Thank you to all of the parents for your hard work and dedication at this time of uncertainty! I appreciate all of your help - working with your children, motivating them to get to work, your emails, taking pictures of work and sending it to me, your patience, helping them keep their work organized, picking work packages up from the school - for every big and little thing that you’re doing right now!! Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you need anything! Stay safe, healthy and happy. 😊

This week at school we had the grade 7/8 students come to our class to share their science experiments with us.
And here are a few students playing soccer during their outdoor time.


See you all in a few weeks 😋

The grade 5/6 students have been particularly sick this year apparently, because we are all out of Kleenex. I know you all brought Kleenex at the start of the year, but if you don’t mind bringing 1 more box, we’d all appreciate it. Thanks so much!

The grade 5/6 students have an optional assignment that they will be given no class time to work on. If they choose, they can build a home or community from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. They can create this using Minecraft, Roblox, The Sims or can create a diorama. When students have completed creating their home/community, they are asked to send pictures of the home/community to me at jwhitney@bsls.ca. Dioramas can be brought to school. This is due March 16th. 

They are currently learning about the lives of early Manitobans. We have read about and discussed the challenges of homesteaders (farming, drought, discrimination), and the workload for children at home and school. 

Here are the grade 5-8 students exploring artifacts that voyageurs used during the fur trade. 

Some pictures from our week of Festival du Voyageur.
Singing old songs together 





Some fiddle playing 



Trying pea soup 

Dressing up

Camp Arnes permission forms and the first deposit was due today. If you have not yet handed this in, please do so as soon as possible. Thank you. 

This week is Festival Week!

If students would like to dress up this week, they are encouraged to do so.

Feb. 18 - wear a toque 

Feb. 19 - wear a flannel shirt

Feb. 20 - wear a sash

Feb. 21 - wear voyageur clothing 

Next week, on Feb. 26, students are encouraged to dress up like a story book character of their choice. They can also bring a diorama, that they made at home, to share with the other students in the school.

Here is an example of what it might look like. This one can be found in the hallway near the office.

The Grade 5/6 students are learning about Black History Month and along with that, reading and studying the novel “Underground To Canada” by Barbara Smucker. The novel takes place in “the Deep South” before slavery was abolished. 

On Friday, two grade 5/6 students will be presenting their climate change PowerPoint to the school at 1:00 pm (after the Take Pride Winnipeg Presentation). The grade 5/6 students have taken on a green initiative and will help educate the other students in the school about global climate issues. Each student in the grade 5/6 room will have an opportunity to share their presentation with the school between February and June. 

The grade 5’s & 6’s are learning about the treaties the First Nations Peoples signed and how it effected their people for generations. They are learning about how First Nations peoples moved onto reserves and how they were treated by the government (not being allowed to vote federally until the 1960’s, for example). We are also discussing residential schools, and the impact that forced assimilation had on the First Nations Peoples.

The students are working on memorizing the Ten Commandments in Religion class. There will be a quiz a week from today. 

The Grade 5’s are working on both short & long division. Their memorized multiplication facts are coming in handy now, and they are seeing the benefits of memorizing their facts. 

The Grade 6’s are learning about the relationship between fractions, percentages, ratios and decimals. 

The students are very excited that they’ve earned a PAX Party. They have been so disciplined, responsible and respectful lately! I’ve seen a lot of growth already this year in so many students. The PAX Party will be tomorrow (Thursday). Students are allowed to wear their pajamas, if they want, and to bring a board game if you allow them to. 

The Grade 5/6 students were excited to get Chrome books in the class this past week. They have had the opportunity to work on their keyboarding and writing skills, and are enjoying working on their own designated device. 

Students were working hard on their ELA project this week. They have been on task and dedicated to their work. They each chose three writing assignments from a list, and showed that they were responsible for their own learning. 

The grade 5/6 students learned about the Klondike Gold Rush and how it helped build Canada.

Here are the Grade 5/6 students learning about electricity. They had a lot of fun with this hands-on experience. That same day they also participated in an introduction to coding class. 

On a related note, there will be a coding class after school on Wednesdays for the Grade 4-8 students. Notes went home this past week with details.

Working cooperatively to research important Chinese Canadians. The students learned about the gold rush in British Columbia and how Chinese workers were exploited by the government. They learned about the Chinese Immigration Act and how that effected them. 

Welcome back!

It was so nice to see everyone again! All of the students seemed happy to see their classmates and to be back into the swing of things.

The grade 5/6 students are working on an assignment that enables them to show me their cursive skills. They have been practicing for months now, and will be able to incorporate these skills into their daily work now.

We are talking about worrying this week in Religion class and reading Luke 12:22-31. The focus is not to worry because we can’t change things and to trust in God. The following pictures show students drawing as they listen to a message in a song titled “Don’t Worry”.