Chess club

The Chess Club is up and running again at Charlton.  Students (mostly from Gr. 4-8) meet twice a week to play chess matches with each other and learn new strategies from one another.  The club is run by Student Leadership Team members Ivan and Kate.  Between 20 and 30 students typically participate in any given session.

Below are some images of students participating.

Tour for Humanity

Last week the Tour for Humanity, a mobile presentation vehicle which is operated by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, rolled into Charlton for presentations to our Gr. 4-8 students. 
Here's what students had to say about the presentation: 

Charlton P.S. recently had members from the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center bring the “Tour of Humanity” to our school.  The tour is a bus with a built-in classroom, 12 large screen T.V’s and seating for up to 30 students.  The goal of this tour was to teach us about racism, inequality, judgement, and freedom. The “Tour for humanity” taught the students of Charlton about the many times in history where hatred and racism led to violence and war (e.g. the Holocaust, Japanese internment camps in Canada).  The tour also had us reflect upon ourselves and how we can ensure that these events in history never happen again.

Max K.

Combined with our Holocaust survivor visit earlier in January, this was a powerful learning month for our more senior students.

Remembrance of the Holocaust

During the first weeks of January, Mrs. Faigie Libman and the Tour for Humanity were welcomed to educate Charlton’s intermediate students on the Holocaust. We faced and learned one of the world’s most horrifying tragedy; the Holocaust was a catastrophe as six million Jews were executed by the hands of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi army (1933 - 1945). On January 6th, 2016, Libman spoke of her experience as a prisoner of a concentration camp - death camps created by Nazis to massacre Jews. She introduced to us forced labour, gas chambers, death marches, and many significant heroes and villains of the World War II. The following Wednesday, on the bus Tour for Humanity, we watched a documentary and learned of the mistreatment, starvation and punishments the Jews experienced because Germans felt hate and intolerance towards differences. However, through the devastating and dark times of our history, there have good-hearted heroes - Gandhi, Anne Frank, Martin Luther King Jr, Simon Wiesenthal, and many more - who risked their lives, wealth, career positions, time, money, and most importantly, their own safety, to bring aid to suffering victims. After the two educational visits, I’ve come to understand that wars begin due to miscommunication, misunderstandings, prejudice and detestation. Humanity needs to stand up to racism, the will of assimilation, and violence in order to tame our demons, to prevent history from repeating itself, to create a better world, to accept dissimilarities and find peace.   

Hilary T.

Big Brothers/Big Sisters program at Charlton

Tonight our Tuesday after school program for students began. It is run by Big Brothers/big Sisters and is called 'play Great'. The program promotes kids to unplug and get back to enjoying physical activity, socializing with peers and being part of their community. 21 students in grades 2-4 attended. Students got to know the instructors, Rachel and Stephen, and played some activities. We are excited to have Big Brothers/sisters involved in our school!

Holocaust survivor presentation at Charlton

WELCOME BACK!

We have started the year with an incredible and very sobering presentation to our Gr. 6-8 students. Faigie Libman spoke to our students this week to relate her experiences during WWII. She made an impression that students will not soon forget. Her overarching message for students to be kind to each other is one which we will repeat many times in the course of this school year.


Please read the account that one student wrote (below) of what she heard:

The Story of Faigie Libman

By:Li

Unfortunately, not many people can say they survived the horrific events of the Holocaust. So, when Faigie Libman, a Jewish holocaust survivor, came to our school to tell us her story, the grade 6-8 students were thrilled by the opportunity to hear about the holocaust from someone who, thankfully, lived through it. Ms. Libman was a fantastic speaker, and her story was moving, sad, and made many of the students be a little more thankful for their families, belongings, and an almost trouble-free life. Before WWII affected Lithuania, the country where Ms. Libman lived, Faigie lived a good, joyful life, with her strict mother, and more of an easy-going father. But that happy life ended dramatically, when her family was forced to abandon their house, and arrive at Kaunas Ghetto*. Faigie, and her family, were allowed to bring only their most prized possessions, and so, she brought only one thing to the Ghetto, her Shirley Temple doll, that she got from her Aunt on her 5th birthday.

But, things only got worse for Faigie, and her family. They were sent to labor camp, where her father worked, and her mother, a nurse, did her best to help the sick in the camp. One day, Faigie went to work with her mother, only to come back, and discover she was the only child left in the camp, for the Nazis took away all the children, and elderly, including her grandmother, to be killed. In this situation, many people might have given up hope, and faith, but not Faigie. “I always told my parents, ‘Everything will get better!’” she explained to the crowd. “I was always optimistic”. But, neither she, nor her family could prevent what happened next. Her father, whom she loved, was split from her, and her mother. The two were sent to a concentration camp for women, where all 10 year olds were killed. Faigie was 10 at the time, which made her mother naturally worried. So, instead of losing hope, she lied that her daughter was actually 12, and to her relief, the Nazis believed her. Faigie worked in the camp until 1944, when the women were to go on the “Death March”.

They walked in the snow, with no jackets, and coats for days, until something wonderful happened. “I will never forget that moment” said Faigie, with a smile on her face. A man on a horse, from the Russian Resistance appeared, and told all the women left, they were free.

Faigie traveled to Montreal, Canada, 3 years after the war had ended, during the year 1948, with her mother, but unfortunately, not with her father, who died in the camp he was sent to. In Canada, Faigie returned to school, and finally, had a normal life once again. Today, she is a retired kindergarten teacher, who goes around schools in Canada, to spread her story. The final thing Faigie showed to the crowd, was a nice Shirley Temple doll. She explained she got it from a mother of a girl who heard her story. “I keep this doll as a reminder, that there are good people in the world” she finished.  

Here is a photo of Ms. Libman presenting to our students.