At the beginning of school, we did a school-wide project to help us set the tone for the school year. The prompt was, what can you "BEE" this year that will help us have a great school year. Many students chose to "Bee kind", "Bee nice", "Bee helpful", and "Bee brave", while others chose to Bee responsible, musical, cheerful, and friendly. Many other wonderful responses were submitted and posted to our beehive as a reminder of our commitments! I can sense this year will BEE GREAT!
What a great start to the year! We began the year with some team building activities and have now moved into our first science unit studying plants. We have been experimenting with different growing conditions, designed and created devices to help pick apples, and have now begun to germinate seeds! We are excited to see what happens to the beans over the next few days.
What an incredible choir year we had!
We sang at our Remembrance Day Assembly and Christmas Concert, did the national anthem for the Winkler Flyers, and participated for the first time at the Winkler Festival of the Arts with the Grade 3 choir receiving a scholarship for their efforts. With one final performance coming up at our Family Picnic Lunch, the students will get a well-deserved break!
Thank you to Mrs. Bueckert who played for us throughout the year. It was a pleasure to work with you!
We promised at the beginning of the second choir term that we would record the choirs so family and friends could enjoy their efforts. Please find below a number of selections from our choirs.
Ned and Halley visited J.R. Walkof School on June 1st to talk to our students about the growth mindset. Failing at something doesn't mean we can't do it. It just means that we can't do it yet. We were encouraged to remember these 3 points:
Never give up
Encourage others
Do your best
As we wrapped up our Science unit on Objects and Materials, we decided to build a chair that would fit our favourite stuffies. We created criteria together: it must be off the ground, use 3 different materials and 2 different joining methods, hold a stuffed animal without falling over and be creative and fancy. Let me just say, these are some of the fanciest, glitteriest chairs I have ever seen!
The past few months have been a flurry of musical activity, highlighted by our grade 2 and 3 choirs performing at the Winkler Festival of the Arts. Both groups received high praise from adjudicator Millie Hildebrand with the grade 3's being told their piece was "Really well communicated" and "You convince us!" and the grade 2's being commended for their "Excellent rhythmic energy" and "Superb word formation and fine intonation." All the hard work our students put in during lunch hour rehearsals really paid off!
The grade 3 choir received a special invitation to perform at the Festival Awards Night and also won a scholarship for their efforts!
Relating to the picture above, students were invited to decorate a character, showing who they are as musicians. They were invited to draw different notes, rests, and words they know on their character and highlight musical styles, artists, and experiences they have had, all to show how we are growing as musicians. We created two bulletin boards to highlight our musical school so students could see how they may have similarities to other students but also how we all have unique musical tastes, knowledge, and involvement. I encourage all students to keep building the musician in them!
Coming up, we are busy recording the choirs so they will have a keepsake at the end of the year; several selections to listen to. The Family Picnic is also fast approaching and the choirs will be performing several pieces they haven't performed yet so that should be exciting.
It is so great to be a part of a school community that values music such as this one and a huge thanks goes out to all students for participating so heartily in music activities!
Our grade 1 and 3 students at JRW travelled through space in our own gymnasium! We had the privilege of hosting Star Dome at our school this week. Star Dome is an educational planetarium that allows you to see the sky and space from the perspective of other cultures. We listened to stories of the stars and constellations, learned what makes seasons and phases of the moon, and saw a variety of sights of our galaxy. Overall, it was a fantastic experience! 
Spring has arrived, and the art in our hallways is reflecting that! Enjoy this sample of artwork that our students have recently created.
The grade 2 classes are delighted to have incubators with fertilized chicken eggs in each of our classrooms! We have read books and watched videos to learn about the chick life cycle, development of the embryos in the shell and caring for live animals when they hatch!
