Our school recently supported the Project Backpack drive to support Vancouver street youth. Sarah in division F01 wrote a thank you to the school on behalf of the team.

Project Backpack

Thank you to all the students who contributed to our Project Backpack drive. The donations went in to 22 backpacks and were sent off to homeless youth in Vancouver. We are sure that all the street youth who received the backpacks were very grateful for everything our school community has done.

Thank you also to all the student volunteers who gave up their recesses to organize, pack, count and re-organize all the donations. A big thank you to the teachers and parent helpers who assisted in making this project happen.

If you want to contribute to Project Backpack, please visit their web site (Project Backpack) for more information.

Thank you.

Take care

Today we held a Lock Down Drill at Cleveland Elementary School. I am happy to report that all went well today.

We did not spend too long on the drill, and all classes were able to practice remaining calm and quiet during the drill.

Thank you to all the students and all the staff for their support and cooperation during the drill.

Take care

There are so many things going on at Cleveland I don’t always know where to begin.

While students in grades 4 and 7 are completing their FSA’s (Foundation Skills Assessment), our Kindergarten students are completing their TOPA’s (Test Of Phonological Assessment) and the Numeracy assessments.

Several classes working with the Artist For Kids Gallery this week. A visiting artist has spent time in four classes, helping students explore art and express themselves.

The RCMP are helping us our with a DARE program in a couple of classes every Friday afternoon.

We are happy to be working with the North Shore Restorative Justice Society on class meetings and working together to solve problems peacefully.

Our grade 6 and 7 volleyball teams practice many times per week and have done quite well in all their games. Well done teams.

Chess club, knitting club, yoga, art mania and sportball continues to keep many children busy are lunch or after school.

Our salmon have emerged from their eggs and have worked their way down into the gravel. Once their egg sacs are absorbed, we should see them swimming about. We were fortunate to have a Squamish Elder come to school last week to bless both our tanks.

Handsworth School sent down three grade 12 students today to present a workshop on vaping and peer pressure. The Handsworth students were very engaging and taught our students a lot. Thanks.

Our garden project is showing new life. The courtyard garden has some plants sprouting, as do the seed trays on the table in our front hallway.

Our Safety Patrol students are doing excellent work helping students cross Eldon. Thanks to them and the parent volunteers who work rain or shine.

The day is almost done. We’ll wait and see what tomorrow will bring.

Take care

You may have heard already from your students about our power failure today in school. At approximately 2:25 pm, we had a school-wide power failure.

Students helped out by remaining calm in their classrooms and following teacher directions. Some older students helped younger students use the washrooms by using the flashlight feature on their cell phones. Great idea.

Other students were worried about our salmon tanks, and helped put some emergency supplies of ice in each tank to keep the water cool.

At approximately 4:15 pm, the power came on. The fish tanks (and the chillers) are working fine now.

I think I’ll go home.

Take care

Once again, we will be raising salmon at Cleveland School. The salmon tanks were set up by Mme Cusanelli and our Salmon Squad (Krista, Aj, Tiana, Kobi, Cameron, Cole, Jack and Mone). Thanks team. The set up looks great.

There seems to be a lot of interest from students as they walk by the two tanks. We have one in the library and one in the front hallway (near the gym). We expect the eggs to arrive next week and we will post an announcement when the eggs arrive.

The salmon should be with us until some time in April, when Mme Cusanelli’s grade 2 class (and the Salmon Squad) takes them to a local creek to release them.

Please visit the Vancouver Aquarium web site to learn more about salmon.

Take care