Life in room 217 has been VERY busy since we got back to school in January. In fact, it is hard to believe that we are almost to the end of February all ready. We have enjoyed a number of great extracurricular activities, including basketball, Craft Club and a Valentine’s dance. We’ve also had a number of special presentations, including visits from Cathy and the nursing students from OCHC and Heather Bickle from CMHCDurham. For more on the work Heather has been doing with us, see the article below.

Academically, we have been focusing on Main Idea in language. Being able to find the main idea in a text and understand what the author is trying to tell us is an important life skill that can be applied to books, articles, posters and all types of media. When we are able to determine the main idea in a text we are better able to look critically at the text to help us make decisions about the information given.

We have been using the concept of “Global Citizens” to help us structure our learning in language. We have talked about what it means to be a global citizen, looked at examples of great global citizens and reflected on how we can be better global citizens where we are. Our world is constantly shinking and young people need to understand the role they play in the wider world. We will continue to think through this idea as we move to March Break.

In math, we have been looking at measurement. The grade 7s have been investigating area of irregular shapes and will be moving into talking about surface area of prisms. The grade 8s have been working with circles and will be moving on to calculating the surface area and volume of cylinders. We are looking forward to doing some hands on, practical applications as assessments for this unit.

In other curriculum areas:

Science—We are talking about structures, their form and function. We have built structures and watched lots of videos about structural failure. We will finish the unit with a discussion about aesthetics in design and then students will design and build a product for themselves.

History—We are going to begin a rotary system for History. Mr. Reynolds will be teaching our grade 7 history and Mrs. Waters and Mrs. Bailey will share the grade 8 history teaching. The goal of this rotary is to allow students an opportunity to experience some rotary as they prepare for high school. History will be on Day 2 and Day 5 at 9:50. (Because other students will be working in our classroom, it is important that students not leave anything of value in their desks.)

We want our students to be prepared and ready for the challenges that lay ahead of them. This is one small way that we are working toward that goal.

Important Dates

February 24th—Grade 8 grad photos—morning

February 29th—Wear PINK Day and Anti-Bullying assembly

March 1st—trip to Station Gallery in Whitby for those students who have resturned forms and money

March 9-16—March Break

March 28th—class trip to Nonquon (Forms and money are still being accepted for this trip)

Mental Health Workshops

How we feel about ourselves and how we choose to deal with and manage the stress in our lives all have a major impact on our health and well being. In order to help our students understand this, we have been hosting a series of Mental Health workshops put on by Heather Bickle from the Canadian Mental Health Association in Durham. She has done an excellent job of taking students through a number of difficult topics, including self-esteem, what mental health is, how we deal with stress, drugs and addictions, with more to come throughout February and March.

The information that students are gaining from Heather and the discussions they are having as a result are invaluable to their healthy growth and development as they move from childhood into adolescence and beyond . Please ask your child about what they are learning and engage in the conversations that will come out of what they share with you.

What is Pink Shirt Day?

Pink Shirt Day aims to bring awareness and dialogue on the issue of bullying and in particular, bullying prevention. Pink Shirt Day originated in Nova Scotia where a young man was bullied for wearing a pink shirt on his first day of high school. A group of older students chose to support this young man by purchasing and wearing pink shirts the following day. Their act of support sent a clear message to all students in their school: Bullying is not tolerated here.

We will be wearing Pink Shirts on Wednesday, February 29th in recognition of Pink Shirt Day. There will also be an anti-bullying assembly on the 29th and a door decorating celebration to raise awareness about bullying and the importance of being an upstander, not a bystander.