Category: Social Emotional Learning

Dear Division 11 families,

Although it was a short school week, we still fit in a LOT of learning and we had a FANTASTIC week! One of the sweetest comments from one of your children this past week really touched my heart. She said, “We have the sweetest class.” Every time I think of her comment, my heart was tickled with warmth and love. This lovely thought has visited numerous times since she said it! We DO have the sweetest class! 🙂

Names are important.

Our names are a very important and significant part of who we are. They have power. They can have deep personal, cultural, and historical connections too. It is a part of our identity, may be a part of the communities we belong, and our place in the world. 

We learned that many Indigenous peoples are gifted a traditional name or names that carry deep cultural meaning. We listened to a story called Thunder Boy Jr. Feel free to listen to the story again at home by clicking the image below. Then we did some writing about our own names and will be doing more activities with our names. These activities are meant to help each child learn more about themselves, their family, and each other as we share.

Because names are a person’s greatest connection to their own identity and individuality, it might be the most important word to them. This is one way that children are seen as a part of our  classroom community. This is the reason why your child is greeted by name each and every morning when I pick them up outside. Then during Community Circle, they are greeted by the person to their right so before recess, they would have heard their sweet name at least twice already!  READ MORE !

Dear families,

The week flew by! They say, “time flies when you’re having fun!” and fun we definitely had! There seems to be a time thief in our classroom. I love how they are often surprised that it’s already lunch or it’s already home time. We are SO grateful to have met almost all of you during our Parents as Partners conferences! Thank you SO much for filling out the questionnaire and for sharing your expertise about your child so we can better support them and their learning. We were happy to hear that they are enjoying coming to school!

Social Emotional Learning

Last week, we learned more about what it means to have a growth mindset. We continued to work on our comfort zone circles too. Hoping that once they are all done, this will be their first post in Spaces (our ePortfolios)!

READ MORE !

Dear families,

We are so excited to have spent an awesome first week together getting to know each other, setting up routines, and having fun while learning!

Our Beliefs

Thank you to all of you who joined us for our Meet Your Teachers night last Wednesday! Here is a recap of what was shared about our beliefs:

• We strive for a warm, safe, and welcoming classroom culture that is filled with meaningful relationships, engaging learning experiences, and joy. We want all children to feel loved, seen, valued, heard, and appreciated. We foster collaboration and a mindset of working together by developing teamwork skills. We are better together and stronger together.
• Relationships are gifts! They are key to learning about ourselves and each other. We believe in fostering love, kindness, gratitude, and positivity through every interaction. Every single ATOMIC interaction is an opportunity to uplift others to help brighten their day and make our environment a more positive one. Each ATOMIC interaction is foundational to building better relationships.
• In all of our learning, children begin at different levels and we do our best to help them grow from where they are. We plan activities that will encourage them to be in their stretch zone because being challenged is where they grow most, not by staying in their comfort zones.
  • We started learning about the differences in comfort zones, stretch zones, and not yet zones last week with a fun activity physically moving around to understand the differences. If you’d like to learn more about stretch zones, read an article by me titled A Simple Way I Show Students They’re Growing Every Day published on Teacher2Teacher. Many parents and students have commented on this at the end of the year as an important life lesson.
• We want to help students discover their strengths, values, beliefs, and how they shine. All students have leadership qualities already. We foster these skills through opportunities and by noticing, naming, and nurturing leadership skills we see. If you’re interested to learn more, I wrote an article about the Gift of Leadership.
• Believe in students until they believe in themselves…then believe in them more. This is so important in building their self-confidence. Children who believe in themselves feel more safe and confident to take more risks and challenge themselves too. We foster a belief that they are their own loudest cheerleader!

Communication

To learn more about which teacher is in the classroom and when during the week, visit our About Our Class page. More information about Scholastic Reading Club can also be found here.

You will be receiving updates on what is going on in our classroom via blog posts. When there is a new post, you will receive an email notification.

Students will also be reflecting and sharing their learning through SpacesEDU, which is a digital portfolio. More information will come at a later date.

Reading

Your child has an EPIC account through our class. Our class code is ycr9510 (think, you can read 95-10 to help you remember). This accessible anytime between 7 am to 3 pm. They have access to over 40,000 books, audiobooks, and learning videos. So if your child is at home sick for the day, feel free to have them read on Epic if they are feeling up to it!

Reminders

• Please fill out the Parents as Partners – Getting to Know Your Child form before we meet. Thank you for the ones we already received and for your time to fill out.
• Please sign up for your appointment to meet with us on September 21 or 22. For more information on how, please check out the Gilmore website for specific instructions.
• Join us at the Gilmore Community BBQ this Thursday, September 22 from 2-5pm!
• Every Thursday morning, there is a great opportunity to meet with Mr. Greenwood, our Community Coordinator, and other parents for coffee, snacks, and conversation! Come into the Community Room when you are free on a Thursday from 9 to 10am. All are welcome!
• Students will be presenting their All About Me bags next week. Please have them bring in their items on Tuesday. Thank you for helping your child prepare a few sentences for each item.
• Please pay for planners on School Cash Online. Thank you!

Thank you so much for reading this post. We aim to have weekly updates so look for the email notification on the weekend.

We appreciate you for all of your support! Anytime you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. We are looking forward to working as partners in your child’s education.

So excited to see how the year unfolds as our hearts connect each day!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan & Mrs. Paulich

Hello Division 6 families!

I hope you had a great week like we did at school! I feel like a broken record but the love and joy we share is so appreciated. Today during our Community Circle, we shared something grateful we are looking forward to on the weekend and something we appreciate about our class. Such heartwarming responses with thankfulness for classmates and me. Our daily gratitude practices are a part of our being together as a community. Just yesterday, I had the greatest honour to have my writing published by one of the biggest education websites in the world! Edutopia shared my article about how gratitude is embedded in our classroom. I’d LOVE for you to read it so you can get a glimpse into our day – Click here!

Practicing gratitude is an important part of our social emotional learning! It improves mindset, builds a positive classroom culture, and fosters social awareness. How can you naturally embed gratitude into your daily routine at home?

We are creative.

The theme at Gilmore this month is creativity so we are fully embracing ours with our dragster cars and poetry! This week, we continued to work on our affirmations and CREATIVITY acrostic poems. Today, a student shared that she was feeling a little on the grumpy side when she woke up. Then she read her affirmations and it turned her day to a positive start! I even noticed she came in this morning with big smiles and I was truly thrilled to learn why! As your child is finishing up their affirmations, they will have two copies – one for home to read in the morning and at night for 30 days and one at school. May I suggest that you write affirmations too? Share it with your child and read it as a way to connect. Perhaps you can do the 30 day challenge together! I am excited to see how that changes your child’s belief in themselves and how it builds their personal inner strength.

We are mathematicians.

So far, the grade 5s have learned about division: sets, sharing, how division and multiplication is related, knowing when to multiply and divide, and dividing with remainders. Today, we had such a great lesson in working collaboratively, communicating our mathematical thinking, and using our critical thinking skills as our first discovery lesson on long division. We were placed in three groups to practice our math discourse by explaining, reasoning, and justifying our process and answer.

It warmed my heart how well they worked together and how engaged they were! I may have been smiling the whole time! I loved and appreciated how once they gained a certain level of understanding, I was able to push them a little more to stretch their thinking and build connections to what they already know about addition and multiplication. They got to come to their own discovery and understanding of how they are all related!

Next week, we will break down the algorithm of long division. Please continue to work with your child to practice their math facts. I had a student today feel SO proud of herself because she now knows all of her x6 facts! All it takes is some dedication, commitment, and time. Eventually, with practice, they will learn them all! Thank you for your support!

ADST

This week, we had our sanding party! Many of the cars are much smoother than when they brought them back in. Next week, we will paint. I am so looking forward to seeing their creativity shine through! If your child still has their cars at home, please ensure they are brought back to school on Monday. Thank you!

Outdoor Education

What an awesome day we had with the grade 5s at Camp Jubilee! They had an opportunity to do archery, low ropes, and kayaking. We ended our day with a campfire and of course, silly campfire songs! We are already looking into the possibility of booking for the grade 5s next year (that’s this year’s grade 4s)! Thank you to the fundraising efforts of parents who covered half of your cost. We appreciate you!

It sounds like the grade 4s enjoyed their day too with the others in Mr. Anchor’s class. 🙂

We are swimmers.

On Tuesday, May 17, we have our first of two swimming sessions! We will be leaving the school shortly after lunch. We will walk to Eileen Dailey pool so please have your child dress appropriately for the weather. Children were encouraged to prepare by writing a list of what they need and packing their own swim items the night before so they are not rushing around on Tuesday morning. This teaches them responsibility and organization.

Grade 5s – If your child has a Be Active pass, please bring it to school on Monday. That way, if they forget, they still have a second opportunity to bring it on Tuesday. If your child does not have one yet, please print and fill it out and return to school on Monday. That way, there will be no cost for them. Thank you so much for your cooperation! Click here to learn more and get access to the registration form.

Please review the safety expectations. Click on the image or click here to read.

Reminder: Students will not be making any purchases so please do not send money.

Reminder: Class Photo Day will be this Friday, May 20!

As always, we appreciate you for your support at home and for sharing your wonderful children with us this year. It has been such a phenomenal year so far! Have an awesome weekend!

Grateful for you, Ms. Chan