Raising Responsible Citizens

Does your child know how to hold a broom? Perhaps you think you don’t care right now, but one day your son or daughter will be all grown up and will thank you if s/he knows how to accomplish all the things in life that require doing.

Let’s have a quick look at this comic strip. What is the dad saying to his son? Is it just about knowing how to hold a broom or make a bed? Not likely. One of the most important aspects of work is that we know what we need to do, tackle it and get it done on schedule. That sounds pretty simple, but you would be surprised at how many people can’t manage their lives because work (any work) is too much for them. They can’t organize, they can’t prioritize, they can’t break a task down to do it in sections and they end up feeling overwhelmed by work. Any work.

So….what to do? Start now. Provide the time, space and materials to complete homework.   Homework should average about 10 minutes per grade per day. So, for example, a grade four student will have about 40 minutes of homework (that does not include dawdling; getting a drink, sharpening the pencil, taking a bathroom break, eating a snack….and…you get the point). School is a child’s first job. Help your child accomplish this task with pride.

Another thing you can do to help your child develop good work skills is ask your child to contribute to the household. This will be a small contribution when they are toddlers and will grow to be a real help around the house once they are in their teens.  Doing a little research on the internet brought me to Focus on the Family. They have an amazing little article on children and household chores – complete with charts, templates, a funny quiz and cut-outs!  It is very clear that children, while they will balk – some more that others – at doing chores, in the end they feel like a respected, contributing member of the family while they are learning extremely important life skills. And that is not just about how to hold a broom!

Respectfully Yours,

Gabriele Pulpan, Principal

Chore Charts from focusonthefamily.com.

Works Cited:

Johnston, L. (n.d.). For Better or For Worse [Cartoon]. 

Seifert, S. (2009). Age-Appropriate Chores. Retrieved May 12, 2016, from http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/parenting-challenges/motivating-kids-to-clean-up/age-appropriate-chores

First Nations Peoples' Dwellings

The Primary Room students have been learning about the First Nations Peoples and the dwellings they lived in. The students built some of the dwellings that they learned about using edible building materials. They made igloos from sugar cubes and frosting; tipis from candy sticks and fruit leather; and sod dwellings made with rice crispy squares and green coconut.
 

First the students drew an outline of the dwelling they would make rectangles for sod huts, circles for igloos and triangles for tipis.

Next the students created the base of their dwelling.

 From there the students built up their dwellings and used frosting or string to help support them.

 The students had to work carefully to keep the dwellings supported and not fall apart.

 The finished product looks pretty yummy!

Tots' Time Activities: Box Play

Toddlers love box play!

Why are you sitting in a box?

They just might be sitting inside one, or pushing it along, maybe wearing it on their head, or stacking them high and then pushing them over.

In the Tots' Time class the teacher read the book Not a Box, by Antoinette Portis, to the class. It is about a rabbit who uses his imagination to create all kinds of pretend uses for his box.

The tots used boxes in the classroom for golf ball and marble painting. They placed black paper into the box, added some paint colours, many golf balls and marbles, then closed the lid and SHOOK and TIPPED the box. The tots had fun peeking inside to see what was happening.

The class also played a game of hidden shapes, calling out each shape as each was found inside the box. After finding a shape and taking it out of the box, we either sang a song about its colour, counted them or placed them back into the puzzle where they came from.

Tots' Time at Olivet School is a special Monday morning program for children aged 16 months to 3 years and their parent, led by one of our E.C.E's. It is a valuable way for parents themselves to make social connections as their toddlers learn to follow teacher instructions, work as a group and experience educational play.

Parents, students and Olivet School teachers love the Olivet School community for its caring, home-like quality, very small class sizes and its rich academic program taught with a foundation in Christian values. If you have been looking for elementary education which combines the strength of top quality teaching with the individual attention and opportunities of a personalized learning community, then you too will love Olivet School. For more information about Olivet School, private school in Etobicoke, please visit our website.  

Weaving Landscapes: Grades 5 & 6

We began this art project by learning how to create a sense of space and depth in a landscape—the concepts of foreground, middle ground and background. Then we sketched our own imagined landscapes; made a second copy by tracing it; painted one copy with warm colors and another with cool colors. Finally, we cut them into strips and carefully weaved the two works together. 

Parents, students and Olivet School teachers love the Olivet School community for its caring, home-like quality, very small class sizes and its rich academic program taught with a foundation in Christian values. If you have been looking for elementary education which combines the strength of top quality teaching with the individual attention and opportunities of a personalized learning community, then you too will love Olivet School. For more information about Olivet School, private school in Etobicoke, please visit our website.  

Kindergarten Snowflake Ornaments

The Kindergarten class made beautiful Christmas snowflake ornaments in class. 

The students were each told to pick out the snowflake they liked best. Red felt snowflakes was was favoured by all over the green felt ones. 

Next the students carefully squeezed glue on to the places they wanted to covered with sparkles. 

The students traced the main lines of the snowflake with glue.

Next it was time for the sparkles. The students were able to choose between, red, silver and gold. 

After lots and lots of shaking sparkles on to the ornaments they are finished and look amazing! They will be sure to catch many eyes sparkling on the tree!



Parents, students and Olivet School teachers love the Olivet School community for its caring, home-like quality, very small class sizes and its rich academic program taught with a foundation in Christian values. If you have been looking for elementary education which combines the strength of top quality teaching with the individual attention and opportunities of a personalized learning community, then you too will love Olivet School. For more information about Olivet School, private school in Etobicoke, please visit our website.  

Remembrance Day

To commemorate Remembrance Day, the children in grades 1 through 6 participated all morning in activities that related to remembering those who have served our country in war. 

There were four groups who rotated through four different activities. At 10:45 AM everyone attended a special memorial service in the chapel, which included two minutes of silence at exactly 11 o'clock. Following the service the Kindergarten students lead the congregation from the balcony in a stirring singing performance of "O'Canada". They even wove small Canadian paper flags as they sang!

One activity was to create two wreaths out of red and green tissue paper. The students were able to create a very realistic look to their poppy wreaths, by gluing three red circles of tissue paper together and then attaching each individual flower with a pencil and by scrunching it forward off the pencil they were able to give them such a full look.The wreaths were done in time for the service in the chapel and were a beautiful addition to the chancel, as can be seen in this picture here.

Valentines for Vets #valentinesforvets was another activity in which the students wrote Valentines that will be mailed to Canadian vets in February. They folded paper so that they would cut four heart shapes out of the paper at once. Next they glued them into a poppy shape and attached them to the front of the card.

Then they cut a small black circle for the poppy middle and put a greeting on the front of the card in marker.

 Next the students wrote messages to the war veterans that they will receive in February.

 

This beautiful mural was created to illustrate The Highway of Heroes. #highwayofheroes. 

The students worked together sketching and planning what they wanted to be on the banner and then filling it in with paint. 

It is hard to believe that four groups of students worked on it at separate times!

Because learning about war means working toward peace, we had the students create doves for peace. The doves will float in the entrance lobby when they are finished.

The students worked at different stations to create their doves of peace. First the students coloured in poppies that would later be attached to the doves. Then they cut out the poppies.

 Next they painted their doves and then placed the poppy on the dove while it was still wet to make it stick.

  Overall the final appearance of the dove is quite lovely! Well done children!

Parents, students and Olivet School teachers love the Olivet School community for its caring, home-like quality, very small class sizes and its rich academic program taught with a foundation in Christian values. If you have been looking for elementary education which combines the strength of top quality teaching with the individual attention and opportunities of a personalized learning community, then you too will love Olivet School. For more information about Olivet School, private school in Etobicoke, please visit our website.  

Planting Milkweed

At Olivet School we hope to instill a sense of global community and commitment to our planet in our students. After learning about how Monarch butterflies are an endangered species, and how they need the milkweed plant to survive, the grades 3 and 4 worked together to clean up a patch of garden on the school property and planted milkweed seeds. Monarch are not able to survive without milkweed, because it is where they lay their eggs and then the resulting caterpillars from these eggs have a diet that consists of only milkweed. November is the optimal planting season for milkweed, so hopefully they will grow!

The students first picked up any yard waste that had collected in the area, such as leaves, sticks and weeds. 

Next they used shovels and pitchforks to loosen the soil and make it ready for planting seeds. 

As they went they removed anything from the soil that might impede the growth of the milkweed seeds. 

They planted the seeds and now they will wait and see what comes up in the spring!

Parents, students and Olivet School teachers love the Olivet School community for its caring, home-like quality, very small class sizes and its rich academic program taught with a foundation in Christian values. If you have been looking for elementary education which combines the strength of top quality teaching with the individual attention and opportunities of a personalized learning community, then you too will love Olivet School. For more information about Olivet School, private school in Etobicoke, please visit our website.  

YTV Films at Olivet School

Last week the students from grades 3-6 took part in on camera interviews for YTV's The Zone's "Team Zogo" November mission. Some of these interviews will even air on YTV and be posted on their website!  

The students were interviewed for YTV’s November’s mission on Zogo, which is “Bust Your Boredom”. They interviewed the students and asked them questions such as, “What do you do when you're bored, what's the most boring thing you can think of, and what's your best cure for boredom?”

It was a great experience for the children as they got to see what goes on behind the scenes of filming a piece for TV. The students were hooked up for sound, saw just how big and heavy the cameras are, and got to experience first-hand the bright lights that are used for filming. 

The filming crew were very cooperative at the Q and A sessions with the students and answered all their questions.

Parents, students and Olivet School teachers love the Olivet School community for its caring, home-like quality, very small class sizes and its rich academic program taught with a foundation in Christian values. 

If you have been looking for elementary education which combines the strength of top quality teaching with the individual attention and opportunities of a personalized learning community, then you too will love Olivet School. For more information about Olivet School, private school in Etobicoke, please visit our website.