News from the teachers
We would like to announce the teachers who will be teaching at WCS in its first year of operation. We have already established a strong team and a number of us have been working on the curriculum and vision for over three years. We work as a team and our individual teaching strengths and specialties will be shared with all the students in the school.
Sandee Waite — full-day Kindergarten Teacher –kindergarten specialist and yoga teacher
Deborah Adelman – half-day Kindergarten and French Teacher – specialist in Waldorf education and French
Karina Filipzcuk – Grade One Teacher – literacy and inquiry-based teaching and learning specialist
Robyn Stevan Matamoros – Grade Two Teacher – specialist in drama, art and handwork and in Waldorf education
Tamara Brodey – Grade Three Teacher – visual arts and inquiry-based teaching and learning specialist
Marcia Mcvean – Grade Four/Five Teacher – music and social studies specialist
Tom Parker – music and gym specialist
The teachers will have professional development throughout the year in outdoor education and environmental studies, visual arts and some teachers will have in-class support with our storytelling program. We will also be collaborating with the Grove School in the West end to develop our environmental education program.
If you did not attend the open house on June 19 we have attached a copy of the letter that was handed out on that day. There were some concerns raised about the suggested $100 donation for the visual arts supplies. This is a suggested donation so feel free to make the choice not to contribute. The art materials that we will be purchasing for each child includes: beeswax crayons, high-quality pencil crayons, water-colour paper and paints, drawing paper and some handwork supplies. These materials are expensive but they last a long time. Each child will receive a set of art materials that they take care of and use as he/she goes up the grades. Visual arts is an integral part of are program and we believe that good quality art materials are essential for our program.
A second concern that was raised by some parents was about the outdoor kindergarten. Some of the school day will be spent outdoors and some of the day will be indoors. On three mornings/afternoons per week, the children have times scheduled indoors for music, gym/yoga or library. The other times in the day will be spent in our outdoor kindergarten classroom. The outdoor classroom will look very much like an indoor kindergarten classroom with centres (dramatic play, writing and drawing, blocks and building, woodwork, cooking, sand and water and inquiry-based math and science activities).
It is our goal in the kindergarten to spend one or two mornings/afternoons per week off-site in nature for our environmental education program. This is a structured program that integrates most of our math and science curriculum into an outdoor environmental program. The afternoon kindergarten class will participate environmental math and science program with the rest of the school. If you would like us to forward you same examples of our outdoor lessons we are happy to do this. We will not begin off-site excursions with the kindergarten until the children have settled in and feel comfortable with the teachers and the school.
As the weather gets colder we will determine how much of the day will be spent outdoors. For example, some activities like painting, drawing or writing are more suited to indoors when the weather is cold. However, we will be experiencing the elements, light rains, snow, but on days when the temperatures are colder than -15 degrees Celsius we will be inside. We will always have the children’s best interests at heart, but there is an expectation that they dress appropriately for outdoor weather, or have clothing available. We have attached a draft version of the weekly schedule for each grade to provide you with a better sense of how the school will run.
School-wide Celebrations
As part of our community building program the school community will come together to celebrate special occasions throughout the year. Each class will host at least two celebrations in the year. These classes will be responsible for the music, storytelling, drama and ritual aspects of the celebration. The celebrations will take place during the day or sometimes in the evening and everyone is welcome to join us during these events. In September we will provide you with specific dates and times for these events.
September – Renaming of school celebration (parent and teacher community)
September – Fall Equinox/Harvest /Eid (hosted by the grades 2and 3)
October - Halloween
November – Dewali lantern festival (hosted by grades 2 and 4/5)
December – Winter Solstice (hosted by kindergarten and grade 1)
February - School Coffee House
February – Winter Carnival School Play Day
April Spring Equinox/Migration Celebration (hosted by grades 3 and 4/5)
April – Earth Week and Four Elements Celebration April (hosted by grades 2 and 3)
May – Café Theatre – this will be an opportunity for all the classes to showcase what they have learnt in French
June – Summer Solstice (hosted by kindergarten and grade 1)
French Program
We are teaching French to all grades (K-5) through the AIM approach. We have scheduled French instruction two times a week for all of the primary grades and grade 4/5 will have French instruction four times per week. In kindergarten the goal will be to develop a love of learning French through stories, songs and drama. The children will be introduced to the initial vocabulary outlined by the AIM approach. Each word has a gesture so the children we be introduced to the French language through movement.
Starting in Grade One we will offer a structured French program and the children will learn the French language through a sequential and structured approach. This approach integrates drama, dance, games, cooperative learning activities and lots of fun. When the children cross the threshold of the French classroom they will soon learn that they can only speak in French. Deborah will be offering a French curriculum evening in September in order to provide an overview of the program and to show parents how they can support and enrich the French program at WCS. For more information about the program, you can check the AIM Website at http://www.aimlanguagelearning.com.
Drama and Dance
In addition, in third semester each classroom will be involved in preparing and performing a play. The class will choose if they want to mount a full production or present scenes from the play.
Grade 1 – The Magic Horse
Grade 2 – Midsummer Night’s Dream
Grade 3 – Ojibwa Play
Grade 4/5 – Sundiata – An African Play
Music
This year we will not be offering Orff. The students will have some experience with Orff from Tom Parker, our music teacher. This year we will be teaching recorder to students in grades 2-5. The school will be buying the recorders for the children, and parents will be asked to reimburse for the cost of the recorder. This is to insure that each student has a quality recorder to use as they learn to play the instrument.
Physical Education
We will be offering yoga, co-operative games and sports as part of our physical education program. We will be partnering with Roden for co-extracurricular clubs and sports teams.
Thursday Afternoon Arts & Crafts Studio
Every Thursday afternoon following the afternoon recess, the students (grades 1-5) will have the opportunity to choose from a range of craft and handwork activities each term. The activities will range from knitting, crochet, sewing, cross-stitch, weaving, clay and felt-making. The children will work in multi-age groups and the older children will have the responsibility of helping the younger children. The projects will be adapted to meet the needs and abilities of the children.
We are looking for volunteers with craft and handwork skills to help us deliver this program. Please let us know if you are able to volunteer to teach small groups of children how to sew, knit, weave, crochet, loom, woodwork, clay, and felt.
WCS Environmental Education Program
We are very excited about the environment education program that we will be offering at WCS. We have spent a lot visioning and planning what this program will look like and we are looking forward to finally putting into practice. It is not without a bit of trepidation as well as feeling of adventure that we have thought through what a “day in the life” of our outdoor kindergarten will look and feel like. Our curriculum team is very aware that we are all literally trailblazers when we will be journeying out into the natural world building our connection and relationship to the earth. We also feel quite passionate about building and developing our connection and the children’s connection to the earth. It is also interesting to note here that the Ontario Curriculum encourages teachers to teach in the outdoor classroom.
So what does an outdoor classroom look like? The kindergarten children will mostly play and learn in the outdoor classroom. Each day we will set up centres outside for the children explore and discover. Twice a week the kindergarten children will venture off site to experience and learn in a more natural environment.
In the grade school, we have scheduled a once a week environmental studies outdoor afternoon. We will be teaching some of the math curriculum and most of the science curriculum through this program. To provide you with a better idea of what this program will look like we have put together a binder with sample activities for our outdoor environmental outdoor afternoons.
Another part of this program is the environmental project learning. Again we have provided you with a binder with some examples of the environmental projects that the students will participate in. Plants and soils are the focus of the grade three environmental learning project. The grade two environmental learning project is focused on caterpillars and butterflies. Again please feel free to discuss the environmental learning projects with us.
Social Literacy Program
WCS will be adopting a school-wide social literacy program. Our goal is to build a thriving school community. To build this community teachers parents and students will work collaboratively together and learn effective and creative problem-solving skills. The key elements of the program are outlined in the article that we have available in the school. As part of the grade five government and citizenship unit, the grade 5 students will take a leadership role in this program and be trained as peer mediators for the school.
Art Supplies
We will be putting together packages of high quality art supplies for each student, such as pencils crayons, block crayons, water colour paper (to be used in the classroom). These supplies will help us offer an excellent visual arts program at our school. The suggested donation for these supplies is $100. We will be accepting donations in September.
We would like to thank you and your children for embarking on this wonderful journey with us!
