- Please return library books on Monday so we can exchange them.
- Monday, April 10 will be very busy with both a visit from the Vancouver Aquarium AquaVan and a Diversity presentation as well as an assembly in the morning.
- Thursday, April 13 we will be having some Easter activities with Mrs. Farber's class. Please send 2 hard boiled eggs with your child that day.
- Friday, April 14 is Good Friday and the beginning of the 4 day Easter weekend.
- Monday, April 17 there is no school due to the Easter holiday. Please return library books for Tuesday.
- Thursday, April 20 the recycle truck will be visiting BEST.
- Friday, April 21 is the Jump Rope For Heart kick-off and we will be participating in Earth Day activities.
- The BEST PAC has partnered with DFS Canada in a fundraising campaign and that information package, complete with catalogues, came home on Tuesday this week. Orders are due either in to the office or online by Thursday April 13. Expected product delivery is the week of May 15.
- April's Family Project is due whenever you would like to return it.
- Please return the signed envelopes from report cards for our last reporting period in June. I am available for any questions you may have re: your child's report card.
- The BEST newsletter can be found here. Look under Site News.
- We are practicing our sight words for April. They are: all, boy, his, girl, not, some, that, what. If a word comes up repeatedly in our studies we will sometimes add it to our words for the month.
It is well established that social and emotional skills, such as the ability to manage one’s emotions and get along with others play an integral role in academic and life success. The latest SD 73 data is showing that the North Shore area lacks in the social and emotional development of middle school aged children so it is crucial for school transitions that we as a community work on self-regulation. As such, all of the North Shore elementary schools have committed to using either MindUp or a similar program to help students learn ways to self regulate their emotions and reactions to stress. As you are aware, BEST has been using the MindUp program in our classrooms.
What is MindUP? MindUP is a comprehensive, classroom-tested, evidence-based curriculum framed around 15 lessons that foster social and emotional awareness, enhance psychological well-being, and promote academic success. The MindUP classroom promotes and develops mindful attention to oneself and others, tolerance of differences, and the capacity of each member of the community to grow as a human being and a learner. Over the course of MindUP experience, children learn about the brain and how it functions, in the process gaining insight into their own minds and behaviours as well as those of the people around them. The essential work of MindUP is accomplished through the lessons themselves, which include the repetition of the Core Practice – deep belly breathing and attentive mindfulness. The recommended daily core practice and the content of each lesson serve as conduits through which young learners can broaden their awareness of the connections between brain and body, between what goes on “inside “ and actual experience. The outcome of this enhanced awareness is a group of resilient children whose awareness of their impulses, thoughts, feelings and behaviour enhances their confidence, pleasure and sense of agency in their own learning process. |
Mrs. Bowden &
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