What a great week! It was so wonderful to see some Lochside families at the cruise by on Wednesday. I wanted to stop and chat to you all! Thank you for enduring the wet weather and for all the creative signs you made. You sure put a smile on our faces! Check out this video Mr. O’Connor made of the cruise by. Here are some notes for next week:
Monday is a non-instructional day, but we’ve included activities in the weekly learning opportunities if you’d like. The weekly is attached to this post.
The Saanich Learn site for families and staff has an excellent page with ‘Made in SD63 How to Resources’ for help with MS Teams and Google Classroom. Check out the tutorials and information here.
The mini class chats we had this week with MS Teams went really well! It was great to connect with our friends to hear some updates, practice using MS Teams tools like the chat feature, and learn when it’s important to mute your microphone and turn off your video. I will be hosting more class chats via MS Teams this week. I will email the links separately instead of posting them here.
Grade 5 families - last call for the yearbook questionnaire. Thank you to those who have already emailed me your responses. I have forwarded those to Heidi. On Tuesday I will email you directly if I do not have yours. They are due May 1st. If you haven't yet, please have your child fill it out and email me the response. I will pass them along to the yearbook committee. Please make sure your child is represented in this wonderful Lochside tradition.
Finally I have some tips to share for reluctant writers:
Offer choice of what to write. If the topic we’ve posted doesn’t work for your child, tweak it to reflect their interests.
Start with an action break.
Have a healthy snack available while writing (seeds, apple, brain food, etc).
Break up your ‘school work’ time.
Choose a fun place to write - build a fort, under the table, stretch out on the floor, kitchen table, with the cat, with a stuffy, etc.
Offer 30-second interventions. You may need to:
Plant an idea then walk away
Return and encourage - then walk away
Go for a walk together instead. Find something to write about along the way!
P.S. Here’s a note from Mr. Vickers and Mrs. O’Leary
Dear Grade 4/5 Parents/Guardians,
This message has important information about end of school-year activities and arrangements. There are many activities that were planned and are now postponed. This is certainly difficult, especially for students in Gr. 5 who look forward to our “graduation” traditions. The Gr 4 students also look forward to special events. Like you and your children, teachers are navigating this uncertainty of if/when we will return to school and what activities will be viable under the lightened, but ongoing, physical distancing requirements. Some adjustments are going to be necessary. The celebrations and sharing in accomplishments that we look forward to will not be conducted in the same way, however we will be creative and find ways to mark special occasions once the Public Health Officer indicates how we can return to in-person schooling.
Please note the following information:
Camp Thunderbird has cancelled all bookings, including for Lochside. We are in process of arranging refunds for all families who paid either a deposit or in full.
Gr. 5 Hoodies have been delivered, by dedicated PAC member and organizer of this initiative, Trish Jackson-Mitchell.
The Gr. 5 yearbook will be completed and kids will receive these memory books. Please ensure your child has contributed
Commonwealth Pool has cancelled all school bookings, this means the end-of-year field trip to the pool will not go ahead.
For celebrations such as the Gr. 5 BBQ and school assemblies, we have paused planning and are waiting for the recommendations of Dr. Henry re: gatherings.
Sending a warm hello to all!
Mr. Vickers and Mrs. O'Leary
COPY MY MESSAGE, PASTE, AND TRANSLATE IT HERE: https://translate.google.com/