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.