Rocky Mountain School District No. 6

Careers

Systems Map

On November 29, the Kimberley SEY2KT group came together for an afternoon of connection and collaboration. The group has representation from the school district, StrongStart, Child Care Resource and Referral, Early Years Coordinator, the public library, Interior Health, Summit Community Services Society, and EK Division of Family Practice. 

The main goal for this meeting was to develop a circle of agreements to establish how we show up and communicate with one another. Additionally, a systems map was created to identify the journey from early years into kindergarten and better understanding the various organizations involved in this transition. 

The group is looking forward to the next provincial meeting in the new year on January 16!

Little Spot of Emotion Activity

On November 26, the Changing Results for Young Children (CR4YC) met at the District Board Office. CR4YC is a Ministry of Education and Child Care funded project that brings together community based ECEs, including StrongStart facilitators, and Kindergarten teachers. CR4YC is focused on the social and emotional well-being of children and how ECEs and Kindergarten teachers can work together to share ideas and collaborate using the Early Learning Framework.

To start the meeting, educators utilized the Little Spot of Emotion to discuss what feelings they had experienced recently and shared these with a colleague. The educators associated a colour of crayon with each of these feelings and melted these together in a muffin tin. Once melted and cooled, the educators had a colourful representation of their feelings to share and keep!

Educators enjoyed the opportunity to connect with each other and to examine their own feelings. Many want to use this exercise with their students!

HELP Presentation

Director of Instruction, Crystal MacLeod, was invited by the Human Early Learning Partnership to present at the annual BCSTA Academy in Vancouver on November 23. The focus of the presentation was sharing how early year's data is used in Rocky Mountain to build relationships and guide decision making. 

It was an honour and a joy to spend the day alongside the amazing team at HELP!

Golden Community Dinner

This past school year saw the implementation of a district-wide Kindergarten Transition Timeline document. This document was co-created with several early years partners and school principals across the district in an effort to align transition practices and provide the best possible support for children and families as they enter the school system. 

Over the past two weeks, the working groups in each community (Golden, Invermere, and Kimberley) came back together to share their experience with using this timeline. There were many stories of success and additional feedback on things to modify and/or add for the upcoming year. 

You can see the Kindergarten Transition Timeline document here

StrongStart Programs across Rocky Mountain School District recognized National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Facilitators were provided a copy of the book With Our Orange Hearts to share in their programs and children and their families engaged in a variety of activities including painting orange handprints, orange t-shirts, writing gratitude letters to the earth, and many more!

What a beautiful day for the first Ready, Set, Learn event of the school year in Parson! Thank you to all the families and program and service providers who attended. Visit the Ready, Set, Learn page to find out where and when the next event is happening.