Category: We are critical thinkers.

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

Dear families,

We continue to grow in many ways!

Student Led Conferences 

On Thursday, May 4, we have an early dismissal at 1:45pm for our Student Led Conferences which start at 2:00pm. Please CLICK HERE to read the notice with detailed information on our conferences or view image (click to enlarge).

CLICK HERE to fill out the form to choose your appointment times.

You will find a link in the notice to choose your first and second choice for appointment times. Please fill out as soon as possible. Thank you!

Autism Awareness & Acceptance Month

This week, we continued to read stories that support our Autism Awareness and Acceptance month. We have reflected on our learning through our writing. Please feel free to have conversations around what we’ve been learning about this month.

• All My Stripes by Shaina Rudolph, Danielle Royer, and Jennifer Zivoin 
• Destiny’s Amazingly Different Dreams by Molly Schaefer   
• Don’t Laugh at Me by Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin 

Read How Full Is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath. This is one of my favourite stories. It teaches us that we all have an invisible bucket above our heads. When we say and do kind things for others, we add drops to our bucket and theirs. This lifts us all up. So, every interaction with others either uplifts and adds to positivity or it does the opposite.

We are passionate.

Since students may not have seen many presentations, I worked on my own Passion Project on capybaras as an example. I demonstrated what their presentations can look like. We talked through having consistent title font sizes, using relevant images that match the information on slides, information you put on slides, and including a Resources slide. I mentioned how we don’t write too many words on a slide. Also, we can share more information on the slide than what we have listed. We talked about criteria but we will co-construct it this week.

Click here to view my Capybara PowerPoint.

Everyone is working hard on their Passion Projects! They really enjoy this time! We learned how to share PowerPoint presentations with our partner and with me. During our demonstration, they learned the power of working on a live document where two people have access.

We are cooperative communicators.

On Friday, we played a Copy Cat cooperative communication game. Students were divided into teams randomly chosen. There were five groups with four on a team.

One person from each group came up to view the hidden design they were to copy. The communicator was only allowed to use words to describe the design and were asked to keep their hands behind their backs when explaining to prevent pointing. Each person on the team had an opportunity to be a communicator.

Each turn, the design got progressively more challenging.

I was impressed with how their communication improved each turn they had. I was proud of how well they worked on each team!

Ask your child about their experience!

Thank you for your continued support at home! We appreciate you!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

What a fantastic time celebrating Literacy Week! Every morning, we had students from our class go on the PA during morning announcements to tell jokes! I loved their confidence as they spoke clearly. Thank you for helping them practice at home. We also had daily trivia questions for primaries and intermediates!

We had something special every day of the week. On Monday, all primary classes read Dear Children of the Earth by Schim Schimmer. Then we wrote a letter to Mother Earth, which some students will read at the Celebration of Learning assembly on Wednesday. (It was supposed to be today but it was postponed to next week.) We will be MCing the Celebration of Learning assembly so please have your child dress in blue (again). Every person in our class will be saying something at the assembly. Some already memorized their lines! This is not necessary but it would be great if you help your child practice reading slowly, clearly, and with enthusiasm. Thank you for your support!

Please feel free to watch and listen to the book read by the author himself!

Ways to support at home: Talk about what you are already doing as a family to take care of earth. What more can you and will you be doing? What would you like to thank Mother Earth for?

On Tuesday, it was wear a shirt with words day for our class alphabet scavenger hunt.

On Wednesday, my Uncle Bill come to our class to read The Seven Chinese Brothers because it was guest reader day. It was a very appropriate book for him to read because he has six Chinese brothers! He had so much fun reading to them and giving them a history lesson about the emperor at the time of the story and the Great Wall of China. I learned a few new things too!

Feel free to watch and listen to the story!

On Thursday, we had our first ever book swap. Click on image to see tweet and short video!

All week, Gilmore school has had a continuous reading marathon! What this means is that there was someone in the library every day this week, reading…even during lunch! Friday was our turn in the library to contribute to this marathon. Congratulations to the whole school because we accomplished our goal!

We are mathematicians.
Grade 2’s have been working hard on skip counting for the past two weeks. If they did not finish their workbook, then it was brought home for homework. Please support them in finishing it. It is not due until Wednesday. I offered a hundreds chart to help them. Some may not have taken a hundreds chart home with them. Click here to download one for yourself to use at home.

The random numbers section on the bottom of each side is to practice skip counting from any point from 1-100. Choose a random number to start. If they need more practice with skip counting backwards, you may want them to practice more of these.

Next week, we will start learning how to add with regrouping so please continue to have your child practice their math facts using their random numbers chart or a deck of cards.

Grade 3’s: Please practice math facts for doubles plus one.

As you may or may not know, our school growth plan has a numeracy focus now (new this year). So, if I hosted a Math Literacy Fun Night for you and your child to attend, would you be interested? The purpose of this would be to teach you some fun games you can play to help your child improve their number sense, number concepts, and learning of math facts. I understand that it’s one thing to ask you to help your child practice their math facts, but it’s so much better if I show you how and have you practice and play with them at school so you can replicate the fun at home! 🙂 Please CLICK HERE to fill out this quick questionnaire to share your interest and availability. Thank you!

Exciting news!
Starting on Monday, we will have a student teacher from SFU join our class for the week! The primary goal of this first week is to get to know your children and learn about our classroom and school operations.  Then from February 21 to April 6 (with spring break in between), she will have some co-teaching and teaching opportunities.

We would like to welcome Ms. Kim to our class! We wrote letters to help you get to know each of us better! 🙂

Tennis Lessons Begin!
We have tennis lessons that begin this week! Please ensure your child wears runners on Tuesday and Thursday for the next two weeks.

Gratitude
Every day, I tell your children that I love and appreciate them. They are very special people who bring me such joy every day! The TOCs that come into our class always tell me we have a very lovely and sweet class and that we do! I love the connection we have and how much fun we have together working and playing. Overall, they work hard during assignments and listen well during lessons and activities. I feel blessed to be their teacher. My heart is full of gratitude for the role I get to play in their lives. Thank you so much for being our partners in supporting your child’s learning at home.

Always feel free to leave a comment about what you just read. We’d love to hear from you!

With love and kindness, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful winter break with friends and family! I thoroughly enjoyed listening to all of the stories and fond memories shared.

We are authors.
For the past two weeks, we dove into our inquiry about what makes a good story. I am a firm believer that learning should be meaningful and relevant. The more we engage learners as active participants who are given time to question, explore, analyze, and eventually create, the more invested they are in their learning. When we move beyond the lower level thinking tasks that include basic recall and  instead, stretch our brains to think more critically with reflection, learning is more rich and fun!

We started with talking about the “hook” we generally find at the beginning of books we read. It is an opportunity for an author to entice a reader to want to flip the page and read on because they are excited to learn what happens next. So in partners, we studied a minimum of five books to analyze and evaluate the story beginnings that did just that. Then as a whole class, pairs had to justify why the books they chose met the criteria of having the “hook” and they had to explain why. [Higher level thinking skills on Bloom’s Taxonomy]

Next, we did various character studies by describing their appearance, traits and things they can do, core values, and beliefs. The more we learn about traits, core values, and beliefs, the better they will begin to see themselves reflected in various characters. The more they learn about themselves, the more self-aware they become about their strengths, who they are, and what they stand for.

A couple years ago, we had an author visit to teach my class about the importance of building characters in our story. Prior to that, I hadn’t placed much value on understanding our characters in our minds before we wrote our stories. We have to spend time envisioning and nurturing our main character in order to develop a strong story around them as they interact with other characters. So, students have been diligently working on creating their ideal character in their quadrant: Details on what they look like / character traits and what the character can do / core values / beliefs. I love watching them discover who their main character is and the excitement of seeing their character come to life on paper!

Today, we started building a brainstorm bank of ideas for different problems and solutions to use in our stories. Again, students were given an opportunity to work in pairs to search for the problem and solution in different picture books. They were so motivated to read and were so engaged as they recorded and added to our chart. We will continue to add to our list so they can be inspired by various problem-solution combinations. However, I will be encouraging them to be use it as inspiration to be even more creative!

I am very excited about how our inquiry into what makes a good story is turning out so far! Stay tuned!

Literacy Week
We have a fun week of activities planned for Literacy Week next week! There is one event new at Gilmore: A Book Swap! Many families have books they no longer read. This is a great opportunity to share well-loved stories with others! Please choose books published after 2010 and in good or excellent condition. Children can bring them in anytime this week.

Date of book swap: Thursday, January 26!

Grade 2 Mathematicians BUT applies to Grade 3’s too!

We reviewed even and odd numbers. They LOVED this catchy song: Even or Odd. 😉 Have a listen!

Your child should have come home with a piece of paper with random numbers (0-10) on one side and (0-20) on the other side. This is their random numbers chart. They are learning their addition and subtraction math facts. So far, they have practiced +/- 0, +/- 1, +/- 10.

This is how it works: If your child is practicing +1, use their finger to tap on the random number. Say the sum. We are aiming for this to be automatic. They are not actually calculating or adding 1 to the number, they are simply thinking and saying the next number up. Click here to watch a video of me explaining it.

If they are practicing +10, then use the (0-10) only. If they are practicing -10, then use only the numbers above 10 on the (0-20) side.

We will be moving on to +/-2. Click here to watch a video on me explaining this. Skip counting by 2s will be great practice!

We are also practicing skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s forwards and backwards, starting at ANY number. Please feel free to have fun practicing this as you walk home, in the car, or at home! You can use a deck of cards to have random numbers to start.

Listen to these skip counting songs: We’re Counting by 2’s.  Let’s Count by 5s.  10s Lift Off! More catchy songs!

If you haven’t checked out our Mathematician’s Play page recently, take a look!

With Mrs. Paulich, the grade 2s have been learning about measurement.

With Ms. Pears, the grade 3s have been learning about increasing patterns and being able to describe them: For example: “Start with one red & one black cube. Add one more red cube to the right each time.” Have fun practicing at home!

We are scientists.
Scientists in our room have been learning about sources of water: oceans, lakes, rivers, wells, and springs. As scientists, we are always learning to be curious! So after some basic knowledge about each of the water sources, we got into groups to be curious and record our wonderings on large chart paper. Each group started at a different water source. After a few minutes, they traveled to the next water source. They had to read the questions first before coming up with new questions to add. Then, we moved again to another water source to read all the questions and to add more. This strategy is called carousel because they move from station to station around the room like a carousel. They loved working collaboratively and seeing the questions their classmates came up with prior to them coming to the station! Next up will be reviewing the questions and learning about relevant questions and what makes a deep thinking question versus one where they can easily find the answer on Google, for example.

Computer IDs and passwords
Thank you so much for helping your child memorize their computer IDs and password. This will make their experience of logging in far less stressful when they know it by heart. My goal this term is to have them become proficient with logging in, sending an email in Outlook, composing a document in Word, and creating one slide in PowerPoint. Ambitious? Yes, but I think it’s possible! Consistent in our lessons will be talk about being responsible digital citizens who THINK before we post or share. More will be shared next time about this.

Gratitude & Joy
My heart is always filled with gratitude for your support at home. Please continue to encourage your child to read for enjoyment and include some time to talk about what they read and to make connections. For students who have writing as a goal to improve, please encourage your child to practice writing at home too.

My time spent in the classroom brings me such joy! If you’d like to listen to me share on a couple recent podcasts that I was a guest to get a better glimpse into my teaching philosophy, experiences, and what it might feel like to be in our class, please feel free to have a listen. I love sharing about how teaching and your children bring me joy! The things I share can apply to your life as an adult and parent too. There are multiple takeaways to help you live a better life. If you listen, I would absolutely love to hear what resonated with you. I would greatly appreciate it!

Teaching Champions with Brian Martin – EP 152

Wisdom & Productivity with Efrain Martinez

With sincerest gratitude AND joy, Ms. Chan