It Has Been Too Long

It has been too long since my last update on this blog.  Report cards are a busy time for teachers and a school and while I was changing the structure of our report cards, writing report cards, reading all the reports and preparing individual files for the teachers, this blog suffered.  I hope it does not occur in the future because there are always exciting things happening at the school.  Here are a few highlights from the past few weeks.

When I took over the writing responsibilities of the blog from Paul Markus, the first entries dealt with the renovations to the school.  This week Yvonne, our Administrative Assistant, and I moved into the new space.  I thank everyone who helped to make this possible.  I love my new office.

                                                     Yvonne working in her new office

One of the goals of Christian education is to prepare children for a life of servanthood and assisting others.  this year one of our teachers, Carol Vanderstoep, is on a leave of absence and is spending time in Haiti.  While she is there, Carol connected with Adoration Christian School and through her connection, our Students Council is sponsoring a young girl named Ruth.  This sponsorship is helping with the tuition that Ruth's family needed to pay for her to attend school.  We were very happy that our Students Council took on this act of serving; however, the act of serving went one step further.  One student, Meagan, had a birthday party and instead of receiving gifts she encouraged her guest to make a donation to help Ruth as well.  Her guests responded with kindness and generosity. The girls raised $146 to help another child receive the same benefit of Christian education that they receive here at CCS.  Thanks girls.

One of the values that we have here at CCS is belonging.  Belonging to a community takes intention actions.  Yesterday, we shared a communal meal of meatballs, potatoes, corn, and applesauce.  The students ate in groups at tables set up in the gym.  The beautiful thing about the meal was that students were not seated by grades, but they were sitting in mixed age and gender groups.  This was a great way to encourage the growth of community and it was a blessing.

Last week, our volleyball teams wrapped up their seasons with tournaments in Burlington and Dundas.  The girls had a successful day winning 6 out of 8 games.  The boys had a tougher day when you look at competition results, but the coach reported that they vastly better than the first tournament that they played in.  Growth and learning are the most important goals in school, so both teams can say they had successful seasons.

Colour Week

This past week was a very colourful week.  Student's Council organized a fun-filled week that involved the students dressing up in a different colour each day.  In addition to dressing up, students were encouraged to bring in a food item that matched the colour of the day.  These food items are going to be donated to the local food bank.  In total 341 items were collected and donated.

Also, we have some photos from last week's volleyball clinic.  The Grade 7 and 8 students plus four boys from Grade 6 went to Woodland Christian High School in order to learn new skills and participate in an informal tournament with other Christian elementary schools.  It was a very successful day.

This past Tuesday was also Remembrance Day.  While we have no photos, it was an important day.  In the morning we had an assembly at 11:00 with all of the students and in the afternoon, Grades 5-8 went to the local cenotaph to watch the ceremony there. Three students participated in the ceremony.  Nicole read "In Flanders Fields" and Cody and Daniel laid a wreath on behalf of Community Christian School.

Here are the photos documenting this past week.  I hope you have a blessed week.

Monday

Tuesday - Remembrance Day - Red was selected to symbolize this day.

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Students Council with the collected food organized by colour.

Volleyball Clinic

Franklin and Some Twins

These photos are over a week old; however, I thought it was still a good idea to post them.  The first set of photos show the JK, SK, Grade 1 and Grade 2 visiting the library.  There they met the author (ghost writer) of the Franklin books and listened to a story.  It also looks like that while Franklin was too ill to attend, his friend Elmo showed up in his place.

The rest of the photos are pictures from Student Council's Twinsie Day.  The students were encourage to join with their friends and dress the same.  It was a very successful event.  The next event that Student Council has planned is colour week.  Each day next week students will dress up in the colour of the day.   The colours are Monday - blue, Tuesday - red, Wednesday - orange, Thursday - yellow and Friday - green.  

 Also, Student Council is holding a food drive for the local food bank.  The following items are needed by our food bank: oil, flour, sugar, rice, oatmeal, pancake mix, hamburger helper, sidekicks, cake/cookie mix, cookies, crackers, school snacks, ketchup and pasta sauces.  If you are very creative try to match the food to the colour of the day.