Best Organization at the 13th Annual International Cartoon Art Competition｜Teachers Teaching Teachers｜Earth Week｜Bucket Filling in 1S｜Bowling Field Trip

Best Organization at the 13th Annual International Cartoon Art Competition

Ms. Isherwood submitted twenty pieces of student’s artwork to the 13th Annual International Cartoon Art Competition. Four students at Pythagoras Academy have won an award; congratulations Isabella Zhang, Ethan Yu, Elsa Wang and Camille Zhao! They will be moving through to the next round. Pythagoras Academy has been named Best Organization for the second year in a row with Ms. Isherwood awarded for the Best Art Teacher! These children will get to go to an award ceremony at the Vancouver Art Institute in June with their parents. Congratulations artists!

Teachers Teaching Teachers

Teachers teaching teachers is a powerful way of learning. Olivia Clayton, a teacher from Southridge school visited Pythagoras Academy last week. She came to see how we are assessing students for fluency, comprehension and the usage of reading strategies. Through funds raised at the 2016 gala , we purchased two Baseline Assessment kits from Fountas and Pinnnell. The information gathered from a student assessment is information that the teacher can use for classroom planning, individual student strategy teaching and lead to the selection of instructional reading books for students to use in the classroom. We are becoming a leading school in literacy. Ms. Clayton toured the school library, the bookroom and also observed a student assessment conducted by Mrs. Powell. School visits are one way for teachers to make curriculum connections, observe and learn about new resources.

Earth Week

Pythagoras Academy has been celebrating our Earth this week. Students have been participating in different activities to take action in helping to keep our Earth green and clean. Some of the activities include:

– Food Waste Challenge: Everyday students weigh their classes food scraps. The class with the least amount of food scraps at the end of the week wins the friendly school wide challenge!

– Earth Hour: All classes are encouraged to turn the lights out for an hour each day to say energy.

– Energy is Awesome Presentation: Fortis BC visited PA to share an interactive presentation to teach students about natural gas. Students learned what it is, where it comes from, how to be safe around and how to conserve it.

– Door Knob Decorations: Students decorated, wrote and drew Earth-related phrases to remind friends and family to conserve water, turn off the lights, etc.

Earth Week 1

Earth week 2

Bucket Filling in 1S

Students in Miss Simpson’s grade one class have been talking about how to make other people feel happy. Students discovered that when they do kind things for other people to make them warm inside, it also makes them feel happy. Students listened to the book “How Full is your Bucket” by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer. The book explains that by giving compliments, including our peers and helping others, fills up our imaginary buckets. If everyone has a full bucket they experience positive emotions. When buckets are empty negative emotions can be present. Students then decorated their own bucket and wrote nice compliments to each other on post-it notes to “fill” their classmate’s buckets.

Bucket Fillers

bucket

Bowling Field Trip

The grades two and three students went to Town n’ Country Bowling Alley for a physical education field trip. The students played two rounds of bowling in teams. Students were taught some tips and strategies to ensure the ball hit the pins they wanted. The students also learned bowling terms like “spare” and “strike”. It was an afternoon filled with strategy, positive encouragement, and fun!

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