Category: We are critical thinkers.

Dear families,

What a great way to end the week with bowling at Rev’s for our first field trip of the year with Ms. Santorelli’s and Ms. Tai’s classes! Thank you to all of the parents who helped drive and supervise during our stay. When I looked out to the back of the classroom and saw so many parents standing there, my heart felt instantly grateful.

I appreciated seeing the support, encouragement, and celebrations throughout our time there. So many smiles too!

We are mathematicians.

We worked on solidifying our understanding of place value to develop our number sense. We learned how to expand the numbers into expanded notation. For example, 563 = 500 + 60+3.

Ways to support at home: Check that your child understands the following concepts. Give them random numbers and have them fill in the place value chart, expand the number, and draw the base 10 blocks. Generally, where it gets tricky for students is when there is a zero in the tens or ones place. They need to zero to “hold its place”. Here’s what they need to know:

• 100s, 10s, and 1s
• understand the relationship between digit places and their values (e.g., the digit 4 in 342 has the value of 40 or 4 tens)
• understand the importance of 0 as a place holder (e.g., in the number 408, the zero indicates that there are 0 tens)

Grade 2’s are expected to demonstrate a complete understanding of place value concepts to 100 and grade 3’s to 1000 in order to be considered proficient on the proficiency scale.

We love our Big Buddy time!

On Friday, our big buddies came to our room for a visit! We started by reading together. Then we practiced our math facts with our newly learned random numbers chart.

How to support at home: We are encouraging all children to practice their math facts at home. This is a fantastic way to practice at home! You’ll notice that on the left-hand side, there are digits from 0-9. On the right, there are numbers from 10-19. So far, we practiced the following:

• +1 and -1 which is just counting up or down by one number
• +2 and -2 which is counting by twos up or down. I want to see children trying NOT to add with their fingers for these. Please practice skip counting forwards and backwards so they can become fluent: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19.
• +10 (only use the left side) and -10 (only use the right side)
• Making 10s (only use the left side) so when you point to 6, they say 4. When you point to 2, they say 8.
• Coming up: Doubles. Get ahead and have your child practice 1+1=2, 2+2=4, 3+3=6, 4+4=8 and all the way through to 9+9=18, 10+10=20

Then we did a paper chain challenge! Students connected with another buddy pair for this challenge. Everyone was given one sheet of paper, scissors, and an arm’s length piece of tape. They were given 20 minutes to come up with the longest chain. We saw great communication, teamwork, and excitement!

Some teams had tape left over so they turned these pieces into more chain links. Way to use your core competencies of critical and creative thinking! So resourceful!

Diwali

Diwali is a “festival of lights”. We read a book and watched a short video on this celebration. Please ask your child what they learned!

Save the Dates

• Monday, December 4: Metro Vancouver Watershed Water Cycle (free in-class presentation)
• Tuesday, December 12: Winter concert at 6:30pm and an afternoon dress rehearsal
• Thursday, December 7: OWLS presentation (paid in-class presentation; look out for more information to come next week)
• February 12 & 26 from 9:30 (1 hour): Ice skating at Bill Copeland (paid field trip; we will need parent volunteers, please. Ice skate rentals are available.)

As always, your children bring me such joy and I am ever so grateful. Thank you for your continued support at home every day. If you can help make sure your child can understand the math concepts, that would be greatly appreciated!

With a heart full of gratitude, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

This past week really felt like our classroom community got even closer. Each week, students sit with different classmates to get to know each other better. On Monday, it was clear to me that many had made new connections as I observed different people comfortably talking to others they don’t usually talk to. It was such a heartwarming moment that brought the biggest smile to my face to listen to their conversations and see them giggle and laugh together.

Fire Drill

On Monday, October 30, we will have our first fire drill in the morning. Please feel free to front load your child to help them understand the reasons behind fire drills. This is a great opportunity to discuss what you would do if the fire alarm went off in your home too.

Hallowe’en Festivities

On Tuesday, October 31, we will be performing our dance to a song called Dem Bones at the assembly in the morning. We read a book called Dem Bones to learn about the bones in our body too! Many interesting facts about our bones!

In the afternoon on Tuesday, October 31, we will have a Hallowe’en party! Please feel free to bring snacks to share with the class. Please do not bring food that contains any nuts, tree nuts, cashews, or pistachios. Thank you! Your child is welcome to bring a simple board game to play with classmates.

This was posted on Kitchener’s website for Hallowe’en safety and festivities:

We had so much fun making our spooky hands! Thank you so much to Maissa’s mom for volunteering her time to help us in the class! We appreciate you! A class photo is now available on SpacesEDU.

SpacesEDU

You now have access to view your child’s ePortfolio in SpacesEDU. You should have access to two spaces:

In the Class Space, you will find posts I will add that everyone will be able to see. In the Individual Space, only you and your child (and I) will be able to see the posts they create here. Please feel free to share a positive comment! I am sure they will be excited to read it the next time we log in.

We had an opportunity last week to practice reflecting on our learning. What you should see is a your child explaining what we did, something they liked about their dot art, and something they would do differently next time.

Learning is reflexive and reflective. – First Peoples Principles of Learning

One of the fantastic things that was added to our revised curriculum was making Core Competencies explicit to our learners.

“The Core Competencies are sets of intellectual, personal, and social and emotional proficiencies that all students need in order to engage in deep, lifelong learning.” – BC Curriculum

Click here to learn more.

We are mathematicians.

We had our first introduction to whole class Number Talks. The purpose of Number Talks is for us to develop our flexible thinking strategies in math and to use numbers effectively to solve problems in a variety of ways.

We started with talking about the number 10. There are so many ways to represent 10. Although I didn’t record ALL of these ways for our first one, I wanted to show you examples of what we could have included.

Eventually, we will do number talks for addition and subtraction.

We are scientists.

We learned that materials can be changed in physical and chemical ways.

How to support at home: Ask your child to share the differences. We had a great critical thinking discussion about whether making ice cream is a physical change or a chemical change. I would love for you to continue the conversation at home.

We are authors.

We have been working on our Hallowe’en stories all last week! We started by considering the essentials of a basic story: Who is the main character? What is the problem? Where does your story take place? Then we brainstormed the beginning, middle, and end before using our creative thinking to communicate our ideas through writing.

Core competencies practiced: I can use my creative thinking to write a story. I can use words to communicate my ideas in writing.

We are readers.

Epic is a great way to access high interest books. Our class code is: ycr9510

Your child’s Epic passcode is the first 4 digits of their username. This is the same 7-digit number they memorized to log in to laptops. Your child has access from 7am to 3pm. If you would like access in the evenings, they have an option to pay for a monthly or yearly subscription. Click here to learn more.

Most of them have memorized their login information so they are able to login immediately and start right away. There are a few who do not have this memorized yet so please continue to work with your child to have their username (7-digit number) and their email address memorized as soon as possible. The delays hold up the whole class sometimes. Thank you so very much!

We are artists.

Thanks to Ms. Kapusta, we have a beautiful bulletin board in the hallway with our finished zentangle pumpkins and black cats.

I apologize that I did not remember to take a photo to share with you. The photo on the left will give you an idea of what they look like. I will take a picture and share it in SpacesEDU.

We hope you had a wonderful weekend! Unfortunately, I got sick on the weekend so I will not be at school on Monday but I should be back on Tuesday.

I am grateful for your continued support at home. Sometimes, students ask about homework. Here is what they can do daily:

• Read independently or with you. Talk about what they just read, asking them to make connections or what they think about what they just read.
• Find a real reason to write like write a note to me or write a story.
• Be curious together! Talk about and review what we are learning about in class. What else do you wonder about? Research and learn together.

Looking forward to another sensational week ahead! 🙂

In appreciation, 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