Hillsdale Happenings by Lauren Macinnis
Apr. 17, 2023 – Hello Hillsdale! We have had some awesome months here at Hillsdale Elementary since the last article.
In December, we held our annual Festive Feast. Everyone enjoyed a delicious meal of hotdogs, crackers, cheese, cucumbers, and fruit. Thank you to Candace Perrault, Roz Llewlynn, Jason Shanahan, Travis Durham, Heather Cooke, Jodi Alexander, and Steve Bouwmeester for helping to set up this fun event. We also had our Open House where our student leaders and parents helped us learn about Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Victorian Christmas, and Winter Solstice. A big thank you to Mrs. Kennedy for teaching us many Indigenous hand games and bringing in animal pelts for us to carefully examine. We also thank Mr. Patenaude for providing us with our costumes and materials to make ornaments.
In December, we congratulated Carl Wright on being one of Canada’s Favourite Crossing Guards. This award was given to Mr. Wright to honour all of his hard work supporting our community by Parachute Canada and Desjardins. Way to go, Mr. Wright! We also welcomed our families and neighbours for the first Small Town Girls Tea in our gym. We had our amazing intermediate girls help serve tea and had all of our talented students provide fun entertainment. Our school staff also introduced our Teacher Band at our Christmas assembly. It was awesome to see Mrs. Weisflock, Mr. Hache, Mrs. Lewis, her husband, and her son rocking it out on the stage! During the month of December, we had our students bring in non-perishable food for our Food Train Drive that was donated to the Elmvale Food Bank.
In January, we had Games Club start for kindergarten to grade eight to play a variety of games provided by our school. We also welcomed one of the parents to share a presentation to help our kindergarten friends to learn about Lunar New Year. We also had two Early Childhood Education Student Teachers to help out in both kindergarten classes.
Over the month of February, we celebrated Black History Month and learned about Canadian Black people of excellence and their impact on our world today. We also celebrated Valentine’s Day with the passing around of candy and valentines. We had lots of sports teams and intramural sports clubs happening over the winter. Many students were part of the Intermediate Boys Basketball and Intermediate Girls Volleyball Team.
Throughout the month of March, we have had a lot of Eco initiatives that our Eco leaders have taken part in. On March 8th, our school encouraged students to wear their favourite hoodie or sweater because we turned the heat down 2 degrees to support the environment. There were so many bright colours with their sweaters! We have also recently finished the Clothing Drive that has been donated to the Kidney Foundation of Canada that started on March 1. Students brought in old clothes, ripped or worn clothes, shoes, blankets, toys, and other appliances that were given to people with kidney disease. We had the Big Crunch on March 9th where our staff and students took huge bites out of delicious apples to encourage healthy eating. Our school has also finished Games Club, which ended on March 28th. Thank you to our lovely teachers and wonderful student leaders for providing our younger students with fun activities.
We have had a great year so far. Our staff and students are very excited to see what the last three months of school will bring.
