Category: We are authors.

Dear parents,

I wanted to start off by saying that I am just so grateful to be your child’s teacher. Each day, they bring me and each other so much joy. When I was off for the week after my knee injury (recovery is going well, finally), the two TOCs informed me that they worked so hard in my absence which made me feel so proud and appreciative. I also thoroughly enjoyed receiving the daily emails from students telling me about their day and reminding me of how much they missed me and loved me. I missed them dearly so that made my absence at least bearable. I thoroughly enjoyed responding to their emails too! I’m sure it helped with my healing! 🙂

This past week was really tough because our sweetest guinea pig, Hazelnut, passed away on Family Day.  I knew that going back to work the next day would be hard and it was. It was very hard but you know what I knew was going to make a difference and lift me up? Yes, you guessed it…spending time with your children. Their smiles and their love filled my broken heart. Honestly, it was them that helped me heal a little more each day so thank you for sharing them with us.

Pink Shirt Day

Mr. Phelps read a story to us in the morning called A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo. Then we watched a video about how the day was created by Travis Price. Click here to watch. I was hoping to be able to share with you our class PowerPoint on the theme for us year: Lift Each Other Up but it is not quite finished yet. Each student was assigned a slide to share what that means to them. I love what I see so far!

Check out the video that Mr. Greenwood put together. It can be found on the Gilmore website.

We are mathematicians.

We have been learning about measuring perimeter and area. Please feel free to review these videos at home:

• Math Antics – perimeter
• Math Antics – area
• Flocabularly – perimeter and area

On Thursday, we did a quick Show What You Know (so far) and a number of students can use some extra review at home so please check with your child, thank you. We will continue to solidify and deepen understanding this week.

Black History Month

We learned about Harriet Tubman and did some reflective perspective writing. The writing I saw about slavery was so expressive and truly knocked my socks off.

We are readers.

Students have learned a new technique to practice increasing their reading fluency. I learned this from Jim Kwik. He is a brain and memory coach who wrote a book called Limitless. I recommend reading the book or listening to his podcast. I’m a new follower and find that his tips for learning are insightful. He has some great tips on studying you may want to dive into especially as your children move into the intermediate grades and highschool.

Here’s what we did. We read as many words as we can in one minute. Then we did this again. It is truly incredible how many more words they can read in that period of time. We did it again to discover that we hadn’t reached our potential yet! Of course, the most important part of reading is to fully comprehend and to make connections but this is just one strategy in increasing fluency, which is what some students need to work on.

Report cards go home this Friday. Please sign the envelope and return to school on Monday. Thank you!

As always, we are so grateful for your continued support at home.

With great appreciation, Ms. Chan (and Mrs. Paulich)

Dear Division 6 families,

What an awesome week we had together! We really do bring each other joy when we come together at school! My heart is filled with joy anytime I get to spend my day with them!

We are good digital citizens.

Last week, we were reminded of the importance of being good digital citizens. We reviewed our THINK acronym and talked about our digital footprint and how what we post is permanent. Our words and actions today may make an impact on our future so we need to be IMPECCABLE with our words (from The Four Agreements; see last week’s post as this was discussed).

Sending emails was introduced and students had a few opportunities to compose and learn how to write a professional email. There should be short subject line, an opening (like a greeting plus a name), the body of the email, a closing, and a signature. They have been receiving feedback on how professional their emails are looking. I know this meant that I have been receiving an extra 30 emails each time we practice this but I have thoroughly enjoyed connecting with your children beyond the walls and time in our classroom! Please reinforce the importance of being a good digial citizen who is impeccable with their words. Thank you for your support at home! You can always ask them to show you their emails too.

We are public speakers.

We finished all of our All About Me presentations last week! Wow! My socks were knocked off from the presentations! They have learned so much about how to create effective slides, how to have an engaging presence as a presenter, and how to improve for next time. I have loved the honest feedback they have provided to their classmates. They truly have been impeccable with their words in their compliments and suggestions for next time. They are bang on!

I also loved how they have learned from each other. One student who went first commented on how many people copied his idea for his ending slide. The student responded, “I was inspired by you.” That warmed my heart so much!!

Many have been asking about when they will be presenting their Passion Projects. We will review the criteria again so they are clear on what is expected. Then they will review their slides and presentation independently and then practice with a friend. I will also review with them to provide feedback. My best guess is that some may be ready to present in about 2-3 weeks.

We are mathematicians.

We continued to have fun as we learned more geometry concepts. Our goal is to always understand these concepts well enough so we become confident to teach someone else. Here are some vocabulary words that your child learning to understand and hopefully be able to explain and teach!

• lines, vertex and vertices, polygon
• right angle, acute angle, obtuse angle
• triangle, quadrilateral, square, rectangle, pentagon, hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus, parallelogram
• parallel lines, congruency

I plan to have a pre-test sometime this week just to check their understanding and for them to see how well they understand the concepts. When they bring it home, it will be clear to you what concepts will need further review. Thank you so much for your support at home!

We are ALL mathematicians!

What a great way to spend an evening! I felt SO grateful to have so many families join us for our Math night! I recorded the session and will be sharing that via email to everyone to review. I realized afterwards that I forgot to explain the Making 10’s strategy. Here they can play Go Fish. Each player has 5 cards. Instead of asking if you have a matching number, you ask for the number that makes 10. For example, if I have a 6, then I would say, “Do you have a 4?” because that equals 10. The game is played exactly the same as our traditional Go Fish except you are trying to match 2 numbers that equal 10.

Similarly, take a deck of cards. As they flip each card over, they say out loud the other addend that equals 10. For examples, if I flip over a 3, I say 7. If I flip over an 8, I say 2. If I flip over a 9, I say 1. The two numbers equal 10. The faster and more accurate they get, the more confident they are! Take turns or create two piles. The person who finished the pile first wins!

Thank you again for your support at home! I already heard some feedback and it made my heart feel so happy to know that you have already been playing these games at home! I appreciate you!

If you want a refresher without having to review the video, go to our Mathematicians Play page!

We are creators.

We continued to work on our Writer’s Workshop stories and started a new document in Word. Anytime you are looking for some work to do at home, they can always work on the following:

• their story in Word
• Passion Project
• send someone an email to brighten their day!

In addition, they can also practice typing in All the Right Type and make sure they go to .ca and NOT .com. They can always practice their math facts too! Check out some games on this page.

We are kind.

We have been practicing being impeccable with our words. On Friday, I challenged them to be someone who brightens someone’s day. My heart was warmed when we shared the things we did. It could be as simple as telling a friend how thankful they are to be friends or doing something kind for someone. I hope they remembered to brighten your day over the weekend too! 🙂

Looking forward to another great week together! Should be fun seeing that it will be Literacy Week!

We appreciate you.

Sincerely, Ms. Chan (and Mrs. Paulich)

This upcoming week is Literacy week! Your child should have come home with a Family Literacy week BINGO sheet! The last day to return it will be on Monday, January 31.

On Tuesday, students are asked to bring a towel and flashlight as we will be heading to the gym to read.

On Wednesday, students are asked to wear shirts with words on it. We have a chance to win prizes!

On Thursday, it is dress up as a word day! Brainstorm some ideas and be creative!

Please see the notice about litterless lunches at Gilmore. It was sent home on Friday.

Dear families of Division 6,

The more I teach your children, the more I love and adore them! We had another great week together! Every morning after Flex time, I play a song to indicate that it’s time to clean up and come to our Community Circle. I was playing a song called Best Thing Ever and I dedicated it to them. Here’s the best line that reflects how I feel: There’s nothing better than feeling alright. Together. This is the best thing ever. We really do enjoy being together.

Click on image to watch the video update

We are writers.

This week, we continued to work on our paragraph writing. I have to say that how they responded to the writing lessons was so heartwarming! I asked them how many felt they wrote their best paragraphs ever and many proud hands went up! They followed a set of criteria as they wrote. Then used the simplified rubric to self-assess. Next, they were paired with a partner for peer assessments. Click here to see the rubric we used. Reflecting on our writing is an important piece of our learning. Reviewing a peer’s work teaches us different skills too!

I just launched an online course on Writing Strategies with the Teach Better Team last week so it’s exciting to share the same tried, tested, and true lessons I teach your children but to a wider audience!

Students worked hard on their spelling words. It’s rare I give spelling tests but students were having trouble with some basic homophones so I wanted them to spend some time learning them. After a pretest, some didn’t need practice so I gave them personal challenge words instead based on their own writing. They chose the number of spelling words they wanted. Yesterday, I gave 17 spelling tests at the same time! Personalized learning!

Click here to watch this video if your child is still having trouble with there, their, and they’re.

We reflect on our learning using FreshGrade.

It has been a little while since they last logged in to FreshGrade. To refresh your memory, this is their e-portfolio where they reflect on their learning. All students uploaded a sample of their paragraph writing and reflected on their development and should have added a recording of their reading as well along with a lot of their art! Here are the questions they are asked to respond to as part of their reflection:

• Explain what we did in this task.
• What are you proud of? What are your strengths?
  • I can…
  • I can…
• What would you do differently next time?
• What did you learn about yourself?

Each entry should answer the above. I will be adding you to their account so you can view their posts. This is another great way that we communicate student learning with you and complementary to the Learning Update that was sent home today. I told them that you have homework…sorry! I know they will really appreciate it if you log in (once I add your email to their account) and comment on their learning. Here are some guiding questions that may help you with writing your comments:

• I love how you…
• I appreciate how hard you worked on…
• I am proud of the way you…
• Tell me more about…

We are mathematicians.

Grade 5 students received their Fractions Test #2 back. The first test gives students a very clear picture of where they were at and the second test gives them an opportunity to show how they’ve learned it better. Even students who showed proficiency the first time did a much better job of explaining equivalent fractions the second time around so they even noticed an improvement! This is exactly why I love giving a re-test. Because math is so foundational, this is an important practice in assessment. I was so very impressed how so many of them have become proficient! Thank you so very much for your continued support at home.

This week, we learned about comparing and ordering fractions when the denominator is the same and when the numerator is the same. We also learned about mixed fractions. We will be learning about decimals next week so if you’d like to spend some time reviewing at home, they will be more prepared next week. Feel free to watch this video at home: Math Antics Decimals Place Value

All About Me Presentations

I wish you can be in the room when we work on our All About Me projects on PowerPoint. They have been working so hard and they are so engaged! They ask to work on it! And when they do that, you know they love to work on it! One student shared that he forgot all about his pain (from a fall) because he was having so much fun!

Another student said this year was the first year he used laptops, so I am so impressed with how quickly they learned how to navigate, learn all of the features, and be creative! Next week, we will begin presentations. Students should come prepared to present. Each slide should have minimal words with an engaging image(s). They should be able to share 3-5 sentences about each slide. Please ask your child to practice their presentation at home.

Learning Updates

Writing these felt like a gift. I tweeted it out too!

If you have any questions about the Learning Update for your child, please reach out. Remember, we work as partners in your child’s education. We highly recommend you sit down with your child to talk about all of their successes and discuss the goals they set for themselves. Give them a voice. Ask them how you can support them.

Reminders:

• Scholastic Book Fair – last day to purchase is Friday, November 26 online only. Thank you so much for your support!
• Please sign and return the progress report envelope on Monday. Thank you!
• Tuesday, November 30 – Hot lunch (Tentatsu)
• Friday, December 3 – Jingle Bell Walk food collection

My words alone cannot truly express how much joy it brings me to be your child’s teacher but you can’t quite see into my heart so I guess my words (and video) will have to do! Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with us and for your continued support at home.

If you feel inclined, we’d love to hear from you after you read these blog posts. Please feel free to leave a comment or email us!

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

Dear Div. 6 families,

It was a full week of learning!

Scholastic Book Fair begins on Monday! Students wrote in their Planners that our day to shop and buy is on Monday! Students can bring money or you are welcome to shop at home online. Check the Gilmore website for more details and links.

We are writers.

We continued to practice our paragraph writing by writing about our weekend. Students are working towards having a clear opening and closing sentence with details that develop their ideas in between. We are working on adding more thoughts, feelings, and reactions to what we experience in our writing. At this grade level, most of their sentences should be complete, meaning they begin with a capital letter and end with proper punctuation.

Students were given a spelling pre-test on Wednesday mostly of homonyms (words that sound the same but are spelled differently). Some students spelled all of the words correctly so I offered them a challenge. They chose the number of challenge words I had to look for. I took words from their writing they misspelled so many of them have personal spelling words. If these words are too difficult to memorize or there are too many of them, then please feel free to decrease the number to study. Some struggle is “healthy” because they are in their growth zone but too much and they’re in their panic zone/shut down zone so that’s not what we want. You and your child have the flexibility to choose.

All words were written in their Planners. The test will be on Wednesday, November 24.

We are communicators.

We have continued to work on our All About Me in PowerPoint. This project was originally all about learning the features of PowerPoint. The students in the class are really enjoying it! Some are adding in family photos and even home videos! The slides should just be a visual reminder of what they want to share.

Here are some things the class learned:

• How to add and properly resize images (by pulling the corners to keep the ratio right)
• How to move and delete slides
• How to INSERT a video (go to insert and choose Online video), paste URL so it will appear on the slide
• How to insert icons, shapes, text boxes
• Use DESIGN for effectively visual slides
• We talked about how we don’t want too many words on each slide. We want the audience to be engaged by the image and listen attentively to the speaker but when we put too many words on a slide, the presenter tends to read the words and the audience does too.

They learned the shortcut keys too when they highlight words. They wrote it on a sticky note as a personal cheat sheet:

• • Ctrl + B = bold
  • Ctrl + I = italicize
  • Ctrl + U = underline
  • Ctrl + X = cut
  • Ctrl + C = copy
  • Ctrl + V = paste
  • Ctrl + Z = undo

We are readers.

I gave them all an assignment in Teams. It was a reading progress check. They recorded themselves reading a grade-level passage. They had the option to record their voice only or with video too. The kids really enjoyed doing that! They can record as many times as they wish before they hand in that assignment. This was something I just learned last week so it was very cool to try it out! I tweeted about it too and a person who works on the Microsoft Teams responded and retweeted my tweet! He liked hearing about students’ excitement.

We are storytellers.

We read Jeremiah Learns to Read and did a character deep dive. Then we started our own brainstorm of characters for the story we are going to write on a story map graphic organizer. They worked on their setting too.

We are mathematicians.

Please continue to be diligent in having your child practice the math facts. Ideally, spending at least 5 to 10 mins a day on memorizing math facts or playing math games with that purpose will be awesome too! Feel free to take a look at our blog for some ideas for games. The math facts are broken down into strategies: https://sd41blogs.ca/chanl/mathematiciansplay/. They practiced Making 10s Go Fish this week.

We continued with fractions learning how to compare and order them.

Planners

Please continue to check your child’s planner regularly and have them place their planners in their backpack the night before. We would love for them to become independent with this responsibility. Thank you for your support!

Taking care of our bodies

During our community circle time, there are a number of students who are regularly reporting that they are tired and/or hungry. Certain resources say that children this age should still be getting about 10 hours of sleep. As these are basic needs that can really affect their focus, attention, and energy at school, please have a discussion with your child to see if they are the ones who are often sharing they are tired and/or hungry. We do allow students to eat during the day if they need nourishment.  Perhaps a bigger breakfast and more snacks brought to school will help. Thank you for your support!

Informal Learning Updates will go home on Thursday. Please sign and return the envelope next Monday. You can keep the insert.

Pro-D day will be on Friday, November 26. Students do not attend.

As always, we appreciate your support at home. Every single day, we are so grateful to work with such a lovely group of children who love to learn! They bring us so much joy!

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