Monthly

Report

December - Kesikewiku's - décembre -Dùbhlachd  2019

What's Inside

John Bernard Croak's Holiday Concert at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay was a success. The crowd enjoyed songs about Kwanzaa, Elves, and even a toe tapping Christmas in Kilarney.

Message from Regional Executive Director....2

Tweets from Schools.................................................3

Well-Being ...................................................................4

Mathematics ..............................................................5/6

Literacy .........................................................................7

Pre-Primary Program .............................................8

Dr. T.L. Sullivan ..........................................................9

Bras d'Or Elementary ............................................10

Mountainview Elementary ..............................11/12

Greenfield Elementary .........................................13

Sydney Academy .....................................................14

Cusack Elementary ................................................15

Word of the Month/Contact Info .................... 16

The Shipyard school community sat together to enjoy a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Thanks to our staff and parent volunteers for making this a memorable event. Shipyard sends warm holiday wishes to you and all your loved ones.

Grade 4/5 students at Baddeck Academy singing a winter song about snowflakes in French. Students will be performing this song in their school Christmas concert.

December is an especially exciting time in our schools!

Message from the Regional Executive Director

Happy New Year everyone.  I hope you had a refreshing holiday break and feel recharged for a busy January.  As mentioned in November, for the next number of months we will feature schools and the great work that they are doing to improve student well-being and achievement.  Every school will have the opportunity to highlight their students’ work at least twice from now until June.  We will  continue to feature tweets that we gather throughout the month as well. 

This year. we have a regional improvement plan that targets the same areas of student well-being and student achievement in literacy and mathematics as each of the school improvement plans.    To see your community school's plan, please check your school web site.  The regional plan focuses on goals that are broad so that school goals align with them.  Throughout the plan, you will see evidence of strategies focusing on ensuring equitable practices in classrooms for all students.  This too is reflected in the school based plans.     

Please access the regional plan by clicking on the logo:

I would encourage you to follow us on twitter @CB-VRCE_NS or on our facebook page, Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education, to see candid photos of our students and teachers in classrooms.  This week you will also see many students enjoying ‘outdoor education’ and learning through play. 

Sincerely,

 Susan Kelley

Regional Executive Director

Rankin students having fun learning about coding.

Sydney Academy grade 9/10 band performing and working with Riverside Grade 5 band and Middle school band. So nice to see older students helping the younger ones

Hustle and bustle of morning math class at North Highlands. Small group instruction! Grade 4/5

Dr T.L. Sullivan students packing the food collected for the Christmas Cheer program. A huge success. Thanks to all who donated.

Bronze medalists with a win over Horton! 2019 Div1 Volleyball Championships! RHS Proud!!

As a Regional Centre, we understand that children and students who have strong relationships and a positive sense of self are best positioned to reach their full potential. Well-being is a positive sense of self and belonging that we feel when our cognitive, emotional, social and physical needs are being met. Over many years, we have seen growing evidence to demonstrate why well-being is fundamental to overall student success.  Mary Lou Andrea, our Active Health Living Consultant, does presentations with both staff and students,  and building relationships is at the forefront. Students cannot achieve academically if they do not feel safe or welcomed at school, therefore our schools encourage students to adopt a healthy, active lifestyle, both inside and outside of school. With a holistic approach, well-being is supported through the creation of safe spaces that promote and reflect cultural identity, and create a sense of belonging and connection for all.

Mary Lou Andrea promoting student well-being with Grade Primary students at Ferrisview.

Yoga helps  young minds to focus on the present as well as to self-regulate behaviour.  Students report that practicing yoga helps relieve anxiety before tests and say it increases their ability to concentrate in class.

Brain bikes burn energy, help relaxes students and relieves stress. Many of our schools have these bikes.

Through a healthy promoting school grant, students at Rankin enjoy playing table tennis.

Visual Arts: How making art helps teens better understand their mental health -  Click picture for article.

Grade Primary students using cubes to represent candy canes to partition to 5. Partitioning is a way numbers are grouped so that it makes for easier for calculation and understanding numbers.

Through the use of Number Talks in Grade 2 at Greenfield Elementary, students are exposed to various problem solving strategies.  By emphasizing that there are many ways to solve problems, students build flexibility. 

One of the National Council of Teacher of Mathematics (NCTM) eight Effective Mathematics Practices is to implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving.   

We want students to know that any problem they are working on can be solved concretely (with manipulatives), representationally (with drawings), and abstractly (with numbers, algorithms).  Grade 2 students at Dr. TL Sullivan are solving problems concretely using manipulatives to make bundles of tens and ones using popsicle sticks and comparing with base ten blocks.

Mr. Lawrence’s Grade 6 mathematics classes are engaged in a Breakout box activity. This activity is a review of Order of Operations where students work in small groups to problem solve solutions to mathematics puzzles in order to “breakout”

Tarsia Puzzles are a simple, yet complex, jigsaw puzzle that students have to solve by matching sides of triangles so they correspond with another one. Students in Grade 10 were using their problem solving skills to complete a Tarsia puzzle by factoring trinomials.  Factoring Trinomials builds problem solving skills number sense and higher order mathematical thinking. Teachers can access software for developing their own Tarsia Puzzles using this link: http://www.mmlsoft.com/index.php/products/tarsia

Grade 10 students  at Breton Education Centre work together on an interleaved mathematics scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt is made of different levels of questions from material covered so far this year. Questions are placed all around the classroom and their answers will lead them to the next problem. Interleaved scavenger hunts are a good way to get students moving, communicating, collaborating, and persevering to solve problems.  For more information, see the following links: 

Add short body of text

http://uweb.cas.usf.edu/~drohrer/pdfs/Interleaved_Mathematics_Practice_Guide.pdf

https://www.retrievalpractice.org/why-it-works

• For Parents/Guardians:  Some tips to support problem solving skills at home:
• Encourage persistence
• Encourage your child to try different approaches to mathematics.  There is often more than one way to solve a mathematics problem.
• There are math games available on the internet that you can discover with your child.  Check out:  Nrich Math: elementary; Nrich Math: secondary
• When your child is solving math problems ask questions such as:  How do you know?  Why did you..?  What can you do next?  Does the answer make sense?  How else could you solve this?
• Connect math to everday life and help your child understand how math influences them (i.e. shapes of traffic signs, walking distance to school, telling time, etc.).
• Play family math games together such as checkers, card games, Clue, Monopoly, Jenga, Lego, etc.

Early Literacy Support teachers meet for professional development to strengthen their skill set to help support our most struggling students.  The trained teachers have taken on a mentor role with our new teachers and have created a positive learning environment within their colleague visit groups.  Our professional development days are very productive with focused conversation, collaboration and thoughtful reflection from all.

Elementary School

Middle school teachers at Breton Education Centre are piloting the renewed grade 7 and 8 inquiry-based curriculum this year. The teachers, representing ELA, FLA, core French, social studies, science, and art met recently to create lessons that tie in all the subject areas through inquiry. Members of the literacy team were present to provide support.  Much of the conversation centred around how to use new literacy-focused resources from the Department of Education to support inquiry-based learning. Since the curriculum is being piloted in both English and French language classes, students in both grade 8 French and English language social studies complete the same activities co-planned by their teachers. For example, students completed a visual literacy timeline activity matching visuals and sentences near the end of an inquiry unit on treaty education.

Middle School

Students in grade 8 social studies working on their visual timeline activity. 

Teachers Joyce Benoit and Ainsley Burke-Pickup planning together.

English Language Arts 9 students at Memorial High School participate in writing every day. They respond to a teacher’s prompt, select a topic of their own choice, or lead the Daily Writing and Sharing Session. Students share their writing in small group or whole class and choose specific pieces from their Daily Writing Folders that they would like to further develop, revise, and edit. As an effective practice, writing every day provides students with valuable opportunities to increase the volume of their writing and to take ownership over their writing.

High School

Pre-Primary Program

Children at Marion Bridge Pre-Primary Program are learning life skills by participating in the process of preparing their own snack.  Children are very capable at this age and love to be helpful.  The learning opportunities through play were substantial as children washed hands, gathered ingredients, mixed, measured and poured.  They worked together with their peers and the early childhood educator to complete this task.  Oh ~ and they were delicious :)

According to the Public Health Agency, under the 24 hour Movement Guidelines, “preschoolers need at least 180 minutes spent in a variety of physical activities spread throughout the day, of which at least 60 minutes is energetic play”.  Physical literacy is important for better growth, cardiorespiratory and musculoskeletal fitness, cognitive development, psychosocial health/emotional regulation, motor development, body composition, quality of life/well-being as well as reducing injuries. Children at North Highlands Elementary take part in outdoor play on a daily basis.  Here they use their big body skills to hike hills near their school.

Family-style dining is a part of our daily program in pre-primary.  Donkin pre-primary program took advantage of community picnic tables to enjoy an afternoon snack outdoors.  By offering a unique and different eating environment, we are encouraging children to be creative when it comes to healthy eating/living and physical activity.  Eating together gives us the opportunity to enjoy each others company (social/emotional skills), take part in meaningful conversations (language and communication) and enjoy the fresh air and nature around us (well-being).  

Early Childhood Educators participated in the Nova Scotia Early Learning Curriculum Framework professional development session on Friday December 6/19.  Modules 3 and 4 focused on Connecting our Practice to the Framework and Learning Environments. Over 70 ECE’s took part in the training. Shared strategies and resources, as well as hands on learning experiences, are helpful to scaffold children’s learning in the pre-primary programs.  

Dr. T.L. Sullivan 

Build a Boat and Book Talk

Build A Boat Workshop

On Dec 3 Kayla, from the Nova Scotia Boat Builders Association, paid a visit to Ms Pinaud’s grade 7 science classes at Dr TL Sullivan to conduct the STEM workshop Build A Boat. Students were given roles as boat builders, Marine Service Technicians and Designers and were asked to work in teams to design, document and build a boat made from recyclables. They designed and built boats that would hold weight and cross a harbour (plastic tub) using a propulsion system. They also had to record the amount of materials used and the cost of the materials. Teams had a great time testing their boats and competing for top boat design. Most importantly, they were given points for how they worked as a team! 

Book Talk

Mrs Horyl’s grade 2/3 class at TL Sullivan start every morning with Book Talk. This is part of their Reading Workshop and encourages students to read every day in school and at home. Students choose one book that they read from the week and present key details about it to their classmates. The students are enthusiastic to present them and it promotes a positive learning experience through speaking and listening. Students are encouraged to provide feedback and ask questions to each other to have a better understanding. They are able to find meaning within the text, make connections to other texts, and make connections to real life situations. Book Talk is always an engaging learning experience and encourages students to find joy in reading!

Bras d'Or Elementary Highlights

Mrs. Lewis’ grade 2/3 students  (left) walked to the Bras d’Or Post Office to hand-deliver their letters to Santa.  Along with their letters, they made a beautiful hand-crafted Christmas card for the Post Master and his employees. Some yummy baked treats accompanied the card.  

Members of the men’s CBU basketball team came to Bras d’Or Elementary to talk to our students about healthy life choices.  They engaged the students in brief pick up games called “Bump”. The players even challenged staff members to a shoot out. Students and staff thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and the ability to interact with student-athletes.

All students enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows and a small candy cane as part of our Adopt-A-Family fundraiser (left).   We were fortunate to have Robin’s in Bras d’Or donate all the supplies for our fundraiser. We provided peanut-free and dairy-free hot chocolate so that all students were able to participate in the delicious treat.  We even had students who tasted hot chocolate for the very first time!

Highlights - Mountainview Elementary

Mountainview GSA Club has been busy.  Our morning announcements include a Kindness Quote of the Day, brought to our Mountainview family by our GSA Club.  They also created messages to welcome students back to school in September as well as button pins for Pink Day.  Reading stories to our younger students about kindness and including everyone is important.  Our GSA-ers are preparing for our annual "What Counts is on the Inside" theme day which reinforces this important message.  Mountainview GSA-ers are ensuring Mountainview is truly an inclusive school.

The Learning Center delivers newspapers to staff every mornng.  Ciaran loves delivering them!

Students in the grade 4/5 class held a bake sale in support of Every Woman's Centre's Adopt-a-Family program.  They raised over $600 to help out Cape Breton families this Christmas.

Students painted beautiful kindness rocks for other students to find around the school.

Grade 3 students used the Cape Breton Post to choose news articles and collect facts using "The 5 Ws."  Our future news broadcasters summarized and wrote paragraphs to read "on the air!"  

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The "Grade 3s" were in attendance for parent teacher conferences last week.  They had fun making their self-portraits!

Many hands resulted in light work as all of the Grade 3s added cardstock cut-out drawings and construction paper additions to complete this old-fashioned Christmas mural below.  The read aloud "An Orange for Frankie" continued to open the students eyes and hearts to the Christmases of old.

Through Mi’kmaq Services and Education for the CBVRCE, a Birch Bark Biting Cultural Kit was made available compliments of Mi’kmaq Services Department to foster Mi’kmaq artistic and community cultural development. Students in the grade 5 class at Mountainview Elementary enjoyed learning about the history of Birch Bark Biting, current day artists, peeling their own piece of birch bark, and trying their hand, or should we say teeth, at the art form. They created beautiful pieces of birch bark art.

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Greenfield Elementary Highlights

We completed two consecutive “Yoga Days” for the students in December.    Each class received a one hour session each day. Mrs. White, Mr. MacNeil and Mr. Aucoin divided everyone into four groups.  Grade level was not a factor since these sessions are pretty general and are geared for elementary school (Grades P-5.) The “whole school” event that touched on outcomes in both PE and Music. Well Done!

PEBS December Assembly.

We had lots to celebrate:  Birthdays, Awards in Art, French, Music, Phys. Ed., and Band; Students of the Month; Leadership Awards; Golden Shoe Awards; and GOTCHAS draws.

What Counts at Greenfield

Top left:  Read alouds are an essential component of a balanced literacy program.  Top right:  Greeting students at the door.  Bottom left:  Displaying students' writing in our classrooms and school  Bottom right:  Using anchor charts to support student success.  Left:  2019 Christmas concert.

We’ve had the opportunity to run a pilot with our staff and students (P-3) using a web-based software as a diagnostic tool with accompanying instructional supports aligned with our mathematics curriculum in NS. Zorbit’s Math Adventure is a suite of blended learning tools for P-3 math. Zorbit's immerses students in a rich world of engaging math problem-solving in a digital format.  While solving problems presented, data is gathered to identify learning gaps for students. The teacher can then take those learning gaps and build them into their next lesson plan, incorporating both the digital platform and the hands-on activities. Mrs. Ryan (Mathematics Coach) has provided support to teachers participating in this pilot.