I. General Information
School Name: Sullivan Elementary
School District: SD#36 Surrey
Inquiry Team Members: leech_n@surreyschools.ca- Niki Leech
pattar_n@surreyschools.ca- Nimarta Pattar
sarchet_l@surreyschools.ca- Lora Sarchet
wilder_a@surreyschools.ca- Amy Wilder
Inquiry Team Contact Email: leech_n@surreyschools.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Career Education, Mathematics / Numeracy
Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Numeracy, Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Formative assessment, Land, Nature or Place-based learning, Self-regulation
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? We began the year focusing on building a sense of belonging and resilience, but as the year progressed, our focus shifted toward strengthening the relationship between school, home, and community through land-based and place-based learning, with the hope of increasing students’ resilience, perseverance, and willingness to take risks.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: We noticed that many of our primary students felt connected to their school community, but we began to wonder about the strength of the connection between home and school—and how we could make parents feel more included in the learning journey.
Our classroom and grade group scanning revealed a need to help students build resiliency and understand that learning is a process that takes time. To deepen the impact of this work, we recognized the importance of including families and the community.
We aimed to honour the knowledge and experiences families bring and to bridge the gap between home and school, making learning more meaningful, inclusive, and connected for all students.
Focus: We hoped to support our students in building greater resiliency, problem-solving skills, and a willingness to take risks—especially in the area of mathematics. At the same time, we aimed to foster positive math identities, where students see themselves as capable mathematicians who can think critically, make mistakes, and try again.
To strengthen the connection between school, home, and the wider community, we used mathematics as a bridge. We focused on land-based and place-based learning to root mathematical thinking in the real world around us. By exploring math in local, familiar, and meaningful contexts, we aimed to deepen students’ understanding while also building relationships—with one another, with their families, and with the community and land where we live and learn.
Hunch: We believe that many of our students tend to stay within what is familiar and safe—often shaped by the routines, values, and experiences they bring from home. This comfort with the familiar can sometimes make it harder for them to take risks in their learning, try new strategies, or bounce back from mistakes.
We have a hunch that if we can create stronger, more intentional connections between learning at home and school, students will feel more confident and supported. We believe this will help them develop greater resilience, be more open to trying new things, and build the capacity to persevere when learning feels challenging.
By aligning the messages, values, and strategies students experience at home and in the classroom, we hope to create a more consistent, supportive learning environment that encourages growth, risk-taking, and independence.
New Professional Learning: Our work was supported and enriched through professional learning and collaboration at both the school and district level.
We participated in a district book club focused on Re-Storying Education: Decolonizing Your Practice Using a Critical Lens by Carolyn Roberts. This text challenged us to reflect critically on our teaching practices and to consider how we can decolonize our classrooms through relationship-building, land-based learning, and community connection.
We also joined a cross-district book club centered around Cultivating Mathematical Hearts by Maria del Rosario Zavala and Julia Maria Aguirre. This resource offered valuable insights into fostering positive math identities and creating inclusive, culturally responsive math classrooms that support all learners.
In addition, we engaged in ongoing conversations with one of our district Math Helping Teachers. These discussions helped us explore practical strategies for including families and the broader community in meaningful math learning. We met as a team several times to share ideas, reflect on our experiences, and discuss what worked well—and what didn’t—in our efforts to build stronger home-school-community connections through mathematics.
These collaborative learning experiences helped shape our thinking and informed the direction of our classroom practices.
Taking Action: As part of our goal to strengthen the bridge between home and school, we engaged families and students in meaningful, real-world math experiences. We wanted students to see that math is not just something that happens in the classroom—it’s everywhere: in our homes, our celebrations, our community spaces, and in our daily lives.
We invited families to send in photos of celebrations, decorations, cooking, and everyday moments from home. These images became powerful starting points for math talks—where students could explore patterns, shapes, estimation, counting, measurement, and more through the lens of their own lives and cultural experiences. By asking, “Where does math live in our homes and community?” we empowered students to find math all around them.
We also took this learning into our school and community environment. For example:
- Students measured and compared their water bottles, tracked their daily water usage, and created graphs to visualize their findings. This evolved into conversations about water conservation, pollution, and sustainability, linking math with global competencies and environmental stewardship.
- We explored the concept of fairness and equality by asking students to create two fair and equal teams. Through discussion and reasoning, students developed their own criteria for what makes teams fair—not just in numbers, but in skills, strengths, and inclusion. These teams were then used to play games, including Indigenous games like Slahal, creating opportunities to honour each other’s gifts and cultural traditions.
- We read the book One Is a Lot (Except When It’s Not) to spark conversations around quantity, perspective, and context. Students created their own “a little” and “a lot” collections both inside and outside, and we invited families to share photos of what “a little” and “a lot” means to them. This became a rich space for dialogue about different perspectives and the idea that math is not always about fixed answers—it’s also about interpretation and meaning.
- To celebrate the diversity of our school community, we also invited students to count in different languages spoken at home. This created an inclusive environment where all children saw their identities reflected in the learning, and where language and culture were valued as important parts of math exploration. It also sparked natural curiosity and connection between peers, as students taught each other how to count in their home languages.
Throughout this journey, our goals were to:
- Encourage students to take risks and try new ways to solve problems
- Include and honour families as co-contributors to learning
- Make math visible and relevant in everyday contexts
- Foster student voice, reasoning, and justification in math discussions
- Build a deeper sense of belonging, respect, and shared learning across the school community
- These experiences helped our students understand that math is not just about numbers—it’s about thinking, seeing, valuing, and connecting
Checking: Throughout this learning journey, we made several meaningful observations that affirmed the impact of our approach:
Students created fair and balanced teams based on thoughtful, student-generated criteria. They were able to look beyond just numbers and considered individual strengths, personalities, and group dynamics. This showed a deepening understanding of fairness, equity, and collaboration.
We noticed that we had cultivated classroom communities where students felt safe and confident to share their ideas—not only in conversations about fairness but also during math discussions. There was a visible shift in student participation, with more learners contributing their thinking, listening respectfully to others, and building on each other’s ideas.
Children began to recognize and articulate their own gifts, as well as acknowledge the strengths of their peers. This fostered a sense of pride, belonging, and mutual respect, reinforcing the idea that everyone brings something valuable to the learning community. In mathematics specifically, students showed an increased willingness to try different strategies to solve problems. They took risks, experimented with multiple approaches, and demonstrated flexibility in their thinking. This growth mindset helped them build resilience and confidence in their learning.
Reflections/Advice: At the core of this work is the understanding that relationships and time matter most. This is not a one-time project or something with a clear beginning and end. Instead, it’s part of an ongoing process of building trust, connection, and a strong learning community. The work continues to grow and change as we get to know our students and families.
As teachers, we carry our learning with us each year. We adapt it to fit the needs of a new group of learners and continue to learn alongside them. It’s not a finished product—it’s a cycle of learning, reflecting, and building again.
We’ve seen the impact of including families, valuing student voices, and creating space for different ways of thinking and learning. These experiences have shown us what’s possible when we focus on relationships, community, and meaningful learning. And while this chapter may be closing, the learning continues—with new students, new families, and new opportunities to grow.