Category: We are critical thinkers.

Dear Parents,

MONDAY: As part of our reflection on learning, students used the SMART goals framework to set a personal writing goal and recorded it on a Post-it note. We will be supporting each other in reaching our goal in writing. Anxiously excited about seeing their progress in the next few weeks! 

TUESDAY: We often hear children state, “I’m bored!” or “That’s boring!” When my own kids were young, I would never allow them to use the “B” word. They grew up thinking it was like a bad word. One day, while driving my daughter and her friend to ringette practice, they started talking about this topic. I thought it was hilarious when my daughter didn’t dare say the “B” word and instead spelled it out for her friend! Anyhow, I always believed with all of the books and toys in the house, how can they possibly be bored? So when I heard students in our class bring up this word now and again, I did my own inquiry into what boredom is because it is something I don’t quite understand as I always am doing something or my mind is always thinking about something. I originally believed that there was a solution to the problem of being bored: what children needed to do is simply change their mindset in thinking, so rather than feel bored, they reframe to feel content. I shared my ponderings and findings with the class. What surprised me most was that boredom is not all bad. There were a number of sources that stated benefits to boredom like creativity, problem-solving, becoming more goal-oriented or a better, more altruistic, and happy person to name a few. While I still think that kids can work towards having a feeling of content over boredom, I have encouraged your child to see it as an opportunity. Boredom is an opportunity to:

• contemplate and dream: have time to think about things they don’t normally think about, self-reflect, make plans, discover new hobbies or interests, set new goals, or add ideas to bucket list
• cultivate mindfulness: to be calm, to quiet the mind and the body, replenish energy
• be altruistic: consider what you can do to make someone’s day a little better
• be grateful: count your blessings

So if I were to have one wish, it would be that children stop seeing boredom as a negative state; instead, see it as an opportunity to better themselves, others, or the world around us. We do not need to fill our time with one thing after another to fill up our day. It is okay to feel bored! Please feel free to share your thoughts on this by writing a comment to this post.

This week, we started reading a book written by Steven Covey: The 7 Habits of Happy Kids (same author as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People which some of you may know). It begins with a story about a character who finds himself bored and looks to others to help him find something to do; the character discovers that it is his responsibility to be proactive and not rely on others to “fix” his problem. Here are the first two habits covered so far:

1. Be Proactive – take initiative
2. Begin with the End in Mind – focus on goals

Click here to learn more about the 7 habits we will be learning about.

WEDNESDAY: As part of our inquiry into what makes a good story, we dove into story beginnings. First, each student pulled out a couple books from our classroom library. Some of us shared the first sentence with the rest of the class. Then, we all judged that sentence by our criteria: How engaging is the first sentence of the story? Does it entice or hook me in to want to read more? Next, each student had an opportunity to practice writing a few different story beginnings; many great examples were shared with the rest of the class. This exercise made it very clear to them that we, as authors, write for an audience. Looking forward to see how they revise their own stories to make their beginning sentences more engaging – to hook the reader into wanting to read on to find out more!

Continue to bring in non-perishable food for our We Scare Hunger campaign. Thank you!

Brentwood Park has a pumpkin carving contest. Click here to learn more. Grade 3’s will join the primaries in the gym after recess on Hallowe’en Day for the primary costume parade and dance party.

Dear families,

Here are some more tweets from this past week and a snapshot of our learning!

TUESDAY: Important lesson on Digital Citizenship to THINK before you post but really it’s a great reminder when we speak to each other face to face too. My grade 3/4’s dove into O365 Teams and first assignment. Can’t wait to see how communication and collaboration skills flourish!

WEDNESDAY: Yesterday, students wrote I Am Thankful poems. Today, they took only one of the ideas and dove deeper with details, reasons, explanations and experiences. Told students it’s like writing with a magnifying glass which I pulled out as a prop. Such great writing. Students really seeing themselves as writers! Click here to read Yoyo and Ananiah’s writing.

THURSDAY: In Science, we continued to expand our understanding of molecules – how colour and sugar molecules interacted with water molecules. Students enjoyed watching how the colour in the M&M’s dissolved in the water and tried to explain why the two colours did not mix using their understanding of molecules as there is a clear line between the two colours. The next day, we compared an M&M placed in plain water with an M&M placed in water with sugar. Please ask your child to explain what happened!

FRIDAY: @burnabyschools Such gratitude for supporting the love of arts through Young People’s Concert series. Listening to students share reflections and appreciations when we returned was confirming of why it’s an important tradition to continue. Powerful example of people pursuing passions. Thank you!

Grupo America was the dance group that performed for us at the Michael J. Fox Theatre. It is a local Burnaby group!

FOOD BANK: Please continue to bring in non-perishable food items. Thank you.

BOWLING: This Thursday, we will be walking to Revs. Please have your child bring their lunch and a snack.

NEW FIELD TRIP: Burnaby will be hosting the World Ringette Championships at the end of November. We will be going to watch a game on November 28th! We will need parent volunteer drivers, please. Save the date! Click here for more information.

Hello families,

We have continued to have new experiences and new learning this week. We learned about our brain and how much it grows in the first ten years of our lives and why new or novel experiences are important to our brain’s development.

MONDAY: Our gym time emphasized moving around in the gym safely being mindful of our bodies as we navigated the larger space. In class, we regularly have movement breaks where we dance to music, do jumping jacks, burpees, or hold a plank for as long as we can; their repertoire of exercises will continue to grow over time. Students seem to enjoy these energized moments to help them reset and increase the oxygen in our brain for further learning.

TUESDAY: We did a team building activity called Ha, Ha, Ha. We all stood in a circle. The one person in the middle tried to make others smile. Once they smiled, they joined the person in the middle to try to get others to smile until almost the whole class was in the middle! We learned how smiles were so contagious and it didn’t take very long before they were all in the middle. They asked to play it again!

We read a book called Your Fantastic Elastic Brain and learned about the different parts of our brain, how it can be stretched, and how important it is to us. Click here to read reflections written by Lucas L. and Steven. Feel free to watch the book:

We had an important lesson on Digital Citizenship. We learned about being really mindful of what we say to others online and to THINK before we post anything. This acronym is great for all of us to think about even before we speak to others face-to-face, isn’t it?

Microsoft Office 365 was introduced. Students quickly learned how to log in to Teams and to find their assignment about describing themselves. This online platform will allow me to support your child’s writing in an augmented way. Students will be given the opportunity to revisit, revise, and revise their work again often after mini-lessons or receiving descriptive feedback. As well, they will be offered options to collaborate with classmates on future projects. Using Office 365 provides students with knowledge and experience that will support all aspects of our revised curriculum’s core competencies: communication and collaboration skills, creative thinking as well as critical and reflective thinking, personal awareness and responsibility, positive cultural and cultural identity, and social awareness and responsibility. To learn more about our Core Competencies, click here.

If your child does not have a set of earbuds with a volume control and a mini microphone, please send to school at your earliest convenience. There is no need to purchase an expensive one; I have seen some at a dollar store. I do have some large headphones students can use. This offers them the ability to listen to their own work privately as well as record their voice without picking up the classroom’s ambient noise.

FRIDAY: We will be going to Young People’s Concert at Michael J. Fox Theatre. All students have been asked to arrive at 8:45 AM. The bus will be leaving promptly at 9:05 AM. Thank you for your cooperation.

FOOD BANK: Our school initiative is to Scare Hunger by donating non-perishable food. The goal for each class is to collect enough to fill two boxes. Please continue to bring food in. Thank you for your generosity!

BOWLING: If you have not yet returned the form and paid for bowling, please do so as soon as possible. If you need another form to fill out (or need details), please click here to print out a copy or simply write a note in the planner giving your consent and record the online payment confirmation number. I am still looking for one more parent volunteer to walk with us to Revs, please. Thank you.

SCHOLASTIC: Orders are due on Saturday, October 12 at noon. To learn how to place an order online, click here. If you need the flyers sent home again, please let me know.

INSIDE SHOES: If your child does not have a pair of inside shoes, please send. With the beauty of our west coast weather, it really helps in keeping our classroom space cleaner. It is also more comfortable for your child to wear runners than heavy boots all day. Thank you.

Dear families,

We have had another fantastic week getting to know each other better, learning how doing small things make a difference to others and our community, how having perseverance and a growth mindset helps us overcome obstacles, how we need to be brave sometimes to step out of our comfort zone, and how using our cooperation and group work skills lead to great effective partnerships. All of our activities are followed by reflections on our experiences – some verbal and some written.

“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey

To give you a glimpse into some activities, here are the tweets I posted this past week with some extra comments:

MONDAY: Got to know each other better with inside outside circles. Ex “I can…” statements: I can listen to other people when they are talking. I can share my own ideas and speak clearly. I can give the gift of attention. Students noticed how communication improved with repetition. To learn more about Inside Outside circles, click here. 

We also learned about comfort zones and how being in our “Stretch Zone” is most ideal for learning and personal development. When asked, this was a new concept for all of them. We discussed how it is important to get out of our comfort zone and how they will be gently pushed into their stretch zones for various areas like critical and creative thinking, communication skills, personal and social/emotional development, for example.

TUESDAY: “The key to creating or transforming community, then, is to see the power in the small but important elements of being with others.” -Peter Block. We used yarn to create a spider web. Students took turns to share an example of a small yet simple act that would make someone’s day brighter. #Interconnected

I asked one person to shake the yarn in the web (which represents one kind act) then asked another to do same and another until all did so they can see the positive effect of each small kind act for building community. Then we did the opposite. Doesn’t take much if one person does or says one negative thing to affect all in the community. #PowerfulVisual 

Click here to check out Isaac and Yunsoo’s reflections on our spider web activity!

WEDNESDAY: Class community coming together wonderfully. Each day, we have 1-2 community building activities. Today, we got to know each other better by finding commonalities using @poppletny. All shared an appreciation for why partnership worked well. Ex: took turns, shared ideas, cooperated, laughed with me.

We also wrote a reflection after our final tennis lesson. Click here to read Eva and Liliana’s reflections!

THURSDAY: A simple thing but offering choice makes quite a difference to some students. Used these picture prompts. Used Milling to Music strategy for many opportunities to share story ideas first. I can tell we are going to have a blast writing creative stories this year! To learn more about Milling to Music, click here.

We started our day taking turns to share appreciations for each other and those in our school community. Read a book called Louder, Lili about finding your own voice and being courageous to speak up.

FRIDAY: Talked about importance of brain breaks. Had tons of fun playing a version of rock, paper, scissors but instead bear (roar with hands up like claws), salmon (bloop bloop with hands together like a fish), mosquito (bzzz with two index fingers together). Start by saying hi and name first. Stand back to back. Count 3-2-1, turn to face, action plus sound. Then find a new partner. Check out podcast to learn more examples of brain breaks.

Notes for Parents

Donations: Please continue to collect donations for the Terry Fox foundation. On Thursday, September 26th, we will have a Celebration of Learning and our Terry Fox run will follow. Please have your child dress appropriately for the weather. They are encouraged to bring a water bottle.

Earbuds: Please send earbuds with a microphone to school in a labelled Ziploc sandwich bag. It generally has a volume control with a little small hole on the back; that’s the mic. The microphone will help your child record their learning without picking up ambient noise in the classroom. You may find it at a dollar store. No need to buy an expensive pair. Thank you.

Shoes: Send a pair of inside shoes, please.