December 16

The last school week of 2018

Dear R7A Families – 

We had a truly wonderful community meal on Friday, with tables of delicious food. Our students really enjoyed themselves. I think the Phys. Ed. class that followed was a pretty tough go for some who had indulged quite a bit! Thank you so much for all of your generous contributions and thank you to Ali’s, Salah’s, and Zakaria’s parents for being there with us, and for Rua’s and Sophia’s moms’ deliveries to the school. We even had homemade fruit smoothies! Mr. D. was able to swing by and spend some time with us. Thanks, Mr. D.!

       

   

Our class has also decided to have a “Secret Santa” week where students buy small gifts for each other. The gift exchange will probably happen on Friday. On the last day of school, the Winter Solstice, the class will also be participating in an Intermediate Assembly and in the Annual Teacher-Staff Volleyball Game in the afternoon.

Here is a blurred photo of our Kindness calendar. We are trying to take on tiny acts of kindness every day. So, be kind about my photography!

On Wednesday, December 19th, the Leadership Group will be hosting the GREAT VM CUPCAKE WALK for all Junior and Intermediate classes. All students are asked to bring in a toonie or two to raise money for the class to bid on a plate of cupcakes.  All proceeds go to global education initiatives. Thank you to any of you who are participating.

From the Friday Update:

HARMONY HOUSE

Please consider sending in a gift card for Harmony House INSTEAD of a staff gift.

The following are gift cards are always in need of at Harmony House. They use them to support their women and families throughout their stay.

Gift cards for local grocery stores:  Independent/Loblaws/Metro/Food Basics

Gift cards for pharmacy/drug stores:  Pharma Plus/Rexall/Shoppers Drug Mart

Gift cards for Walmart

Please note – if you choose to give to Harmony House, please send it as a gift to your child’s teacher, clearly labeled for Harmony House.  We will thank your child as if it was a gift intended for us. We will then pass it on to Harmony House to help someone in need.

Thank you for supporting this initiative.

Take care of yourselves and have a very good holiday. A very fond farewell and best wishes to Ms Robin Small who is leaving VM for a new job at John MacRae Secondary School. Ms Small has been an extremely kind, supportive and encouraging member of the VM community. Welcome to Ms Kelly Haslam who will be our new Vice-Principal. 

Ms. Swail

December 9

The week of December 10th – 14th, 2018

Hello R7A Families –

The photo above was taken this past week at the National Capital “Illumination” Night when all evening lights were lit across Canada on federal buildings and parks to celebrate winter and religious holidays including Christmas. It was a cold night, with huge snowflakes falling, and the sound of people cheering as the lights went on and fireworks filled the sky. This photo is of the Centre Block and the Peace Tower. Every evening there is a beautiful light show projected onto the buildings. If you have a chance, do visit with your children. The inside of the Centre Block, including the Peace Tower, will be closed for a TEN-YEAR renovation. 

COMMUNITY FEAST FOR R7A AND DHH – FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14th, 2018

On Friday, from 10:45 to 11:55, our class will be having a potluck meal to celebrate our first term together and to feed each other with recipes that include all 4 food groups.  The students have been asked to bring in a dish (that they have already planned with their group) that will feed FOUR PEOPLE. I will supply plates, cutlery and napkins. If there are any family members who would like to join us, please let me know. You are more than welcome. It will be noisy, frenetic and fun. That is Grade 7.

OURSTORY ASSESSMENTS will be coming home for your review and signature on Monday. Most of the students did well in explaining their understanding of the story of Canada that incorporates indigenous people. I assess for comprehension of big ideas and for critical thinking as well as content, so the test will not look like what you may have had as students. Please send in the assessment with your signature as soon as possible. Our next chapter in Ourstory will be to learn about French-English conflict in the New World and in Europe and how this shaped Canada and its people.

THE GREAT VM CUPCAKE WALK will take place on Wednesday, December 19th (next week). The Leadership Group is organizing a cupcake-palooza of 21 trays of confections for the Junior and Intermediate classes. Each class has been asked to raise money to participate in the event. All proceeds go to global education initiatives in places such as Haiti and Ecuador. Some of your children will be making the cupcakes and should be talking to you about this. There can be no nuts, please, please, please, and all ingredients must be listed. The Leadership Group is VERY excited about this. Please ask your R7A student how much they will be donating to global education. All donations help.

We are focusing on kindness these days and next week I will have a photo of our December Kindness calendar. Be kind to each other, get your children to read every day, please, and take care.

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Ms. Swail

 

December 2

December 3rd to December 7th, 2018

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Good morning all!

I hope you are staying dry and upright as a wave of freezing rain hits Ottawa and surrounding areas. All should be ok for the start of the school week on Monday. Winter boots with good treads are a very good idea for all students.

This past week in Health Education and in other classes, we talked once again about how we all should be treating each other – with kindness and consideration and not personal insults. We need to treat as we ourselves would like to be treated – The Golden Rule of many organized religions. Ms Spicer suggested we think of three simple words, “Do No Harm”.  A current game among Intermediates is “roasting” when you stand around in a group and throw insults at each other. Because everyone is doing it, many assume it is ok. It is not, and many students are experiencing hurt feelings but not telling the others to stop. A joke is not a joke to the person being insulted. Please talk to your young people about this. Thank you.

For Health Education, we will also be having a community meal with menus we developed. We will do this someday next week, December 10 – 14, and I will let you know as soon as we decide on a date and time.

In Language Arts, we have been working on our reading and comprehension skills. The students have been focusing on vocabulary and in finding responses to direct and inferred questions. This past week we learned about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the Canadian Nobel Prize in Physics winner, Dr. Donna Strickland and about Jeremy Dutcher, the Canadian indigenous singer and composer who combines opera with indigenous dialect and themes.

In Our story, the students will be having a written assessment on Tuesday. They have all been told the assessment will be based on class discussions, two readings on Google Classroom, our learning about residential schools, and on analyzing historical paintings for context and perspective. Our next topic will be on French-English Conflict in the new world.

Image result for cupcakes

For those of you with children in the Leadership group, our big project now is to organize the GREAT VM CAKEWALK for December 19th. Starting this week, all junior and intermediate classes will be invited to raise money for the Cakewalk and global education by bringing donations to school. The class with the most money gets the first choice from beautiful, sugary, colourful cupcake displays. All classes will get a dessert as long as they raise $10.00. The CAKEWALK morning is a lot of fun and very exciting for the organizers. So, heads up on someone coming home and asking if they can make and decorate 25 cupcakes. The proceeds from the Cake Walk will be going to global education initiatives.

Image result for christmas lights ottawa

This week, on Wednesday, December 5th, Ottawa will go up in lights! If you have a chance in the next few weeks, check out downtown Ottawa and Parliament Hill.   https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/christmas-lights.html.

Take care of each other,

Ms. Swail