Dear Families,

It’s my first post for February!  Where did those 5 months go?!  I can still vividly remember seeing your child’s bright smile entering the portable on my first day here :) I look forward to our next five months of purposeful, passionate, and peaceful learning together!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend with your loved ones and enjoy fun, interactive ways to enjoy this cool, crisp winter!

Artist Visit:

On Tuesday afternoon, we had the pleasure of having Ms. Stewart visit our classroom to do some art with us.  The students art focus is on celebrating Canada!  We will be entering these art pieces into the Magic of Children's Art at the local library when we've completed them - how exciting!!  We are lucky to have Ms. Stewart coming back on Tues. afternoon to work on the foreground of our paintings :)  Here are the students in art action ...

Groove Dancing:

On Wednesday afternoon, we welcomed a Groove Dance Instructor to our school to put on a dance workshop for students in K-8.  It was wonderful to see everyone engaged, expressive, and excited to partake in dancing to the beat and rhythm of their mind, body, and spirit.  Groove is an amazing program which encourages everyone to - "Step outside your comfort zone, take risks, BE WHO YOU ARE, and remember to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF."   

Thank you to Mrs. Kutcy for organizing this FUN workshop!  We appreciate the time and energy it took to organize this for our whole school.  You're a true rock-star NIGHTHAWK!!  Enjoy some of the groovin' pics!

Daily Physical Activity (D.P.A.):

As many of you are aware, students engage in daily Brain Gym exercises as a strategy to exercise, calm, and rejuvenate the parts of the brain and body so children can effectively use their brain power for meaningful learning.  The Helper of the Day leads brain gym with such poise and pride; it is a joy to see my students enthusiastically engage and benefit from it!

In addition to brain gym, we also participate in daily D.P.A. (daily physical activity) to get our bodies moving.  As a teacher, I strongly believe in creating healthy and active minds and bodies which helps students learn to their potential.  Children (and indeed adults) need to get UP and MOVING so the wigglies, and squigglies get an opportunity to shine and get out of our systems!

We have been using the GoNoodle program which is a fun and engaging site with a variety of exercises, stretching, and calming activities which we all LOVE.  To make it more FUN, we have been keeping track of our minutes (we've attained 451 minutes thus far) and printing off the characters we have achieved. Our goal by the end of the year is to achieve all the characters on GoNoodle.  I know we can do it!  

On Day 5's, we get together with Mrs. Shaw's Gr. 5/6 class to participate in a large group D.P.A. activity which everyone thoroughly enjoys as we get to know and play with our older peer group. Today for D.P.A., we played a big game of stones boys against girls.  Ask your child about this experience!  It was awesome :)

Field Trips:
Thank you to the families who have already signed, returned, and paid for the Gr. 4 trip to Highlands Nordic which is coming up mid-Feb.!  Don't worry Gr. 3's, we have a special trip planned for you too which will take place on Feb. 14th (Valentines Day).  Permission forms will be sent home in the agenda on Mon. so I'll keep you in suspense til then ;)

Yard Behaviour:
Mr. Perry said an important announcement today about keeping out of the puddles, school boundaries, and abiding by our policy of HANDS OFF.  Please speak to your child about the importance of these rules, and if they are not involved in this sort of behaviour (which many aren't :), have them encourage their peers to make good choices.  I have many wonderful leaders in this class who can help others make positive choices.  At Nottawa, it is our goal to ensure ALL children feel safe at all times.  If your child is involved in an issue which involves hands on or put downs, please don't hesitate to let me know via email, a note in the agenda, or a phone call as I don't always see, hear, or know what happens during unstructured times such as recesses.  I will always do my best to follow up to help my students.  Thank you so much for your understanding and support in this matter.

Growth Mindset:

"You are always beautiful even if you don't feel it."  -Jack

Namaste,

Miss Gill