ÉCOLE WHITEHORSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL OCTOBER 29, 2019

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Journal News Principal: Sharon MacCoubrey

Vice-Principal: Céline Roy

4181 4th Avenue, Whitehorse, YT. Y1A 1J7 EWES Phone: 667-8083 Fax: 393-6211

Website: Under Construction

Dates to Remember---

Thursday, October 31stHallowe’en /Sci-Fi Costumes

Pizza Lunch

Thursday, November 7th Remembrance Day

Assembly

Friday, November 8thProfessional Development Day F.I. specialist Roy Lyster speaker

No school

Thursday & Friday November 14th & 15thGrade 7 Volleyball Tourney

Friday, November 29thThe 80s theme day

Pizza Lunch

Friday, December 13thWritten Progress Reports

Wednesday, December 18th

Family Craft Night

Friday, December 20thEarly Dismissal (2:50pm)

P.J. Theme DayPizza Lunch

Our School Website is now updated. https://

www.whitehorseelementary.com/

We will celebrate Hallowe’en on October 31st with costumes and Pizza Lunch. We would like to remind you that we are a K-7 school and ask that you make sure costumes are not too scary for our wee ones.

Please leave full face masks and weapons at home.

If you would like to come help with Pizza Lunch, volunteers are always welcome at 11:45 in the activity room.

Ever wonder what staff do on PD days?

October 11 was a Professional Learning Day for teachers and educational assistants. Teachers were working on changes to the Communicating Student Learning expectations that have been implemented this year. This year, all subjects will be included in the fall report card. Using the content and curricular competencies outlined in the curriculum, teachers worked together to define the Learning Standards in parent-friendly language for the Written Progress Report. A Behaviours for Success chart will be a new addition to this report as well. Behaviours for Success are the skills and social responsibilities students require to be successful in life. This table will report to parents using a frequency scale (rarely, sometimes, consistently) such skills that were often included in “work habits and social responsibility”. Educational Assistants were either visiting other schools learning about First Nations’ Ways of Knowing and Doing; Trauma Informed Care or Non-Violent Crisis Interventions or working on support documents here in our school. These days are very valuable to us in education and we thank you for supporting us.

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Communicating Student LearningGoal Setting Conferences - Thank you families for coming in and participating in our Goal Setting conferences Thursday evening and Friday during the day. The conferences were very well attended. Students, teachers and parents are becoming more familiar with the process. I was lucky enough to be invited to sit in on a couple of the conferences. Students were able to articulate their strengths and strategies that could be used to support their core competency and academic goals. Teachers will be sending home copies by November 1st.

Staying Safe �You may have heard that we recently participated in the Great Shake Out, an earthquake preparedness drill, along with all of the Yukon and BC. We held the drill at 10:17 on October 17th. Students learned to Drop, Cover and Hold - drop to your knees and hands, seek cover under a table, hold on until the shaking stops. During the year, we also practice 6 Fire Drills, one Lock Down and one Bomb Threat (an evacuation without alarms). There is a distinct difference as well between a Lockdown and a Hold and Secure. Lockdown is used in a serious emergency situation where the threat is inside a school, on or very near to school property. A Lockdown minimizes access and visibility in an effort to shelter students, staff and visitors in secure locations. During a Hold and Secure, students and staff go about a normal day but entry to, and exit from, the building is restricted to emergency services personnel only.

Satellite Dishes Needed.

We had two satellite dishes that proved to be wildly popular with our primary students and their Beyblades (spinning tops). It was a joy to see the students crowded around ‘the arena.” Unfortunately, both dishes have gone walking and we are now actively looking for new ones… seen one at the dump? In your yard?

ÉWES JOURNAL NEWS OCTOBER 29, 2019

School Council NewsJeff Wolosewich, Laura Lang, Kelly Milner, Stephanie Mostyn, Carly Carruthers,

Thane Philips, Brenda Jenner

School Council meets the second Tuesday of the month, September through June at 7pm in the ÉWES staff room.

All are welcome! 

Please contact School Council at ewesschoolcouncil@gmail.com.

Guess what? It now rains and snows in the Yukon!

While we are usually concerned with snow and cold, we now have to think about rain. Like our neighbours to the south in Vancouver, we will still have recess EVEN when it rains. Watch the weather site (it is a Yukon trait) and dress your child appropriately! Check out our Cold Weather Policy on our website too…. Let’s get some fresh air and have fun!

�From the Ground Up - From Yukon Farms to Your Table

Thank you to all the parents, guardians and friends, who helped our students sell veggie boxes! In the end, we sold 475 boxes and donated 123 boxes. These boxes will be distributed to the Food Bank, and Kaushee’s Place by the farmer. We raised $8000, which will go a long way toward the purchase of Smart Bikes for the classrooms, recess equipment and classroom physical education equipment to keep our kids active and healthy.

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M. Didier is organizing a pop tab collection!

You can get more information here: http://poptabsforwheelchairs.ca

Here’s how it works: 1. Collect tabs from aluminium cans.2. Bring them to school. NO NEED TO COUNT THEM!!!3. When we have a cardboard box full, we will send them in and they will go towards making a new wheelchair! Easy.  

Help Make it Safer to Bike to ÉWES!

If you have not done so already, please feel free to sign a petition regarding Active and Safe Routes to School. In an effort to ensure safe, accessible, intentional routes for families and staff to access schools in the downtown core, a petition has been created to ensure biking infrastructure is a priority for the City. The petition calls for the accelerated implementation of the City of Whitehorse's Bicycle Network Plan. Concerned parents, staff and students and School Council will be heading to City Hall on Monday, November 4th at 5:30pm to voice their concerns and to share their petition which now has over 1800 supporters. Show your support by following the link:

https://www.change.org/p/mayor-of-whitehorse-support-active-and-safe-routes-to-school-in-the-city-of-whitehorse Merci beaucoup! Sarah Sarah Johnson

Grade 4 French Immersion

École Whitehorse Elementary School (867) 667-8083

ÉWES JOURNAL NEWS OCTOBER 29, 2019

Mme Lauren’s K class has been working and learning cooperatively with other classes.

Mme Valérie’s grade 3 class helped the students create patterns using objects found in nature.

Mme Dion’s grade 7s helped the kindergarten students complete family mobiles.

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News from the Library:

I would like to take the opportunity to introduce myself, Katharine Grenier, as EWES' new teacher-librarian for 2019-2020! I look forward to engaging with our vibrant community of readers! We welcome families in the library! The library will have open hours on second Tuesday of the month from 3:30 to 4:30pm beginning November 12, 2019. We welcome families to visit with their children, browse the books, ask for recommendations, and play board games! Pyjama Bonanza For students in Kindergarten to Grade 2 and their families: Come dressed in your pyjamas to read a bedtime story with your child/ren and to chat with the teacher-librarian about embedding literacy at home (no pun intended!). Bedtime snack provided! Where: EWES Library/Learning Commons When: 5:30 - 6:30PM Tuesday November 19th 2019

ÉWES JOURNAL NEWS OCTOBER 29, 2019

Pajama Bonanza!

For K-Grade 2 students and their families

Wear your pajamas and

come read a bedtime story

with your family!

When: 5:30 – 6:30 PM Tuesday November 19th

Where: EWES Library

Come wear your pajamas, read a bedtime story with your

children and chat with the teacher-librarian about ways to

make literacy fun at home!

Bedtime snack provided!

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Creative Development: Given the opportunity and support, students are intrinsically motivated to be creative, and are capable of going through the creative process and reflect about it. Payten and Taiya’s diorama to raise awareness on the rainforest fires. Here’s Payten and Taiya’s reflection about generating ideas: When choosing what do to our project on, we had so many ideas. We couldn’t choose what to do. We finally put our ideas together and chose the Amazon rainforest. We really like forest, nature and animal, and there was a big thing going on with the rainforest. We thought it was a good idea. Julianne’s Truffle dispensing robot. Here’s Julianne reflection about experimenting: I spent so much time on decorating my robot that I forgot to make the inside. I had to rush on that part so I finished at the last minute.

Student Vote: More than 1.1 million elementary and secondary school students participated in Student Vote Canada 2019, coinciding with the 2019 federal election. After learning about the electoral process, researching the parties and platforms, students cast their ballots for the official candidates running in their school’s riding. 134 students participated in Student Vote at Whitehorse Elementary. Results can be found here: https://studentvote.ca/results/school_results/33/336/33227035