STETTLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL -- We celebrated another busy and enjoyable week at Stettler Elementary, offering the students a variety of activities to be involved in. On Wednesday, April 26, our Grade 5 and 6 band students took part in the Stettler and Area Music Festival. Our students, under the direction of Mr. Eric Rahn did a fabulous job at the festival. Mr. Rahn has really had very little time to prepare the students, yet they followed his direction well, played with love and intention, and both groups were awarded A’s for their efforts. We are very proud of these students. Also on Wednesday, April 26, all students in grades K-6 were entertained by MuchMusic celebrity, Shaun Booth. Shaun is a Canadian Hip Hop artist who shared his journey, his dreams, and his successes. He entertained the students with biographical rapping of heroes such as Terry Fox and Malala. He indeed had a powerful message that he shared with us.
April 26 was definitely a busy day at the school as that was the same day that our grade one students made their trek to the Town of Stettler Office to make some inquiries about town planning and organization. This was the first stage of their Project Based Learning (PBL) on “Our Community”. The Grade 1s kicked off their PBL project by visiting Mayor Dick Richards. The students are taking the lead in building their very own town, so they were looking for some pointers from town representatives. Mayor Richards, along with some other town members (Melissa Robbins, Greg Switenky, and Angela Stormoen) provided the students with information on what a town needs and how some of the town decisions are made. The grade 1’s will now take this information and implement it into their own town projects. Also that day, the students in 4NN and 4BL finished up another very successful year of playing cribbage with the seniors of Heart Haven and Paragon Place. The students and adults met every two weeks throughout the winter to enjoy games together. These classes would like to thank the seniors for their time and expertise as the students’ crib (and basic fact) skills improved immensely!
From Thursday to Saturday, April 27 to 29, we saw the second and final week of Camp McE for the SES students. The camp is in its 19th consecutive year of running. The 13 junior and senior high coaches who volunteered to help with the camp once again did a fabulous job with our students. All of these student athletes showed great enthusiasm and improvement over the six-day basketball camp. Camp Teckla planning is already in full swing and the deadline for registering for that basketball camp is May 14. Camp Teckla runs from July 3 to 6 this year and we already have many excited students talking about it. Check out Facebook for more details, and we look forward to seeing many young athletes there.
This week is Mental Health Week and Stettler Elementary School has many activities on the go. On Monday, May 1 our students participated in “Chalk About It.” This event saw many of our students writing positive messages (in chalk) on the sidewalks around our school. That day also saw the kick-off of Mindful Mondays.
Mindful Mondays allows students, who are interested, to participate in mindful exercise held at recess times in the music room. All other students continued to take part in Mix-It Up Mondays, which allow students to play at any playground during the recess times. Also as part of Mental Health Week, we held a Student Appreciation BBQ on Tuesday, May 2. All students and staff were provided with hot dogs, veggies, juice boxes, and apples and were invited to enjoy the outdoors, some peace of mind, and conversation with classmates and friends. Other activities for the week will include a mini-wellness fair for our Grade 5 and 6 students, “Hats On for Mental Health,” “Stop Drop and Dance for Mental Health,” and wear green to support mental health and a free matinee movie at Jewel Theatre during our PD Day on Friday, May 5. These many great activities are all part of a great cause and we wish everyone a happy and healthy week.