Summer Reading Challenge

When one of one school’s support teachers, Mrs. Patterson, suggested we host a summer reading challenge for children at Yennadon my initial response was great! When she suggested we offer some sort of incentive, my response was sure! When she suggested a Pizza luncheon, my thought was maybe a $100.00 or so as I anticipated about 40-50 kids would participate. 130 children later and the bill was almost $400! As expensive as this is, it was absolutely well worth the effort and expense.

So how did the summer reading challenge work? Last June, students and parents made a committment to read on a regular basis throughout the summer (15 – 20 minutes 4-5 times weekly). At summer’s end, our readers submitted a completed form signed by mom and/or dad and the prize was a wonderful pizza luncheon hosted by myself and Mrs. Ramsay.

Congratulations on achieving your goals kids. Well done Yennadon summer readers!

ps. You know all those Save-on Foods receipts you’ve brought in? They paid for the ice-cream, fruit and drinks! So keep bringing in those receipts.We can always use the certificates.

Full Day Kindergarten @ Yen

Well it’s here. Full Day Kindergarten. Below is an excerpt from a recent research synopsis. Sounds official and after you have given it  a read, I’ll tell you what I really think! Read on…..

“  The importance of early childhood development and its effects on the later stages of life have been clearly documented by research and by major organizations  around the world. Significant research findings  indicate that children who have participated in quality full day Kindergarten opportunities, experience positive outcomes in all areas of development including: Aesthetic and Artistic, Social and Emotional, Physical well being and Intellectual and Social Repsonsibility. Children come to school curious about the world around them. Active participation in learning experiences at school capitalizes on children’s natural desire to inquire and explore their world. The benefits of a quality full day kindergaten program are many.

Children learn through play and a full day program provides children and teachers with the gift of time. Time to explore, discover, manipulate, and to develop deeper understandings  of the concepts offered. The benefits of a quality full day kindergarten program are many. Children learn through play and a full day program provides children and teachers the gift of time. Time to explore, discover, manipulate and to deeper understandings of the concepts offered. “

Sounds rather official doesn’t it? In my view the success of any full day kindergarten program is based on the quality of the teacher that greets the children each and every day. Starting this summer (likely earlier), I am certain that our Kindergarten teachers began the laborious process of preparing for the arrival of up to 20 new students to their first taste of ‘real’ school. They were in throughout the month of August preparing their classrooms in order to create a caring, engaging and rich learning environment. They met constantly to discuss the ‘next’ steps.

 It’s really a whole bucket load of hard work! Imagine 20 4 and 5 year olds in class for a full day of purposeful, enagaging play. Teaching the ins and outs of school. The bathroom routines, sharing, turn-taking, how to self-regulate, lunch, recess, the school grounds. …..I am exhausted just supervising them at recess and lunch!  

At the end of the day we turn them back to moms and dads ready to start again the very next day. Hard work and dedication indeed. Thanks Kindergarten teachers; truly a quality bunch! (Mrs. Ludeman, Mrs. Jorgeson, Mrs. Hague, Mrs. Paton, Mrs. Linde, Mrs. Jakeway)

Welcome back for another season!

Hello all,

Turns out September thus far has filled in for the July we never had! Lets enjoy this run while it lasts. Welcome back everyone. As promised, our school is once again filled to capacity with 570 students and 4 full-time Kindergarten classes. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome into the fold a number of dedicated teachers who will be working with your children this coming year: Mrs. Jorgesen, Mrs. Jakeway, Mrs. Hague all teaching kindergarten on a full-time or part-time basis. We also welcome Ms. Faletta whose fine arts skills will come in handy as she takes on the French/Fine Arts Teacher Prepartion position and finally we welcome Ms. Kessler who will be working in a gr 6/7 class each Friday. Along with 73 new Kindergarten students starting full days on Sept 19th, we also welcome 27 new gr 1 – 7  students from a variety of places in Canada. 

As you can well imagine, activities at our school did not start slowly. Day 2 (our first full day) started with a bang as the children met thier new teacher and immediately the important work of teaching and learning began. Plans (ps. teachers are in planning throughout the summer)  are already underway for assemblies, field trips, sports teams and all those other activities that make school a fun place to be……and by the way did I mention all the academics? That’s happening as well!

My job on this blog once again will be to hi-light some of the terrific things that are happening at our school. The hi-lighting part is easy as there is so much going on. The hard part will be remembering everything and getting it all on this blog! I will do my best.

I look forward to an eventful year

Mr Bondi

See you in September!

What a year it has been.  A school of 580 student can certainly be a busy place! I wish to take this opportunity to say thank you to all the staff, parents and especially the children for making this a terrific year full of learning, excitement and many many memories. Have a safe and restful summer. We’ll see you all this coming September. I look forward to another fantastic year!

…….except for the parking lot of course……….

Grade 6/7 Camp 2011 Rock Ridge Canyon

Wow! What an amazing experience. This will sound cliche but in this case a picture is definitely worth a thousand words! Enjoy.

Hundreds of photos, thousands of memories made. The photos will eventually fade but the memories will indeed last a lifetime.

Young Entrepeneurs at Yennadon

The entrepeneurial spirit is alive and well at Yennadon. Over the last 6-8 weeks, students in Mrs. McIntosh’s class have been learning in a very real sense, what it has been like to run thier own business. The Yennadon entrepeneurs were given the charge of developing, marketing and selling an item that they believed would sell to a particular market; that being students, staff and parents from our school community. On June 3rd of this month, students displayed and were given the opportunity to sell thier wares to an enthusiastic Yennadon community. What this taught students was the concepts of product development, marketing, appropriate price points and sales!

 A terrific life lesson was learned by the students and for many, thier hard work, patience and perseverence paid off with some terrific profits, which the students were allowed to keep. The photos below demonstrates the enthusiasm by which the class took to the task. Well done Div. 6!

All for a good cause….

This past Friday brought together 580 students for our monthly assembly. As is typical with such assemblies, a variety of students and classes made presentations, performed a variety of songs and offered information with entrepeneurial spirit and social consciousness. Typical really of most presentations at the school. What made this assembly a touch more special was a last minute decision to add an impromptu spirit assembly and given the recent developments with our local hockey team, it was fitting that the color scheme should be blue and green. Not so special?  Well add a few morning messages to bring a loonie or twonie for Canuck Place Children’s Hospice (Thanks for the challenge Albion) and voila! a great assembly, a fantastic sense of spirit and all for a good cause. A great time was had by all and our school raised close to $700 benefitting Canuck Place. Well done Yennadon and GO CANUCKS GO!

Getting Ready for the ‘Big One’

No…… not the impending earthquake, nor is it any doomsday premonition. Its our annual SD 42 Track and Field meet to be held on Thursday and Friday June 9th and 10th! Yennadon students have been working hard at practicing skills such as baton passing for the relay races, long  jump, short and long individual races, discus and of course the high jump. Our teachers have also been working hard, in spite of the rain, cold temperatures and a few cancelled practices.  We are slowly getting ready……we think.  

Yennadon always shows well at our annual track meet and I am certain that this year will be no different. Enjoy the photos .

Thanks PAC!(Parent Advisory Council)

Its a scene that repeats itself throughout BC public schools each spring. A school’s PAC says goodbye to its previous executive members. Some stay on willingly, a few are somehow magically convinced to stay on just one more year, but for the most part the turn out to a PAC’s annual general meeting is relatively sparse (thank goodness it wasn’t on a hockey night!).

This blog entry is not about lamenting a poor turn out or to rally the troops. This entry is about saying thanks to a small group of truly dedicated moms and dads who have decided to take on the responsibility of service to our school. For this we as a school community are extremely thankful. Their efforts since my arrival have made possible a 3 year program entitled Above and Beyond. Above and Beyond is a coordinated wish list of items and activities that our staff has deemed to be essential towards ‘augmenting’ the regular classroom activities. To date our PAC has raised over $30 000 in an effort to make Above and Beyond a reality. Marimba lessons these past two years.  Free. Drama lessons this year. Free.  A set of 10 laptop computers (more coming).  Library technology and materials. Support for our sensory room and life skills program. The list goes on and on! We are very fortunate to have such a group of dedicated individuals and on behalf of our entire school community, we want to offer our sincere thanks. We truly appreciate your efforts!

2010/2011 PAC

President: Lori Dietz, Past chair: Leanne Regan, Vice-chair: Sherry Audette, Treasurer: Brenda Burgess, Secretary: Jeanette Wardrope, DPAC: Kelly Garay, Fundraising: Tiffany Durante, Members-at-Large: Jeanne Pierce, Corinna Joseph, Melodie Bakker.

Our new council, just recently elected, will take office this coming September.

All For a Good Cause

Whew! there are days around here when you think it can’t get any busier and just as you finish sighing…..it gets even busier. However the ‘busyness’ over the last few days has been for a great cause. It has now become somewhat of an annual tradition to have staff and students at Yennadon participate in BC’s Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser.

Through the hard work and dedication from our PE teacher Ms. Francis, students have spent the last few days preparing, collecting pledges and participating in this worthwhile school event. Students were treated to several days of physical activities with skipping ropes all in an attempt to raise awareness of our cardiovascular system and the diseases which ravage our hearts if kept unhealthy. Turns out the students have a goal or raising over $4000.00 and the Principal has agreed to have his hair colored something completely un-natural for the day (all bets seem to be on flourescent pink!) if they achieve there goal. Really cant think of a better way to support a good cause, raise some money and have some fun! Well done Yennadon and thanks Ms. Francis!

(Photos to come)