CLC Wrap-up: news-notes (March. 2015). Cooking up success, pink t-shirt power, winter wonderland fun and much more.
Keeping it classy
Three out of five families do not know what they are eating tonight. C.V.R.’s Learning Centre is finding a great solution to this problem. Students are giving input about cooking recipes, preparation and food distribution in their “From Class to Table” project. Along with their teachers, students prepare, mark and freeze healthy meals for themselves and their families as well as the school community. Any monies raised go back to help with the project.
Pink Shirt Day to the max!
Under the talented creativity and supervision of Bonnie Gilmour and the Hemmingford staff, students performed an awesome Pink Shirt Day Assembly on Wednesday, February 25th. Hemmingford Elementary activities always try to include members of the community whenever possible and this was a true community event with a significant number of parents and extended family members present. Guests heard powerful quotes from the students, along with singing and dancing that helped everyone focus on the importance of “standing up for yourself and others” and “not to be afraid to be yourself”. Grade 6 student Brianna Orr, “I wanted everyone to have their voice heard through dance”, therefore along with Ella Flitcroft they asked if they could start a dance club. Once it was advertised 41 out of 86 students from Grades K to 6 signed-up. To think that it all started with two girls having a great idea to do a dance against bullying. Students definitely have the power to really make a difference! Video link: Video Hemmingford
Getting better and better, all the time
The 3rd Soirée Communau-T HSL Community Night of the year was held on Wednesday, February 11th. Once again we are very proud of the participation in this event by citizens, community organizations and volunteers. 210 free spaghetti dinners were served, 32 different community organizations were on site to inform the public of the services available and 36 children took advantage of our free daycare to give parents a chance to visit kiosks. Another huge success! Everyone is welcome to join us for our final Soirée of this year at École primaire des Jeunes Riverains in Saint-Anicet on Wednesday, April 15th. School: Heritage Elementary
Video link: Heritage video
Oh Mary, February roared with VCs!
During the month of February Grade 1students reconnected with their sister class in Texas to continue their weather project comparing Fahrenheit to Celsius. But it didn’t stop there, Grade 2 students visited by video conference the Royal Botanical Garden’s “Creatures with Wings and Crawly things” (en francais). Grade 1 also visited the Dinosaur Museum in Drumheller (Alberta) since they were learning about dinosaurs in their classroom. The Kindergarten students video conferenced their way to Atlanta (Georgia) and were able to speak with a dinosaur specialist and also made dinosaur puppets out of cups.
School: Mary Gardner (Grade: K+1 + 2)
Chateauguay schools working together
Chateauguay schools are working on several ‘community based service learning projects’. St. Willibrord is linking with Howard S. Billings on a minerals project. St. Will students will research and work on presentations about their birth stones and will present their findings in front of Grade 1 students at Mary Gardner School.
Centennial Park school is working on a wonderful musical. The musical will showcase different arts and culture and will become an excellent opportunity to perform for the community. The musical will also help students continue to build their relationships with local seniors. This particular project will also help elementary students form relationships with the high school students since they’ll also be working with Billings students. This partnership intends to help decrease some of the stress for young students attending high school for the first time next year.
Billings and St. Will shall be working on Aboriginal awareness project. H.S.B students will be researching Aboriginal history and culture, and then will present their findings at the elementary school. St. Willibrord students will learn the history about residential schools. In addition they’ll be a Kairos Canada, Blanket exercise, which uses blankets and local native partners to represent the lands of what is now called Canada, and the distinct cultures and nations which live on those lands to this day. All the teachers and schools were linked to outside resources and grants with help from by their CLC Chateauguay Technician, Anthony Spadaccino.
Teacher Appreciation – A Sweet Celebration
Congratulations to Melanie Pregent from St. Willibrord School, a Cycle 3 teacher was acknowledged by parents on the LEARN blog website. These anonymous parents acknowledged Ms. Pregent as a young, dynamic teacher who connects well with her students. She was recognized for going out of her way in and out of the school and caring for her students as if they were her own children. Way to go Melanie!
Le Grand Défi at Harmony School
On Monday February 16th the Grand Déficaravan made it to Harmony school. The students enjoyed the huge double motor home (Vehicube) with spin bikes at the rear of the bus and iPad workshops at the front. Kindergartens Grade 1, 2 and 3’s did a Zumba workout in the morning as the older students did a stretching and fitness workout in the afternoon.
Cold winter can’t stop Carnival Week
The cold of late February didn’t stop Chateauguay elementary schools from enjoying the great outdoors. Schools took the opportunity to link up with local services or to stay in their school and have a winter carnival. Students did skating, sledding and had a great old time in the snow and advantage of what Old Man Winter dished out before March break.
Grand opening – “the rink”
In early February, Gault students and staff, New Frontiers School Board dignitaries, corporate sponsors and Valleyfield city representatives celebrated the Grand Opening of Gault Institute’ Ice rink. The rink will be used all year round by both students and community members. To celebrate there was a hockey game, broomball, music and hot chocolate! The Broomball equipment was borrowed from the Sportotheque in Valleyfield and was subsequently lent to the school for the remainder of the winter season. Thanks again to the many partners including the Montreal Canadians Foundation, Club Rotary, Caisse Populaire Bellerive and Valrive Constructions who made it all possible. There was also a friendly game on February 20th between youngsters from the Maison des Jeunes (which has recently moved beside our school) and police officers from the Sûreté du Québec. Everybody had an amazing time.
Link to story, Soleil: article link
Finding ones passion
Gault’s Community Learning Centre (CLC) received a $9000 Grant from the National Bank to encourage youth to find their passion! Our students are very active and as a CLC school we aim to provide them with different artistic, cultural, and athletic activities while encouraging them to discover a true passion. Student from Gault will benefit from this grant and we can’t wait to get this project underway.
Recreation Activities and Student Leadership in full swing!
Dawson College stagier Karina Bertrand, a student in Community Recreation and Leadership Training (CRLT) program, has begun implementing recreation activities with the students at recess and lunch. After minimal participation in the beginning she now has on a regular basis between 10-15 students participating in numerous activities. The students play all kinds of different games (such as: rock-paper-scissor tournaments, red light-green light on the ice, broomball, dodge ball, etc.) and take part in a leadership class where they play games but also take a leadership role by teaching the games to their peers. Students are learning how to be good leaders in their school and the community.
School: Gault Institute
Yoga in the Valley
Heritage Elementary School was fortunate to open their doors to a certified professional yoga teacher who came into the school and taught a 50-minute Yoga class for all Cycle 2 & 3 classes. Even with March Break fast approaching the students were able to focus on their breathing and to relax throughout the class. Some students loved the experience so much they were able to attend the class more than once. The instructor also visited HAECC where she offered adaptive yoga with a chair for the SFIS class as well as the Melissa Sunshine Camp. The students were able to work on their flexibility, concentrate on meditation and focus on different breathing techniques. The students enjoyed the yoga so much both at Heritage and HAECC they have asked if the instructor would come back to offer more classes!
Agri Week
CEDEC hosted Agri week (from February 17-20th) at HAECC. Agri Week’s mission is to offer Quebec growers, producers and agrupreneurs different management tools and skills. There was a varied format of presentations throughout the week as they were designed to inspire, educate, inform and challenge local producers. Despite the cold weather people made their way to HAECC on Friday for the Salon which highlighted local services available to the growers.
Previous CLC News & Notes
– December 2014 – CLC News Edition 3 – Heroes, skating rink and financial literacy and much more.
‘Community Learning Centres’ are partnerships that provide a range of services and activities, often beyond the school day, to help meet the needs of learners, their families, and the wider community. Their aim is to support the holistic development of our students, families, citizens and communities.