Dear Parents,

Wow, what a fast two weeks! A lot has happened! Click here to watch the video update. No time to watch? Feel free to read our summary here.

This was two weeks ago but on Monday, September 21, we had a great turnout at our Meet Ms. Chan over Zoom. Thank you so very much for being there. I felt so blessed and honoured to meet so many of you! Then on September 23 and 24, we had the privilege to connect for our Meet the Teacher Conferences. Your sharing and insight are invaluable to us!

We continued to build our community and relationships through our Community Circle time. One day, we played Car & Driver. This activity helped us experience trust. Trust in each other. We talked about how trust is generally and generously given until there’s a reason to take it back. Our goal is to live our lives with integrity so that there is no reason for others not to trust you. This goes back to our three essential questions:

1. Will you do the right thing?
2. Will you do today’s best?
3. What will you do for others today?

If we regularly ask ourselves these questions, and reflect on our mindset, language, and actions, then we will be well on our way to being positive role models and good citizens of the world! We have been using these questions after our tasks and reviewing them before beginning our new related tasks. We have seen improvements already!

On October 1st during our Community Circle, we shared our September highlights. It was so heartwarming to hear that almost all of them shared how grateful they felt to be back in school with their friends, learning, and in our class! I so love how comfortable they feel to share!

For Reading, we learned about the Say Something strategy. It is important for readers to have opportunities to talk about what they are reading in order to develop deeper understanding of text, characters, and meaning, for example. This is why we spend time practicing our “Say Something” strategy. Here, they practice their communication skills – speaking and listening, as they dive deeper into the book like what adults do during Book Club talks. They also will practice critical thinking skills as the year progresses. Many students continue to enjoy reading books on Epic. If you need more information, please reach out!

Last week, we read the story A Walk in the Rain with a Brain and tried our hand at sketchnoting, which has become very popular in the past few years in education. Here, students record key words and draw images that help them remember. It was my first time sketchnoting too! This story was about the importance of discovering how our brains are different and that everyone is “smart”. We need to spend time to figure out how we are “smart” and not compare ourselves to others.

For Math, we have been doing Number Talks. Through doing these, we used our critical thinking skills to learn what digits are, what the commutative property is (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 3×5=15 and 5×3=15), the all about digital roots! I have loved seeing critical thinking in action during these math times as we processed our new information! We will be moving into learning Place Value this week.

For Science, we started our Rock unit by recording what we think we know and what we wonder about rocks. For this inquiry-based unit, we will learn about and dive into what interests them most!

In the Computer Lab, students have learned a lot in a short time. In the last couple weeks, they learned how to write an email using proper etiquette, became familiar with Assignments in Teams, learned how to navigate their online Class Notebook (which looks like a binder with tabs), started their Digital Portfolios in PowerPoint, and started writing their stories. We finally have our Computer Lab times set. We have the lab booked on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Students had a chance to spend some time flushing out what their Passion Projects will be. They spent some time talking to different classmates about their ideas. The hope was that the more they talked about their plans, the more excited they would get! That’s how we can tell if we have found the right Passion Project for us!

Ms. Paulich did a cool art activity with them that shows what is Behind My Mask. They wrote words that described them.

Last week, we went on our Terry Fox Run in the neighbourhood. As a school, we decided to walk as a class to keep our cohorts safely together. We walked the route twice and everyone represented Gilmore well. It was such a beautiful day! I absolutely loved all of the social interactions I saw happening as we walked!

We also acknowledged Orange Shirt Day. In the past couple weeks, they learned about residential schools and the meaning behind this day with Mrs. Siu and Ms. Paulich.

We are looking forward to a fantastic October! Thank you for your continued support at home! As always, should you have any questions, please ask! We are here to support you and your child as we work as partners! We feel SO fortunate to be teaching your wonderful children. We have the best class family ever!!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan & Ms. Paulich

Dear students and families,

What an awesome week together! First of all, thank you for arriving on time every day! Please remember to do the daily health check before sending your child to school. Thank you for your thoughtfulness in keeping us all safe!

If you prefer to watch than read, here is the update video! Click here (Sorry, it’s 8:46 min long. I didn’t realize it was that long when I was recording it!). These videos and blog posts are meant for your children too so please review and have conversations about what was learned in order to reinforce. Thank you for your investment of time in your child’s learning! Ask them to reflect and tell you from their point of view. This works on their communication skills!

Meet the Teacher Conferences are next week on Wednesday, September 23 (3:15 to 6 pm) and Thursday, September 24 (2:15 to 6 pm) with an early dismissal on Thursday at 2:00 pm. Please read the important email sent to you from our Gilmore office. In the email, you will learn about our new online booking system with attached instructions. We recommend that you create an account and add your child(ren) before the portal opens tomorrow at noon. It is first come, first serve.

On Thursday, after our Flextime, we started our morning with our Community Circle finishing this sentence, “I feel happy when… “. It was heartwarming to hear many comments about feeling happy when they come to school. After just one week, it feels like we’ve been together much longer. We are thrilled to see our classroom community show respect and cooperation!

Next, we learned about comfort zone circles. We went to the Activity Room where they were given scenarios. This was a fun, interactive way where they moved to a part of the room that represented their comfort level. It’s important to understand themselves when learning. I told them that they will be regularly pushed out of their comfort zone for optimal learning in their stretch zone.

• Comfort zone: unchallenged, bored, stable, safe, easy
• Stretch zone: This is the learning zone – excited, exhilarated, challenged, alive, willing to take risks
• Panic zone: fearful, tense, stressed

Ms. Paulich finished the STEM activity with them in the afternoon. So MUCH fun! Here were a couple reflection questions:

What about your design worked well?

• Our paper was all used up and our strips were skinny which made it long
• It was strong and did not break
• Durability and we used all the supplies

If you were to do this challenge again what would you do differently?

• Try not to overlap the edges of the paper
• Make the strips longer and thinner making the chain longer
• Use thinner pieces so you have more to make the chain longer

Friday’s theme: Celebration Friday! After our Flextime, we gathered in our Community Circle to share our celebrations from the week and cheer for each other. Again, many comments about celebrating a great first week and feelings of happiness to be in the class. My heart was so full after listening to their celebrations!

Hooray for You! We read this book that celebrates “you-ness”, all the things that make you unique, special, and different! We spent some time working on our heart maps. I loved seeing all the things that make their heart happy!

We went back to the Computer Lab and learned about how to be a good digital citizen. They are now at an age where some have social media accounts or play online games where they talk to people they have never met in person. So it’s very important to teach them to THINK before they post or say things to others in person and behind a screen. What they post is permanent and may affect their future so we want them to build a positive online presence! We practiced in Teams in the Chat feature. I imagine we will have more conversations about how we use this space responsibly, respectfully, and with integrity.

Then we logged into Epic to do some reading. I will send you the class code in an email to keep it private and not post it here. I will be adding your emails this weekend so expect to see an email from Epic to invite you to sign up. This will allow your child to have an extra two hours of reading time at home outside of the free account which gives them free access from 7 am to 4 pm.

Finally, on Teams, they worked on a reflection assignment. They were asked the following questions:

• What can I do better as their teacher for them or the class?
• What can you improve on for next week? What is your goal?
• What is your celebration from the week?

Not everyone handed in their work because they did not all finish so if you can find some time over the weekend to encourage your child to login to O365 to complete the work and to click on TURN IN, that would be so helpful so they won’t be behind starting next week. Thank you so much! If you need any support, please send me an email.

Finally, I introduced the idea of Passion Projects. We watched the video as a launch. Please have a conversation with your child and help them brainstorm different possibilities for what they might want to focus on for their Passion Project. It’s best to brainstorm some ideas first! Feel free to have them bring it to school next week! They do not need to make a decision yet. What they choose needs to be realistic given the parameters of our health and safety protocols. So looking forward to seeing what they choose!

Ms. Paulich and I feel so very blessed to be your child’s teacher this year! Thank you for sharing your child with us. Your children are happy to be back at school and so are we! We are so looking forward to meeting you later next week over Zoom! A Zoom link will be shared with you next Tuesday evening.

FYI… for students who like to bring their own device, we will visit the Computer Lab next Monday. We will be going to the gym on Tuesday and Wednesday, so please dress appropriately to exercise!

We always love it when parents reach out to connect! To parents AND students, what was your most favourite activity from this week? Please post a comment! Thank you! 

Thank you for your support at home. We appreciate you! Have a fabulous weekend! 🙂

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Dear families,

We had another wonderful day together! It may help you to know that Ms. Paulich is in the class on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings as well as Thursday afternoons.

In the morning, students were grouped together for a paper chain STEM challenge! They brainstormed to come up with plans. Core Competencies: I can communicate and collaborate to work together with others! I can think critically! Tomorrow, the team challenge is ON!

In the afternoon, we met in our Community Circle to share our names again and suggest an exercise for us to all do. So, we did jumping jacks, lunges, burpees, and high knees, to name a few. We used a meme check-in just for fun to help us share how we were feeling. They chose an animal to help them express their emotions! Then we ended our circle time with freeze dancing to Can’t Stop This Feeling. So much fun!

We then talked about 5 Questions to Reveal Student’s Strengths & Interests. It was interesting that writing down their personal strengths and what they are passionate about didn’t come easily to them. I am excited to witness their growth over time. I truly believe it is so important they know what their strengths are especially in character so they not only can recognize these in each other but they can come to understand their value and the impact they have as good citizens in their communities.

As for developing passions, we will start to look at the beginning stages of our Passion Projects this Friday! Please feel free to begin to have conversations at home about what your child is passionate about or would most LOVE to learn about during this independent, self-directed learning time. To learn more about Passion Projects, I was a guest blogger for School Rubric. They published my blog post just last week on September 8th! To read my blog post, click here! If you want to take a look at the projects my students did last year, click here.

Students were excited to receive their planners! The cost will be $10. You can make a payment through School Cash Online soon. Please sign their planners each night. It is best if their planners are kept in a large Ziplock bag to limit the possibility of water leakage from bottles in their backpacks. Please feel free to write messages in the planner but the best way to communicate would be via email. Thank you!

I have so loved reading the emails your child sent to me because I am learning more about them! I have thoroughly enjoyed writing my responses to continue to get to know them better. Due to the fact that I am not their teacher in class 100% of the time, this is just another way we can stay connected and build that all important relationship outside the walls of the school. Besides, this is a real reason to read and write! They practice their communication skills too!

Your children make us feel so happy and loved! Thank you for your support by reading our blog posts. We highly recommend you read these together and then have a conversation around what they learned. We appreciate you! As always, please reach out should you have any questions or concerns and feel free to leave a comment on this blog to let us know what resonated with you. Thank you for your time! 🙂

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich

Dear families,

We had another great day at school today! They spent the morning with Ms. Paulich as I had my Admin time. I went out early to greet them and to say hello before the day began. Seeing them and connecting with them makes my heart so happy!! When I saw them in the hallway later, they looked flushed and happy after getting some good exercise! They also had their first lesson on growth vs fixed mindset. Both Ms. Paulich and I feel so strongly in developing a growth mindset and look forward to watching them work through challenging tasks and learn by making mistakes. See challenges as opportunities for creativity and growth!

In the afternoon with me, we read silently. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to some of your children read. I noticed they already have some great reading strategies! Then they wrote me a story. I am so looking forward to sitting down to read them! We ended our day in the computer lab learning about how to be good digital citizens. We also learned how to write an email to me. So for students who wish to bring their own devices, we will be returning to the Computer Lab this Friday! I asked all students to memorize their login information. This helps to keep their usernames and passwords safe and private if the only place someone can find it is in our brain and not on paper!

Everyone has done amazing so far in terms of being on time! Thank you! We know that sometimes being tardy cannot be avoided. If our class has come into the school already, please send your child through the main doors. Please ask your child to check in with Ms. Nickell before going to class. Thanks!

I registered for an account for Epic School. This will give your child access to thousands (over 14,000!) of high-interest books to read at school and at home. My students last year absolutely LOVED Epic! 

Students will sometimes use this during school, 7am-4pm local time, Monday to Friday. During school hours, students can log in to Epic School from school or home with their Class Code, and read between 7am-4pm. (A gentle reminder to send some earbuds with a microphone, please. Thank you!)

Epic Free: Students use after school, after 4pm local time, Monday to Friday and weekends
After 4pm local time, students can access a selection of books on Epic Free for up to 2 hours/week, after parents sign up with an email address. Parents, you will be sent an email inviting you to sign up. After that, students can simply log in to Epic using their class code to access both Epic School and Epic Free. Their reading experience will switch seamlessly between the two experiences, depending on the time of day!

Should you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Students will have access to physical books from our school library and classroom library as well. Thank you to Ms. Papapanagiotou for delivering so many books to our classroom!

Looking forward to seeing your lovely children tomorrow!

As always, we are both here to support you and your child so feel free to reach out should you have any questions!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan and Ms. Paulich