October 2023
Monthly Update

Churchill news from October 2023!

Every month, our school council (CASC) meets to discuss events, fundraising, and other school-related items. As part of the meeting, our teacher representative provides an update on some of the events that occur in the school.   In addition, our principal sends out a weekly email which often includes a bit of information about what's happening around the school. While this post does not capture every event that happened in this month, it does provide some highlights as shared by our staff. 

Sharing is Caring

In October, we had our first sharing of the year. It was hosted by the Grade 6 Yetis who did a fabulous job of MC’ing!  We loved getting a peak at what students have been working on at Churchill. From beautiful art, songs, recorders (Baby Shark!) to the special slideshow for our Cross Country team, Churchill is truly an incredible place where students, staff and community come together to create lasting memories for all. We thank all parents who came and literally joined us in our Sharing circle. 

Apple Month

The Bumble Bee kinders are celebrating all things apple this week! Did you know there are over 7,500 different kinds of apples? And that the McIntosh is a native variety that was first grown on Farmer McIntosh’s farm, just about an hour outside Ottawa? Well, the Bumble Bees certainly do!:)  We are also learning about the importance of pollinators such as bees in producing food for our planet. Last Friday, we hosted our first guest speaker of the year: Craig McMurtry from the Eastern Ontario Beekeepers Association came in and gave a great presentation on bees

What's winged and flies? Nope, it's not an owl!

But the Owls have been exploring BATS (Halloween mammals 🙂), reading, comparing to birds (Venn diagrams), creating a flying bat and transforming our classroom into a bat cave. In Language Arts, we are studying Shakespeare - how sophisticated - RIGHT? We are focusing on Macbeth and Three Witches - reading, timeline, writing, creating spells and drama skits.

Coding Club

A big thank you to Adam C for continuing to run Chess Club every Tuesday and to Adam B for helping run Coding Club on Tuesdays! We will run a Coding Club for Junior students for a few weeks and then switch to Primary.

Clothing Swap

Thank you to everyone who donated to, volunteered for and participated in our first Clothing Swap for the Kids! It was great seeing kids looking through and trying on clothes and helping their friends find new fits too. Everyone left with bags-full of clothes, shoes and accessories! We still have lots of items, especially warm outerwear (toques, mitts, boots, coats, snow pants etc.), so if there’s something you could use, reach out.

Forest Creature Puppets

Alena’s grade 2/3 students created  forest creature puppets.

Gatineau Park Field Trip

Our Primary students had a wonderful time  visiting Gatineau Park. They learned all about different animals and their natural environment while getting some fresh air and hiking on the trails.

Grade 3 Swimming

Our grade 3 students participated in three Swim to Survive lessons at Plant Recreation Centre. Thank you to Alena and Rachael for planning this experience for our students and to our parent volunteers for your support in attending the trip.

Churchill Teacher Receives Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence

Congratulations to Michèle White on being recognized with the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Michèle was nominated by parents within the school community and truly embodies the kindness, empathy and compassion that all staff at Churchill bring to our wonderful school. 
Blog Editors note: Churchill Alt consciously doesn't have awards for students and in the past, we've purposefully not nominated staff for awards -- this relates to our alternative tenet #1.  However, it's pretty neat that a small group of parents felt passionate enough to make this nomination. Only 10 teachers receive this award each year and nominations come from across Canada.  Michèle is so very deserving of this award as are the other stellar members of our staff! Information about the award and Michèle here.

Lego Club

New this month - we have a lego club!

Faces of Churchill wall

Since the beginning of the school year students have loved checking out our staff picture wall and looking at the pictures of all the staff at Churchill. Now, it’s your turn Churchillians! We would love to feature photos of all of our families and staff here at Churchill Alternative. If possible, please send us a photo of your family that we will feature on our FACES OF CHURCHILL wall. Send your photo by email to churchillalt@ocdsb.ca and we will print them. If you would like to have your family picture on the wall but NOT featured in any of our social media posts, please let us know in the email that you send.