Category: We are authors.

Dear families,

I hope you are having a great weekend so far! Tomorrow, February 13 is Jump Rope for Heart. CLICK HERE to learn more and here to donate. A reminder to wear RED tomorrow and runners. If your child doesn’t have red, then Grizzly gear is great too!

We are authors and storytellers.
I read the story Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon. He discovered he not only had many stories to tell, but they had value and are worth telling. It taught us that stories are everywhere. We are story. Each day, we have an opportunity to share a part of our story with each other during Community Circle time to develop our connections and understanding of our similarities and differences.

Students have continued to enjoy working on their stories. This week, they had an opportunity to read it to a classmate to receive feedback on how well they described the characters, setting, problem, and solution. Some took their feedback to make improvements in their story right away! We now have some ready to begin publishing!

“All that we are is story. From the moment we are born to the time we continue on our spirit journey, we are involved in the creation of the story of our time here. It is what we arrive with. It is all we leave behind,” 

-Richard Wagamese 
Ojibway author from Kamloops B.C.

Speaking of story, I wrote an article for SFU that was just published recently on their education page – a first for their Share Your Story series. CLICK HERE for the link to the article. I’d love to hear what resonated with you. Please feel free to share in the comments or send me an email. Thank you!

We are mathematicians.
Grade 2s continued to work on our addition and subtraction math facts using our random numbers chart. If your child no longer has theirs at home, simply take an 8.5 x 11″ paper and randomly write 0-9 on one side and 10-20 on the other side. You can choose to have another sheet with all the numbers from 0-20 to practice. Here are the facts we covered thus far:

• Commutative property: a+b=c and b+a=c. You can switch the addends and the sum is the same.
• +0 & – 0
• +1 & – 1
• +2 & – 2
• +10 & – 10
• Making tens (combinations that equal 10 like 0+10, 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6, 5+5)
• +/- 9 NEW this week! Students loved learning the +9 and -9 strategy for addition/subtraction in math! It was like magic using the power of digital roots! They liked my magic wand I used for the effect. Please add these to your child’s skill practice. Thank you!

Look at the Addition Facts Chart below. If your child memorized the strategies so far (listed above), they would have learned 105 facts with only 45 left because of the commutative property! We still have some strategies up our sleeve, so let’s keep practicing with our random numbers chart at home! Thank you for your support! I practiced these with my kids at home and over the years, they have thanked me to “forcing” them to practice and memorize them. It just gives them more confidence in math overall especially when they move into the intermediate grades. Grade 3’s can  use these strategies to practice this too!

Next up: Doubles and Doubles +1. Then we’ll only have 35 facts left!

We also started learning how to add two-digits together with regrouping through play. Each person had a partner. They rolled two dice to create random numbers to solve the equation together. They were so engaged and worked well with each other!

We are communicators.
We had our second session of emailing on Friday. I am grateful that almost everyone memorized their login credentials to make the login process so smooth for us all. They are definitely reaping the benefits of being able to login efficiently! Thank you for your support! Students also are learning the basic parts of an email and are becoming better communicators by adding:

To: [Email address]
Subject line: [Short description of the email]
Salutation or greeting phrase: [Dear Ms. Chan,]
Body: [Message]
Closing: [Gratefully,]
Signature: [Ms. Chan]

We can reflect. 
It has been a while since we visited our eportfolios in SpacesEDU but last Thursday, we worked on two posts: Art and a reading.

The expectation is they share all of these in their reflection:  

• Describe what we did
• What I am proud of  
• Two “I can” statements  
• What I would do differently next time  
• What I learned about myself

We are artists.
Students thoughtfully considered and wrote what love means to them around Valentine’s Day. They also had fun hiding their name in and amongst all of the words! Here is a sample of a reflection and an image of our bulletin board.

Valentine’s Day
Thank you to parents who already communicated what your child will be contributing to our Friendship Fruit salad on Tuesday. If you wish, they can bring in their fruit on Monday, and I will keep it in the fridge for Tuesday. So far, we have contributions of raspberries, oranges, grapes, apples, kiwi, and a banana. Repeats are ok! Thank you! We will have bowls and spoons for them.

Your child should have brought home a list of classmate names on Thursday. If they are preparing Valentines, we would like all children to be included, please. Thank you for fostering inclusion.

As always, we appreciate your support at home. Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to ask. Your children are working so hard every day to improve. We are so very proud of them!

Don’t always have time to read our blog posts? Looking for a real reason for your child to read? Here’s a tip: Have them read our weekly blog posts TO you as you cook OR instead of something else they are reading OR read it together so you can talk about what they are learning in school.

Grateful for you all and loving being their teacher because they bring me such joy, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

What a productive week of learning! Each day this week, I felt an incredible sense of pride for how hard your child and our class as a whole worked. Each child is taking their learning so seriously. Don’t get me wrong. I feel this way every week but this one in particular felt a higher level of focus and dedication. So whatever you are feeding your children, keep feeding them, please! 😉

We had the great pleasure of having Ms. Kim join us this past week to get to know your children and to learn all about our classroom.

Here is a special message from our student teacher

Dear Families of Division 11,

I am greatly pleased to say hello to all of you. I am Grace Kim, a student teacher from Simon Fraser University. I have been an EA (Education Assistant) in the Burnaby School District for the last 4 years. I am also a mom of 4 children ranging from Grades 5 to 11.

Yesterday, I completed a full week of in-class observations. I often had eye-opening moments, witnessing the ideal classroom environment that I have ever imagined. I gratefully embarked on learning how to build a welcoming and inclusive classroom community not only from Ms. Chan, Mrs. Paulich, and Ms. Connell but also from 21 students in Division 11.

As I return to SFU for the next 2 weeks, I am very excited to be back on February 21st to start teaching and continue learning how to set up core values and beliefs in education as well. I hope all of the families in this warm community are well. See you soon.

With gratitude and warmth, Grace

We are authors.
We really dug into our writing! After developing our characters, planning our storyboard, learning about what makes a great story, we started writing! We call this time Writer’s Workshop. I wish you could be there in the room to see how focused and engaged they are in writing their stories.

My goal for each time we work on our stories is to teach something new they can bring into their writing to make it even better. They are asked to read over their writing before they start writing again with the purpose to self-assess for improvement. Students were encouraged to

• review their opening sentence. Is it interesting? Does it hook your reader in to want to read more?
• introduce their character. When we describe our character and their core values or what they believe in, it is easier for your audience to make a connection to your character. Did you include some details about your character?
• describe the setting. Do you describe where the story takes place so that your reader can paint a picture of where they are?
• include quotation marks for dialogue between characters. This lesson was SO much FUN! It was the first time I introduced quotation marks. We used “bunny ears” to represent quotation marks (because they look like beginning and ending quotation marks). This was to show someone is speaking. So to practice, we all got up to talk to classmates. Anytime we talked, we had to put up “bunny ears”. Wish you saw the big smiles on everyone’s faces! I just love to make learning feel like an experience!
• add adverbial phrases. As an extension to dialogue, we learned how to describe how someone said something. For example: “I just can’t believe it,” said Julie with her head hung low. Add this extra phrase really helps to paint a more descriptive picture to enhance the dialogue.
• review the number of times they used the word: said. Many children this age overuse “said” so they we learned there are other ways like: replied, shouted, cried.

I read The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli. Feel free to watch it read to you with your child. I absolutely love this story. I use it when I do presentations on the writing process. What I love about it the message: Write the story that is in your heart. Students were encouraged to write the story that is in their heart. Interesting enough, one student asked if he could start over. Of course, I said yes. At the end of the writing time, he came to me to tell me that his ideas flowed so much faster! That’s a win!

We are communicators.
On Wednesday, we MCed the Celebration of Learning for Literacy Week. Again, this was one of those moments where I beamed with pride because of their courage to speak in front of the school. An extra high five to Chloe, Katelyn, Cristina, and Addie for reading their letter to Mother Earth at the assembly! So proud of you all!

We are readers.
Reading groups are going so well now! We have six groups to better match our varying reading levels. All groups meet at the same time. We built in a system that works beautifully. Each group receives their book bag for the session. One person in the group goes to get a white board, marker, and eraser. They use this board to write down words they are unsure of. Students were taught not to just tell the person struggling with sounding out a word. Instead, collectively, they try to attack the word with their understanding of how to break up the word, phonics, letter sounds, syllables, and overall knowledge of words. I love how they help each other! During this time, I have the freedom to move from table to table listening in and supporting as each person takes a turn reading a page. Again, I wish you could see how well our reading groups run. You would feel so proud of how well your child works in their group, respectfully taking turns, and supporting each other’s reading development.

New learning this week was to spend some time talking about the connections they are making to what they read.

We are scientists.
After having some practice last week with researching oceans as a class, we thought we’d try our hand at doing our own research on lakes. I vetted five websites to learn more. We found some very interesting facts like not all lakes are freshwater! They started by recording what they know about lakes and then adding what they wonder about lakes before discovering facts. We learned that we cannot just copy word for word what we find. We need to

We are athletes.
So far, we had two tennis lessons. They already showed improvement the second session! Thank you for ensuring your child has runners on Tuesday and Thursday. They have two more sessions next week!

We are mathematicians. [Repeated from last week’s post.]
As you may or may not know, our school growth plan has a numeracy focus now (new this year). So, if I hosted a Math Literacy Fun Night for you and your child to attend, would you be interested? The purpose of this would be to teach you some fun games you can play to help your child improve their number sense, number concepts, and learning of math facts. I understand that it’s one thing to ask you to help your child practice their math facts, but it’s so much better if I show you how and have you practice and play with them at school so you can replicate the fun at home! 🙂 Please CLICK HERE to fill out this quick questionnaire to share your interest and availability. Thank you!

We celebrate!
One of my beliefs is that we need to recognize how hard we work, our learning and growth, and to celebrate it! I’m a firm believer that children don’t do things to please me. It’s important they work hard at all aspects of their learning because it builds on their personal strengths, recognition of their accomplishments, and self-regulation (core competencies). Students are provided with frequent opportunities and guided to celebrate small wins especially when they are so invested in their learning. We foster a sense of pride by giving ourselves a high five and sometimes giving each other high fives. It has been scientifically proven that when we high-five, it improves our mood. How? When we high-five, our brain releases dopamine which increases happiness! When people are happy, this activates all areas of the learning centre in your brain so we learn better!

As always, my heart is full of gratitude for being your child’s teacher. They truly bring me so much joy every day I get to spend with them! Even if I don’t tell them, I am hopeful they know I love them because they see it on my face and feel it in their heart. On Friday, we learned how to send an email using Outlook mail in O365! They made me feel so loved in their email messages…truly heartwarming!

If your child has not memorized their login ID and password, please continue to work on this. Those who have it memorized are feeling very efficient and are able to step up to be leaders to help others who need support. Thank you for supporting them to memorize it at home!

For extra practice logging in while at home, feel free to go to the Gilmore website. Click on

Then login with pupilnumber@edu.burnabyschools.ca. It would look something like this with their personal number: 4561237@edu.burnabyschools.ca and their password would be the same. All Burnaby students can download O365 on devices at home.

For extra practice communicating, go to Outlook Mail. I responded to all emails so there should be an unread mail from me. If your child wishes, have them reply back to me. Feel free to review with them why we type a few words in the subject line and then our message below. The next lesson will be about how we typically form an email with a greeting, message, and signature while also paying attention to complete sentences that begin with a capital letter and end with proper punctuation.

I am grateful for you and your continued support. Have a most wonderful weekend!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

What a fantastic time celebrating Literacy Week! Every morning, we had students from our class go on the PA during morning announcements to tell jokes! I loved their confidence as they spoke clearly. Thank you for helping them practice at home. We also had daily trivia questions for primaries and intermediates!

We had something special every day of the week. On Monday, all primary classes read Dear Children of the Earth by Schim Schimmer. Then we wrote a letter to Mother Earth, which some students will read at the Celebration of Learning assembly on Wednesday. (It was supposed to be today but it was postponed to next week.) We will be MCing the Celebration of Learning assembly so please have your child dress in blue (again). Every person in our class will be saying something at the assembly. Some already memorized their lines! This is not necessary but it would be great if you help your child practice reading slowly, clearly, and with enthusiasm. Thank you for your support!

Please feel free to watch and listen to the book read by the author himself!

Ways to support at home: Talk about what you are already doing as a family to take care of earth. What more can you and will you be doing? What would you like to thank Mother Earth for?

On Tuesday, it was wear a shirt with words day for our class alphabet scavenger hunt.

On Wednesday, my Uncle Bill come to our class to read The Seven Chinese Brothers because it was guest reader day. It was a very appropriate book for him to read because he has six Chinese brothers! He had so much fun reading to them and giving them a history lesson about the emperor at the time of the story and the Great Wall of China. I learned a few new things too!

Feel free to watch and listen to the story!

On Thursday, we had our first ever book swap. Click on image to see tweet and short video!

All week, Gilmore school has had a continuous reading marathon! What this means is that there was someone in the library every day this week, reading…even during lunch! Friday was our turn in the library to contribute to this marathon. Congratulations to the whole school because we accomplished our goal!

We are mathematicians.
Grade 2’s have been working hard on skip counting for the past two weeks. If they did not finish their workbook, then it was brought home for homework. Please support them in finishing it. It is not due until Wednesday. I offered a hundreds chart to help them. Some may not have taken a hundreds chart home with them. Click here to download one for yourself to use at home.

The random numbers section on the bottom of each side is to practice skip counting from any point from 1-100. Choose a random number to start. If they need more practice with skip counting backwards, you may want them to practice more of these.

Next week, we will start learning how to add with regrouping so please continue to have your child practice their math facts using their random numbers chart or a deck of cards.

Grade 3’s: Please practice math facts for doubles plus one.

As you may or may not know, our school growth plan has a numeracy focus now (new this year). So, if I hosted a Math Literacy Fun Night for you and your child to attend, would you be interested? The purpose of this would be to teach you some fun games you can play to help your child improve their number sense, number concepts, and learning of math facts. I understand that it’s one thing to ask you to help your child practice their math facts, but it’s so much better if I show you how and have you practice and play with them at school so you can replicate the fun at home! 🙂 Please CLICK HERE to fill out this quick questionnaire to share your interest and availability. Thank you!

Exciting news!
Starting on Monday, we will have a student teacher from SFU join our class for the week! The primary goal of this first week is to get to know your children and learn about our classroom and school operations.  Then from February 21 to April 6 (with spring break in between), she will have some co-teaching and teaching opportunities.

We would like to welcome Ms. Kim to our class! We wrote letters to help you get to know each of us better! 🙂

Tennis Lessons Begin!
We have tennis lessons that begin this week! Please ensure your child wears runners on Tuesday and Thursday for the next two weeks.

Gratitude
Every day, I tell your children that I love and appreciate them. They are very special people who bring me such joy every day! The TOCs that come into our class always tell me we have a very lovely and sweet class and that we do! I love the connection we have and how much fun we have together working and playing. Overall, they work hard during assignments and listen well during lessons and activities. I feel blessed to be their teacher. My heart is full of gratitude for the role I get to play in their lives. Thank you so much for being our partners in supporting your child’s learning at home.

Always feel free to leave a comment about what you just read. We’d love to hear from you!

With love and kindness, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

Happy Lunar New Year! We read a story called Sam and the Lucky Money. If you’d like to learn a little more about some of our traditions as well as to listen to the story, check out this video:

Anyone interested in ringing in the new year of the rabbit, Brentwood Mall will have a lion dance at 1pm (today) on Saturday, January 21 starting at 1pm in the Upper Centre Court. They will go through the Skybridge into the Grand Lobby for the second act and end at the Plaza.

We are readers.
I love finding authentic and real reasons to read and write. This past week, we scoured through many joke books from our school Library. Students chose a few that we enjoy to share over the PA next week during Literacy week. Some students will have an opportunity to read their jokes. Please have your child practice their jokes at home so they can read it fluently with expression and enthusiasm! It’s all in how a joke is delivered! Everyone has a joke to practice at home so just in case someone is away, they can be the backup person. Thank you for your help and encouragement!

We are authors.
We continued to develop our characters for our story by considering what they look like, their character traits and what they can do, and their core values and beliefs. Then we moved along with our storyboards. We thought about how our stories would begin, what the problem would be in the story and how it is resolved. I love how enthusiastic they are to work on and tell their stories!

How you can support at home: Ask your child to tell you all about their character(s). Have them explain what happens in the beginning of the story, what the problem is, how the problem might get worse before it gets better, how it is resolved, and then how the story has a satisfying ending. The more they practice telling their story verbally, the easier they will find writing it down!

We are scientists.
We were body scientists learning about our private body parts. How you can support at home is to have conversations to solidify what they learned and to answer any questions they have.

This week, we dove into learning more about oceans. We learned about our 5 oceans with some facts about each one. One of the things that resonated with many was pollution in our oceans and how that is affecting our wildlife in the oceans. We practiced taking notes during our learning. This will help prepare us for when we do our own research!

We all logged in!
Thank you so much to parents who helped their child memorize their usernames and passwords. It really helped to make the lesson run more efficiently and helped them have a better first experience. For the students who are still trying to memorize, please continue to support at home. Thank you! We were all so proud of ourselves to learning how to log in successfully! We practiced it a few times!

The next step next week will be to learn how to log in to Office 365. Since your child has a school account, they can download O365 onto your computer at home or just use the web version in a browser. Want to give your child a head start? Practice logging into O365 at home so they will be proficient the next time we use laptops! Please feel free to go to the Gilmore website and click on Office 365 (2 options):

A new login box will appear:

Type in the username@edu.burnabyschools.ca so it will look something like this:

#######@edu.burnabyschools.ca [no spaces]
The number is the same one they were memorizing. It’s their pupil number.

They will need to be taught where to find the @ sign. Teach them to press down the “SHIFT” key while they press on the number 2.

When students can’t login successfully, most of the time it is because they forget the “edu” at the beginning or they spell “burnabyschools” wrong. As you know, every letter, number, and symbol of the username and password has to be accurate or they cannot log in successfully.

Once they login, you are welcome to explore but the key point is just to learn how to log in to O365. So, practice logging in, teach how to log out, and practice logging in again.

I have to say that everyone was very patient and understanding especially when they had to wait their turn to receive their username and password. Great resilience! Proud of how quickly they learned!

Thank you!

We are grateful for your continued support at home. Thank you for your time to extend learning and to discuss what they learned at school. We appreciate your consistency with bringing planners to and from home too.

It’s not too late to bring gently used books for the book swap this Thursday! Looking forward to a fantastic Literacy Week!

Have a wonderful weekend! 🙂

With love and gratitude, Ms. Chan (and Mrs. Paulich)