Dear Evergreen Families,
A heartfelt thank you to our incredible Grade 1 teaching team of Mrs. Webber, Mrs. Byciuk, Mrs. Gullion, Mrs. McLarty, and Ms. Sousa and, of course, to our amazing grade 1 students for leading us in a beautiful assembly focused on the power of kindness.
The assembly began with a land acknowledgement, reminding us that we gather on Indigenous land and that the land continues to shape Indigenous laws, values, and traditions. Students then led the school in singing O Canada before sharing a video explaining the importance of Pink Shirt Day and how wearing pink shows our commitment to kindness and standing up for others.
Inspired by the mentor text When We Are Kind written by Indigenous author Monique Gray Smith and illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt, grade 1 students shared through words and tableaus simple acts of everyday kindness, encouraging us to recognize, initiate, and feel the impact of kindness toward others, ourselves, and the earth. Their performance connected acts of kindness to the teachings of the Medicine Wheel, highlighting the importance of caring for our hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits.
The Grade 1 students then lifted everyone’s spirits with two heartwarming songs about kindness and compassion. They performed Try a Little Kindness from Sesame Street, featuring Tori Kelly. The song’s cheerful message reminded us that even small acts of kindness can make a big difference in someone’s day.
The students also shared Put a Little Love in Your Heart, written by Jackie DeShannon along with Randy Myers and Jimmy Holiday. With its uplifting lyrics, the song encouraged everyone to spread love, show empathy, and stand up for one another.
Through their joyful singing, our Grade 1 students shared an important reminder that kindness, love, and inclusion help make our school a safe and caring place for all. Thank you to our Grade One students for reminding us that even small acts of kindness can make a big difference!
UPDATES AND INFORMATION
Professional Learning: People often wonder what happens during teacher non-instructional days. It’s an opportunity for our teachers to become students and to learn together. This past Friday, teachers engaged in rich learning focused on our School Development Plan around strengthening task design and intentionally embedding language and vocabulary instruction across subject areas.
A key focus was understanding the language demands within classroom tasks and ensuring that both content objectives and language objectives are clearly defined. Teachers examined how to intentionally select Tier 2 academic vocabulary and subject-specific terminology, using criteria such as frequency, multiple meanings, and relevance across disciplines. Emphasis was placed on providing repeated exposure to vocabulary through listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Staff also explored practical, high-impact strategies to support multilingual learners, including the REVUPS framework (Repeat, Explain, Vocabulary examples, Use, Partner & Share), structured talk routines, student-friendly definitions, word maps, morphology instruction, sentence frames, sentence deconstruction, paragraph shrinking, interactive word walls, and hexagonal thinking. Teachers reviewed tech tools such as ReadWorks and Read & Write to further support literacy development.
Through collaboration and reflection, our teachers deepened their understanding of how purposeful task design and explicit vocabulary instruction help all students access complex texts, demonstrate understanding, and thrive academically. We are excited to continue implementing these strategies in our classrooms to support strong literacy and language development for every learner as part of our School Development Plan.
Practicum Students: We are always proud to welcome student teachers into our school community as they complete their practicum placements. Partnering with post-secondary institutions allows us to support the next generation of educators while enriching learning experiences for our students. Last week we welcomed Ms. Guenther and Ms. Durand from St. Mary’s University into our grade 2 teaching team.
Have a wonderful rest of your Sunday!