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 families,

The week flew by! They say, “time flies when you’re having fun!” and fun we definitely had! There seems to be a time thief in our classroom. I love how they are often surprised that it’s already lunch or it’s already home time. We are SO grateful to have met almost all of you during our Parents as Partners conferences! Thank you SO much for filling out the questionnaire and for sharing your expertise about your child so we can better support them and their learning. We were happy to hear that they are enjoying coming to school!

Social Emotional Learning

Last week, we learned more about what it means to have a growth mindset. We continued to work on our comfort zone circles too. Hoping that once they are all done, this will be their first post in Spaces (our ePortfolios)!

READ MORE !

Dear families,

We are so excited to have spent an awesome first week together getting to know each other, setting up routines, and having fun while learning!

Our Beliefs

Thank you to all of you who joined us for our Meet Your Teachers night last Wednesday! Here is a recap of what was shared about our beliefs:

• We strive for a warm, safe, and welcoming classroom culture that is filled with meaningful relationships, engaging learning experiences, and joy. We want all children to feel loved, seen, valued, heard, and appreciated. We foster collaboration and a mindset of working together by developing teamwork skills. We are better together and stronger together.
• Relationships are gifts! They are key to learning about ourselves and each other. We believe in fostering love, kindness, gratitude, and positivity through every interaction. Every single ATOMIC interaction is an opportunity to uplift others to help brighten their day and make our environment a more positive one. Each ATOMIC interaction is foundational to building better relationships.
• In all of our learning, children begin at different levels and we do our best to help them grow from where they are. We plan activities that will encourage them to be in their stretch zone because being challenged is where they grow most, not by staying in their comfort zones.
  • We started learning about the differences in comfort zones, stretch zones, and not yet zones last week with a fun activity physically moving around to understand the differences. If you’d like to learn more about stretch zones, read an article by me titled A Simple Way I Show Students They’re Growing Every Day published on Teacher2Teacher. Many parents and students have commented on this at the end of the year as an important life lesson.
• We want to help students discover their strengths, values, beliefs, and how they shine. All students have leadership qualities already. We foster these skills through opportunities and by noticing, naming, and nurturing leadership skills we see. If you’re interested to learn more, I wrote an article about the Gift of Leadership.
• Believe in students until they believe in themselves…then believe in them more. This is so important in building their self-confidence. Children who believe in themselves feel more safe and confident to take more risks and challenge themselves too. We foster a belief that they are their own loudest cheerleader!

Communication

To learn more about which teacher is in the classroom and when during the week, visit our About Our Class page. More information about Scholastic Reading Club can also be found here.

You will be receiving updates on what is going on in our classroom via blog posts. When there is a new post, you will receive an email notification.

Students will also be reflecting and sharing their learning through SpacesEDU, which is a digital portfolio. More information will come at a later date.

Reading

Your child has an EPIC account through our class. Our class code is ycr9510 (think, you can read 95-10 to help you remember). This accessible anytime between 7 am to 3 pm. They have access to over 40,000 books, audiobooks, and learning videos. So if your child is at home sick for the day, feel free to have them read on Epic if they are feeling up to it!

Reminders

• Please fill out the Parents as Partners – Getting to Know Your Child form before we meet. Thank you for the ones we already received and for your time to fill out.
• Please sign up for your appointment to meet with us on September 21 or 22. For more information on how, please check out the Gilmore website for specific instructions.
• Join us at the Gilmore Community BBQ this Thursday, September 22 from 2-5pm!
• Every Thursday morning, there is a great opportunity to meet with Mr. Greenwood, our Community Coordinator, and other parents for coffee, snacks, and conversation! Come into the Community Room when you are free on a Thursday from 9 to 10am. All are welcome!
• Students will be presenting their All About Me bags next week. Please have them bring in their items on Tuesday. Thank you for helping your child prepare a few sentences for each item.
• Please pay for planners on School Cash Online. Thank you!

Thank you so much for reading this post. We aim to have weekly updates so look for the email notification on the weekend.

We appreciate you for all of your support! Anytime you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. We are looking forward to working as partners in your child’s education.

So excited to see how the year unfolds as our hearts connect each day!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan & Mrs. Paulich

Dear Div. 6 parents and students,

This will be the last blog post sent to you before you join your new teacher and classmates on Monday morning. As I sit here reflecting on an incredible year of growth filled with love, fun, and laughter, I can’t help but have such bittersweet feelings…sad I will not be teaching them anymore but joyful and proud they worked so hard that their wings grew bigger and stronger to help them fly higher in life. They are well on their way to continue to build a strong relationship with themselves as people who know their strengths, values, beliefs, and how they shine!

All last year, I shared how much we enjoyed being together. During our last community circle on Thursday, everyone had an opportunity to share what they are grateful for our class one last time. They shared such heartwarming reasons. Please feel free to ask your child what they said and what they heard others say.

These mixed feelings made me think about a popular quote by Dr. Seuss: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

I will always have such fond memories and I believe your children will too.

When you think of our year together,
My hope is that you will SMILE,
Feel the warmth in your heart because of the LOVE we shared,
And remember how much FUN we had as we enjoyed each other’s company.

Thank you for trusting us with your child every day and for your continued support all year. It was a true pleasure being partners in your child’s learning.

This isn’t a farewell. It’s a “can’t wait to see you again soon”! As I shared at the end of last year, I am your child’s forever teacher and will be here, happy to support you and them when needed.

Have the most wonderful and exciting fresh start to a brand new class! Welcome to grade 5 and 6!

Miss you already!! Please come visit!

With much love and gratitude, Ms. Chan ❤️