Dear families,

We had a wonderful second week together! One way we start our day is to find our name (magnets on the board) and choose an answer to our “Would you rather…” question. They have been enjoying connecting with each other their choices! They have already shared suggestions on future questions they want to ask classmates!

Meet Your Teacher Night

Thank you to the families who joined us last Wednesday to learn more about us, our philosophy, passions, and shared love for your children and teaching. Even though this is the first year Ms. Kim and I are working as partners, we already know that so many of our thinking, practice, and strategies are aligned so no matter which teacher is in the class that day, it will feel seamless.

All About Me presentations

We are still taking turns presenting our All About Me items to each other. It has been a great way to get to know each other better. Thank you for helping your child prepare what to say.

We are mathematicians.

We started our patterns unit by practicing action patterns and naming them. We worked together to practice creating varied patterns for our partner to copy. For example:

clap – snap – tap – clap – snap – tap – clap – snap – tap (ABC pattern)

The core pattern is: clap – snap – tap

During our Wondering Wednesday time (every Wednesday), we joined other classes outside to make patterns with things we found in nature. They had so much fun learning outside together!

• Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place). – First Peoples Principles of Learning

How to support at home: Ask your child to demonstrate a simple repeating pattern. Then ask them to teach you what the core pattern is. Find things around your home to create patterns together. Ask them what is the core pattern as review and to check for understanding.

Challenge:  Ask them to create increasingly more difficult patterns or use items in the house to create concrete patterns.

Thank you for your continued support of your child’s learning.

Scent free environment

Please do not send any hand sanitizers or hand creams that have any scents. Two of us in class have fragrance allergies. Thank you for your consideration!

Also, please do not send food items that have nuts. We have a nut allergy in our class. Thank you for keeping us all safe.

Notes & Reminders

• Please go to School Cash Online to pay $8 for planners and $30 for our shared school supplies.
• Please fill out all the forms in School Cash Online.
• Order your hot lunch program by going to School Cash Online.
• Wed, Oct 2: Individual Picture day

We look forward to spending the week with your wonderful children and look forward to meeting with you on Wednesday or Thursday! Thank you for being partners with us. Your child’s success depends on our cooperation and communication.

Grateful for our journey together this year, Ms. Chan

Dear Division 11 Families,

Hello from Ms. Kim!

We had a fantastic first week getting to know each other and building our classroom community through collaborative art and teamwork challenges. I can already tell we’re going to have a great year together!

In Social Studies, we are diving into learning about our identity by exploring self, family, community, and the land, as well as how they are all connected. This week, the students will focus on themselves, and we will be exploring the story behind their names. On Tuesday, they will be bringing home a handout with a few questions about their names. Please help them by answering these questions and talking to them about where their name comes from, who chose it, and any special meanings or stories behind it. Thank you in advance for your support with this activity.

• Learning requires exploration of one‘s identity. (First Peoples Principles of Learning)

In Math, we will be diving into data analysis. We’ve already been learning a lot about each other through surveys and data collection, and I’m excited to continue.

I look forward to seeing all the students again on Tuesday. Thank you!

Greetings from Ms. Chan!

We start every morning with a soft start which we call Heart time because they get to fill their heart with things that bring them joy. I love seeing new friendships begin!  I remind them to thank the people who brought them joy as they clean up before our morning message and community connection circle time. This is our regular daily routine to start us off just right!

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Dear Division 11 families,

What a wonderful first day together! I love them already! ❤️

We have decided that our Meet Your Teachers Night will be on Wednesday, September 18 at 7:00pm. You will receive a link to attend our virtual meeting on the afternoon of September 18. Please save the date!

Thank you in advance for your interest to meet with us!

Much appreciated, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

We are so excited to be your child’s teacher for this year! We are passionate about building relationships and developing connections with children and families. We’ve had a great morning so far! 🙂

About Ms. Chan

This is my second year at Kitchener as the Head Teacher and absolutely love it here! I have been teaching for 25+ years and love it more and more each year! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved it since my very first year of teaching too. In fact, I still keep in touch with some of those students!

I get so much joy spending my day with children by seeing their smiles, hearing their laughter, and witnessing their growth every day. I also love to spread joy, love, kindness, and gratitude too!

If you would like to get to know me better, please have a look around this blog and check out the About Our Class page. It has posts from the past few years but it will give you a sense of what I believe in and what I value. If you’d like to learn even more about me, please check out my website to read some blog posts or listen to some podcast episodes: livchan.com

About Ms. Kim

Ms. Kim has been teaching Grade 2 for six years in West Vancouver before welcoming her child in 2022. She is excited to be joining the Kitchener community, having loved her experience as a teacher on call at the school last year. She will be with the students on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Ms. Kim is passionate about helping students reach their full potential and fostering a love for lifelong learning. While she enjoys drawing and painting, most of her free time is currently dedicated to balancing motherhood and teaching. She hopes to resume her hobbies soon!

Getting to Know Your Child

Your child will go home with the Families as Partners Information Form today. The children often think that it is funny when I tell them they get to give YOU homework to hand in to their teacher. Please take your time to fill it out in consultation with your child. It would be greatly appreciated if these are returned by the end of the week. Thank you for your time and for sharing about your child so we can get to know them better. This information is invaluable so we can better support your child’s learning and development.

CLICK HERE to download an electronic copy (Word doc) of the Families as Partners Information Form. This is available because I know some people prefer to type their answers.

Some notes:

• We are Division 11.
• Our classroom is Room 8 which is just right of the main office.
• For Monday, September 9, pick up after school will be back at their original class just for today.
• Moving forward, pick up and drop off will be in the undercover area on the west side or back side of the main building starting on Tuesday, September 10.
• Your child will receive a school planner. We will use this for home-school communication. You can pay $8 for the planner on School Cash Online once it is available. You can also fill out school forms on School Cash Online.

Getting to Know Us

We look forward to meeting you at our Meet Your Teachers Night on Zoom next week! The date is still yet to be set but we will let you know very soon. We are excited to share a little about ourselves including our teaching philosophy, expectations, answer questions, and to greet you as a group before we meet you in person the following week for our Families as Partners conferences.

I regularly update this blog so you can stay informed about the fun, engaging, and meaningful learning we will do this year. I will add in your email addresses so you will receive email notification every time there is a new blog post published.

We are looking forward to meeting you very soon this week during drop off/pick up or next week during our Families as Partners conferences! Sign up for appointments will open up sometime next week but please save the dates: Wednesday, September 25 (3-5pm) and Thursday, September 26 (3-6pm).

Should you have any questions throughout the year, please feel free to contact us.  We firmly believe that we work as partners in your child’s education.

We are grateful for the opportunity to teach your child this year and to work with you! 🙂

With hearts full of appreciation, Ms. Chan (and Ms. Kim)