John Kershaw, the department of education's deputy minister in the province of New Brunswick, toured Eel Ground School this week in a series of visits to first nations schools in the province. Mr. Kershaw toured the school to learn about the programs and resources that band operated schools have. The department of education and band operated schools have been working on a number of projects to increase student and teacher resources as well as initiating professional opportunities for staff to strengthen literacy and numeracy programs.
The final total for the money raised by students at Eel Ground School is $1534. Congratulations to all the students who raised funds through their sponsors to support the school project. It shows the dedicated effort by our students and the generosity of our sponsors. Special thanks to Mrs.Harris who co-ordinated the Jump Rope for Heart program at the school.
Eel Ground School will be having its first Fine Arts Day on Tuesday, February 23. Parents and the general public are invited to attend. Art work will be displayed throughout the day and there will be three live blacklight drama performances on a native legend performed at 9 and 11 AM and 1 PM. Three of the schools DVD productions from previous years will also be shown. All activities will be held in the school gymnasium. For more information on the Fine Arts Day contact Donald Donahue at the school (627-4615). Everyone is welcomed to attend.
Students at Eel Ground School have been actively signing up sponsors and collecting pledges for the annual Jump Rope for Heart event. Jump Rope for Heart raises the awareness in schools and communities as to the need to stress the importance of physical activity and good nutrition to reduce the effects on the human heart.
Kindergarten and grade one students at Eel Ground First Nation School attended a Fancy Nancy Party on Friday, February 5. The party was organized by Miss Kassandra Donahue, the grade K-4 teacher, to raise the awareness level of literacy initiatives at the primary level and to give younger readers a memorable reading experience. Fancy Nancy is a series of children's books by author, Jane O'Connor. The books are brightly illustrated by Robin Glasser.
For the past six years Eel Ground students have participated in drama productions at the school, in community venues and at the NB Provincial Drama Festival. Most plays have been written by retired drama teacher, John Bosma. The plays focused on social issues in the community and have been produced in DVD format. On January 26 former student, Ryan Ward, and staff member Ev Gray were invited to the North Shore District Council Community Coordinators Meeting to speak about the play, Mary Moses.
Gail Francis, our methods and resource teacher, carried the Olympic Torch in Miramichi in November. It was an opportunity for the staff and students to participate in the Winter Olympics which will be held in British Colombia in February. Prior to the torch relay Eel Ground students learned about the Olympics by completing activities and doing research work at the school. Our k-4 and k-5 classes made their own Olympic torches. For pictures of this activity and others click on the Image Galleries on the left sidebar.
The school will be hosting a Fine Arts Night in February. Our students participated in drama productions and completed art projects during the Fall term. We will be displaying framed student art pieces at most grade levels. As well we hope to launch our video on PDM-The Game Show which has been in production since last June. The play was performed at the NB Drama Festival in May, 2009. Everyone is invited to attend. The date of the Fine Arts Night will be announced in two weeks.
Our school web site will be updated over the next month. It is now hosted by District 16. Teachers may use the site to post messages for their classes. The site will be user friendly so we anticipate that there will be more postings by students and teachers. Stories, pictures and student projects will be posted on our site shortly.
