School Program

Do you know a school or a group of children that could benefit from learning tools such as tracing boards?  James and I want to send one Canadian school their choice of six tracing boards to use and incorporate into their curriculum. 

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Thank you to all of you who nominated your community school or program.  Congratulations to Westmount School in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.  They were chosen at random and became the first school to receive six tracing boards through theTimber Child School Program!

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Nominations are now closed.   Please sign up for our newsletter to stay in the loop about the next time we're accepting nominations.

- We will share some of your nominations on this page.  If, for some reason you wish for your message or name not to be published, please let us know in your message.

-Timber Child will cover all costs.

-This is only open to Canadian schools.

Nominations

Bulkley Valley Christian School - Smithers, BC

I am nominating our local Northern Town in Smithers, BC the school is BVCS (Bulkley Valley Christian School) we have the largest number of children with special needs. As a maker myself I really am trying to help support the school in anyway I can. Being in a rural community it’s hard to access items that are readily available to the school without large costs. They help not only my son who has a learning disability, but many other families. Our Preschool program is holding an art auction soon to raise money for the young children to invest in some new toys and playground to play and learn. These boards I feel would greatly help the program and the children who need some extra attention in a fun, playful way. If I could help them get these boards it would be a huge blessing I feel to the school and young preschool program. They put so much effort into helping the families in this community, that I feel they deserve something to help the future of the community.  Thank you for reading. What a great thing y’all are doing.

-Shaele

Écoles des Deux Rives – Mission, BC

I teach English at l’École des deux rives in mission and they just started their strong start program! It’s amazing a very Waldorf/Montessori feel they would so benefit from these within their classroom! They have a small group of under 9 students! Please pick us!

-B.M.

Peter Greer Elementary - Lake Country, BC

I’m nominating my amazing school to be chosen. I’m currently on maternity leave, but I love our staff and students! We’re a dual track school, both French and English are taught up to Grade 6. Our school backs onto the forest with trails and large green spaces. Many classrooms are trying to get their students out to explore the outdoors and to incorporate it into their teaching. This last year they created an outdoor classroom space. These wooden math boards would be a great addition to our push for our students to love all things nature. We have a communal math cupboard where teachers can sign out the materials they need. A couple teachers have put their ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ into organizing this and I KNOW they would be over the moon thrilled to include your boards. They know how important math skills are for our kids to learn and as teachers we have been working hard at making math fun for our kids so they shout out, ‘Yes, it’s math time!’ Every student in the school could benefit from these. Thank you for the opportunity!!

 -Sarah

Allen-Detweiler Nursery School - Kingston, ON

Hi there! I’d like to nominate my son’s nursery school, Allen-Detweiler Nursery School, located in Kingston, ON. It is a small “school” with a toddler room of 9 children and a preschool room of 30 children. It would surely benefit from such a gracious gift! It is a cooperative program with families volunteering in many roles, including running fundraisers to help purchase items for the school. ADNS is focused on play-based learning that incorporates an inter-generational component into its programming too. It’s located within a nursing home, allowing the residents and children opportunities to do activities together. I can picture the residents and preschool children using these boards together as they help one another! :)  Thank you for your consideration and for your generosity!  All my best,

-Bronwyn

CJ Schurter Elementary School  - Slave Lake, AB

I would love to nominate CJ Schurter Elementary School in Slave Lake, AB. I have been working at this school for 5 years in the role of Wellness Coach which means I focus on the mental, physical, and nutritional health of our students.  The teachers at our school of over 500 students do an amazing job, I swear we have some of the best teachers out there! However sometimes it is a struggle to incorporate “new” and “exciting” ways of teaching when the budget does not allow. I believe these tracing boards would be so well loved and used by so many students, especially our special needs students who need a little extra help.  Thank you for considering our school!

-Kyla

Eben-ezer Christian School - Campden, ON

I would like to nominate our little school, Eben-ezer Christian School - Campden, ON. As a church community we started our school only 4 years ago to support our growing generation. The upper classes are not full at all, sometimes only 4 students in a room of 3 grades together. However, the students coming are classes of 8-10 students each. So far, we teach jk to grade 12 with a total of 4 teachers and 3 volunteers. Each classroom is 3 grades together. These boards would be amazing aids to those teachers teaching jk or kindergarten, giving the students amazing opportunity for solid, hands on education and the teachers could use the help! A former primary teacher myself, a mother of 4 young children, and a volunteer librarian at Eben-ezer right now, I know we would be so absolutely honored to receive these teacher aids! Thank you so much for the opportunity of this giveaway and congratulations to the winner!

-Melinda

Wickaninnish Community School - Tofino, BC

I teach at Wickaninnish Community School in Tofino, B.C. We are a quickly growing community with lots of young families. This year, we have 3 kindergarten classes for the very first time! As a community, this year we are focusing on Early Years and specifically the transition to kindergarten. As such, all kindergarten teachers, daycare providers from the community and outlying communities, and Strongstart meet regularly to discuss how we can help students seamlessly transition from centre to school in the least stressful, most exciting way. This includes having familiar resources and toys in the spaces, and sharing those resources.  As well, we are focusing on bringing Indigenous culture, specifically Nuu-chah-nulth language, into our daily activities. The number board would be a great way to include practice in both languages. The natural materials also tie back into the Land, which is important in Indigenous teachings. As such, we try to get materials that we can bring outside and use in our forest, along trails, or even the beach. This would be perfect!  Thank you for your consideration.

-Kristin

Ruth King Elementary - Langford, BC

First of all, I love that you are doing this to support the learning of so many children. I would like to nominate Ruth King Elementary. We are an inner city school in Langford, BC where we have a large number of new immigrants, special needs students and students living below the poverty line. I am a kindergarten teacher here and also a maker myself and I have been trying to incorporate more natural material toys within the classroom. Being in the middle of city blocks, our students do not have access to a lot of natural materials and these tracing boards may help our students feel more connected to nature while building on foundational skills with letters and numbers. We also have a very busy strong start program that is trying to get away from plastic and use more wood and found objects in their program. These boards could benefit the students attending that program as well!Thank you for your consideration :)

-Jasmine

Coquihalla Elementary - Hope, BC

I’m nominating the K department at Coquihalla Elementary in Hope, BC. Here we teach a diverse group of children from the town of Hope and surrounding communities in the Fraser Canyon and Crows Nest Highway as well as many Indigenous communities. The K teachers all strive to allow their students the opportunity to connect nature to their learning and what better way then to add these beautiful boards. The students would thrive having the tactile approach to learning their letters and numbers. There are three K classes which would mean each class would have two boards. What an amazing opportunity for other students and staff.

-Jennifer

Renfrew Educational Services - Calgary, Alberta

I nominate Renfrew Educational Services in Calgary, Alberta. They have multiple schools around the city and they all specialize and help children with varying disabilities. My son currently attends their school to help with his severe speech delay. They have programs from preschool all the way to Grade 6.  Being a private school, they greatly benefit from the donations and kindness of others in order to continue in helping their students learn and grow. I could not ask for better or loving teachers, therapist, administrative staff, etc in helping my child to become a better speaker and helping him with coping mechanisms. I know they have helped countless other children as well with all their programs that they do and offer.

-Kjerstine

Sacred Heart Community School - Moose Jaw, Sask

Sacred Heart Community School’s prekindergarten program is located in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Our Prekindergarten program is ministry-funded program allowing students to have early interventions and a strong start before entering kindergarten. This play-based program is filled with children of ages 3 and 4 exploring and experimenting with loose parts, beautiful treasures, and gifts from nature. Incorporating a learning tool like this beautiful tracing board enriches and scaffolds learning for all developmental ages and abilities. This cross-curricular tool helps support numeracy, language, story telling, social and problem solving skills. We would be blessed to have a gift like this in our classroom!

-Deanna

Westmount School - Moose Jaw, Sask

I am a teacher at a Pre-K to Grade 8 school called Westmount in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I would like to nominate this school for a set of your tracing boards. My family owns two of the boards (alphabet and counting). My wife has a home daycare and uses these boards many different ways as learning tools. I can personally attest to the high quality and beauty of these boards. The Pre-K and Kindergarten children at Westmount would greatly benefit from using tracing boards. A tracing board would also compliment the many other natural materials that are being used in both programs. Westmount has a large number of immigrant/refugee children whose first language is not English. I feel that these tracing boards would provide a cool and natural way to introduce these children to the letters and numbers. Thank you for providing schools with this great opportunity. Good luck everyone!

-Keith

Crofton Elementary School - Crofton, BC 

I would like to nominate Crofton Elementary School in Crofton, BC to receive these beautiful tracing boards. Crofton Elementary administration and staff go above and beyond to support their students as whole beings. Curriculum is delivered in a play based approach, and these tracing boards would go a long way to support play based numeracy investigation and instruction. Recently, the school has begun hosting a Strong Start 'On the Go' program, that reaches out to families with children 0-5 to support rich learning opportunities prior to entering Kindergarten. As this is a new program, resources like these would help to solidify a strong foundation for learning that can be modeled for parents who are participating in the program. The Strong Start program also works in collaboration with the K-3 classes, helping to create smooth transitions between home and school. Another reason that Crofton deserves these boards is that they strongly believe in nature based play. Quality resources like this that help children explore their environment are fundamental to life long learning. Please consider Crofton Elementary for these tracing boards so that they can continue to enrich the curriculum.

-Brenda

Lindsay Park Elementary - Kimberley, BC

My dear friend just got some of your tracing boards for her son and sent your "School Program" link to me. These are amazing and I've wished for something like this for a long time!  I'm a kindergarten teacher at Lindsay Park Elementary in Kimberley, BC. We are a Green School and I'm constantly working to transform my classroom and resources in natural/nature-based ways. I would love to use these tracing boards instead of laminated tracing sheets. Plus, the indentations in the boards make it a more effective tool for early formation skills.  I often have support staff coming to my classroom looking for resources to support other children in our school and this is a resource they would love, as well. Thank you for your beautiful and generous offering to some lucky school in Canada.

-Shannon

Prairie View Elementary School - Dalmeny, Sask

I would like to nominate Prairie View Elementary School in Dalmeny, SK. I am an upper elementary teacher in this school, and everyday I get the pleasure of watching our teachers work tirelessly to support and enrich the lives of “our kids”. We have over 240 children (K-6) from a large variety of cultures, backgrounds, and experiences walk through the doors of our school everyday, eager to learn. Our youngest friends are welcomed into an environment where our teachers and support staff strive to create natural, discovery based learning opportunities both inside and outside. Unfortunately, budget limitations often result in our staff creating or purchasing the materials and resources that help support everyone’s learning. This results in a lot of personal time, effort, and money being devoted to our kids.  As a parent and a teacher I understand the importance of materials such as your boards. I recently purchased both of the types you make for my four year old daughter, and immediately got to witness first hand how many different activities and self-directed experiences they create. Should our school be selected, I know these boards would be utilized daily as we continue to support all of the varying needs of our kids.  Thank you for this opportunity.

-Teress

Robson Community School - Robson, BC

I would like to nominate Robson Community School in the small town of Robson. We are a tiny but powerful school with lower income families. The children here love learning and would be so thankful for such beautiful, natural resources. Our whole school is working at becoming a local, natural based school that is full of hands on activities to enrich our little people ☺️ Thank you for donating such wonderful materials!

-Melissa

Parkside Elementary - Summerside, PE

Hi! I'd love to nominate Parkside Elementary in Summerside, PE. My son will be attending there when he is old enough for school and all my friends children go there so it's dear to me, We are a very small town with a huge low income population. Our schools are all government funded and lack the resources needed for hands on learning. I think having any one of these all natural handmade brilliant learning boards would be an amazing gift for the students whom get to use it. It would be a great asset for them to have in the classroom or for an EA! Thanks for taking the time to read, this is an amazing gift you are giving. The children whom get to use this will absolutely love it!

-Alice

 

Brant Argyle School - Argyle, MB

A multi level learning, nature loving, 105 year old school on the prairies.Brant-Argyle is a K-8 multi-level learning school located in the hamlet of Argyle, Manitoba.  A multi-level learning environment contains a balance of students of different age groups with a range of achievement levels. Our teachers plan, instruct, and assess to show the value of diversity within a class. Students accept each other’s unique abilities. This learning environment encourages a confident and independent learner. To support our multi-level learning environment we are pleased to offer an all day, every day Kindergarten program.

-Jessica