Orange Shirt Day

Today was Orange Shirt Day, which is a day to raise awareness of the history of indigenous peoples in Canada who were forced to endure the hardships, and abuses that occurred at residential schools across the country for over 100 years.   Our focus has not been on feeling bad for what we cannot change in the past, but on sharing the stories of those that lived through this so that we can connect, and understand a community, and culture that not many of us have experience with.  We talked at length about how raising awareness is really just developing knowledge, and since knowledge is power, a day like this makes all of us more powerful.
Here are some stories we shared...

Here is the full version of Gord Downie's 'Secret Path'

Terry Fox Run Was a Hit!

Terry ran in the rain, so why shouldn't we?  Great day for all who came out.  There will be some tired legs tonight!

Talking about Climate Change

This week we have been examining the issue of climate change that has been so front and center in the news lately.  Today we are looking at these two videos of young people speaking to the UN on behalf of the youth.  The passion and frustration of Greta is further emphasized by the fact that Severn Suzuki's plea to the UN was delivered in Brazil in 1992 (27 years ago!!).   Ask your child about this topic, and see what they took away from the discussions.

Reading Buddy Fun

On Friday we spent some time with our reading buddies for the second week.  This will be a regular part of our Friday routine, and it is something the students already look forward to very much.

Levels of Canadian Government

Here are some videos on Canadian Government that we watched in class.

Field Fun!

Today we walked to Dover Court, Park for some activities developing our skills in throwing and catching.   We worked our way up to a little mini game of ultimate before taking a pause and doing some teambuilding activities with the Omni ball.   We finished off with some science experiments involving properties of matter, and how liquids and gases behave under pressure. This is kind of like a science code for saying we launched some water rockets.