Special Chair & Crown Raffle Extended

The opportunity to buy tickets for the 'Special Chair and Crown' raffle has been extended until tomorrow, Friday, March 6th! You can still buy tickets for your child to win a chance to sit on the special chair for a day and wear a crown! (Proceeds from the raffle are being used to support the Nellie McClung Grade 7's trip to Niagara Falls.)  If you need another order form or have misplaced the one that was sent home last week, let us know, and we will send it home. 

Every day is a good day when you're wearing a crown!

Friendly Reminder and a Request...

Report Cards:
If you have not already done so, 
please complete and return page 2 of your child's 'Term 1 Report'.  We would appreciate it if you would return it in the report envelope that was sent home. 

Thank you to the families who have already completed and returned their pages!

Request for Kleenex:
If you are able to spare a box, we would appreciate it if you would send a box of tissues for our class with your child.  (Hopefully, this runny nose weather will end soon.)

Pink Day:

Lastly, but certainly 
not least, thank you
for helping us 
make Pink Day a big success at 
Nellie McClung P.S.! 

We are Wondering About...

As you may be aware from your child, we have been learning about the Arctic in our class.   We have done some reading, and we have watched some video clips about Arctic animals and the Inuit people who live in Nunavut.  

Yesterday, we asked each student to choose an animal that they are interested in researching further.  This morning, Joshua, Blake and Natalie started researching polar bears.  At the end of the morning, we held a 'knowledge circle' so they could share what they found out with the rest of the class.

In the afternoon, Zachary, Emmy, Alon B. and Jake were able to do more research to find the answers to the first 4 questions.  They also shared what they found out with the class.  (You may want to ask your child if he/she remembers some of the information he/she heard about polar bears.)

Your child may enjoy doing some research at home, too.  We have been using a simple organizer at school to record our information:

E.g., Polar bears are ...

       Polar bears have ...

      Polar bears can ...

We would love it if he/she records the information with pictures and/or words and brings it to school to share. 

Here are some other Arctic animals we have been focusing on: caribou, walrus, ringed seal, orca whale, beluga whale and narwhal whale.

Happy Researching!

Lost and Found...

Are you missing some container lids?  The following lids were found in our class, but none of the children thought they belonged to them.

Please let us know if they belong to you, and we will send them home with your child.

Happy Lunar New Year!

If you and your family is celebrating 

Lunar New Year, 

we would like to wish you 

all the best for the coming New Year!

An Interesting Website - DK Visual Dictionary

Mrs. Gordon-Rak, our teacher-librarian at Nellie McClung, shared an interesting link with us, and we thought the site would also be of interest to you and your children to use at home, too.

DK has released a Beta version of their visual dictionary.  It is good for many subject areas and all learners. The orange box with horizontal lines is the category index.  You can see it at:   http://www.dkfindout.com/us/

Thank you Mrs. Gordon-Rak!

Wednesday, Feb. 25th is Pink Shirt Day!

On Wednesday, February 25th, all students and staff at Nellie McClung P.S. are encouraged to wear something pink to show that we are all working together to prevent bullying in our school, in our community and online.  (If you don't have something pink, wear something red or purple.)  

Pink Shirt Day started with two Nova Scotia high school students who decided to take a stand against bullying in their own school.

From erasebullying.ca:

How it Began

Here is a snippet of the Globe & Mail article that describes how Pink Shirt Day began:

"David Shepherd, Travis Price and their teenage friends organized a high-school protest to wear pink in sympathy with a Grade 9 boy who was being bullied [for wearing a pink shirt]...[They] took a stand against bullying when they protested against the harassment of a new Grade 9 student by distributing pink T-shirts to all the boys in their school.

'I learned that two people can come up with an idea, run with it, and it can do wonders,' says Mr. Price, 17, who organized the pink protest. ‘Finally, someone stood up for a weaker kid.’

So Mr. Shepherd and some other headed off to a discount store and bought 50 pink tank tops. They sent out message to schoolmates that night, and the next morning they hauled the shirts to school in a plastic bag.

As they stood in the foyer handing out the shirts, the bullied boy walked in. His face spoke volumes. 'It looked like a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders,' Mr. Price recalled.

The bullies were never heard from again."