Dear families,

This past week really felt like our classroom community got even closer. Each week, students sit with different classmates to get to know each other better. On Monday, it was clear to me that many had made new connections as I observed different people comfortably talking to others they don’t usually talk to. It was such a heartwarming moment that brought the biggest smile to my face to listen to their conversations and see them giggle and laugh together.

Fire Drill

On Monday, October 30, we will have our first fire drill in the morning. Please feel free to front load your child to help them understand the reasons behind fire drills. This is a great opportunity to discuss what you would do if the fire alarm went off in your home too.

Hallowe’en Festivities

On Tuesday, October 31, we will be performing our dance to a song called Dem Bones at the assembly in the morning. We read a book called Dem Bones to learn about the bones in our body too! Many interesting facts about our bones!

In the afternoon on Tuesday, October 31, we will have a Hallowe’en party! Please feel free to bring snacks to share with the class. Please do not bring food that contains any nuts, tree nuts, cashews, or pistachios. Thank you! Your child is welcome to bring a simple board game to play with classmates.

This was posted on Kitchener’s website for Hallowe’en safety and festivities:

We had so much fun making our spooky hands! Thank you so much to Maissa’s mom for volunteering her time to help us in the class! We appreciate you! A class photo is now available on SpacesEDU.

SpacesEDU

You now have access to view your child’s ePortfolio in SpacesEDU. You should have access to two spaces:

In the Class Space, you will find posts I will add that everyone will be able to see. In the Individual Space, only you and your child (and I) will be able to see the posts they create here. Please feel free to share a positive comment! I am sure they will be excited to read it the next time we log in.

We had an opportunity last week to practice reflecting on our learning. What you should see is a your child explaining what we did, something they liked about their dot art, and something they would do differently next time.

Learning is reflexive and reflective. – First Peoples Principles of Learning

One of the fantastic things that was added to our revised curriculum was making Core Competencies explicit to our learners.

“The Core Competencies are sets of intellectual, personal, and social and emotional proficiencies that all students need in order to engage in deep, lifelong learning.” – BC Curriculum

Click here to learn more.

We are mathematicians.

We had our first introduction to whole class Number Talks. The purpose of Number Talks is for us to develop our flexible thinking strategies in math and to use numbers effectively to solve problems in a variety of ways.

We started with talking about the number 10. There are so many ways to represent 10. Although I didn’t record ALL of these ways for our first one, I wanted to show you examples of what we could have included.

Eventually, we will do number talks for addition and subtraction.

We are scientists.

We learned that materials can be changed in physical and chemical ways.

How to support at home: Ask your child to share the differences. We had a great critical thinking discussion about whether making ice cream is a physical change or a chemical change. I would love for you to continue the conversation at home.

We are authors.

We have been working on our Hallowe’en stories all last week! We started by considering the essentials of a basic story: Who is the main character? What is the problem? Where does your story take place? Then we brainstormed the beginning, middle, and end before using our creative thinking to communicate our ideas through writing.

Core competencies practiced: I can use my creative thinking to write a story. I can use words to communicate my ideas in writing.

We are readers.

Epic is a great way to access high interest books. Our class code is: ycr9510

Your child’s Epic passcode is the first 4 digits of their username. This is the same 7-digit number they memorized to log in to laptops. Your child has access from 7am to 3pm. If you would like access in the evenings, they have an option to pay for a monthly or yearly subscription. Click here to learn more.

Most of them have memorized their login information so they are able to login immediately and start right away. There are a few who do not have this memorized yet so please continue to work with your child to have their username (7-digit number) and their email address memorized as soon as possible. The delays hold up the whole class sometimes. Thank you so very much!

We are artists.

Thanks to Ms. Kapusta, we have a beautiful bulletin board in the hallway with our finished zentangle pumpkins and black cats.

I apologize that I did not remember to take a photo to share with you. The photo on the left will give you an idea of what they look like. I will take a picture and share it in SpacesEDU.

 

We hope you had a wonderful weekend! Unfortunately, I got sick on the weekend so I will not be at school on Monday but I should be back on Tuesday.

I am grateful for your continued support at home. Sometimes, students ask about homework. Here is what they can do daily:

• Read independently or with you. Talk about what they just read, asking them to make connections or what they think about what they just read.
• Find a real reason to write like write a note to me or write a story.
• Be curious together! Talk about and review what we are learning about in class. What else do you wonder about? Research and learn together.

Looking forward to another sensational week ahead! 🙂

In appreciation, Ms. Chan