During the month of January, our students remained online due to the provincial guidelines. Some of our SKC students enjoy going to school remotely, especially since they still have contact with SKC. However, some of our students were not happy with being away from the clubhouse and their peers. We did our best to remain positive, engage in fun online activities and work one on one for extra help. SKC is also available on google classroom to our students who remained online even after their return to school. We knew that their return to school would be even more exciting this time around.

We spoke about self-care and came up with self-care boxes for our pre-teen girls. These boxes included sanitary items, Chapstick, bath bombs, deodorant, face masks, a diary and pens, a stress ball, a canvas with paints and more! The boxes focused on personal hygiene, relaxation, and creative expression. These were the areas that the girls named as areas that they wanted to focus on more.

Towards the end of March, we decided to try to grow a sunflower in our classroom with plans to eventually move it outside for everyone to enjoy. We also tried our hand at growing other plants and flowers in SKC. The students are excited to share the responsibility in caring for the plants and will take turns watering.

For Earth month, we started with learning about ways that we can save electricity in the school. We also did a community cleanup which our students loved. They were shocked to see the amount of garbage in our surrounding areas and felt proud to be able to clean it up.  

At our school, we had the opportunity to watch a virtual presentation on African Textiles and Beadwork. Our SKC students were very interested in learning the history, cultural significance and meaning behind the beautiful patterns, colours, and shapes. We were inspired to create our own jewellery using beads from the clubhouse, guided by the traditional colour meanings. Our students had a wonderful time being creative and appreciated the opportunity to make and keep their own jewellery in honour of African beadwork.

This year we also started the SKC Art Therapy group. We’ve divided the groups into two groups – one for grades 2-5, and one for grades 6-8. These groups will participate in various art forms with lessons tied in. Each month will focus on a different theme. We will be using items already available in the clubhouse as well as donations from The Creative Zone in Peel (Thanks for all you do!).

Our office manager was kind enough to source donations for our grade 8 students. These donations consisted of graduation dresses, suits, accessories, and shoes. Our grade 8 SKC students were so excited to find something to wear on their graduation. Students were permitted to come to SKC and try on different outfits.

We want to send a big thank you to the Walmart’s in Brampton, every single store donated to our Clubhouse this year, we couldn’t do what we do without the support of local business – thank you Walmart Stores from the bottom of our hearts!

On one of our last school days, we had a picnic at a nearby park and enjoyed healthy snacks and ice cream.

See you in September!