The Villager
Stories from the Countryside "The First 8 Weeks" Issue #1
Welcome to Countryside Village Public School. In the past few weeks, we've experienced some initial growing pains as we adjusted to a smaller school population than expected. Although we are a relatively small school now, we expect to grow steadily as the year progresses with new students being welcomed to the school each week.
All of the staff at Countryside Village Public School are excited about the new school year. We are looking forward to developing new relationships with our students and you. We have a wealth of challenging experiences to offer your child and we know that your partnership with us will ensure that the year is very successful. As a community of learners we are encouraged by the support that we receive from our parent community. It is this support that plays a major role in the ability of students to reach their full potential. We invite you to contact the school with questions or concerns as they arise. It is only through open communication that we can ensure that all of our students receive the best education in Peel.
We've already done lots of learning since we came to school and we want to share some of the inquiries/events that have been happening in our classes and around the school. It's exciting to be bringing our school messages and stories to you in a digital format. As a 21st century teaching and learning community, we want to model methods of communication that our students will be using during their elementary school years and as they move to secondary school and beyond. We will be using this format for our school newsletter to give you a 'peek' into the school and the activities that your child is experiencing. This will supplement your child's class website or class Twitter and will keep you 'up-to-date' with some of the exciting learning that is happening at our school.
We hope you enjoy learning about Countryside Village Public School and the great work that our students and teachers are doing every day.
School News Feed - Subscription
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http://schools.peelschools.org/1513/aboutus/subscribe/Pages/default.aspx
Staff Directory
Grade One - Mrs. Neilsen, Mrs. Page
Grade Two - Ms. Forrest, Ms. Currie
Grade Three - Mrs. Poll-Griffith, Ms. Woelfle
Grade Four - Mr. Smythe
Grade Five - Ms. Malik
Grade Six - Miss Harper
Grade Seven - Ms. Wedemre-Roberts
Grade Eight - Ms. Lindsay
Music - Mr. Hunter
Physical Education - Mrs. Myton
French - Mrs. Mancini
Library - Mrs. Simons
Support - Ms. Haslam-Smith, Mrs. Joyce, Mrs. Torresan
Teaching Assistants - Mrs. Shaw and Ms. Burrell
Office Staff - Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Shewfelt
Vice-Principal - Mrs. Godsoe
Principal - Mrs. Pratt
Countryside Village Goes Social
Dear Families,
We are excited to announce the launch of our school Twitter and Instagram accounts. Twitter and Instagram are online social networking and microblogging services that enable users to send and read text-based, picture and video messages.
We will use our Twitter and Instagram accounts as a means of communicating and sharing with you. It may be used to inform/remind families of upcoming events, to send reminders and to recognize the achievements and personal accomplishments of our students.
Any parents who wish to follow our school Instagram and Twitter feed can do so by following us at @CountrysidePDSB on Twitter and CountrysidePDSB on Instagram. It will be a way for us to show you a little about our student’s—a way to provide you with a virtual window into our school.
Thank you!
Important Information for Families
Ready? Set? High School! for parents
Whatever path your teen chooses, we want to make sure your entire family is ready to embrace the many opportunities that await your teen upon graduation. Our Ready? Set? High School! Parent Guide will provide you with a snapshot of what you need to know to help your teen be successful. You can find it online at www.peelschools.org/parents/helpyourchild/parentguide.
Regional Learning Choices Programs unlock passions, potential
All of our schools offer a variety of programs designed to unlock students’ passions and potential. Some students have a strong interest in a particular area. For those students, a Regional Learning Choices Program may be a good option. Find out more about our programs, including
Oct. 29 opportunity to say 'thanks' to bus drivers
Peel schools will pay tribute to bus drivers on Bus Driver Appreciation Day on Oct. 29. The day will be celebrated with special activities and events that provide teachers, students and parents an opportunity to thank the people who safely transport over 36,000 students to and from school each day.
If your child rides the bus to school, take this opportunity to thank the bus driver for his or her contribution and ask your child to do so too. The Peel board appreciates the important job bus drivers do each school day and Oct. 29 provides an opportunity to give these individuals the recognition they deserve.
Student/Parent Conferences
Stories from our Classrooms and Students
The K's
Grade 1's
To begin we would like to thank parents and students for making our move into grade one a smooth transition. We had a wonderful month and half learning with your grade one child in our play based inquiry classroom environment.
We believe students learn best in a developmentally appropriate environment that fosters exploration and inquiry. In fact we believe students are effective communicators and by listening and observing your child at work we are able to provide an effective and authentic literacy and numeracy program for your child. Here are a few examples of learning opportunities we have offered your child due to careful observations of your child at play.
- Explored relationships between and among patterns
- Created pieces of art using paint, crayons, glue and fabric
- Created a Tim-Horton’s center that included a menu
- Responded to books written by Eric Carle
- Wrote lists and sentences during independent writing
- Read to self using pictures and sometimes words during independent reading
- Discussed rules and regulations in our classroom, playground, the bus and at home
- Created dramatizations to demonstrate understanding of recycling
- Travelled to Downy’s Farm
Grade 2's
Check out our Inquiry on Teeth
The Grade Three's
October 9, 2014
Dear Countryside Families,
We are the grade 3 students at Countryside in Mrs. Poll-Griffith’s and Ms. Woelfle’s class. Our class is learning about plants and soils as part of the grade 3 curriculum. At the beginning of the year we noticed that the plants are in bad condition in our flowerbeds outside. As part of our term 1 plan, we made an inquiry about how things grow and investigated the best plant choices for our area. We decided that planting some new flowers in our flowerbeds would make our Countryside Village community more beautiful and make nature happier.
For us to make this a success we need some help from the Countryside community. If you are able to provide us with any of the following items we would be very grateful:
v flower bulbs – daffodils, tulips, etc.
v mulch
v topsoil
v volunteers to help with planning, pruning, or planting
v extra perennials from your gardens
If you are able to help us please contact our teachers at the school. Our phone number is (905)843-2927. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
The Grade 3 Electric Dinosaurs
Follow us on Twitter to see our progress: @csvgrade3
Grade 4 News
From the 5's
What has happened & What we are doing in Gr. 5
So far... in grade 5 we have been busy inquiring, investigating, and discovering about all sorts of things that grade fives would find interesting and fun.
What has happened & what we are doing in math:
What we’ve been doing in math is that we are learning to represent numbers using place value charts, playing packman and using number lines.
What we have been doing in science:
We have been inquiring about forces and what connections they have to the world around us like natural disasters.
What we have been doing in social studies:
We have been researching about government & we can’t wait to take a student vote on Oct 27. 2014! We have been inquiring about the upcoming municipal elections and who the candidates are for the town of Caledon.
Our learning journey has just begun and we can’t wait for what lies ahead!!!!
Look out Countrysiders here come the Grade 5 Villagers!!!
From Our Sixes
The grade sixes have begun to learn about flight. Our first “Mystery Build” was last week. We built two flying objects. One that had to float slowly from the second floor to the first, and a second that had to travel far when thrown. As we learned we changed our designs. We also recorded our results by documenting our thought process. We developed our measurement, building, recording and testing skills!
The 7's
We started the year off with lots of fun, lots of learning and lots of changes. To start, every student has made many new friends in this school. In the first week of school there was a play day hosted by the teachers and grade eights. They did a great job getting us to know each other and teambuilding. About a week later, all the classes in Countryside Village made a class flag and a chant to go with it. Then, we had a small assembly to display our flags and sing our chants. It was great to see everyone show off their creativity as a class. Next, on Terry Fox Day we added some excitement and turned it into a Terry Fox play day! The grade sevens and eights from Countryside Village and Ross Drive were leaders at the play day stations along with some help from the Mayfield Secondary students. A few weeks after that, we heard that some of our teachers will be leaving. We were very sad, but now the students have adjusted to the changes. So far the school year has been great here at Countryside Village Public school!
The Grade 8 Organized Playday
School Information
Countryside Village Public School
Website: http://schools.peelschools.org/1513/Pages/default.aspx
Location: 12175 Bramalea Road, Brampton, ON L7C2P9
Phone: 905-843-2927
Twitter: @CountrysidePDSB