Hello families, 

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend celebrating together with family. What a wonderful time to pause, reflect and be grateful for what is in our lives.  

Some highlights from last week include:

• Another successful day of outdoor learning at Cottonwood Lake on Friday!  Mrs. Bonikowsky’s class did some outdoor activities from Wildsight in the morning at Cottonwood and rode their bikes back to school. 
• Nelson Fire Firefighter visit – The Nelson Fire Department visited our school on Friday. They did a presentation on fire alarms and then we went outside for a demonstration! They brought their trucks and some students were able to try the hoses and spray down some pilons. Great cheering on was had by all!
• Gr. 4/5 students had a visit from Kate Tait as part of our Municipal Government. This was part of their unit on government and the student vote initiative. As a follow up they wrote letters to Janice Morrison
• Safety awareness – We started our safety awareness month with a fire drill. All went very well and students were very calm and followed procedures very well!

A few reminders for you:

1. Student outerwear – The weather is getting cooler! Please make sure that your child is coming prepared for the weather, whatever may come, during the day. It can be quite unpredictable, and often our classes go outside for significant parts of the day for outdoor learning. Students should have warm jackets, rain jackets, water proof shoes, etc.. Always better to be overprepared than not!
2. Paving – This week on Wednesday and Thursday they will be paving the front courtyard where the gravel currently is. Thank you for your patience and understanding as some areas will be quadranted off.

Some upcoming dates (you can also find these posted on our calendar: https://southnelson.sd8.bc.ca/events/calendar)

1. Oct. 16-17 – Early Dismissal days (1:30pm dismissal) Please sign up for a time to come and meet with your child’s teacher
2. Oct. 18 – District Cross Country running meet
3. Oct. 18 – Family movie night! “Inside Out 2”
4. Oct. 25 – ProD day
5. Oct. 29 – Picture retake day

Finally, some family learning! 

Fire Safety – You may want to follow up on your child's learning about fire safety at home. Here are some helpful resources you can use to learn together with your children:

1. Sparky.org: https://sparky.org/ - Some great activities and resources for kids
2. American Red Cross Fire Safety for Kids: https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/types-of-emergencies/fire/fire-safety-for-kids.html

There is a great video you can watch together as a family and play “Pedro’s Fire Safety Challenge”

There are also some great sections on Emergency Preparedness for kids

That’s it for now. Hope to see many of you this week during the early dismissals. 

Have a great week!

Mrs. Snell