Miss Gill's Extraordinary Ones!!!

“Try living more in the moment, not the past or the future.”

Dear Families,

I hope you have an enjoyable Family Weekend! It will be amazing to have that ‘extra’ day off on Mon. to spend quality time with all your loved ones. I do my best to appreciate and value my time off with those that I care deeply about. Here are some of the activities that I hope to get up to with my family and friends - go out for dinner at one of my favourite restaurants in Creemore, trek through the woods on my snowshoes, drink delicious lattes by the fireplace, and get in as much relaxation as possible. Wishing you all a tremendous weekend too with your dear child.

Custodian Appreciation Day:

On Wednesday, as a school family we took time to celebrate and express our love and gratitude to two very important staff at our school - Mrs. McQuay and Mr. Milligan. These are two of our cherished custodians who go above and beyond not only in their line of work, but their interactions and connections with our students is exemplary. They both demonstrate true character and what it means to be a good person in thoughts, words, and actions. WE HONOUR YOU!! Thank you for all that you do, you make our school community a bright, shining ONE!

Wearing grey and navy colours to express our THANK YOU to Mrs. McQuay & Mr. Milligan!!

Thank you Mr. Milligan for all that you do in the evenings to keep our school clean!!

Reviewing Greater Numbers from 0-50:
Now that we have linear measurement covered, I thought I would spend some time this week reviewing Greater Numbers - recognizing, describing, building, and comparing numbers 0-50. I had the students work in pairs to practice this concept in a fun, engaging way - through a math game! The students adore when I give them 'math center time.' Each pair was provided with a 100 Chart, A Place Value Mat, Base-Ten Blocks, two Dice, and a mini Chalkboard to keep their friendly score. The object of the game was to roll the dice, look at the two digits, create the greatest number possible, represent the number using base-ten materials on the place value mat, and then describe that number using math vocabulary. The partner with the highest number and who then modelled it correctly received a tally mark. The student with the most tally marks after a given time period WON. I was able to walk around the classroom helping individual students who are still experiencing difficulty with this concept because everyone was playing accountably (on task).
Here are a few pictures I snapped during this math period:

Honouring Valentine’s Day:

Today, we celebrated Valentine’s Day with our class community. My gratitude goes out to all the students who participated in red, pink, and white school spirit day. Everyone looked so loving and wonderful in these vibrant colours. In addition, thank you families who took time, energy, and love to purchase cards and gift bags for all of US to enjoy! I was deeply touched by all the treasures I received, it meant a lot to me! In class, I shared two powerful read alouds (see picture below) which focused on bucket-filling. Please ask your child about the author's message and what they learned from each book. After sharing these books, we discussed the importance of demonstrating character in our thoughts, words, and actions ALL THE TIME to help fill our peers and our OWN bucket, too! We all agreed that we must celebrate LOVE (not just on Valentines Day) all year around, it is what makes the world brighter and beautiful. I am a fortunate educator, to be surrounded with such loving students who care and are kind to one another. It was heart-warming to watch your child give and receive unconditionally.

Thank you families for purchasing, creating, assembling and thinking of US, we LOVE our Valentine goodies!!

How can you fill someone's bucket today? Let's build LOVE everyday!!

Dance-A-Thon:

In the first block (9:15-10:15am), we participated in the Dance-A-Thon in our school gym. Parents, who provided pledges, thank you! I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to our school’s Parent Council who put in countless hours to make this event happen. I was at the school late last evening and noticed many council members still in the building organizing for the Dance until 8:15pm. Your dedication and hard work is deeply appreciated. I was in awe of the decorations, music (awesome DJ), treats, games, prizes!!! We truly have a remarkable school community!! The children thoroughly enjoyed this experience, you'll see the evidence -it's all in their bright smiles and groovin' dance moves. Please take a moment to enjoy some of the pictures from our love-filled Friday ...