Dear families,

During our community circle time, we started the day sharing what we appreciate most about water. Then we read a story called The Water Walker written and illustrated by Joanne Robertson about a grandmother who walks to raise awareness about the importance of protecting water for life on our planet and for generations to come. Students wrote thoughtful reflections on what they appreciate about water, what they can do to protect or conserve, and their hope for how others will use water responsibly. 

Pukana /ˈpuːkənə/ game is a traditional Maori (Indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand) hand game that Ms. Innes taught them last week. When I asked them about it, they said they wanted to play again so they taught me how. I couldn’t find anything online that is exactly the same as how we played but this video gives you a sense. They had so much fun playing this. Ask your child about it!

On Monday, grade 4 students wrote their decimals test. The package of tests were sent home for parents to review. If your child still has their tests at home, please return to school on Monday. The re-test will be on Monday, December 16th. If you need a copy of the study guide, please go to We Are Learners page – Mathematicians.

For our new Math, we are learning about probability. First we watched a video that taught us about equal, likely, unlikely, certainly, and impossible and we practiced with some examples:

Then we watched an animation video that further reviewed these concepts. To learn more about the learning outcomes for grade 3’s and 4’s, go to our We Are Learners – Mathematicians page.

Students have been given Prodigy accounts to learn and practice Math concepts or if they had an existing account, it has been linked to our classroom. It’s a responsive online Math program that is tailored to your child’s needs based on the accuracy of their answers. Click here to learn more or sign in to play. For students, they need to click on the white button: Play Prodigy. They brought home their login information today.

This week, students started writing a Christmas story with a partner. I am always so pleased to see that no matter who I match up, each partnership works so well together. They look forward to this story writing time. We will continue with these stories next week.

I was noticing that there was an overuse of conjunctions in their writing or situations where using a conjunction would have been effective so Ms. Tas and I did a lesson on what a conjunction is and how to use. Students were either given a subject, conjunction, or predicate to start. Then they had to move around the room to find different people to create sentences that make sense. Students enjoyed themselves and laughed at some of the silly sentences that were put together.

Mr. Baumann has been teaching Division 9 art since the beginning of the year for a half hour a week. Recently, they have been working on winter and Christmas art but I wanted to share their toucans completed earlier in the year. If you have your child log in to their O365 account, their individual toucans have been uploaded for you to enjoy. I love seeing their creativity come alive as they produce different art pieces even though they are given the same instructions. I also appreciate the perseverance they show with the various art projects too.

Students have been practicing their song every day this week in preparation for the Christmas concert next Tuesday night. I videotaped them each time and they self-assessed so they could think about how to improve. They look better and better each time! If your child did not bring concert clothes in a labelled bag yet, please send to school on Monday. On the night of the concert, please have your child return to school before 6:30 pm. They will report to Ms. Walji and Ms. Basso’s classroom – Room 6. Please arrive on time. Thank you.

We had a great time today decorating gingerbread cookies with your big buddies today. We also enjoyed our last session of yoga with Ms. Gomes in the afternoon. We both noticed an improvement from last week in the way that they were able to be calm and practice yoga postures. She gave them a mini book to take home. Thank you for the support from PAC that made these sessions possible.

Ice skating forms are due on Thursday, December 19th. To learn more, go to our Field Trips page. 

In preparation for Breakfast with Santa on Friday, December 20th, please have your child bring a reusable plate, fork, and knife in a labelled bag to school. Students can bring these items in starting on Monday.

We are collecting food for the Food Bank all of next week. Please bring non-perishable food items. Thank you.

Dear families,

It’s hard to believe there are only two more weeks left before the winter break! I feel happy to spend my days with your children because they make me smile and laugh with the things they say, what they do, and how they positively interact with each other. Also, the improvements I see as they work towards their goals in listening, speaking, work habits, reading, writing, math, etc. make it a rewarding day every day. For example, when I see students begin to use or incorporate new learning in their writing, it really fills me with great joy and fills my heart with excitement. Admittedly, sometimes I am so overjoyed that I spontaneously clap with excitement like a little child. Yes, the children look at me strange but it’s like I cannot contain my giddiness over the improvements I see. It actually feels more exciting than opening any present. Here are some things we learned about last week:

Ms. Innes was our TOC again on Monday. This is a write up from her: We talked about the history of First Nation’s Peoples’ in B.C. The discussion flowed into the residential school system. Then we read “When We Were Alone” by David Robertson. This picture book was delivered through a story basket containing many objects to connect students deeply to the concepts of residential schools. They then recreated a page from the book and wrote a reflection on why that page was chosen and what their favourite part was.

Ms. Innes also taught them how to say, “[Name] is my name” from the language of the Squamish Peoples’ called Sḵwx̱wúmesh Sníchim. It looks like this: Ms. Innes ḵwi un sna. There were also signs that went with each word. Please ask your child to demonstrate. 

So as an extension lesson, students were introduced to the alphabet in American Sign Language. They learned how to ask another what their name was by signing, “Your name what?” (The syntax is different than in English.) Then they responded by signing, “My name ______” followed by signing, “Nice to meet you.” They had an opportunity to practice over and over again as they greeted each other. 

Based on what we were seeing with student’s writing, we learned about what makes a sentence = subject and predicate. We then practiced with some examples on the whiteboard. After that, the real fun began. Students each received four strips of paper to write down two subjects and two predicates. We paired up and matched our subjects to our partner’s predicates. What ensued was lots of laughter because of the silly sentences that were put together as we moved from partner to partner. One of Steven’s favourite sentences was: Ms. Chan fell down a rabbit hole. There were some very creative and interesting sentences put together!

We watched the story How to Catch a Star (video link) and then students had a choice to retell the story providing the main parts or to write a sequel to the story. I so enjoyed reading their writing because of their creativity and they enjoyed writing part two to the story.

Over the next couple days, we watched the story Olive the Other Reindeer (video link) and The Elves and the Shoemaker (video link). Students were given the choice to write a prequel or sequel to the story. I so loved the creativity I saw in their writing again. They love listening to the sequels written by their classmates as we showcase word choice, use of dialogue, and creativity, for example. 

Students are really responding to the writing lessons and have continued to improve in this area. After they finish writing, they have an opportunity to conference with me. During this time, we read their writing together to learn about what they are doing well (strengths so they know what they need to continue doing) and to learn from the errors (some of these errors become our new goals). This valuable discussion provides each student with feedback on their personal learning goals so they can improve from exactly where they are as they are offered next steps in how to improve. If there is a clear area of opportunity, children are asked to take that opportunity to re-write or add on to their writing that day for immediate practice in exactly the area they need to improve. I wish you could see their faces when they come back to show me their changes – just full of pride.

We had our first Christmas concert rehearsal in the gym on Thursday. I can’t wait for you to see them perform! A reminder that your concert ticket orders are due on Monday, December 9th. There will be an afternoon performance at 1:30 pm and an evening performance at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, December 17th. 

On Friday, we walked with our little buddies to put their letter to Santa in the mailbox. I so loved hearing the chatter and laughter as they walked and talked with their little buddies. Next week on Friday, we will be decorating gingerbread cookies with our big buddies. Please send candies for our gingerbread cookies starting on Monday. Reminder that NO food products with nuts can be brought to school. We have life threatening allergies. Thank you.

We had our second session of yoga with Ms. Gomes. They learned a little about the history of yoga postures, the importance of breathing, and practiced some new postures to challenge our bodies. We have one more session this coming Friday. Please have your child wear comfortable clothing. Thank you.

Throughout the week, we reviewed fractions and decimals in preparation for their Math test on fractions. Thank you for your support at home to help them review. The decimals study guide went home on Friday. Click here to view. Grade 4’s  Math test on decimals will be on Monday; some grade 3’s wanted to challenge themselves by learning about decimals too but please know that this is not expected for grade 3’s. To find out about what the learning outcomes are for this Math unit, this information can be found on our We Are Learners – Mathematicians page.

Continue to bring in new socks for our Sock It to Poverty campaign. We will be collecting food for the Food Bank starting too.

Forms to return and make payments: Christmas concert, gingerbread cookies, and breakfast with Santa

Bring in clothing for Christmas concert in a labelled bag by Wednesday, December 11th. Thank you.

Dear families,

On Monday, we had a visit from the tooth fairy. Tanya came by to teach us quite a few things. Students had an opportunity to practice holding and flossing false teeth! We also learned about how to take good care of our teeth along with the various parts of our teeth like how enamel is the hardest tissue in the human body. Here is a message from her:

I had the privilege and an amazing opportunity to share with your children my passion and the importance of taking care of their dental hygiene health. My name is Tanya (the tooth fairy) and I am a Registered Dental Hygienist and owner of Olive Branch Dental Hygiene and Teeth Whitening. My goal is to educate your kids on the importance of preventative dentistry to achieve the best overall health and wellness for their smiles. We talked about the importance of flossing before brushing, brushing twice a day for 2 minutes, choosing water as a main drink throughout the day, and incorporating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables into their daily routines. If you are interested in more information on keeping your kid’s teeth healthy or on what we discussed, please feel free to call our office at 604-918-5420 at 4658 Hastings Street.

Every morning, we gather together to meet in our Community Circle. It is often a time to share something about ourselves like what we did on the weekend or how we are feeling. On Tuesday, they finished the starter: “I feel happy when…” and the next day, “I feel on top of the world when…” There were some really endearing ideas shared like:

• when I get to spend time with my dad/mom/family. *This one melted my heart every time I heard the different reasons why.
• when I play with my friends.

As a review, here are the habits covered so far:

1. Be Proactive – Take initiative. You’re in charge!
2. Begin with the End in Mind – Focus on goals and have a plan!
3. Put First Things First – Work first, then play!
4. Think Win-Win – Everyone can win!
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood – Listen before you speak!

#6: Synergize – Together is Better

Synergy: “valuing differences and then working together to create a better solution than what anyone could do alone. It’s when 1+1 = 3 or more.” This last statement lead to some interesting conversation. At first they couldn’t get over the literal and mathematical aspect of the equation but after further discussion, I believe they understood it better. TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More so we talked about how our class is very much like a team and how we all work together to support each other each day.

Here is Tyson’s reflection: Teamwork is a very important skill. For example, most of the characters were individual groups in the soccer game. When they worked as a team they tied the game and won. For my example, I played a hockey game and I made great passes to my teammates and we won. After the hockey game, I felt proud of my team for helping my team win. Teamwork is a very important skill because you could get lots of things done faster and better.

#7: Sharpen the Saw – Balance Feels Best

“We all feel better when we are balanced, when we take time to renew the four parts of who we are: body, heart, mind, and soul.” The main lesson here was about how it’s important for us to give attention to and balance our time with our activities so that we do not do too much of the same thing. Examples: You use your heart when you play with your friends, your body when you exercise, your soul when you find something quiet to do that makes you feel fresh inside (like going out into nature and thinking about what makes us happy), and your mind when you read.

Click here to learn more about the 7 habits.

Students wrote a Math test to show what they know about Fractions and Decimals (grade 4). Tests are just one way for teachers to find out how well students understand concepts; it informs me of which concepts may need more time. We will review this week. Click here to learn about the learning outcomes on our Mathematicians page under We are Learners.

Thursday was fun with Young People’s Concert in the morning and a featured game at the World Ringette Championships. Click here if you want to learn more about the game or watch a video produced by Ringette Canada. Ringette is truly a Canadian-born sport created by Sam Jacks in 1963. Now, there are over 30,000 players who play across Canada and in different parts of the world.

Each student received a bandana to wear or wave and keep as they cheered on the Czech team or Team USA. The final score was 17 -3 for Team USA so they got to see a LOT of goals scored! Thank you again to the parents of Kyle, Yunsoo, Max, Lucas L., and Liliana for driving us to and from the rink.

On Friday, they had their first session of yoga with Ms. Gomes. I am looking forward to participating with them next Friday!

We had the privilege of having Ms. Innes as our TOC on Thursday and Friday. She was one of our Indigenous Education support teachers who I worked with on our District Staff Development team. She will be our TOC on Monday again as I will be away. I asked her to share her personal stories and knowledge. I wish I could be there so I can learn from her too.

Sincerely, Ms. Chan

Please continue to support the Sock it to Poverty campaign by bringing in new warm socks for those in need. Thank you.

Dear families,

It will be a busy day on Thursday. Students will be going to the Young People’s Concert in the morning. Then we plan to leave at around 12:10 pm if the bus returns on time. The rink can be cold so please have your child dress warmly. Sending an extra snack for the afternoon would be a good idea as well, please. Grade 3’s all need to bring a booster seat unless they are 145 cm (or 4’9″). I measured their height today and only two grade 3’s will not need a booster seat. Just a note that there will be a TOC, Ms. Innes, on Thursday and Friday morning but I will return on both afternoons.

The students were very excited about their opportunity to visit the Book Fair on Tuesday. The last day will be this Friday at noon. To learn more about the Book Fair and hours, click here.

Sincerely, Ms. Chan