Category: We are readers.

Dear Division 11 Families, 

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and enjoyed some Halloween festivities! We’ve been getting into the Halloween spirit in class with creative activities and spooky decorations. 

Our students explored positive and negative space in art, creating pumpkin designs that creatively incorporate both. They were so creative with their designs, and now their pumpkins are hanging on our wall, making the classroom wonderfully spooky! 

The students were thrilled to learn that our next unit in math is fractions! We practiced writing fractions on the whiteboards, and they created their own fractions using coloured strips. Some even managed to divide their strips into 32 equal parts! 

I am incredibly proud of the progress our students have made in showing their thinking with Venn diagrams. In small groups, they matched cultures with similar wedding traditions and chose a pair to show what they have in common and some unique things about each culture. 

Sincerely, Ms. Kim

We are writers.

On Monday, both Ms. Kim and Ms. Chan had an opportunity to team teach! As you may recall, students were working on their I Am Thankful poems modeled after the book by Todd Parr (shared in Week 5’s blog post.) They were encouraged to take only one of the things they feel very grateful for to develop their ideas into a paragraph.

One of the things that students in grade 3 need to be able to do by the end of the year is to write a paragraph that contains opening and closing sentences with ideas that are clear, organized, and developed. They should include details, reasons, or explanations that show some critical thinking about the topic. We can’t wait for you to read their paragraphs! We will continue to work on improving our paragraph this week.

This term, we are working on our personal, impromptu writing. This week, they will be introduced to a rubric as part of assessment so they can see how they are doing, to set some goals, and next steps.

Ways to support at home: Practice writing paragraphs together with your child modeling opening and closing sentences along with supporting statements that develop your idea.

Learning About Diversity

On Thursday, my friend, Ms. Woelders, visited our class. She is the Outreach Coordinator working at the B. C. Accessible Resource Centre. 

We learned about celebrating diversity, disabilities, and the new law: Accessible BC Act. She highlighted the importance of lowering barriers so everyone can learn. They got to see and touch a picture book with braille which is meant for people who are visually impaired or blind. She told us that the book costs $300!

She read us a story called “Ish” by Peter Reynolds and did a 4 square activity with them. This is actually one of my favourite books.

Check out some of our work!

 Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship

Last week was our District’s Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship week. We learned about what digital literacy means and what is a good digital citizen.

This video (The Power of Words) is designed to help students build empathy by teaching them that the words they use on the Internet can be powerful. It also covers what to do if they encounter cyberbullying.

Some of your children are playing on websites (like Roblox) where they can communicate with others. We talked about ways we can keep ourselves and our personal information safe and private. We do not share our full names, birthdays, where we live or go to school, etc. We also discussed how we can be HAWKS (Helpful Accepting Welcoming Kind and Safe) online with people we don’t know. What we shouldn’t say to someone face-to-face, we shouldn’t say to someone behind our screens. We can be great digital citizens.

Ways to support at home: Click on the video image to visit the page and watch the video at home with your children. Have regular conversations about how they treat others online and how they want to be treated online. If anything ever feels uncomfortable, leave that online space and tell a trusted adult right away. Take time to regularly check their communication with others online. They are or will be learning to navigate this online space and will need your guidance and coaching. Teach them how to be a kind and responsible digital citizen.

Hallowe’en

On Thursday, children are welcome to come to school wearing a costume. We are learning to be culturally responsive, inclusive, and respectful. Please review the poster shared by our District office.

Also, please let us know if your child and family do not partake in Hallowe’en activities so we can find alternate activities. We will be integrating other cultural festivities around this time like Diwali. Please feel free to send me an email so you can share with us so we can learn from you too! Thank you!

There will be a parade and short assembly in the morning on Thursday, October 30.

In the afternoon, we will have a class autumn party. Children are welcome to bring healthy treats to share. They will have more than enough sweets afterwards so I would like to encourage healthier snacks, please. They can also bring a simple board game they may want to play with their classmates. Thank you!

PJ Day

Friday, November 1 is PJ Day! Students are welcome to wear pajamas and bring a stuffed animal and blanket (or bed sheet). We will turn our classroom into forts to read with each other and our furry friends.

Field Trips

We are planning for three morning sessions of ice skating this term. If we get the dates and times we requested, these skating sessions will be on Tuesday mornings. We will leave right after the morning bell. We will need parent volunteer drivers, please. Stay tuned! We will share the dates as soon as they are confirmed by the City of Burnaby! So excited!

We are grateful for your support at home. I would like to suggest that you read these weekly blog posts WITH your child or have them read it TO you as practice. This way, you can ask direct questions about what they learned and then ask lots of questions to model curiosity (and in so doing, you model lifelong learning). Look up the answers online as part of your learning together! Ask them to explain their understanding. If they can teach you and explain it simply, then you know they comprehend it.

Looking forward to another fantastic week full of joy and learning!

With great appreciation, 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!

(more…)

Dear families,

Every time I sit down to reflect on the past week, I can’t help but have a heart full of gratitude for the blessing to be your child’s teacher. The love and joy we share along with the enjoyable time we have as we learn together is truly priceless.

Sports Day

Friday was a fun day of teamwork and cooperation through physical activities. For those who were able to see some of the fun, thank you for joining us. We hope your child went home talking about how much they enjoyed their day!

We are readers.

Students have been enjoying reading books on our iPads using EPIC. This is a website that has over 40,000 high interest books to read. Just a reminder that if your child is sick or at home, they can access their account anytime from 7AM to 3PM. Our class code is ycr9510 and their passcode is the first four digits of their pupil number. That’s the same number they use to login to laptops.

We are mathematicians.

We continued to solidify our understanding of perimeter. This week, we were introduced to the concept of how to measure area and how it differs from perimeter.

How to support at home if your child needs extra support for perimeter. Watch this video together and measure the perimeter of some items around the house.

We are researchers.

We started our research on an animal we saw at the Vancouver Aquarium. We were given a partner and everyone worked so hard during their first work period!

We are artists.

From Ms. Kapusta: This week, we finished our Norval Morrisseau art. We painted our copper thunderbirds (last week we learned that Norval’s artwork always involved animals and nature and his Indigenous name, which he received during a healing ceremony, was “copper thunderbird”). We painted with tempura paint and used bright, bold colours, thick black lines, and left no white space – just like Norval’s style. As we painted small details and focused on doing our best job, the class was reminded that learning involves patience and time. No one was born painting like Norval Morrisseau or Pablo Picasso. I’m proud of how they all turned out and the passion the kids bring into making their art continues to bring me joy!

Sorry, with all of the Sports Day fun, we forgot to take a picture of the new bulletin board but we can share next week!

Last Field Trip 

We will have our last field trip on Friday, June 21. We will be going bowling at Revs (5502 Lougheed Highway by Holdom skytrain station) at 10 AM. We will leave the school at 9:40 AM.

After bowling, we will be heading to Burnaby Lake Park (behind Bill Copeland Sports Complex) for lunch and until the end of the day. We will return to school before 3 PM.

We will need parent drivers to bowling, to the park, and back to school, please. All families are welcome to join us for the day to watch them bowl and socialize at the park! We will be joined by Ms. Tai’s and Ms. Santorelli’s class. More details will be listed on the field trip notice when it is sent home.

This Weekend! Family Opportunities at Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre (7789 18th Street, Burnaby)

The City of Burnaby is offering some programming this weekend! Rosemary Brown Drop-in Schedules

Toonie Skate

• • Monday, May 20th at 11:45 AM to 1:15 PM

Family Ringette & Hockey Drop-in (4 – 12 years + adult)

Families can enjoy the sport of ringette together! Space is provided for shoot & score and participants are welcome to play small area games. The maximum ratio of children to adults (16rs+) is 3:1.  All participants must wear a helmet with a face cage and protective gloves. Additional safety equipment is encouraged. Hockey helmets with cages are available to borrow at no cost from our skate shop. Participants may wear hockey face masks to this program.

• • Sunday, May 19th at 3:00-4:00pm
  • Monday, May 20^th at 9:15-10:15am

Family Lacrosse (4-12 years with adult)

• • Monday, May 20^th at 9:45-10:45 am

Family Ball Hockey (4-12 years with adult)

• • Monday, May 20^th at 11 am-12 pm

Community Events

• Wed. May 22 at 6 PM – Kitchener Community Dinner (potluck). All families are welcome! Please RSVP using this link. I am looking forward to seeing you and your family there! The intermediate choir will be performing and we have an art activity for children to enjoy.
• Fri. May 24 from 4:30 to 7:30 PM – Burnaby North Secondary. Free carnival games, face painting, etc. Click here to learn more.
• 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.

I am savouring all the moments with your children. They make me smile and fill my heart with so much joy. I appreciate how each one contributes their gifts and their heart to our community. I can’t help but light up when I see them or share with others about how much I love them anytime I have an opportunity. Thank you for sharing your beautiful children with me this year. 🙂

Grateful to be a part of your child’s learning and development at school, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

I could use this blog title every week because every week feels like a fond week! 🙂

I am so grateful to end a lovely week at the Vancouver Aquarium on a beautiful day on our field trip. Deep gratitude to our parents who generously offered their gift of time and effort to supervise a group. We are grateful to Maissa’s mom, Enma’s mom, James L.’s dad, and Senara’s dad for your help! Check out the images of some of the animals and creatures we saw there!

Thank you to the fundraising efforts of our PAC Executive, more than half of the cost of this field trip was covered.

Our next steps will be choosing an animal or creature we would like to learn more about through research.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of our lovely mothers!

We hope you enjoyed your special day!

From Ms. Kapusta: This week, we worked on a special art project: cards for Mother’s Day! We challenged ourselves by making 3D pop up cards using paper, recycled scraps, cardboard, and sharpie. We also challenged ourselves to draw different kinds of flowers. We ended off by writing a special message to our mothers. We also talked about the importance of all caregivers in our lives, including fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, etc. as every family is different and unique. We couldn’t be happier with how our cards turned out! You can tell that students put a lot of time and effort into their work and wanted to their best jobs. I hope you all have had a happy Mother’s Day this weekend! Mothers and caregivers, thank you for all that you do for your children.

We are artists. From Ms. Kapusta

April 30:

The students learned about a new Canadian Indigenous artist this week: Norval Morisseau! Norval was also called “Copper Thunderbird” and he was part of the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation. We observed some of his different artworks and discussed what we noticed, like his depiction of nature and animals and use of thick black outlines and abstract style. We also compared and contrasted this contemporary Canadian Indigenous artist’s work to some of the Coast Salish art we looked at last week. You can look at some of his work here and ask your child what they learned. We then began our very own Norval Morisseau art! We drew a copper thunderbird in sharpie and tried to emulate Norval’s abstract style through the use of soft shapes, curved lines, and symbols of nature. Next week we will be painting our work! The students were really excited about their copper thunderbirds and we can’t wait to see how they turn out once we add some bright, solid colours!

Butterflies are free!

We had a great opportunity to join Ms. Rinaldo’s class on their butterfly release at Willingdon Park on Wednesday. These were painted lady butterflies.

One of the butterflies was not able to survive because the wings did not expand to dry properly so their wings did not develop the way they should have. We did a farewell to honour its life.

On the Trapline

We read a picture book that celebrate Indigenous culture and traditions. Then we had an opportunity to write our own connections to the story.

This is taken from Amazon: The Governor General Award shares a story that honors our connections to our past and our grandfathers and fathers.

A boy and Moshom, his grandpa, take a trip together to visit a place of great meaning to Moshom. A trapline is where people hunt and live off the land, and it was where Moshom grew up. As they embark on their northern journey, the child repeatedly asks his grandfather, “Is this your trapline?” Along the way, the boy finds himself imagining what life was like two generations ago — a life that appears to be both different from and similar to his life now. This is a heartfelt story about memory, imagination and intergenerational connection that perfectly captures the experience of a young child’s wonder as he is introduced to places and stories that hold meaning for his family.

How to support at home: What were some of your stories of spending time with your grandfather or grandmother? Share some fond memories with your child.

“Fond” was one of our new words this week. Many didn’t know what the adjective meant so using this word in your vocabulary this week can help solidify their understanding of the word fond.

We are mathematicians.

This week, we learned about measurement and the relation between centimetres and millimetres. They learned how to convert a measurement from cm to mm.

Then we extended this by learning about perimeter and how to measure it. Please feel free to review perimeter with your child at home. We will continue this week and move into learning about area as well. You are welcome to look for videos on YouTube that can help your child review this new concept.

Word Work

For our work work last week, we practiced past tense and learned that with regular past tense verbs, they ALL end with “ed” even though they have the /d/, /id/, or /t/ sounds.

Wondering Wednesday

We joined Ms. Santorelli’s class and Ms. Tai’s class on our shape search walk. They had so much fun looking and tallying all sorts of shapes in our environment.

This upcoming week

We have Sports Day on Friday! We will be telling students more about what to expect this week. There will be an early dismissal at 12:30 pm. Students on the hot lunch program will receive their hot lunch on this day. Your child is welcome to bring a lunch as well or eat at home after sports day is over. Families are welcome to attend and cheer students on!

Thank you so much for your continued support at home. You are an essential part of our learning and we appreciate you!

With much gratitude, Ms. Chan