River Ridge Retirement Home Visit

Grades 3-6 students visited the River Ridge Retirement Home on Monday, December 16th.  The students sang songs from the Christmas concert, and then had time to visit with the residents.  Everyone had an enjoyable time.  We met one lady who taught Grade 4 at Riverside, another who attended Riverside as a child, and two residents who were related to two of our Riverside students.  The seniors were very impressed with the students' behaviour.  We will have to plan a return trip in the spring.

Girls Club collect pennies for Pediatric Ward of the Medicine Hat Hospital

The Girls Club collected Pennies for two weeks. During that time the students had a great time making sure that their class was the winner- Mrs. Prioir's Grade 4 class won the pizza party. The money that was raised so the girls could buy toys for those children that ever find themselves in the pediatric ward of the Medicine Hat Hospital. The girls presented the toys to members of the Pediatric Ward. What a great show of citizenship and caring for others.

My classroom economy bidding wars!

This month our auction had many items. Miss. Kowalchuk asked Shaylee to keep a record of items purchased and sold. Miss. K has agreed to pay Shaylee $100 for her assistance during the auction. This month's top selling item was bought for $700, Matayah supplied a new bottle of 747 perfume, this item was purchased by Grace. Second highest item was the Zucchini Blossom Hot Chocolate and piece of carrot cake went to Izzy for $650! This month we had a total of twenty one auction items, not all items were sold including 1 game of dodge ball which had a reserve bid of $3000, I guess the students of room four didn't want to play dodge ball that bad! The cheapest item on the auction was a multi-colour pencil crayon supplied by Hunter it went for $25. Our top earner at today's auction was Matayah, she made $1655 and had to give 10% of her earnings back to the bank. Izzy was our top purchaser, she spent $850 at today's auction. As always this was a great experience for all!

my classroom economy in room 4

Today was the last school day of November which means it was pay day and rent was due! 

Since the beginning of September the students of the 5/6 class have held various positions in the classroom: clerk, banker, police officer, recycling manager, etc. At the end of each month each student receives a pay check from myself for one month of work. They must then deposit their pay check into their account by filling out a deposit slip. They must then turn around and fill out a withdrawal slip for $1000 so that they can pay their rent for their desk. Students also receive bonus pay for reading, showing Tribes Agreements, being physically active after school and being "fine-free". Students must earn that extra bonus money to be able to afford their rent. Students are also issued fines for breaking Tribes Agreements, being rude or dishonest and being late for class. As you can see in the one photo students must keep detailed records so that they know how much money they have and what they can afford. If a student cannot afford their rent then they are evicted from their desk which means all non-essential items are removed for one month. This month was the first month that all students were able to pay their rent as well as their fines! As you can see in the last photo we now have 5 students who are living rent-free in our classroom! Congratulations to Shaylee  who bought her desk at the end of October! This month Sierra, Matayah, Abby and Broyce were able to purchase their desks for a flat fee of $3000. On Monday we will have our third class auction where students can bring items to auction off to make a little extra cash; all auction items must be approved by me first. Students also can spend their hard earned cash at the classroom store on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Stay tuned for Monday's blog after the class auction! L. Kowalchuk

Good bye to Mr. Clay- Good Luck at Connaught

It is with heavy hearts that Riverside School is saying good-bye and good luck to Mr. Clay. Mr. Clay has brought our old school back to its former glory with all his hard work. The students and staff are going to miss his great smile and his wonderful sense of humor. Before he leaves though we thought we would have a little fun. Riverside Staff held Clay ransome from Connaught. IF our demands were not met then Clay would be staying here. Sandi the Administrative Assistant came to the rescue. Today Sandi dropped off coffee for the staff so we had to let Clay go. Thanks so much to Connaught for playing along ( such great spirit between schools as SD76). Good luck Mr. Clay.

Hard work creates success

This week was the end of October, so what does that mean to the grade 5/6 class at Riverside? It means that it is time to work on our Classroom Economy. Students are paid a wage for jobs that they do, things they volenteer for, anything they are involved in either at school or out of school. If a teacher gives them a compliment or catches them doing great things they get bonuses. With that they also receive fines for  things like breaking the tribes agreements, not being responsible (homework not handed in). Students have to pay rent on their desks or they can buy their desk outright. After all that the students do their banking- deposit and withdraw; if they want to keep out cash they may and then they bid on auction items that students bring into class.
Talk about authentic learning- money is great motivater. This is fun but the students did learn why we teach some of the math rules- (counting, addition, subtratction, placevalue). As one young man found out there is a big difference between 100 and 1000. That makes for some tense learning - double checking for errors as they all want the most money they can get.

Hard work does pay off. Kylie had a great month. Hard work does pay off. Kylie set a goal for herself in October. It was to be able to pay her rent plus the outstanding fine. I accomplished my goal by reading every night, by having one hour of physical activity every night. Being a good student really helped as well. I gave compliments, received compliments. I was not off task as much as the month previous. I was focused and finished my work to the best of my ability. I even handed my homework in early. The big changes were asking for help when I needed it and did not blurt out the answers."

Mi afternoon October 31

What did you do Halloween afternoon. Riverside School broke into our MI groups and worked on Science- we had everything from making our own goop to static electricity> We all had so much fun. Thanks to Mrs. Payaur and Ms. Widdis for our hot dog lunch.

Happy Halloween