Category: Special Event

It is time for the biennial Cascade Heights walk-a-thon! If you are new to the school, like me, you will discover that this is a big deal here! This event happens once every two years, and is a major fundraiser for the school. In the past, the money raised from the walk-a-thon has been put towards great projects for Cascade Heights.

This year our school goal is to raise $10 000! The money raised will be put towards Outdoor Learning Centres around our school. Students have the next three weeks to collect pledges. Pledge forms are due May 19th. There are great opportunities for students to win prizes if they raise money! On Friday, May 21st all classes will be participating in the walk-a-thon.

A notice and pledge sheet came home with your child today with more information. If you are familiar with this event you will notice that some changes have been made this year due to COVID safety regulations.  **We are not allowing parents to accompany classes on the walk this year.

Thank you in advance for supporting Cascade Heights!

Today was a day full of energy and rich learning! (Is that why I feel so exhausted?)

We were very fortunate to have Mr. McKillop, the district’s ADST teacher, come to our classroom for the full day to teach us how to make treasure chests out of wood. Apart from the many practical woodworking skills we learned, this also helped us understand that all skills are developed through practice, effort, and action. It was hard work, but I saw a lot of proud faces at the end of the day!

Students started by carefully measuring the pieces we needed to cut. This required using a ruler and a square. The advice was to measure twice and cut once! That did not stop a few pieces from ending up in the scrap pile…

Prev

1of2

Next

Next, students used a mitre box and saw to cut the pieces for the base of their chest. This was hard work and took most of the morning! I am happy to report that all fingers survived this step.

Prev

1of4

Next

Mr. McKillop then taught the students how to use an electric drill and driver to screw their pieces together. We found that you had to be quite precise to make sure the base ended up straight. It was also easy to split the wood if the screws were tightened too much. Some students preferred to use a screwdriver instead!

Prev

1of5

Next

After that, it was time to attach the bottom of the chest using a hammer and nails. This was more challenging than it looked! The nails had to go in perfectly straight or they would end up poking out the sides. We ended up cleaning many bent nails off the floor at the end of the day…

Prev

1of2

Next

Finally, it was time to attach the lid and sand the chest to perfect smoothness. I had many students coming to me to showcase how soft their treasure chest ended up! We will be painting our treasure chests later in the week and students will be bringing them home once they have dried.

Way to go, Division 7! I would say you demonstrated every core competency in the book today as well as some next-level crafting skills!

Division 7 is putting the call out to the Cascade Heights community to participate in their March Kindness Challenge! We have come up with one small act of kindness for each day in March. These are simple things that anyone can do to make the world a better place.

You can invite your class, friends, or family to join in. If you decide to participate, you can leave us a comment below to let us know.

Click here to view the challenge. Let’s spread some kindness!

Tomorrow is Pink Shirt Day! Please remember to wear a pink shirt to stand up to bullies!

Pink Shirt Day originated in Canada when a boy wore a pink shirt to school and got teased for it. Two of his classmates saw what was going on and the next day they showed up to school with pink shirts to hand out to everyone in the school to show support for the bullied boy. If you see someone getting teased or bullied, be the one to stand up and do something about it!

This week we read Angus All Aglow by Heather Smith. Not only is it a wonderful story about the effect that kindness can have on someone who is hurting, it is also filled with wonderful language that leaps off the page. Click here to listen to the story.

In order to inspire kindness, Division 7 worked together to create this agamograph art. An agamograph is a series of images that change at different angles. It gets its name from the Israeli artist Yaacov Agam. This project was a true demonstration of the collaboration core competency. Each student coloured a section of the poster. As a group, we had to decide how we would colour it and what materials and shades we would use so that all the pieces would look the same. It was important for each member of the group to do their part to make it work.

We hope our project inspires kindness in the Cascade Heights community. Stay tuned for another upcoming Division 7 kindness initiative that we hope you will participate in…

Wednesday, November 11th is Remembrance Day, a day where we take time to remember the sacrifices that have been made for us to live in peace. Last week, Division 7 spent some time thinking about what it means to contribute to a peaceful world.

We read the book Peace by Wendy Anderson Halperin. It is a beautiful book with a simple message: peace starts with you. Every page is filled with quotes about peace. We used the following quote found in the book for our quote response this week:

Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and it’s something you give away.”

• “I feel like I can change a lot of the world if someone comes up with a brilliant idea…”
• “I feel inspired to give away peace by helping people in need…”
• “It’s kind of like trust because you can’t just wish for it, you have to work hard for it…”
• “Peace is everywhere, we have to make peace…”

After getting inspired to make peace, we read the book When I Grow Up, I Will Win the Nobel Peace Prize by Isabel Pin. It is a book about a boy who has ideas about what he can do to spread peace – some big and some small.

We brainstormed our own ideas in order to create our display, Peace Is In Our Hands. Click the picture below to watch a short video presentation on the display that will be featured in our virtual Remembrance Day assembly on Tuesday, November 10th.

Students will be given a poppy to wear on Tuesday. Please consider sending a donation to the Poppy Trust Fund which supports veterans and their families.

A reminder that there is no school on Wednesday, November 11th.

Tomorrow we will be participating in our annual Terry Fox Run!

We have been learning about character traits in our class and have discussed some of the character traits of Terry Fox. We decided that Terry was:

• • • • • • • kind
            • brave
            • compassionate
            • confident
            • determined

We are honored to continue Terry’s legacy tomorrow by running to raise money for cancer research. If you would like to donate, you can do so online by clicking here.

Please make sure your child is coming to school tomorrow dressed for the weather and with proper running shoes.