Category: We are communicators.

Dear families of Division 6,

Oh how I have missed spending time with your children!

Click on image to watch the video.

On Monday, we reviewed the old and new safety protocols. Thank you to parents who kept their children at home this week to keep us all safe. Please continue to do the daily health check and have your child pack 2-3 extra masks to keep in their backpacks. Thank you!

Click here for the daily health check.

Click here for information on managing Covid. Click here for information if you have Covid.

Click here for the instructions from the BC Centre for Disease for close contacts.

Black Excellence Day

Many students wore black on Friday to support Black Excellence Day. We joined in the first-ever virtual event hosted by our district.

It is a learning opportunity and celebration of Black achievements, stories, art, people, joy, love, and history.

To learn more, click here to read the Burnaby School Board’s post and a CBC article about this initiative.

We are mathematicians.

We started our new math unit on geometry by checking to see what they already knew. Let’s just say I am so very excited to see their understanding grow immensely from what they showed me on Monday! We watched a video on recognizing shapes. Click here to re-watch the video.

Homework: Finish booklet that starts with page 150. It is due on Monday.

Thank you to parents who expressed interest! Next week on Wednesday, January 19th at 7:00pm, I will be hosting a Math Games night! Children are welcome to join in! At this point, I don’t know how long it will be but I won’t keep you past an hour. I will send you an email with the link. If you are interested but have not responded to the online form yet, please just email me to let me know. I am grateful for your time and interest!

All About Me presentations

We continued to enjoy the All About Me presentations this week. If your child has not presented yet, please help them practice this weekend. We will have all of them done by the end of next week. Thank you for your support!

We are learning to type!

Students were introduced to our online typing program called All the Right Type. We are grateful to have a district license. Last year, many of my students learned how to type efficiently through this program. Imagine how much more efficient your child will be for the rest of their life if they learned how to type at their age! Consider how much time they can save if they can type proficiently. Click here to login. They brought home their login information on Tuesday. Like most skills, the more time and effort they invest, the better and faster they get.

Coincidentally, my good friend, Tim Cavey, just published a blog post about the skill of typing recently! Click here to read, if interested.

Be impeccable with your words.

Last weekend, I finished reading a book called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. It was published in 1997 and has sold over 100 million copies. 

Our overarching school theme this month is responsibility.  So the timing was just right to also focus on Agreement #1: Be impeccable with your words. It is our responsibility to treat others this way as we aim to live our lives as a role model in all that we do. I also taught them to be impeccable with the words they say to themselves. Sometimes we can be hardest on ourselves but it is so very important to be kind to ourselves too!

We have always focussed on Agreement #4: Always do your best as one of our 3 main questions that we have permanently on the front board:

• Will you do the right thing?
• Will you do today’s best?
• What will you do in service to others today?

Please ask your child what they learned about being impeccable with their words. I challenged them to notice a time when they would not normally be impeccable with their words, to stop themselves to think first before speaking.

This is something that I often share out on social media:

Is it hard sometimes? Yes! Does it take self-discipline, self-control, and self-regulation to be kind with our words? Yes! But each interaction is an opportunity to uplift one another. If you are not uplifting someone, then you are tearing them down. There is no in between. One of my favourite songs is called Speak Life by Toby Mac about the power of our words.

We are so grateful for you and your support! Please know that your children are seen, loved, valued, heard, and appreciated as they bring us so much joy each day. Thank you for sharing your child with us. They are truly a gift! 🙂

Sincerely, Ms. Chan (and Mrs. Paulich)

Dear Division 6 parents,

This week, here are some of the exciting things we learned.

Grade 4 mathematicians have their math test this Wednesday. The Grade 5’s have been working on addition with regrouping and learning how to explain this process. If they can explain it in a simple way, then I know they understand the concept regardless of what digits they are given to calculate.

We care about our community. This week, we had an opportunity to write a letter to a resident of Seton Villa. Each student wrote to a senior. We hope they will enjoy reading our letters!

We continued to be scientists who learn together as we carried on with our reading groups and learned about text features of non-fiction books to better help us understand what we read. We will be finishing this off this week and then reflecting on how well we worked in a group and our learning overall.

We learned about the next two lessons in the 7 Habits of Happy Kids by Covey.

#5 – Seek first to understand and then to be understood. This was a lesson about the importance of listening.

#6 – Synergy: We are better together. This lesson was about the importance of cooperation and teamwork.

Students were given choice in how they wanted to respond to the texts. They could write about what resonated with them or they could write a creative story that outlines the same message. I love offering choice to students to bring out their ideas and develop their writing skills.

At home, feel free to reinforce these concepts and how they can apply what they learned to different situations and communities your child belongs in.

On Thursday, what a wonderful way to celebrate what our school has been learning in music with Mr. Phelps! We had an amazing drum presentation. I would love to share this with you! Next week on Thursday, December 16 at 7:00pm, you are welcome to join me on Zoom to watch the 4 minute drum presentation, and then we can stay on to get to know each other a little better until 7:30pm! I will send the Zoom link in an email.

It’s hard to believe we are nearing the winter break. It’s been such an amazing year together so far! We love being your child’s teacher and working with you! Thank you so very much for your continued support at home.

We appreciate you so much!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Dear Division 6 families,

It’s hard to believe we have only been together for 3 months. Time flies when you are having fun! We had yet another productive week together!

Click on image to watch the video update

Circle Time

Every day, we meet in our Community Circle. On certain days, we started to meet on the carpet to share our feelings and answer the question of the day. It is such a wonderful time to connect with each other and learn more about each other too! We truly believe this time is well spent to build the strong caring community that we have. The longer I teach, the more I recognize that building and maintaining relationships is the biggest key to all learning–that is, relationships with self AND others.

We are writers.

We continued to practice our writing and had a wonderful time sitting on the carpet in a circle to share the one thing we are really proud of in our writing. What a fantastic way to build a sense of pride in our writing development as we celebrated our learning together. Ask your child what they shared in our Author’s Circle time!

Parent’s “Homework”

Speaking of celebrations, if you haven’t had a chance already, please log in to your child’s FreshGrade to make positive comments on their reflections on learning. This coming week, we will be spending some time reading your comments so it will warm their hearts to read your encouraging words written to them in their posts. Check out last week’s blog post for a better understanding of what you will see in each post and tips on how to respond. While these e-portfolios are a reflection of their learning to recognize strengths and further growth, I know how much it would mean to them to see comments from their parents. Thank you for your time to support your child’s learning!

We are scientists.

This week, we started our book study with a non-fiction book called Rocks and Minerals on Epic Books. We are learning about text features to help us locate information and to help us better understand what we read. At first, we read together and took sketchnotes. Then we separated into groups of 3 to continue reading and taking notes. I loved watching them in action and they worked so cooperatively. I also love how we can put them into random groups and they work well together. This is the result of the hard work we do in building relationships with each other. For that, I am so very grateful.

We are now presenters!

This past week, many of us became presenters! Me included! On Friday, I was honoured to present at my first conference in the US! It was virtual so I only travelled on Zoom. 🙂 It was great to show them my slides as an example of what to consider on their slides.

I loved seeing the incredible growth from how only a few short weeks ago, some of your children barely knew how to navigate on a laptop! Now, they are proficient at setting up a presentation in PowerPoint, creating slides, and inserting images that completely match their ideas! I love hearing all of the compliments and the invaluable feedback given as kind suggestions on how they can improve for next time.

We still have a number of presentations. If your child has not presented yet, I highly recommend they actually practice saying their presentation. It is most ideal if they can practice it at least three times before they present. This will help build their confidence in knowing what to say for each slide.

When you see the rubric sent home, please write a positive comment and assist your child in writing a personal goal for next time. Then ask them to put it back in their planner to hand in to me the next day. Thank you for your support!

Grade 5 Mathematicians

Last week, we continued to learn about decimals and we practiced addition with decimals too. Please continue to have your child practice basic math facts at home. They learned some new ways to practice using a deck of cards. If they spent even five minutes a day reviewing facts, they will improve in speed and accuracy! We will be working on addition and subtraction of whole numbers to 1 000 000 and with decimals to thousandths. Your support at home is greatly appreciated!

We are grateful.

Thank you so very much for your support of the Book Fair! Our school was able to fundraise $2000 that will go towards more books for our library! We also are so very grateful for your support for the Jingle Bell walk food drive! Thank you so much for your generous donations!

We are always so thankful for your support at home. We appreciate your time and effort to support your child’s learning at school.

With much gratitude, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

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)