The final decision is in and the plan has been made. If you are by the office in the next little while you can see the artist rendering of what our new playground will look like. It is on a large white poster board. The plan is to have the old playground removed and the new one installed in the next few weeks! This will be determined by the weather, of course, so we are hoping that our dry spell will hold on for a little while longer.
Category: Information
Division 3’s Bake Sale
Division 3 is holding a bake sale this Wednesday at Recess and Lunchtime. They are hoping to raise enough money so that they can sponsor an owl at the rehabilitation centre. Please help them with their cause by sending some cash with your child on Wednesday so they could purchase a baked item.
Class Assignment Expectations
When students are doing their ‘seatwork’ assignments there is a wide variety in the final outcome of what each student will produce. There are, of course, different learning outcomes for different subject areas; just as there are different levels of expectations for each grade. I use this visual to explain the difference between a minimal effort and one that has met all the expected criteria. This idea is used for all areas of our curriculum – not just their artwork – and visually demonstrates what is meant by including ‘details’. For artwork they can see what is meant by ‘details’ through the gradually more developed pictures. In their written work, students are reminded that ‘details’ are the way their writing has answered the reader’s questions of ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’, and ‘how’.
Me to We Play Day
As the winners of the Terry Fox fundraiser, our division won a play activity with the Me to We club. This afternoon we were treated to fun-filled hour of gym activities set up the Ms. Sikic’s club. There were five stations including: tail tag; bean bag hand ball; one where you knocked over skittles while on a balance ball; an obstacle course to maneuver while carrying wiffle balls in a scoop; and a scooter course. The class was divided into five groups and they rotated through the different stations.
We gave our hosts a great big “thank you” for their thoughtful planning and their clever station set ups.
Today’s Terry Fox Run / Corn Roast
We held our Terry Fox assembly and run this afternoon. The Grade 7’s put on a wonderful assembly which consisted of: a slide show; a video clip of Terry’s Marathon of Hope; student speeches about Terry; the whole student body singing an inspirational song; and the announcement of the poster contest and which division raised the most money.
Guess what?!?!? Our division (5) raised the most money of all the other divisions. We raised $76.00!!!!!!! We are all very happy and excited to have been able to raise this money in support of cancer research in Terry’s memory. I send a HUGE THANK YOU to all the parents who helped their child understand and appreciate the importance of charity for such a worthy cause!!!
Terry Fox Run / Corn Roast
On Friday we will be having our Terry Fox Assembly and Run. This will be followed by our annual Corn Roast. Parents are very welcomed to join us for this important event.
I will be telling the class about Terry and his journey across Canada – as well as his battle with cancer. Students will be decorating a paper ‘running shoe’. They will be encouraged to dedicate their run to someone they know who currently has cancer; has survived a bout with cancer; or who has lost that battle.
New Playground
Our school has been very fortunate to receive a government grant for the purchase and construction of a new playground to replace the one that we currently have. Students in all classes (school-wide) have been working through a process of looking at all the components that go into a playground. They have been having discussions with peers in small groups as well as with the whole class.
In our division (5) we looked at the five initial proposed ‘mock-ups’ to determine which of the elements were important to our students. The students knew that they were not voting on any one of the whole pictures but that they were discussing the individual parts of the playground.
We came up with a list of items that our class felt were important elements of our new playground. Most of our students wanted: things to climb (nets, monkey bars, etc); things that spin or swing (tires, saucers); slides; bridges; and balance beams.
At tomorrow evening’s PAC meeting Mrs. Gojevic will be looking for input from the parent community. When all ideas are joined together a new ‘proposal’ will be created by the playground company. It is hoped that this process will be quick so that the de-construction of the old playground, and construction of the new one, can be completed before the poor weather settles in.
We are all excited and looking forward to this new addition to our school grounds.
Phoebe Gilman
We have been reading and enjoying the books by a great Canadian author – Phoebe Gilman. We began with the original “Jillian Jiggs” and worked our way through additional stories about this delightful girl, along with other of this author’s stories such as: Something from Nothing; Pirate Pearl; The Gypsy Princess; and Little Blue.
Students had many opportunities to respond to these books by: renaming one book; adding another page to the end of another book; describing their favourite part or character in other books; and designing a map to show the travels of characters – to name a few. They have created quite an interesting collection of responses in their booklets.
Welcome Back!!
It has been a really busy start-up to the new school year. We had a very exciting first week in our family groupings with sessions and lessons about healthy living. Once we were settled into our class we got right into learning about each other through our “All About Me” unit. We are currently finishing up our final posters on this project and then I will hang them on our hallway bulletin boards and post some here.
I enjoyed meeting and chatting with parents at our Student Intake Interviews last week. It is always interesting to hear about my students from their parents’ perspective. Please keep these lines of communication open by contacting me via my school email account – shelagh.temple@sd41.bc.ca – or by sending me a note in the front pocket of your child’s planner.
I have updated this blog’s ‘standing’ pages including: our weekly schedule; upcoming events – as well as the ‘programme’ pages on: art, science, and reading.
Now that we are into our regular schedule and routines I am hoping to post regular updates of our happenings in the classroom.
C.A.R.E. Kit Lessons
We are nearing the end of our lessons on personal safety. The students have been actively involved in learning how to stand up for themselves in an assertive manner. I hope you have taken the opportunity to discuss with your child the lesson papers which have come home at the end of each of our sessions. It is important that the students are hearing the same message about their personal safety from both their school and their home. Together we can work to keep the children safe.