We are excited to begin our PA’s “Student News Broadcast” by planning, recording and editing. This is our fourth year of reporting important events, celebrations and successes that occur at school every week. All news is planned and recorded by PA students. Students learn about newsworthy material, journalism, ethics, broadcasting, producing and the importance of working as a team to create something that the entire PA school can be proud of and enjoy. This is a great opportunity for students to practice leadership skills, be engaged with the events that are happening at school, be resourceful and look for new interesting news stories!

Welcome back to learning, playing and making new friends! Students have been busy inside and outside the classroom! In fact, recess time is arguably one of the most important and dynamic parts of a student’s day. It serves as a time to engage in self directed play, where students practice social skills and form new and important friendships. Supervisors and our newly established student Safety Scouts actively engage with students, assisting in the establishment of recess rules and facilitating problem solving methods while encouraging sportsmanship, teamwork and safe play. 

The grade 5/6 students led our “Orange Shirt Day” assembly, where they shared their knowledge of Canadian and Indigenous history. Specifically, they shared details about Residential schools- honouring the stories shared by Indigenous authors and storytellers. PA students and staff connected deeply to Phyllis Webstad’s “‘The Orange Shirt Story” story, held a moment of silence and pledged to be an Indigenous ally.

A number of students in grades 5-8 at Pythagoras Academy participated in Math Challenge Projects this school year. One of the projects, Refreshing Refreshments by Megan and Harley in grade 6, used their everyday math knowledge and combined it with basic business principles to a surprisingly successful effect. The children had fun and experienced practicing organizational and communication skills, and were inspired to continue exploring the field of mathematics.

We value hands-on, collaborative and interactive learning at Pythagoras Academy. The grade 6, 7 and 8 classes often work together in an activity that we call ‘Math Benders’. Based on ideas from Peter Liljedahl’s “Building the Thinking Classroom in Mathematics”, we work on number sense, communication and computational flexibility by tackling rich, open-ended questions in small mixed groups.