Dear families,

We definitely had a fun and fantastic second week of getting to know each other better. We are getting to know each other better and they are settling in very nicely into our classroom routines. Last Tuesday, my friend from my previous school was our TOC during my Head Teacher time. Ms. Kapusta commented on how they already knew our routines well! She introduced doodle art to them. They are almost all finished. Once we put them up on the bulletin board, I will share an image with you.

We thoroughly enjoyed our All About Me Bag presentations throughout the week! Children did so well for their first presentation! Thank you for your support in helping them prepare.

Families as Partners

I am ever so grateful for your time to have rich conversation about your child during our conferences. It was such valuable information which added to the form you so thoughtfully filled out prior to our meeting. I appreciated your openness. We are very fortunate and appreciate having such supportive parents. I am very excited about this upcoming year as we work together to support your child’s overall development and education. Thank you for your part in being my partner! Please feel free to connect with me anytime if you have any questions or concerns.

One of the questions brought up was your curiosity about the curriculum. If you are interested, please check out the Page on our class blog called “We Are Learners”

Here, you will find the curricular areas and what we are currently learning about. If you would like to check out our full BC curriculum, click here. Click on the curriculum and then choose the grade level.

Be sure to click on “Elaborations” for more details.

Core Competencies Development

We played some different games to practice the skills of communication, cooperation, and collaboration as we developed our teamwork skills.

One of our games was “Basketball”. They were placed into teams. They had to use the backboard to try to get as many balls into the basket. Each player took turns to be the backboard. Click here to see my X/Twitter post. You will see a short video of what the activity looked like. So many smiles and so much laughter was shared! I loved the reflection time afterwards when we unpacked all of the skills we practiced and the importance of teamwork!

The other game we played was “Keep up”. Using a happy face balloon, each team of 3-4 people had to take turns keeping the balloon up in the air for as long as they can. They tried to beat their personal team best. Again, the smiles and laughter with cooperation was such a happy sight to see! Great communication and teamwork skills too!

Terry Fox

We learned about Terry Fox’s life and dream to run across Canada to raise awareness and money for cancer research. We read a story written from the perspective on his best friend called Terry and Me and wrote our reflection in our writing books.

On Friday, we went to Willingdon Heights Park as a school to participate in the Terry Fox Run. It’s not too late to make a donation to the Terry Fox Foundation if you wish. Please click here.

We are Mathematicians.

This week, we played around with making patterns. We made a class patterns book with all of our examples! The main learning was around repeating patterns, identifying the core pattern, and describing the pattern as AB, ABB, ABC, etc. We also practiced action patterns with our bodies too! They really enjoyed that!

How you can support at home: Look for patterns around your home and in the neighbourhood. There are a lot of patterns out in nature too! Encourage them to find them in their natural surroundings! Use items in your home to create patterns together! Ask them to identify the core pattern and describe the pattern like AB, ABC. That is the core pattern that repeats.

We also used ten frames to practice ways to make ten. This means learning the combinations that equal 10 when we add two numbers together:

0 + 10 = 10
1 + 9 = 10
2 + 8 = 10
3 + 7 = 10
4 + 6 = 10
5 + 5 = 10

We practiced our accuracy and speed using a new iPad app named MathTappers: Find Sums. Click here to learn more. They had so much fun learning and practicing their facts! So many personal bests were reached with each turn!

How you can support at home: Click here to download this FREE app on your Apple device. Tap on the little blue i in the top right hand corner to change the sum to 10. This week, I will teach them a game using cards to practice the same concepts so you will have a new game to play with your child at home!

Orange Shirt Day

This week, our learning will be centered around Truth and Reconciliation. This Thursday, we will have an assembly in the morning before recess. Students are encouraged to wear orange on Thursday. Our class will be doing a little presentation to share our thoughts and feelings.

Reminders

• Friday, September 29: Pro-D Day; school not in session
• Saturday, September 30: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation – commemorate the history and legacy of the residential school system
• Monday, October 2: Truth and Reconciliation; school closed
• Wednesday, October 4: Individual Photo Day

Gratitude

Every day, I am so grateful to be your child’s teacher. There are so many moments in each day that bring us joy. Thank you for your sharing your children with us and for working with me to see them thrive and flourish!

Please feel free to leave a comment on this post or to email me with your thoughts or theirs on our past week! I’d love to hear about it! Thank you! 🙂

With much gratitude, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

We had a wonderful first week together! Everyone is settling in well as we learn about each other and our classroom routines. I just can’t help but tell them how much I appreciate them because of the joy they bring to my heart! Thank you for sharing your beautiful children with me. I am committed to making it a phenomenal year of growth, love, learning, and joy in each other’s presence because we all will play a part in making it happen!

I really appreciate the thoughtful and thorough Families and Partners Information forms you have filled out and returned to me. I still have a few to collect so please send it back to school on Monday, if possible. If you need another copy, CLICK HERE. It has brought me joy to read them over and to learn more about your child and your family!

Meet the Teacher Night

On Wednesday, I met with many of you to tell you a little more about me, my passions, beliefs, and teaching philosophy. Thank you for being there! I know some of you couldn’t be there so here is a very quick recap plus some extra information:

• What is key to building a warm, welcoming and inclusive environment where all children love to be, where they can feel like their authentic selves, and where they feel like they are a key contributing member with gifts and leadership qualities? Building a kind, thoughtful classroom culture based on children feeling loved, seen, valued, heard, appreciated, and safe is KEY! I love cultivating love and joy, and teaching them how to cultivate joy too! We will regularly practice expressing gratitude, which is key to increasing our level of happiness; when children are happy, they learn better because it activates more centers of our brain! These are non-negotiables. (If you are interested, I included some links to my blog posts on the topics.)
• I love to plan for fun, varied, relevant, and meaningful lessons and activities. I aim to make them engaging so children are motivated to learn. How do I do this? I try to make learning feel like an experience that involves not only their active brains but their bodies. They have learned lot of sign language so far! Ask them to teach you what they know!
• A common question centers around blended grade classes. We have almost an even split between grade 2s and 3s. If you’d like to learn more, CLICK HERE. For most of my career, I have taught grade 2/3. This is my absolute favourite combination! They have a beautiful opportunity to learn together at this age group. Many of your children’s learning will be driven by personal goal setting and reflection so it empowers them to take ownership of their own learning.
• I am a firm believer in developing core competencies and curricular competencies through the learning standards. I love to foster a sense of curiosity. One of my favourite things to offer are Passion Projects!
• I will not assign a lot of paper homework but I will send home unfinished work from time to time. I highly encourage children to read and write every day or practice their math skills, especially depending on the areas they need further development.
• All primary classes will be collecting $30 for school supplies. You will be able to pay on School Cash Online once it is set up.
• I added your email address to this class blog. Every time there is a new post, you will receive email notification. I aim to write weekly blog posts to keep you informed about all of the fun and engaging learning we get to do. I believe that these blog posts help to tell our story. Please see this as a gift to provide you with an opportunity to share a big part of their school life with you. Use it to solidify learning, deepen their understanding, and grow their curiosity. Thank you for your investment in your child’s education and thank you for being partners with me! Happy reading!

HAWKS Week

Last week was HAWKS week. Every day, we focused on a different word. We read stories that were aligned with the theme of the day, had discussions, and learned how to sign:

H = Helpful
A = Accepting
W = Welcoming
K = Kindness
S = Safety

For helpful, we played a balls in a basket game where we had to help our partners on our team move some balls to and from the baskets. They had fun!

For accepting, we read a book called The Dot by Peter Reynolds and used oil pastels to create our own dots. I’m sorry but I forgot to take a picture of their beautiful art! I will share it next week. We also had an opportunity to join a live event with Peter Reynolds on Friday for International Dot day! They got to hear him share his story.

For welcoming, we did an interactive activity where we practiced 5 different levels of being welcoming and made our own special handshakes with some classmates.

When your children line up in the morning, please encourage them to say hello to their classmates already in line. This really fosters a sense of welcoming and belonging. It also helps develop their comfort with each other in social interactions and makes them feel less like strangers. You can model this to them too when you say hello to their classmates already in line. Feel free to ask them their name. “Remember that a person’s name is to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” – Dale Carnegie

• Level 1: Smile only with no teeth showing.
• Level 2: Smile with teeth.
• Level 3: Smile with teeth and wave.
• Level 4: Smile with teeth, wave, and have wider eyes that say, “I’m happy to see you!”
• Level 5: All of the above but with an even larger big mouthed smile and waving both arms to say hello!

For kindness, we read a couple of books on kindness and wrote our first journal entry!

For safety, we practiced being safe in the gym with Mr. Ho, our PE teacher for the year.

Math

Children had fun graphing our classmate’s birthdays! We got to see that there are a couple months where we have no birthdays and a month where we have birthdays three days in a row!

All About Me in a Bag

Your child should have come home on Friday with a paper bag and an “All About Me Bag” notice. CLICK HERE if you did not receive the details on our first presentation opportunity!

I will be using a rubric to assess. CLICK HERE to see it. This will give you and your child a better idea of how to prepare. No pressure! This is their first presentation and I know they will continue to improve throughout the year. They will have many more opportunities! It truly is incredible how much they develop over the year with their communication and presentation skills.

How can you support? Please help them choose 3 items. For each item, help them come up with at least 3 details about each. It would be very helpful to write down what they want to share, practice reading it over and over again so they will feel more confident. Here’s a tip: Video record them presenting. Watch it together and have them reflect on what they can improve. Then practice again and record after a few more tries. I bet you’ll see an improvement!

Thank you! Presentations will begin anytime next week. If they are ready on Monday, they can present. If they aren’t ready until Friday, that’s okay too! I’ll find time for them to present on Friday!

Families as Partners

Thank you for booking an appointment to spend some time with me this week as you will have a fantastic opportunity to tell me more about your child. All appointments are 10 minutes long. I will refer to the information sheet you filled out and take some extra notes based on our valuable conversation.

If you did not book an appointment yet, please CLICK HERE to choose a time. I am really looking forward to it! I am so grateful for your time!

Terry Fox Run and Early Dismissal

On Friday, September 22, we will have a Terry Fox Run. After recess, we will gather in the gym for a short assembly and then walk to Willingdon Park for our run. They will be back on time for lunch. Please have your child dress appropriately for the weather and to bring a water bottle. Thank you! Look for fundraising information on the school website if you are interested in supporting the Terry Fox Foundation. It will be added early this week.

In the afternoon, there is an early dismissal so please pick up your child promptly at 2:00pm. Children often worry when their families don’t pick them up on time during early dismissal days.

Gratitude

In the short time I have been at Kitchener, I feel so blessed and grateful to be placed here. Staff, families, and children have made me feel so welcomed and so supported. I am so fortunate to be placed in such a warm and inviting community. Thank you to ALL of you for your part in making Kitchener such a phenomenal place to be! I appreciate you!

With a heart full of love and gratitude,

Ms. Chan

Dear families,

I am so excited to be your child’s teacher for this year! I am passionate about building relationships and developing connections with children and families. This is my first year at Kitchener as the new Head Teacher and loving it so far!

For the previous three years, I was the Head Teacher at Gilmore Community School. 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. 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

Your child will go home with the Families as Partners Information Form today. The children thought that it was funny when I told 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 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 13.
• For Monday, September 11, pick up after school will be back at their original class just for today.
• 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 12.

As the Head Teacher, I have some Admin time in the office. During this time, my teaching partner, Ms. Wat, will be in the classroom. This time will be on Tuesdays from 9:00am until 1:48pm. I am still in the building but not in the classroom to teach. Our classroom is Room 8 which is just right of the main office.

I look forward to meeting you at our Meet Your Teachers Night on Wednesday, September 13^th at 7:00pm on Zoom! I am 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. The link to join the meeting will be sent to your email on Wednesday.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to email me at Livia.Chan@burnabyschools.ca or speak to me after school. We can set up an appointment to meet as well. I firmly believe that we work as partners in your child’s education.

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 this week but please save the dates: Tuesday, September 19 (3-5pm) and Thursday, September 21 (3-6pm).

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

With a heart full of appreciation, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

Passion Project presentations are well underway! Addie started us off with her amazing presentation on foxes on Monday. Later that afternoon, we did a directed drawing on foxes that you would have seen come home that day. I loved seeing their creativity!

Here are other projects we enjoyed:

• Ramen by Chloe and Katelyn – Students even got a taste of ramen after their presentation!
• Space is So Cool! by Nassi and Kiran
• Monkeys by Cooper and Jeremy H.
• Axolotls by Lilly and Chiara
• Kangaroos by Alessandra
• Italian by Cristina

Here are a few more to come next:

• Blob fish
• Swans
• French

This is the first year I taught grade 2s (and second time teaching grade 3s) how to use PowerPoint, Word, and email. Honestly, I am extremely impressed with how quickly they learned! The way they put together slides with titles and information, their creativity and choice in images that match the slide topic, and their overall presentation skills will set them up well for future presentations. One thing they are learning to do better is to reference the resources they used.

Students have provided valuable feedback to help presenters know what they did well and how they can improve for next time. It’s impressive what they notice and how well they articulate this to their classmate in a positive and supportive way. Learning how to give feedback and constructive criticism is an important skill! Please feel free to ask your child about what they have enjoyed about the Passion Project presentations so far!

I also appreciate how they apply their new skills and how they support each other. We have little leaders who act as mentors, and it’s so heartwarming to watch how helpful so many are. I really believe that every child has leadership potential in them. They just need the right mix of opportunity, confidence, courage, plus a hint of coaching and maybe some nudging in order to shine. Once we notice and name it, this leadership trait is nurtured. Soon enough, we have more and more learners feeling like they are supportive leaders. I can often be found saying, “Thank you for being a leader by contributing to our classroom environment.”

Story Workshop
Students practiced oral storytelling with Ms. Lee. I reminded them that the tradition of oral storytelling is an important one in Indigenous families as many valuable stories are passed down from generation to generation. Every day, we share a part of our story with each other during our Community Circle to help us connect with one another. On Wednesday, they all had an opportunity to create a story based on their experiences and stories they have in them.

“Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story.” – First Peoples Principles of Learning

Grizzly Games
On Wednesday, we had our first Grizzly Games house meeting to decide on team names. How exciting! Students are encouraged to wear their team colour on Friday. Their colour was written in their planners. We have our next house meeting this Wednesday where we will practice the team cheer!

We are mathematicians.
For grade 3’s, there is a Math test coming up. Please check your child’s planner for more information. Also, continue to practice addition and subtraction with regrouping to 1000. For example: 567 + 255 = ____ and 231 – 188 = _____.

For grade 2’s, continue to review regrouping with subtraction to 100 at home. For example: 67 + 25 = _____ and 31 – 18 = _____. We have also been creating and solving real-world word problems and having fun doing it!

How you can support at home: Have fun coming up with different scenarios for your child to solve! Maybe you can have fun taking turns creating and solving each other’s word problems! For example: There are 65 ice cream cones to sell at the carnival. You sold 47. How many do you have left to sell? Grade 3’s can do this too except your numbers have 3-digits! Enjoy!

What Pride Means to Me
Reflections are a BIG part of our learning and a part of developing our core competencies like critical thinking. Last week, we discussed what “pride” means to us. Our conversation helped us better understand our upcoming Pride day on Wednesday. We reflected on how we can feel proud of who we are, how hard we work, what we have, and how we can feel proud of others. We talked about what we think and how we feel pride, the emotions that come along with it, and how we celebrate this pride with humility.

We followed this up with writing reflections on how we feel proud of our growth this year in various areas of our learning.

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

I also believe that it’s important to regularly celebrate what we feel proud of like our daily small wins. We can often be found giving ourselves a high five and each other high fives. We know that when children are made aware that they are being challenged in their stretch zones and can see their own growth, their level of happiness is increased.

As a result, these increased levels of joy and happiness further activate the learning centres in their brains making it even easier to learn more. We also know that being happy makes an impact on overall well-being and how they interact with others which leads to improved social connections. I do believe that all of these factors play a role in building the positive, safe, and joyful environment we get to enjoy every single day.

“Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors.” – First Peoples Principles of Learning

It is by intentional design that Mrs. Paulich and I create and cultivate a nurturing, playful, loving, and joyful culture where your children thrive and love to come to school. Being with your children brings us both SO much joy, and it’s evident that your children feel the same way! Of course, we cannot do this without your full support at home. With a few short weeks left, our hearts are truly full of deep gratitude for your continued support all year as our partners in your child’s learning.

As I will be leaving Gilmore at the end of this year and heading to Kitchener as their new Head Teacher, I am savouring and appreciating every last bit with your children and this community. They hold such a special place in my heart. I will share more appreciations in my last post at the end of June but for now, please know how much I have loved and appreciated you and your child in our class. I tell them this every single day! I love them so much! 🙂

With deep sincerity and gratitude, Ms. Chan

Upcoming dates:

• Monday, June 5: Pro-D Day; school not in session
• Tuesday, June 6: Wear one colour day of the rainbow. We will be taking a whole school photo first thing after attendance.
• Wednesday, June 7: Gilmore Pride day. Wear something that makes you feel proud like a Gilmore shirt, rainbow colours, or team jersey, for example.
• Thursday, June 8: Business Fair. If you wish, bring money to buy items made by our grade 6/7’s.
• Friday, June 9: Grizzly Games. Wear your team colour. Early dismissal at 12:15pm.
• Thursday, June 15: Confederation Park with our pen pals from Brentwood Park.
• Friday, June 23: Science World field trip. We will need 5 parent volunteers wiling to supervise. Notice will come home on Tuesday.