January Newsletter

Dates to Remember

January 22, 23, 24, Grade 9 Exams
February 1, School Development Day (No School)
February 7, Parent/Teacher Interviews (evening)
February 8, Parent/Teacher Interviews (No classes all day)
February 12, French Immersion Meeting for Incoming Grade 6 parents @ 7:00pm
February 18, Islander Day (No School)

French Immersion Meeting

Birchwood School will be holding our annual French Immersion Information Meeting for parents on Tuesday, February 12th at 7:00 pm in our Library. Parents of Grade 6 students who may be interested in the Grade 7 Late Immersion Program are invited to attend.

Grade 9 Exam Schedule

Tuesday, January 22,
AM, Language Arts
PM, French

Wednesday, January 23
AM, Math
PM, Social Studies

Thursday, January 24
AM, Science
PM, Make-Up Exams

AM: Periods 3, 4, 5, and 6
PM: Periods 7, 8, 9, and 10
Regular class Periods 1 and 2

Parents/Teacher Interviews

Our Parents/Teacher Interviews will be held on Thursday evening, February 7, and Friday all day, February 8. There will be no school on the 8th for students.

To Parents in the Colonel Gray Family of Schools

There will be a presentation on January 17, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. in the Lecture Theatre, at Colonel Gray High School. “Making the Connection" is a panel presentation intended to provide information to parents about the influence and risks associated with drugs on high school age students. We hope also to provide a greater awareness of how students enter a teen’s life and the various paths they can follow. We hope you are able to attend.

Christmas Miracle

Once again this year Birchwood Christmas Miracle helped several families so our own students could have a better Christmas. Each family received a food hamper and gifts. A huge thank you extended to the many students and staff who contributed items, fund raised, set up displays, wrapped gifts, etc. We especially appreciated the contribution of gifts and money from groups and individuals in the community.

Coaches Corner

Basketball News

Congratulations to coaches Mr. Murphy, Ms. terMeer and the Birchwood girls "AA" basketball team who won silver at the Vernon River basketball tournament last weekend! Players of the game were Adrienne Wright and Edna Nino-Esparza.
Tournament All- stars: Edna Nino-Esparza and Alleyiah Villard.

Good luck to the girls’ team as they travel up west this weekend to compete in the Hernwood Invitational Basketball Tournament.

Athletes of the Month

Jordan Reid (AA Boys’ Basketball)
Alleyiah Villard (AA Girls’ Basketball)

Cameron Hoy (AA Boys’ Basketball)
Edna Nino-Esparza (AA Girls’ Basketball)

Wrestling

Birchwood wrestling will be starting next week in the cafeteria from 3-4:30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. All girls and boys in grade 7, 8 and 9 are welcomed and encouraged to join the school team.

Music Notes

We are off to a great start within our Music Department at Birchwood School for 2013! Our Christmas concert was a great success and we are going to be pushing forward and using the next few months as a time for improving our skills. All band students will be beginning skills testing this term. Home practice is a must to achieve a high level of success with these skills. Each student will be provided a skill sheet and due dates in which these skills will be tested. Please talk to your students concerning this process and always be supportive to students as they are practicing and preparing for these playing tests. Parental involvement/support is very important at this time.

Rehearsal schedule for band students:
**these rehearsals are mandatory.
Monday @ lunch -- open practice for extra help and skills testing
Tuesday @ lunch -- Jazz band rehearsal
Tuesday after school -- Jazz band at Stonepark begins at 3:15 pm
Wednesday @ lunch -- Grade 7 band rehearsal
Thursday @ 7:45 am -- Grade8/9 band rehearsal
Thursday @ lunch -- Bucket-drumming rehearsal
Friday @ lunch -- Guitar Club

**Individual practice is also available before and after school each day. This is a great time to get some extra help with your instrument, note-reading, or other musical skill. Practice rooms are also available at lunch during other rehearsal times on a first come/first serve basis.

**A home-practice schedule of 20 minutes per day, five days per week is also very important. Please make this practice time part of your daily homework routine. This home-practice time is essential to solidifying the concepts and playing techniques learned in class. This "outside of school" practice time can also be done in school before or after classes if practicing at home is difficult. Please talk to Mr. Langille if you would like to organize an individual practice time before or after school.

Thank you for your help and support in all these matters. If you would like to discuss any of the above matters, please feel free to email or call Mr. Langille. All contact information is available on the school website.

From the Library

The movie, The Hobbit, has just been released in the movie theatres. Suddenly, students want to read books by Tolkien, which is not a surprise. The same thing happened when The Hunger Games and Twilight came out. When you see that a great movie is being made, which is based on a book, it is a way to encourage your child to read. Reading it together will also give you another avenue for communicating with your child. Pick up the book at the store or online (for your reading tablets), then head to see the movie together. After you see the movie, take time to talk about it together. This is a great way to foster family literacy.

Students are reminded to look for overdue books and return them to the library, please.

Cobra Council

Ms. Poirier would like to thank the council members who have regularly attended meetings and supported the school at events. It would be great if more people could participate, so if you are interested, please, come to the meetings.

In January, we plan to start a recycling program, which we will need all students and staff to help with, simply by sorting your garbage into the proper bins. We will be collecting: juice packs, milk bottles, and juice cans. This program has the potential to bring in some funds to the school, which would benefit the students too!

We plan to have at least one Spirit Challenge per month until the end of school, so stay tuned to find out about the different challenges. Your chances at winning the Spirit Trophy depend on how many people (students and teachers) in your class make an effort for each challenge. At the end of the year, the class who won the trophy the most will get a pizza party and bragging rights.

A reminder that there are two contests: art and writing. The theme for both is fantasy, and both are due Feb. 21st. The writing pieces may be a poem or short story.