Physical Activity at Boxwood

Along with supporting your children's academic achievement, another important task that we have as educators is promoting a healthy lifestyle. It is important for students to develop healthy habits such as eating properly and engaging in physical activity daily. This is important to their physical health and mental well being throughout their lives. We do this through our physical education classes and a variety of whole school activities. Ms. Smith has been working hard to increase the physical activity of our students. This includes organizing "Walking Wednesdays". This is when all of our students walk around our school for 20 minutes. Recently, our 5K Club began in which our students, on a voluntary basis, jog and walk during a recess. The goal is to run 5 kilometres. We also provide different activities in our gym classes. Now many classes are learning to play badminton and some of our primary classes had the opportunity to play curling. We encourage our students to keep fit and active by engaging in physical activity on a frequent basis.

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

On Wednesday, March 22nd, Boxwood recognized the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This event was planned and hosted by our student council. This day commemorates the lives that have been lost to fight for democracy and equal human rights in South Africa during the Apartheid regime (a regime which embraced racial discrimination). The focus for our presentation was to educate our students about what racism and shadeism are and to emphasize the message that all shades are beautiful. We had students present a powerful spoken word poem, students provided information to the school, and we had a public speaker, Sean Mauricette, discuss the impact of racism. Diversity, equity, and equality are important concepts at Boxwood!

Math Night at Boxwood

On Thursday, March 31st, we had our second community math night. The focus of this evening was to immerse our parents in solving problems. It was simply fantastic. We had many parents of students from different divisions participate. We provided a problem for parents to solve. Then we had teachers demonstrate how they use responses to these problems to teach students mathematical concepts. Great learning!

Parent Telus Presentation

In addition to our student presentations, our School Council also arranged for Telus to provide a presentation to our parent community. This was a well attended event. The Telus ambassador spoke on a variety of topics that included: password protection, supporting children to use their technology effectively, the increasing and widespread use of the Internet, and maintaining your privacy. Thanks again to our School Council for their work in arranging this informative opportunity  for the Boxwood Community!

Student Telus Presentations

To support students to engage in safe behaviour on the Internet,  Telus Ambassadors came to our school to speak to our junior and intermediate students. The Ambassador provided some important information regarding safe Internet and smartphone practises. This included discussion on the topics of cyberbullying, keeping your password safe, and the dangers of posting inappropriate content online. Special thanks to our School Council for organising these sessions for our students.

Media Literacy

One of our goals is to create students who think critically and question the messages and images they see. The world of advertising is one area that we want students to be more aware and critical. We want students to understand that the purpose of advertising is to sell a product or service and the messages are constructed. We want students to carefully consider how truthful the advertisements are and understand the message that they are sending. Here are some samples of work of work that some of our grade 8 students are engaged in.

Grade 3 Math Store

In Ms. Kenwell's class, students were provided the opportunity to apply their knowledge of money and number sense (e.g., addition, subtraction). A "store" was set up in their class in which students had to record the total of the items they bought and the change they would receive. This is another example of using real life experiences to support students' understanding of math concepts. 

Growth Mindset in Mathematics

Research has shown that students' attitude towards math is a significant factor in their achievement in this area. To address this, we provide students with some positive messages about math. You can see an example of some of these messages posted in a classroom below.

Learning Fractions

As educators, our job is to find the best ways to teach our students. Some students learn well with paper and pencil tasks while others learn best through real life experiences. In Ms. Caceres's class, the students are learning fractions through cooking. They are making treats using fraction measurements. This is helping them to understand that a fraction is a part of a whole. Below are some treats in which they used their knowledge of fractions to create. Yummy!

Poetry in Ms. Fitzgerald's Class

Presently, Ms. Fitzgerald's grade 8 students are reading and learning poetry. They have been investigating how poetry can communicate a feeling, thought, and belief. The students have selected an emotion/feeling, and the students created a poem to explain that feeling. I am proud of the creativity that our students have demonstrated through this task. Take a look below at a wonderful poem. Great work.

Doubt

Doubt is like dark rainy clouds

Like being locked in a freezer

Foul like garbage burning my nose

Doubt is like a bitter cup of coffee,

And feels like a thunder storm destroying all that's positive

Doubt sounds like someone telling you that you will never be successful,

And moves like a thief in the night creeping its way into your thoughts

Doubt is like thorns pricking your finders keeping you away from what you love

Doubt is what blocks my path to success, but eventually I will break the barrier

and reach my goal

Because I know the sky is the limit

Doubt is full of bad thoughts, memories, and is what weakens self-confidence

but that is all part of life

Life is full of ups and downs but that doesn't mean you should give up

"Life is like a bumpy road, but you can always change direction"

More Report Writing at Boxwood

Before we have students write using a particular writing form (e.g., narrative, essay), we work with them to read and analyse that particular writing form. Before they engage in writing, we want students to understand the different elements of that text and the purpose of it. For instance, an essay is used to convince someone of a particular point of view while a novel is designed to entertain the reader. Our grade 3/4 and 4/5 class are working on writing reports. Now they are at the stage of analysing what a report is and what needs to be included in a report.

Right now our grade 4/5 class is using a resource that breaks down the elements of a report.

1. With the teacher, students read the example of a report. In this case, they read a report about Space
    Telescopes.

2. They read the same text, but this time they looked at the structure of a report (e.g., General Statements, Description, Evaluation/Conclusion

3. They looked at how different language is used in a report (e.g., nouns, adjectives, verbs...)

I can't wait to see them use what they have learned to create their own report.

Report Writing at Boxwood

While fiction text is enjoyable and educational, non-fiction text is an important type of text for students to study. One type of non-fiction text is a report. A report is an informational text made with the specific intention of relaying information or recounting certain events in a widely presentable and scrutinized form. Reports are often conveyed in writing, speech, television, or film. Ms. Romanese's grade 3/4 class is presently reading and learning to write a report. As a class, they are reading reports to understand the different elements within it (e.g., technical vocabulary, facts, no opinions...). I can't wait to see the reports that these students write!

Grade 2 Procedural Writing

A procedure is an established way of doing something. Whenever you read how-to guides or follow step-by-step instructions, you're using procedural writing. Using procedural writing helps you accomplish a goal; it gives instructions for completing both common and complex goals.

Some topics that lend themselves to procedural writing include:

• Directions: driving directions to the airport
• Recipes: how to bake chocolate chip cookies
• Technology Manuals: how to use your cell phone
• Science Projects: how to make a paperclip float

Ms. Sen's Grade 2 and Ms. Fatima's Grade 2/3 class have been working hard on this form of writing. They have learned the elements and purpose of procedural writing, they have developed success criteria, and brainstormed ideas of topics that they can write a procedure about. It is great to see this focused and organized instruction in our school.

Teaching Math Through Problem Solving

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1980) recommended that problem solving be the focus of mathematics teaching because, they say, it encompasses skills and functions which are an important part of everyday life. Furthermore it can help people to adapt to changes and unexpected problems in their careers and other aspects of their lives. I recently visited one class in which students were learning math through problem solving. Here are some artifacts of the learning that happened.

Sketching Artwork at Boxwood

Our intermediate students have been learning the hatching and cross hatching techniques to create artwork. Hatching and cross hatching are linear drawing techniques that can be used to create texture, value, and the illusion of form and light. Typically used as an application technique when the medium is linear in nature, hatching and cross hatching are often used together.

Both techniques work well with a variety of different drawing mediums including pen and ink, graphite, colored pencils, and pastels. Hatching and cross hatching can also be found in traditional printmaking techniques such as etching and engraving. Look at some of the artwork of our amazing students below.

Author Visit

On February 2nd, Alessia Dickson, visited Boxwood Public School. Alessia Dickson is the teen author of The Crystal Chronicles series. Alessia is a motivational speaker working to inspire students to read and write to their full potential. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, where she is hard at work on her next book while attending high school. Students had the opportunity to hear her process of writing a book, the challenges that she faced, and how she got her book published. They also learned about her novel, The Crystal Chronicles, and received some motivation to follow their dreams. She clearly sent our students the message that effort and determination will lead them to achieve their goals.

Lunar New Year at Boxwood

February 8, was the Lunar New Year for many of our students and staff at Boxwood P.S. Lunar New Year is a cultural and religious celebration for many Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese. This is the year of the Monkey. People born in 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992 and 2004 were also born in the year of the “Monkey”.

Many rituals are associated with this festive occasion. They include cleaning house, paying off debts, settling old arguments, and other means of making a "fresh start." To celebrate, people may light firecrackers, hang poetry, enjoy a family feast (oranges and apples are considered lucky fruits), exchange gifts (adults may give children laisee, red envelopes filled with money), and buy new clothes or new shoes.

Ms. Forth and Ms. Yang celebrated this event in their class by wearing red and performing a 'Dragon Dance'.

Learning Goals & Success Criteria at Boxwood

Two strategies that we use to support our students are learning goals and success criteria. Learning goals are statements that make it clear what students are learning. Success criteria is a list of descriptions of how students can be successful with a particular task or skill. Success criteria is more effective when students have a role in developing what good work looks like. The logic behind this is if students have a clear understanding of what they are learning and a clear target of what good work looks like, they will be more successful. Here are some examples of learning goals and success criteria in Boxwood classrooms.