It was so amazing driving around yesterday to see all of you! We get to ‘see’ you everyday, but nothing beats a face to face reunion.

I can’t believe the final days are here. I am currently sitting in my classroom, and there is one very important thing missing…YOU!

It has been a year we will all remember. Whenever people ask how it’s been teaching online and working from home, my response is always how lucky I feel to get to continue spending my days with my students. It’s definitely not what we would have envisioned, or even what we would wish for, but in the end, I am so glad I still got to spend the last 3 months with all of you.

Before you go, a few reminders. All parents should find their way to campus at some point on Thursday-Friday, July 2nd-3rd from 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM to pick up all your children’s belongings and to drop off anything that belongs to the school (like LIBRARY BOOKS, Math textbooks, any other classroom books you’ve borrowed) at curbside in front of the school.  All desks and lockers will have been emptied, bagged, and labeled and members of the Admin Team will be there to assist.

I hope that over the next 2 months you will do a few things:

• take a technology break!
• play outside
• be kind to yourself
• be kind to your parents…especially if they are still working!
• READ!!!
• breathe
• relax
• SMILE!
• explore
• Have Fun!

Our incredible Knesset members, and devoted faculty Maccabiah Committee, have been working tirelessly to plan a fun, engaging, family virtual Maccabiah Games day!

I will be sharing the teams in homeroom, but wanted to share some information with all of you.

The schedule for the day will look as follows:

Next Thursday is Family Night In!! (formerly Girls’ Night In and Boys’ Night In)

If you and/or your child would like to participate in our Talent Show, please sign up here.

As you likely know, Monday, May 11th is Grandparents Day, and it will look a little differently this year. Normally, grandparents and special friends come to school and participate in activities with the class. It is always such a fun morning, learning and sharing together. Students enjoy showing their family members where they learn and creating things together. This year, we obviously won’t be able to do it person. However, we see this almost as a gift! There are often students whose grandparents live far away or don’t have any family members who are able to join in person. With our new virtual format this year, we really hope everyone will have someone to share with!

We have an amazing activity planned and will be working on it all week, with the finishing touches happening together  on Grandparents Day. Therefore, if you have not already RSVP’d to Staci, please do so! All you need to do is send her an email with the guest’s email address and she will send along the invite. Her email address is: s.zemlak-kenter@theojcs.ca

Please let us (or your child) know if it will be a grandparent or another family member or special friend who will be joining, so that we can tailor our special surprise accordingly.

Happy Friday and Shabbat Shalom everyone!

Last time I wrote was 2 weeks ago, 2 days into our emergency remote learning environment. I can’t believe how much we have learned over the last 2.5 weeks, and I couldn’t be more proud to be part of the OJCS family. Our students have navigated these unusual circumstances so well, jumping right in to attending classes online, working virtually with their peers, and being patient, eager participants in class. With all the uncertainty going on in the world, the routine of school with the grade 5 students and my colleagues has been a calming force. Although it will be nice to have the Passover break, I will definitely miss our morning homeroom check-ins (and I think my cat, Ayla, will miss the kids too 😉)

If you haven’t read Mrs. Reichstein’s post about tips for the Passover break, I highly encourage you to do so, especially if you will need to continue working from home while your child is on break. Also, I’ve created the document below with ideas and links for things your children can do while we’re away from school. These are all suggestions! Nothing is assigned for the holiday. And especially after all this remote learning, I’ve tried to keep many of the suggestions “tech-free”.

If you do complete any of the activities, please take some pictures! We’d love to see what you’re doing over the holiday to own your own learning, showing ruach, and living #TheOJCSDifference.

Chag Pesach Sameach!

Thank goodness it’s Pyjama Day tomorrow! 

We have finished Day 2 of our new Distance Learning program. It has had its tricky moments, but from my perspective, it has been amazing. I’m so impressed with how engaged the students are, how quickly they’ve gotten into the flow of our new routines, and how they are all owning their own learning. We even had a dance party!!

If you have any pictures to share, please add them to the comments! We’d love to see what their “classroom” looks like these days.

We’ve already learned so much, and we’re still working out the kinks. Hopefully tomorrow will run smoother than today and so on. We are obviously limited to what we can see and hear from this side of the computer screen, though. So if you haven’t already, please fill out this feedback form to help us make any necessary tweaks for next week.

Here’s the slideshow the students and I went through, so you have a better sense of what the expectations are and how we hope this will all work.

Here’s to another great day of learning tomorrow!

Good evening Grade 5,

What a crazy couple of days it’s been! I hope you’re all safe at home and had a restful weekend. The next few weeks will be interesting for us all, and more information will be coming about this week, but for now, I just wanted to offer a little information for tomorrow. First, there is nothing you NEED from the classroom, so if you can’t come, don’t worry!

If you are able to come to school tomorrow, here are a few things I recommend you take:

– a math textbook

– your general studies binder

– a book or two (or more) from our classroom library

And if you have some extra space…

– your snow pants and other outdoor winter gear that you don’t need in your locker

– your Innovation Day project board

– any old lunches or snacks that shouldn’t be left for the next 5 weeks in your locker 😜

Speak to you all very soon!
Mrs. Thompson