Good day out there, South Nelson.

This month's classroom sharing for our Superintendent's Report comes from Mrs. Lehnert's grades 1/2 class.  

Mrs. Lehnert’s Grade 1/2 class were excited to learn about Earth Day. We have been reading stories and having discussions focusing on ways to help the planet. The students shared what they do to reduce their waste at home and were keen to do a garbage pick up around our community and in the nearby Maple Forest.

On Earth Day the class emptied our garbage can to see how much waste our class produces in a day. We sorted the items into reuse, recycle, compost and garbage. We discussed how Nelson is in the process of setting up composting for the city, we discovered that a city compost can take different materials than a compost at home, and that we will be able to compost all food waste and paper towels in the city compost (hopefully at school and at home). Then we went through all the items that are recyclable, they all knew about paper and cardboard, and learned about the newer recyclable items including granola bar wrappers, chip bags, zip lock bags, and plastic bags. Out of all our garbage, only 9 items needed to go into the trash if we could compost and recycle.

Unfortunately, about 100 items were put back into the trash, only one item went into recycling, and two went into our creative corner to be reused. The students were heartbroken and shocked to discover that out of all the recyclables, they could only recycle one, as SD8 officially only recycles cardboard at this time, due to an issue of contamination.  South Nelson and some other schools have come up with our own solution for recylcing our mixed paper, but a big question from our class was, "why does't the district have receptacles for each type of recycling?" If there were receptacles for each type of recycling, students could be taught and have the opportunity to practice sorting their recyclables, then maybe there wouldn’t be contamination. The students decided that they should be able to recycle everything at school.

We have reached out to our Director of Operations to come in and talk with the class about this issue and possible solutions and are looking forward to working towards solutions together.  

To the details...

• SD8 & South Nelson May digital calendar - https://southnelson.sd8.bc.ca/events/calendar.
  • PAC Georama plant sale fundraiser closes May 4 through munchalunch.
  • PAC meeting - Tuesday, May 3 at 6:30pm in the ABED room.  Please enter through the Latimer Street doors.

  • Digital Parenting Night online presentation from Safe Schools Coordinator - Tuesday, May 3 at 6:30 - more info and zoom link at https://www.sd8.bc.ca/events/digital-parenting-part-3-4-sexting-sextortion-sexual-age-consent. 

  • Gr. 1/2 Red Cross swimming lessons - Fridays, May 6, 13, 20, 27 at 9:15.
  • South Nelson Talent Show! - Tuesday, May 10 at 6:30 in the gym.
  • Wednesdy, May 18 from 1:30-2:30 - Welcome to Kindergarten Event - https://southnelson.sd8.bc.ca/announcement/south-nelson-kindergarten-orientation-may-18th-130pm.
  • SD8 Pow Wow - Friday, May 20 online.
  • Nelson Family of Schools online learning tour - Wednesday, May 25 from 1:00-4:00.  More details to come and all are encouraged to join in for South Nelson's part of this presentation series.
  • School Planning Day, no school for students - Monday, March 30.
• South Nelson Talent Show! - sign up by parents through https://forms.gle/AzQLAsWZ6ziz1fNt9 by Tuesday, May 3.  More details will be emailed to parcipants' families this week.
• Little Lights Summer Art Camp - https://southnelson.sd8.bc.ca/announcement/little-lights-summer-art-camps-1. 
• Dance Umbrella Spring Showcase - https://southnelson.sd8.bc.ca/announcement/dance-umbrella-spring-showcase

Take care, everyone.

Dan Rude - Principal