Category: We are creative thinkers.

Dear Division 6 family!

I so love our community! I love how we uplift each other, how we show care, how inclusive we are, and how kind they are to each other. As you know, on Thursday, it’s Thankful Thursday! This week, we shared what they are grateful for in our school community. So many expressed the kindness they see. I daresay it’s the kindness they feel in their hearts, too. I reminded them that they play a large role in the kindness they experience. They are the ones that choose to treat each other in the way they do.

We are community builders. I always feel so blessed when I can pull out the popsicle sticks with their names on it to choose random pairs or small groups. We have a tradition they love. They love doing a drumroll on their desks before each group is announced and we cheer! Every time, I am truly amazed and thankful about how well they work together. It doesn’t matter who I place them with. In addition to this, when I need a volunteer mentor to work with other classmates, there are always people who not just volunteer, but they do a phenomenal job of explaining with patience. I am so grateful and blessed to be their teacher and I know Ms. Paulich feels the same way! Actually, it was just on Monday that as I was leaving my office at lunch, I exclaimed to Ms. Perez as I passed by her office, “I love my job!” and then scurried off upstairs to the classroom.

We are Authors. We had another fabulous week full of learning opportunities. I love our Friday celebrations when I hear students choose to celebrate how we had a great week or fun week of learning. This week, they were excited to receive letters from our little grade 1 buddies in Ms. Sokugawa’s class! We initially wrote them a letter before Christmas. In response, we worked on writing a story back to them! Their stories had to include something from the letter they received back. For example, Miles wrote a story about a dinosaur and a cat because his buddy’s letter included these two things!

Our lesson started with listening to a story about a boy who decides to have a story stand instead of a lemonade stand. He listens to his friends who come to him and he trades them for a story that cleverly incorporates something about them. They really enjoyed working on these stories. I love it when I tell them we need to move on to something else and they just want to keep working on it! Love their motivation, enthusiasm, engagement, and work ethic! Some of them have uploaded it to their digital portfolios so you can check it out.

We are Mathematicians. We reviewed subtraction with regrouping with decimals this week. Please review this concept with your child at home to reinforce their understanding. Thank you! A gentle reminder that they always have access to Khan Academy so they can review any concepts online. The link to Khan Academy can always be found on the right-hand side. Their username and passwords can be found in OneNote under Handouts. Students can ALWAYS be practicing their basic math facts fluency – addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

We are doctors in training. We continued to learn more about our respiratory system. We learned that we can live with only one lung, that lungs can float, our right lung is slightly larger than our left, and how much our lungs weigh. I brought up weights to put in a ziplock bag so they can feel how heavy their lungs are. It surprised us all how heavy they felt! They have been working hard on their sketchnotes with facts.

We are artists. This week, students started painting on their canvas for their One Word. I am so looking forward to sharing with you their finished products!

We are passionate about our personal projects! This week, we had some people present their second Passion Projects with us! I love seeing the growth and improvements from the last time they presented which was just before winter break! There were many who worked hard over the break, thank you. I love the excitement I hear when it’s Passion Project time! They actually cheer!

To inspire them, I read them the story that my student from last year published back in November 2020. It was her second book called Gardeners of the Jungle. They loved looking for the hidden snails on each page! To learn more about her story, click here to go to her website. She was recently interviewed on CBC New live in Toronto and people all over the world are connecting with her to speak to their students! We will have an opportunity to listen to her share about her Passion Project during our Literacy Week on January 26 to 29. I am so looking forward to it!

We are grateful. It’s been such a great two weeks back so far. We are grateful for a smooth transition back to school. Please continue to be vigilant to do the daily morning health checks and talk about masks at school. Last week, we watched a Mystery Doug video called Do Masks Really Stop the Coronavirus? They have really enjoyed watching these videos week after week. Also, a reminder to send your child to school ready for inclement weather. We have outside recess even when it rains.

Ms. Paulich and I are always so grateful to be your child’s teacher. They are an awesome group of kids! Knowing them makes me feel so very hopeful for our future! Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. We always appreciate comments on our blog posts so feel free to comment! Thank you to those who have on our past posts!

With a heart full of gratitude, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Dear Division 6 families,

We had another amazing week! We ended our week definitely on a high note! After Flex time, our day always begins with our Community Circle time where we always share how we are feeling and talk about the theme or question of the day. On Friday morning, my heart was touched by the number of people who shared how they were feeling: “amazing, great, fantastic, awesome…” We often talk about the mindset that we have especially as we begin our day. When we feel strong positive emotions, it can influence the kind of day we are going to have so verbalizing in this way sets their day off on a positive note. I noticed an increase in the number of people who are choosing these types of emotions to share. I am smiling virtually the whole time we are meeting in our Community Circle because what they share so often touches my heart and is music to my soul!

We can celebrate!
This daily sharing time is a genuine way we build our community. We listen with respect, show that we value each other and what we have to say, while learning more about each other. On Fridays, we have a tradition to celebrate something from the past week. Some of the things I heard that warmed my heart:

• I am celebrating the kindness I see from each other.
• I am celebrating a good week at school.
• I am celebrating my family and friends.

We are scientists.
As medical doctors in training, we dove further into the circulatory system. We created a class PowerPoint project where all groups were given the opportunity to choose their own questions that sparked the most interest. This is called student “voice and choice”. What this means is that they get to choose what they want to learn more about. With choice, comes a natural excitement, engagement, and motivation to learn. I absolutely loved how focussed each group was to find the answers to their questions and display their finding in their PowerPoint slide. They all work so well together! Click on the image and it will bring you to our project. It is a work in progress so if you see unfinished slides, it is because they are still working on this!

We are writers.
For writing, we used a couple images as inspiration. I loved the creativity in their stories! Ask your child what their story is about.

We are mathematicians.
We have continued to work on decimals and fractions. I love how engaged they are during our lessons. One of the things we love is to have interactive lessons as we learn and practice together. Every student has their own whiteboard with markers and erasers. As we learn together, they have opportunities to practice and show their understanding. This is a great way for me to check their understanding as the lesson progresses. What I love is seeing their growth mindset in action! Even though they may get it wrong, they accept it and just try again. We have worked hard on making math fun and just slightly in their stretch zone. I can happily say that the negative feelings many had at the beginning of the year about math have changed! You’ll see, by the end of the year, they will love math as much as I do! When they have a positive attitude and feel happy when they learn, research shows that they learn better!

We are proud.

Many students have a few pieces of work uploaded in their Digital Portfolios. If you have not checked it out yet, please ask your child to show you what they are proud of and their reflection on their learning. Our goal is that these entries are not just to brag but the main purpose is to reflect – to celebrate what they did well or what they are proud of, what they found challenging or in their stretch zone, and probably the most important, is what they would do differently if they were to do something similar in the future. They can learn from their experiences. For some, it may look like there is a lot of artwork in their portfolios. We will be working on adding other pieces of work to reflect on too. We just had some catching up to do with their art. This past week, the Grinch came to visit!

We are presenters with a passion!
Next week, we will be presenting our Passion Projects! Students were asked to have their presentations ready for Monday. I understand that some may need more time so if they need more time, that is okay too!

Friday, December 18 will be Pajama Day! Please keep the stuffed animals at home, sorry.

Being your child’s teacher brings us so much pure joy! Both Ms. Paulich and I feel so blessed to be their teachers. Our class is filled with happy children who not only get along well, they are kind, caring, and empathetic to each other too and so willing to help and include others too. They are reminded often that they are loved. We may sound like a broken record but we want you to know how much we appreciate you and your support at home. As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or just want an update, please reach out. Thank you!

With a heart full of gratitude, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Dear Division 6 family,

It’s been a rewarding week celebrating numerous Rock Inquiry presentations! We have enjoyed so much varied learning this week! We learned about soft rocks, the oldest rock, crystals, geologists, and so much more! I love this type of inquiry learning where students are offered a choice in what they want to learn about. They are much more engaged and motivated to learn! We saw presentations that included videos, rock jokes, their own artwork, and even prizes for Q & A in order to hold their audience’s attention! One of my favourite parts is at the end when we all get to celebrate the presenter by sharing “stars” (positive feedback on what they did well) and “wishes” (constructive feedback on how they can improve). Their feedback was exactly what I would have shared! I felt so proud of how we celebrated each other.

Finding Lost Smiles
This is a story was written by my friends, Don and Vickie Epps.

From Amazon: Can you lose your smile? Sam has to answer that question, and see if he can help two new friends too. Finding Lost Smiles is a heartwarming story about helping friends, having good and bad days, and understanding the power you have to make the world around you better. Join Sam on his journey to help others find their lost smiles.

Then students were given the choice to write a short summary and their personal response or use their creativity to write a story that is inspired by this one. I am pleased to showcase a story written by Olivia H. Click here to read.

Here is an amazing opportunity to win $1000 from Big Life Journal. They will donate to your child’s favourite charity in your child’s name! Click here to learn more.

Climate Challenge
As a family, please continue to encourage your child to review the Climate Challenge. Click here for a digital copy. If you need a paper copy, I have a couple left. I believe a couple students forgot to bring theirs home. I asked TJ to record a short video to inspire us to keep going. I will show them the video on Monday!

Masks
Please ensure that your child bring a mask to school every day. Even if they do not wear one, we can be better prepared for any unforeseen situations where they may need one quickly. TIP: Have an extra one to leave in the class so just in case they forget to bring one, they still have one. Students are asked to wear their masks when they visit the library. We have Library days every Friday. Next week, since we have Pro-D day on Friday, we will have Library book exchange on Thursday, November 26 instead. Mrs. Papapanagiotou has been teaching us about different genres. We are encouraging your child to explore further. It is fantastic when students love a certain genre but it is even better when they explore different ones to expand their reading horizons! Who knows? They may learn to love a few different genres!

Reading 20 Minutes Per Day
We had a discussion about the impact of the number of minutes children read per day. At this age, we know that many of your children read far more than 20 minutes at home. The difference in the number of minutes is staggering because it compounds! This graphic is likely from the States where they have standardized testing in every grade across their nation but regardless, we can understand that the more a child reads, the better a reader, writer, communicator, and thinker they become. We also would love for your child to learn to love reading and to read for pure enjoyment!

As always, we are here to support you. Please feel free to reach out and write a comment on our blog post! We’d love to hear from you! Thank you for your continued support at home!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan & Ms. Paulich

Dear Div. 6 families,

Your children fill me with joy every time I see them. I remind them of this often! Last year, many of my students used the class blog as a way to practice their reading as this gives them a real reason to read. It also provided families with more conversation starters as a way to be more engaged in their child’s learning at school. With all learning at school, there are always opportunities at home to augment, dive deeper, and explore the concepts taught further. Ask your child what else they are curious about. What are some “I wonder” statements. Then together, you can research the questions. This fosters the skill and desire of becoming a lifelong and independent learner. Have fun and be curious together!

We hope you had a good Hallowe’en weekend. We know that some families participated in a collaborative effort to clean up our school property after last weekend. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your time and dedication to take care of our school in this way. We appreciate you!

Every day during our morning announcements, there is a lesson based on our school-wide monthly theme. This month, we are focusing on gratitude. They learn a new mindset tip about gratitude each day and are offered a daily challenge. Then we augment the school message by continuing the theme in class. During our Community Circle time every day, we share how we are feeling along with the question or topic of the day. I must tell you that every day, my heart is either warmed or touched by the things they share. On Monday, they shared the most wonderful things about gratitude.

We followed this up by watching The Gratitude Jar by Kristin Wiens and then created our own gratitude jars! They loved working on these. I’m so sorry but I forgot to take a picture of them before leaving school on Friday! Feel free to ask your child about this story and their gratitude jars! We will be filling these with things we are grateful for.

We are responsible citizens who care for our earth. On Wednesday, TJ from BC Sustainability Association presented a virtual workshop on Climate Change. We took sketch notes on what we learned. This is the first year I have introduced sketch notes to my students and the more we use this strategy, the more I am seeing their value in this type of notetaking! I know this has gained more momentum in the education world in more recent years. Please feel free to read an article (video included) called Why Teachers Are So Excited About the Power of Sketchnoting. I wonder what other areas in your child’s life where sketchnoting can be useful at home?

As part of this program, your child is offered an opportunity to participate in a 4-week challenge with the possibilities to win some prizes. A booklet was sent home on Friday. Click here for the digital version (PDF). Please take your time to carefully and thoughtfully review this with your child. They do not need to complete all of the challenges. We learned that Canada is a country that uses more energy than the average compared to other countries! So this initiative is for children and families to learn how we can reduce our carbon footprint. If we build this mindset of taking care of our earth and related habits now, it will make a difference overall.

We are scientists and presenters. On Thursday, we co-constructed our criteria for our Oral Presentation for our rock inquiry. What does that mean? It means that we came up with the criteria together. To access the single-point rubric as a Word document, it can be found in O365 Teams > Assignments > Rock Inquiry or click here. The first presentations will begin this Friday. We cannot listen to everyone on the same day so if your child still needs more time, no worries! They can have more time! In order to prepare, they need to practice their presentation at home a few times in front of you, their pets, stuffed animals, or a mirror. HINT: It is great feedback to videotape and then watch it to see how they can improve. Feel free to “mark” your child or have them self-assess!

Here is the Mystery Doug video we watched this past week: How were emojis created? Feel free to watch as a family with siblings! Enjoy!

We are readers and communicators. For Language Arts, we are improving in our Say Something strategy. We have now moved to groups of three to talk about the books we are reading. I am so pleased with the improvements I am seeing in our double-entry response journals too! Daily homework: Read 20-30 minutes a night and this includes having a conversation about a part of the book that they had a connection to or resonated with them. Besides reading, this sharing piece is just as important to help develop their critical thinking and communication skills. Ask probing questions to try to draw more. For example, “Tell me more. So what makes you think that? How does that make you feel and why? What else does that remind you of?”

We are writers. We did some creative story writing too! I used these doors to spark their creativity. They had the choice to use one or the other or both! I just love how enthusiastic your children are. I am absolutely sure some of them would have loved to stay in to continue writing during their recess if I let them! It brought me so much joy to see their excitement when I gave them more time to write after recess. They are such keen learners and hard workers! Definitely gave “today’s best”!

We are mathematicians. We now have covered all of the place value they need to know, from the millions place to thousandths place. We updated our personal mini-booklets. Our goal was to ensure they have a positive attitude about math so they can be successful, feel happy, and excited for math because it is fun! I believe this beginning to be a success. It takes time. Thank you for your patience and trust. Now that they have a positive mindset to set them up for further success, we can move on. I recognize that this is not the traditional way that we or your child may have learned math in the past but I have found this way to be highly effective because of the foundation we are building in their understanding of numbers and mindset. Having a growth mindset is a huge part of your child’s learning in school and life! For place value review, please have your child use their Khan Academy account. They can find their login information in O365 OneNote > child’s name > Handouts > Accounts. FYI: This is also where they will find their login to All The Right Type (our typing program) and Epic. Please encourage them to practice their typing at home too. Thank you!

We are grateful people. Fridays are our Celebration Fridays when we celebrate big and small things we are grateful for. We do celebrate throughout our day every day too! Yesterday morning so touched my heart and warmed it at the same time. In my past role in Staff Development, I had the privilege to visit many classrooms and schools across our entire district. I can honestly say that there is something special about our Gilmore Community. Your children are happy, respectful, kind, grateful, enthusiastic learners, and the list goes on. They are truly such a pleasure to teach! They sure know how to make a teacher feel appreciated and loved!

We are artists. Ms. Paulich has been amazing at bringing out your child’s creativity through art. Here’s a taste!

Grateful for you! Whenever I have an opportunity to share with my educator friends from around the world about my experience at Gilmore with you and your wonderful children so far, I feel instant joy. Thank YOU for sharing your child with us and for being our partner in your child’s education. They are who they are because of your family beliefs and values taught and modelled at home. We appreciate your continued support! As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out. My daughter’s ringette practice has been cancelled this Monday, November 9 so I am offering “Zoom office hours” for parents who may want to touch base from 7-8pm. Your child is welcome to be there too! It will be on a first-come, first-served basis. This will likely mean you will need to sit in the waiting room so feel free to do other things as you wait. Please let me know if you are interested to chat so I can allot a timeframe and you won’t have to wait as long. Email me at livia.chan@burnabyschools.ca. Thank you!

Please feel free to leave a comment! We love reading them. We would be happy to hear from you! Scroll to the top to find the “Leave a comment” link right under the title of this post.

Gratefully, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Some great news! This past week in the Burnaby Now, a story was printed about my student from last year. She published a book she wrote in class as part of her Passion Project. Click here to read.