Category: We are artists.

Dear families,

We hope you had a good chance to celebrate your child’s report card that went home on Friday! We enjoyed writing about all the strengths and how well they are doing so far this year. For us, it is always a great time to sit to reflect on each child’s learning and to make clear our intentions for how to support them. The goals were ones they set for themselves. We are looking forward to supporting them and seeing them reach their goals!

Gratitude, Kindness, and Celebrations
Our class continues to focus on gratitude and kindness. Every Thursday, we share something that our heart is grateful for during our Thankful Thursday Community Circle time. On Fridays, we celebrate a success from the week. The goal is not that we only celebrate once a week but that we celebrate all of the small daily wins throughout our day. My celebration this week was this: I am celebrating all of my students for their hard work and dedication to their learning. I am proud of their accomplishment so far and am so looking forward to seeing further growth over time as they work towards their goals.

Climate Challenge
Thank you for participating in the Climate Challenge for the past four weeks. Starting on Monday, please return the package to school for a chance to win prizes. Click here for a digital copy. We have another Zoom meeting with TJ this Thursday morning!

Medical School Doctors of Division 6
This past week, we started our new unit on the basic structures and functions of body systems. We started with the circulatory system. To learn more about what will be covered in this unit, go to our We are Scientists page. Students were put into groups of three to read through a book about the circulatory system. The goal was to read parts of the book to not just learn facts but more importantly, to develop a sustained curiosity by asking questions and then asking even more questions.

Key question about systems: How do the systems of the human body work together?

The goal is to learn about the four body systems and then they will choose a disease of interest to research. I am so excited to share that our culminating event will be to attend the Gilmore Medical Conference 2021 as doctors and experts in our field! Students will attend as participants to listen to research findings from their fellow medical colleagues!

Passion Projects
Next week before we head out for our break, students will be presenting on their Passion Projects. They do NOT need to be finished yet! This is just an opportunity to share what they have been working on and receive some feedback that will help guide them as they move forward.

Mathematicians
In Math, we have been learning about equivalent fractions. This past week, they logged on to Khan Academy to practice their understanding of Place Value. At home, they are always welcome to log on to practice math concepts. I highly recommend that you sit down with your child to take a look at what Khan Academy has to offer so whether they need a challenge or more review at a lower grade, it is available for them. To find login information, please go to O365 OneNote > Name > Handouts > Accounts. All of their account information is there (including All the Right Type and Epic).

Letter Writing
Students were so excited to learn that they have little buddies in Ms. Sokugawa’s class! We wrote our first letter to them this past week! Buddies will look very different this year. They will not get to meet or spend time with them like they may have in past years but we didn’t want to let that stop us from having buddies. They will be more like pen pals. We also started writing letters to some of the residents at Seton Village. It was a good walk around the neighbourhood for our Jingle Bell Walk!

Digital Portfolios & Self-Reflection
We have been working hard on our Digital Portfolios. We all started with PowerPoint but we have too many older iPads in our classroom that have trouble with the program so I made the decision to switch to a different platform: FreshGrade Connect. Some students have opted to stay with PowerPoint and that is fine. I imagine that some may want to move to FreshGrade at a later date and that is fine too. They will just upload their PowerPoint file. As always, I like to offer voice and choice so if they want to continue with PowerPoint, that is great too. Here are the expectations for each post:

• Explain the piece of work. What we did.
• Tell what went well or what they are proud of.
• Share what challenges they faced or what was in their stretch zone.
• If you were to do this activity again or something similar, what would you change to make it better or what would you do differently next time?
• Optional: What did you discover about yourself as a learner?

To view your child’s FreshGrade account, I will send you an invite shortly. They set their own passwords so if they do not remember, simply have them click on the Reset Password button. They will receive an email to reset. This is good practice for them to manage their own passwords. To view your child’s PowerPoint, ask them to login to the O365 account to show you.

We are artists.
Ms. Paulich taught us about zentangles. They worked on some beautiful art that is now on display in the hallways! They used pastels to make their artwork pop! They are currently working the next piece: The Grinch! We are looking forward to seeing their final products!

School Events
Thank you for sending gifts for our Angel tree. We are still collecting if you wish to bring toys to school. We appreciate you for sending food for the Food Bank too on Friday!

Questions about School
We often have parents tell us that their children don’t share much about what they do in school all day.  We always encourage parents to read our blog posts WITH your child. This is a great way to start the flow of conversations! What does this accomplish?

• Have them read it aloud to you. This gives them a real reason and good practice to read!
• It is another opportunity to not only show your interest in what they are learning but get engaged in their learning! When questions come up in your discussions, demonstrate what curiosity looks like. Model asking questions and more questions. Then jump onto Google to research the answers to the questions you came up with together! This fosters the idea that we can be lifelong learners always curious about the world around us and there is joy in learning together.
• It helps them review or reinforce their learning. It is an opportunity to ask them what they learned but don’t ask them that general question of “What did you do in school today?” I found that kids don’t really want to answer that question perhaps because it’s too big of a question to answer.

Instead, here are some sample questions you could ask instead with values in brackets!

• What is one interesting thing you learned about (be specific)…? (engagement in learning)
• What was your favourite part of school today? (finding joy in school activities)
• What made your heart happy? (finding joy)
• What is one kind thing you did to help/support others? (service to others)
• What part of your day are you most grateful for? (grateful heart)
• Did you give “today’s best” and work on improving your goals? (work ethic)
• What did you do today that was in your stretch zone? (growth mindset)
• What is one thing you are celebrating from today? (recognizing strengths or growth)

When you ask these kinds of questions, you are showing them what you value. Give these questions a try and let me know how your conversations about their school day changes!

As always, we are here to support you and your child in their learning journey. If you would like to have a conversation about what you read in the report card or would like to discuss other things about how they are doing in class, please feel free to reach out. Send us an email at Livia.Chan@burnabyschools.ca or Marianna.Paulich@burnabyschools.ca. We would be happy to talk to you! We appreciate you as our partners in your child’s learning. Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with us this year. We truly and absolutely LOVE working with them! We are all so blessed to be in the same Division 6 family this year!

Please feel free to leave a comment on this post! We would love to hear from you!

Grateful for you and our connection,
Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Dear Div. 6 families,

Your children fill me with joy every time I see them. I remind them of this often! Last year, many of my students used the class blog as a way to practice their reading as this gives them a real reason to read. It also provided families with more conversation starters as a way to be more engaged in their child’s learning at school. With all learning at school, there are always opportunities at home to augment, dive deeper, and explore the concepts taught further. Ask your child what else they are curious about. What are some “I wonder” statements. Then together, you can research the questions. This fosters the skill and desire of becoming a lifelong and independent learner. Have fun and be curious together!

We hope you had a good Hallowe’en weekend. We know that some families participated in a collaborative effort to clean up our school property after last weekend. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your time and dedication to take care of our school in this way. We appreciate you!

Every day during our morning announcements, there is a lesson based on our school-wide monthly theme. This month, we are focusing on gratitude. They learn a new mindset tip about gratitude each day and are offered a daily challenge. Then we augment the school message by continuing the theme in class. During our Community Circle time every day, we share how we are feeling along with the question or topic of the day. I must tell you that every day, my heart is either warmed or touched by the things they share. On Monday, they shared the most wonderful things about gratitude.

We followed this up by watching The Gratitude Jar by Kristin Wiens and then created our own gratitude jars! They loved working on these. I’m so sorry but I forgot to take a picture of them before leaving school on Friday! Feel free to ask your child about this story and their gratitude jars! We will be filling these with things we are grateful for.

We are responsible citizens who care for our earth. On Wednesday, TJ from BC Sustainability Association presented a virtual workshop on Climate Change. We took sketch notes on what we learned. This is the first year I have introduced sketch notes to my students and the more we use this strategy, the more I am seeing their value in this type of notetaking! I know this has gained more momentum in the education world in more recent years. Please feel free to read an article (video included) called Why Teachers Are So Excited About the Power of Sketchnoting. I wonder what other areas in your child’s life where sketchnoting can be useful at home?

As part of this program, your child is offered an opportunity to participate in a 4-week challenge with the possibilities to win some prizes. A booklet was sent home on Friday. Click here for the digital version (PDF). Please take your time to carefully and thoughtfully review this with your child. They do not need to complete all of the challenges. We learned that Canada is a country that uses more energy than the average compared to other countries! So this initiative is for children and families to learn how we can reduce our carbon footprint. If we build this mindset of taking care of our earth and related habits now, it will make a difference overall.

We are scientists and presenters. On Thursday, we co-constructed our criteria for our Oral Presentation for our rock inquiry. What does that mean? It means that we came up with the criteria together. To access the single-point rubric as a Word document, it can be found in O365 Teams > Assignments > Rock Inquiry or click here. The first presentations will begin this Friday. We cannot listen to everyone on the same day so if your child still needs more time, no worries! They can have more time! In order to prepare, they need to practice their presentation at home a few times in front of you, their pets, stuffed animals, or a mirror. HINT: It is great feedback to videotape and then watch it to see how they can improve. Feel free to “mark” your child or have them self-assess!

Here is the Mystery Doug video we watched this past week: How were emojis created? Feel free to watch as a family with siblings! Enjoy!

We are readers and communicators. For Language Arts, we are improving in our Say Something strategy. We have now moved to groups of three to talk about the books we are reading. I am so pleased with the improvements I am seeing in our double-entry response journals too! Daily homework: Read 20-30 minutes a night and this includes having a conversation about a part of the book that they had a connection to or resonated with them. Besides reading, this sharing piece is just as important to help develop their critical thinking and communication skills. Ask probing questions to try to draw more. For example, “Tell me more. So what makes you think that? How does that make you feel and why? What else does that remind you of?”

We are writers. We did some creative story writing too! I used these doors to spark their creativity. They had the choice to use one or the other or both! I just love how enthusiastic your children are. I am absolutely sure some of them would have loved to stay in to continue writing during their recess if I let them! It brought me so much joy to see their excitement when I gave them more time to write after recess. They are such keen learners and hard workers! Definitely gave “today’s best”!

We are mathematicians. We now have covered all of the place value they need to know, from the millions place to thousandths place. We updated our personal mini-booklets. Our goal was to ensure they have a positive attitude about math so they can be successful, feel happy, and excited for math because it is fun! I believe this beginning to be a success. It takes time. Thank you for your patience and trust. Now that they have a positive mindset to set them up for further success, we can move on. I recognize that this is not the traditional way that we or your child may have learned math in the past but I have found this way to be highly effective because of the foundation we are building in their understanding of numbers and mindset. Having a growth mindset is a huge part of your child’s learning in school and life! For place value review, please have your child use their Khan Academy account. They can find their login information in O365 OneNote > child’s name > Handouts > Accounts. FYI: This is also where they will find their login to All The Right Type (our typing program) and Epic. Please encourage them to practice their typing at home too. Thank you!

We are grateful people. Fridays are our Celebration Fridays when we celebrate big and small things we are grateful for. We do celebrate throughout our day every day too! Yesterday morning so touched my heart and warmed it at the same time. In my past role in Staff Development, I had the privilege to visit many classrooms and schools across our entire district. I can honestly say that there is something special about our Gilmore Community. Your children are happy, respectful, kind, grateful, enthusiastic learners, and the list goes on. They are truly such a pleasure to teach! They sure know how to make a teacher feel appreciated and loved!

We are artists. Ms. Paulich has been amazing at bringing out your child’s creativity through art. Here’s a taste!

Grateful for you! Whenever I have an opportunity to share with my educator friends from around the world about my experience at Gilmore with you and your wonderful children so far, I feel instant joy. Thank YOU for sharing your child with us and for being our partner in your child’s education. They are who they are because of your family beliefs and values taught and modelled at home. We appreciate your continued support! As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out. My daughter’s ringette practice has been cancelled this Monday, November 9 so I am offering “Zoom office hours” for parents who may want to touch base from 7-8pm. Your child is welcome to be there too! It will be on a first-come, first-served basis. This will likely mean you will need to sit in the waiting room so feel free to do other things as you wait. Please let me know if you are interested to chat so I can allot a timeframe and you won’t have to wait as long. Email me at livia.chan@burnabyschools.ca. Thank you!

Please feel free to leave a comment! We love reading them. We would be happy to hear from you! Scroll to the top to find the “Leave a comment” link right under the title of this post.

Gratefully, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Some great news! This past week in the Burnaby Now, a story was printed about my student from last year. She published a book she wrote in class as part of her Passion Project. Click here to read.

Dear Division 6 family,

I often talk about how we are a family. It very much feels that way for me. It makes me happy to share with you what we have been working on! Click here to watch the video update (6:11) or read the summary below.

On Thursday, students were divided into six random groups of 4. Their first priority was this: Be kind. Be respectful. Be cooperative. Be collaborative. Be creative. Step 2 was to build the tallest tower with 15 rolls of toilet paper and long piece of tape (my arm span). I was SO impressed with how well they communicated, shared ideas, took turns and different roles, and worked together. During our class reflection, we discussed that these are all teamwork skills that are important to hone and practice. Then we took the opportunity to reflect on our team building activity. Some said this was the best thing they have done in grade 5 so far!

I would love for you to know that you have such wonderfully kind, caring, and cooperative children. I think the world of them and absolutely love them!

Language Arts
We have continued to work on our personal reflection writing. We begin by doing a quick write where we compose a paragraph together so they can see my thinking as I write. This helps them think about the targets we want to hit in our writing and what to think about to continuously make our writing better. They are becoming more familiar with using the single-point rubric that I shared with you last week. It gives students a clearer target and they know exactly what they need to do in order to be applying (or proficient) in this type of writing.

Students can always hop onto O365, Teams to work on their Writer’s Workshop stories when at home. They can also practice their typing skills too. Imagine how much they would improve if they spent 10 minutes a few times a week! It’s like any skill. The more time you invest in it, the better you get!

We encourage them to read at least 20-30 minutes every night and then have an opportunity to talk to someone about what they read. I would prefer they read for fewer minutes and spend some time talking than to read but not talk to anyone about what they are reading. To help, feel free to refer to this Say Something strategy.

Math
We have continued on our path to fully understand place value by creating our own Place Value booklets. They have enjoyed creating it as they review the concepts at the same time!

Science
We enjoy our Mystery Doug videos each week! For the last few weeks in October, here are some we watched. I love hearing their enthusiastic responses to some of the new learning we do. If your child has siblings at home, feel free to watch it as a family!

How can you tell if a plant is poisonous?
Why do owls say “hoo”?
Why are so many people scared of bugs?

This past week, we learned from Bill Nye about Rocks and Soil. We have many students who love to draw so we practiced taking sketch notes again. We learned there are three ways that rocks are formed. Later in the week, we had opportunities to take a look at various igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. I wish you could be there to hear the oohs and ahhs. Learning about rocks is one of my favourite things to teach so I’m thrilled to see their excitement too! Next, we will choose a question we are really curious about to research and learn more about. Then, we will become experts to share with our classmates!

Passion Projects
Students are well on their way with their passion projects. It’s one of my favourite times of the week and I gathered it’s the same for them! We set up our PowerPoints so that we can add information that we find as we go along.

Art
High Five to a Great Year! Students wrote words that describe themselves.

Here they learned about colour theory and created beautiful eyes!

We are so looking forward to have a full week with your child! We feel blessed every day to be their teacher! Thank you for your continued support at home.

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Dear Parents,

Wow, what a fast two weeks! A lot has happened! Click here to watch the video update. No time to watch? Feel free to read our summary here.

This was two weeks ago but on Monday, September 21, we had a great turnout at our Meet Ms. Chan over Zoom. Thank you so very much for being there. I felt so blessed and honoured to meet so many of you! Then on September 23 and 24, we had the privilege to connect for our Meet the Teacher Conferences. Your sharing and insight are invaluable to us!

We continued to build our community and relationships through our Community Circle time. One day, we played Car & Driver. This activity helped us experience trust. Trust in each other. We talked about how trust is generally and generously given until there’s a reason to take it back. Our goal is to live our lives with integrity so that there is no reason for others not to trust you. This goes back to our three essential questions:

1. Will you do the right thing?
2. Will you do today’s best?
3. What will you do for others today?

If we regularly ask ourselves these questions, and reflect on our mindset, language, and actions, then we will be well on our way to being positive role models and good citizens of the world! We have been using these questions after our tasks and reviewing them before beginning our new related tasks. We have seen improvements already!

On October 1st during our Community Circle, we shared our September highlights. It was so heartwarming to hear that almost all of them shared how grateful they felt to be back in school with their friends, learning, and in our class! I so love how comfortable they feel to share!

For Reading, we learned about the Say Something strategy. It is important for readers to have opportunities to talk about what they are reading in order to develop deeper understanding of text, characters, and meaning, for example. This is why we spend time practicing our “Say Something” strategy. Here, they practice their communication skills – speaking and listening, as they dive deeper into the book like what adults do during Book Club talks. They also will practice critical thinking skills as the year progresses. Many students continue to enjoy reading books on Epic. If you need more information, please reach out!

Last week, we read the story A Walk in the Rain with a Brain and tried our hand at sketchnoting, which has become very popular in the past few years in education. Here, students record key words and draw images that help them remember. It was my first time sketchnoting too! This story was about the importance of discovering how our brains are different and that everyone is “smart”. We need to spend time to figure out how we are “smart” and not compare ourselves to others.

For Math, we have been doing Number Talks. Through doing these, we used our critical thinking skills to learn what digits are, what the commutative property is (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 3×5=15 and 5×3=15), the all about digital roots! I have loved seeing critical thinking in action during these math times as we processed our new information! We will be moving into learning Place Value this week.

For Science, we started our Rock unit by recording what we think we know and what we wonder about rocks. For this inquiry-based unit, we will learn about and dive into what interests them most!

In the Computer Lab, students have learned a lot in a short time. In the last couple weeks, they learned how to write an email using proper etiquette, became familiar with Assignments in Teams, learned how to navigate their online Class Notebook (which looks like a binder with tabs), started their Digital Portfolios in PowerPoint, and started writing their stories. We finally have our Computer Lab times set. We have the lab booked on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Students had a chance to spend some time flushing out what their Passion Projects will be. They spent some time talking to different classmates about their ideas. The hope was that the more they talked about their plans, the more excited they would get! That’s how we can tell if we have found the right Passion Project for us!

Ms. Paulich did a cool art activity with them that shows what is Behind My Mask. They wrote words that described them.

Last week, we went on our Terry Fox Run in the neighbourhood. As a school, we decided to walk as a class to keep our cohorts safely together. We walked the route twice and everyone represented Gilmore well. It was such a beautiful day! I absolutely loved all of the social interactions I saw happening as we walked!

We also acknowledged Orange Shirt Day. In the past couple weeks, they learned about residential schools and the meaning behind this day with Mrs. Siu and Ms. Paulich.

We are looking forward to a fantastic October! Thank you for your continued support at home! As always, should you have any questions, please ask! We are here to support you and your child as we work as partners! We feel SO fortunate to be teaching your wonderful children. We have the best class family ever!!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan & Ms. Paulich