VE Students go book shopping with Chapters Money

(Bob Dubois) – It was a day that several parties from Verdun Elementary were waiting for since last spring. Last spring, VE Principal David Chisholm got that special call from Chapter/Indigo President Heather Reisman and informing him that the school was awarded $64,000 over the next three years which grants like these are given out every year by the Indigo Love of Reading initiative. They got the award after their fourth attempt.

So now it was time to collect, and we recently were invited by the happy Principal himself to join several members of the VE community, comprised of students, teachers, and parents, as they went shopping to the big Chapters superstore in Pointe Claire.

It was a delight to see the students’ big eyes as they went from aisle to aisle, looking at colorful covers and taking a peak inside various books to see if they might make a good addition to the school’s collection of books with some sitting down at those mini kids table to do some advance reading.

Teachers and parents were not exempt by the excitement. Teachers and resource staff like Miss Tina, Miss Jennifer, Miss Lindsay, and Miss Sandy Luther were also spotted with shopping lists of titles that they would like to see in their classrooms. I also happened to overhear some of the parents who came along to help with the little ones, and discuss if the school could use more books by the famed author Robert Munsch.

For resource teacher Miss Tina, it was nice to see the young students involved in this book shopping experience and see what they were choosing. “Shopping with the kids was truly gratifying. It was great to see them select books based on their personal interests, as well as, to see that so many of the books they had chosen were series of books that the teachers read in their classrooms. It shows us how much the students enjoy what they are doing in class and that we, as teachers, really are able to instill a love for reading. That is a wonderfully rewarding experience,” said Miss Tina.

Needless to say, we also noticed Principal Chisholm succumbing to the temptation of opening up a few books himself. We didn’t dare to take a peak to see if he was checking out the vast kids’ section or if he was in the sports section and taking in any latest titles from his favorite sport of hockey.

The purchase on this day was just a small percentage of the school will be buying this year. The remainder is chosen by an order form provided by the Chapters’ folks and a list is a who’s who of children’s books.

BEURLING ACADEMY

Hot on the heels of the recent Open House, it could be a busy November. On Saturday, Nov. 5th, the school will be hosting students who will be writing the IBO entrance exam. The IB Entrance will be held on Saturday, November 5 at 8:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Lunch will be provided. The application form can be found in the International Baccalaureate section of the BA website and also on the Board website.

On Wednesday, Nov. 9, 20 Sec 3 students with 2 teachers are lucking out with a neat and informative field trip as they will be the Astral Radio studios downtown. It’s our pleasure in having arranged this informative visit with our media partners at Astral. The students will be visiting the 3 stations comprising of CJAD/CHOM/Virgin radio.

They will be seeing the mighty CJAD newsroom, the FM libraries, production rooms, and of course, the highlight will be the students dropping in to the actual studios watching live shows and meeting with their favorite announcers, which will also make for some neat photo ops, and who knows, maybe a student or two, might get the chance to introduce a favorite song.

Also stay tuned in our next issue, and details on your chance of winning a pair of Club Seat tickets courtesy of CJAD News Talk Radio and an evening with the Canadiens against the Philadelphia Flyers on Dec. 15th at the Bell, in support of Movember, as the school will also be supporting initiatives in support of research towards a cure for prostate cancer. And should the t’s be crossed and the i’s dotted by our nest issue, we could also have the scoop on a major visitor to the school. Sorry no hints.

BA Sports

This being the playoff period for most of the fall season, BA was certainly in the mix in this exciting time of the year. First off, the boys’ juvenile soccer team lost 2-1 in quarter-final action to Westmount last Friday, but not without some close calls in the last 5 minutes or so.

Also last Friday, the bantam boys’ soccer team lost in the quarter-final contest 7-0 to Laurenval, but the girls’ juvie team won in quarter-final action by trouncing St. George’s 6-0, and advanced to semis this past Tuesday against Westwood Sr. in Hudson, but, in a heartbreaker lost out to Westwood 3-2.

The boys’ juvie Division 1 Touch football team this past Monday advanced to the finals by demolishing Bialik High by a score of 51-0 led by the 2-touchdown performances of Jersey Henry and Kenry Julien, which let them advance to the championship game against Howard S.Billings, which is this Thursday, October 27th, after our regular posting, so we’ll have that story in our next issue.

And the winter season GMAA season will be getting underway with the basketball schedule starting this week. BA will be fielding 4 teams. The gents will have a team in the juvenile and midget categories, and the ladies will be present in the bantam and juvenile categories, so we look forward to another exciting basketball season.

RIVERVIEW CLC

Also recently, the CLC held their Open House, which has now become a welcome annual event, and it was a packed house of visitors from both in and out of the Riverview community that dropped by to take in the various booths. Visitors had a chance to talk to people representing organizations such as libraries, food safety, citizens and tenants’ rights groups, and sports organizations, Montreal police and get informed on various community and social programs.

Also, keeping in mind the current season,there was a fall market featuring autumn delights such as apples and squash and the ever popular pumpkin patch. Seeing it was the supper hour, they took care of that as well with a tasty harvest soup, cooked up by one of the school’s top volunteers Nancy Roach, and it was filled with all sorts of market veggies you can think of at this time of the year,which made for an excellent appetizer for your local reporter’s supper waiting for him at home, and baked goodies were also there to be purchased along with coffee and hot chocolate.

To top things off, there was face painting for the kids and families also had a chance to pose for family photos on the bales of hay, just in time for the Christmas picture taking season. We cerrtainly would like to send kudos to coordinator Audrey Ottier for making these events happen and to show the local population what a CLC can do and what it’s all about.