October Update

Hello families,
Thank you for continuing to support students as we build our routines and establish expectations in our classrooms.
Reminders for students:
• PROUD
Classes are working with the PROUD ideas of Positive, Resilient, Organized, United and Diverse. “Proud Tickets” are distributed to students who have demonstrated PROUD behaviours. Tickets can be handed out in academic classes, PE and in the hallways.

10/10 Rule
This applies to the beginning and end of each block. All students are expected to be in class on-time and ready to begin the lesson (no trips to lockers for water bottles in the first/last 10 minutes of class).

Athletics
1.) Cross Country races start this Wednesday. For more information and permission forms see Ms. Ashley Hamilton.

2.) Our volleyball practices have started. Grade 6 students interested in playing volleyball should see Ms. Larocque to collect an Athletics Permission form and a Schedule for the season. It’s not too late to join us!

3.) Intramural soccer is happening Mondays and Wednesdays at lunch on the field, thanks to Mr. Nightingale and Mr. Black.

Academic Update
Math: Students will continue working with Place Value in math classes; rounding, number lines, greater than/less than and soon decimals. We will play dice games related to Place Value such as “5000”, “The Ladder Game”, “Stick, Swap, Steal”, and “Beat the Teacher”.

Science: We have been looking at Space and starting to understand how to take notes from our research. This will help everyone understand how to write from our research without risk of plagarism. Space will be our focus until December.

Humanities: Students begin the novel A Rover Story and have been practicing their writing with different types of sentences (simple, compound, complex).

Physical & Health Education: This week we will continue building throwing and catching skills that connect to the sport of handball with Ms Douglas.

Important Dates/Field Trips
11:30-2:30pm, Friday, October 9th, 2026 – Walk to Bill Moore Park. All Grade 6 classes.

6-7pm, Wednesday, October 14th, 2026 – an open house style event for parents/guardians to connect with our Lake Trail teaching staff. It’s on our school calendar as a Lake Trail Staff/Parent Mixer and doors open at 6:00pm. Come find me in the grade 6 pod. This is a whole school community event and there will be activities set up to explore. In November we will have more formal conferences to discuss academic progress.

9am-12pm, Thursday, October 15th, 2026 – we are walking to and from the LINC Youth Centre. Please send students with a pack lunch for this day as we will not be on site for Munch-a-Lunch orders.

We are hoping to do pumpkin carving this year with our students. For the last 3 years, we have been given a donation of 100 pumpkins from Thrifty’s. This will be a part of the ADST curriculum as we plan and carve our pumpkins. We will be sending them home no later than October 30th.

Little Buddies is about to begin with our Kindergarten/Grade 1 community at Courtenay El. We are working on dates with the Courtenay El Team, and we will update the calendar as soon as we know. We will be out of the building for Block 2 and 3 as we will be walking to and from the school. It is our hope that with little walks like this we can learn how to support people around us and build stamina for longer walks around our community later this school year.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

September Update

Hello families, 

We had our first Grade 6 Assembly on Friday and it was great to get together to celebrate a great start to the year. In math we are building routines with our first topic being Number sense. In science we have started to look into Space. We will be starting a research project in October. In Language Arts, we are working on our writing and reading the novel, A Rover Story by Jasmin Warga.

During last Friday’s assembly we announced our first fieldtrip – to the LINC youth centre on October 15th for the morning. Field Trip forms will go home next week, but I can send you the pdf if that works better for you.

This week is busy with a mixture of presentations and special events.

  • Presentation from Christina Willard-Stepan, Environmental Educator with CVRD, was yesterday. So much learning. So thankful for her time.

  • Terry Fox run, Block 3, Friday, September 25th 
    • We are collecting Toonies for Terry if you are able to send some in
  • Grade 6/7 Truth and Reconciliation Assembly, Block 3, Monday, September 28th
  • School Wide Truth and Reconciliation Assembly, Block 1, Tuesday, September 29th
  • No school on September 30th for Truth and Reconciliation Day
  • Walking Field Trip to the Hatchery Friday October 2nd from 9am-12pm
    • Form coming home tomorrow

Athletics

  • Cross Country practices are Thursdays after school
  • 6/7 Volleyball Practices Monday and Friday at lunch
  • 6/7 Recreational Soccer Wednesday lunch
  • Chess Club starts Mondays in the LLC at lunch

 

Please feel free to reach out if you have questions about the above info.

aerial photo of Ulm, Germany

September Start

Dear families,

 Welcome to grade 6 at Lake Trail Community Middle School! Your child has been placed in advisory # 63, with me, Jennifer McDonald. This year we will be learning alongside #61 (Jennifer Yager), #62 (Mark Nightingale), and #64 (Nicole Larocque.) We work closely as a team and look forward to a great year of learning together.

Reporting will be on Spaces most of the time, and at the end of the year there will be a printed report card. If you have any questions throughout the year about how you student is doing, please never hesitate to email me.

I am hoping to start to get to know you and your family a little bit. You are the expert in your child, and I look forward to working with you. I have attached a Survey

 that I am hoping you can fill out. I also have a paper copy coming home to you (if you prefer). If you would rather have a conversation, on the phone or in an email, just respond to this email. 

Welcome to 63! 2026-2027 – Fill out form

I have also attached the schedule for 63. It has been printed off for the students here at school already. I’ll be handing it out on Monday.

If you ever need to get in touch with me, email is the best way.

For the first time, but certainly not the last, thank you so much for your patience, understanding and trust as we get started with our year together! It is going to be a great one.