Special Lunch
Each month our special lunch committee of dedicated parent volunteers organizes and serves a nutritious lunch. Our profits are put towards programs in the school including field trips.
Hot Dog Days
One day each month we have a fun dress up day and students can purchase hot dogs. We have had silly hat days, backwards or inside out days and pajama days.
A HUGE thank you to Back Country Butchering for the donation of our hot dogs!
Reading Buddies
As part of our continuing literacy focus at Canyon School we have developed buddy reading, as a research-based strategy, to enhance literacy and support relationship building among children of different ages at Canyon School.
Research indicates that the most important thing we can do to strengthen literacy is to practice reading. When children get the opportunity to read to each other, they are motivated to do well. They develop confidence in their own abilities and value themselves for their ability to share reading with another child.
Older children, who may be reluctant to read out loud, do not hesitate when they are reading to a younger child. Skills learned in reading to others can be used at home to read to brothers and sisters and later to read to one’s own children.
When younger children read to older children they get one-on-one assistance that is difficult for the classroom teacher to provide for each child every day. Older children learn how to help a younger child with their reading without doing it for them, an important lifelong skill.
Another benefit of buddy reading is the friendship that develops between children of different ages. Buddy reading is one time during the school week, when children get to interact with children from different grades and classrooms. It is exciting to see these relationships continue on the playground and in the community.
Roots of Empathy
What is Roots of Empathy?
Roots of Empathy is an evidence-based classroom program which has shown dramatic effect in reducing levels of aggression and violence among elementary school children while raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy.
Mission
Our mission is to build caring, peaceful, and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults.
History and Reach
In 1996, Roots of Empathy was created in Toronto schools by Mary Gordon. It became a charitable not-for-profit organization in 2000.
Since its inception, Roots of Empathy has reached more than 150,000 children in more than 6,000 classrooms.
The program reaches elementary school children from Kindergarten to Grade 8 across Canada, in English and French, in rural, urban, remote, and Aboriginal communities both on and off reserve. It is being piloted internationally in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.
Roots of Empathy in Action
A trained Roots of Empathy instructor visits the classroom every week during the school year, starting in October and ending in June for a total of 27 lessons. Once every three weeks, a parent and baby (2 to 4 months at the start) from the community come to the classroom with the instructor for a family visit. Experiential learning at its best!
The program teaches children about feelings, their own feelings and the feelings of others. In Roots of Empathy, the baby is the teacher. With each family visit (nine in all), the instructor leads the children in noticing how the baby is growing and changing over the course of his or her first year of life. The children also watch the loving relationship between the parent and baby and see how the parent regulates the baby’s emotions. By understanding the perspective of the baby and learning to label the baby’s feelings, the students become literate in describing their own feelings and understanding those of others – empathy.
For more information please visit the Roots of Empathy website.