Welcome, Christmas, bring your cheer.
Cheer to all Whos far and near.
Christmas Day is in our grasp,
So long as we have hands to clasp.
Christmas Day will always be just as long as we have we.
Welcome Christmas while we stand, heart to heart, and hand in hand.
Dr. Suess
Have a wonderful winter break. Enjoy the holidays and see you in the new year.
Take care.
The spirit of giving is alive and well at Cleveland School. Each year, the students, parents, grand parents and staff donate gifts of toys, clothing and food to the North Shore Christmas Bureau. Our student CARE committee organized the event, and visited classrooms yesterday to encourage even more donations.
Well done Cleveland.
A quick look at the donated items allows me to picture children of all ages enjoying a wonderful Christmas day, thanks to the generous spirit of our community.
On behalf of the children and families who will be getting all these wonderful donations, thank you Cleveland.
Today, after school, Mme Doyle and Mrs.Parkinson will deliver the goods on our behalf. Thank you ladies for your efforts.
Take care.
Do you remember pogs? They have come back to school, and we needed to spend some time today talking about the pogs and how to play nice.
From what I understand, children play a game where the winner takes the losing child’s pog. They play with one pog at a time, and when the games are over, someone will end up with less pogs than they started with.
This has created some recess and lunch time challenges. Children have been upset, angry or sad because they have lost or been accused of cheating. Tension mounted, and children have had trouble concentrating after lunch.
So today, I visited our grade 4 class and our three grade 4/5 classes to discuss pogs and come up with some ways of resolving the problems that are occurring. I was told that they were banned last year, and that they think some kids were taking advantage of the fact that the new Principal did not know they were banned (They were right, I didn’t know).
In the first class I visited, Martin made a great suggestion. He suggested that if you lose, you should not lose your pog. We agreed, and we came up with some more key point for playing with pogs at school. The following points were agreed upon in all four classes:
We did not want to ban pogs, but agreed that the above set of rules would help make for friendlier games, where no one gets upset or angry. Let’s hope this works.
Take care.
We sure start some things early here. 5:30 am, and we already have some parents here at school getting ready for the many hungry mouths that will arrive shortly after 7:00 am. The griddles are heating up, and the coffee is brewing.
Yesterday, many volunteers (adults and students alike) set up the tables and chairs, arranged tablecloths and poinsettias on each table, and made sure the gym was ready. In our small gym, one of our parent volunteers organized several grade 7 students (and a couple of grade 2 students) to set up some craft tables for the younger children. We also have some face painting in the front hallway.
I have been to many successful pancake breakfast events over the past number of years, and they are wonderful in how they bring together so many volunteers and generate such a positive school spirit. Children eat with their families, and the many of the smiles that start while sharing pancakes last throughout the day. Fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers all sit with their friends and families, and many grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins often join in on the fun.
School would be dull and rather uninteresting without the efforts and countless number of volunteers hours our parents, students and staff put in each and every week. From extracurricular activities, clubs, social events, food days, homework support, library helpers, classroom helpers, traffic safety, field trip drivers, musical events, playground mentoring, buddy reading, grade 7 dances, pancake breakfast, etc. The list is too long to share here, but I feel it is important to acknowledge, celebrate and thank all those members of the Cleveland Elementary School Community who take time from their lives to volunteer for our students.
Thank You!
We couldn’t do it without you.
Take care.
It has been a few days since my last blog. School life has been very busy, and I have not been able to get time on a computer to blog. I decided to catch up and share some of what has been happening at school recently.
Grade 7 Christmas Craft Fair
The grade 7’s put on a tremendous craft fair yesterday, thanks to their many hours of work outside of school time, and the support of many parents. This was a new type of event for me, as I have never been in a school that has a air of this type. The crafts and baking demonstrated how creative our students are. Thank you to the students and parents for their efforts in making this event a success. The grade 7 bloggers will probably write more about the craft fair, so visit the Cleveland Blog soon to look for pictures and information about the fair.
Dance is Happening
Many of our classes are doing dance lessons in gym class time. I hear the standards (Macarena, Chicken Dance, Bunny Hop) from my office, as well as newer songs that have the children smiling when they dance. Not everyone is super enthusiastic about dance (especially when they have to dance boy-girl), but they come around and seem to enjoy it.
Buddy Time
Many of our classes are spending time with their buddies, doing art or reading activities. Buddy activities really help make a school a warmer place for children. Students in primary classes love getting to know the older children, and the older students benefit by having the opportunities to be teachers and mentors to their little buddies. I think it is safe for me to say that the older students really enjoy their time with the younger students.
Christmas Activities
At this time of year, classes often spend time on Christmas songs, Christmas art or writing stories that involve Christmas. We have many creative story writers in our school, as well as many great artists.
Learning in Classrooms
Our classrooms are filled with a great variety of learning. These past two days I have taken part in, or observed lessons on; time, orders of operation, geography, grammar, spelling, area and perimeter, addition and subtraction, multiplication, importing and exporting goods, standard or expanded forms for numbers, the Holocaust, skeletal structures, journal writing, novel studies, calendar and the letter M. There were many more lessons and topics, and it continues to be a pleasure to visit classes and have students share with me what they are learning.
Looking ahead, we have our pancake breakfast on Friday. Our CARE committee is working hard to get donations for the Christmas Bureau, and the Student Council is sponsoring a Red, White and Green day on December 16th. Busy place.
Take care.