Category: We are communicators.

Dear families,

I apologize for not sending an update last weekend. I left for Akron, Ohio last Wednesday at midnight to attend the Teach Better Conference. While it completely consumed the following few days, it was one of the most exhilarating, joy filling, and memorable weekends of my entire life! Since the beginning of the pandemic, I came to know many passionate educators from across the US and Canada. At this conference, I met these same people who have become friends whom I admire. They inspire me to be a better teacher every day!

The keynote speakers and the breakout session speakers were authors, podcasters, classroom teachers, administrators, and international speakers. One of them actually won a Grammy for the Music Educator award! His name is Mickey Smith Jr. If you’d like to be inspired by him, I highly recommend listening here. His message doesn’t just apply to teachers but to everyone. I was over the moon that he chose to come to listen to my presentation about Atomic Interactions! READ MORE !

Dear families,

I hope you had a wonderful long weekend! Last week, it was fantastic to be at school for five days with lots of learning and fun!

We are communicators.

Learning to communicate our thoughts and feelings is an important skill to develop. We have an opportunity every morning during our daily Community Circle. I love how open they are to sharing how they feel and their stories. This is a positive way to listen and learn about each other, show respect, and to discover our similarities and differences.

Another important skill to develop is our written communication. Last week, we brainstormed a list of many things we feel grateful for. Then, we chose one item our hearts were tugged to write about. First, we used an idea planning sheet to record our thoughts. This helped us become more successful at articulating the details needed for writing our first paragraph! So many proud faces when they realized that what they had written was a complete paragraph with an opening sentence, supporting details, and a closing sentence!

We also regularly learn bits of sign language to communicate. We’ve actually learned quite a bit already. Feel free to ask your child what they know! On Friday, we learned how to say, “What’s your name? My name is ____. Nice to meet you!” We practiced this over and over again with our classmates.

Here are some other words they’ve been taught: more, minutes, bathroom, sit, stand, beautiful, and I love you!

Speaking of communicating, public speaking is yet another important form. This week, we will be listening to presenters share all about their name! I am SO looking forward to learning more about each child and about your family! Thank you SO much for helping your child prepare. We enjoyed the story The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi. It made us think about whether we would keep our name if we had a choice to change it. READ MORE !

Dear families,

The week flew by! They say, “time flies when you’re having fun!” and fun we definitely had! There seems to be a time thief in our classroom. I love how they are often surprised that it’s already lunch or it’s already home time. We are SO grateful to have met almost all of you during our Parents as Partners conferences! Thank you SO much for filling out the questionnaire and for sharing your expertise about your child so we can better support them and their learning. We were happy to hear that they are enjoying coming to school!

Social Emotional Learning

Last week, we learned more about what it means to have a growth mindset. We continued to work on our comfort zone circles too. Hoping that once they are all done, this will be their first post in Spaces (our ePortfolios)!

READ MORE !

Dear families,

Thank you for your continued support at home! We hope you had a fantastic long weekend!

We are poets.

Students should have their affirmations complete by now. I hope to share them with you next week! If they have them finished, they have a second copy for home to read every morning and night time before bed. My hope is that they will do this for 30 days. We will reflect on how this practice has made an impact on how they believe in themselves and their well-being.

I am so impressed with their Creativity poems. Some have really taken their creativity to the next level! Our free verse poems are also SO good! They are having a lot of fun creating them. I love how many of them are so willing to share their poems with the class. I was so inspired by their poems that I wrote my own free verse poem from my heart and shared it on Twitter!

We are mathematicians.

For grade 5s, they learned how to do long division. This Wednesday, they will have an opportunity to show what they know so far in division. This is information is as much for me as it is for them to really see how independently they are grasping the concepts. They will then receive personalized feedback on what they are doing well and will understand what concepts still need more review.

Please continue to have your child practice their math facts at home. The kids who know their facts are having an easier time with understanding division. Your support at home is very appreciated!

Dragsters

Last week, we started to paint our dragster vehicles. This week, we will continue to paint to make our cars even better!

Swimming

I so enjoyed watching the kids have so much fun in the water together. They were respectful and safe.

Reminder: Swimming at Eileen Dailly Pool tomorrow! Thank you so much to the grade 5s who brought their Be Active cards. You helped save our school money! Any parents interested to walk with us is welcome!

Grizzly Games on Friday, June 10

Feel free to order pizza on School Cash online. There will be an early dismissal at 12:15pm so please arrange for pick up at that time. We hope to see many of you there!

There will be another early dismissal on Friday, June 17 as well but at 1:45pm.

Always know that your children are loved and appreciated at school. We aim to push them outside of their comfort zones so they grow in their stretch zones. We aim to help them see themselves as leaders and try to develop their leadership qualities to live their lives like role models. It has been such an amazing fun-filled year so far and it’s because of the culture we continue to build on a daily basis through every interaction. Thank you for your continued support at home. We are stronger together as partners in your child’s education.

With much gratitude, Ms. Chan