story, children may have more questions. Please feel free to have a conversation with your child about their thoughts and feelings about the many hardships that children experienced in Residential Schools. Conversations at home and school are an important part of truth and reconciliation.
We are poets!
Students were introduced to the Haiku as a Japanese structure. The traditional haikus had three lines. The first and last line has five syllables while the middle line has seven. This was great review and practice for how to count syllables.
We read Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons. This was a book that offers 26 haikus about the four seasons. The author moves away from the traditional 5-7-5 syllable structure because english words typically have more than one syllable per word.
I loved the way the poet painted pictures for our minds to see. We are almost all finished our good copies which will go on display in our classroom soon!
I hope you enjoyed writing a poem WITH your child during our student led conferences!
We are mathematicians.
I am always so impressed with how quickly children learn. We were introduced to division concepts on Monday and by Friday, almost all were experts!
Students really love learning together to explore concepts. So many core competencies are practiced when they learn together: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, personal and social responsibility. It truly is heartwarming to see them work so well as partners.
How to support at home: Give a division question that will not result in having a remainder. For example: 20 ÷ 4 = 5 or 12 ÷ 3 = 4
What this represents is: The total number (20) ÷ the number of groups (4) = equals the number in each group (5)
Your child then would draw four circles to represent the number of groups and then divide the total number (20) equally into the groups to discover there would be 5 in each group.
We also learned there are three other ways to write the equation. Take a look at the images for how and ask your child to show you what they learned so far.
We are artists!
This week, students finished off their springtime animal art and I couldn’t be prouder of everyone’s work! We started off with the Read Aloud: “Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox” by Danielle Daniel, a story which gives an introduction to the Anishinaabe tradition of totem animals. We spoke about the meaning of the bear and rabbit in our art. In the story, the bear is described as brave and confident, and the rabbit as creative and adventurous. Students then finished off painting their flowers, adding “texture” to their animals, and glueing their finished art onto coloured background paper. In this project, students “developed processes and technical skills in a variety of art forms to refine artistic abilities” (BC Curriculum Arts Education 2/3.)
We also worked on finishing up our Spring Break paragraphs (where we focused on the skills of sequencing events and revising our work) and “selfie” drawings. I’m hoping to have these done soon and to share them here with you. Although my time is limited with your kids, I always look forward to making new art with them every week! They bring such enthusiasm, creativity, and care into everything they create and it always shows in the final product.
We are athletes.
Students enjoyed their lacrosse lessons last week. Please ask them all about it!
Vancouver Aquarium Field Trip on Friday, May 10
The notice went home on Friday. Click here to download a PDF version. Thank you to the fundraising efforts of our PAC, the cost of the field trip was subsidized.
Unfortunately, the bus cannot accommodate parent volunteers due to space since we have three classes going. We will need one or two parents to help drive other parent supervisors. We will pay for your parking, thank you! We appreciate you!
If your child orders from the hot lunch program, a bagged lunch will be prepared for them on this day.
Gratitude
Whenever I think of you, my heart is always so full of gratitude. Thank you for your continued support at home as our partners! It really is so hard to believe that we are in our last term together. I tell your children every morning that I am glad to see them, I love them, and I appreciate how they bring me such joy. Just typing this instantly warmed my heart and brought an instant smile to my face! 🙂
Looking forward to having yet another fantastic and funtastic week with your children! Have a great start to your week too!
In appreciation, Ms. Chan
Dates to Note
Monday, April 29 – Pro-D Day; students do not attend
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.
Before we began weaving, I reminded students of the First Peoples Principle of Learning: “Learning takes patience and time.” We had a brainstorm about what this meant and other things that we have learned that took patience and time. Every student shared a connection, and I knew they were ready to start weaving! Students were then led step-by-step in learning how to weave using paper strips on a paper loom. Every student finished their heart weaving–I was so proud! Weaving is a fantastic activity to practice fine motor skills and a growth-mindset.>
We are scientists.
The salmon eggs hatched so they are now alevin. We couldn’t see them because they are hiding but this is to keep them safe in this stage.
“Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, etc.)” – First Peoples Principles of Learning
It’s hard to believe we have three weeks before spring break. Time flies when we are having fun! We continue to work hard at all aspects of our holistic learning. Honestly, last week, one of the things that brought me great joy was watching some of them interact with people they don’t usually talk to during Heart Time. I told them how heartwarming it was to witness their effort and joy in building new friendships. (Notice. Name. Nurture.) Then before recess, one child said, “I’m so excited to be playing with two new classmates at recess because I’ve never played with them before!”
The connections we make in school are such an important piece to it being a happier place to be. When students contribute in showing deeper kindness and demonstrate all the qualities of what it means to be Kitchener HAWKS, (helpful, accepting, welcoming, kind, safe), they are happier, feel more connected, and learn better together. Strong relationships built on love, kindness, and compassion are the foundation to how well our class functions as a community because we are interconnected. This is why we intentionally start our day with Heart Time, Community Connection Circle time, and celebrate our small wins together.
I feel so blessed to spend every day with your beautiful children and to work alongside you. Thank you for sharing them with us and for your continued support at home! As always, please let us know how we can support your child better. ❤️
