Category: We are readers.

Dear families,

I feel so blessed to be at Kitchener as your child’s teacher and the school’s Head Teacher. On Thursday, October 5, it was World Teacher’s Day and it made me feel overwhelmingly grateful to have the honour to be in a profession that changes lives and touches hearts every day. I cannot imagine a more rewarding and joyful role for myself. I felt compelled to share my feelings on X/Twitter. See image on the right.

This year, I celebrate my 25th year as a teacher. My life has been enriched because of the love and connections we get to create every day together. Thank you for sharing your children with me.

Social-emotional Learning

Today, I shared my story about the boomerang I have in the class. I call it a joy boomerang. Why? It represents how when we share our joy, it spreads to others, and then their joy boomerangs and comes back to us.

Our emotions are contagious. The more we contribute to our positive and supportive classroom community as caring and helpful leaders, the more we feel good about being a part of the joyfilled space we share. It’s the same boomerang effect with kindness. When we show helpfulness and deep kindness toward others, we cultivate a joy inside of us.

Every morning, we sit together in our Community Circle to share our feelings and our story. One of the common feelings your children share is how happy they feel because they are in our class. It is truly heartwarming to hear.

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

Wonder Wednesdays as Scientists

On Wednesday, we went for a short walk outside with Ms. Tai’s and Ms. Santorelli’s classes. This was an introduction to what will be the first of many this year. The purpose is to spark curiosity and wonderment about the place we live and the world around us. It is also to develop place consciousness and foster an appreciation for the land we have the privilege to live.

Here are some of the curricular competencies in the Science curriculum:

Please CLICK HERE to read the notice or click on the image on the right to view the PDF. We may need some parent volunteers on some of our walks in the future, please. Thank you!

How to support at home: Anytime you go for walks or car rides, encourage your child to be curious! Model curiosity by sharing your “I wonder” statements about what you see in your local environment.

City of Burnaby’s Recycling Program

Also on Wednesday, we had a representative from the City of Burnaby’s Recycling program come to teach us all about recycling. Students had an exciting opportunity to see a truck in action too!

How to support at home: Talk about environmental stewardship and involve them in the habit of recycling at home like paper products, metals, plastics, and the management of food and yard waste. Recycling is more than just a routine; it’s a crucial step in reducing our environmental impact. Discuss the importance of reducing waste, reusing items whenever possible, and recycling materials to give them new life. By doing so, we play a vital role in preserving our land and conserving valuable resources.

This year at Kitchener, we have a bigger school recycling program that include plastics like our milk containers, paper products, and food waste.

We are scientists.

This week, we continued to extend our learning about matter. We learned that there are three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.

As we dove in deeper into solids, we discovered that solids can have different properties. They can differ in their shape, size, colour, and texture. We also learned about mass and volume.

Students are working hard in their All About Matter booklets!

How to support at home: Ask your child to explain the different properties to you. Use the image to the left to compare the properties. They each got to hold these items to learn about the different properties of solids.

Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST)

I am so proud of everyone’s patience and perseverance as they had their first introduction to using laptops today! Everyone was able to successfully login and logout. We practiced this a few times to make sure they knew how. Some had an opportunity to launch Google Chrome to visit our class blog too!

I highly encourage you to read these blog posts WITH your child. Better yet, have them read the blog post to you! It’s a real reason to read! That way, you can talk about what they learned too. We know that when children review and can teach you about what they learned, it solidifies their understanding. As Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Your child came home with a blue sheet that has their login information. The first number you see is actually their 7-digit pupil number. This is the same as their username which is what they need in order to login to the laptops.

Their email address is their pupil number and @edu.burnabyschools.ca so it looks something like this: 2951869@edu.burnabyschools.ca. This is one of the trickiest for young children to memorize but grade 2/3s can do it! They will need to have this memorized by next Friday when we log in to O365. I will not have cards made with their login information and I don’t want them to write this private information in their planners either. The best place to keep their password safe and secure is in their brain. Thank you for your support at home!

Epic

Epic is a free website and app that offers over 40,000 popular books. (If you are interested, families can purchase a plan that allows them to use it in the evenings and weekends too.) The free version can be accessed at home starting at 7:00am on school days until 3:00pm so if your child is sick at home, they can still read high interest books on Epic! Of course, only if they have the energy. Their primary focus should be resting and feeling better!

They will have opportunities to read books on Epic while at school too.

Planners

Now that your child has their long awaited planners, please have them bring it to school every day.

How to support at home: Please check the planner every day and initial it so I know it was read. If you have not paid for the planner yet, please go to School Cash Online.

When my children were young, their responsibility after school was to empty their lunch bag, put any food scraps into the food waste bin, put their thermos into the sink, and take out their planners to put it in the same spot every day for me to read and initial.

I encourage families to make it their child’s responsibility to ensure their planner is in their backpacks the night before school. If they do this every night, they will develop a good habit as they will likely have Planners until the end of grade 7! Children this age will sometimes say to me when they don’t bring their planner to school, “My mom forgot to put it in my backpack.” That’s when I say to them, “It is your responsibility. Not your mom’s.” They are ready for this independence at this age. 🙂

Kitchener’s Multicultural Dinner

You are all invited to attend the Multicultural Dinner on Thursday, October 12 at 6:30pm in the gym. It is a great way to get to know more people in our community! Please bring a dish from your culture to share. In order to help us plan for the number of people attending, we ask that you fill out this online form. CLICK HERE to fill it out to let us know how many people will be attending. Click here to learn more.

Reminders

• Monday, October 9: Thanksgiving Day; school closed
• Wednesday, October 11: Ms. Chan will be at an all-day workshop. There will be a TTOC in my place. She is a friend and an experienced retired teacher! They will have a great day! 🙂
• Friday, October 20: Pro-D Day; no school for students
• Thursday, November 2: Photo re-takes
• SAVE THE DATE: Bowling at Revs on Friday, November 17. We need parent volunteer drivers, please. Thank you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am grateful we work as partners in your child’s learning! Thank you for your continued support at home. Please feel free to write a comment in response to this post. I appreciate you for your interest and time to invest in your child’s learning each week by reading our class blog. Enjoy the long weekend!

With great appreciation, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

I am excited to inform you that Ms. Kapusta will be our teacher during my Head Teacher time! I worked with her at Gilmore last year and am absolutely thrilled that she will be my partner this year! She has been with our class for the past two Tuesdays and they already adore her! Last week, they painted the letters that spell “Every child matters.”

Last week, we spent time every day learning about Orange Shirt Day and why we commemorate National Truth and Reconciliation day. Some stories we read were:

• Shi shi-etko by Nicola Campbell
• Every Child Matters by Phyllis Webstad
• The Orange Shirt Story by Phyllis Webstad
• I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis

“Learning involves recognizing the consequences of one’s actions.” – First Peoples Principles of Learning

We reflected on what “every child matters” means and the significance of Orange Shirt Day. This required us to use our critical thinking skills to formulate our thoughts and feelings to put into words. It wasn’t easy for some of them to articulate but with perseverance, guidance, and a push into their stretch zones, they did it.

How to support learning at home: Ask your child what they learned about residential schools and the importance of Orange Shirt Day. It can be hard for children to listen to our Canadian history and how Indigenous families were greatly and negatively impacted by residential schools. As reassurance, each time we discussed this, I reminded them that they are safe and very well loved and cared for at school.

On Thursday, we gathered in our whole school assembly to learn more about Orange Shirt Day and why we have a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. I had the greatest honour to share the land acknowledgement. I spoke about our homes and the beautiful land we have the privilege and blessing to live on. I guided us all to feel gratitude deep in our hearts for the unceded territory that we get to live, learn, and play.

We are artists.

One of Ms. Kapusta’s passions is teaching art so she will have an opportunity to introduce our artists to explore different kinds of art including tools, styles, and mediums to develop their creativity! The week before, she led us in learning some Doodle art techniques. Check out some of the doodles of ourselves!

We are Mathematicians.

We continued to learn about patterns. Last week, we created our own action patterns with partners and then each had an opportunity to demonstrate our patterns for our classmates guess. They had so much fun!

Our mathematicians were introduced to increasing patterns and had opportunities to create theirs to add the class book we are creating on Book Creator (an iPad app).

How to support learning at home: Review the concepts of repeating patterns and increasing patterns. Use various household items to create patterns. Ask your child to identify the core pattern (the pattern that repeats) and to name the pattern. For example: fork fork spoon knife – fork fork spoon knife. The core pattern would be “fork fork spoon knife”. They would name it an AABC pattern.

For an increasing pattern, it might look like this: fork spoon – fork spoon spoon – fork spoon spoon spoon – fork spoon spoon spoon spoon. This is a grade 3 concept they are expected to understand. They need to be able to describe the pattern rule. For example, the pattern rule would be described like this:

Start with one fork and one spoon. Add one more spoon each time.

Students continued to enjoy learning their Making 10s math facts! We learned how to play Making 10s Go Fish.

How to support learning at home: Play Making Tens GO Fish – The goal is to have combinations that equal 10. Take a regular deck of cards. Remove the Jack and King. The Queen represents zero because it looks like a zero. Combinations that make ten: 0+10, 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6, 5+5.

Each player starts with 5 cards. If any of the cards they hold make a combination of 10, they can put the pair of cards down for all to see. For example, if you have a 3 and a 7, you can put the cards down because they equal 10.

Then just like how you would play Go Fish, the first player asks anyone playing for a matching card that equals 10. If they have a 6 in their hand, then say, “Do you have a 4?” If they have a 5 in their hand, then say, “Do you have a 5?” If not, “go fish” and take a card from the central deck. Have fun!

If you would like to learn more about the grade 2 and 3 curriculum thus far, please visit our We Are Mathematicians page.

We are scientists.

We started our learning about matter and how everything is made of matter. To solidify this concept, each child wrote “matter” on a sticky note and were challenged to go around the classroom and school to use their label to tap different things they saw that is considered matter. Yes, that is just about everything! You can imagine how excited (maybe a little too excited!) they were to do that! They were tapping all sorts of things including each other!

We are creating our booklet on Matter. I love to have students create their understanding of concepts. This is at the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy! Click here to learn more.

How to support at home: Ask your child what they understand about matter. We learned that matter is anything that takes up space and can be weighed.

We are readers.

We are learning to build our reading stamina. Last week, we worked up to being able to sit in one spot and read for a full 6 minutes. We hope to reach 10 minutes this week.

Fridays will be our Library time. The Library is open EVERY DAY from 9 to 9:30am for a flexible book exchange and EVERY DAY 11:30 to 12pm except Thursdays. What this means is that they don’t have to wait until Friday to exchange their books. This works out perfectly because we begin every day with Heart Time (a soft start) so they can visit the library then!

West Coast Weather

The weather is changing. We will begin to have more days with rainy weather and wet grounds. Please have your child prepared for the weather as they will be going outside even in the rain.

Please bring a change of clothes to keep in the classroom. Clearly label the bag with your child’s name.

Please also have inside shoes to change out of boots. Boots are typically heavy and not the best for sitting or moving around throughout the day. Thank you.

Save the Date!

On Friday, November 17, we will be going bowling in the afternoon with Divisions 14 and 15 (Ms. Tai and Ms. Santorelli’s classes)! We will be going to Revs Bowling at 5502 Lougheed Hwy.

We will need parent volunteer drivers. If you are available to help us, please save the date! Thank you so much!

Reminders

• Wednesday, October 4: Individual photo day
• Please go to School Cash Online to pay for school supplies. Although our planners have not arrived just yet, there is an option to pay for that as well. We hope to have the planner the following week. Due to the fire in their warehouse, they had to reprint all of our planners, hence the delay.
• Monday, October 9: Thanksgiving Day; school closed
• Request: If you have extra disposable (plastic or wooden) forks and spoons sitting in your drawers that you don’t think you will use, please send them to school. Sometimes, lunches are packed without utensils, so I usually have a bin they can get it from. Thank you!

As always, I have such gratitude for your support at home as we work together as partners in your child’s learning. Thank you for reading the weekly blog post that keeps you informed about what we are learning about. Please feel free to read it together with your child as an invitation to review what they learned.

I am so very blessed to spend my time at work with your children! They bring me such joy!

With much love and gratitude, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

They say that time flies when we are having fun and that we are! How are we already in the middle of April?

We are learning how to research.

Mrs. Paulich and Mrs. Papapanagiotou taught us about the importance of citing our references. We will be doing a simplified version but they will be expected to learn how to properly cite in the intermediate grades.

Another important part of researching is recording what we find by paraphrasing so we learned what this meant and practiced with our Passion Project partners. I was so impressed with how quickly they grasped this! Give it a try at home! When reading a non-fiction book together or researching something online. Ask your child to take a sentence and practice paraphrasing. This is an important skill when showing others you understand when truly listening.

We learned about microplastics.

Students learned about and how they enter the environment. They analyzed samples of water from an urban area and graphed their results. They learned what microfibres are and where they came from. Lastly, they brainstormed ways to help reduce microplastics in the environment. Thank you to the Institute of Urban Ecology at Douglas College for coming to Gilmore to teach us!

We learned about autism and stuttering.

This month at Gilmore, we are focusing on learning about accepting differences. Every morning on the PA, we learn more about different ways that people are different. This past week, we learned about Down Syndrome too. In our class, we read two books and reflected on each one. I invite you to listen to the story and have a conversation with your child about what they learned and how they can accept and empathize with others.

Passion Projects

It is SO exciting to see students work so collaboratively with their partners during this time! This week, they worked hard on their proposal for their research.

Here are a few of the ideas they will be working on and teaching us in a few weeks!

• Blobfish
• Speaking French
• Chihuahua
• History of video games
• Tigers
• Lions

Next week, they will be adding this to their SpacesEDU e-portfolio as a record of their progress. If you have not yet activated your parent accounts to view your child’s reflection posts and the Hip Hop video, please do so. If you’d like me to re-send the invite, please let me know. It’s a quick click of a button!

Passion Project time is a great way to develop their core competencies:

• I can communicate in order to collaborate.
• I can apply critical and reflective thinking to acquire and interpret information, and to make choices about how to communicate their ideas. (paraphrasing)
• I can reflect on my work and experiences and tell others about something I learned. (We will be reflecting on our progress!)

Grade 2 Mathematicians

This past week, we learned how to subtract with regrouping. Some of you may know it as “borrowing”. Whether your child is in grade 2 or 3, this is a great time to review and reinforce this at home. For grade 2s, they subtract up to two-digits (75-38=__) and for grade 3s, they subtract up to three-digits (755-388=__). Our goal is that your child will be able to explain how this is done and to not simply solve the equation. As Einstein said, ““If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Just a reminder to continue to practice learning addition and subtraction math facts at home.

Thank you for your continued support at home!

Please note that our Walkathon date has been changed to May 19 due to the change in date for the all day Track Meet. There is an opportunity for your child’s artwork to be chosen and included in the Yearbook. If your child is interested, please have them submit it to the Community Office early next week.

Sincerely, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

One thing we strive for is to make school a place we love and look forward to be. This all happens by design and with great intention as we plan engaging and meaningful activities every day. I love the connections we have with each other as we learn about ourselves and each other in our safe and caring community. Our goal is to help them cultivate joy through relationships and as we learn. We are better together and stronger together! We are so blessed to be their teachers!

Hip Hop

So proud of them! Hip Hop was a fun way to learn how to dance! If you were not able to see the performance, the video was uploaded to SpacesEDU, but there is a slight issue right now with parent access. Once I hear back from SpacesEDU and it is fixed, I will send out an email to inform you. Regardless, find the email with the invite to set up your account to view.

Introduction to Daily 5

We appreciate Ms. Kapusta, our ELL teacher, who comes into our room every Wednesday to support our learners. This week, we introduced a structure that ignites joy in reading and writing that introduced this framework. Students were also introduced to a new program called Chunk Spelling. Here, they practice putting together initial consonant sounds, blends, and digraphs with a word family. Click here to learn more. Ask your child about their first experience with Daily 5!

Introduction to Passion Projects

Passion Projects is one of my most favourite things to offer to learners! There is SO much rich learning that can happen! As written in their planner last week, students were asked to come up with three things they might be curious to learn more about. Click here to check out the slide deck. They have only seen the slides up to the links to websites. I will share the following slides this week.

Please have a conversation with your child about the top three things they would be very interested and curious to learn about and teach to classmates. Check out our initial list! Click here or on the image on the right to enlarge.

These passion projects are intended for students to work with a partner because there are SO many additional skills they can learn by working with a classmate (collaboration, communication, listening, speaking, taking turns, negotiating, co-planning, etc.) but I will offer choice to work independently. Please also speak with your child about their preference. As mentioned before, we will be using PowerPoint so if you wish for your child to get a head start, please feel free to show them some tools. I will be introducing PowerPoint this week! Many of the tools will look familiar to them since they are the same in Word. SO excited!

We are artists.

Students thoroughly enjoyed working on this art project! Always love how they all receive the same set of instructions but each one has its own personality and flare!

We are scientists.

Week after week, Ms. Kim has led our salmon observation in Ms. Barndt’s classroom. This week, we saw that they have grown to approximately 7mm and do not have their sacs anymore. We continued to learn about the chicken’s life cycle. Ask your child about what they’ve learned so far!

We are storytellers.

This past week, Ms. G. Lee had us working in groups to tell a story using various story workshop materials. Then they brainstormed their stories on a graphic organizer. Ask your child about their experience and what their story is about!

Exciting upcoming events

• April 13 – Microplastics in-class workshop hosted by Institute of Urban Ecology at Douglas College
• April 14 – Ice cream sandwich sale day
• April 24 – Pro-D Day
• April 28 – Diversity assembly
• May 4 – Student Led Conferences; early dismissal at 1:45pm
• May 5 – Walkathon
• May 17 – Arts Umbrella performance at Granville Island. We will need parent volunteer drivers, please.
• May 24 – Class photos
• June 23 – Science World field trip with Division 12. We will be taking transit and will need parent volunteers, please.

How you can support at home

As always, we are grateful for your support at home. Some suggestions on how:

• Read our blog posts each week so you can have conversations to review and extend learning. Better yet! Read it WITH your child or have them read it to you!
• I highly encourage you to be curious WITH your child.
• Ask them what else do they wonder about? Model curiosity by sharing what you wonder about based on the topic. Research to dive deeper into their curiosities to foster a love to become lifelong learners.
• Many students at this age read independently. It is important to have conversations about what they read. When my own kids were in elementary, I tried to read the books they read so we can have conversations about the characters, plot, etc. It was a wonderful way to connect and to build a lifelong love of reading.
• Many children spend more time reading than writing at home. Encourage your child to write. Find a real reason to write. We have more students in our class who are better readers than writers. Since writing is a skill, the more time they spend writing, the better they get at it. Encourage them to re-read their writing when they are finished.

On Thursday, we said good-bye to Ms. Kim. She has worked very hard during her time with us to get to know your child and plan fun, engaging lessons. We wish her well in her continued journey to becoming a teacher.

I write every blog post with love and a heart full of joy and gratitude. Your child brings me so much joy so I thank you for sharing them with us. Have a wonderful rest of your long weekend!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan