Dear families,
I am excited to inform you that Ms. Kapusta will be our teacher during my Head Teacher time! I worked with her at Gilmore last year and am absolutely thrilled that she will be my partner this year! She has been with our class for the past two Tuesdays and they already adore her! Last week, they painted the letters that spell “Every child matters.”
Last week, we spent time every day learning about Orange Shirt Day and why we commemorate National Truth and Reconciliation day. Some stories we read were:
- Shi shi-etko by Nicola Campbell
- Every Child Matters by Phyllis Webstad
- The Orange Shirt Story by Phyllis Webstad
- I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis
“Learning involves recognizing the consequences of one’s actions.” – First Peoples Principles of Learning
We reflected on what “every child matters” means and the significance of Orange Shirt Day. This required us to use our critical thinking skills to formulate our thoughts and feelings to put into words. It wasn’t easy for some of them to articulate but with perseverance, guidance, and a push into their stretch zones, they did it.
How to support learning at home: Ask your child what they learned about residential schools and the importance of Orange Shirt Day. It can be hard for children to listen to our Canadian history and how Indigenous families were greatly and negatively impacted by residential schools. As reassurance, each time we discussed this, I reminded them that they are safe and very well loved and cared for at school.
On Thursday, we gathered in our whole school assembly to learn more about Orange Shirt Day and why we have a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. I had the greatest honour to share the land acknowledgement. I spoke about our homes and the beautiful land we have the privilege and blessing to live on. I guided us all to feel gratitude deep in our hearts for the unceded territory that we get to live, learn, and play.
We are artists.
One of Ms. Kapusta’s passions is teaching art so she will have an opportunity to introduce our artists to explore different kinds of art including tools, styles, and mediums to develop their creativity! The week before, she led us in learning some Doodle art techniques. Check out some of the doodles of ourselves!
We are Mathematicians.
We continued to learn about patterns. Last week, we created our own action patterns with partners and then each had an opportunity to demonstrate our patterns for our classmates guess. They had so much fun!
Our mathematicians were introduced to increasing patterns and had opportunities to create theirs to add the class book we are creating on Book Creator (an iPad app).
How to support learning at home: Review the concepts of repeating patterns and increasing patterns. Use various household items to create patterns. Ask your child to identify the core pattern (the pattern that repeats) and to name the pattern. For example: fork fork spoon knife – fork fork spoon knife. The core pattern would be “fork fork spoon knife”. They would name it an AABC pattern.
For an increasing pattern, it might look like this: fork spoon – fork spoon spoon – fork spoon spoon spoon – fork spoon spoon spoon spoon. This is a grade 3 concept they are expected to understand. They need to be able to describe the pattern rule. For example, the pattern rule would be described like this:
Start with one fork and one spoon. Add one more spoon each time.
Students continued to enjoy learning their Making 10s math facts! We learned how to play Making 10s Go Fish.
How to support learning at home: Play Making Tens GO Fish – The goal is to have combinations that equal 10. Take a regular deck of cards. Remove the Jack and King. The Queen represents zero because it looks like a zero. Combinations that make ten: 0+10, 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6, 5+5.
Each player starts with 5 cards. If any of the cards they hold make a combination of 10, they can put the pair of cards down for all to see. For example, if you have a 3 and a 7, you can put the cards down because they equal 10.
Then just like how you would play Go Fish, the first player asks anyone playing for a matching card that equals 10. If they have a 6 in their hand, then say, “Do you have a 4?” If they have a 5 in their hand, then say, “Do you have a 5?” If not, “go fish” and take a card from the central deck. Have fun!
If you would like to learn more about the grade 2 and 3 curriculum thus far, please visit our We Are Mathematicians page.
We are scientists.
We started our learning about matter and how everything is made of matter. To solidify this concept, each child wrote “matter” on a sticky note and were challenged to go around the classroom and school to use their label to tap different things they saw that is considered matter. Yes, that is just about everything! You can imagine how excited (maybe a little too excited!) they were to do that! They were tapping all sorts of things including each other!
We are creating our booklet on Matter. I love to have students create their understanding of concepts. This is at the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy! Click here to learn more.
How to support at home: Ask your child what they understand about matter. We learned that matter is anything that takes up space and can be weighed.
We are readers.
We are learning to build our reading stamina. Last week, we worked up to being able to sit in one spot and read for a full 6 minutes. We hope to reach 10 minutes this week.
Fridays will be our Library time. The Library is open EVERY DAY from 9 to 9:30am for a flexible book exchange and EVERY DAY 11:30 to 12pm except Thursdays. What this means is that they don’t have to wait until Friday to exchange their books. This works out perfectly because we begin every day with Heart Time (a soft start) so they can visit the library then!
West Coast Weather
The weather is changing. We will begin to have more days with rainy weather and wet grounds. Please have your child prepared for the weather as they will be going outside even in the rain.
Please bring a change of clothes to keep in the classroom. Clearly label the bag with your child’s name.
Please also have inside shoes to change out of boots. Boots are typically heavy and not the best for sitting or moving around throughout the day. Thank you.
Save the Date!
On Friday, November 17, we will be going bowling in the afternoon with Divisions 14 and 15 (Ms. Tai and Ms. Santorelli’s classes)! We will be going to Revs Bowling at 5502 Lougheed Hwy.
We will need parent volunteer drivers. If you are available to help us, please save the date! Thank you so much!
Reminders
- Wednesday, October 4: Individual photo day
- Please go to School Cash Online to pay for school supplies. Although our planners have not arrived just yet, there is an option to pay for that as well. We hope to have the planner the following week. Due to the fire in their warehouse, they had to reprint all of our planners, hence the delay.
- Monday, October 9: Thanksgiving Day; school closed
- Request: If you have extra disposable (plastic or wooden) forks and spoons sitting in your drawers that you don’t think you will use, please send them to school. Sometimes, lunches are packed without utensils, so I usually have a bin they can get it from. Thank you!
As always, I have such gratitude for your support at home as we work together as partners in your child’s learning. Thank you for reading the weekly blog post that keeps you informed about what we are learning about. Please feel free to read it together with your child as an invitation to review what they learned.
I am so very blessed to spend my time at work with your children! They bring me such joy!
With much love and gratitude, Ms. Chan
