Principal’s Holiday Message

Over the past few weeks we have spoken with our students about the importance of things like gratitude and helpfulness. Although these characteristics are often highlighted this time of year, we try to emphasize their importance all of the time. They are important for the people who receive them, but equally important for the people who show gratitude and who are helpful.

We hope all of our Hawkwood School Community Families have a great break and take time to slow down a bit, connect with family and friends, and have a little fun.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Building Community with Mittens

The Grade One Team have been learning about belonging, families, our school community and all about the community we live, work and play in.

For the month of December, the Grade Ones have been reading author and illustrator Jan Brett books as part of an author study. The Mitten was a perfect literacy and numeracy connection to ordinal numbers and sequential writing. The book “The Mitten” by Jan Brett and “The Metis Mitten” by Leah Marie Dorion inspired the Grade Ones to be Mitten Care Ambassadors for those in need in the city of Calgary.

To give back to our larger community, the Grade One Team connected with Project Warmth of Alberta and have been bringing in mitten donations for the month of December to donate to men, women and children.

Each classroom had a mitten tree and mittens filled the four trees all month long by the caring donations from Grade One families.

Yesterday the donations were dropped off at the Fire Station #21 for Project Warmth of Alberta along with cards that the Grade Ones created and designed.

Big seasonal thank you to all of our families who supported this project, and also to our grade one team for pulling it all together.

What Can We Learn from Owl Pellets ?

Ms. Wishart’s grade 3 class learned many things about Owls during their recent novel study of “Owls in the Family.” Tapping into learner outcomes from both Languages Arts and Science curriculums, students explored many aspects of owls and their habitat.

Owls are great hunters that swallow their prey whole, but cannot digest the fur and bones that they consume, so they regurgitate a pellet.

Science aspects of this exploration included food chains in various Canadian environments, as well as classifying various animals as carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. Students also learned how conducting an investigation contributes to building knowledge. Oh, and it is also a lot of fun!

 

Have a good holiday and we will see you back at school on Monday, January 8th,