Today is Pink Shirt Day, a day where we focus our attention on treating one another with respect and kindness. Our grade 2 and 5 students have been making announcements over the last couple of weeks reminding everyone to demonstrate caring towards others. We shared with students the ideas from the Real Acts of Caring web site, and they created a series of messages for our morning announcements.

Some sample messages from the grades 2 and 5 students:

• “Performing acts of kindness boosts the positive energy of both the one who gives and the one who receives!”
• “Real acts of kindness means doing something unexpected, done for no reason and without expecting anything in return.”

Staff are giving out hearts to students to record their acts of kindness or caring. I am enjoying reading them as they are posted up throughout the school.

We look forward to seeing acts of kindness and caring from all our students.

Take care

We had a wonderful afternoon today. The Carson Graham Senior Band visited us this afternoon to perform. It took some time, but we got everyone into the gym to listen to them play.

They started off with the soundtrack from Aladdin (Disney version), and continued with a number of other songs and some musical demos (the flute, the clarinet, etc.).

“I always loved music; whoso has skill in this art is of good temperament, fitted for all things. We must teach music in schools; a schoolmaster ought to have skill in music, or I would not regard him.” ~ Martin Luther

Thank you Carson Graham, for sharing your gift of music with us.

Take care

I have been asked this month to work with grade 7’s and take a couple of groups for their literature circles. All the grade 7’s were given an opportunity to select one of 13 books that they could read and were then put small groups. My groups are reading Touching Spirit Bear (by Ben Mikaelsen) and 33 Minutes (by Todd Hasak-Lowy). The novels all connect to the current unit of inquiry in grade 7 (central idea: being conscious of the influences on our identity affects our choices).

Each time we meet, the students come prepared to discuss a passage or quote in the story that spoke to them. All the students came today ready to talk, and we were able to ensure that everyone had a chance to share their connections and express themselves to their peers. After our meeting, the students take time to individually reflect on the group discussion through writing, where they are encouraged to share their personal thoughts about the discussion, the characters and/or the story.

I look forward to hearing more from each of the grade 7’s. Their thoughts and opinions are worth waiting for.

Take care