Thank you to the KIWANIS CLUB OF PENTICTON for sponsoring our Grade 2 students with free books!12/17/2021 On Monday, December 13, 2021, we hosted the Kiwanis Kid Readers Book Fair in the Columbia Library. It was a successful event and all the Grade 2 students at Columbia Elementary were so excited to be able to choose a fiction and nonfiction book from the Library. We were thankful to be chosen for this project and the students were very grateful to receive these gifts from the Kiwanis Club of Penticton! Thank you so much to all the members of Kiwanis for their amazing generosity!
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$11,447.40 Raised by Columbia StudentsHere is what Mr. Robinson, our Acting Principal, wrote about Columbia's Successful Learners: This Year’s Columbia Elementary Runathon – A Runaway Success! The Columbia Elementary Runathon has been a tradition at the school for many years. Like many traditions, last year it had to be put on hold due to the global pandemic, but this year it was back with a vengeance! While the members of the Columbia Elementary School community have often been generous in supporting the school’s chosen charities, this year their generosity outstripped even the school’s most wildly optimistic projections. The school’s fundraising goal for the Runathon was $2,500. As students began bringing in the money they had raised through donations and fundraising efforts, staff quickly began to realize this year’s total would far exceed that. When the final school total was counted, the students at Columbia Elementary had in fact raised a total of $11,447.40 for charity! Columbia Elementary teacher Judy Schneider and Educational Assistant Alora Campbell organized this year’s event. The two educators prepared a video for the school’s students, presenting the idea of the Runathon as an opportunity to demonstrate the Successful Learner Trait of compassion, raising funds for members of our community who are less fortunate than we are. The school had selected three community charities for the students to support through this year’s runathon, representing the “whole person,” including both mental and physical health. The first charity was the Ooknakane Friendship Centre, which provides services to indigenous people living in urban areas of the South Okanagan and Similkameen; the second charity was the Foundry Penticton, which provides health and social services to young people in the South Okanagan dealing with a range of issues including mental health and substance use challenges; and the third charity was the Penticton Salvation Army Food Bank, which wages an ongoing battle against hunger and poverty in our community. Each of these organizations recorded videos for the students, explaining their work and the services they provide. Students were invited to be strategic in raising money to support them, doing it in a safe and respectful way. Suggestions included • Seeking donations from family members; • Donating from students’ own savings including birthday money and their piggy banks; • Doing extra chores for money; • Sorting bottles and cans; or• Running a lemonade stand. Students were encouraged to be industrious in their efforts, and those students who raised more than $20 were offered the opportunity to take part in a raffle for appreciation gifts. The Runathon itself took place on Friday, June 4th. Each of the school’s six learning groups ran for twenty minutes, with some of the grade 5 students running as far as 4 km during that time. Acting principal, Trevor Robinson, ran with each of the groups (a total distance of over 19 km on the day!), encouraging the students in their running, congratulating them on their fundraising efforts and sharing PAC donated freezies with the students. It wasn’t until the next week that it became clear just how successful the students’ fundraising efforts had been. First one teacher and then another began to report that individual students in their class had raised more than $100 and that their class as a whole had raised in excess of $1,000. As staff talked to each other, estimates for the school total quickly increased from $2,500 to $5,000 to $8,000. However, it wasn’t until all the money had been counted on Wednesday, June 9th that we realized the students had raised more than $11,000 ($11,447.40 to be exact)! This final total was revealed to students in a virtual assembly held on the afternoon of Thursday, June 10th . Mrs. Schneider congratulated the school’s students for the enthusiasm and industriousness with which they had embraced the goals of the Runathon, and let them know that their hard work and the generosity of the Columbia Elementary Community would enable the school to make a donation of $5,000 to the Ooknakane Friendship Centre, a donation of $3,500 to the Penticton Salvation Army Food Bank, and a donation of $2,947.40 to the Foundry Penticton. Finally, students who had raised more than $20 (a very long list) were invited to select a small appreciation gift in recognition of their efforts. We are all so proud of our students for the caring they have shown through raising money to support those in need in our community!
The Virtual Choice Boards have been a big hit with students in the Library Learning Commons and each month new ones are added. There are many popular links that students will ask me about after I've changed up the boards. I thought I'd add them in the blog just in case my students ask me for them tomorrow! May the 4th Be With You (aka Star Wars Choice Board) and the Asian Heritage Month Board can be found below:
It is time to set our clocks forward one hour this Saturday night and I am very excited about the arrival of the SPRING season this year in the Okanagan! This past week in the Columbia Library, I introduced one of our March Choice Boards called: Let's Celebrate International Women's Day in Canada (March 8th). I added some Heritage Minute video clips to the board that highlights some of the amazing Canadian women whom have made a significant contribution to our country. I think it's important for our children to be exposed to opportunities to learn and to understand that each and everyone of us can also contribute to our community every day, even if it is at home, at school or within the community. Here is the Choice Board:
I was busy preparing a Google Slide presentation for an LLC mapping unit and I couldn't help but make a few #whereintheworldisberniesanders pictures to add to the presentation and to the school library website...just for fun!
Tomorrow is Monday, February 1st and I'm excited to introduce "This is my city: PENTICTON" google presentation to students in the LLC and to introduce all the new CHOICE BOARDS this week, to students and to staff, that I've created, adapted or shared for Columbia students this month. I can't take all the credit, though, as a pretty amazing American Teacher-Librarian, Shannon McClintock-Miller, creates several boards and happily shares them with other librarians with permission to edit or share. Often, I edit some of the content to ensure there is more local and appropriate content that is applicable to my students. However, I am also learning to create my own choice boards as well. Check them all out on the HOME page, please! One of my favourite things about my job as a Teacher-Librarian, who lives close to my school, is getting to walk to work with my youngest son on beautiful days like today! Living & teaching in my school neighbourhood has its rewards as I have gotten to know many of the students and their families (3 boys in minor hockey, soccer and lacrosse helps, too). A weekend outing doesn’t go by without hearing: “Hi, Mrs. Hussey!” when out for a walk with my little Dachshund, KC. I feel very fortunate and lucky to live and work in the Columbia area of Penticton!
Part of my job is to provide new & exciting books for all students so I get to read, review and shop for books!! I try to organize, catalogue and care for the books as efficiently as I can for students and teachers. It is definitely a work in progress! All 12 classes spend a 55 minute block in the library each week where they listen to a story read aloud (including a mini lesson), choose new books, and participate in some makerspace activities. As the TL, I am also assigned some open LLC (Library Learning Commons) Collaborative blocks where I have flexibility to co-teach or collaborate with other teachers. In the 1st term, I like to introduce a self-identity unit called, “We Are All Connected,” and we are fortunate to receive local, authentic Indigenous support that is provided from our school and district team. Today, a new project was started in the LLC called, “Me on the Map.” You may notice that I didn’t fill in my “AGE” on the form; however, one extremely kind Grade 2 student blurted out that I must be 25)! 😉 I truly have the BEST job!! Monday, Oct. 26 is BC School Library Day and time to DROP EVERYTHING AND READ for 20 minutes!10/10/2020 Congratulations to all the Intermediate students at Columbia for your participation in the GREAT CAR RACE for AR points this year!! In total, you have read 42, 119, 211 words! That is simply amazing!
If you have any LIBRARY BOOKS still at home, please drop them off in the box outside of the school or in the mail drop. Thank you, Columbia Roadrunners, for being awesome and use this site to read over the summer! |
Mrs. HusseyI am a Teacher-Librarian, wife, MOM to 3 boys, loves sports such as hockey, figure skating, and soccer. I enjoy books, cooking and living life in the beautiful Okanagan with my family, my miniature Dachshund and my Himalayan kitty. Archives
December 2021
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