South Kelowna Elementary School

January & February 2010

A group of students known as 'Kelsey's Kids' talk to their adopted Olympic athlete Kelsey Serwa via Skype. Kelsey will be visiting the school in April to speak to the students about her Olympic experience.

January came and went like a flash! One of the highlights was seeing local singer/songwriter Ryan Donn perform. He even asked Mr. Minkus to play guitar on one of his songs - 'One Dream' written for Terry Fox.

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Boy, did Mr. Minkus look nervous! SKE also hosted its first 'ELFF (Early Learning for Families) event. We had 15 families out for an evening of eating dinner, learning and fun. ELFF will help prepare pre school aged children and their families for school success.

Grade 6 basketball started and it looks like its going to be a great season of hoops. February is shaping up to be very exciting. There are many field trips and special events being planned. On Feb, 8 we celebrated Harmony Day by welcoming world traveler and author Robert Cahill to present to all our Intermediate students. Robert lives part of each year in Nunavut and spends the rest of his time touring Canada and the U.S. making presentations on life in Canada’s newest territory and talking about life in Japan (a country he has visited many times ... even as a guest of the Japanese government). His 50-60 minute presentations on Nunavut include slides, a display of Inuit arts, crafts and clothing and a question and answer session. His session on Japan is similarly structured (slide talk, arts-crafts-clothing, questions and answers). We are also having our final fundraiser for our adopted Olympic athelet Kelsey Serwa. For a twoonie, students can have their picture taken holding an authentic Olympic torch.

South Kelowna's Adopted Olympic Athlete Going to the 2010 Olympic Games!

On January 28, Kelsey learned that she had made the 2010 Olympic Team!

In September, SKE joined the Adopt an Olympic Athlete Program to help Olympic hopefuls pay for travel, equipment and other expenses that quickly add up in her sport. Students at South Kelowna Elementary chose world class skier Kelsey Serwa as our athlete and they were treated to a visit on October 27. The students are very excited about watching Kelsey take to the slopes in Vancouver.

“The program is aimed at inspiring students to be the best they can by following their dreams and learning that they can make a difference so long as they take the initiative to do so,” says Principal James Minkus. “With the joint effort of Kelsey and SKE, this will be a stepping stone in making that difference.”

A special thank you to our Healthy Schools Team - Mrs. Estey, Mrs. O’Reilly, Mrs. Pullan, Ms. Lees and Mrs. Meldram and the Grade 6 ’Kelsey’s Kids’ students for organizing a very successful fundraiser for our adopted Olympic athlete. They raised $565.60 by selling raffle tickets for 3 Olympic themed baskets. The money will go towards supporting Kelsey’s trip to Vancouver with the 2010 Ski Cross team. For more information on this program or to check out Kelsey's blog click here.

September and October passed by so quickly we hardly had time to sit down and reflect on just how successful our school opening was. We were able to keep the school organization as planned in June for 308 students. As a result, students settled in very quickly and were hard at work from the start. Over the summer we had 15 new registrations but by the end of the first week of school we had lost 15 students. Class lists were posted on the Friday before school started and many parents appreciated having the weekend to talk to their children about their classroom placements. Our newest staff member, Mr. Brent Fitzgerald, was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After finishing high school, he completed post secondary degrees at St. Mary's University and the University of Maine. Welcome to SKE Mr. Fitzgerald! On October 14, we wrapped up a very successful magazine fundraiser. We sold over 450 subscriptions. The top selling class was Mrs. Mackenzie's Grade 5 class and the top selling student was Simon Plant. He sold a whopping 40 subscriptions and for his efforts claimed the top prize - a 8GB Ipod Nano. Another exciting event was our Thanksgiving Food Hampers Drive. Thank you to our students for supporting the Kelowna Food Bank and thanks to staff for making it a priority in their classrooms. In just over a week, we collected well over a thousand items that will help many families over this coming holiday weekend. The items almost filled an entire van. We should all be very proud to be part of such a great school and community. Thanks to Ms. Pauls and her leadership students for coordinating. On October 26, we will be participating in the third annual DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) Challenge. The Central Okanagan Teacher-Librarians’ Association is challenging all School District No. 23 staff and students to participate in this challenge. October 26, 2009 is National School Library Day and the third anniversary of the BC Drop Everything and Read Challenge. The challenge is to drop everything for 20 minutes and pick a book to read, read to a colleague, or read to some students. The simple but powerful idea is to promote the importance of literacy by having as many students and adults as possible read at the same time on the same day. Pictures, emails or stories of your participation in the DEAR challenge can be forwarded to msmit3@sd23.bc.ca.

We waited and waited for Spring to arrive and finally in mid May it looked like we were done with the cooler temperatures. During April and May, students and staff collected pennies and coins to help raise money to find a cure for cancer. Thank you to all the students and staff for bringing in their pennies and loose change in support of our Penny Drive for Cancer Research. Liam Smith, a grade 4 student in Mr. McLeod's class, has a Grandma who was diagnosed with cancer two years ago. Liam witnessed his Grandma suffer through cancer treatments and saw how her suffering affected his family. He thought to himself, 'what could I do to help make a difference?" Liam decided that he was going to grow his hair long so that one day he could have it cut off and made into a wig so that a person going through cancer treatment, which often results in the patient losing his or her hair, could have a little comfort during a tough time. Liam has grown his hair for over two years. Along the way kids teased him about having long hair. And you know what he did? He walked away from their teasing. He told them how he felt and why he was doing it. After awhile, the teasing stopped. Liam had his hair removed in front of the whole school during our Celebration Assembly on April 28. Thanks to his courage and leadership, Liam helped raise over $1200!

One of the highlights in April was finally getting some decent weather so we could open up the playing fields. For a week and a half, the fileds were closed due to the prolonged winter weather. The students are commended for dealing with this pretty significant inconvenience. On April 23, the magician Sean Watson presented to students, staff and parents. The students really enjoyed his illusions and slight of hand. April also saw the start of two major school-wide programs - gymnastics and running. Students are running laps and working their way to a marathon or ultra marathon! In the photo above, students are warming up prior to our 'kick off' run on April 17. Students will be writing part two of our annual 'School-Wide Write' at the end of April. Students and parents will be impressed with how much improvement students have made since the first write in the Fall.

March came and went fast! With Spring Break smack in the middle it seems like we just got going and then we were off a much deserved break. We kicked of the month with our annual school-wide tennis program. It was a huge success! Coach Willy was a big “hit” with the children, and students (and staff!) developed a lot of skills. Interest in the sport was certainly sparked. SKE has been sponsoring three UBCO student teachers and March was spent planning for their practicums. We wish Ms. Mearns (Mrs. Estey), Ms. Khoudikova (Mr. McLeod), and Ms. Simmons (Ms. Pauls) all the best! On March 13, our longest serving Noon Hour Supervisor, Mrs. Brubacher, is retiring. Mrs. has touched the lives of many students and staff over her years at SKE and we will miss her a great deal. She also demonstrated a great deal of leadership to her colleagues and to our community. During her last week, students and classes said thank you and goodbye by making cards and her colleagues hosted a luncheon in her honour. Best wishes Mrs. B! Before the break, our grade six students met with the counselor and Principal of KLO Middle to select their courses for next year. Talk about excited students! According to our most recent report card data from KLO, our students do exceptionally well and parents need not be concerned with the transition to middle school. Here's some photos of staff members singing which was featured at our last KLO Web assembly.

February was a short month, but it sure flew by! To kick it off, we enjoyed another great turnout of parents to our Parent-Teacher Conferences. On March 4, we had a cultural performance featuring The Gizmo Guys! The photo above shows the Gizmo uys having fun with the very shy Mr. Durrer. We all know how he loves to be the centre of attention! The highlight however, for many of our students, had to be the PAC sponsored "Valentine's Day" dance and fundraiser. A special thank you goes out to all the parents who put in many hours organzing this event. Students also had the opportunity to participate in "clog" dancing, indoor tennis and golf - all three activities designed to provide students with an exposure to "life-long" healthy, physical activity. On Monday, February 9, we celebrated "Harmony Day," a new school district initiative celebrating diversity and harmony. We also saw some very talented students at our Lunchtime Showcase and Mrs. Wilson's student Air Band perfromances on the 24th and 25th of February. The students were entertained by an Axis Theatre cultural performance called "King Arthur's Kittchen" and a KLO Band Program performance on February 27th. Our grade 6 basketball program took place during February and the students enjoyed learning new skills and playing against other local schools. The program wrapped up with a mini tournament at Quigley.

The Grade 6 Field Trip to Vancouver was another great success! The student represented our school in an exemplary manner. Thanks to Mr. Durrer, Ms. Pauls and the parent volunteers for making the trip such a great success!

Happy New Year South Kelowna!

Hopefully the temperatures and the snow during the break didn't keep you and your family from enjoying what the Winter has to offer - snowboarding, sledding, reading a good book in front of an open fire, and enjoying time with family and friends. I don't know about you, but after such a long, restful break, I am ready to get back to a structured routine! This means it's time to refocus our energies on learning. Mr. McLeod's Grade 4/5 students got back into the swing of things the first day back. They went outside and learned how to build a snow shelter. But before they were put into groups for the challenge, they learned about scientific concepts of structural design, how to work together as a team to survive, and how to stay safe while building and using a shelter. Mr. McLeod showed the students some sample snow shelters from You Tube and discussed with the students how a shelter could save a life.

On January 23, 2009, SKE joined in with hundreds of schools across Canada in an attempt to set a world record for reading. The Guiness World Record is for “most children reading with an adult in multiple locations”. The students were divided into 10 groups. An adult (teacher or parent volunteer) read the five Robert Munsch books, for a minimum of 30 minutes, to each group. Stay tuned for the results!

December was a short month but definately one of the busiest. It was a time for giving at SKE. On November 26, our Leadership students attended the Festival of Trees at the Delta Grand Hotel. This was a fundraising event to raise money for the BC Children's Hospital. Thank you to our PAC for sponsoring our tree and thank you to the SKE students and teachers for the amazing, healthy decorations - our tree was decorated to reflect our 'healthy school' goal. The leadership students did a fantastic job representing our school. Thanks to everyone's hardwork SKE received the award for Best Team Spirit! Way to go South Kelowna!!

Thank you to the Leadership students for raising money for the Kelowna Gospel Mission. Between selling raffle tickets for the beautiful gingerbread house and train that Susan Cavaghan donated and the bake sale, we raised $417.55! Thanks to all who bought raffle tickets and our food! In other holiday fundraising news, Mrs. Goodall and Mrs. Chalmers' classes raised $353.00 dollars for World Vision. This money is enough to purchase a sheep, a goat, 2 chickens, a rooster, and a piglet for a needy third world village. Mrs. Estey, Ms. Lees, and Mrs. Meldram's classes raised over $300 also for local charities.

November came crashing in this year, but what a beautiful month of mild temperatures, sunny skies, and no snow! What a difference from last year when the students were already sliding on the snow. It's hard to believe that we are already making preparations for our Winter Concerts which take place on Dec. 10 and 11th. There is limited seating for these shows so get your tickets at the office early! Our Grade 6 Leadership Club members have been busy this month. Under the guidance of Ms. Pauls, they have been busy organizing events around the school. Ms. Wilson is also helping coordinate this program designed to teach students leadership skills through various volunteer activities in the school and around the community. We payed our respects to the Canadian veterans who served our country at our Remembrance Day service on November 10. Thank you to our Leadership students for organizing the assembly. On Nov. 13, all of our Primary students went through emergency bus evacuation training. On Nov. 24, Ms. Gagne and her KLO WEB Crew wrapped up their first assembly at SKE. We were very impressed. The Web leaders drew the students' interest in a variety of ways but the part where the students had to guess which SKE staff member in disguise was on the screen was really effective and fun. They also had the students moving a lot and the transitions from one activity to the next were seamless. The positive management of the students was also something that stood out. On November 25, all our students participated in a 'Hip Hop' dance workshop led by a professional dance instructor. The grade 6 student then performed, in groups, a dance routine that the whole school got to see! On Nov. 27, the grade 5 students celebrated their D.A.R.E. graduation with a ceremony in the gym. Parents, teachers, former and future DARE students attended and shared the message to resist drugs, violence and peer pressure. Bring on December!

October came and went and now it’s already the middle of November! There were many exciting things that took place in October. Here a just a few:

• On October 1, students wore pink to school to show that they are against bullying.

• The Kelowna Fire Department ended Fire Prevention Week (Oct 5-10) with a visit to SKE. Students enjoyed going through the Fire safety House and learning how to stay safe. Our Fire Chief for a Day was Julia Costa from Mrs. Chalmers Grade 2 Class.

• Mr. Durrer and Mrs. Mackenzie’s grade 6 students hiked the Myra Canyon trails, where they learned about the history of the area.

• The grade 5 students progress through the DARE Program every Tuesday morning with Constable Frank McConnell.

• Parents and students may have already seen the new faces of 3 student teachers from UBCO. They will be here every Wednesday until Spring Break and then complete their program with a month long practicum in Mr. McLeod’s, Ms. Paul’s and Mrs. Estey’s classes.

• Mr. McLeod’s class ran a parallel mini-election to the Federal election. The students learned a lot about how the process works in Canada. They also organized our UNICEF campaign and raised over $700 dollars!

• We completed our annual school-based Magazine Sales fundraising campaign. The students sold a lot of magazine subscriptions. Many students won some great prizes and the top sellers from each class were awarded with a pizza lunch. Mrs. Meldram’s class sold the most subscriptions – a whopping 64 and for that, each student gets a special ice cream treat.

• On the Pro D Day on Oct. 24, some of our teachers were busy learning the new Province –wide report card format and others were off to conferences and workshops, and three were working on their Master’s Degree.

• The PAC held a Family Fun Day at MacMillan’s Pumpkin Patch and South Kelowna Community Recreation hosted its annual Pumpkin Patch event in our gymnasium on October 7.

• On October 28, author Margaret Ruurs visited SKE.

• The Leadership Students organized a Thanksgiving Food Hamper Drive.

• Our Eagle Readers Club kicked off!

• We had our first Lunchtime Showcase. Thank you to the students who participated.

• We ended October with the “Halloween Olympics” also organized by our Grade 6 Leadership Club students and Costume Parade.

Wow! Can you believe that the end of June is here? The year flew by. Funny how time flies when you are having fun learning! We started the month assessing all students with district-wide standardized assessments. These assessments provide valuable information that is used to plan our programs, determine interventions, and set goals for student learning. On June 13, we enjoyed an awesome Play Day! Many thanks to the parent volunteers! From June 16-18 students presented in our Drama Festival. For the past four months SKE’s grades 3-6 students have been “acting out” twice a week… during Drama with Mrs.Wilson! They’ve been developing their voice skills (projection, clarity, pace, expression, and gestures), learning to use the stage space effectively and most importantly, gaining self confidence. Next came costume, prop and backdrop preparations and soon it will be time to showcase their talents at the June Drama Festival! We look forward to seeing you in our audience! The following week we had the PAC/SKRC Community Potluck, year-end class celebrations, articulation with KLO, grade 6 sailing, PAC Staff Appreciation Luncheon, and the list goes on!

2008May has been a very busy month at SKE. We closed the month out with a great Skip a Thon for our Primary classes and a Track and Field Meet at the Apple Bowl for our Intermediate classes. Congratulations to the students for their active participation, sportsmanship, and for representing SKE so proudly and to the staff for their continued drive and determination in promoting healthy, active lifestyles!

Congratulations for a job well done to Mr. McLeod’s Grade 4/5 class for organizing South Kelowna Elementary School’s first ever “Healthy Food Bake Sale.” The students have been organizing various events around the school to support the “Spread the Net” campaign to eradicate Malaria, the deadly disease spread by mosquitoes. Students and parents worked together to sell baked goods that were tasty but nutritious as well. All the recipes came for the “Bake Better Bites” cookbook published by the Dieticians of Canada and adhere to the new provincial Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in BC Schools. All recipes in the book meet at least the "choose sometimes" category.

Vancouver Aquarium's Aqua Van worked with our students and teachers to inspire the stewardship of all aquatic habitats and to encourage the discovery of connections between animals, environments and ourselves. The Aqua Van program supplements the B.C. school curricula, satisfying a wide range of the Learning Outcomes outlined in the Ministry of Education's Integrated Resource

Packages. Click here for more info.

Aqua Van programs inspire students to discover the wonder of aquatic animals and plants in exciting, hands-on learning that features special live animal-oriented activities, puppet shows, and costumed characters. Students can touch real marine artifacts, such as a killer whale's jaw, an urchin's teeth and a sea otter pelt. Older students use microscopes and props to explore aquatic ecology.

You may have noticed some changes to our website. Blair Hope, SD 23 Educational Technology Coordinator, spent some time coordinating the colors, cleaning up the sections and creating a new banner. Thank you Blair! We will be adding some new features very soon so stay tuned. if you have not already done so, please check out our Eagle Blog by clicking here. This is where we keep track of various happenings in our school and community.

On April 16, 2008, South Kelowna Elementary hosted its first ever Healthy School Expo. The afternoon, designed to educate students and parents about healthy choices, kicked off with a presentation by former student and Olympic hopeful, Kelsey Serwa, a member of the Canadian Development Downhill Ski Team. Students then made “anti-idling” flyers that will be placed on vehicles reminding visitors to the school to turn off their engines. Afterwards, students learned about reading nutrition labels on food packages and participated in a taste test of 5 healthy snacks. They voted on their favourite choices and the results were revealed on a large bar graph in the gym. After recess, 16 grade 4 and 5 leadership students visited each classroom and taught the students some traditional outdoor playground games that they learned from the school district’s Healthy Schools Coordinator, Janelle Zebedee. The afternoon wrapped up with some draw prizes and of course, a 5 minute “Action Schools” workout in the gym. The Expo was a joint effort by teachers and the Parent Advisory Council and all the healthy food was donated by the Hill Family, owners of Lakeview Market.

We kicked off March, the arrival of Spring, and Education Week with a Celebration Assembly. This year's theme is Public Education: Celebrating Diversity - People and Programs. At our assembly we saw two performances. Mrs. Goodall's class performed two songs, accompanied by Mr. Minkus on the guitar - "Share, Share, Share", and "Work it Out", both fitting in nicely with this years's theme. Mr. McLeod's class sand the song "Three is a Magic Number" which many parents will remember from Schoolhouse Rock days Saturday mornings on ABC. Mr. Minkus also read the book, It's OK to be Different by Todd Parr using a slideshow format. Grade 5 students visited Karen Levine, well known author of the award winning book, Hana's Suitcase (pictured on the right) at the Kelowna Community Theatre and our student artwork was featured at the Mission Branch of the Okanagan Regional Library. On the last day before Spring Break, grade 5 and 6 students enjoyed watching a new anti-bullying film called "The Instigator," written and directed by Canadian Kerry Girling. We also took time to recognize the many parents who volunteer at SKE and Ms. Pauls and Mr. Durrer for their hard work organizing the annual grade 6 field trip to Vancouver.

February was a very busy month. To kick it off, we enjoyed a great turnout of parents to our Parent-Teacher Conferences. The highlight however, for many of our students, had to be the PAC sponsored "Valentine's Day" dance and fundraiser. A special thank you goes out to all the parents who put in many hours organzing this event. Students also had the opportunity to participate in "clog" dancing, indoor tennis and golf - all three activities designed to provide students with an exposure to "life-long" healthy, physical activity. On Monday, February 11, we celebrated "Harmony Day," a new school district observation. Intermediate students also had the exciting opportunity to visit with famed Nunavut author Robert Cahill. We also saw some very talented students at outr Lunchtime Showcase and Mrs. Wilson's student Air Band perfromances on February 20th and 27th. The students were entertained by a Dufflebag Theatre cultural performance and a KLO Band Program performance. On February 19, we hosted our first PALS (Parents as Literacy Supporters) Session. PALS is a literacy program offered to parents and 4 year old pre-school children. We had over 50 people attend and it was a huge success! This parent participation program is designed to strengthen the connection between home and school while helping parents and caregivers support their children’s early literacy development (language, literacy, & numeracy). The Grade 6 Field Trip to Vancouver will wrap up February as we head towards Spring Break.

Play First, Eat Later

In keeping with our goal of becoming a comprehensive healthy school, we have made some changes to our lunchtime routine. Since January 7, 2008, students have been "playing first and eating lunch later.” After three weeks, we have noticed many positive behaviour effects of the reverse lunch schedule in calmer eating environments, improved student manners, hungrier students, and fewer discipline concerns. We hope these benefits will enhance time on task after lunch and we all know what that means: improved student learning! While some staff identified a loss of instructional time as one of their concerns, others believed that the improved quality of afternoon instructional time more than made up for any minutes lost to the later eating time. The schedule for lunchtime is as follows:

11:00 Bell rings - students outside to play

11:40 Warning Bell. Students line up to come inside.

11:45 Students eating at their desks

12:00 Instructional time resumes.

Grade 6 Leadership students assist the primary classes with letting them into classrooms, putting away outdoor clothes, washing hands, getting their lunch, and then returning to their desks to eat. At 12:00 pm, students needing additional time to finish their lunch are allowed to do so at the teacher’s discretion. Our Noon Hour Supervisors have been an important part of making this change work and assisting the students in the transition from play to eating and should be commended for their valuable input.

Also in keeping with our healthy schools goal, we have been selected to participate in the BC Fruit and Vegetable Program. Snack delivery to our school will start in mid January. Fresh BC fruits and vegetables will be delivered to each classroom once per week, every other week on Mondays. Classes will receive enough produce for two servings during the snack week. The program provides enough fruit and vegetables for all students and staff. The program is an in-class activity. The product is not meant to be served at recess or lunch or replace any other snacks students might have. The Program is coordinated by parents Aaron Pinkney. If any parents can lend a hand, I know they would appreciate it. They can be contacted at rsvb@shaw.ca

For more information about this program go to www.aitc.ca/bc.

December went by in a heartbeat! It was a short month with the two week Winter Break, but it sure seemed like a long one! Most of the time was spent getting ready for our Winter Concerts, which by the way, were a huge success due to our combined efforts! We had over 350 people attend each of our concerts! A special thanks to our talented staff and students for their fine efforts, our wonderful parents for all their support, our families & community members for their donations to the Salvation Army Hamper Drive, Mrs. Estey and Mrs. O’Reilly for organizing the hamper drive, our concert coordinators, Mrs. Goodall and Mrs. Meldram, Mrs. O’Reilly and Ms.Lees for assisting in the setup, our custodians for the stage, Mrs. Axelson de for her artistic insight, Mrs. Porritt and Ms. Pauls for moving chairs, our parent Mark Gallagher for the DVD production and Mrs. Radies for sorting out the tickets and the DVD orders!

November was a busy month with our Remembrance Day service, Report Cards, Volleyball, Floor Hockey, Web Assembly, Magazine Fundraiser, PAC Gift Baskets, School-Wide Writing Assessment, Canadiana Musical theatre Cultural Performance, Celebration Assembly, Eagle Reader prize draw, and School Bus Safety Training, not to mention all the stuff happening in our classes!

Grade 6 leadership students also also kicked off our Idle Free Zone Awareness Campaign. Students have been raising awareness by patrolling the pick up and drop off locations with signs (that are the same as the ones that are posted at each school in the district) asking parents to turn off their engines or thanking them for not idling because there are “young lungs at work.” The students were trained on safe patrolling procedures and wore safety vests. Once all of the students have had a chance to participate, the Grade 6 students will train the Grade 5 students. We would like to see as many grades participate where appropriate.

We sincerely hope that parents will join us in our efforts in becoming a healthy school through and through.

Our school is participated in this year’s Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign! Instead of collecting change on Halloween night in orange UNICEF boxes, SKE learned about global citizenship and raised funds throughout October in a variety of fun and creative ways.

In the photo below you see Mr. McLeod taking a pie in the face to help motivate the students to raise funds. Thanks also to Mr. Durrer and Mr. Minkus for donating their faces!

Funds generated from this year’s campaign will support education in Malawi and Rwanda through the Schools for Africa programme, a joint initiative between UNICEF, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Hamburg Society. Funds raised will also support other vital programmes for children around the world.

This year’s campaign will provide your child with an opportunity to learn about his/her counterparts around the world – and to learn that he/she can make a difference. Please encourage your child to fundraise in a variety of easy ways – by supporting the school’s collective fundraising efforts, by requesting donations from family and friends and possibly even by contributing their allowance or having them do chores in exchange for funds.

Again, thanks for being a part of Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. If you have any questions or comments, or want more information, please visit www.unicef.ca/tot

Last Modified: 7 March,2010