Category: We are mathematicians.

Dear families,

We had a wonderful second week together! One way we start our day is to find our name (magnets on the board) and choose an answer to our “Would you rather…” question. They have been enjoying connecting with each other their choices! They have already shared suggestions on future questions they want to ask classmates!

Meet Your Teacher Night

Thank you to the families who joined us last Wednesday to learn more about us, our philosophy, passions, and shared love for your children and teaching. Even though this is the first year Ms. Kim and I are working as partners, we already know that so many of our thinking, practice, and strategies are aligned so no matter which teacher is in the class that day, it will feel seamless.

All About Me presentations

We are still taking turns presenting our All About Me items to each other. It has been a great way to get to know each other better. Thank you for helping your child prepare what to say.

We are mathematicians.

We started our patterns unit by practicing action patterns and naming them. We worked together to practice creating varied patterns for our partner to copy. For example:

clap – snap – tap – clap – snap – tap – clap – snap – tap (ABC pattern)

The core pattern is: clap – snap – tap

During our Wondering Wednesday time (every Wednesday), we joined other classes outside to make patterns with things we found in nature. They had so much fun learning outside together!

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

How to support at home: Ask your child to demonstrate a simple repeating pattern. Then ask them to teach you what the core pattern is. Find things around your home to create patterns together. Ask them what is the core pattern as review and to check for understanding.

Challenge:  Ask them to create increasingly more difficult patterns or use items in the house to create concrete patterns.

Thank you for your continued support of your child’s learning.

Scent free environment

Please do not send any hand sanitizers or hand creams that have any scents. Two of us in class have fragrance allergies. Thank you for your consideration!

Also, please do not send food items that have nuts. We have a nut allergy in our class. Thank you for keeping us all safe.

Notes & Reminders

• Please go to School Cash Online to pay $8 for planners and $30 for our shared school supplies.
• Please fill out all the forms in School Cash Online.
• Order your hot lunch program by going to School Cash Online.
• Wed, Oct 2: Individual Picture day

We look forward to spending the week with your wonderful children and look forward to meeting with you on Wednesday or Thursday! Thank you for being partners with us. Your child’s success depends on our cooperation and communication.

Grateful for our journey together this year, Ms. Chan

Dear Division 11 Families,

Hello from Ms. Kim!

We had a fantastic first week getting to know each other and building our classroom community through collaborative art and teamwork challenges. I can already tell we’re going to have a great year together!

In Social Studies, we are diving into learning about our identity by exploring self, family, community, and the land, as well as how they are all connected. This week, the students will focus on themselves, and we will be exploring the story behind their names. On Tuesday, they will be bringing home a handout with a few questions about their names. Please help them by answering these questions and talking to them about where their name comes from, who chose it, and any special meanings or stories behind it. Thank you in advance for your support with this activity.

• Learning requires exploration of one‘s identity. (First Peoples Principles of Learning)

In Math, we will be diving into data analysis. We’ve already been learning a lot about each other through surveys and data collection, and I’m excited to continue.

I look forward to seeing all the students again on Tuesday. Thank you!

Greetings from Ms. Chan!

We start every morning with a soft start which we call Heart time because they get to fill their heart with things that bring them joy. I love seeing new friendships begin!  I remind them to thank the people who brought them joy as they clean up before our morning message and community connection circle time. This is our regular daily routine to start us off just right!

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Dear families,

These weeks are going by so quickly! There is so much to savour in our last few weeks. It has been such a sweet year together with your sweet children.

We can reflect.

One of our core competencies is reflective thinking. One of my favourite quotes is by John Dewey “We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience.”

There is so much to learn about ourselves, our self identity, and how to continue to grow. One of the best ways to do this is through reflection. Last week, your child had an opportunity to reflect on their learning this term, share what they are proud of, and to set a couple of goals for next year. Please feel free to ask your child what they wrote. What are you curious about in terms of their reflections on learning? Ask them!

This week, they will share what they think will help me be a better teacher and what they think have been the biggest life lessons I taught them. I love asking this question! It tells me a lot about whether my core values come through in my teaching. I am constantly in pursuit of betterment. I love learning and reflecting on my learning. Even after 25 years, I am still curious about being a better teacher and leader in the school so I read a lot, listen to a lot of podcasts, and follow people who inspire me to be better every day. If you have any feedback for me, please share with me too. I would be open to learning about what you see as my strengths and areas to improve. Thank you for your time.

Invitation: Ask your child what are the top three life lessons you taught them. I asked my young adult children this a couple of years ago and it was very interesting to hear their answer. Their life lessons learned were different from me and my husband. I wonder what they would say to you about what they learned from you so far in their young life.

We are mathematicians.

We are learning about money. I know many people don’t carry or use money as much as we used to but it is helpful for your children to understand financial literacy.

We sang the song “Canada in my Pocket” by Michael Mitchell and watched “How Money Is Made“. Feel free to watch together at home and have some conversations about money.

We are scientists.

Don’t blink or you may miss this!

We recorded our observations in our ladybug journal.

We are artists.

• Their beautiful and brightly coloured copper thunderbird paintings inspired by the Canadian Indigenous artist Norval Morisseau
• Hand drawn mandalas, which were an excellent practice in symmetry, adding fine detail, and staying patient through the process
• Paper sea collages, which were inspired by their recent trip to the aquarium and involved using their fine motor skills and lots of by imagination! Students created starfish, axolotl, sea otters and more, and as always, they went above and beyond with what they created.

Field Trip

• Fri. June 21 – Revs Bowling and Burnaby Lake picnic (All families are welcome!) We need more parent volunteer drivers, please. If you can drive for a part of the day, please let me know. Perhaps we can share the load. Please email me if you can drive us to the bowling alley OR from the bowling alley to the park OR from the park back to the school. Thank you to the parents who already volunteered. We appreciate you!

My heart is full of gratitude for your support at home.

Gratefully, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

I hope you had a lovely weekend! Last Thursday and Friday, I gratefully attended a two-day professional development opportunity called The Empowerment Ecosystem Summit with three leaders in assessment who travel around the world presenting for Solution Tree. With their broad reach, they can clearly see that BC is one of the leaders worldwide in standards based grading with an added focus on core competencies and curricular competencies. We are blessed in Burnaby because we have been a lead district in BC.

We measure student’s understanding of the learning standards based on the proficiency scale (emerging, developing, proficient, and extending), which is what you see on their Learning Updates (also called Report Cards) in the subject areas.

Another very important part of learning is focused on core competencies like communication (communicating and collaboration), thinking (creative, critical, and reflective), and personal and social (awareness and responsibility, positive personal and cultural identity). Here we do not assess their competency using a proficiency scale, but your child will do a self-reflection instead. In our class, I often use the vocabulary of core competencies to make this part of their learning more visible. These are the important 21 century skills that some call “soft skills”. I endorse Simon Sinek‘s take on calling these “human skills” because they need these skills to relate to one another. These skills will directly help them be better social beings which will lead to improved relationships in their lifetime.

How to support at home: Use the same language to point out this learning in themselves. Notice – Name – Nurture: Notice prosocial behaviours. Then name it to nurture it. For example, ask them to use their “critical thinking” brain to come up with solutions to problems or thank them for taking “personal responsibility” for making sure their planner is in the backpack.

Assessment is an area of passion for me. I read and listen to a lot of material on assessment and can talk shop all day with colleagues. There are many aspects to how we support our learners equitably, to accurately measure proficiency, and determine next steps to teach so that all students can increase achievement. My core beliefs in assessment are centered around children feeling empowered to take an active part in ownership over their learning through goal setting, reflection, and self-assessment while offering some choice. This directly increases their investment and engagement.

If you are curious about any of this and would like to unpack it some more, please reach out. I am happy to have a conversation with you to help you better understand.

We are mathematicians.

We continued to solidify our understanding of perimeter and area.

How to support at home: Please ask your child to teach you how to measure perimeter and area. In case they don’t remember, it is important to include the unit of measure (e.g., mm, cm, m, km for perimeter and mm², cm², m², km² for area).

We are scientists.

We are learning about the ladybugs life cycle! We did our first observation record last week. Tomorrow, I am excited to see how much they have grown since we saw them on Wednesday!

Before we went out for our Wondering Wednesday walk, we used our observation and critical thinking skills. We had a great discussion about maple seeds and how they may have adapted to increase their chance of survival.

How to support at home: Ask your child what they wonder about ladybugs. Feel free to come up with questions together to research. This is a great way to model questioning and researching skills.

Dates to Note

• Fri. May 31 – Click here to order Pizza for lunch (order by May 28)
• Fri. May 31 – 2 PM Early dismissal
• Fri. May 31 – Click here to learn more about our PAC’s Freezie sale
• Sat. June 1 from 9:30 AM to 4 PM – Hats Off Day. Click here to learn more about this great annual event that happens along Hastings street.
• Fri. June 7 – Pro-D day; students do not attend
• Fri. June 21 – Revs Bowling and Burnaby Lake picnic (All families are welcome!)

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

Gratefully, Ms. Chan