AMORE du TOIT
Elementary News
The poet William Butler Yeats once said: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
Our students at Stettler Elementary School were definitely on fire with excitement on the first day back to school. Excited children’s voices filled our hallways as students eagerly discovered who their teachers would be for the coming year. This excitement and eagerness to learn was exactly what our wonderful principal, the late Mr. McElroy, would have wanted.
We honoured his memory with a moment of silence and decided to carry on his legacy of a love of learning with a positive attitude.
In order to create a positive learning atmosphere, our school is having a school-wide initiative, “Have You Filled a Bucket Today.” Students and teachers alike are trying to fill each other’s Lives (buckets) with acts of kindness and good deeds.
Teresa Anderson’s Grade 5s, in conjunction with this school-wide initiative, will have a draw bucket in their classroom. When a student or teacher notices anyone filling someone’s bucket, they can nominate them to receive an award by filling out the draw slip, explaining how they were kind, who they were kind to, and the person who is nominating them.
Every two weeks, a name will be drawn from the bucket and that person will win a prize, even if they are not from 5TA. We know the bucket will fill up very fast with such kind and caring students in our school.
We would also like to thank the janitorial staff for cleaning the school so well over the summer holidays.
The Cross Country Running Club will practise each Tuesday and Thursday at noon recess in the gym and outside. All grades 2 to 5 students are welcome. They will train for a one kilometre run for grades 2 and 3 students and a two kilometre run for grades 4 and 5 students.
Our running coaches are Jody Limpert, Stefan Olafson, Kim Poapst and Cindy Starling.
Our first meet will be the 13th annual Peace Hill cross-country meet on Saturday, Sept. 24, at Peace Hills Park in Wetaskiwin.
Stettler won overall top elementary team last year.
All students in grades 4 and 5 are invited to join the Show Choir. The first rehearsal will be at noon Thursday. There is no cost to join the choir, but students must commit to attending all rehearsals and participating enthusiastically.
In order to give more students the opportunity to be part of the Show Choir, we will only practise on Thursdays at noon this year. There will not be any after-school practices.
Students and staff were also excited to observe The Portraits of Honour mural that was on display Monday in Stettler. This made us realize how blessed and privileged we are to live in a safe environment.
Staff is looking forward to lighting many learning fires this year and filling many buckets. It would be great if our amazing parents would join us in this exciting and rewarding endeavour.
To finish off their elementary school experience in June 2011, the annual Grade 5 Library Legacy Luncheon was held for last year’s Grade 5 students and their teachers.
Funded by the Stettler Elementary Home and School Association, this event provides a delicious lunch for everyone, as well as enabling our graduating students to leave a lasting legacy in our school. Each student selects a book to dedicate to our school library and that student’s name and photograph are placed on the inside cover. Future generations of students recognize older siblings, neighbours, or family friends, and school staff is reminded of the many young lives that pass through our hallways.
We wish to extend a special thanks to all the parents who baked loads of cookies for this event and to the dedicated moms, dads and friends who came out to help everything run smoothly.
On hand that day to serve food and assist in so many other ways were Ingrid Shepherd (head organizer), Kim Smyth, Katie Bainbridge, Yvonne Yaremcio, Liezil Vogel, Amanda Keddy, Carla Collard, Connie Cox, Kim DeVloo, Coreena Torgerson, and Lynda Imbery.