Category: Diversity

Fun in the Sun!

Our kindergarteners had a fantastic time celebrating the end of the school year with a fun-filled field trip to Confederation Park! The day was filled with watermelon, smiles, laughter, and plenty of opportunities to play and enjoy time together with our Parkcrest Community.

A big thank you to all of our parent volunteers who helped make this special trip possible. We truly appreciate your time, support, and enthusiasm. What a wonderful way to end an amazing year of learning and growing together!

 

Exploring Force, Motion, and Financial Literacy

Our Kindergarten students had a wonderful time learning about force and motion through hands-on exploration. We brainstormed our ideas and visited different stations, including building ramps to test how fast cars could go, exploring friction with different materials, creating domino chains, using magnetic force to paint on paper plates, and designing marble runs. All the teamwork encouraged problem-solving as we explored how gravity and motion work together.

 

 

We also learned about financial literacy through dramatic play. Students ran an ice cream shop and played restaurant with Mrs. Steverding. A special highlight was enjoying the real waffles she made for us—they were so yummy!

 

Building Our Commuity

As part of our Community Unit, we brainstormed what makes up a community and discussed the important places and people that help a community thrive. Div. 12 shared many wonderful ideas and decided what they wanted to include in our own classroom community. Working together, they designed and created a community filled with places that are meaningful to them, showing great teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

 

 

We also had a special visit from Ms. Steverding’s brother, who is a police officer. Sergeant Steverding shared information about his job and how police officers help keep communities safe. The children were excited to learn about his equipment and even had the opportunity to try on some of his gear.

Sports Day!

Sports Day was filled with excitement, teamwork, and school spirit! Students had a wonderful time participating in a variety of fun activities and cheering on their classmates throughout the day. It was great to see everyone trying their best, encouraging one another, and showing such positive attitudes. A big thank you to all of the Grade 6 and 7 students for organizing and running the activity stations, and to PAC for generously providing freezies for everyone to enjoy!

April-Blooming, Growing, Learning!

April was another joyful and busy month in our classroom!

We were so lucky to have the Burnaby North Leadership Team visit us. They spent time decorating beautiful Easter baskets with our kindergarten students, followed by a fun Easter egg hunt together. A big thank you as well to our wonderful PAC for organizing another exciting Easter egg hunt for the children—we truly appreciate your continued support!

In Art, our focus was all about flowers and spring. Inspired by Eric Carle, we painted giant colorful flowers. We also created blooming tissue paper flowers. We also made adorable chicks hatching from eggs, inspired by the chicks we’ve been learning about in class.

We participated in the Jump Rope for Heart event hosted by Division 4—thank you to everyone who supported this meaningful cause and donated to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Our students also worked with their Big Buddies to create welcome cards for next year’s kindergarten students. It’s hard to believe that our current kindergarteners will soon be moving on to Grade 1!

In PE, we learned how to play lacrosse. Students practiced important skills like cradling, scooping (ground ball pickup), passing, and shooting on goal. They picked up the game quickly and demonstrated wonderful sportsmanship during our games.

In Math, we explored measurement using non-standard units, comparing and measuring different objects in fun, hands-on ways. In Literacy, we are writing lots of creative ideas in our journals. We continue to build our vocabulary and learn new letter sounds and words to support our reading and writing skills. During Story Workshop, we wrote about spring using our five senses, and continued developing our storytelling skills by retelling stories with loose parts. We especially enjoyed retelling “Little Owl Lost” and “I Want My Hat Back.” Ask your child to retell these stories to you at home—they love sharing them!

All three of our chicks have now hatched! We are very excited to continue learning about and exploring our chicks together. Stay tuned for a future post to see our discoveries!

Celebrations & Community Spirit

The second term was filled with celebration and community spirit! From honouring our shared milestones to diving into new learning adventures, we’ve had plenty of reasons to cheer. We also made and displayed some fabulous artwork!

At the end of January, our school had a special visit from local British Columbia author and educator, Cathy Hussey. She brought her passion for storytelling and the natural world directly to our readers. Cathy’s work often reflects her deep connection to the Pacific Northwest and her background in working with young learners. Her book, Doug: The Story of a Tree, is a heartwarming tale designed for children (ages 6–8) that explores themes of growth, resilience, and the interconnectedness of nature.

 

We learned about ourselves and shared information about our families with our classmates. Our “I Am From” poems are simple, personal reflections that foster self-identity and creative expression. We love that they are original and list favourites or feelings about ourselves. At the Pink Shirt Day assembly, some of us read out our poems about why our families are special.

 

We celebrated Valentine’s Day, Lunar New Year, 100th Day, and learned about Anti-Bullying (Pink Shirt Day) and Black History Month. Please see our beautiful Valentine’s Day bags – we filled these with cards and messages for our friends. We made bracelets with special words and experimented with a variety of materials in Art. We also learned and talked about the Olympics in Italy!

 

During the 100th Day of School, we jumped 100 times (over the week). We imagined what it might look like in the future when we are 100 years old! We created necklaces with 100 beads/Cheerios. We continued to explore a variety of Math and Literacy activities. We can now count by 10s to 100, and we are reading so many new words!

 

We got to know our Div. 6 Big Buddies a little bit more and managed to do some fun activities with them!

 

The Planetarium visited our school Gym. Ocean Wise marine educators took us into the Sea Dome, a large black dome theatre, and we had a blast watching the big screen. We learned about sea animals and protecting our waterways. The educators brought some marine artifacts and we were able to touch things like shark jaws and sea turtle shells.

 

We ended this term with inviting our families to come into our classrooms for Student-led Conferences, and we were able to show our family members just a few of the things we learned in school.

 

What a fun Term 2 we had!  Please have a wonderful and enjoyable Spring Break!  See you back at school on Monday, March 30!

A December to Remember in Kindergarten

December may have been a short three weeks, but our kindergarten classroom was filled with big learning and even bigger fun! The children stayed busy with festive and creative activities, starting with cookie decorating and lots of arts and crafts that helped them practice fine motor skills while expressing their creativity. We also explored learning about leaves through art, connecting seasonal changes to hands-on creative projects.

 

We danced our way through the month by learning a hip hop–choreographed routine and proudly performing it, showing confidence and teamwork. Literacy came alive as students retold The Gingerbread Man, acting out the story and strengthening their comprehension skills. As a class, we also worked together on a Christmas puzzle, learning the importance of patience, cooperation, and helping one another.

 

One of the highlights was making Stone Soup with Ms. Steverding’s class. The children peeled, chopped, cooked, and then shared a meal together to celebrate teamwork and community. They also enjoyed open play time with friends, building social skills, imagination, and cooperation through play. We wrapped up the month with cozy moments like movie day, a special pancake breakfast and lots of open play. December was short but sweet, and full of memories we’ll carry into the new year!

 

We would like to wish all our families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and thank you so much for your generous gifts and continued support—it truly means a lot!