Category: We are creative thinkers.

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,

Passion Project presentations are well underway! Addie started us off with her amazing presentation on foxes on Monday. Later that afternoon, we did a directed drawing on foxes that you would have seen come home that day. I loved seeing their creativity!

Here are other projects we enjoyed:

• Ramen by Chloe and Katelyn – Students even got a taste of ramen after their presentation!
• Space is So Cool! by Nassi and Kiran
• Monkeys by Cooper and Jeremy H.
• Axolotls by Lilly and Chiara
• Kangaroos by Alessandra
• Italian by Cristina

Here are a few more to come next:

• Blob fish
• Swans
• French

This is the first year I taught grade 2s (and second time teaching grade 3s) how to use PowerPoint, Word, and email. Honestly, I am extremely impressed with how quickly they learned! The way they put together slides with titles and information, their creativity and choice in images that match the slide topic, and their overall presentation skills will set them up well for future presentations. One thing they are learning to do better is to reference the resources they used.

Students have provided valuable feedback to help presenters know what they did well and how they can improve for next time. It’s impressive what they notice and how well they articulate this to their classmate in a positive and supportive way. Learning how to give feedback and constructive criticism is an important skill! Please feel free to ask your child about what they have enjoyed about the Passion Project presentations so far!

I also appreciate how they apply their new skills and how they support each other. We have little leaders who act as mentors, and it’s so heartwarming to watch how helpful so many are. I really believe that every child has leadership potential in them. They just need the right mix of opportunity, confidence, courage, plus a hint of coaching and maybe some nudging in order to shine. Once we notice and name it, this leadership trait is nurtured. Soon enough, we have more and more learners feeling like they are supportive leaders. I can often be found saying, “Thank you for being a leader by contributing to our classroom environment.”

Story Workshop
Students practiced oral storytelling with Ms. Lee. I reminded them that the tradition of oral storytelling is an important one in Indigenous families as many valuable stories are passed down from generation to generation. Every day, we share a part of our story with each other during our Community Circle to help us connect with one another. On Wednesday, they all had an opportunity to create a story based on their experiences and stories they have in them.

“Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story.” – First Peoples Principles of Learning

Grizzly Games
On Wednesday, we had our first Grizzly Games house meeting to decide on team names. How exciting! Students are encouraged to wear their team colour on Friday. Their colour was written in their planners. We have our next house meeting this Wednesday where we will practice the team cheer!

We are mathematicians.
For grade 3’s, there is a Math test coming up. Please check your child’s planner for more information. Also, continue to practice addition and subtraction with regrouping to 1000. For example: 567 + 255 = ____ and 231 – 188 = _____.

For grade 2’s, continue to review regrouping with subtraction to 100 at home. For example: 67 + 25 = _____ and 31 – 18 = _____. We have also been creating and solving real-world word problems and having fun doing it!

How you can support at home: Have fun coming up with different scenarios for your child to solve! Maybe you can have fun taking turns creating and solving each other’s word problems! For example: There are 65 ice cream cones to sell at the carnival. You sold 47. How many do you have left to sell? Grade 3’s can do this too except your numbers have 3-digits! Enjoy!

What Pride Means to Me
Reflections are a BIG part of our learning and a part of developing our core competencies like critical thinking. Last week, we discussed what “pride” means to us. Our conversation helped us better understand our upcoming Pride day on Wednesday. We reflected on how we can feel proud of who we are, how hard we work, what we have, and how we can feel proud of others. We talked about what we think and how we feel pride, the emotions that come along with it, and how we celebrate this pride with humility.

We followed this up with writing reflections on how we feel proud of our growth this year in various areas of our learning.

“Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).” – First Peoples Principles of Learning

I also believe that it’s important to regularly celebrate what we feel proud of like our daily small wins. We can often be found giving ourselves a high five and each other high fives. We know that when children are made aware that they are being challenged in their stretch zones and can see their own growth, their level of happiness is increased.

As a result, these increased levels of joy and happiness further activate the learning centres in their brains making it even easier to learn more. We also know that being happy makes an impact on overall well-being and how they interact with others which leads to improved social connections. I do believe that all of these factors play a role in building the positive, safe, and joyful environment we get to enjoy every single day.

“Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors.” – First Peoples Principles of Learning

It is by intentional design that Mrs. Paulich and I create and cultivate a nurturing, playful, loving, and joyful culture where your children thrive and love to come to school. Being with your children brings us both SO much joy, and it’s evident that your children feel the same way! Of course, we cannot do this without your full support at home. With a few short weeks left, our hearts are truly full of deep gratitude for your continued support all year as our partners in your child’s learning.

As I will be leaving Gilmore at the end of this year and heading to Kitchener as their new Head Teacher, I am savouring and appreciating every last bit with your children and this community. They hold such a special place in my heart. I will share more appreciations in my last post at the end of June but for now, please know how much I have loved and appreciated you and your child in our class. I tell them this every single day! I love them so much! 🙂

With deep sincerity and gratitude, Ms. Chan

Upcoming dates:

• Monday, June 5: Pro-D Day; school not in session
• Tuesday, June 6: Wear one colour day of the rainbow. We will be taking a whole school photo first thing after attendance.
• Wednesday, June 7: Gilmore Pride day. Wear something that makes you feel proud like a Gilmore shirt, rainbow colours, or team jersey, for example.
• Thursday, June 8: Business Fair. If you wish, bring money to buy items made by our grade 6/7’s.
• Friday, June 9: Grizzly Games. Wear your team colour. Early dismissal at 12:15pm.
• Thursday, June 15: Confederation Park with our pen pals from Brentwood Park.
• Friday, June 23: Science World field trip. We will need 5 parent volunteers wiling to supervise. Notice will come home on Tuesday.

Dear families,

What a wonderful week of celebration! This week, students spent time preparing for our Student Led Conferences. Every day, we meet in our Community Circle where we share our feelings and answer a question of the day. On Wednesday, their question was: What are you most excited to share with your parents? Everyone except for one said they were excited to share their Passion Projects! I do believe they weren’t just copying each other but they truly WERE excited to share! This affirmed the reason why I love offering an opportunity to explore something of great interest.

The collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity I am a witness to is truly joyfilling! When they arrive in the morning to check out our shape of the day, I love seeing their sheer excitement when they see “Passion Projects” on the board. It puts a smile on my face every time! I am impressed with how quickly they learn the tools and develop their thinking and skills.

Here are the curricular competencies for Applied Design at this age level:

Ideating

• • Identify needs and opportunities for designing, through exploration
  • Generate ideas from their experiences and interests
  • Add to others’ ideas
  • Choose an idea to pursue

Making

• • Choose tools and materials
  • Make a product using known procedures or through modelling of others
  • Use trial and error to make changes, solve problems, or incorporate new ideas from self or others

Sharing

• • Decide on how and with whom to share their product
  • Demonstrate their product, tell the story of designing and making their product
  • Use personal preferences to evaluate the success of their design solutions
  • Reflect on their ability to work effectively both as individuals and collaboratively in a group

Applied Skills

• • Use materials, tools, and technologies in a safe manner in both physical and digital environments
  • Develop their skills and add new ones through play and collaborative work

Applied Technologies

• • Explore the use of simple, available tools and technologies to extend their capabilities

Both Mrs. Paulich and I felt so proud of all students for how well they led their conference with you. They communicated their learning so well! We are so grateful for your time to attend to celebrate your child’s learning. We hope you got a good sense of some activities we enjoy in our class!

Enjoy some reflections students wrote today as we reflected on our core competency of communication:

“Yesterday, my parents came to my Student Led Conference. I can communicate by telling them about my Passion Project. I can beat my mom at Math Tappers. It felt good. I can read fluently. I thought I did a good job of reading. I can do a good job at my art. My parents enjoyed the Math Tappers. I like how I shared my Student Led Conference.” – AP

“This is the Student Led Conference from AK’s perspective. This year’s Student Led Conference was amazing! My dad got 18.1 SECONDS on Math Tappers! He’s amazing! I can communicate with people about my learning. I can show off (in a good way) my work confidently. I can share my thoughts and be happy. Lots of things happened this year. I hope next year will be just as fun!” – AK

“Yesterday, we had Student Led Conferences. Student Led Conferences is a place in school where our parents come to school and we show our work like math and art. It was very fun. I can communicate the work that I did in 2023. I can feel happy about my work. I can add more detail in my Passion Project. Other than that, it was fun.” – CS

“Yesterday, the school had Student Led Conferences. I am proud of my Passion Project and I really enjoyed playing Finding Sums. It’s a game that makes you do math. I appreciate my parents looking at my hard work. I can communicate with others and my family. I can be excited by waiting for my parents to come in the classroom. I thoughts that each parent would go one by one. What my parents enjoyed was my Passion Project. I had a great Thursday.” – VRN

“Yesterday, I had a Student Led Conference. My core competencies: talking confidently and I can also talk loudly. I can communicate my learning by explaining. I show things and say details about it. I can show things confidently. It was exciting. I thought it was enjoyable. My parent enjoyed looking at my math. I enjoyed it too.” – KS

“Yesterday, we had Student Led Conferences. It was long, but fun. I can communicate properly. I can use expression. I can read loudly. I think my parents like Add Sums. it was fun. I gave Ms. Chan a green apple (not a real one). – CP

“Yesterday was Student Led Conferences where my parents came to school. I can communicate by learning and explaining what I did. I can also teach my parents my work and I can speak confidently. I felt so happy when I shared my work. My parents were really proud of the Passion project. I enjoyed sharing my math, morning, message, and doing the movement break! I think his was the best Student Led ever!” – CW

More ADST

Today, we enjoyed a creative design challenge! Students were randomly chosen to be in a group of 4 students. Every group was given the same materials: 2 cardstock papers, string, 4 pipe cleaners, 6 straws, tape, and 4 twist ties. Their mission: create an extension to their table. Unfortunately, I forgot to take final pictures except for one because it wasn’t dismantled until the end of the day.

I loved seeing their collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity. The longest extension was approximately 60 cm! There was a creative table extension that was very sturdy and can hold two pairs of scissors plus other things! Ask your child about this challenge and celebrate how they contributed to their team! Click on image to enlarge.

We are storytellers.

For the past few weeks, students have enjoyed creating stories with our story workshop kits with Ms. Lee. I feel like a broken record but your children really work hard at their collaboration, communication, and creativity! It is a reflection of their core values! Click on image to enlarge.

Field Trips

A notice about our Wednesday, May 17 field trip to Granville Island went home this week. If you did not receive one, click here to download a copy. If you would like a paper copy, please send me an email or write a note in the planner.

In-school Field Trip

On Wednesday, May 10, we have a wonderful opportunity to have an in-school field trip! Since 1988, The Van Go workshops have provided free visual arts workshops to Metro Vancouver elementary schools. Arts Umbrella artist-instructors take creativity-inspiring activities and  arts supplies into local elementary schools.

The theme: Underwater Seascapes and Animals

Students will be creating their own mixed media underwater seascape composition utilizing paper, oil pastel and watercolour paint. Students choose what the focus of the piece can be; on the underwater environment of an ocean, lake or river, or of marine life. Students will experiment with different artistic techniques such as oil resist, colour mixing, materials layering and blending, relief painting, and different brush techniques such as dry-brushing, wet on wet, and stippling. Children have the chance to embrace diversity, explore artistic expression and nurture community spirit – all while having fun! Our time will be from 9 to 10:20 am. Please have your child dress in appropriate clothing where they can explore art materials comfortably.

Save the dates

• Thursday, June 15 – Confederation Park to meet our pen pals from Brentwood Park
• Friday, June 23 – Science World field trip with Division 12 (Mrs. Pears). We will need parent volunteers, please.

Deep Gratitude

Our hearts are always so full of gratitude for your continued support at home. Thank you for being our special partners in your child’s learning this year. It is with great sadness that I inform you that I will be leaving the Gilmore community at the end of June. My three years here have been a true blessing and has felt like a home away from home. The connections I have built with staff, families, and children will have a special place in my heart forever. I will surely miss seeing your children in the hallways and classrooms next year.

One quote that has helped me with this news: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss

There are still a several more weeks to savour! So many more smiles and laughs to share with so much learning more to happen! Your children fill my heart with such joy! 🙂

With appreciation, Ms. Chan