Category: We are artists.

Dear Division 6 families,

Guess what? We had yet another awesome week together! I really do believe our time together is full of happiness and that is planned with great intention and every single interaction is intentional to uplift your child.

I have a monthly blog series on the Teach Better Team called the Gift Better series. Each month, I share a new concept that I see as a gift. These are things that are not generally seen as gifts and we often take these for granted. Since the pandemic, I started to see gifts all around us which led me to feel so much more gratitude for the simple things in life. The more I looked around, the greater the joy I found that exists all around us. It was there my whole life just waiting for me to discover. My hope with this blog series is that others begin to see the same gifts and ones that have been waiting for them to discover.

Just today, my latest post was published called The Gift of Happiness. I share this because when you read it, it will give you a glimpse into how our days in the classroom begin and how much happiness we share every day. Helping children feel happy and learn to live a healthy life with good habits of the mind that include developing an understanding of how to live a life filled with passion, kindness, gratitude, integrity, love, and joy is my goal every day. These life skills and habits, when reinforced throughout their formative years, will lead them to a greater sense of self-awareness, self-worth, self-love, self-discipline, self-compassion, and overall well-being.

Many of the posts I write come from my experience in the classroom. Another example is The Gift of Leadership. If you would like to learn how I am developing each one of your children as leaders, then please check that post out too. I was so humbled that this post and The Gift of Gratitude were two of the most popular posts on the Teach Better website for 2021 from the 500+ blogs that were published last year!

Last week was Literacy week!

The book chosen for our school-wide theme for the week was What’s My Superpower by Aviaq Johnston. It’s one of my favourite stories! She is a young author from writer from Igloolik, but currently living in Iqaluit, Nunavut.

This is a story about Nalvana, a young girl who sees other people’s superpowers and wonders what her superpower is. We had great discussions on the strengths we all have, how we shine in this world, and what gifts we bring to the people close to us. I absolutely LOVED reading their paragraphs as they dove into just one of their superpowers. It is so important to truly know ourselves and our strengths so we keep building on them as we build on our self-awareness and sense of self-worth.

Students LOVED reading with their flashlights in the gym and thoroughly enjoyed our alphabet scavenger hunt as we found words on our shirts. We won a class prize for this…a set of books for the class! The Dress up Like a Word day was a great success with creative costumes! On Friday, we appreciated Mr. Greenwood for being our guest reader.

Reminder: The Family Literacy BINGO sheets are due on Monday, January 31^st. Hope you enjoyed the activities as a family! We also hope that these family activities continue throughout the year and not just for a week!

We are mathematicians.

This past week, we continued to learn and review geometry concepts. Students were given their first formal opportunity to show what they know last Wednesday. This was just a first snapshot! They will have another opportunity next Thursday, February 3^rd to show what they know again.

I highlight the fact that learning is a journey. We celebrate what we already know and focus our time and effort on learning what we don’t know well yet until they are proficient. My goal is for them to understand concepts well enough so they can teach others! This is a deeper level of understanding than being able to complete a worksheet with accuracy. So, to prepare for next week, have your child explain the concepts to you, their stuffies, or have them record the math “lesson” on an iPad or tablet to watch and review. As Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Reminder: Keep encouraging your child to practice their math facts daily! Spending even five minutes a day, stacked with a habit, will go a long way in building their confidence with calculating facts.

We are artists.

Mrs. Paulich does amazing art projects with the kids. Check it out!

Book Recommendation

This past week, I started reading The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson. This was a book I’ve had on my list to read for a number of years. I mention it because from what I’ve read so far, I believe it can help you better understand how your child’s brain is wired and strategies on how to effectively support their development. Now that I’m reading it, I really wish I read it when my kids were much younger so that’s why I’m sharing this with you! If you visit Amazon, you’ll see how popular this book is!

From Amazon: In this pioneering, practical book, Daniel J. Siegel, neuropsychiatrist and author of the bestselling Mindsight, and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson offer a revolutionary approach to child rearing with twelve key strategies that foster healthy brain development, leading to calmer, happier children. The authors explain—and make accessible—the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures. The “upstairs brain,” which makes decisions and balances emotions, is under construction until the mid-twenties. And especially in young children, the right brain and its emotions tend to rule over the logic of the left brain. No wonder kids throw tantrums, fight, or sulk in silence. By applying these discoveries to everyday parenting, you can turn any outburst, argument, or fear into a chance to integrate your child’s brain and foster vital growth.

I have read a number of books since the pandemic started. Check out my list here. If there is a book on my list that you’d like to hear more about, please feel free to ask and I’d be happy to share my thoughts. Also, if there is a book that you would highly recommend, please let me know. I love hearing about what others love to read! I prefer non-fiction because I am passionate about learning new things. Thank you!

As always, we appreciate your continued support at home. I will be sharing a short survey later this week as we are approaching the midway mark. Your feedback is very much appreciated. We want to finish the second half of the year strong! We are better together and stronger together. Thank you for being our partners in your child’s education.

Grateful for you, Ms. Chan (and Mrs. Paulich)

Dear Parents of Division 6,

On Wednesday, we honoured those who served in the war at our Remembrance Day assembly. Here is a short video of our Poppy Art for you to enjoy.

We are writers.

We returned to our book on the 7 Healthy Habits of Happy Kids and learned about the benefits of thinking win-win. Students responded to the chapter by writing a personal response or a story that involved a win-win situation. As a follow-up, please feel free to have a further discussion at home.

We are researchers.

This past week, students finished their practice of recording Resources for citations in Word. Whew! It was a process! Students learned about perseverance and the pursuit of accuracy and excellence. It was a great lesson that sometimes in life, it takes many tries before something is just perfect. Each comma, period, and space mattered. Each capital mattered. Each indent mattered. While some began to express some frustration, we were proud to see that many people’s growth mindset kicked in and they began to see it as a challenge! Great appreciation goes to Mrs. Papapanagiotou for working with us for the past few weeks to teach us how to do research effectively. Last week, we also learned how to navigate in PowerPoint. Students really enjoyed learning how to add slides, text, and images! We are now ready to research our inquiry question for learning more about rocks in Science and our Passion Projects!

We are scientists.

Here are some of the questions groups felt they were most interested in learning more about. Students chose from here or one of their own on a list gathered from their own group.

We are mathematicians.

The grade 5’s were given their Fractions pre-test and test. The main goal was to see how well they understood equivalent fractions. We had a number of students away last Friday so they will write in on Monday. Everyone will have their tests returned on Wednesday. Those who are not yet proficient in certain concepts, they will have an opportunity for a re-test on the specific concepts. Details on re-testing will come later. I believe in helping students gain mastery of the concepts because math is so foundational. Your support at home will be greatly appreciated!

World Kindness Day

On Saturday, it was World Kindness Day. We read a story called Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson. Click the link to watch the story read by the author herself! As a response, students wrote kindness notes to at least five people. They had so much fun running (well, walking hopefully!) around the school delivering their kindness notes! They learned that it brought them so much joy to bring other people joy! I firmly believe that when we give the gift of words, we experience more joy than those who receive them. I know that this is how I feel. Showing kindness and gratitude is a great form of self-care! If you’re interested, click here to read more about a popular happiness course offered at Yale University. They blessed me with so many kindness notes! Every day, your children make me feel so very loved and appreciated for being their teacher. I truly am the most fortunate and feel so grateful to be their teacher. Thank YOU for having such wonderful children to share our lives with. We have a great community of learners!

We are leaders.

We really believe in developing leadership skills. I believe every child has leadership qualities. Last month, I published a blog post on the Gift of Leadership as part of my monthly blog series on the Teach Better Team. I talk about the five aspects of leadership and how it is a skill, just like other skills, that need opportunities to develop. If you are interested to read about how we develop leadership qualities in your children on a daily basis, click the image to go to the post.

Appreciation

We are grateful for your support at home. As parents ourselves, we understand how the evenings and weekends fly by. Please be reminded that we are partners in your child’s education. Please feel free to reach out to us should you have any questions or concerns. We know it takes time to either watch our videos or read our weekly blog posts and we appreciate you for keeping up to date. I can see how many views and how many click to open the notifications so thank you for honouring our time to keep you posted. Our goal is to share information with you so that you can have a deeper dive into what they learn and extend their learning should they have the time and interest. All learning at school can be extended at home if you wish.

With a heart full of gratitude, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Dearest Division 6 families,

Happy Father’s Day! Hope you are enjoying your special day!

Each week I have with your children, I thoroughly enjoy! As I reflect, this has been such a fantastic year of personal growth, building relationships with each other, and stretching ourselves outside of our comfort zone because we know this is where the growth happens.

We started reading a book written by Sean Covey: The 7 Habits of Happy Kids (same author as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People which some of you may know). It begins with a story about a character who finds himself bored and looks to others to help him find something to do; the character discovers that it is his responsibility to be proactive and not rely on others to “fix” his problem. Here are the first two habits covered so far:

1. Be Proactive – take initiative
2. Begin with the End in Mind – focus on goals

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

Public Speaking

For our speeches, we co-constructed our criteria. Click here for the PDF. All students were asked to bring home their copy of the single-point rubric. I have loved guiding their writing each week!

Guest Reader on Zoom

On Thursday, my best friend from Florida, Jillian DuBois read two of her stories to us: Road to Awesome, which was co-authored by the publisher of my book, Darrin Peppard. He wrote a book for educational leaders with the same title and Jillian felt strongly that children needed to hear a similar message so that’s why they wrote a picture book together! Students sketchnoted what resonated with them. Click here to view Sketchnotes for Road to Awesome

Thursday was an exciting day for Jillian because it was the very first day that her 3rd picture book, Look at YOU, Piper Lou! was released on Amazon! We were the very first class she read her new story to! It’s about the puppy she fostered and then adopted. It is such a heartwarming story and I loved how students were able to experience Jillian’s passion for telling her stories, reading them, and illustrating.

Division 6 Authors!

Speaking of authors, we have two newly published authors in our class! The Burnaby School District has a special writing contest every year where they ask for submissions from students from K-12. This year, we had two pieces of writing chosen to be included in the Words anthology! Congratulations to Olivia H. who wrote a story called Stranded in a Snowstorm and to Rasul who wanted to share his One Word writing about Mindset. To learn more about the writing project, click here.

On Friday, we had the privilege of learning from people’s Passion Projects! We learned about rattlesnakes from Ethan, the black panther from Princeton, and all about different species of dogs by Miles and Brodie.

Mathematicians

As Mathematicians, we learned about the difference between prisms and pyramids. We also learned about probability and statistics. We did a cool experiment where each student spun a paper clip and tallied the number of times it landed on a particular number. Then we totalled it all up to discover that the chances that it actually landed matched the probability it landed on. It was so cool to see how it all matched!

We are continually grateful for your support at home. The message for this week until the end will be that we finish off strong. Just like in a marathon, we may be tired but our mindset sets the stage for how we complete the year. They hear this message often. When they have been working away on an assignment, they are pushed to finish off that work time with the mindset that they can finish off strong. We practice perseverance and an “I can” attitude.

Gratefully, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Dearest Division 6 family,

I so appreciate you for your time to read my blog posts every week and your interest to stay informed. It is hard to believe we are finished another month and more than halfway through the year! These updates are for you so I’m looking for feedback on these weekly posts. What is something you really enjoy? What would you like to see more of? What suggestions do you have to make this space more beneficial to you? Thank you for your feedback! Please comment on the blog or send me an email at Livia.Chan@burnabyshcools.ca. Thank you for your time!

Last week, students worked hard on their self-assessments and reflected on what they are proud of. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of their responses. I felt so proud to read their thoughts. Reflection is such an important part of learning.

“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey

To understand the importance of reflection, it was ADDED to our revised curriculum in our Core Competencies under Thinking – Critical and Reflective Thinking. I recently found an article on FreshGrade’s website about reflection. You will see some of their reflections in their report cards in the Student Voice section. They were so honest and open!

I also took this opportunity to have my students write a “report card” for me! I asked them for feedback on what I am doing well and what I could be doing better. Their honest feedback was so appreciated. I firmly believe in the power of reflection, the power of voice, and self-advocacy. If there is something I can change to make their school experience a better one, I am open to listening and we can co-create the curriculum in response!

This past week, we continued to work on our stories that Ms. Lee, Oscar’s mom, encouraged us to write. On Thursday, we were on Zoom with Ms. Lee again! She taught us some valuable tips on overcoming the fear of sharing our writing and speaking. Thank you to Olivia H., Quinson, and Rasul who pushed themselves outside of their comfort zone to read their stories. They were so SO good! I would have loved to see more students dive into their stretch zone to read their stories. Please encourage your child to find the courage to share, thank you! We SO appreciate her time and for sharing her expertise with us! Ms. Lee also wrote and shared her own story based on the collective brainstorming they did last week. The story was so engaging! We were SO blessed to have her teach our class! Thank you so much, Ms. Lee!

Students finished some window art and thank you to Ms. Paulich, it beautifies our windows! I loved seeing the different designs and colours. It’s always so amazing to me that students are given the same instructions but the final results are so varied because of the creativity in their brains!

Coming up, we will begin to learn about multiplication so if your child does not know their multiplication facts, please have them practice at home. We will learn some games they can play at home to review too so get a deck of cards ready to have some fun and you practice your math facts with them!

As always, we really appreciate your continued support at home. At any time, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. Thank you for being partners in your child’s learning.

Remember, I’m looking for feedback on what you like and what you’d like to see more of in these blog posts, so please share!

We also have some exciting news! We have a new student named Dante who will be joining our class in the morning! He comes from a nearby Vancouver school. Welcome, Dante, and your family! We are thrilled you will be joining our school family!

With a heart full of appreciation, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich