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Showing posts with label BELA Values. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BELA Values. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Photo Blog ......Family Learning Celebrations
Twice a year we invite our families to join us at BELA in the evening for our Family Learning Celebration. This is a chance for our parents to spend some time learning from their child, about life at BELA and experience our daily routine . Our students are always so excited to have their parents attend! Your participation as a parent helps show your child that you value their education and are interested in their school. Parent involvement is directly linked to children's success in school! Thanks to all our BELA families for your participation.
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Buckets Full of Fun! ~ Photo Blog
Earlier this year, we were very honoured to be the recipient of the Brooks & District Chamber of Commerce - Community Spirit Award! This award recognizes businesses that have a high degree of community involvement, show support for seniors, youth and culture and act as community leaders by building on strengths within Brooks & area.
At BELA, we strive to give our students real world experiences that build on our Bucket Filling Philosophy! Character Development is a building block of our program and we are always happy to make new friends, help other organizations and find fun ways for our students to bring smiles and happiness to others in our community.
We wanted to take the opportunity to share a post hi-lighting some of the community work we do with our students, that led to us being recognized as a leader in the area of Community Spirit!
Christmas ornaments & new books for our Kindergarten friends in Fort McMurray, the BELA Run for Reading, food drives for the Brooks Food Bank Foundation, helping plant flowers at our home in South Shore Centre, delivering cookies, flowers and notes for RAK Day (Random Acts of Kindness), visits to Newbrook Lodge, & spending time with our new friends from Eastbrook Elementary ; its all here in this photo blog of community minded projects past & present!
Thank you to Scotiabank & the Chamber of Commerce for this wonderful award! We were truly honoured to win in this category because character development is such a big part of our program. Thank you to our teaching staff for taking the 'bucket filler' philosophy and integrating it into our program every single day; for taking ideas and translating them into real world learning experiences for our students. Thank you to our parents for helping with all these activities and for allowing us to share your children with our community. And most importantly, thank you to our students for the opportunity to teach the value of community and for reminding us everyday to find the joy in the little things, help others , share and be kind!!
~CP
At BELA, we strive to give our students real world experiences that build on our Bucket Filling Philosophy! Character Development is a building block of our program and we are always happy to make new friends, help other organizations and find fun ways for our students to bring smiles and happiness to others in our community.
We wanted to take the opportunity to share a post hi-lighting some of the community work we do with our students, that led to us being recognized as a leader in the area of Community Spirit!
Christmas ornaments & new books for our Kindergarten friends in Fort McMurray, the BELA Run for Reading, food drives for the Brooks Food Bank Foundation, helping plant flowers at our home in South Shore Centre, delivering cookies, flowers and notes for RAK Day (Random Acts of Kindness), visits to Newbrook Lodge, & spending time with our new friends from Eastbrook Elementary ; its all here in this photo blog of community minded projects past & present!
~CP
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Why all the talk about Buckets??!
If your child attended BELA or you follow our school you have probably heard us talk about buckets, bucket filling and the dreaded bucket dipping!!But what do we really mean when we talk about teaching our students to be bucket fillers? And why is it a focus at BELA?
Our program is based on 4 "Building Blocks". One of these is Character Development. We focus on the development of a strong sense of identity, self esteem and sense of belonging. These provide the foundation for children to become active and responsible citizens in their community. Children begin to develop their identity and citizenship through active inquiry into their social, physical and cultural environments. We are committed to giving our students experiences that allow them to discover how they are connected to other people and their community. We encourage them to express interest, sensitivity and responsibility in their interactions with others!
We use the Bucketfiller concept with our students to make Character Development even more accessible to them; allowing for age appropriate explanations, examples and activities. Our children learn that we all carry an invisible bucket, containing our feelings. When people have a full bucket they feel happy and positive. When someone says or does something that makes another person feel badly, their bucket can be emptied. At BELA we both teach and model the bucketfiller lifestyle and it is directly tied to our focus on character development.
Through our daily interactions, stories, songs, free and directed play; we find opportunities to enhance each child's character development. We work to take things even further by allowing for active inquiry into their social environment. Our annual food drive for the Brooks Food Bank is one example where we have the opportunity to discuss and model the virtues of caring, responsibility and respect. Its an opportunity to give our students the chance to fill some buckets, both figuratively and literally! They understand that sometimes other families need our support and they feel good about helping. Its a win-win!
This year we have been fortunate to have another great opportunity for our students to be actively involved in the community through our visits to the Newbrook Lodge. Our students have been spending time with the seniors who reside at the Lodge, sharing some songs, crafts and enjoying some visiting time!
Through this experience we are able to discuss aging, family, health and emotions, as well as our impact as a member of the community on all our friends! We have the opportunity to extend this learning into our play as well. It's the perfect time for our parents and staff to model behavior for our students, all the while discussing the virtues of kindness, respect, caring and empathy.
While we know the value of this experience for our students, it is also important to acknowledge the value for the seniors. 43% of older adults experience social isolation which is correlated with loneliness and depression which impacts both physical and mental health. "Socially isolated seniors are less able to participate and contribute to their communities. Yet seniors benefit from volunteering and participating in their communities due to a sense of satisfaction and efficacy, and communities benefit from the services and social capital seniors are providing. A decrease in contributions by seniors is a significant loss to organizations, communities and society at large." (National Seniors Council; Report on the Isolation of Seniors) Our seniors are such an asset to the community and hold a wealth of experience and knowledge to share with younger generations.
We hope that by continuing this partnership with the Newbrook Lodge, we will be able bring them experiences that will build self efficacy and bring a sense of accomplishment. While we continue to work on this relationship we will look to current research and best practices regarding children and seniors to guide our activities and time with them. In the meantime, just by looking at the smiles of both our students and our new friends I think its safe to say we all have some overflowing buckets!!
Character Development will continue to be central to our program at BELA. We are always looking for new ways to have our students actively engaged in the community; and now that you know what all the "bucket talk" is about, you can support us in the work that we do at school, at home and in our communities!
~ CP
Our program is based on 4 "Building Blocks". One of these is Character Development. We focus on the development of a strong sense of identity, self esteem and sense of belonging. These provide the foundation for children to become active and responsible citizens in their community. Children begin to develop their identity and citizenship through active inquiry into their social, physical and cultural environments. We are committed to giving our students experiences that allow them to discover how they are connected to other people and their community. We encourage them to express interest, sensitivity and responsibility in their interactions with others!
We use the Bucketfiller concept with our students to make Character Development even more accessible to them; allowing for age appropriate explanations, examples and activities. Our children learn that we all carry an invisible bucket, containing our feelings. When people have a full bucket they feel happy and positive. When someone says or does something that makes another person feel badly, their bucket can be emptied. At BELA we both teach and model the bucketfiller lifestyle and it is directly tied to our focus on character development.
Through our daily interactions, stories, songs, free and directed play; we find opportunities to enhance each child's character development. We work to take things even further by allowing for active inquiry into their social environment. Our annual food drive for the Brooks Food Bank is one example where we have the opportunity to discuss and model the virtues of caring, responsibility and respect. Its an opportunity to give our students the chance to fill some buckets, both figuratively and literally! They understand that sometimes other families need our support and they feel good about helping. Its a win-win!
This year we have been fortunate to have another great opportunity for our students to be actively involved in the community through our visits to the Newbrook Lodge. Our students have been spending time with the seniors who reside at the Lodge, sharing some songs, crafts and enjoying some visiting time!
Through this experience we are able to discuss aging, family, health and emotions, as well as our impact as a member of the community on all our friends! We have the opportunity to extend this learning into our play as well. It's the perfect time for our parents and staff to model behavior for our students, all the while discussing the virtues of kindness, respect, caring and empathy.
While we know the value of this experience for our students, it is also important to acknowledge the value for the seniors. 43% of older adults experience social isolation which is correlated with loneliness and depression which impacts both physical and mental health. "Socially isolated seniors are less able to participate and contribute to their communities. Yet seniors benefit from volunteering and participating in their communities due to a sense of satisfaction and efficacy, and communities benefit from the services and social capital seniors are providing. A decrease in contributions by seniors is a significant loss to organizations, communities and society at large." (National Seniors Council; Report on the Isolation of Seniors) Our seniors are such an asset to the community and hold a wealth of experience and knowledge to share with younger generations.
We hope that by continuing this partnership with the Newbrook Lodge, we will be able bring them experiences that will build self efficacy and bring a sense of accomplishment. While we continue to work on this relationship we will look to current research and best practices regarding children and seniors to guide our activities and time with them. In the meantime, just by looking at the smiles of both our students and our new friends I think its safe to say we all have some overflowing buckets!!
Character Development will continue to be central to our program at BELA. We are always looking for new ways to have our students actively engaged in the community; and now that you know what all the "bucket talk" is about, you can support us in the work that we do at school, at home and in our communities!
~ CP
Friday, January 8, 2016
Family Learning Celebrations......Photo Blog
Twice a year we invite our families to join us at BELA in the evening for our Family Learning Celebration. This is a chance for our parents to spend some time learning from their child about life at BELA and experiencing their daily routine . Our students are always so excited to have their parents attend! Your participation as a parent helps show your child that you value their education and are interested in their school. Parent involvement is directly linked to children's success in school. Thanks to all our BELA families for your participation.
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