Category: We are communicators.

Dear families,

We are excited that will be performing a song at the Hallowe’en assembly on Tuesday, October 31 with Ms. Santorelli’s Div. 14 class! We will start loading the gym at 9:15 am. Please feel free to have your child dress in an appropriate costume that do not involve any weapons.

This is from the School District’s website: Halloween is also an opportunity for conversations about how culture is not a costume, as seen in the poster and this resource created by staff leading Indigenous Education and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion work in Burnaby Schools. These resources were also shared with schools to help support how to be creative and fun without causing unintentional harm.

We are communicators and writers.

We learned how to brainstorm and write with more details that include examples, reasons, explanations, thoughts, and feelings.

Students enjoyed reading Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen. Then they wrote about how to be a better listener. Click on the image below to watch an animated version of this story:

Check out some of our writing!

We are mathematicians.

We will be moving into developing our understanding of number concepts next. Please visit our Mathematicians page to learn more about the specific content learning standards we will be covering in the next while.

Here are some of the curricular competencies we will continue to develop:

• Understanding and solving
  • Develop, demonstrate, and apply mathematical understanding through play, inquiry, and problem solving
  • Visualize to explore mathematical concepts
• Communicating and representing
  • Communicate mathematical thinking in many ways
  • Use mathematical vocabulary and language to contribute to mathematical discussions
  • Explain and justify mathematical ideas and decisions
  • Represent mathematical ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic forms

There will be many ways you can support at home. Please continue to read the weekly blog posts to learn how. We appreciate your support!

We are scientists.

We learned about gases. It has no shape or volume but does take up space. They fill the container it is in.

ADST

It is so important that children learn how to be great digital citizens. We discussed the importance of thinking before we post or share anything in the digital space.

We learned how to email Ms. Chan! If your child does not know their login username and password, please continue to support them by spending time to memorize it. Almost everyone can login successfully now without referring to a piece of paper.

How to support at home: Help them memorize their full email address. It looks something like this: 2921137@edu.burnabyschools.ca.

Notes

• We did an earthquake drill on Thursday. Please speak to your child about what you would do at home to stay safe. Learn more here on the Great BC Shakeout.
• Hip Hop starts tomorrow! We will be performing with Ms. Santorelli’s class. Please have your child dress in comfortable clothing they can dance in plus proper footwear. If they wear boots to school, they should also bring a pair of runners so they can dance properly. Dancing in rubber gum boots can be extra challenging!
• Please return the student consent forms. Thank you to everyone who already returned them.

Upcoming Dates

• October 23 to 30: Hip Hop lessons
• October 31: Hip Hop performance at 1:00 pm (Gym)
• November 1: PJ Day
• November 2: Photo re-takes
• Friday, November 17: Bowling at Revs. We will need parent volunteer drivers so please save the date. Thank you! The notice will go home this week.

We are super grateful for your support at home! Your help matters. The more you can be curious and talk about what they learned in school, the more they can solidify their understanding. Ask them to teach you what they learned! This helps to them work towards proficiency.

With appreciation, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

We have such a dynamic and rich learning environment full of hard working children who enjoy learning together. Every day, I am energized and full of joy when I see them first thing in the morning. I feel so blessed and grateful to be their teacher!

The Multicultural Dinner was a great community building event. If you weren’t able to join us, please consider it for next year! I loved trying different foods from places all over the world! The limbo performance was incredible too!

We are artists.

One of Ms. Kapusta’s passions is teaching art. We are so fortunate and grateful for her dedication to planning meaningful activities for our class! Last week, they collectively worked on an Art Classroom Agreement. You can see the agreements in the picture.

This week, we were solidifying our understanding of patterns through art. Using the Zentangle method of art, students started working on using their creative thinking to design their pumpkins. We can’t wait to share the final projects with you!

Comfort Zone Circles

Teaching about comfort zone circles has been one of the more effective ways to teach students about productive struggle. We moved our green carpet to the centre of the classroom; this represented our “comfort zone”. Along the walls of the classroom represented our “not yet zone” and in between was our “stretch zone”.

Students were given different scenarios asking them their comfort levels in riding a bike, swimming in a lake, riding in a rollercoaster, speaking in front of the whole school, etc. This was a fun, interactive way where they moved to a part of the room that represented their comfort level. Then I invited them to come up with scenarios for their classmates. They loved it!

It is 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. They grow the most in their stretch zone, not in their comfort 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

How to support at home: Use the language of being in their “stretch zone” at home when they may find something a bit challenging. Provide opportunities for them to be in their stretch zones at home or when you are out and about. Explain how being in your stretch zone is a great place to be because they are pushing themselves out of their comfort zone in order to grow. Some may feel uncomfortable and even a little frustrated but the more they push through these moments of discomfort, the more opportunities they have to celebrate their development! Can you relate? For me, I am proudest when I struggle with something, push through with perseverance and a positive attitude, and then succeed. Over time, my comfort zone expands!

This is an opportunity to teach young children affirmations. What do we say to ourselves to help us push through when things feel challenging?

• I can do hard things!
• When things get hard, I can work harder!
• You can do this! You got this!

When I shared this activity on Twitter, Teacher2Teacher thought it was an effective way to show students they are growing every day so they reached out to interview me and then they published a blog post about this comfort zone activity. If you are interested, please feel free to click here to read the article.

We are Mathematicians.

On our Wondering Wednesday, students went outside to create patterns with nature!

We solidified our understanding of increasing and decreasing patterns. What your grade 3 child needs to know is how to describe the pattern and state the pattern rule. For example, this is the pattern rule:

Start with #^. Add one more ^ each time.

Pattern : #^   #^^   #^^^   #^^^^   #^^^^^

How to support at home: Have your child create increasing and decreasing patterns. Ask them to describe the pattern rule. For example, this is a decreasing pattern:

Start with one fork and 5 spoons. Take away one spoon each time.

Looks like this: fork spoon spoon spoon spoon spoon  – fork spoon spoon spoon spoon – fork spoon spoon spoon – fork spoon spoon  – fork spoon

We are scientists.

We continued to learn about the three states of matter. We learned that liquids don’t hold their shape. Instead, they take the shape of their container.

We are communicators.

We read the story “The Name Jar” by Yangsook Choi. If you’d like to listen to the story with your child, click here. We had an opportunity to write about whether we like our name. Would we change it if we could? What would we change it to? Who gave us our name?

ADST

Thank you so very much to the many families who supported their child in memorizing their username and password. They felt SO proud of themselves when they could login successfully!

On Friday, we learned how to login to O365. If you would like your child to practice, feel free to visit Kitchener’s website and click on O365 on the top menu bar.

The key to logging in here is to memorize their full email address: #######@edu.burnabyschools.ca

At this age, they need help learning to spell “burnabyschools” correctly.

SpacesEDU

This is an online ePortfolio we will be using to record and reflect on our learning as well as set goals. SpacesEDU is such a phenomenal way for students to work on their core competencies of reflective thinking, critical thinking (analyze and critique own work), communication skills (present information and explain/reflect on experiences and accomplishments), and building a positive personal identity (personal strengths and abilities).

Each post, they will be encouraged to answer some standard reflection questions. I love seeing their growth over time and their comfort level develop with self-reflection and application of what they learn about themselves. When they are thinking about their learning, thinking about themselves as learners, and thinking about what they would do differently next time, they are empowered to do better next time because they set goals and understand themselves better.

Please read the letter that will provide you with more information.

Letter for Families (Spaces) SD41

Library Book Exchange

Every Friday after lunch is our Library book exchange time so please have your child bring their Library books to school on Fridays. If your child is finished with their book before then, they can bring back Library books anytime! They can exchange their books during Open Book Exchange times:

• Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 9:30am
• Monday to Wednesday and Friday from 11:30 to 12:00pm

Reminders

• Please return the student consent forms that were sent home on Friday.
• Wednesday, October 18: Ms. Chan will be at an all-day workshop. There will be a TTOC in my place.
• Friday, October 20: Pro-D Day; no school for students
• Hip Hop week: October 23 to 27
• Thursday, November 2: Photo re-takes
• SAVE THE DATE: Bowling at Revs on Friday, November 17. We need parent volunteer drivers, please, so please save the date. Thank you!

Thank you for your continued support at home. I appreciate you!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

We definitely had a fun and fantastic second week of getting to know each other better. We are getting to know each other better and they are settling in very nicely into our classroom routines. Last Tuesday, my friend from my previous school was our TOC during my Head Teacher time. Ms. Kapusta commented on how they already knew our routines well! She introduced doodle art to them. They are almost all finished. Once we put them up on the bulletin board, I will share an image with you.

We thoroughly enjoyed our All About Me Bag presentations throughout the week! Children did so well for their first presentation! Thank you for your support in helping them prepare.

Families as Partners

I am ever so grateful for your time to have rich conversation about your child during our conferences. It was such valuable information which added to the form you so thoughtfully filled out prior to our meeting. I appreciated your openness. We are very fortunate and appreciate having such supportive parents. I am very excited about this upcoming year as we work together to support your child’s overall development and education. Thank you for your part in being my partner! Please feel free to connect with me anytime if you have any questions or concerns.

One of the questions brought up was your curiosity about the curriculum. If you are interested, please check out the Page on our class blog called “We Are Learners”

Here, you will find the curricular areas and what we are currently learning about. If you would like to check out our full BC curriculum, click here. Click on the curriculum and then choose the grade level.

Be sure to click on “Elaborations” for more details.

Core Competencies Development

We played some different games to practice the skills of communication, cooperation, and collaboration as we developed our teamwork skills.

One of our games was “Basketball”. They were placed into teams. They had to use the backboard to try to get as many balls into the basket. Each player took turns to be the backboard. Click here to see my X/Twitter post. You will see a short video of what the activity looked like. So many smiles and so much laughter was shared! I loved the reflection time afterwards when we unpacked all of the skills we practiced and the importance of teamwork!

The other game we played was “Keep up”. Using a happy face balloon, each team of 3-4 people had to take turns keeping the balloon up in the air for as long as they can. They tried to beat their personal team best. Again, the smiles and laughter with cooperation was such a happy sight to see! Great communication and teamwork skills too!

Terry Fox

We learned about Terry Fox’s life and dream to run across Canada to raise awareness and money for cancer research. We read a story written from the perspective on his best friend called Terry and Me and wrote our reflection in our writing books.

On Friday, we went to Willingdon Heights Park as a school to participate in the Terry Fox Run. It’s not too late to make a donation to the Terry Fox Foundation if you wish. Please click here.

We are Mathematicians.

This week, we played around with making patterns. We made a class patterns book with all of our examples! The main learning was around repeating patterns, identifying the core pattern, and describing the pattern as AB, ABB, ABC, etc. We also practiced action patterns with our bodies too! They really enjoyed that!

How you can support at home: Look for patterns around your home and in the neighbourhood. There are a lot of patterns out in nature too! Encourage them to find them in their natural surroundings! Use items in your home to create patterns together! Ask them to identify the core pattern and describe the pattern like AB, ABC. That is the core pattern that repeats.

We also used ten frames to practice ways to make ten. This means learning the combinations that equal 10 when we add two numbers together:

0 + 10 = 10
1 + 9 = 10
2 + 8 = 10
3 + 7 = 10
4 + 6 = 10
5 + 5 = 10

We practiced our accuracy and speed using a new iPad app named MathTappers: Find Sums. Click here to learn more. They had so much fun learning and practicing their facts! So many personal bests were reached with each turn!

How you can support at home: Click here to download this FREE app on your Apple device. Tap on the little blue i in the top right hand corner to change the sum to 10. This week, I will teach them a game using cards to practice the same concepts so you will have a new game to play with your child at home!

Orange Shirt Day

This week, our learning will be centered around Truth and Reconciliation. This Thursday, we will have an assembly in the morning before recess. Students are encouraged to wear orange on Thursday. Our class will be doing a little presentation to share our thoughts and feelings.

Reminders

• Friday, September 29: Pro-D Day; school not in session
• Saturday, September 30: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation – commemorate the history and legacy of the residential school system
• Monday, October 2: Truth and Reconciliation; school closed
• Wednesday, October 4: Individual Photo Day

Gratitude

Every day, I am so grateful to be your child’s teacher. There are so many moments in each day that bring us joy. Thank you for your sharing your children with us and for working with me to see them thrive and flourish!

Please feel free to leave a comment on this post or to email me with your thoughts or theirs on our past week! I’d love to hear about it! Thank you! 🙂

With much gratitude, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

We had a wonderful first week together! Everyone is settling in well as we learn about each other and our classroom routines. I just can’t help but tell them how much I appreciate them because of the joy they bring to my heart! Thank you for sharing your beautiful children with me. I am committed to making it a phenomenal year of growth, love, learning, and joy in each other’s presence because we all will play a part in making it happen!

I really appreciate the thoughtful and thorough Families and Partners Information forms you have filled out and returned to me. I still have a few to collect so please send it back to school on Monday, if possible. If you need another copy, CLICK HERE. It has brought me joy to read them over and to learn more about your child and your family!

Meet the Teacher Night

On Wednesday, I met with many of you to tell you a little more about me, my passions, beliefs, and teaching philosophy. Thank you for being there! I know some of you couldn’t be there so here is a very quick recap plus some extra information:

• What is key to building a warm, welcoming and inclusive environment where all children love to be, where they can feel like their authentic selves, and where they feel like they are a key contributing member with gifts and leadership qualities? Building a kind, thoughtful classroom culture based on children feeling loved, seen, valued, heard, appreciated, and safe is KEY! I love cultivating love and joy, and teaching them how to cultivate joy too! We will regularly practice expressing gratitude, which is key to increasing our level of happiness; when children are happy, they learn better because it activates more centers of our brain! These are non-negotiables. (If you are interested, I included some links to my blog posts on the topics.)
• I love to plan for fun, varied, relevant, and meaningful lessons and activities. I aim to make them engaging so children are motivated to learn. How do I do this? I try to make learning feel like an experience that involves not only their active brains but their bodies. They have learned lot of sign language so far! Ask them to teach you what they know!
• A common question centers around blended grade classes. We have almost an even split between grade 2s and 3s. If you’d like to learn more, CLICK HERE. For most of my career, I have taught grade 2/3. This is my absolute favourite combination! They have a beautiful opportunity to learn together at this age group. Many of your children’s learning will be driven by personal goal setting and reflection so it empowers them to take ownership of their own learning.
• I am a firm believer in developing core competencies and curricular competencies through the learning standards. I love to foster a sense of curiosity. One of my favourite things to offer are Passion Projects!
• I will not assign a lot of paper homework but I will send home unfinished work from time to time. I highly encourage children to read and write every day or practice their math skills, especially depending on the areas they need further development.
• All primary classes will be collecting $30 for school supplies. You will be able to pay on School Cash Online once it is set up.
• I added your email address to this class blog. Every time there is a new post, you will receive email notification. I aim to write weekly blog posts to keep you informed about all of the fun and engaging learning we get to do. I believe that these blog posts help to tell our story. Please see this as a gift to provide you with an opportunity to share a big part of their school life with you. Use it to solidify learning, deepen their understanding, and grow their curiosity. Thank you for your investment in your child’s education and thank you for being partners with me! Happy reading!

HAWKS Week

Last week was HAWKS week. Every day, we focused on a different word. We read stories that were aligned with the theme of the day, had discussions, and learned how to sign:

H = Helpful
A = Accepting
W = Welcoming
K = Kindness
S = Safety

For helpful, we played a balls in a basket game where we had to help our partners on our team move some balls to and from the baskets. They had fun!

For accepting, we read a book called The Dot by Peter Reynolds and used oil pastels to create our own dots. I’m sorry but I forgot to take a picture of their beautiful art! I will share it next week. We also had an opportunity to join a live event with Peter Reynolds on Friday for International Dot day! They got to hear him share his story.

For welcoming, we did an interactive activity where we practiced 5 different levels of being welcoming and made our own special handshakes with some classmates.

When your children line up in the morning, please encourage them to say hello to their classmates already in line. This really fosters a sense of welcoming and belonging. It also helps develop their comfort with each other in social interactions and makes them feel less like strangers. You can model this to them too when you say hello to their classmates already in line. Feel free to ask them their name. “Remember that a person’s name is to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” – Dale Carnegie

• Level 1: Smile only with no teeth showing.
• Level 2: Smile with teeth.
• Level 3: Smile with teeth and wave.
• Level 4: Smile with teeth, wave, and have wider eyes that say, “I’m happy to see you!”
• Level 5: All of the above but with an even larger big mouthed smile and waving both arms to say hello!

For kindness, we read a couple of books on kindness and wrote our first journal entry!

For safety, we practiced being safe in the gym with Mr. Ho, our PE teacher for the year.

Math

Children had fun graphing our classmate’s birthdays! We got to see that there are a couple months where we have no birthdays and a month where we have birthdays three days in a row!

All About Me in a Bag

Your child should have come home on Friday with a paper bag and an “All About Me Bag” notice. CLICK HERE if you did not receive the details on our first presentation opportunity!

I will be using a rubric to assess. CLICK HERE to see it. This will give you and your child a better idea of how to prepare. No pressure! This is their first presentation and I know they will continue to improve throughout the year. They will have many more opportunities! It truly is incredible how much they develop over the year with their communication and presentation skills.

How can you support? Please help them choose 3 items. For each item, help them come up with at least 3 details about each. It would be very helpful to write down what they want to share, practice reading it over and over again so they will feel more confident. Here’s a tip: Video record them presenting. Watch it together and have them reflect on what they can improve. Then practice again and record after a few more tries. I bet you’ll see an improvement!

Thank you! Presentations will begin anytime next week. If they are ready on Monday, they can present. If they aren’t ready until Friday, that’s okay too! I’ll find time for them to present on Friday!

Families as Partners

Thank you for booking an appointment to spend some time with me this week as you will have a fantastic opportunity to tell me more about your child. All appointments are 10 minutes long. I will refer to the information sheet you filled out and take some extra notes based on our valuable conversation.

If you did not book an appointment yet, please CLICK HERE to choose a time. I am really looking forward to it! I am so grateful for your time!

Terry Fox Run and Early Dismissal

On Friday, September 22, we will have a Terry Fox Run. After recess, we will gather in the gym for a short assembly and then walk to Willingdon Park for our run. They will be back on time for lunch. Please have your child dress appropriately for the weather and to bring a water bottle. Thank you! Look for fundraising information on the school website if you are interested in supporting the Terry Fox Foundation. It will be added early this week.

In the afternoon, there is an early dismissal so please pick up your child promptly at 2:00pm. Children often worry when their families don’t pick them up on time during early dismissal days.

Gratitude

In the short time I have been at Kitchener, I feel so blessed and grateful to be placed here. Staff, families, and children have made me feel so welcomed and so supported. I am so fortunate to be placed in such a warm and inviting community. Thank you to ALL of you for your part in making Kitchener such a phenomenal place to be! I appreciate you!

With a heart full of love and gratitude,

Ms. Chan