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,

Welcome back! We had a fantastic first day back today! We spent a good portion of our day learning about, brainstorming, discovering, and deciding on our “one word” that we will use to anchor ourselves in our daily lives. This is a practice that is gaining more momentum as an alternative to making a list of new year resolutions which many of us have trouble keeping for the entire year. Alternatively, choosing “one word” is something that I have been doing for the past few years. Click here to read about my “one word” from last year and this year in my reflection. In the past few days, I have felt so inspired by reading other people’s “one word” that I encouraged our Gilmore staff community to find their “one word” as well.

We watched a video about a story named One Word for Kids. In their planner, you will see a note to share about what we did today. For some, they were asked to dive into this further, to challenge themselves to go into their stretch zones to think even more deeply about how their “one word” can be applied to all aspects of their lives personally and in their communities and how it can help them during good times and challenging times. If your child was away, please have them explore by going online to see samples of words to choose from and then write a paragraph on why they chose this word as well as how they will use it. They can include how they will use this word. For example, if they chose “brave”, then how will they become braver? What strategies will they use to get outside of their comfort zone? What examples do they have for situations where they will need to be more brave? It’s all about diving in further and further for that “magnifying glass” writing. Click here for one website to check out. Click here for another.

During our last week together in December, we thoroughly enjoyed learning about everyone’s Passion Projects. For those who finished theirs, please begin to brainstorm what they want to learn about next!

From our Community Circle, it sounds like you had a wonderful yet quiet break but filled with lots of family time. I thoroughly enjoyed mine! Thank you, everyone, for your generous gifts. I am touched. The kind words written by your children in their cards warmed my heart. I am deeply grateful.

Sincerely, Ms. Chan

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