Category: We are communicators.

Dear Division 6 family,

I often talk about how we are a family. It very much feels that way for me. It makes me happy to share with you what we have been working on! Click here to watch the video update (6:11) or read the summary below.

On Thursday, students were divided into six random groups of 4. Their first priority was this: Be kind. Be respectful. Be cooperative. Be collaborative. Be creative. Step 2 was to build the tallest tower with 15 rolls of toilet paper and long piece of tape (my arm span). I was SO impressed with how well they communicated, shared ideas, took turns and different roles, and worked together. During our class reflection, we discussed that these are all teamwork skills that are important to hone and practice. Then we took the opportunity to reflect on our team building activity. Some said this was the best thing they have done in grade 5 so far!

I would love for you to know that you have such wonderfully kind, caring, and cooperative children. I think the world of them and absolutely love them!

Language Arts
We have continued to work on our personal reflection writing. We begin by doing a quick write where we compose a paragraph together so they can see my thinking as I write. This helps them think about the targets we want to hit in our writing and what to think about to continuously make our writing better. They are becoming more familiar with using the single-point rubric that I shared with you last week. It gives students a clearer target and they know exactly what they need to do in order to be applying (or proficient) in this type of writing.

Students can always hop onto O365, Teams to work on their Writer’s Workshop stories when at home. They can also practice their typing skills too. Imagine how much they would improve if they spent 10 minutes a few times a week! It’s like any skill. The more time you invest in it, the better you get!

We encourage them to read at least 20-30 minutes every night and then have an opportunity to talk to someone about what they read. I would prefer they read for fewer minutes and spend some time talking than to read but not talk to anyone about what they are reading. To help, feel free to refer to this Say Something strategy.

Math
We have continued on our path to fully understand place value by creating our own Place Value booklets. They have enjoyed creating it as they review the concepts at the same time!

Science
We enjoy our Mystery Doug videos each week! For the last few weeks in October, here are some we watched. I love hearing their enthusiastic responses to some of the new learning we do. If your child has siblings at home, feel free to watch it as a family!

How can you tell if a plant is poisonous?
Why do owls say “hoo”?
Why are so many people scared of bugs?

This past week, we learned from Bill Nye about Rocks and Soil. We have many students who love to draw so we practiced taking sketch notes again. We learned there are three ways that rocks are formed. Later in the week, we had opportunities to take a look at various igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. I wish you could be there to hear the oohs and ahhs. Learning about rocks is one of my favourite things to teach so I’m thrilled to see their excitement too! Next, we will choose a question we are really curious about to research and learn more about. Then, we will become experts to share with our classmates!

Passion Projects
Students are well on their way with their passion projects. It’s one of my favourite times of the week and I gathered it’s the same for them! We set up our PowerPoints so that we can add information that we find as we go along.

Art
High Five to a Great Year! Students wrote words that describe themselves.

Here they learned about colour theory and created beautiful eyes!

We are so looking forward to have a full week with your child! We feel blessed every day to be their teacher! Thank you for your continued support at home.

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Dear students and families,

Please read with your child or encourage them to read our weekly blog posts too. This offers a real reason to read, reflect, and respond. It also gives you as a family an opportunity to discuss and reinforce learning. Thank you!

When I reflect on our week, I always have such fond feelings. This past week, we read a story called The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli.

This story was to reinforce the idea that the stories we write come from our hearts. We all worked on a heart map to show all the things that have a place in our hearts.

For Math, we focused on Place Value last week by having fun with numbers! We used our whiteboards to show what we know, played a class race game called “I have, who has”, practiced representing numbers in a place value chart and learned how to read bigger numbers beyond the millions place! They had so much fun practicing by playing a different version of war. I wish you could be in the room to see how much fun and how engaged they were in their learning! Read my tweet!

How to play Place Value Showdown? Take out the 10, Jack, and King. The A=1 and Queen = zero in your deck of cards. Each player flips over one card at a time on their own game sheet (place value chart), starting from the ones place. The player with the larger number earns one point. Then both players can earn a second point if they each read the number correctly. That way, the other player can also earn a point each time. Each child has their own deck of cards so they are not sharing. Variation game option: Only the player with the larger number gets the point but they have to read it correctly to keep the point!

How to support at home: Students were told they could bring their game boards home to practice. If your child is not ready to read numbers to the millions place, then simply fold the place value chart over to where they can read numbers and then slowly add one more place at a time. They should not say the word “and” when they are saying their numbers. For example, this number shown would be 69 million, 5 hundred sixty-two thousand, (do not say AND here) forty-three. It’s a common mistake that we add “and” when we read numbers!

For Language Arts, we worked on our paragraph writing about gratitude. During our Thursday morning Community Circle time, we shared what we are thankful for. Then watched one of my favourite videos on gratitude:

Next, we dove into the writing process. I wanted students to understand that we only spend approximately 20% of our time writing. The rest of our writing is more about thinking, reviewing, and revising. Click on the image for the full view of the graphic. So we started with making a list of things we are grateful for. Students could choose to write a list or make a web.

We then learned how to write a good paragraph, reviewed how to write a topic and closing sentence, and what goes in between! I always use a magnifying glass (I actually pull one out!) and tell them that’s what they are doing with their writing. They are diving in deeper to offer explanations, descriptions, examples, or reasons. They chose one thing they are grateful for to dive deeper!

Lastly, we learned what to do when we are “finished’. Well, we are actually never really finished but before they hand in their work, here are the steps to take. To make our writing better, I ask them DYRIO? This stands for “Did You Read It Over?” Please click image to view. I loved reading their writing!

This past week, we had a number of students away. It weighed on me that I was not doing more for the students at home so at the end of the week (Thursday and Friday), I started sharing what we were doing in class so that friends at home would not be too far behind when they returned.

I also have more things set up in O365 Teams so your child can continue to work there. If they go to Class Notebook or OneNote in their own section (with their name), click on the Handouts tab. The first page on this tab is Accounts. Here, you will find the class code for Epic (our online book library), their username and password for a typing program called All The Right Type (ATRT) and Khan Academy (online math lessons and review). Click on the hyperlink to go to the website. Students can always work on their Writer’s Workshop stories found in Teams > Assignments. I will continue to set up processes and things to do should your child not feel well and is at home. Of course, getting better is their most important “homework”! These activities are only for when they just have a bit of a cough and have the energy to do some work! I am still figuring out the best way to hand in their work. For now, emailing me is best. Thank you to those who have done just that! I have loved receiving your work remotely!

Our schedule is set! We will go to the Computer Lab on Tuesday and Friday. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we go to the gym, have Social Studies, and practice our French with Ms. Paulich!

On Friday, we started working on our Passion Projects! It was a fantastic start! If your child is at home sick, working on their Passion Project is also a great way to learn while at home!

If you plan to keep your child at home due to illness, please inform the office. If you also email Marianna and me, we appreciate too! Thank you!

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving long weekend! I actually found it a bit hard this weekend not being able to see my extended family like we always do BUT I am still grateful for the many blessings I have. I see every day as a gift. Every person and connection we make is a gift. My year with your children and your family is a gift. Time is a gift. I speak about these things and how gratitude is important to me on podcast that dropped at the beginning of September. If you are interested to listen, click here. I would absolutely love to hear what resonated with you if you listen, please. I am grateful for your time!

Thank you for your continued support at home! As always, please feel free to reach out should you have any questions. Thank you for your beautiful children in our lives. We feel so very blessed to be their teacher this year.

Appreciating you, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Dear Parents,

Wow, what a fast two weeks! A lot has happened! Click here to watch the video update. No time to watch? Feel free to read our summary here.

This was two weeks ago but on Monday, September 21, we had a great turnout at our Meet Ms. Chan over Zoom. Thank you so very much for being there. I felt so blessed and honoured to meet so many of you! Then on September 23 and 24, we had the privilege to connect for our Meet the Teacher Conferences. Your sharing and insight are invaluable to us!

We continued to build our community and relationships through our Community Circle time. One day, we played Car & Driver. This activity helped us experience trust. Trust in each other. We talked about how trust is generally and generously given until there’s a reason to take it back. Our goal is to live our lives with integrity so that there is no reason for others not to trust you. This goes back to our three essential questions:

1. Will you do the right thing?
2. Will you do today’s best?
3. What will you do for others today?

If we regularly ask ourselves these questions, and reflect on our mindset, language, and actions, then we will be well on our way to being positive role models and good citizens of the world! We have been using these questions after our tasks and reviewing them before beginning our new related tasks. We have seen improvements already!

On October 1st during our Community Circle, we shared our September highlights. It was so heartwarming to hear that almost all of them shared how grateful they felt to be back in school with their friends, learning, and in our class! I so love how comfortable they feel to share!

For Reading, we learned about the Say Something strategy. It is important for readers to have opportunities to talk about what they are reading in order to develop deeper understanding of text, characters, and meaning, for example. This is why we spend time practicing our “Say Something” strategy. Here, they practice their communication skills – speaking and listening, as they dive deeper into the book like what adults do during Book Club talks. They also will practice critical thinking skills as the year progresses. Many students continue to enjoy reading books on Epic. If you need more information, please reach out!

Last week, we read the story A Walk in the Rain with a Brain and tried our hand at sketchnoting, which has become very popular in the past few years in education. Here, students record key words and draw images that help them remember. It was my first time sketchnoting too! This story was about the importance of discovering how our brains are different and that everyone is “smart”. We need to spend time to figure out how we are “smart” and not compare ourselves to others.

For Math, we have been doing Number Talks. Through doing these, we used our critical thinking skills to learn what digits are, what the commutative property is (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 3×5=15 and 5×3=15), the all about digital roots! I have loved seeing critical thinking in action during these math times as we processed our new information! We will be moving into learning Place Value this week.

For Science, we started our Rock unit by recording what we think we know and what we wonder about rocks. For this inquiry-based unit, we will learn about and dive into what interests them most!

In the Computer Lab, students have learned a lot in a short time. In the last couple weeks, they learned how to write an email using proper etiquette, became familiar with Assignments in Teams, learned how to navigate their online Class Notebook (which looks like a binder with tabs), started their Digital Portfolios in PowerPoint, and started writing their stories. We finally have our Computer Lab times set. We have the lab booked on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Students had a chance to spend some time flushing out what their Passion Projects will be. They spent some time talking to different classmates about their ideas. The hope was that the more they talked about their plans, the more excited they would get! That’s how we can tell if we have found the right Passion Project for us!

Ms. Paulich did a cool art activity with them that shows what is Behind My Mask. They wrote words that described them.

Last week, we went on our Terry Fox Run in the neighbourhood. As a school, we decided to walk as a class to keep our cohorts safely together. We walked the route twice and everyone represented Gilmore well. It was such a beautiful day! I absolutely loved all of the social interactions I saw happening as we walked!

We also acknowledged Orange Shirt Day. In the past couple weeks, they learned about residential schools and the meaning behind this day with Mrs. Siu and Ms. Paulich.

We are looking forward to a fantastic October! Thank you for your continued support at home! As always, should you have any questions, please ask! We are here to support you and your child as we work as partners! We feel SO fortunate to be teaching your wonderful children. We have the best class family ever!!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan & Ms. Paulich

Dear students and families,

What an awesome week together! First of all, thank you for arriving on time every day! Please remember to do the daily health check before sending your child to school. Thank you for your thoughtfulness in keeping us all safe!

If you prefer to watch than read, here is the update video! Click here (Sorry, it’s 8:46 min long. I didn’t realize it was that long when I was recording it!). These videos and blog posts are meant for your children too so please review and have conversations about what was learned in order to reinforce. Thank you for your investment of time in your child’s learning! Ask them to reflect and tell you from their point of view. This works on their communication skills!

Meet the Teacher Conferences are next week on Wednesday, September 23 (3:15 to 6 pm) and Thursday, September 24 (2:15 to 6 pm) with an early dismissal on Thursday at 2:00 pm. Please read the important email sent to you from our Gilmore office. In the email, you will learn about our new online booking system with attached instructions. We recommend that you create an account and add your child(ren) before the portal opens tomorrow at noon. It is first come, first serve.

On Thursday, after our Flextime, we started our morning with our Community Circle finishing this sentence, “I feel happy when… “. It was heartwarming to hear many comments about feeling happy when they come to school. After just one week, it feels like we’ve been together much longer. We are thrilled to see our classroom community show respect and cooperation!

Next, we learned about comfort zone circles. We went to the Activity Room where they were given scenarios. This was a fun, interactive way where they moved to a part of the room that represented their comfort level. It’s important to understand themselves when learning. I told them that they will be regularly pushed out of their comfort zone for optimal learning in their stretch zone.

• Comfort zone: unchallenged, bored, stable, safe, easy
• Stretch zone: This is the learning zone – excited, exhilarated, challenged, alive, willing to take risks
• Panic zone: fearful, tense, stressed

Ms. Paulich finished the STEM activity with them in the afternoon. So MUCH fun! Here were a couple reflection questions:

What about your design worked well?

• Our paper was all used up and our strips were skinny which made it long
• It was strong and did not break
• Durability and we used all the supplies

If you were to do this challenge again what would you do differently?

• Try not to overlap the edges of the paper
• Make the strips longer and thinner making the chain longer
• Use thinner pieces so you have more to make the chain longer

Friday’s theme: Celebration Friday! After our Flextime, we gathered in our Community Circle to share our celebrations from the week and cheer for each other. Again, many comments about celebrating a great first week and feelings of happiness to be in the class. My heart was so full after listening to their celebrations!

Hooray for You! We read this book that celebrates “you-ness”, all the things that make you unique, special, and different! We spent some time working on our heart maps. I loved seeing all the things that make their heart happy!

We went back to the Computer Lab and learned about how to be a good digital citizen. They are now at an age where some have social media accounts or play online games where they talk to people they have never met in person. So it’s very important to teach them to THINK before they post or say things to others in person and behind a screen. What they post is permanent and may affect their future so we want them to build a positive online presence! We practiced in Teams in the Chat feature. I imagine we will have more conversations about how we use this space responsibly, respectfully, and with integrity.

Then we logged into Epic to do some reading. I will send you the class code in an email to keep it private and not post it here. I will be adding your emails this weekend so expect to see an email from Epic to invite you to sign up. This will allow your child to have an extra two hours of reading time at home outside of the free account which gives them free access from 7 am to 4 pm.

Finally, on Teams, they worked on a reflection assignment. They were asked the following questions:

• What can I do better as their teacher for them or the class?
• What can you improve on for next week? What is your goal?
• What is your celebration from the week?

Not everyone handed in their work because they did not all finish so if you can find some time over the weekend to encourage your child to login to O365 to complete the work and to click on TURN IN, that would be so helpful so they won’t be behind starting next week. Thank you so much! If you need any support, please send me an email.

Finally, I introduced the idea of Passion Projects. We watched the video as a launch. Please have a conversation with your child and help them brainstorm different possibilities for what they might want to focus on for their Passion Project. It’s best to brainstorm some ideas first! Feel free to have them bring it to school next week! They do not need to make a decision yet. What they choose needs to be realistic given the parameters of our health and safety protocols. So looking forward to seeing what they choose!

Ms. Paulich and I feel so very blessed to be your child’s teacher this year! Thank you for sharing your child with us. Your children are happy to be back at school and so are we! We are so looking forward to meeting you later next week over Zoom! A Zoom link will be shared with you next Tuesday evening.

FYI… for students who like to bring their own device, we will visit the Computer Lab next Monday. We will be going to the gym on Tuesday and Wednesday, so please dress appropriately to exercise!

We always love it when parents reach out to connect! To parents AND students, what was your most favourite activity from this week? Please post a comment! Thank you! 

Thank you for your support at home. We appreciate you! Have a fabulous weekend! 🙂

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich