Preparing for Festival - March 6, 2023
Thank you to Lynn Page-Scott who volunteered her time today to help coach our students who have entered poems, stories, and persuasive speeches in the North Peace Performing Arts Festival later this month. Ms. Page-Scott has had students compete at the Provincial level, so she was able to share some very helpful advice to our soloists and ensembles about content and presentation.
Pictured:
Mateah: Speech Solo, Prose Solo
George: Speech Solo
Delaney & Ava: Speech Duo
Gabe, Thomas, Eli: Reader's Theatre
Shresta: Storytelling
Other entrants:
Rexleye: Poetry Solo
Lyra: Storytelling
Hanna & Hailey: Speech Duo
Catherine: Storytelling, Speech Solo
Samantha: Poetry Solo
Lauren: Storytelling
Elizabeth: Original Poetry Solo
Fabulous 5C: Classroom Choral Speech (2 poems)
8Fr: Reader's Theatre
8Fr: Group Mime
Festival runs March 19 to April 1 with the speech arts classes taking place right here at TAN on March 20 and 21st.
https://www.northpeacefestival.ca/
Cupcake Challenge - January 26
For their final project, students in Ms. Wyntjes' Seasonal Goodies cooking class worked together in small groups to make and decorate cupcakes. How impressive are these? We may have some future pastry chefs in our midst!
Raking Leaves - October 13
Sometimes being attacked by a wolf pack isn't such a bad thing. Our Top Wolves Leadership students were out raking leaves for residents on 86th Avenue and 95th Street today. It's an event the students look forward to each year, not only because they get to learn the value of community service, but they have fun at the same time. A win-win all around!
Healthy Buddies - May 4
Today was our final Healthy Buddies day. Our grade 7 students have so enjoyed getting to know the students from Springfield grade 4 as they've toured the school and engaged in various activities together over the past two months. Today, the Healthy Buddies got to experience the foods lab by making no-bake energy balls. They also got an orientation of the library and had time to try out some of the library board games afterward. Our grade 7s have learned leadership skills and our incoming students are feeling more confident about their transition here in the fall. Win-win all around.
Healthy Buddies - April 5, 2022
We are thrilled to be able to reinstate our Healthy Buddies program, a chance for our grade 7s to connect with grade 4 students from Springfield Elementary to help them alleviate some of the anxiety they may face about the transition to Middle School. This week, our students went to Springfield to to meet their partners on comfortable home turf. Over the next few weeks, the Springfield kiddos will tour T.A. Norris and pair up with their mentors to observe typical activities and -- one of the most fearsome unknowns -- learn how to use a combination lock!
Spring cleanup - April 5, 2022
Our grade 5/6 Gymnastics Health class took to the streets yesterday to do some community sevice work. They picked garbage on the berm across from Kinsmen park and cleaned up any trash they found on the dike or on the new bridge walkway ... which also provided an opportunity to show off their handstand skills. It's wonderful to see our #teamawesome students helping spruce up our town and having fun at the same time.
Goats in the Courtyard - January 28, 2022
Today, our students were able to meet some of the goats they've been feeding with their food scraps as part of our TAN Green Team garbage reduction program. Mrs. Frizzell from Kiss Someone Cute Ranch brought Creamsicle, a one year old, Juice & Opie, six weeks each, and two brand new babies (Miss Delaney and Misdemeanor) born only ten days ago. The goats were a big hit with plenty of ooohs and aaaahs eminating from the courtyard during lunch recess.
It was a win-win visit for everyone. Our students gained experience dealing with animals and learned the value of their food scrap collection program while the goats learned how to interact with humans, an important trait for when they need to have their hooves trimmed or go to the vet. And just like human babies, they were exhausted from all the stimulation and slept all the way back to the farm.
Bottom line: If your child comes home from school asking you for a pet goat, what else can we say but we're sorry - they were SOOOO cute.
Food Bank Challenge - October 29, 2021
Blown away. That was the response frm Peter Herritt, the General Manager of Mighty Peace Chevrolet Buick GMC, as our students helped his team load a trailer with 1690 kg of non-perishable items for the Peace River Food bank this morning. The food was donated by T.A. Norris students and families in a class-to-class competiton during the month of October. We cannot thank our #teamawesome families enough for their generousity. Your contributions will go a long way towards providing healthy food options for people who are struggling to make ends meet right now. What a great display of community citizenship and practical math skills as the students had to tally all 1,690,057 grams of food in order to determine the top four homerooms.
1st place (360.5 kg) - Mr. Schamehorn's 8A homeroom wins a class pizza lunch courtesy of Mighty Peace GM.
2nd place (311.8 kg) - Mr. Chalifoux's 5Fr students get to come to school in their pajamas on the day of their choice and watch a movie with popcorn supplied by the school.
3rd place (308.9 kg) - The 6Fr students get ice cream or popsicles plus they get to choose something for Mme Leflar to do or wear.
4th place (282.8 kg) - Mme Rosevear's 7Fr students get free time for one period plus they can wear their hats or hoodies up all day.
Orange Ribbons - October 1, 2021
As an end to our week of reflection for Truth & Reconciliation week, T.A. Norris students and staff were given an orange ribbon today upon which they wrote words of encouragement, support, and empathy for those impacted by Residential Schools from the past to present. Come take a look at the playground fence along 95th Street. It's so inspiring to see the various messages!
Terry Fox School Run - Sept 29, 2021
Terry Fox began his Marathon of Hope when he was 21 years old in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Terry ran through rain, snow, heavy winds and hail as he made his way west towards British Columbia. He started each day early at 4 am and ran 12 miles (approximately 20k) and then had breakfast before taking a nap and running the remaining 14 miles (~22k). He did this every day for 143 days. Terry persevered because he felt the need to help those who have cancer. Because of his determination and courage, Terry Fox will always be remembered as a Canadian Hero.
Today our students walked and ran along the dike in memory of Terry Fox. Several also collected pledges beforehand to support Cancer research. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the fall foliage and get some healthy fresh air.
Student Vote: September 17, 2021
Student Vote is a national program giving children the opportunity to become engaged in the democratic process. Students came to the library polling station where they had to to prove their identity, be checked off of the voters list, mark their ballot behind a privacy screen, and drop it in the ballot box, all under the watchful eyes of an official teacher/scrutineer.
Here at T.A. Norris, the students chose Arnold Viersen to be our next MP, which was the same outcome as the adult choice for Peace River-Westlock. The graph below shows how TAN students voted.
Across Canada, 5,478 schools practiced the democratic process representing all 338 federal ridings. Students chose a Liberal minority government, but they gave the NDP party significantly more seats than their adult counterparts:
Liberals: 117 seats, 24% of the vote
NDP: 107 seats, 29% of the vote
Conservatives: 91 seats, 25% of the vote
Bloc Québecois: 20 seats, 2% of the vote
Green Party: 3 seats, 10% of the vote
Thank you to all the students who took the time to cast their ballots. We trust that you will be informed and engaged citizens throughout your adult life.
School is open