The 2011-12 School year is drawing to a close. Our

School Community has been involved in a wide varie-

ty of activities this year and you will be able to read

about them in our Report to the Community which will

be distributed with report cards on June 28. In addi-

tion to reflecting back on our achievements, this is

the time of year when we also say farewell to some of

our school community who are moving on to a differ-

ent adventure and thank everyone for their contribu-

tion to our school.

Thank you and farewell to people who held term posi-

tions this year: Mr. Messejnikov, Mrs. Manning, Mr.

Collins, Ms. Parsons and Mrs. Best. Thank you to Mrs.

Poirier for her 12 years of service to Windsor School.

Mrs. Poirier is moving to Samuel Burland School in

September to be their library assistant. Mrs. Bale is

taking a maternity leave and we wish her all the best

for her new addition to her family. Mrs. Moir is taking

a half-time leave of absence

and will be teaching half-days

next year. Thank you to all

these staff who have been

valued members of our

school community and who

have made profound contri-

butions to our students’

learning.

Farewell to our grade 8’s who

are off to High School. We

hope they will take what they

have learned at Windsor

School and prosper in their

new environment. Most of

them are going to Glenlawn

Collegiate, but some will be

heading to another Province

or another school in Winni-

peg. Best wishes to you all for

your continued success.

We would like to provide

some information to the com-

munity about next year. At

the time of writing this News-

letter, a couple of new staff have been named to

Windsor School. Mrs. Donato will be teaching

grade 2/3 with Mrs. Moir and Ms. Sokal is our new

half-time library assistant. Windsor school, like

many in our division, is experiencing enrolment

shifts that necessarily affect classroom composi-

tion and staffing assignments. To provide the best

possible learning environment for our students, we

will have several blended classrooms next year,

including a grade 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, 5/6 classes and

two grade 7/8 classes. We had conversations with

parents of students who were considered for

placement as a minority group in a blended class-

room to ensure positive transitions. The Superin-

tendent’s Message at the back of this Newsletter

provides more information about multi-grade clas-

ses; however, we also welcome questions about

how they are effectively implemented.

The last day of School is June 29, with a 2:15 PM

dismissal. Unless parents advise otherwise, stu-

dents are expected to attend until classes are dis-

missed for the year. Reports will be sent home on

June 28. Should you be planning an early vacation,

please send a note to our office. Reports not

picked up by June 29 will be mailed to the home

address. Please let us know if you will be moving

over the summer as this will assist us in our plan-

ning for next year. Bump-up day for grades K-7 is

on June 29. The “Bump-Up” time allows students

to get an introduction to their new teacher and to

familiarize themselves with the new home room

and classmates, where applicable. Appointments

for Opening Day Conferences on September 4 and

5 will be sent home with the report card. Parents

and students are invited to visit the school and

meet with the new teacher to foster open commu-

nication and common understandings. The first

day of regular classes for the next school year is

September 6 (day 3).

Thank you to everyone in the Windsor community

for setting up productive partnerships between the

school and home. By working together for our chil-

dren we create the best possible learning environ-

ment. Have a safe and enjoyable summer!

Administrator’s Message Mrs. A. Walker—Principal

Windsor School News

LOUIS R IEL SCHOOL DIVIS ION

Kindergarten

Grade 1/2 2

Grade 2/3

Grade 4 3

Grade 5

Patrol Corner 4

Grade 6 5

Grade 7/8 6-8

Gym

Music 9

Library

Lunchroom 10

Gymnastics

Special Thanks 11

Superintendent’s

Message 12

Important Dates 14

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

WWW .LRSD .NET /SCHOOLS /WINDSOR

JUNE 2012

P AGE 2

The kindergartens have

been busy getting ready for

grade one. We start our

morning with the Writer’s

Workshop. They spend time

finding words around the

room to spell and printing

letters. They are making pro-

gress with their writing skills

during journal time. The chil-

dren help each other with

ideas for writing and spelling

words. I am starting to see

sentences with punctuation

at the end!

We have also started a

Reader’s Workshop. We fo-

cus on a variety of reading

activities. We have puppet

shows based on books we

have read together. The

children read stories to each

other or to the “stuffies”.

We spend group time read-

ing sight words and learning

reading strategies. We

spend time making sentenc-

es, practicing letter sounds

and learning rhyming con-

cepts.

Toward the end of the morn-

ing we have math time. The

children work in a variety of

math centres around the

room. There are children

counting, children making

patterns and children sort-

ing materials. They like

thinking of addition and sub-

traction stories with the col-

our bears. Some children

enjoy quietly reading our

number books. And a new

favorite they all enjoy is

building 3D shapes and tow-

ers.

We have less time for “play

time” these days, but the

kindergartens don’t mind

too much - so many of the

above activities are fun,

hands-on and engaging. We

also go out for kindergarten

recess at the end of the

morning to make up for it.

Having recess time outside,

like the big kids do, is thrill-

ing for them.

It has been a great year to-

gether and I wish them all

well on their journey into

grade one. Thank you for all

your support over the year.

Ms. Drosdowech

this endeavour with a popsi-

cle and a play on the “big

kids” structure. We have

been learning about commu-

nities and have made links

to citizenship. We know that

in addition to having rights

as a member of a communi-

ty we also have responsibili-

ties. What a great way to

care for each other and care

for those with whom we

share our play space.

Bravo Room 5!

Wow, what a busy spring it

has been for Room 5! Our

classroom community really

showed its stripes with a

clean-up of our own outdoor

play space. The condition of

the play area and the extent

of the litter problem was

brought to our attention by a

student from within our own

ranks. As soon as the prob-

lem was identified we were

eager to get outside on what

turned out to be a hot, hu-

mid and sunny afternoon

and take action! It was of

course necessary to follow

Grade 1/2—Mrs. Manning

Kindergarten—Ms. Drosdowech

W INDSOR SCHOO L NEWS P AGE 3

This is our final newsletter

from Grade 2/3, we hope

you have enjoyed hearing

about the things we did this

year.

In Social Studies we have

been learning about Ancient

Egypt. We learned that their

paper was made from papy-

rus, how to write in hiero-

glyphics, who King Tut was

and how to embalm a mum-

my. Mr. Loney is making ca-

nopic jars with us.

Miss Nitchze taught us

about structures. She

showed us how to tell if a

structure is safe or unsafe.

We had Ian and Brooklyn’s

Dad talk to us about con-

struction and the architecture

of structures. We had fun

making toothpick and marsh-

mallow structures.

In Ms. Braun’s class we

learned about dances from

all over the world. Our favour-

ite dances were “T’smidje”,

“Greensleeves”, and

“Popcorn”. Folk Dance was

cancelled two times due to

rain so we danced in the

gym.

All of us have completed sto-

ries and read in our Author’s

Chair. Some of us made sto-

ries with a partner. We en-

joyed making and hearing

Grade 2/3—Mrs. Moir

joke books and action

books.

In Language Arts we have

enjoyed our Independent

Reading and we now have

to read a whole chapter

book before we go on to a

new story. The Grade 3s

have been learning how to

handwrite. We have fin-

ished the whole alphabet.

Good bye from Grade 2/3!!

3. Paint your border!

4. Draw your favourite

place that connects

to your culture and/

or a place you’ve

been to!

5. paint that picture of

your favourite place

6. Get pictures of your

relatives and cut

them out.

7. When you are all

done WATERCOL-

OUR the pic-

tures!!!!!

8. Glue them on in the

places you want

them to be.

9. Have fun with your

creative art!!!!!!

Now you can do

whatever you want

with your art

By: Ashley and Laura

In the grade 4 we are work-

ing on our cultures and turn-

ing them into art. We had

Mrs. Geist-McNeill

(Divisional Art Consultant)

come in and start us off with

our art!

If you want to learn how to

do it follow the steps below!

1. Get a huge piece of

paper and measure a

6 centimetre border.

Draw out your border.

2. Make a pattern that

connects to your cul-

ture!

Grade 4—Mrs. Robin

P AGE 4

The Grade 5 class should be

commended for their fine

efforts throughout the year.

Recently, the class has been

studying Weather in Sci-

ence, along with Louis Riel

and the Metis people in So-

cial Studies. We’ve been

writing about our families,

writing speeches and having

fun with drama in Language

Arts. In Math we’ve been

working on Motion Geometry

and reviewing our basic

skills.

On June 12 we spent the

day at Lower Fort Garry as

part of the Heritage Canada

Program. Actors were

dressed in period costume

and provided great historical

information on a variety of

subjects.

In the final week of school

we’ll be having archery, golf,

fencing and ultimate frisbee

sports clinics. We’re going to

visit the Science Gallery at

the Manitoba Museum as

well as swimming at Pan Am

Pool. On the last day of

Grade 5 we’ll visit with our

Grade 6 teacher before go-

ing on the traditional ice

cream treat walk to the BDI!

Thank you for reading about

all of our Grade 5 activities

and we wish you a warm and

happy summer.

G. Nuytten

Grade 5—Mr. Nuytten

Thank you to all of our Grade

6 patrols who have consist-

ently demonstrated their re-

liability and responsibility in

helping Windsor students

cross the streets safely. Re-

cently, we added a new post

to our duties; 2 patrols are

now crossing children at

Springside and Killarney in

the morning and after

school.

Students are reminded to

dismount from their bikes

and walk when crossing at a

patrolled section. Thank you.

Our 2011-2012 patrols are

heading to Fun Mountain on

Thursday, June 22. This

“Thank you” field trip is free

for all 2011-2012 patrols; a

big thanks to our Home and

School Association and our

school for paying the en-

trance cost and bussing.

This year’s dedicated patrols

have been:

Scott, Arshjyot, Skylar, Lilja,

Maggie, Emily D., Kieran,

Morgan, Brody, Camryn, Jay-

den, Jodi, Ashley, Trenten,

Andreas, Emily K., Zach,

Thomas, Magali, Trent,

Taryn, Madison, Liam, Cal-

vin, Nathan, McKenzie, Craig

& Kendal

Grade 5 Bus Patrols: Ben

and Finn

Thank you again patrols, we

have made a great team! -

Mme Colleen Neil, patrol su-

pervisor

Patrol Corner—Mme Neil

W INDSOR SCHOO L NEWS P AGE 5

This May in Grade 6 Art we

made Matisse portraits. We

cut out construction paper

heads and we are going to

start doing the faces details

soon. In the background we

had to make some hobby or

sport that the person in the

portrait likes to do.

In Science, Mme. Bradshaw

put us in pairs and gave us a

bag full of electrical motors,

lights, bells etc. With all

those items we had to make

a drawing, airplane etc. that

incorporated all the items

that we got in the bag and a

few extra items. We are cur-

rently building it right now.

This April we did a unit

about in World War One,

where we did centres (8 dif-

ferent projects on one sub-

ject). It was very challenging

but we managed to get them

done in time for the spirit

week pep rally. Mme. Neil

also got us working with a

writing assignment. Right

now in may we are working

on World War Two, a re-

search project is planned for

this topic.

During the month of May we

did I.N.S. (independent novel

study) all month. In E.L.A.,

we also focused on poetry

and did alliterations with Ms.

Tate. That was very fun be-

cause you had to think of

funny alliterations.

In Math, we are working on

fraction equivalents and

finding common factors.

For French, we are working

on saying and writing sen-

tences about ourselves. We

can describe ourselves phys-

ically, talk about our favour-

ite sports, hobbies, and our

families.

In May, we had 2 people

come in and they tested us

with different types of band

instruments; we get to pick

Grade 6—Mme Neil

2 options for Grade 7; our

choices are: Band, Guitar,

and Art. In Music, we pre-

pared for the grades 6 to 8

Art and Music concert that

was on Wednesday, June 6.

On Monday, June 4, we had

an outdoor track meet in the

afternoon at Maginot Arena.

Many of us are training the

grade 5s to be awesome pa-

trols. Speaking of patrols, we

are going to Fun Mountain

on Friday, June 22 as a

“Thank you” from Windsor

School for being a patrol all

year long. Last but certainly

not least is our June Camp!

We are leaving on June 26

and return on the 28. We are

going to Camp Arnes to go

zip lining, horseback riding,

rock wall climbing, and

many, many other fun things.

We are all very excited. Mr.

Loney and Ms. Tate are go-

ing to join us.

P AGE 6

heads of Anubus, Horas, and

other Egyptian gods.

Students have been looking

at particular artists and their

work in the art program.

Grade Seven and Eights

have looked at the works of

Edvard Monch, famous for

“The Scream” and have cre-

ated their own pieces that

show what scares people

the most. Grade Sixes have

looked at the works of Henri

Matisse and are making

their own portraits modeled

on Matisse’s use of simple

shapes and bold colours.

Grade Seven and Eight stu-

dents are currently working

in a unit on architecture.

Students looked at many

The Grade Seven and Eight

classes have been studying

Ancient Egypt in their univer-

sal design unit and the art

program has been part of

the action. The students

had an opportunity to create

sarcophagus covers for their

own pharaohs, by creating

the story and artwork to go

with their character. We cre-

ated clay canopic jars to go

along with the mummies

made in social studies class.

The students enjoyed work-

ing with clay and used differ-

ent methods to make the

bases and head pieces for

their jars. The canopic jars

where finished using acrylic

paint creating strong vibrant

colours to compliment the

details in the sculptured

unusual and bizarre build-

ings from around the world

and used these ideas to de-

sign and create their own

models of a creative build-

ing.

There is a lot of excitement

around the year-end projects

that involve planning a de-

sign and creating their fin-

ished pieces on skate-

boards, guitars and wooden

templates. We look forward

to seeing the finished works

of art.

Grade 7/8—Mr. Loney

W INDSOR SCHOO L NEWS P AGE 7

English Language Arts 7/8K

Students in Mr. Arnold’s

class have just finished their

I-search projects where they

got to pick their own topic

and make a ten minute

presentation on it. The top-

ics range from anything like

animals to cowboys, Dr.

Seuss, the Red Fox, Zombies

and Hedley. The I-search

presentation starts with

picking out a topic and then

coming up with 7-10 ques-

tions about that topic; stu-

dents must also have a non-

print source for the project.

The most popular non-print

source is doing a survey by

asking kids in your class

questions about your topic.

When they are done their

research they have to make

a presentation; they can pre-

sent it anyway they want,

but the two most popular

ways were PowerPoint and

posters. Now that the 7/8

K’s are done the I-search,

they have started into media

and are starting their maga-

zines where students have

to do articles and ads that

appeal to a specific target

audience.

Social Studies 7/8K

This month in Mr. Arnold’s

social studies class, stu-

dents have been very busy

learning about Ancient

Greece. We have learned

everything from Greek gods,

to the life of the Greeks. Af-

ter learning a little about

some the most famous

Greek gods, students part-

nered up to design a poster

based around the chosen

god telling one of their

myths, a picture of the god,

and some symbols repre-

senting him or her. Aside

from that, the students have

been reading about how gov-

ernment was formed in Ath-

ens and how it has affected

today’s government. They

had to write a short para-

graph on how democracy

was formed, how the govern-

ment was formed and who

was involved in it. While do-

ing this the students com-

pared the democracy of an-

cient Greece and the govern-

ment of today in Canada

and how things have

changed as well as how they

have influenced today’s so-

ciety.

Science 7/8K

This term in science we have

been exploring the Titanic

and the role that density

played in its sinking. We also

looked at what other factors

played a role. For example,

how did the moonless night,

and the structure of the ice-

berg contribute to the trage-

dy? We are currently learn-

ing about positive, neutral

and negative buoyancy and

how they affected the float-

ing of the Titanic. We will be

making tinfoil boats and

measuring their buoyancy by

putting pennies into the

boats and testing to see

which designs are the most

effective.

Thanks to Emma H, Emma B

and Erica P for writing these

overviews!

Grade 7/8—Mr. Arnold

P AGE 8

guitars, or templates. Every-

one thoroughly enjoyed this

project.

The Band and Guitar classes

worked very hard towards

the concert. The Band class

and extracurricular Band

class performed a “Blues

Brothers” remix, “Lord of the

Rings” remix “The Addams

Family” theme song and

“Bohemian Rhapsody” by

Queen. The Guitar and extra-

curricular Guitar class per-

formed “Sweet Child of

Mine” by Guns and Roses,

“Paint it Black”, “Fortunate

Son” and “Boulevard of Bro-

ken Dreams”. Mr. Collins

contributed to this concert a

lot and everyone would like

to thank him for his time

and effort.

In Gym class these past few

months, students were in

the midst of their flag foot-

ball unit. A group of students

competed in track and field

qualifiers and divisionals at

the university early in June.

A couple of athletes repre-

sented our school at Provin-

cials and came back with

great results. Another

achievement for our school

was the number of athletes

who participated in Mara-

thon Club (training for the

Super Run) and the schools

marathon relay team who

finished 57th out of over

700 teams.

In Math the grade 7s had

their end of year test on al-

gebra and the grade 8s had

their final exam that covered

their last unit on linear rela-

tions, order of operations,

integers and algebra. Both

of the grade 7 and 8 classes

also wrote the University of

Waterloo Gauss math test.

Students in both grade 7

and 8 worked hard in their

shops and Human Ecology

classes at Darwin School.

The courses that students

took this year were: sewing,

cooking, woods, metals,

graphics and intro to practi-

cal engineering.

At the end of the year grade

7 and 8 students participat-

ed in life days. Each day stu-

dents go on field trips, do

community service or work

or work on fun projects at

school. Grade 8 Farewell is

also an end of year event.

This is a ceremony, dinner

and dance for grade 8’s who

are leaving Windsor this

year. By Sarah

In ELA students have been

finishing their I search pro-

jects. The I search project is

a student-lead research as-

signment where they get to

choose their own topic then

present the final poster to

the class.

In Science we have been

learning about hydraulics

and pneumatics. We’re also

working towards creating

toys which work by a hydrau-

lic or pneumatic system.

In Social Studies grade 7

and 8s learned about an-

cient Greece. Students got

paired up and were as-

signed a building from an-

cient Greece. At the end of

these project students set

up a Greek city in the gym

and made a presentation.

In French class for our final

project we choose our favor-

ite movie and explained (in

French) why we liked it and

also wrote biographies of

our favorite actors or ac-

tresses.

In Art class we studied some

architecture and created

unique buildings. For our

final project students could

choose between designing

and decorating skateboards,

Grade 7/8—Mme Bradshaw

W INDSOR SCHOO L NEWS P AGE 9

It is hard to believe that we

are at the end of another

school year already! We

have had a lot going on in

the past few months. Our Gr

7 and 8 Badminton Team

did a great job of represent-

ing Windsor School at both

the preliminary and division-

al tournaments which took

place the last week of April.

From there, we got right into

Track and Field season with

a large group of 26 Gr. 7

and Gr. 8 students attending

two qualifying meets. Over

20 of those students quali-

fied for the divisional meet

and 4 of those also qualified

for and attended the Junior

High Provincial meet at the

beginning of June.

Our Gr. 5 and Gr. 6 students

enjoyed participating in their

Track and Field day at Magi-

not Track and our K-4 stu-

dents also had a wonderful

time participating in our

school’s tabloid (activity)

day.

Marathon Club was also a

huge success. We had par-

ticipants from Grade 4-

Grade 8 show up to school

by 8:00 AM to go for morn-

ing runs. We also had nu-

merous members of our

club participate in the Mani-

toba Marathon. Special con-

gratulations goes out to Cul-

len (Gr 5) and Liam (Gr 7)

who were members of our

relay team that finished 2nd

overall in the Mixed Junior

High category.

Wishing you all an active

and enjoyable summer vaca-

tion!

Gym News—Mrs. Bale, Mr. Messejnikov

June 21 at 1:00 for grades

1-6 students. We will have a

number of individual perfor-

mances, some small group

performances, and both

grade 5 and grade 6 classes

will be performing pieces

they have developed in mu-

sic class.

Music—Ms. Braun

Students are currently audi-

tioning for our annual Cele-

brate our Talents assembly

which will be held in the

gymnasium on Thursday,

P AGE 10

in Manitoba which was

“Dear George Clooney:

Please Marry my Mom“ by

Susin Nielsen. You can visit

the site at www.myrca.ca to

see more details about the

club.

On May 1, we celebrated

Seniors’ Day at Windsor. It

was a joyful reunion of sen-

iors and their grandchildren.

It was most enjoyable to

have them visit the library

for snack time and book

reading.

We had many exhibitions

displayed in the library. The

grade 7/8 classes replicated

artifacts of the Ancient Egyp-

tians.

The Grade 4 class made clay

moulds of famous places

and people of Manitoba.

We’re coming close to the

end of another school year.

We do need to have all li-

brary books returned for in-

ventory. On the other hand,

we do encourage you to

have your children read dur-

ing the summer holidays.

Public libraries have wonder-

ful programs, visit their site

at wpl.winnipeg.ca . HAVE A

GREAT SUMMER EVERYONE!

We have wrapped up our

MYRCA club in the library.

This year we had six students

from grades 7/8 join our

club. They had 18 titles of

books to choose from; which

were written by Canadian au-

thors. The students were ex-

pected to read no less than

three books each, and write

a short summary. You can

visit the school’s webpage

and read them. We met on a

quarterly basis in the library

during the lunch hour to dis-

cuss and give our opinions of

the books. The MYRCA asso-

ciation has released the win-

ning title from all the schools

Library—Mrs. Poirier

Reminders From the Lunch Room

As a safety precaution, students wanting to leave school property during the lunch hour are

required to bring a note (with the current date) from a parent/guardian granting permission for

the child to leave.

A reminder to parents to ensure your child has cutlery in his/her lunch box every day if need-

ed. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to provide cutlery to children who forget.

If you have any outstanding lunch fees, please remit either cash or a cheque made payable to

Windsor School. For the first time in several years lunch fees will be increasing next year. More

information will follow in September.

Thank you for your assistance.

Audrey Smith, Lunch Program Coordinator

W INDSOR SCHOO L NEWS P AGE 11

Gymnastics For All Ages!

Come join us at Winnipeg Gymnastics Centre and let our enthusiastic coaching staff teach

you new skills on floor, vault, bars, beam, trampoline, and the foam pit! We are currently offering

summer and fall programs for everyone from ages 1 to 99. Get active, improve your flexibility, bal-

ance and strength, and learn some pretty cool moves while you’re at it! It’s never too late to start!

E-mail or call for registration and more information.

Fall Programs 2012

Adult Open Gym

Recreational

Pre-School and Parent & Me

Regional Stream Competitive

Provincial Stream Competitive

*Birthday Parties*

Summer Camps 2012

July & August (for boys & girls ages 4-12)

Full day week long camps ($145)

Half day week long camps ($75 am or pm)

Full day daily camps ($36)

Half day daily camps ($21 am or pm)

Winnipeg Gymnastics Centre 3-1249 Clarence Avenue □ 475-9872 □ winnipeggymnasticscentre.com □ wingym@mts.net

Special Thanks

Thanks to Windsor School students for supplying many examples of the art work in this issue and

to Mr. Mulder for photography and production. Thank you to all community members who have

been upholding our requests to avoid walking in or dropping off students in the staff parking lot.

Electronic Copies

If you would like to receive future newsletters in electronic (colour) format please contact the

school by phone at (204) 237-4057 or e-mail at www.lrsd.net/schools/Windsor/ (under popular

links).

Inspiring Potential and Learning Together • Initier les possibilités et apprendre ensemble

SUPERINTENDENT’SNOTEBOOK

An important message for the Louis Riel School Division community. For more divisional information visit www.lrsd.net

MESSAGESUPERINTENDENT’S

Terry D. BorysSuperintendent of Schools & CEO

September 15, 2010

Teaching & Learning in Various Classroom GroupingsEducators organize students in single-grade, combined-grade or multi-grade

classrooms. Although even students in single-grade classrooms have diverse

abilities and needs, parents frequently ask two questions about classrooms

with students of different grades:

Why do educators use these classroom groupings?•

How do they ensure that students learn the necessary curriculum for their grade?•

Educators understand the critical importance of “at-

tachment” to help students form and sustain relationships

in an increasingly complex world; therefore, the quality of

relationships in classrooms is one of several factors that they consider to group students for

learning and teaching.

“Looping” is one way to sustain relationships. It has the same

teacher with a group of students for more than one consecutive year. They may be grouped in a single-grade class or as part

of a multi- or combined-grade class, dependent on a school’s

enrolment pattern.

Learning Supports PracticeThe Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) sup-ports the provincial priority of linking policy and practice to research and evidence. The Manitoba Education publication Independent Together: Sup-porting the Multilevel Learning Community (2003) is just one of several sources designed to encour-age professional conversations in the LRSD.

Factors that Guide Decisions about Classroom GroupingsEffective decisions about classroom groupings consider students’ needs for the most positive possible learning environments, and how those environments may be created. School teams try to communicate decisions about classroom groupings proactively to assist community understanding, but with respect for confidential information. Various reasons guide schools’ decisions about the group-ings that best serve students’ needs.

Many schools prioritize classrooms that com-• bine students of two or more grades. Research demonstrates that organizing students to learn with older and younger peers is as effective as single-grade groupings and may reduce unhelp-ful comparisons that may occur when students are grouped only in single grades.

Schools may use combined-grade classes • to adjust specific groups of students. Creating more choices to group students supports posi-tive learning environments.

Schools with small student populations may • create classrooms to include students in two or more grades. Although educational funding can be a factor, a single-grade classroom of too few students removes opportunities for flexible groupings—too small a class presents as many dilemmas as too large a class.

Schools may group students into combined-• grade classes to create equitable class sizes, based on shifting enrolments in specific grades or levels within the school.

Important to NoteIf research demonstrated that multi- or combined-grade classrooms had disadvantages, schools could not responsibly use them. While research confirms that students in single grade, multi-grade and com-bined-grade classrooms show no great differences in learning achievement, some studies note that multi- and combined-grade classes assist students of all levels of ability to experience greater social and interpersonal success.

Inspiring Potential and Learning Together • Initier les possibilités et apprendre ensemblePage 2

Educators’ knowledge about how children learn has grown significantly since we attended school. The curriculum of the 21st century teaches students

critical skills and concepts across several grades, to help them to learn new informa-tion at various times in their lives and for various reasons.

Regardless of the specific classroom groupings they

use, teachers also recognize the importance of using

instructional time to teach students the skills to develop

the positive relationships that define successful personal

lives and promote citizenship.

Language Affects Perception: a note about “split” gradesThe unfortunate term “split” commonly attempts to describe classrooms that combine students of two grades. It does not accurately reflect the rich learn-ing environment that is possible, but rather portrays an image of a classroom in which the teacher’s attention divides itself between two groups of stu-dents who experience different programs.

In past decades, teachers of combined grades often taught each grade separately, because the systems in which they taught may have demanded that they focus on teaching specific content—at times, for standardized testing—rather than on teaching the skills for lifelong learning.

The curriculum of the early 20th century expected students to recall information to “prove” they were learning. Remaining for a second or even a third year in a grade was an accepted practice. Single-grade classrooms assisted schools to identify students who were not “learning” at the same rate as their peers, for retention.

Modern curriculum focuses on the core skills of literacy, numeracy, critical thinking and problem-solving.

Specific Practices Maximize Learning in any ClassroomEffective instruction in any classroom responds to students’ diverse experiences, interests, abilities and needs. In the single-, multi- or combined-grade classroom, diversity is appreciated and several practices support student learning:

focusing on the developmental stage of • each learner

emphasizing personal reflection, goal setting • and active learning

developing students’ leadership skills and • independence

varying instructional methods to increase • self-confidence and personal growth for students with varying abilities and learning styles

providing opportunities for ongoing rela- • tionships with the same teachers, to minimize adjustment to new routines and increase instructional time

integrating curriculum and using inquiry- • based learning to develop skills and allow each student to explore topics of personal interest

grouping students flexibly to build relation- • ships based on shared interests rather than ages, similar to neighbourhoods and other environments in which they will participate in their futures — including workplaces

Questions to PonderWhat information assists parents and other 1.

community members to understand and support the concept of combined- and multi- grade classrooms?

How can parents and educators work together 2. to support students’ success in combined- and multi-grade classrooms?

For Interested ReadersParents and educators may access more informa-tion about combined- and multi-grade classrooms:

www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/docs/support/• multilevel

The Multi-Grade Classroom: Myth and • Reality. A Canadian Study. M. Gayfer

Why does Multi-age Make Sense? Compelling • Arguments for Educational Change. W. C. Kasten

Eight Ways of Knowing: Teaching for Multiple • Intelligences. David Lazear

A Basic Understanding of Multiage Grouping• . B. A. Miller

Thursday, June 21st

Gr. 1-6 Talent Assembly PM, Grade 8 Glenlawn Tour PM

Friday, June 22nd

Gr. 6 Patrols Fun Mountain, Gr 7/8 Community Service PM

Monday, June 25th

Golf and Archery Clinics Gr. 5-8

Tuesday, June 26th

Gr. 1/2, 2/3, 4, Winnipeg Zoo

Gr. 6 to Camp Arnes, Gr. 7/8 Ultimate and Fencing Clinics

Wednesday, June 27

Gr. 5 Manitoba Museum AM, Gr. 7/8 Crescent Drive Park

Thursday, June 28th

Gr. 5 Pan Am Pool PM, Gr. 6 Back from Camp, Gr. 7/8 Downtown Tour

Grade 8 Farewell

Friday, June 29th

Gr. 5-8 BDI Walk, Gr. 7/8K Shops AM, Yearbook Signing PM

Early Dismissal @ 2:15 PM—Last Day of Classes

Tuesday, September 4th

Opening Day Conferences

Wednesday, September 5th

Opening Day Conferences

Thursday, September 6th, Day 3

First Day of Regular Classes

Important Dates to Remember