The Raptor Report

Wow! Where has September gone? Here it is the last week already, and we've almost put in a full month of school. As per usual, Oak Lake Community School has been a busy place with lots of learning and socializing happening.

We have a brand new crop of 13 Kindergarteners who are busy learning the business of going to school. Mrs. Davidson has been teaching the rules and routines expected of them. They have also been looking at the seasonal changes in trees, starting to take trips to Letterland to learn their alphabet and making a nursery rhyme book.

In grade 1/2, Mrs. Caldwell's students have been learning about rights and responsibilities for their Social Studies topic. In Science, they have talked about characteristics and needs of animals. For a special Thanksgiving project, they are working with Dr. Carla Loewen at the Virden Animal Hospital to collect supplies for animal rescue. The vet clinic and the animal shelter in Brandon will use these supplies.

In Miss Harrison's class, the grade ¾'s have been going to centres in ELA time. They have enjoyed several activities including writing stories, reading, computer and spelling. In Social Studies, the students have been doing a unit on connecting with Canadians—learning about our country through studying our national anthem. They have just begun a theme unit on Scarecrows.

Mr. Hawryluk's grade 5/6 class has been building bridges using spaghetti, glue and string. Their Social Studies class has begun study on the pre-European colonization of Canada. You may also have seen this class out walking about town. They are studying leaves so that they may be able to draw them and identify the trees from which they came.

In grade 7, Mrs. Baker's students have been studying ecosystems in Science and Investigating Geography in Social studies. In Math, they have just finished number concepts and have begun data analysis.

Grade 8 Social Studies has a section of the course called “World History Happening Today”. The students are writing letters to Mcpl. Kevin Townsend from CJB Shilo. He is presently stationed in Afghanistan. Kevin is Mrs. Masson's niece's (Jacquie Moggach) fiancé. He has been actively engaged in Operation Medusa and was with the troops involved in last Sunday's terrorist attack on Canadian troops. The students feel privileged to have the opportunity to write to Kevin and we pray that their letters might help him through this intense time in his active duty.

The grades 5-8 French classes are planning to take in the Festival du Voyageur festival in Winnipeg in February. Last year, we were able to raise all our own funds so that the students did not have to pay anything out of their own pocket to go on this educational adventure. We would like to hold to last year's precedent and raise the money to go again this year. We will be beginning our fundraising by having a bottle drive. We will have groups of students canvassing town on Friday, October 13 th from 3-4pm.

Our volleyball teams are up and running. Mr. Cox is coaching the boys and Mrs. Baker is coaching the girls. First tournaments are in October with the girls in Virden on October 18 th and the boys in Reston on October 19 th .

The second week of school held our nominations/speeches and elections for this year's student council. All the candidates did a fantastic job of their campaigns. Unfortunately, only one can fill each position. The following is this year's student council: Whitney Patterson, Pres.; Kathryn Buckley, Vice; Jay Rimke, Treasurer; Andrew Madill, Secretary; Social Committee is Kristin Bothe, Kylie Gompf and Kelby Dwyer; Sports Reps are Chris Houston for boys and Haley Pierunek for girls; Room Reps are Amy Bancescu for 5/6; Nathan Finlay for 7; and Tyler Winters for 8.

Last Thursday night, the Community Schools Project, headed by Miss Karla Gardiner, organized our Open House. It was a fabulous evening of carnival type games, as well as a BBQ. The cool weather didn't dampen our enthusiasm at all! We had a huge inflatable bouncing place/slide, hockey and golf shoot, tattoo table, and potty toss. Outside the gym we had a dunk tank set up, with our new student council being the targets! All student council members seemed to enjoy it even though it was COLD! The event was very well organized and fun. We had a record turn out of community members. Thanks for your participation and great job Miss Gardener.

The staff of OLCS is very appreciative of the noon hour supervisors that are with our students over the lunch hour. Unfortunately, we have too few people on our list this year and the people who are doing the noon hour duty do not get a break, even if they have a previous appointment. If you could spare an hour for a day or two a week it would be wonderful! Please see the ad in the classified section at the back of the paper.

Coming up on Friday is our annual Terry Fox Run. Students will be asked to donate a twoonie. Also on Friday, we have the renowned performer/educator, Aaron Burnett coming to put on a performance for the grades 1-4. Anyone interested in bringing their youngsters from home may come and join in the audience. Time???

OLCS students will be hitting the streets with magazine sales beginning next week. This is a very important fundraiser for our student council as is greatly assists in subsidizing our students' field trips, and other extra curricular events. Please consider ordering or reordering your magazines through our school fundraiser. It puts a lot back into our community!

That's all the news for now! Please note the upcoming events in October.

October 4   Picture Day

October 9   Thanksgiving Day (No Classes)

October 27   In-service Day (No Classes)

October 31   Oktoberfest Activities