Learning More in Grade 3/4!
Ms. Barrington's Weekly Newsletter
Week of January 29th, 2024
The Week Ahead
Monday (Day 5):
- French
- Gr. 4 Options
- Gr. 3 Tech Time
Tuesday (Day 1):
- Hot Lunch: Boston Pizza
- Inclusive Phys. Ed.
- Music
- Library Leaders
Wednesday (Day 2):
- Phys. Ed.
Thursday (Day 3):
- Hot Lunch: Cora's
- Habit #3 Assembly
- Library Leaders
- Inclusive Music
- Phys. Ed.
- Drop-In Science Fair Q&A
Friday (No School):
- FMPSD PD Day
Upcoming Events
- February 1st - Habit #3 Assembly
- February 1st - March Hot Lunch Orders Open
- February 6-8th - Who Do You Tell? Program (Gr. 3)
- February 7th - Popcorn Orders Due
- February 7th - Winter Walk Day
- February 9th - Global School Play Day
- February 9th - Popcorn Day
- February 14th - Pink Shirt Day
- February 14th - Classroom Celebration
- February 16th - No School (Staff PLF #9)
- February 19th - No School (Family Day)
- February 20th - Student-Led Conferences (5:00-8:00 pm)
- February 20th - March Hot Lunch Orders Due
- February 21st - Habit #4 Assembly
- February 22nd - Student-Led Conferences (4:00-7:00 pm)
- February 26th-March 1st - No School (Teacher Convention Break)
- March 1st - April Hot Lunch Orders Open
- March 5th - Classroom Science Fair
- March 6th - Christina Gordon School Science Fair
Notes From the Office
CGSF Popcorn Days: We are gearing up for another successful fundraising year with Popcorn Fri-yays. Popcorn is $2.00, and we aim to have popcorn delivered to classrooms before 10:30 am on Friday. Last year popcorn days provided approximately $7 000 to our Fundraising Association. As our student population continues to grow, we know the support is needed more now than ever. We are working with our Hot Lunch ordering platform to hopefully have popcorn orders streamlined through that, for families who wish to do so. If you have any questions: please email Barb (cgsfundraising@gmail.com).
Hot Lunches: Ordering will be open from the 1st to the 20th of each month to order for the following month. Please note that there is no hot lunch ordering for ECDP or Kindergarten students. To open your 2023/24 hot lunch account (the system does not retain information from the previous year), follow the detailed instructions provided in the attached graphic (Digital Take Home Folder). When you log in, you may notice a new button to volunteer for hot lunch. Please consider volunteering to help sort and organize hot lunches from 11:30 am-12:30 pm. If you have any questions you can contact our hot lunch team at: cgshotlunch@outlook.com.
CG Gear: Our online store is back up and running for the year. Check out: https://christinagordon.entripyshops.com/ to order school clothing. There is a wide variety of styles, logos, and colours to choose from!
Who Do You Tell: Grade 3 students at Christina Gordon School will be taking part in the Who Do You Tell? program on February 6-8th as part of their Health & Wellness curriculum. This program will be lead by facilitators from Waypoints. The program focuses on three main messages:
- Every child has the right to say "no" to a touch that doesn't feel okay.
- If a "Not Okay touch" ever happens to a child, it could never be the child's fault.
- The most important thing to do if a touch like this ever happens would be to tell an adult.
This program is meant to facilitate discussions around topics like consent and body ownership and while the course materials are appropriate for students in Grades K-6, students at FMPSD take part of the program during Grade 3. This is a safety program, it does not use frightening or inappropriate imagery, and facilitators take every measure possible to ensure that students will not be frightened. Please make sure that permission forms are signed and returned for this program as quickly as possible. If families have further questions or concerns, or if you would like to personally review the program material, please do not hesitate to contact Waypoints by emailing or phoning Jazzmine John at sap.educator1@waypointswb.ca and at (587) 644-4403.
Valentine's Day: As we approach Valentine's Day, we wanted to inform you that as a school, we continue to look for ways to minimize our environmental footprint. Every year, millions of valentines are exchanged, and most of them end up in the trash. This is also true of goodie bags that contain small trinkets such as stickers, erasers, etc. This results in a significant amount of waste that is harmful to the environment. We believe that it is important to teach our children about the importance of environmental conservation, and addressing this issue is one small step that we can take to make a difference. This year our classroom teachers will all be providing an alternative to Valentine's Day classroom exchanges. This may look different in each class, based on the age and interests of the students, and may include things such as:
a classroom Valentine's day craft that is shared.
A favorite book that all children may bring along to have signed by classmates.
A Valentine's Day craft that students leave a kind note or message on.
Digital valentines.
Teachers will advise parents what their class will be doing in the next few weeks. While we encourage families to refrain from exchanging valentines in the traditional manner, because this is our first year heading in this direction, this year we will continue to allow students to exchange valentines with their friends as they have in the past. Our goal will be to move totally away from this next year so that we can truly minimize our environmental footprint. We realize that totally eliminating the exchanging of valentines in the classroom may be disappointing to some students, but we hope that you will support our decision to move in that direction. We encourage you to talk to your children about the importance of protecting the environment and to find other ways to celebrate Valentine's Day that continue to promote the values of kindness and friendship while being more eco-friendly. Thank you for your understanding.
Classroom Valentine's Celebration: Our classroom will be having a small celebration on Wednesday, February 14th to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Students are invited, but not required, to wear red or pink for February’s Spirit Day, Red/Pink Shirt Spirit Day. Together, we will be learning and playing a game called Caribou Skipping which is an adaptation of an Inuit game. We will also be having a Red/Pink Taste Test. Students and families who wish to contribute a red/pink item can sign up on the provided Google Doc (Digital Take Home Folder) or send me a message/email about which red/pink fruit or vegetable you will be providing. We appreciate items being pre cut or sliced when possible.
Finally, students in Grade 3/4 B have been learning about biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste and have explored ways that students can manage and reduce waste through activities such as our previous classroom Swap & Shop. As we approach Valentine’s Day, we are continuing to look for ways as a class and as a school that we can minimise our environmental footprint while still finding ways to celebrate and promote the values of kindness and friendship that Valentine’s Day represents. Every year, millions of valentines are exchanged and the unfortunate reality is that most of them end up in the trash. This is also true of goodie bags that contain small trinkets such as: stickers, erasers, etc. To continue our classroom learning surrounding finding ways that we can minimise and reduce waste, our classroom will be providing an alternative to a traditional Valentine’s Day Valentine Exchange. Instead of students purchasing or creating paper valentines to exchange, we will be having a classroom Book Signing. Students are encouraged to bring a favourite book from home - a book that is meaningful to them and that they plan to keep and read throughout the years. Students will be given the opportunity to sign and write Valentine’s Day messages inside the front and back covers of each other’s books. The end result being that students will have a keepsake from their Grade 3/4 B classmates that they can keep, read, and enjoy for years to come. I will have extra books available for students who are unable to provide a book of their own so that all students are able to participate.
While we are encouraging families to refrain from exchanging valentines in the traditional manner, because this is the first year that our classrooms and school will be celebrating in this way, this year we will continue to allow students to exchange valentines with their friends as they have in the past; if this is something that students and families strongly feel the need to do. However, it should be noted that our goal as a school is to move away from this practice altogether in the future, using Valentine’s Day as a way that we can teach students to not only love, respect, and be kind to one another but to love, respect, and be kind to our environment while still finding ways to celebrate and find joy throughout our day. Thank you for your understanding!
Special Days Calendar: The Inclusion Advisory Committee still has special days calendar magnets for sale. These calendars have all the PLF dates on them, plus special recognition days (ie. Autism Acceptance Day, Down Syndrome Week, etc.). There are still 5 months left of school, so lots of important dates to remember and recognize! The original price was $5, but you can get them for only $2 from Mrs. Power now.
Smencils Fundraiser: The CG Inclusion Advisory Committee will be selling Smencils (scented pencils) to raise funds for more gross motor and sensory equipment. Pencils are $2.50 each and money is due to classroom teachers by February 6th. The pencils will be delivered to classrooms the week of Valentine's Day.