Category: We are scientists.

Dear Division 6 family!

I so love our community! I love how we uplift each other, how we show care, how inclusive we are, and how kind they are to each other. As you know, on Thursday, it’s Thankful Thursday! This week, we shared what they are grateful for in our school community. So many expressed the kindness they see. I daresay it’s the kindness they feel in their hearts, too. I reminded them that they play a large role in the kindness they experience. They are the ones that choose to treat each other in the way they do.

We are community builders. I always feel so blessed when I can pull out the popsicle sticks with their names on it to choose random pairs or small groups. We have a tradition they love. They love doing a drumroll on their desks before each group is announced and we cheer! Every time, I am truly amazed and thankful about how well they work together. It doesn’t matter who I place them with. In addition to this, when I need a volunteer mentor to work with other classmates, there are always people who not just volunteer, but they do a phenomenal job of explaining with patience. I am so grateful and blessed to be their teacher and I know Ms. Paulich feels the same way! Actually, it was just on Monday that as I was leaving my office at lunch, I exclaimed to Ms. Perez as I passed by her office, “I love my job!” and then scurried off upstairs to the classroom.

We are Authors. We had another fabulous week full of learning opportunities. I love our Friday celebrations when I hear students choose to celebrate how we had a great week or fun week of learning. This week, they were excited to receive letters from our little grade 1 buddies in Ms. Sokugawa’s class! We initially wrote them a letter before Christmas. In response, we worked on writing a story back to them! Their stories had to include something from the letter they received back. For example, Miles wrote a story about a dinosaur and a cat because his buddy’s letter included these two things!

Our lesson started with listening to a story about a boy who decides to have a story stand instead of a lemonade stand. He listens to his friends who come to him and he trades them for a story that cleverly incorporates something about them. They really enjoyed working on these stories. I love it when I tell them we need to move on to something else and they just want to keep working on it! Love their motivation, enthusiasm, engagement, and work ethic! Some of them have uploaded it to their digital portfolios so you can check it out.

We are Mathematicians. We reviewed subtraction with regrouping with decimals this week. Please review this concept with your child at home to reinforce their understanding. Thank you! A gentle reminder that they always have access to Khan Academy so they can review any concepts online. The link to Khan Academy can always be found on the right-hand side. Their username and passwords can be found in OneNote under Handouts. Students can ALWAYS be practicing their basic math facts fluency – addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

We are doctors in training. We continued to learn more about our respiratory system. We learned that we can live with only one lung, that lungs can float, our right lung is slightly larger than our left, and how much our lungs weigh. I brought up weights to put in a ziplock bag so they can feel how heavy their lungs are. It surprised us all how heavy they felt! They have been working hard on their sketchnotes with facts.

We are artists. This week, students started painting on their canvas for their One Word. I am so looking forward to sharing with you their finished products!

We are passionate about our personal projects! This week, we had some people present their second Passion Projects with us! I love seeing the growth and improvements from the last time they presented which was just before winter break! There were many who worked hard over the break, thank you. I love the excitement I hear when it’s Passion Project time! They actually cheer!

To inspire them, I read them the story that my student from last year published back in November 2020. It was her second book called Gardeners of the Jungle. They loved looking for the hidden snails on each page! To learn more about her story, click here to go to her website. She was recently interviewed on CBC New live in Toronto and people all over the world are connecting with her to speak to their students! We will have an opportunity to listen to her share about her Passion Project during our Literacy Week on January 26 to 29. I am so looking forward to it!

We are grateful. It’s been such a great two weeks back so far. We are grateful for a smooth transition back to school. Please continue to be vigilant to do the daily morning health checks and talk about masks at school. Last week, we watched a Mystery Doug video called Do Masks Really Stop the Coronavirus? They have really enjoyed watching these videos week after week. Also, a reminder to send your child to school ready for inclement weather. We have outside recess even when it rains.

Ms. Paulich and I are always so grateful to be your child’s teacher. They are an awesome group of kids! Knowing them makes me feel so very hopeful for our future! Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. We always appreciate comments on our blog posts so feel free to comment! Thank you to those who have on our past posts!

With a heart full of gratitude, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Dear Division 6 family,

I just have to say “wow”! We had a phenomenal week together! When we did our Friday celebrations, my heart was warmed and touched by what your children shared. Many shared about having a great week back and their positive feelings about their one word. Honestly, all week, I felt so inspired every time we worked on their one word. We had a few students read their writing to the class as well. I may have had a smile on my face as I was listening to each one! 🙂

Students were given time to finish writing about their one word. They were asked to write about why they chose this word, why this word is important to them, and how they plan to live their word in all of their communities. If their writing was not finished, they were asked to complete it on the weekend. Next, they will be writing their one word and painting it on canvas. After that, the plan is for them to hold on to their canvas and record themselves talking about their one word in front of a green screen. The background will be their choice so they can start thinking about what they want. For example, if their word is “brave”, they may choose to have a background of a mountain summit.

Please have a conversation with your child at home about their one word they chose. Feel free to remind them that they chose this word as a commitment to themselves and offer gentle encouragement. We are all here to support them as they grow into their word to help them be better every day. For example, if they chose these words:

• TRY: Anytime you see your child struggling or hesitant, encourage them to TRY by saying, “Remember, your one word is to try. I know you can do it when you bring a positive mindset. I’m here to support you. It may be hard but you can try. I believe in you and I know Ms. Chan believes in you too. You just need to believe in yourself that you can try too.”
• COURAGE: Anytime you see your child afraid to do something that might be outside of their comfort zone but just need a little encouragement, say, “Remember, your one word is courage. I know that this is outside of your comfort zone but you grow more by pushing yourself into the stretch zone. I know you can do it. I am here to support you. I believe in you and I know Ms. Chan believes in you too. Inhale courage. Exhale fear.”

They hear this often, we want to be “better today than yesterday and better tomorrow than today.” I also told them that I recently finished a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear. I highly recommend the book if you are looking for a new one to read! One of the things he encourages us to do is to make a 1% improvement every day. Just think, how much better will we be by the end of the year if we made a 1% improvement every day?

As doctors in training, we started looking at the respiratory system by doing research and coming up with questions we wonder about. We discovered a very cool website where we can see the respiratory system in 3D and even go right into the trachea! It almost felt like we were on the Magic School Bus! We will continue to learn more this week.

Previously, we learned about the circulatory system and collectively created a class PowerPoint with interesting facts. Click here to view our slides! I always appreciate how well everyone works with others no matter who I put them with! It’s a true testament to their respect and how inclusive they are!

For Math, we practiced estimating sums and differences. This week, we will dive further into addition and subtraction with regrouping with decimals too. Feel free to review at home as well.

As always, we are here to support you as you support your child at home. Should you have any questions, please reach out to us. We work as partners. Thank you for your continued support at home! We appreciate you and absolutely adore your children! They bring us so much joy every single day!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Dear Division 6 families,

We had another amazing week! We ended our week definitely on a high note! After Flex time, our day always begins with our Community Circle time where we always share how we are feeling and talk about the theme or question of the day. On Friday morning, my heart was touched by the number of people who shared how they were feeling: “amazing, great, fantastic, awesome…” We often talk about the mindset that we have especially as we begin our day. When we feel strong positive emotions, it can influence the kind of day we are going to have so verbalizing in this way sets their day off on a positive note. I noticed an increase in the number of people who are choosing these types of emotions to share. I am smiling virtually the whole time we are meeting in our Community Circle because what they share so often touches my heart and is music to my soul!

We can celebrate!
This daily sharing time is a genuine way we build our community. We listen with respect, show that we value each other and what we have to say, while learning more about each other. On Fridays, we have a tradition to celebrate something from the past week. Some of the things I heard that warmed my heart:

• I am celebrating the kindness I see from each other.
• I am celebrating a good week at school.
• I am celebrating my family and friends.

We are scientists.
As medical doctors in training, we dove further into the circulatory system. We created a class PowerPoint project where all groups were given the opportunity to choose their own questions that sparked the most interest. This is called student “voice and choice”. What this means is that they get to choose what they want to learn more about. With choice, comes a natural excitement, engagement, and motivation to learn. I absolutely loved how focussed each group was to find the answers to their questions and display their finding in their PowerPoint slide. They all work so well together! Click on the image and it will bring you to our project. It is a work in progress so if you see unfinished slides, it is because they are still working on this!

We are writers.
For writing, we used a couple images as inspiration. I loved the creativity in their stories! Ask your child what their story is about.

We are mathematicians.
We have continued to work on decimals and fractions. I love how engaged they are during our lessons. One of the things we love is to have interactive lessons as we learn and practice together. Every student has their own whiteboard with markers and erasers. As we learn together, they have opportunities to practice and show their understanding. This is a great way for me to check their understanding as the lesson progresses. What I love is seeing their growth mindset in action! Even though they may get it wrong, they accept it and just try again. We have worked hard on making math fun and just slightly in their stretch zone. I can happily say that the negative feelings many had at the beginning of the year about math have changed! You’ll see, by the end of the year, they will love math as much as I do! When they have a positive attitude and feel happy when they learn, research shows that they learn better!

We are proud.

Many students have a few pieces of work uploaded in their Digital Portfolios. If you have not checked it out yet, please ask your child to show you what they are proud of and their reflection on their learning. Our goal is that these entries are not just to brag but the main purpose is to reflect – to celebrate what they did well or what they are proud of, what they found challenging or in their stretch zone, and probably the most important, is what they would do differently if they were to do something similar in the future. They can learn from their experiences. For some, it may look like there is a lot of artwork in their portfolios. We will be working on adding other pieces of work to reflect on too. We just had some catching up to do with their art. This past week, the Grinch came to visit!

We are presenters with a passion!
Next week, we will be presenting our Passion Projects! Students were asked to have their presentations ready for Monday. I understand that some may need more time so if they need more time, that is okay too!

Friday, December 18 will be Pajama Day! Please keep the stuffed animals at home, sorry.

Being your child’s teacher brings us so much pure joy! Both Ms. Paulich and I feel so blessed to be their teachers. Our class is filled with happy children who not only get along well, they are kind, caring, and empathetic to each other too and so willing to help and include others too. They are reminded often that they are loved. We may sound like a broken record but we want you to know how much we appreciate you and your support at home. As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or just want an update, please reach out. Thank you!

With a heart full of gratitude, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Dear families,

We hope you had a good chance to celebrate your child’s report card that went home on Friday! We enjoyed writing about all the strengths and how well they are doing so far this year. For us, it is always a great time to sit to reflect on each child’s learning and to make clear our intentions for how to support them. The goals were ones they set for themselves. We are looking forward to supporting them and seeing them reach their goals!

Gratitude, Kindness, and Celebrations
Our class continues to focus on gratitude and kindness. Every Thursday, we share something that our heart is grateful for during our Thankful Thursday Community Circle time. On Fridays, we celebrate a success from the week. The goal is not that we only celebrate once a week but that we celebrate all of the small daily wins throughout our day. My celebration this week was this: I am celebrating all of my students for their hard work and dedication to their learning. I am proud of their accomplishment so far and am so looking forward to seeing further growth over time as they work towards their goals.

Climate Challenge
Thank you for participating in the Climate Challenge for the past four weeks. Starting on Monday, please return the package to school for a chance to win prizes. Click here for a digital copy. We have another Zoom meeting with TJ this Thursday morning!

Medical School Doctors of Division 6
This past week, we started our new unit on the basic structures and functions of body systems. We started with the circulatory system. To learn more about what will be covered in this unit, go to our We are Scientists page. Students were put into groups of three to read through a book about the circulatory system. The goal was to read parts of the book to not just learn facts but more importantly, to develop a sustained curiosity by asking questions and then asking even more questions.

Key question about systems: How do the systems of the human body work together?

The goal is to learn about the four body systems and then they will choose a disease of interest to research. I am so excited to share that our culminating event will be to attend the Gilmore Medical Conference 2021 as doctors and experts in our field! Students will attend as participants to listen to research findings from their fellow medical colleagues!

Passion Projects
Next week before we head out for our break, students will be presenting on their Passion Projects. They do NOT need to be finished yet! This is just an opportunity to share what they have been working on and receive some feedback that will help guide them as they move forward.

Mathematicians
In Math, we have been learning about equivalent fractions. This past week, they logged on to Khan Academy to practice their understanding of Place Value. At home, they are always welcome to log on to practice math concepts. I highly recommend that you sit down with your child to take a look at what Khan Academy has to offer so whether they need a challenge or more review at a lower grade, it is available for them. To find login information, please go to O365 OneNote > Name > Handouts > Accounts. All of their account information is there (including All the Right Type and Epic).

Letter Writing
Students were so excited to learn that they have little buddies in Ms. Sokugawa’s class! We wrote our first letter to them this past week! Buddies will look very different this year. They will not get to meet or spend time with them like they may have in past years but we didn’t want to let that stop us from having buddies. They will be more like pen pals. We also started writing letters to some of the residents at Seton Village. It was a good walk around the neighbourhood for our Jingle Bell Walk!

Digital Portfolios & Self-Reflection
We have been working hard on our Digital Portfolios. We all started with PowerPoint but we have too many older iPads in our classroom that have trouble with the program so I made the decision to switch to a different platform: FreshGrade Connect. Some students have opted to stay with PowerPoint and that is fine. I imagine that some may want to move to FreshGrade at a later date and that is fine too. They will just upload their PowerPoint file. As always, I like to offer voice and choice so if they want to continue with PowerPoint, that is great too. Here are the expectations for each post:

• Explain the piece of work. What we did.
• Tell what went well or what they are proud of.
• Share what challenges they faced or what was in their stretch zone.
• If you were to do this activity again or something similar, what would you change to make it better or what would you do differently next time?
• Optional: What did you discover about yourself as a learner?

To view your child’s FreshGrade account, I will send you an invite shortly. They set their own passwords so if they do not remember, simply have them click on the Reset Password button. They will receive an email to reset. This is good practice for them to manage their own passwords. To view your child’s PowerPoint, ask them to login to the O365 account to show you.

We are artists.
Ms. Paulich taught us about zentangles. They worked on some beautiful art that is now on display in the hallways! They used pastels to make their artwork pop! They are currently working the next piece: The Grinch! We are looking forward to seeing their final products!

School Events
Thank you for sending gifts for our Angel tree. We are still collecting if you wish to bring toys to school. We appreciate you for sending food for the Food Bank too on Friday!

Questions about School
We often have parents tell us that their children don’t share much about what they do in school all day.  We always encourage parents to read our blog posts WITH your child. This is a great way to start the flow of conversations! What does this accomplish?

• Have them read it aloud to you. This gives them a real reason and good practice to read!
• It is another opportunity to not only show your interest in what they are learning but get engaged in their learning! When questions come up in your discussions, demonstrate what curiosity looks like. Model asking questions and more questions. Then jump onto Google to research the answers to the questions you came up with together! This fosters the idea that we can be lifelong learners always curious about the world around us and there is joy in learning together.
• It helps them review or reinforce their learning. It is an opportunity to ask them what they learned but don’t ask them that general question of “What did you do in school today?” I found that kids don’t really want to answer that question perhaps because it’s too big of a question to answer.

Instead, here are some sample questions you could ask instead with values in brackets!

• What is one interesting thing you learned about (be specific)…? (engagement in learning)
• What was your favourite part of school today? (finding joy in school activities)
• What made your heart happy? (finding joy)
• What is one kind thing you did to help/support others? (service to others)
• What part of your day are you most grateful for? (grateful heart)
• Did you give “today’s best” and work on improving your goals? (work ethic)
• What did you do today that was in your stretch zone? (growth mindset)
• What is one thing you are celebrating from today? (recognizing strengths or growth)

When you ask these kinds of questions, you are showing them what you value. Give these questions a try and let me know how your conversations about their school day changes!

As always, we are here to support you and your child in their learning journey. If you would like to have a conversation about what you read in the report card or would like to discuss other things about how they are doing in class, please feel free to reach out. Send us an email at Livia.Chan@burnabyschools.ca or Marianna.Paulich@burnabyschools.ca. We would be happy to talk to you! We appreciate you as our partners in your child’s learning. Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with us this year. We truly and absolutely LOVE working with them! We are all so blessed to be in the same Division 6 family this year!

Please feel free to leave a comment on this post! We would love to hear from you!

Grateful for you and our connection,
Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich