Children's Mental Health Week
Evergreen Public School “GETS LOUD” for Mental Health
It’s the Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) 64th Annual Mental Health Week! This year the CMHA asked Canadians to GET LOUD for mental health, so the students and staff at Evergreen Public School, did just that. Classroom teachers held discussions with their students about the importance of being mindful and aware of how we are feeling. They talked about things that make them feel worried or stressed and discussed things that they do to help them calm down, or feel happy again. In the junior grades, teachers also discussed the challenge of a mental illness and made students aware of the agencies and community supports that are available to help them and their families.
As a staff, we were really happy with this activity. It encouraged us to take a pause and talk about mental health and wellness with our students. Having a conversation about stress, worry and mental health, helped to create awareness and build a supportive community within the school environment. Both our students and staff were able to come up with a variety of activities and strategies that they use to help them overcome obstacles in their lives. Each student and staff member recorded their idea on a speech bubble. The speech bubbles were then used to create a collective display of mental wellness strategies located at the entrance of our school. It is our hope that students, staff, parents and family members will stop to take a look at our display and be reminded of the variety of things we can do to promote mental wellness and where to go for help when a strategy alone is not enough.
CMHA wants Canadians to GET LOUD – to be heard, raise awareness, reduce discrimination and stigma, and to show the importance of supporting mental health programs and services across Canada. The students and staff at Evergreen feel like they have taken one small step to accomplishing this goal.
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Music Monday at BBSS
Music Monday
Music Monday is an annual initiative that brings together thousands of students, musicians, parents and community members across the country to celebrate the gift of music in our lives, on the same day at the same time.
All 4 KPDSB elementary schools attended BBSS. Each school bringing a class or two with the exception of Evergreen - we brought our Entire School!!
We practiced three songs. We are One was the official anthem this year. Evergreen classes practiced all week and we had singing throughout the school.
On Friday our entire school meet in the library and all sang the songs together. It was a great opportunity for the school to be together, to sing and enjoy music.
6.3 million Participants
14, 750 Registered Events
11 Years in Harmony
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Author Visit - Eric Walters
Award winning author, Eric Walters, poses with grade 4, 5, & 6 classes after his presentation on Wednesday Apri 29th at Evergreen School. Mr. Walters has over 80 books published and several more due for release within the coming year. with a social work background and many years of teaching in grades 1 - 8, Eric says his favorite grades to teach are 4, 5 & 6. He was very impressed with the staff and especially the behaviour of Evergreen's Students. Nicholas from Ms. Cottrell's class, said about the presentation, "It was AWESOME".
Mr. Walter's message to the students and staff is to foster the love of reading and how having a great role model can make all the difference. Having traveled the world over, Eric brings a message of unity, equality, acceptance and adventure. In 2007 during a visit to Kenya, Eric discovered the staggering rate of orphaned street children and founded the Creation of Hope which currently supports more than 400 oprhaned children in the Mbooni district in rural Kenya.
Mr. Walters has a way of fully engaging children as an author and as a presenter. Evergreen Library has over 40 (Eric Walters) books just waiting to be read. For a list of titles written by Eric Walters or more information on the Creation of Hope Foundation, please visit his website at www.ericwalters.net
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