AMORE du TOIT / Elementary News
At Stettler elementary, students have had a top of the morning week filled with many activities. Students in grades four and five were lucky enough to enjoy another ski trip. Students enjoyed another exciting ski day at Canyon Ski Hill in Red Deer on Tuesday, March 15. Over a hundred students, along with several of the elementary staff, and parents joined in the fun. We would like to thank those parents who accompanied us on the trip. Kindergarten students and parents enjoyed their annual kindergarten sock hop. This ECS family dance was held on Wednesday, March 16, from 6 to 7 p.m. Barry Hill provided fun and family-friendly songs with fun bubbles blowing just above the students’ heads. It was great to see the little ones doing fun dances like the chicken dance, the locomotion, Tooty-ta and many more.
The young girls really enjoyed dancing with the hula hoops while the little boys mostly enjoyed running around the gym.
Two grade six students, Alex Geddes and Aanelle Lynham were great distributors of juice and chips. They were dressed as Irish princesses.
We are very thankful to all parents who took time out of their busy schedules to accompany their children to the dance.
Teresa Anderson and Bonnie Lynn received a letter from Greentree Elementary School, inviting them to join The Great Canadian Mail Race. Each student will write a general letter about themselves and their community. Next, they will select any school in Canada to mail their letter and invitation to join the race. Students in this class have chosen schools as close as Erskine and as far as East York, Ontario. We will also write a letter back to the student from Drumheller who wrote to us. We are eagerly waiting to see who will receive a letter back first, and “win” the race! Who could think that snail mail could be this much fun?
St. Patrick day was celebrated in many educational ways on Thursday, March 17. Mavis Smith’s Grade 4 class enjoyed math on St. Patrick’s Day by sorting, graphing and learning about fractions with lucky charms. Monica Sylvester’s class made “wanted” signs looking for certain tricky leprechauns. They also built houses for the leprechauns in case they were caught. Although their houses were visited by some leprechauns, the students were unable to spot them. At least those leprechauns left a few gold coins behind.
Students also talked about counting their blessings and being thankful for the wonderful opportunities they enjoy in a country and province with excellent educational facilities.
Some classes read different St. Patrick day stories and blessings. A recurring Irish blessing was:
“May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and the rain fall soft upon your fields,
and until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.”
Kindergarten students made very creative leprechaun traps. They tried to catch these little creatures. The sneaky fellows only left little green footprints. Sandra Norman’s class made leprechaun hats, while Kim Thorne and Denyse Boyd made many different leprechaun crafts. Students in Amore du Toit’s class made a rainbow in the snow. They mixed water with food coloring in spray bottles to make this lovely snow rainbow. They also made a rainbow bouquet by placing white carnations in different colors of food coloring. This science experiment was really impressive to see. It was magical to see how the white carnations gradually changed color. Magical science!