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School Hours:
Mon – Thurs: 8:30am – 3:00pm
Friday: 8:30am – 12:30pm
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There is only one Choice!
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Remembrance Day assembly
Choice School held an assembly on Friday November 5th, 2021 to commemorate Remembrance Day.
It was a beautiful ceremony in which students sang, read poems and reflected on the significance of Remembrance Day. Music was provided by the Choice School Band, and they played some wonderful notes.
The entire student body of Choice School participated in the assembly. Parents were invited to join by zoom and Ms. Walli provided the necessary IT facilities for this. The significance of this day was explained by Mr. Joanathan Weisman, Chair of the Board of Directors and reflected on by Mr. Sukhbir Bolina, Principal. In addition, our invited guest, Mr. Tony Spierings from Royal Canadian Legion spoke from personal experience.
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Tuesday Dec 7
Da Vinci experience at Tsawwassen Mills
Wed Dec 15
Tobogganing at Seymour
Fri Dec 17
Winter Fest
Fri Dec 17
Report cards go home
Dec 20th 2021 - Jan 3, 2022
Winter Break
Tues Jan 4, 2022
Classes resume
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COVID-19 Updates
As the U.S./Canada border has now opened up, families will be considering international travel. Please be aware of the
federal travel guidance around COVID-19, especially the restriction in attending school for unvaccinated students for 14 days following the international travel, including travel to the U.S.
Unvaccinated students ages 12-17 are required to follow all quarantine requirements. Unvaccinated students under the age of 12 who are accompanied by someone who qualifies for the fully vaccinated traveler exemption are not required to quarantine, however, these students have many restrictions restrictions:
These restrictions are changing all the time, therefore, please check before you go!
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COVID-19 vaccines for children
Health Canada has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty mRNA vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. All COVID-19 vaccines for adults and children follow the same review and approval process.
Like all COVID-19 vaccines in Canada, vaccines for children are free, safe and effective.
When you get your child vaccinated, you protect them from severe illness from COVID-19 and reduce the spread of infection in your community.
Please click on these links for further information.
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Our Educational Assistants rock!
Teaching children takes a village of people. While we appreciate and understand the role of teachers, education assistants often go un-noticed.
Educational teacher assistants support students, and assist teachers and counsellors with teaching and non-instructional tasks. They assist in areas of personal care, teaching and behaviour management under the supervision of teachers or other child care professionals. In addition, they also have non-instructional roles such as lunch time supervision and welcoming students in the morning. In a school like Choice where we serve gifted children, the role of educational assistants cannot be understated.
While a teacher teaches the class, it is the educational assistants that work one on one with students in order to help them understand essential concepts. When a student needs extra time to complete a task or just need an extra hand, again it will likely be the educational assistants that will be given the task.
We are so fortunate to have a dedicated team of educational assistants to support of teachers!
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Abbotsford Flood donations
The last couple of weeks have seen a major tragedy unfold in the Sumas Valley. A vast area of fertile farmland was flooded with many homes damaged or destroyed. There is no doubt that we all know somebody who lives in that region and it is heartbreaking that it happened so close to us. Many of us have felt a sense of helplessness and wanted our school to do our part to help our friends and families that have been affected by this disaster.
When we asked for donations, the entire Choice School community was very generous. Within a few days, we had lots of food (cans, fruits, rice, cereals etc.) and other items such as toilet paper dropped of at school. Last Friday, with the help of two parents, we dropped these items to Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar (a Sikh temple) in Surrey. We are informed that the temple is organising helicopter flights to remote parts that have been cut of (in particular the First Nations areas). Your generous donations will be very appreciated - thank you!
If you wish to donate further, my suggestion would be to make monetary contributions to any of the foodbanks or other charities that are involved. One such charity is the the Archway Community Services.
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Buddy Reading
CMS 7 and Oak class have started the Buddy Reading program this month.
Cooperative learning is a great way to build community in the school and to promote reading. Both sets of students get excited about reading buddies time because it's a chance to get out of class, have fun, and most of all, make a new friend. Powerful moments of connection can happen, and social and emotional lessons are inevitable. These are some wonderful outcomes, all from just sharing a book. The CMS students are having a very positive influence on the younger students by showing leadership in this activity.
The two classes will meet once a week in the Library for the remainder of the term.
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First Peoples of the Blackfoot Territory
This month Oak class learned about the First Peoples of the Blackfoot Territory and the Musqueam Peoples. The Blackfoot people live on Treaty 7 land around southern Alberta.
Students loved to learn about where Miss. Dykman was from, and how her hometown Okotoks (Ohkotoks in Blackfoot) translates to "big rock" because there is a big rock on the outskirts of town! Oak class also learned about the Musqueam peoples and translated different animals and stories from Musqueam language to English.
One of the animals we enjoyed looking at was tin' (teen) which translates to hummingbird in English!
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Autumn colours
For November our Nature Art has an Autumn and Winter colour scheme
which includes both the warm colours of the changing leaves and cool colours of the frosty
snow.
Students collaborated on a mural of autumn trees and pumpkins, a winter sunset landscape with warm/cool colours and a tree silhouette, a blue themed winter landscape, and
the initial process of a 3D vanishing perspective project inspired by Renaissance pottery.
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Chess
Last week, some of our students participated in the BC Chess Challenge Qualifier.
In this event, players are paired against others in their own age group and play a total of five games. Players score one point for each win and half a point for a draw. Players with a total score of 2.5 or higher are invited to participate in the BC Chess Challenge later in the year.
We are delighted that Sky from Oak class won five out of five games. He will be representing us at the Chess Challenge in February 2022.
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Music
November has been wonderful month of making music for the students at Choice. Oak class has been dancing to their favourite songs and creating a mini orchestra. Cedar has been singing and playing "Land of the Silver Birch", and it sounds awesome. Spruce has been working on a secret music project that will be revealed soon. Hemlock has turned "We Three Kings" into a very powerful instrumental that they will share at Winterfest. CMS 6 and 7 are enjoying themselves by playing all their band charts and taking their musicianship to the next level.
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Moldy stuff
Cedar class has been getting comfortable with the uncomfortable in science class. As part of their investigation into decomposition, students created mold terrariums to study how mold affects the foods we eat. They have been meticulous scientists as they observe the growth of mold and record their observations. Students are learning that mold plays an important part in our ecosystems by breaking down foods so that it can be used by other organisms. With a few more weeks left in the experiment, they are excited and frightened to see what happens!
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Solutions
Spruce and Hemlock have been studying about natural disasters. Our main focus has been around flooding that have been occurring in the areas of Merritt, Abbotsford, Princeton and Chilliwack. They have been designing devices that remove water or debris and finding empathic ways to rebuild a community.
Using their research skills, they will discover the needs of these people and how to best support them in their time of need.
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News from PAC
The results are in! Thank you Choice families! This year, roughly 60% of the families participated. The campaign closed Monday night with an order from our very own Mr. Bolina - Thank you!
With your help, we sold $6350.93 in chocolates, and made $1587.79 for the PAC!
Hemlock wins the pizza lunch party with a total sale of $2198.70 - Amazing job Hemlock!
Oak, Cedar, Spruce, and CMS classes kept the competition fierce. It was anyone’s game until the very last minute.
Purdy’s orders will be ready for pick up Friday December 10th after school. If you need to pick up your order another way, please let the PAC know.
Happy holidays from all of us at the PAC!
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20451 Westminster Highway North
Richmond, BC,V6V 1B3
Tel: 604.273.2418
Fax: 604.273.2419
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