We have started the new year rolling! We are continuing to have a lot of fun with our Grade 7 buddies. We get to read with them 2 out of 3 of our K days! We’re having a Valentine’s Day Potluck with them on February 14th that we’re really excited about. They’re bringing soup and sandwiches and we’re supplying the chocolate milk and desserts. Mmm!
We’ve really been enjoying the warmer weather (indoor recesses stink!).
We love the big snow hills in our schoolyard and we’ve been having so much fun sledding. One afternoon we made snow volcanoes in the soccer field! It made the snow look like snow cones…but we didn’t eat it!
We have a new “reading tent” on our carpet. It’s been a warm and cozy spot to dive into a book. In Math we’ve been working on numbers from 0-5. We really like to sing about “5 Little Monkeys” and “5 Hot Dogs”. We’ve still been working hard at Animated Literacy with Mrs. McGregor each morning. We’re starting to get the hang of our letter sounds! We just created watercolour masterpieces of “What Winter Looks Like To Me”. You can admire them outside of our classroom.
Enjoy the beautiful weather (while it lasts)!
~The Kindergartens & Mrs. Martineau
From The Office
Welcome back after the Christmas Break to everyone. January has given us some real extremes with weather to deal with from plus temperatures all the way down to low minus 30s. What a wonderful province to be part of! Keep sending those students to school with the right jackets and ski pants, especially in the case of bus issues that could arise and students staying warm.
January is filled with finishing Semester 1 classes and studying for final exams and completing course end projects. See this newsletter for the exam schedule taking place the last week of January for the grade 10-12 students and encourage your student to study as much as they can. Assignments for all the finishing courses must be in soon if not already to make the course credit available, so students must be completing each assignment that is given by the teacher. Many students have been dropping in at the office for help with applications to various university or technical programs – that’s exciting to see! We also have our highest number of students signed up for the Youth Apprenticeship Program than we ever have, and that’s made available to graduating students a scholarship for $1000. That’s another exciting thing for our students.
This is a reminder that January 31st will be the “turn around” day between semesters, and not a school day for students. Report Cards for grades 6-12 will head home on February 6. I want to also remind our Grade 12 students that their second Work Experience full week is Feb 24-28 which follows the February break 17-21. We did schedule this on purpose so it wouldn’t break up their learning after the February break until the next one in April.
The School Community Council would like me to mention that we still have a few Community Calendars available at the office for a reasonable $10.
That’s all for now. As always, Mr. Anderson and I would love to talk to you if you have time to drop by the office or give us a call. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.
Counsellor’s Corner
When Things Aren’t Working For the Child, Focus on the Emotion
One of the goals of discipline is to teach but what is the best way to do this? Children encounter problems and frustrations in everyday life. For example,
- “Grandma can’t come today”,
- “ Sally won the game, not you”,
- “We’ve run out of that cereal”,
- “You have to finish your homework before you can go on the computer.”
Children need to learn that life cannot always adjust to them. There are times when they need to adapt to the situation. It is often best to be calm, firm and state what the reality of the situation is while providing comfort as your children experience frustration which can often lead to sadness or disappointment.
To help children through this process you can say things like:
- It’s hard when things don’t work out.
- I know you really wanted this to happen.
- You were hoping I’d have a different answer.
- I wish things could have been different.
Much more important than our words is that our children know that we are “with” them and not “against” them.
2013 Yearbook Update
We typically have about 3 yearbook meeting a week as we try our hardest to finish last year’s yearbook. We really wanted it finished earlier this fall, unfortunately, it’s taken longer than planned because we have lost some of our regular yearbook club members and have had to teach the new crew how to use the yearbook design website. There are only a about 10 pages to complete before we can do the final edit and send to the printers.
The Score
The newest edition of The Score, the newsletter of the Central Valley Athletic Conference is now available online on the PSSD Portal.
Counsellor’s Corner
The First Principle of Natural Discipline is: Use Connection, Not Separation, to Bring a Child into Line
“Connection is the source of our parenting power and influence and of the child’s desire to be good for us. Connection should be both our short-term objective and our long-term goal.” We need connection before we can give direction that will be followed. Imagine that your spouse has come home from work and the first words you say are “Take out the garbage.” Now imagine that your spouse has come home from work and you give him or her a kiss on the cheek, ask how their day was, and then say, “Would you mind taking out the garbage for me?” We all know which of those options is going work best and the same is true with our children. We need to “collect” people before we can expect to “direct” them.
Some ways to connect with children are to spend time with them doing things that they enjoy. These do not need to be expensive. They can be as simple as going for a walk, playing a game, throwing a ball, making a meal, or eating supper together to name a few.
Remember—the goal of this time is to build connection. It is not the time to talk about all of the things that aren’t working for you or that you’re worried about. The goal is to build connection and create good memories together.
Hanley School Christmas Dinner
It’s hard to believe that it is soon December! The Annual Christmas Dinner will be held at noon on Friday, December 20th. It is a great Hanley School tradition full of Christmas spirit, fellowship and a feeling of one big family in celebration, as the students from K-12, staff, bus drivers and division office staff, gather together. The turkeys will be supplied by the SRC with the rest of the meal being contributed by families.
You will be receiving an email on Nov. 25th. Please read through the contribution form and reply with your choices by December 2nd. I will then choose one of your choices and organize the meal. I will send an email on December 12th with the item we would like you to donate.
Non-perishable food items can be brought to the Home Ec. room between Monday, December 16th and Friday, December 20th. Perishable food items should be brought Friday morning by 9:00; potatoes at 11:50; turkey and gravy at 11:00.
Dishes should be labeled and can be picked up in the main lobby Friday afternoon before 3:00 p.m.
Thank you in advance to everyone who is donating food or cooking a turkey for our annual Christmas Dinner.
Christmas Concert
Please join us for our Christmas Concert on Tuesday, December 17th at 7:00 p.m. in the Hanley School gymnasium. We are presenting a musical called “The Night the Reindeer Rocked”.
Hope to see you there!
Library News
Exciting things are happening in the library! We are getting a new library program called “Destiny”. When we get back from Christmas Holidays the program will be installed in all of the Prairie Spirit Schools. In order to have this program installed, we have to have all library books returned by December 2nd. Please help your kids remember to bring back all of their books by Monday Dec. 2nd. Thanks for your support.
Scholastic Book Fair
The Book Fair was a big success this year! Thank you for all your support. The stu- dents will see the new books in the library after the new program has been installed. We were able to take 50% of our total sales in new books for the library.
Thanks to Scholastic for donating prizes throughout the fair. The Family Event winner was Kabree B. She won $25.00 worth of books and her classroom also won $25.00 worth of books. Many other prizes were given out through the week.
Give the Gift of Reading
This Christmas give someone the gift of reading, by donating a new or gently used book. The library will be collecting books for all ages – from infant to adult- from De- cember 2- December 13. These books will be donated to the Salvation Army Christmas Hampers.
So share your love of reading with those in need and bring a book down to the library!!
Thanks for your generosity!
Commercial Cooking
Wednesday, November 27—Sausage/Perogies, Jelly Fruit Salad, Fruit Punch Thursday, December 5—Chicken Pot Pie, Chocolate Chip Cookie, Milk
Thursday, December 12—Ham, Scalloped Potatoes, Gingerbread Man, Drink