Our Director Visits Boxwood!

A focus in Boxwood Public School is to increase our student's conceptual understanding of mathematics using the Comprehensive Math Program. We understand that it is important for students to apply a growth mindset towards mathematics, have the opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other, and engage in meaningful problems. A learning approach that is being used to achieve these goals is to implement Three Part Math Lessons in our classes. Today, We had a special guest at Boxwood, our director Mr. Jay Parappally. He got an opportunity to see the work we are doing first hand in Ms. St. Jean's grade 5/6 class. This class demonstrated the effectiveness of the Three Part Math Lesson. Students were collectively working on a problem in a situation that students were curious to solve. Students were speaking to each other about math, justifying and representing their thinking, and applying their math knowledge. After, the class engaged in a Bansho (a strategy for students to communicate and consolidate their ideas). This is another example of the practices that we use to support increased student achievement in our school.

Boxwood Wins Lego Mechanics Challenge

Today four of our grade 8 boys participated in the York Region Skills Challenge. They competed in the grade 7/8 Lego Mechanics Challenge at Seneca College. They were the champions from last year. We are excited to report that they have repeated this accomplishment and are the 2016 champions! We are so proud of their efforts. Special thanks goes out to Ms. Calverley and Ms. Breckenridge for supervising this club and providing an opportunity for our students to explore and create with Lego.

Way to go champs!

Camp Couchiching Information Night

On Thursday February 24th, we had a representative from Camp Couchiching come to Boxwood to speak to some of our grade 8 parents about their facility. We are learning about the accommodations, food and activities they provide. Camp is a great way for students to engage in experiential learning! Our students are looking forward to a great camping experience.

Artistic Descriptive Writing at Boxwood!

Take a look at this amazing descriptive writing piece done by one of our talented students in Ms. Breckenridge's class. The task was to describe this thought provoking art piece. Simply fantastic and so proud.

`A thick pollution filled the air, her luscious locks spread across the sky. The remains of the ruined building fell into form; a body of rubble, cracked and tarnished. Her chiseled face, smooth and unblemished. In contrast to all else around her, she stood out, as glacial beauty such as her’s usually does. The construction’s windows were her eyes, gazing hopelessly at the destroyed land around her. There were shallow pools of water all around, a moat to the shattered castle. Behind her were factories still intact, emitting an opaque smoke, as well as a pungent odour. The hills of debris delivered a sense of forlornness, it’s grimy surface so rough and so rocky. She was the portrayal of glamour, washed away by the strains of time and the mistakes of humankind.

LEGO at Boxwood

Boxwood now has a LEGO Mechanics Club. During some lunch recesses, Ms. Calverley and Ms. Breckenridge hold a LEGO club for some students in grades 4-8. Selected grade 8 students also have an opportunity to demonstrate leadership by supporting the participants. LEGO can be more than just a toy. It can be a tool for learning. Here are some of the benefits of LEGO:

1. Lego provides tools that develop lateral thinking in a fun environment
2. It teaches kids to think in three dimensions
3. It improves literacy as kids work with instructions
4. It develops problem-solving, organization, and planning by construction
5. It improves creativity
6. It enhances communication and critical thinking
7. It boosts kids motor development.

Here are some of our students at work. We are really excited that we have a mix of boys and girls who are interested. Take a look:

Advertising Techniques

As you know, companies spend a great deal of money to find ways to make us purchase their products. To support students' ability to think critically and make good decisions about what they buy, it is important to discuss the techniques that advertisers use to convince people to spend their money. In Ms. St. Jean's class, students are learning about these "tricks". Hopefully, this will help them to become better informed consumers and lead them to not "Fall For THESE!" techniques. Here are some pictures to demonstrate what they have been learning.

Grade 1 & 2 Writing at Boxwood

"Writing is an essential skill can benefit students for the rest of their lives. Writing exercises in elementary school support development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Students also learn the writing process, from outline to finished product, which translates into other aspects of life and learning." Today I had the pleasure of observing our grade 1 and 2 students writing. 

Grade 1

Today our grade ones were exploring what makes people important. After talking about this as a group, they had an opportunity to write about what makes them important. This activity gave them an opportunity to write about a topic that was personally relevant to them and to include details in their writing (e.g., providing reasons why they are important). They also had an anchor chart in the classroom to support them to create "Good" sentences. Well done grade 1s!

Grade 2

Our Grade 2s have been working on creating recounts. Recounts are a form of writing that retells past events. They aim to inform or entertain the reader. They have learned the different parts of a recount, created a checklist of what makes a good recount (i.e., Success Criteria), and created recounts together. Now they are creating their own recount using a graphic organizer to support them. Graphic organizers are a series of visual charts and tools used to represent and organize a student's knowledge or ideas. Graphic organizers are often used as part of the writing process to help students map out ideas. Keep up the great work!