Dear Families,
Week 3 - check!  Thank you again for ALL your hard work boys and girls in the tasks assigned.  Some of the highlights were the comic strips for COVID-19, the balloon powered Lego cars, and the wall-sit challenge (many made significant improvements in their times throughout the week). 

I am doing my best to offer timely feedback to help improve achievement, but also as a means to connect with my students and to reassure / help motivate them that everything they're doing at home for their distance learning means a lot to me!


Parents, without your support, none of this would be possible, SO, THANK YOU AGAIN!!  I know how much effort you're putting into this too :-) I appreciate it more than I can fully express.


Below you will find a video that was compiled by our super secretary Mrs. Beattie!  I'm sure many of you have seen on social media a variety of different ways that schools have been reaching out to students and parents.

Here's our staff extending and expressing how much we care about and miss our Nottawa family!  We think about our students each and every day!!!


Nottawa Staff Supports Essential Workers:
Our empathy for others continues to grow and show!  That's right, the staff at Nottawa organized an initiative to help support the workers at the Barbara Weider House who support homeless youth in our community during these challenging times.  We wanted to recognize each of them with a small gift for putting themselves at risk around the clock for "our kids" during this unusual time.  We have also made a donation to the bowls for beds campaign to support all the work they do!


I am a PROUD NIGHTHAWK to be part of an amazing staff and school who looks out for our community!!  Thank you to Ms. West (SERT) who initiated this endeavour!!  #proudnighthawk

New LAYOUT for Weekly Student Agenda:
You will notice next week that I will be using a new layout / format for my weekly lessons for students.  I was inspired by a fellow educator and friend at Admiral. 

I have been busy creating google slides for my assigned tasks.  I feel these will be more effective for student engagement.  I hope you enjoy it!  I'll be spending lots of time this weekend preparing and finalizing it.

Get Creative with Google Slides — Learning in Hand with Tony Vincent

Once finished, I will share my google slides presentation for Week 4 Distance Learning Lessons / Tasks with my students most likely by Sunday evening or Monday morning the latest.  They must go to their SHARED WITH ME FOLDER in google drive to access it :) They can then add it to their Drive and place in their main distance learning folder.

Google Meet:
It was a definite highlight for me meeting virtually with your child on Monday morning!!  We had 16/25 students join which was amazing to see :)  No worries to those families who were not able to get on, I will be hosting weekly Google Meets (Monday's 9:00 - 9:30 AM) so hopefully see you next week. 

If you require further support with this, please do not hesitate to let me know and I can walk you through the process.


For our virtual meets, I'm encouraging your child to dress in his or her Nottawa Spirit Wear!  For example, they may choose to wear their Nottawa t-shirt, hoodie, or toque to show Nighthawk pride!  I know how proud we all are to be part of the BEST school in Collingwood :-)  Let's let our SPIRIT SHINE!


If your child does not own a purchased Nottawa shirt, no worries, simply have them wear our school colours of blue, white, and grey!

On Monday during our Meet, I was able to share some videos of students work that they're completing at home.  Please keep capturing those videos/ images and place in your child's distance learning folder and I can show the other children in our video chats!!  It truly got them excited :-)

Students loved seeing Beau's tik tok video for the "salt dough" experiment, Noah, Orin, and Coleton's "Rube Goldberg Machine," and Kali knitting a scarf!

I have a few videos of the Bouncing Bubble experiment from Tuesday that I'll be showing!!  See you virtually on Monday boys and girls in your Nottawa Spirit Wear!!

Music with Mr. Morin:
Mr. Morin is holding virtual music classes each week.  Many thanks to him for hosting these.  For grades 3-4, sessions will take place on Wednesdays from 10:00-10:30 AM.  Write this down in your calendars!  Join his Google Classroom by using the code: r3cleti.

Any questions regarding this, please send him an email at cmorin@scdsb.on.ca

KING DO WAY Soprano Recorder Flute a Bec with Cleaning Rod + Case ... 

Math:
Beginning next week, I will be providing students with a variety of multi-step Problems of the Day to solve using pictures, numbers, and words.  These series of word problems will be based on thinking / application and communication questions.  The math tasks I've provided thus far have been fairly straight forward for students to complete.

In our Distance Learning Journey, I believe we are now ready to take on and build upon our problem solving skills!  Your child will be encouraged to use the 4-Block Problem Solving Method (understand, plan, solve, and explain) that we've used all year to help them break down the questions into manageable steps.


Here's a sample question: Problem of the Day: "Surrounding Squares"   https://cemc.uwaterloo.ca/resources/potw/2019-20/English/POTWA-19-GS-NN-05-P.pdf 

Nottawa Learning Library:
A big thank you to Mrs. Johnson who has worked hard this week to create an online tool called "'Nottawa Learning Library" which is filled with many FREE resources for kids and parents to access at home.


In this web page, you'll find links to a variety of subject areas that are friendly and useful.

On my weekly lessons, you will have noticed that I have been posting Math & Literacy Resources for your child to check out each week and access when they've completed their day's tasks.  I hope that's been helpful for you!  I will continue to do this, but be sure to access the link below too as Mrs. Johnson says she will be updating it frequently as she receives new resources.  She's our tech wizard!

https://sites.google.com/scdsb.on.ca/nottawalearninglibrary/home

Celebrating 50 Years of Earth Day:
Have you ever wondered what really happens to the plastic you throw away?  We’ve all been told that we should recycle plastic bottles and containers. But what actually happens to the plastic if we just throw it away? In this 4 minute video, Emma Bryce traces the life cycles of three different plastic bottles, shedding light on the dangers these disposables present to our world.


While plastic thrown into landfills contaminates the soil and groundwater with harmful chemicals and microorganisms, the effects of marine pollution caused by plastic are immeasurable. Just like on land, even in the oceanic areas, the effects of plastic on marine life has started to be felt.  

Please take a moment to also watch this 4 minute video to see how kids are taking action against ocean plastic.  Please consider minimizing the use of plastic in your daily life.  Together, we can make a difference!



I've shared on many occasions with my students, that celebrations like Earth Day MUST be acknowledged and honoured everyday!!  Just as we are doing our part to flatten the curve for COVID-19 to ensure we remain healthy, let's think about and ACT ON ways to help our Earth ALSO stay healthy, clean, and strong not only for our generation, but for generations to come!!

Thank YOU to all the students who completed their Earth Day Posters on Wednesday.  They turned out so well and I enjoyed reading your strategies to help our planet!


Talent Show:
Please click on the image below to enlarge it to read a special message about our annual Talent Show.  All submissions are due to Mrs. Johnson between May 15 - 21st.  Any questions about this, please direct them to her via email majohnson@scdsb.on.ca



Liam's Mom:
Thank you to Liam's Mom for sharing and inspiring this week's STEAM activity "Building a Balloon Powered Lego Car!" I hope you guys had fun with this one!  For our google meet on Monday, I'll be sure to share Liam's video of his Lego car with you all.  He trialed it three times :-)


Max:
Thank you Ms. Hollingsbee for sharing these photos of Max and his sister with their lego cars and paper airplane!  I can tell how engaged Max is in his daily activities!



Noah:
Noah may not have had balloons at home this week to make a balloon powered Lego car, but that didn't stop him from thinking of other ways to build and explore!  Thank you Mrs. Flint for this photograph of Noah using dominoes to build pyramids with his younger brother Ryker.  Purposeful and FUN learning always ensues in the Flint household!


Emma:
Thank you Ms. Sacerty for sharing these photos of your daughter outdoors soaking in the beautiful rays of sunshine that we received on Monday!!  It certainly brightened my spirits seeing Emma's smiles!  Nature has that affect on many, doesn't it?!  Absolutely :-)  Glad you two were able to be outside!!






Orin:
Thank you Ms. Munro for these images of Orin growing veggies for his garden! I look forward to seeing some of the growth in the coming weeks!  What a wonderful and healthy idea :-)



Mindfulness:
Here is a 2 minute informative video about climate change from the perspective of a 12 year old child.  Thank you Mrs. Johnson for sharing on Monday's morning announcements.  Something for us to all think about and take action NOW!



Growth Mindset:



Namaste,
Ms. Gill  

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