March Newsletter

2022





Hello Botha Parents and Guardians,


I hope this newsletter finds everyone ready for winter to be over and spring to start.  March is a very busy month at the school.  We have many activities and events planned.

We have had the wonderful news that the school is almost back to normal.  The staff and students no longer need to wear masks at school or on the bus.  Students are no longer cohorted in grade groups.  One of the first things the students did was eat lunch in the lunchroom. 

 If your child is not feeling well, please keep them home and monitor for symptoms.  Thank you for everyones’ diligence in this, it is greatly appreciated.

Clearview Public Schools: We continue to advocate strongly for all students, staff and visitors to stay home when they are medical ill and follow appropriate isolation requirements. These are important public health safety measures to keep Clearview schools safe and operational. 

Hockey Day in Botha was a huge success.  Even though the weather was very cold that day, we had a wonderful time.  Thank you to Brady Petersen, Ryley Turre, Tyson Brower, Sidney Kobi, Bernice and Bernie Doan. a big thanks to the arena guy “Chris” for the upkeep on the rink. Thanks to the Society for the hot dogs and chips that everyone enjoyed.

The theme for February was kindness, and many students showed their ability to be kind to their classmates as well as staff. 

This month's theme is SPORTSMANSHIP.

I would like to welcome Ms. Katelyn Imbery, a student teacher at our school. She is in the grade 5-6 classroom.  She is teaching language arts, social studies and grade 5 math. She also helps out with lots of other things throughout the school.












Ski Day at Alliance

The Botha k-6 will be at the Alliance Ski Hill on Friday, March 4,2022.  The bus will be leaving the school at 8:45am.  We will be back in time for afternoon buses.  If you have equipment to be taken to the hill, please have it at the school on Thursday, March 3rd. Make sure your child has extra mittens and socks. A big thank you to Botha School Society for paying for the ski lessons and for the bus to the hill.  Your continued support is so fantastic!




Friday, March 11, 2022 will be a PD Day for staff.  The teachers will be learning about the new curriculum through meetings and discussion.  The students get a long weekend.





St. Patrick’s Day will happen on Thursday, March 17th.  Students are encouraged to wear the colour green.  







The Botha School along with the Botha School Society are pleased to announce that Trickster Theatre will finally be able to come into the school and work with our students.  This is an in-residence program where the actors/presenters work with our students daily for the week of March 14-18. The school has been waiting since March 2020 to participate in this production. We are excited to finally be able to have this exciting event.  We will be having 2 performances: Friday, March 18th at 1:30 pm and 6:30 pm. A note is being sent home for parent volunteers to come and help with props and costumes.  Please fill in any times that you are able to come and help.  All help is appreciated!





This months hot lunch selections:

March 2: Love Sushi/Blokes Bakery Donuts

March 9: Halkirk Hotel - Wings

March 16: Centre Ice - Chilli/bun

March 23: Subway



The grade 5-6 Spirit Squad was busy in February.  They served Valentine’s Day cupcakes to all staff and students. Our students also wrote Valentines’

Day messages to the seniors at  Paragon Place. Way to go Spirit Squad!






Our next parent council meeting will be held on April 11 starting at 7:30pm.

Information will go out closer to the date and this will be a zoom meeting.






Second Term Report Cards will be available to view online on Friday, March 18th at 3:30 pm.  Please check your email or spam folders. A paper copy will be sent home also.



Parent-teacher interviews will be by request by the teacher or the parent. 

March 21: Mrs. Boxma, Mrs. Maxwell, Mrs. Petersen  3:00-6:00 pm

March 22: Mrs. Martin/Ms.Burton, Mrs Maxwell, Mrs.Petersen 3:00-6:00 pm


If you have any concerns, please call the school and set up an appointment with your child’s teacher.  An interview request sheet will be placed in each report card. Check the paper copy of your child’s report card.  The appointments will be either in person or by phone call. 








Start Right - Playschool:

During February, the kids continued to learn about letters and the sounds they make.  They love singing the Jolly phonics tunes and practicing the little actions that go with them.  We will continue to learn more of these songs in March.

This month we will also learn about building, we are going to combine stories and building with some fun challenges in the classroom.  The first will be learning the nursery rhyme “ Humpty Dumpty” and building some walls to sit him on.  I can’t wait to see the kids working together to build their walls.  Of course mid month we will talk about leprechauns, and build a trap in attempts to catch one.  I wonder if we will succeed?  We will also do some fun crafts and enjoy a little St. Patricks’ Day party.



Kindergarten:

Kindergarten will continue learning about vowels and look at words with a vowel-consonant-vowel pattern.  There will be more copying of words and beginning writing.  We hope to bake gingerbread people on Monday, March 21 to support the reading and retelling of the Gingerbread Man.

We will begin a unit of Geometry where we will study 2d and 3D shapes and objects.

Kindergarten will begin looking for signs of Spring. After all, it is March.



Grade 1-2

Language Arts:  The students will be working on writing using their sight words with the correct spelling.  We will also work on how to proofread their work.


Math: Grade One will be finishing up skip counting and money.  Grade Two will be continuing on addition and subtraction strategies.  We all will be working on our basic facts from 1-10.


Social:  We will continue with our studies on Meteghan.


Science:   We will continue with our unit on Exploring Liquids.





Grade 3-4

We are working on writing essays. Most students have finished an opinion piece that we like to call an OREO. (Opinion, Reasons, Examples, Opinion restated as a conclusion) 

We are working on vocabulary and will be looking for strong verbs and adjectives and what I like to call million dollar words. When you can use one good word instead of a few ordinary words, that has a lot of value. For example: ‘Ecstatic’ is way better than saying ‘so happy’ or ‘very happy’. Our word work has us studying contractions, homophones, antonyms and more review with plurals.


Grade threes are learning multiplication and grade 4 is reviewing multiplication and division and learning the facts beyond 5x5. We will likely revisit multi digit addition and subtraction as a lot of us still need to practice that. 


In social we are looking at how communities work by looking at leadership and decision making. Connecting these ideas to how we function as a school community and as families also helps us with health (relationships, accomplishing tasks, cooperation and getting along.) In science we are beginning Testing Materials, looking at what is a fair test and the scientific method. We will also finish up and review Hearing and Sound sometime this spring. 


Grade 5-6:

March is going to be an exciting month in grade 5/6. Grade 5's are working with Miss Imbery in Math with the Measurement Unit. Grade 6's are working with Ms. Burton, working on different reviews and the Measurement Unit. In Science we just started the Crime and Investigation Unit. This is a fun hands on unit. Gym is going to be a blast as we are starting Broomball.

Grade 5-6 have been busy learning about the Iroquois confederacy in social studies.We will learn about the impact this had on our present day democracy as well as a comparison to Athenian Democracy.  We learn about direct democracy and consensus democracy. Students will role play the government found in the Iroquois longhouses.  The students will take the knowledge gained and build a longhouse of their own in groups.

In language arts, the kids are learning the parts of and how to write a newspaper article. We are learning the different parts of an article and then writing our own.  We continue to work on spelling and grammar.   The students spent some time writing and discussing PINK shirt day and its importance and the importance of being kind. 
















Spring Break will start on Friday March 25th and go until April 3, 2022.  There is no school for staff or students on Friday, March 25th. Students will be back at school on Monday, April 4th.  We hope that everyone has a wonderful break and that the weather is great for many outdoor activities.







Mrs. P. Martin

Principal

Botha School