Last night, several of our staff members attended the “Welcome Back to School” event held at the Capilano Longhouse, cohosted by the Squamish Nation and the North Vancouver School District. We shared a meal with members of the Squamish community, school district executive, principals, vice-principals, teachers, Education Assistants and members of our school family. Brad Baker, NVSD District Principal, shared these words after the event:

Thank you to our primary teachers and students who led  our Thanksgiving Assembly this morning. We heard songs and poems, all with a thankful theme. I was impressed with our Grade 3 emcees who spoke clearly and confidently as they introduced each part of the performance. Ms. Mawson ended the assembly with the Turkey Trot draw – everyone who completed the Turkey Trot this week put their name into the bucket and hoped that they would win the Brussels sprouts, canned pumpkin, cranberry sauce, mini-pumpkin or holiday decorations. The grand prize – a turkey!

Ms. Fraine’s grade 5 class and their buddies, Mr. Moser’s grade 2/3 class, invited me to share the delicious apple desserts they baked this week. I also got to sample freshly-made apple juice! The grade 4s from Mrs. Lowe’s class made cranberry sauce which I will enjoy with my turkey dinner.

I hope everyone has some special family time together this weekend.

There is always something interesting going on in Canyon Heights’ classrooms. Thankfully, this learning activity was conducted outside! If your child came home with traces of blue on his or her feet yesterday, chances are she was part of a class which was learning about measuring the length of a pace. Such exciting and experiential opportunities are happening all over the school.

On Monday, we had important visitors to our school. The Minister of Education, Mike Bernier, visited a Kindergarten class and learned from some Kindergarten “alumni” (grade one) students what a digital portfolio of their work looked like.  MLAs Naomi Yamamoto, Jordan Sturdy and Ralph Sultan, along with school district personnel were also in attendance. Please see the NVSD blog for more information and photos.

Mr. Haywood and I are looking forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday. Enjoy the long weekend!

Bentwood Boxes by Div. 15

Although June 21 is National Aboriginal Day, we celebrated all week long. Each day we heard traditional Aboriginal songs during the morning announcements.

On Wednesday, Mme. Haller and her Grade 6 students welcomed visitors to the opening of First Nation, First Art, First Step, their art exhibition exploring Truth and Reconciliation. Guests this week included Julie Parker, Brad Baker, John McGowan, Heather Myhre and Mark Pearmain from NVSD and Christie Sacre, our school trustee. Many parents and grandparents were also able to attend. Each student eloquently described their feelings about their artwork and the deep learning about reconciliation. The display will be in the Learning Commons until Monday afternoon.

Art by Evan Yu

Also on Wednesday, students from several classes learned a Cree Metis Friendship Dance.

We ended the week with a Squamish Friendship song played and sung by our some of our students.

Many of these events reminded me of the First Peoples Principles of Learning: “Learning involves patience and time.” I a

Thanks to the North Vancouver School District Grounds Crew, we have another bike rack! This one is in the back of the school and is already being used often. We hope it encourages even more students to bike to school.

If you look closely, you’ll see that our bike rack needs a good coat of paint. Thankfully, we have some parents who’ve volunteered to paint it. Please contact Kathryn Orde kathryn@orde.co if you’d like to help.

It started with cloudy skies. Grade 7s set up the stations they had organized. We gathered our House Teams in the gym. We gave the Traditional Welcome and sang Oh Canada. We started our colorful parade around the field. It rained. We started the stations. It rained some more. We ate popsicles in the rain. We went inside just before lunch and ate yummy pizza and chips and played quiet games until 1:00. Meanwhile, teachers gathered to eat their pizza (thanks, PAC!) and plan for a rainy afternoon. We adjusted our plans, postponing the hula hoop competition for another day and moving the afternoon’s activities inside.

We performed the cheers in the gym. Mr. Haywood announced that the Edgemont Eagles came first overall in the cheer, citizenship and station competitions. The sun came out. And stayed out and it got warm – better late than never, I suppose!

Thanks to the organizing team of teachers and office staff for another great Sports Day! Thanks to the PAC for the generous donation of pizza, chips and popsicles.

We’ve seen so much generosity in the past week! Thanks to Mme. Haller’s class, we are able to donate funds to the Red Cross to support the people of Fort McMurray who have lost so much during the wildfire. Jerry Ma won last week’s Walk+Roll 2016 Weekly Draw–thanks to NiteRider Lights for their donation. The PAC Gala on Saturday night was a lovely event–many, many thanks to the many organizers.

We did our first Walk+Roll Weekly Draw on Friday. Our first “big” winner was Josie Croll, who went home with a water bottle and a bike light donated by NiteRider Lights.

HUB Cycling visited today, teaching grade 4s and 5s some valuable safety skills for riding bikes. We set a new daily record for bikes at our school!

Walk+Roll displays are popping up around the school – come in and have a look!

It’s not just about rolling to school. See the Drive to Five map on our main website. Drive to at least 5 minutes’ walking distance and walk from there. Walking from the drop-off zone doesn’t count – just park a little further away on Belvedere or Ranger and get the full benefit of walking (and talking!) with your child.