“When we are grateful, we are always in the present moment…”

Dear Families,

Believe it or not, but we’re entering our last week in April!  Wowie, I just felt like we had “April Fools” day!  Time is zipping by, but this being said, we’ve made the most of our learning time J  Students have been keen, enthusiastic, and caring towards their academic work in class – a delight for any teacher to see and be part of! 

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our new student Mikayla to our class!  She arrived Tues. from Shanti Bay Public School and has been a wonderful addition.  I hope you’ve enjoyed your first week at our school making new friends!  We are fortunate to have such inclusive and kind children here; I have observed many reach out to her to make Mikayla feel welcome.  Thank you boys and girls for being extremely kind, caring, and thoughtful!

Earth Day Celebration:

Earth Day Cookies!  Taking care of our Planet!!!

On Tuesday, I shared an informative picture book titled “Taking Care of Our Earth.”  In this book, the author suggested ways that we can help conserve energy, minimize pollution, and keep our Earth clean.  Please ask your child how you as a family can make a positive difference and help our planet.  During our Earth discussion, Josie shared with us all how her family went out in their community and picked up garbage.  Thank you Josie for sharing this experience with us all, I know you’ve inspired your peers!

As a consolidating task, we made “Earth Cookies” and talked about how the green icing represents the land/continents and the blue icing represents the water/oceans.  It was a yummy, yet, meaningful experience.  Please take a moment to enjoy the pictures of our creations.  

Jax & Trista

Izzy & Alexander

Anjoli, Steven & Josie

Bradely, Eryn, Owen & Carrie-ann

Mikayla, Mikaila & Jakob

William, Grace & Wyatt

Alex, Julia, & Eagen

Daniel, Alexandra, & Ryan

Baby Chicks:

I mentioned in my previous post that I would let you know about this process and I do have an update! Unfortunately, none of our chicks hatched L  However, we discussed the various factors that may have contributed to this.  We had a rich inquiry and whole-class discussion about this!  Some of the factors may have included:  temperature, humidity, eggs not fertilized, and the power outage on the snow day.  With Ms. Hartley’s assistance, we opened a few eggs to investigate how far along some of the eggs developed.  Each student had the right to participate or the right to pass in this opportunity, and to our amazement, each scientist (student) participated with an open-heart J  The learning from this was remarkable as everyone was engaged.  In the end, Ms. Hartley and I shared with our students that like John Parkes, we are going to persevere and try and try again!  So we will be hatching another batch of chick eggs soon.  Stay tuned!

Here are a few pictures from our inquiry on Thursday.

Thank you Ms. Hartley for being part of our investigation!!!

OELC April 30^th – May 3^rd:

On Wednesday evening, I will be attending an Exploring Leadership Conference with 5 of our New Lowell students in Gr. 6 and 7.  I will be away from school on Thursday and Friday, Mrs. Draper will be in for me.  She is a wonderful supply teacher and has worked in my classroom before.  I know she is looking forward to teaching and getting to know your child further.  Please reinforce with your child the importance of maintaining their best behavior in my absence.  Thank you.  I look forward to sharing my experiences and some of the activities from OELC (Ontario Educational Leadership Conference) upon my return!

“Inclusiveness – including everyone in your play even if you’re not friends with them.” 

Thank you Steven for sharing your quote with US!

Namaste,

Miss Gill