Dear Families,

This week, we experienced not one, but TWO snow days!  I am happy that our School Board took precautions to ensure the safety of our students who take a bus to school.  As many of you are aware, there were numerous winter storm watches in effect and it is better to be safe than sorry.  I hope that your journeys on the road were a safe one and you're ready for a bright, beautiful weekend!  Look at this sunshine we're experiencing already - revel and rejoice in it!!
 
Pink Shirt Day for Anti-Bullying:
Wednesday Feb. 24^th was dedicated to promoting and acknowledging Bullying Prevention!  This is an issue that is near and dear to my heart and as your child's teacher, I am reinforcing the importance of creating, building upon, and maintaining happy hearts in and out of our classroom.  Our Community of Learners Agreements help guide us every day - Attentive Listening, Mutual Respect, NO PUT DOWNS, Right to Participate, Right to Pass.  We regularly refer to this agreements as a reminder for us all to treat our peers, friends, and family with kindness, dignity, and respect.  I feel this will help in creating a happy, safe, and caring world.  I believe in all my students and their abilities to reach out to do their part in making a positive difference for our today and tomorrows ... together we can help put an END TO BULLYING!!!

A few of my students have noticed that I wear this t-shirt shown above every Wednesday and have been since the beginning of school.  My reason in doing so is to promote Anti-Bullying not just once a year, but everyday.  I encourage your child to join me in this endeavour and to wear PINK WEDNESDAYS!  We can spread a powerful message together :-)

Activity:  Happy to Scarred Hearts:

Two weeks ago in class, we did an activity to create an Awareness to how deeply affected one can be when they are put down and bullied.  I wanted to save the meaning behind this activity for this week's post.

First, I drew a large heart on a piece of paper.  Then, I had them observe the 'Heart.'  Next, I crumpled the paper and threw it across the room.  Finally, a student opened up the heart to see what it looked like.  Following this observation, we had a powerful discussion of how once you hurt someone's heart (feelings) you create "crumples or scars that remain with that person that are difficult to heal and bring back to its original happy state."  We also discussed the term "Bystander" and what it means.  A bystander(s) is a person or group of people who see bullying happening yet don't do anything to help.  In other words, they witness the bullying and walk away which ultimately continues and promotes this unkind cycle of hatred.  Let us remember, bullying prevention needs to be acknowledged and worked towards every day, and in doing so, we can end this vicious cycle.

Quote:

"Your thoughts become your words.  Your words become your actions.  Your actions become your destiny."

With All My Heart & Namaste,
Miss Gill  

Dear Families,

The deep, chilly freeze continued this past week, brrr!  I hope that you’re finding ways to keep warm and cozy.  We are fortunate to have our custodians who regularly come in the early morning to check the temperature in our classroom and ensure that students and staff are comfortable and warm.  Thank you so much for your consistent kindness and thoughtful ways, we appreciate you!

Custodian Appreciation Day:

On Wednesday, as a school family we took time to celebrate and express our love and gratitude to our hardworking Custodial staff.  Our custodians go above and beyond not only in their line of work, but their interactions and connections with our students is exemplary.  They all demonstrate true character and what it means to be a good person in thoughts, words, and actions.  WE HONOUR YOU!!  Thank you for all that you do, you make our school community a bright, shining ONE!  I shared with my students the importance of remembering that Custodian appreciation must be acknowledged everyday.  As a class, we always do our best to ensure that we keep a neat, organized, and clean classroom.  It is all our responsibility to clean up after ourselves and respect not only our own personal belongings, but as well as that of the school.  It is a privilege to be provided with school materials to help us LEARN and GROW!

Thank you Mr. Pilon for all that you do for our school!!

Scientist Visit:
Also on Wednesday, we had the pleasure of having Nikki a scientist visit our classroom to teach us all about 'Simple Machines.'  Students were provided with the opportunity to learn about this science unit in such a collaborative, engaging, and FUN way! We learned all about wheels and axles, levers, pulleys, and inclined planes.  Please enjoy the MANY pictures I took during this learning, it'll speak volumes to just how amazing this experience was for US.

            

Thank you to OUR extraordinary Grade 6 helpers who taught, facilitated, and set up each workstation!!

Report Cards:

This evening you will have received your child’s Term 1 report card.  I have reinforced the importance of focusing upon their STARS (strengths) and ARROWS (next steps, how to improve) as opposed to solely the letter grade.  As a teacher, it is my responsibility to assign a mark, however, I am encouraging my families to please read my comments as each student has demonstrated wonderful strengths (stars) and yes there are areas for further improvement (arrows) for everybody.  I know for me as an educator, I have many areas to improve upon so I can be the best I can be in and out of the classroom.  The growth of my students has been tremendous and as we enter Term 2, I have every confidence we will continue to blossom so that we’re well prepared for the next level (Grade 3). 

NOTE:  I want to thank the parents who returned their child's report card envelope to the school when the Progress report came home in December, it is very much appreciated.  We like to reuse them for each report that comes home.  I am encouraging you to please return this envelope again in your child's agenda when you're ready for this because I will then use it again for the final Term 2 report card in June.  Reduce and Reuse!  Many thanks in advance for this!! 

Please return this envelope in your child's agenda when you can :)

Quote:

“A smile and a kind word is all it takes to spread joy because happiness is contagious!”

Namaste,

Miss Gill