Category: We are scientists.

Dear Division 11 families,

Although it was a short school week, we still fit in a LOT of learning and we had a FANTASTIC week! One of the sweetest comments from one of your children this past week really touched my heart. She said, “We have the sweetest class.” Every time I think of her comment, my heart was tickled with warmth and love. This lovely thought has visited numerous times since she said it! We DO have the sweetest class! 🙂

Names are important.

Our names are a very important and significant part of who we are. They have power. They can have deep personal, cultural, and historical connections too. It is a part of our identity, may be a part of the communities we belong, and our place in the world. 

We learned that many Indigenous peoples are gifted a traditional name or names that carry deep cultural meaning. We listened to a story called Thunder Boy Jr. Feel free to listen to the story again at home by clicking the image below. Then we did some writing about our own names and will be doing more activities with our names. These activities are meant to help each child learn more about themselves, their family, and each other as we share.

Because names are a person’s greatest connection to their own identity and individuality, it might be the most important word to them. This is one way that children are seen as a part of our  classroom community. This is the reason why your child is greeted by name each and every morning when I pick them up outside. Then during Community Circle, they are greeted by the person to their right so before recess, they would have heard their sweet name at least twice already!  READ MORE !

Dear Division 6 families,

Time is flying by! I cannot believe we are moving into our last week in April! We will continue to make each day count and thoroughly enjoy learning together.

I have different opportunities to share my experiences with people in our district and around the world. One thing I absolutely love sharing is the joy I feel being your child’s teacher and the connection we share. It has been such a memorable year so far and I have been so blessed and honoured to work with you and your children. We are so very grateful for your continued support! Please always feel free to reach out should you have any positive feedback so we know what is effective for your child and we keep doing it but also any concerns so we can better support you and your child.

We are communicators and can reflect on our learning.

Last week, your child had the great opportunity to share their learning with you during their Student Led conference at home. We have thoroughly enjoyed reading the Two Stars and a Wish sheets! Thank you for your time to fill them out so thoughtfully! It was a great opportunity for your child to not just reflect on their learning but to celebrate their progress and also set some goals for the remainder of this year. If you have feedback you’d like to share  or want to elaborate on what was written on the Two Stars and a Wish sheets, please feel free to send me an email at Livia.Chan@burnabyschools.ca. We are looking forward to in-person conferences next year!

We are mathematicians.

Grade 4s are continuing to practice multiplication x 1 digit. The grade 5s had an opportunity to show what they know so far on Wednesday. It was a point of progress for me to check their understanding,  inform me on what I need to review/reteach, and an opportunity for them to see where they are at in their learning journey too. Your child should have brought home their progress sheet with specific feedback along with an answer sheet for you to compare. Most students still need to review the distributive property so we would appreciate your support, thank you! They will have another opportunity to show what they know on Friday, April 29! Please continue to have your child practice their math facts. It makes a world of a difference and helps with their confidence when children know their facts. We will be starting division very soon!

We are scientists.

We learned about the respiratory system. Please feel free to rewatch the video and talk about how the system works. I taught them a movement “dance” to remember. We have two dances so far…one for the circulatory system and one for the respiratory system! Ask them to show you!

Passion Projects

Aside from a handful of students who have yet to present (they will this coming week), most students have started on their next passion project. On Friday, they had an opportunity to formally record. Your child brought it home to work on. Feel free to review it with them this week. Most important are the questions that will drive their research. Please remind your child to return it before Friday. Click the link Passion Project proposal for a copy. It includes the progress sheet too.

We are critical and creative thinkers who design!

This past week, students were introduced to the CO2 dragsters ADST project (Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies). They had some time to investigate other people’s designs and are free to continue to do so at home. This week, they will be:

We are so looking forward to seeing their progress over time!

Swimming Update

Thank you so much for sharing your feedback so quickly on the survey! There was an overwhelming response so we will be planning two swimming sessions at Eileen Dailly pool. As soon as more details are available, we will happily share!

Some reminders:

• Grade 5s: Please sign forms and pay for Camp Jubilee.
• If your child has not returned their Student Led conference envelopes yet, please return.
• Donations for Canucks Autism Network will be closing on April 28. Go to School Cash Online if you would like to donate, thank you.

With a heart of gratitude, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

We have had a fun first week back after spring break! We hope you had a restful and relaxing break as well!

We are dancers.

We started Hip Hop lessons this week. It is incredible how quickly Sue, the dance instructor, can teach them so many dance steps in a short period of time! They loved the music she chose. We are looking forward to sharing our final performance next week! Just a reminder to go to Cash Online to pay $6 for your child’s portion of the costs. Thank you so much to the Parent Council for matching the remainder of the costs!

We are mathematicians.

On Monday, we went back to our math platooning so the grade 4’s are taught by Mr. Anchor again. Both grade 4’s and 5’s are learning about multiplication. This is a great reminder to have your child practice their multiplication math facts every night at home. Five minutes a night will make a difference! Thank you for your support!

We are scientists.

On Wednesday, students attended their first Gilmore University science class on anatomy! Professor Chan introduced the circulatory system. Ask your child to teach you some facts they learned. They are learning how to take notes. A tip from memory guru and brain coach Jim Kwik: If you teach someone the concepts you just learned, you get to learn it twice! Here is the Circulatory System video for Kids we watched if you’d like to rewatch it with your child at home to review.

Side note: I really enjoyed reading Jim Kwik’s book Limitless and also thoroughly enjoy listening to his podcast Kwik Brain. Have a listen and let me know what you think!

We are artists.

Check out our art! Students worked so hard on these projects. Thank you, Mrs. Paulich for teaching art!

We had a blast today for April Fool’s Day. Ask your child about what we did to “celebrate”! What a fun day together!

Thank you so much for your continued support at home. We appreciate you!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich

Looking ahead, we will have an early dismissal on Thursday, April 14 at 1:45pm. Your child will bring home an agenda with work samples to share with you.

Dear Division 6 parents,

This week, here are some of the exciting things we learned.

Grade 4 mathematicians have their math test this Wednesday. The Grade 5’s have been working on addition with regrouping and learning how to explain this process. If they can explain it in a simple way, then I know they understand the concept regardless of what digits they are given to calculate.

We care about our community. This week, we had an opportunity to write a letter to a resident of Seton Villa. Each student wrote to a senior. We hope they will enjoy reading our letters!

We continued to be scientists who learn together as we carried on with our reading groups and learned about text features of non-fiction books to better help us understand what we read. We will be finishing this off this week and then reflecting on how well we worked in a group and our learning overall.

We learned about the next two lessons in the 7 Habits of Happy Kids by Covey.

#5 – Seek first to understand and then to be understood. This was a lesson about the importance of listening.

#6 – Synergy: We are better together. This lesson was about the importance of cooperation and teamwork.

Students were given choice in how they wanted to respond to the texts. They could write about what resonated with them or they could write a creative story that outlines the same message. I love offering choice to students to bring out their ideas and develop their writing skills.

At home, feel free to reinforce these concepts and how they can apply what they learned to different situations and communities your child belongs in.

On Thursday, what a wonderful way to celebrate what our school has been learning in music with Mr. Phelps! We had an amazing drum presentation. I would love to share this with you! Next week on Thursday, December 16 at 7:00pm, you are welcome to join me on Zoom to watch the 4 minute drum presentation, and then we can stay on to get to know each other a little better until 7:30pm! I will send the Zoom link in an email.

It’s hard to believe we are nearing the winter break. It’s been such an amazing year together so far! We love being your child’s teacher and working with you! Thank you so very much for your continued support at home.

We appreciate you so much!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Mrs. Paulich