Generosity

The dictionary defines generosity as "a readiness to give more of something than is necessary or expected".  At the beginning of the month we had our regular "School Read Assembly" and introduced the December virtue of Generosity to our students, and boy have they taken it to heart.  As we head into our final week of school prior to the Christmas Break I am humbled to see the many generous acts that are happening in our school on a daily basis.    We have many activities happening from our Pennies for Presents fundraiser, and Food Bank donations to a Sock Drive.  These are all organized by teachers, parents, and students, working together to give back to our community.

One of these generous acts occurred on Friday with our PAC Gift Day.  We had a great number of parent volunteers that spent their day helping students shop, wrap, and tag presents.  The smiles on the faces of our students (and parent volunteers) were impressive.  A smaller act of note, relates to one of our grade six students who decided that he would like to contribute by organizing a Sock Drive for the homeless.  He set up a box in our main foyer, wrote an in impressive announcement script and then read it over our closed circuit system.  The thoughtfulness and organization that this student has demonstrated is great to see, but the story doesn't end there.  After a week of the collection box sitting empty, another person decided to help out by purchasing several pairs of socks to get the project moving and make sure that the student had some success.  It is great to see that others have now gotten involved and the sock box is overflowing with contributions.

As educators, we work hard to introduce important lessons to our students through our monthly virtues and we sometimes wonder if the message is getting through.  This month has proven to us that the message of virtues, in particular generosity, is coming through loud and clear.  What a great atmosphere this creates in our school.  Thanks to everyone for the contributions they make to our school community.

Countdown to Christmas Holidays

Now that report cards have gone home, we have time to turn our attention to the many fun activities coming up over the next two weeks.  Our Parent Advisory Council is such a great group of volunteers.  They have organized some very cool events for our students.  First up is PAC Gift Day, something unique to David Cameron School (I certainly haven't seen it anywhere else).  This is a great opportunity for families to donate items from their homes that are then sold back to our students at very low prices.  This way, the kids get a chance to do their Christmas Shopping here at school and have their presents tagged and wrapped when they leave.  Following gift day is our annual visit from Santa.  He will visit each of our classes and bring the students a Christmas Orange.  The expressions on some of our students faces are priceless when the jolly man shows up.

This year, Mrs. Garry, our music teacher, has put together a great evening program for families to come and enjoy.  Each of our classes will be performing a couple of Christmas related songs, as well as our very own David Cameron Christmas Choir.  This event (on December 17), will be a great way to kick-off our holidays.  The concert will be followed the next day with our school sing-a-long in the gym for all of our classes.  It will be a chance for classes to perform their concert songs for each other and then sing a few carols as well.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at David Cameron!