Category: We are readers.

Dear Div. 6 families,

What a fantastic first week! We are having fun getting to know each other’s names and learning more about each other.

Please feel free to watch the video for a run-down of our week and what’s upcoming. If you don’t have time, simply read the blog post as it is a summary of what I shared in the video.

Why do we share weekly blog posts?

The purpose of our weekly blog posts is so that it connects school to home and us to you. Our hope is that the information shared will give you greater opportunities to have conversations about school, what they are learning about, and to take a concept and dive deeper.

How you can support at home:

Be curious. Ask questions that may spark more conversation. Instead of asking, “How was school?” try asking more targeted questions:

• What are you most proud of today?
• What did you do to help others today?
• What is one thing you learned that you can teach me? This question reinforces their learning.
• What made you smile or laugh today?
• What’s one thing that made today fun?
• What’s something you are grateful for that you experienced today?
• What’s one thing you learned that you’d love to know more about? Let’s do some research together!

We push ourselves to grow.

We are learning about growth mindset. The thoughts and language we use determine the outlook we have. The power of yet.

We learned about comfort zones. We want students to be challenged in their stretch/growth zone. I was interviewed about this last spring. Read the post here on the Teacher2Teacher blog to learn more.

Healthy Habits

This week, we started reading a book written by Steven Covey: The 7 Habits of Happy Kids (same author as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People which some of you may know). It begins with a story about a character who finds himself bored and looks to others to help him find something to do; the character discovers that it is his responsibility to be proactive and not rely on others to “fix” his problem. Be Proactive – take initiative.

Click here to learn more about the 7 habits we will be learning about.

As we are practicing classroom expectations, students are encouraged to build the healthy habits of attentive listening and strong work habits. They are regularly asked to self-reflect and to do better next time.

We are readers and writers.

For our first introduction lesson to writing, we read a story called “I Am Story” by Dan Yaccarino and then we started working on our heart maps. They also shared how they feel about writing. Learning about their mindset about writing and setting a goal for themselves helps inform me of how I can better support them.

Please encourage your child to read at least 20-30 minutes every night. This is their homework. They will have library orientation next week and library book exchange begins on Wednesday.

We are athletes.

We started our Running Club this week.

We will go to the gym every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Please ensure your child wears appropriate clothing and runners.

We are scientists.

Students were introduced to Mystery Doug. We watched a video on pizza. Click here to watch at home.

West Coast weather

Please have your child dress appropriately for the weather. They will go outside even in the rain unless it is raining very hard. Read West Coast Recess & Lunch to learn more.

Looking ahead!

On Monday, September 20, we will begin our “Me in a Bag” presentations. Please help your child decide on 4-5 items to place in the paper bag provided and practice what they will say about each item so they will feel more confident. They will tell us about each item and share a story about why they chose it and/or what it represents and why it is important to them. Be creative! For example, I cannot bring our guinea pig, Hazelnut, to school but I can brought some hay to represent her. I also brought a picture of me in my ringette gear when I talked about being a coach, player, and ref.

Next week, we will start Math on Monday! The grade 4s will go to Mr. Anchor. They will need a 1″ binder.

Monday is a big day! They will also have an online learning module for the Learn2Ride program.

We are so excited to see you on Tuesday, September 21 at 7:00pm for our Meet the Teachers night! A Zoom link will be shared the day before in the reminder email.

On Wednesday, your child should bring their bike helmet (even if they don’t bring a bike) and are encouraged to bring their bikes too. Starting at 8:40am, they can bring their bikes into the school for storage. Our bike session will be between recess and lunch out on the field.

We are equally excited to meet you during our Parents and Partners Conferences! The purpose of these will be to learn more about your child. If you have not signed up to book an appointment, please do so before the deadline: Sept 21 at 3:00pm. The link to the conferences will be shared via email after our Meet the Teachers night so as not to confuse anyone. Our meetings are set for 10 minutes so please arrive on time. You will be placed in the lobby and we will let you in when it is your time. Thank you SO much for your time and interest to meet with us!

Reminder: Early dismissal on Thursday, September 23 at 1:45pm.

Friday will be our first school Pro-D day. Students do not attend.

If you’d like to learn a little more about me, feel free to visit my website: livchan.com.

For the school supplies list, click here. Please send items as soon as you can. Key items to get first if you don’t have time to get the rest yet: 1.5″ binder and dividers. Grade 4’s: an extra 1″ binder for Math. Thank you!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan & Mrs. Paulich

Dear Division 6 families,

What a wonderful week of learning! Students have been investigating whether chocolate is a natural resource. Yes, you read it correctly chocolate! Students began their inquiry with background knowledge and understanding the importance of referencing and citations when researching. We took a closer look at cocoa beans as a natural resource. Students participated in guided group work that investigated how the production of cocoa beans contributed to the economy. Students learned about working conditions in first and third world countries, fair trade, and direct trade. They particularly enjoyed their taste testing homework. Completion of this activity allowed them to participate in an interactive zoom call with the owner of Truffle Pig. This was such a powerful activity that had students asking thoughtful questions. Over the past few weeks with the support of Mrs. Papapanagioutou and myself, the inquiry process led them to the question: What are the pros and cons of cocoa beans as a natural resource? I am so proud of the research that has taken place thus far and there is more to come! Next, we look at how media is connected to our findings. – Mrs. Paulich

To echo Mrs. Paulich, it has been a great week of learning! I feel like I say this every week but as I reflect at the end of every week, I can’t help but feel proud of their accomplishments and learning!

This week, we had a deep conversation about the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Kamloops Indian Band Residential School where they detected the remains of 215 children. We also read the book Race Cars. From Amazon:

Race Cars is a children’s book about white privilege created to help parents and educators facilitate tough conversations about race, privilege, and oppression.

Written by a clinical social worker and child therapist with experience in anti-bias training and edited by a diversity expert, Race Cars tells the story of 2 best friends, a white car and a black car, that have different experiences and face different rules while entering the same race.

Students then had an opportunity to do a free-write to unpack their thoughts and feelings about the news. Journalling is a great form of writing to sort through emotions and events that are hard for us to understand.

Speeches

This week, we continued working on our speeches. Click here for the single-point rubric we have been using all year for personal writing. The lessons and tips to help improve our writing:

• One thing I noticed was that some students started to write one very long paragraph with many different ideas. Instead, break down ideas into separate paragraphs. One paragraph = one idea to dive into. Then dive into “magnifying glass” writing where you lean into the details by adding reasons, explanations, and examples. Here, you may also include a story. See next tip.
• Tell your story: It’s important to add personal stories to help your audience make connections. Add stories that evoke emotions or helps them understand your point better.
• Your opening sentence should introduce the audience to the topic of the paragraph. End your paragraph by restating your opening sentence. We will dive further into closing sentences next week.
• Know your central theme. Aim for paragraphs to point back to your central theme. It’s like a flagpole or target that you want to make sure you’re always headed towards. Your paragraphs should help your audience better understand your main author’s message.
• To spark your audience to think. Feel free to insert a question here and there to inspire critical thinking or reflection but don’t overuse it!
• Every time you sit down to write again, re-read everything you wrote first before you continue writing. This refreshes your memory as to what you already wrote. Read it over for different purposes. They were reminded of DYRIO (click image to view PDF):

As you support your child at home with their speeches, please review these tips. At any point, should you have any questions, please email me! I am happy to help!

Speeches are to be a minimum of 3 minutes and a maximum of 5 minutes. Next week, we will co-construct our criteria that will be specific to the delivery of these speeches. It will be similar to but not exactly the same as the single point rubric for our Passion Projects.

Passion Project presentations

We celebrated many things this week during our Passion Projects! Oscar and Kingston collaboratively presented on the video game named Battle Cats and Quinson talked about the history of video games. Both created a Kahoot game that all enjoyed! Vienna worked hard on her presentation about Italy. Gabriella and Iman came all the way from Australia to teach us about Quokkas; they had a creative idea to have me introduce them as experts from Australia and had the kids play a quiz game as review of the facts. Olivia H. enthusiastically shared How to Read the Body Language of a Dog. Maya presented an informative on Snow Leopards. Dante shared so many facts about Minecraft.

NOTE: All presenters brought home their single-point rubric assessments. Please sign and return to school. Thank you!

Oscar’s book was officially released! It is titled Fate’s Mirage, The Ultra Blade. Oscar has worked on his story since the beginning of the year. Great tenacity and perseverance. He wrote a five chapter story that classmates excitedly took turns reading to the class! I am so grateful to Oscar and his mom, Jen, who made a copy for me to keep and included me in his Acknowledgements, thank you! One thing I complimented him on what his ability to effectively use dialogue to move the story along and help us get to know the characters better. Oscar had a great blend of dialogue between characters and then a paragraph that explained what was happening. He did this throughout the story so I wanted to point out the effectiveness of this. Then Oscar shared that this was something his mom taught him! Jen is a talented writer who has published many of her own books so I thought it was so cool that we were learning how to become better writers through Oscar’s work with the support of his mom. Thank you, Jen!

Speaking of Passion Projects, one of my passion projects is writing just like Oscar and his mom! I am now a contributing author to a book called 100 No-Nonsense Things that Teachers Should STOP Doing. It was released three weeks ago. I wrote a chapter called Stop Boredom at All Costs and had the great privilege to talk about it on the Pushing Boundaries podcast. This is the second time my writing has been featured in a book. I am currently working on writing my own book with a couple of principals in the US. We signed a book contract a few months ago! It’ll be my summer passion project!

Mathematicians

This past week, students finished their patterns book using Book Creator, an app on the iPad. They had fun testing out whether they wrote their pattern description correctly. They had to describe it to a partner using only words to see if their partner can replicate it without seeing the pattern. Next week, we will begin learning about quadrilaterals.

Anyone who still needs extra review and explanations about long division, please reach out. I am happy to set up a Zoom call to work with your child.

Self-assessment for the year

Students were assigned a self-assessment to complete in Teams. If your child did not finish, it was assigned for homework to be completed this weekend. Sorry, it was not recorded in their planners. Please remind them to work on it. Thank you!

We are always so grateful for your continued support at home. We are nearing the end but not slowing down. As I preach to the kids often, I equate the end of work time and learning time to the same feelings as the end of a marathon. While I’ve never run one, I can imagine how exhausted people may feel or at least how I would feel! It is in these moments that I push them outside of their comfort zone to challenge themselves to push on and to finish off strong. We will continue to do that until the end.

Gratefully, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Dear Division 6 families,

We had another fantastic week together! I feel that I sound like a broken record each week but your children continue to amaze me with how hard they work, how kind they are to each other, and how well they work together so I am thrilled to be a broken record week after week!

Personal Awareness
This past week, we continued to work on our “I am” statements. We pushed ourselves to look for more words we could use to describe our strengths. I discovered that when I did the same thing, half of my final list of 10 words came from diving in further the next day! I am always offering opportunities for them to push them into their stretch zone. This was the perfect real-life example! The list we came up with on Friday was in our comfort zone. The extended list we added on Monday was in our stretch zone. So many students found new words they added as their strengths on Monday just like I did! If we had stopped on Friday, they wouldn’t have grown their vocabulary of strengths or found words that better described themselves! Take a look at Nicholas’! On Friday, they typed up their “I am” poetry so we are now ready for the next part. Stay tuned! It’s NOT what they will expect!

We are scientists.
This week, we had an opportunity to form groups to review the three body systems we covered so far: circulatory, respiratory, and digestive systems. Groups were given choice as to which one they wanted to create and present a skit. They had so much fun working together. So far, we had one group present: Olivia, Maya, Rachel, and Vienna had a clever and entertaining skit where they were in a restaurant ordering food. When the food arrived, they explained what happens and what would happen to the orange that was actually ingested by Maya!

We watched a very interesting video from Mystery Doug on Which animal has the biggest heart. Click here to view. The heart was gigantic!

We are mathematicians.
We continued to work on our addition videos. All students should have them completed by the end of this week and uploaded to their digital portfolios with their reflection. They reviewed subtraction with regrouping this week. Please feel free to check that your child understands how to subtract with regrouping. You can have fun challenging each other with big numbers!

We are readers.
We had a successful Book Club meeting with our group members. During the debriefing, we talked about what went well, what they found challenging, and what they would do differently. I am so looking forward to watching them grow in their conversations about what they read! How you can support at home: Have conversations about what your child reads. The connections they make, for example, are an important part to help them understand. Ask them about a favourite part or what they think will happen next and why. Ask them about a part in the story that surprised them, why, and how they might change that part of the story. Ask them about the characters and perhaps which character they align with. Lastly, model reading at home. Children who see their parents read are more likely to read as well.

Virtual Celebration of Learning
Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, we were not able to watch the Celebration of Learning on Friday. It will be available for viewing on Tuesday, February 16. Look out for the email with the link. Our class will be presenting their One Word.

 Celebrating Friendships
Valentine’s day celebrations looked a little different this year. There was no food shared but they brought their own snacks. They had a wonderful afternoon playing and socializing with our cohort class, Division 5.

We talked about creating Valentine’s for each other digitally. Please enjoy the kind messages they sent to each other! Click on the image to view or click here.

My heart always feels so happy when I get to spend time with your children. The sense of family is strong and I feel so blessed every day to be their teacher. Thank you for your continued support at home. Report cards will be going home before spring break but at any time, if you wish to have an update, always feel free to reach out. I am grateful for our connection.

Our sincerest appreciation, Ms. Chan & Ms. Paulich

Dear Division 6 family,

Wow, how is it already February? Time flies when you’re having fun, right? January was a great month with great learning and February started off that way too! Thanks to Nicholas, this was his celebration!

One Word
As you know, on Fridays, it’s our celebration day… not that we don’t celebrate every day but we officially celebrate on Fridays. Many of our celebrations centered around a feeling of great satisfaction in completing our One Word canvases, recording their message in front of a green screen (What’s my One Word? Why did I choose this word? How will I live my One Word this year?), and putting it all together in short videos. Ms. Paulich and I are so very proud of how hard they worked from start to finish! Here was our process again:

• Listened to a storybook about One Word
• Brainstormed, searched for and chose One Word. Some chose more than one and that was okay! I love to offer choices to students!
• Complete some writing around our One Word. Some wrote a paragraph and some wrote a few paragraphs! Here, they took a deep dive into why they chose this word and how they will live their One Word this year. I liked how some students chose to turn their One Word into an acrostic so each letter represented something to do with their One Word to make more meaning for them.
• Planned out their canvas on paper. Drew and painted their One Word.
• Learned to summarize their paragraph into main points they wanted to express in their video in front of a green screen. They were so diligent in practicing over and over again.
• Learned so many things throughout the whole process! Had fun!

A special thank you goes out to Gabriella and Iman who became our student leaders as they supported others in teaching them how to create and edit videos! I couldn’t have finished it on time without them! I so appreciate you, Gabriella and Iman! And I so appreciate everyone for their hard work, determination, and respect. In a busy classroom, everyone was so cooperative. The girls would say, “Quiet on the set!” and then there was silence for their classmate to record their piece. I am so very proud of them all!

Virtual Celebration of Learning
I am so very excited that some of the videos will be submitted for our Gilmore Virtual Celebration of Learning (COLA) that will air on Friday, February 12. Viewing will be for a limited time only so look out for the email with the link! Unfortunately, I will not be able to include all of the videos because each class was given a time frame. Please understand that as much as you may wish to see your child in the COLA, some of your children made a request not to be included so I have respected their wishes. If you haven’t received it yet, I will send you an email so you can view your child’s One Word video or you can wait for their reflections in their digital portfolios. Enjoy!

Digital Portfolios
I hope you enjoyed reviewing your child’s learning in their Digital Portfolios last week! They will continue to add to it throughout the year. If you need the invite for FreshGrade again, please let me know. Thanks!

Math

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

– Albert Einstein

As mathematicians, we have been working on creating videos teaching others how to add with regrouping including videos. I love having students explain their understanding. This really helps me see if they understand it well enough. I love what I have seen so far!

Science
As scientists, we have continued to learn about our digestive system. Many were interested to see a real camera scope into our bodies starting from food entering our bodies through our mouths. Here are some videos if you would like to watch with your child at home:

TedEd How Digestive System Works

3D real life digestive system at work

Mr. Binoc Digestive system explained

Journey Inside Your Body

Reading
This week was an exciting week because we started our Book Club! Each student chose from a list of books. While they read, they are asked to record their connections, any questions, and/or effective word choice by the author. They will read and meet in groups to discuss. Next week, they will be introduced to some phrases to help make more meaningful conversations. Please take a look at the image and begin to use these statements in your conversations at home – whether you are discussing the book they are reading or current event issues or any conversations, the more they can practice using these at home, the better they will be at using the same language at school. Thanks for your support!

Understanding Self
I firmly believe that children need to know what their strengths are as part of their self-discovery and learning about their identity. Yesterday, they wrote a poem with a list of statements to describe their strengths. “I am…” We will continue to dive deeper into understanding themselves next week. Recently, I had to deal with some adversity but understanding myself, anchoring into knowing who I am, and knowing my strengths and core values really helped me through it. I also believe that children need to know what their strengths are because that is their foundation of who they are while seeing this as a starting place to build on those strengths too. I speak about this on a recent podcast that I had the great honour to be a guest on with Dr. Dan Kreiness – Leader of Learning, watch Episode 99 or listen.

Some upcoming dates:

• Friday, February 12 – Virtual Celebration of Learning
• Monday, February 15 – Family Day
• Wednesday, February 24 – Pink Shirt Day

Please read the letter from Ms. Perez that was sent home via email regarding bringing items for Valentine’s Day. Please do not bring any food items for your child to hand out. Thank you.

Celebrate Learning by Reading Blog Posts Together
If you aren’t in the habit to read these blog posts with your child, I highly recommend it because it is a great opportunity to further engage in your child’s learning. The discussion you have brings attention to the importance of their learning at school and how you value it. Ask your child what their highlight of the week was. Ask how they helped others. Ask what they are most proud of. This will give you a great segway to sharing how proud you are or how hard they are working and their accomplishments. Try to focus more on the process of learning rather than the final product and focus on how they feel about their growth and strengths rather than how it pleases you. This encourages intrinsic motivation (feeling proud of self) versus extrinsic motivation (praise).

Looking for Feedback
What have you enjoyed learning about through our blog posts? What would you like to see more of? What suggestions might you have to add more value to you reading it? We’d love to hear! Please send me an email or write a comment on this post. Thank you for your feedback!

I get so much pleasure from writing these weekly blog posts! It’s a great way for me to reflect on the great learning that we are doing as a class. Thank you for your continued support at home. Should you have any questions, please reach out. We are your partners in your child’s learning! We are happy to connect!

With much gratitude, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich