C.M. Finch Elementary School

The primary students spent January and February exploring the olympics. With the 2010 Winter Olympics being so close to home a special effort was made to bring the games home to our students. The students participated in an opening ceremony with dignitaries, Kim Boetcher, Gord Klassen and Mrs. Gilbert carrying in the torch. We learned about the significance of the rings, olympic flag, mascots, the beginning of the games as well as a variety of sporting events. Students got a chance to explore a modified version of Bobsledding, the Biathalon, Curling, Long Track endurance and Figure Skating (dance) in multiage groupings each week. At the closing ceremony, with the entire school, students paraded in waving their team colours and wearing with their medals, to form the rings. We all had a lot of exercise, a lot of fun and each student showed great sense of unity and sportsmanship. Each of us, went home a winner !

This December we celebrated a family fun night where students, staff and families got together to do Christmas crafts, cookie decorating and caroling.

Mr. G. Spelsberg long time teacher at CM Finch spends his final teaching days with the staff and students at Finch. Always a good sport Mr. Spelsberg who is well known around the district for his participation with sports teams, track and field and the district track meet spends his final afternoon with a house full of costumed students. A member of countless local clubs but especially known for being a founder of the sub zero running club. Mr. Spelsberg will be missed by everyone, but we know he won’t stop moving. Give him a wave if you see him running by your house some Wednesday night.

We started our new year with multiage class rotations with a Fairy tale theme. The community building done this wek has created a great sense of being together, with everyone excited and ready to start a new year. Our 2nd annual Pancake Breakfast was a great kickoff, that family, siblings, students and staff could enjoy!

The C. M. Finch Grade 6/7 Girls Basketball team are the School District Champs for 2008/09.  The girls defeated Robert Ogilvie in the championship game on Tuesday, Mar. 17 in a game played at Alwin Holland.  This win completed a 8 win and 1 loss season for the team.  They won their division with 5 straight victories.  The girls only played one home game all season.  The girls then won the first 2 games of the District Tournament before losing a hard fought battle to Ambrose #1 in the final to finish second for the day’s play.  In the league final against Robert Ogilvie the final score was 39 to 12 in favor of Finch.  The girls would like to thank Mrs. Archer for supplying oranges for all of the games.  As well they would like to thank all the parents who came and cheered them on throughout the season.  Team members were Samantha Archer, Katie Relland, Hailey Johnson, Summer Stoney, Jalena Fair, Paulette Auger, Caroline Auger, Jacqueline Trim, Kortney Gallagher, Carley Roller and Alexis Glenn.

Practises are underway for the C. M. Finch basketball teams.  Games will be starting soon and the schedules will be published here on our website as soon as they are available.

Please check the PAC Hot Lunch Program page listed at the right hand side of this screen for detailed information about April’s hot lunch items.

This years Christmas Concert will be Thursday, Dec. 18 at the North Peace Cultural Center at 7:00 p.m.  Ticket information will be sent home soon.  The students are practising hard for this year’s show.  We look forward to seeing you all there.

On Thursday, Sept. 25 the students of C. M. Finch will be participating in the Canada wide School Terry Fox Run.  To prepare for this event students are practicing at lunch and during P. E. periods by running laps around the school grounds.  For each lap a student runs they get a special falcon sticker.  They put their sticker on a chart in their classroom.  The goal is to run 84 laps which equals the 42 kilometers Terry Fox ran each day of his Marathon of Hope.  Students that reach 84 laps will win a special shoe tag and a certificate.  They will also get extra chances to win a 2008 Terry Fox Run t-shirt.  Several classes have also challenged each other in various ways to see which class can run the most laps.  After the first 3 days of this program the students had run a total of 450 kilometers.