News From James Grieve PS
May 2017
Message From Mrs. Punjabi
We are already in the third week of May and there is so much going on at James Grieve Public School from now until the end of the year. As we continue with the curriculum and successful transitions for our students (in addition to preparing our grade 3 and 6 students for EQAO), while starting to plan for next year, we are also looking forward to many year-end celebrations. The last couple of months have been filled with many amazing events organized by our staff and our school community.
Our students have had many, many exciting opportunities to be involved in at school! We celebrated Earth Day and thanks to Mrs. Shakell who ordered a large number of White Cedar Seedlings, a generous donation from Copernicus (https://www.copernicused.com/), which were planted in our school yard and shared with our school community. Every single class planted a tree and had fun naming their tree. Mrs. Singh’s Grade 7 A class have taken on many leadership initiatives, and one noteworthy event is the ‘Earth Day Fair’ that they ran for all students from Grade 1 to Grade 5 to teach them the importance of protecting our planet. It was a student-run event and was a resounding success.
May 1-5 was Education Week where we celebrated our students achievements and had a dual-language read aloud to celebrate the start of Asian Heritage Month. Some of our students also reflected on their journey at James Grieve and shared their thoughts through poetry or through writing to tell us what they like about their school. French Café and the photo booth set up by Mme Singhla and Mme. Williams from the French Department helped us to learn about the French culture and also create beautiful memories. In addition to this, our intermediate students wrote the Math Gauss Contest under the guidance of Mrs. Mawji. On that note, we hope our students are making use of the free membership for IXL Math until the end of August and also using RAZ Kids to help them with Reading in the Primary Division. We have to acknowledge and thank our School Council Chair, Mr. Dipak Patel for his strong support as well as our staff members, Mrs. Savory and Mrs. Chadha who worked really hard and used their negotiating skills to bring these amazing programs for our students. Please ask your homeroom teachers if you have any questions about using both IXL Math and RAZ Kids programs if you are unsure of how to use them.
We are incredibly proud of Tejasvi from Grade 5 and Aryan from Grade 8 who represented James Grieve in our first 'Excellence for Eloquence' contest and won accolades for our school. Several Grade 7 and 8 students had the opportunity to present their films at the 'Peel Student Film Festival' last week. They were treated like stars!
Our students continue to make us very proud in many ways. Every tournament they attend or a sporting event they come back from, we are told by many adults that our students are extremely well-behaved and well-mannered. We are always thrilled to hear the numerous compliments and are so proud of our students and you should be too. We are grateful to all of you for partnering with us and for supporting us in our endeavors to offer our students the best experiences in their elementary school. Our Soccer Centre subsidized outdoor education trip for all students from Grade 1 to Grade 8 organized by our Physical Education Teacher Mr. Savory was a huge success. The Kindergarten students had an amazing time going on the bouncy castles, thanks to Mrs. Wielocha. Our Girls and Boys Cricket teams returned with Bronze medals, making us super proud.
All these amazing events and initiatives happen because of our dedicated and passionate team of staff members. We owe them a huge thank you for all the hours of hard work and inspiration they provide on daily basis. Our sincere gratitude to all staff and team members who have made James Grieve an amazing institute of learning.
Mrs. N. Punjabi
Follow James Grieve on Twitter to find out what happens at our school:
Lastly, don't forget to follow us on our school Twitter handle @JamesGrievePS
( https://twitter.com/JamesGrievePS ) where majority of our teachers post daily happenings from James Grieve PS. The link to our website: http://schools.peelschools.org/1495/Pages/default.aspx
Celebrating Asian Heritage Month at James Grieve
Asian Heritage month is celebrated during the month of May across Peel District School Board. On Friday, May 26th students will have an opportunity to explore a variety of activity centres with the flavour of an Asian theme and deepen their understanding of the culture and heritage of our diverse Asian community. We encourage your child to dress up in their traditional clothes. Our parents/guardians are more than welcome to join us to celebrate the Asian Heritage Activity day. Our school’s Asian Heritage team is pleased to present Henna (an ancient form of body art), samosa and spring rolls sale stations in addition to other events. Please note, the henna designs will take a few weeks to fade. Allergic reactions are very rare, but possible. In order to have henna design or samosas/spring rolls purchase, a permission slip signed by a parent or guardian must be returned with exact cash. Please note that the proceeds from the sale of these items will go towards covering the cost and the profit will be used towards the purchase of resources for the classrooms. Students may choose to have:
Henna Application $1 per hand.
Samosa 50¢ each.
Spring rolls 50 ¢ each or 3 for $1.
If you have any further questions/concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the school.
Sincerely,
The Asian Heritage Committee
Start With A Smile: Welcome to Kindergarten
Please join us in our Gym on Wednesday, May 24 at 6:00 PM.
EQAO
Our Grade 3 and Grade 6 students will be writing the EQAO test from May 23—June 5. It is important that students be at school on time and that they are not interrupted while completing the assessment. Good Luck to all Grade 3’s and Grade 6’s! There is more information for parents on the website:
http://www.eqao.com/en/assessments/communication-docs/what-parents-need-to-know.pdf
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/parentGuideNumEn.pdf
How can I help my child prepare for the EQAO assessment?
• Read with your child and have conversations about what you’ve read
• Have discussions about ideas and ask your child to explain his or her thinking to you
• Incorporate basic math and literacy skills into your family
• Encourage your child to complete all assignments and his or her homework
• Support your child’s interests and celebrate his or her successes
• Communicate regularly with his or her teacher
• Make sure your child gets enough rest, eats a healthy diet and feels safe and supported by you
What kinds of EQAO questions give kids the most trouble?
In general most teachers agree that students struggle with EQAO questions that ask them to identify the main idea, to make inferences and to explain point of view. You can help your child to build his or her understanding while reading by asking questions like:
• What is the big idea or the life lesson behind this story or article?
• What might the author be trying to tell us?
• What will you remember most from this story or article?
• How does the personality of the character in the story different from your personality? How do your feelings compare to those of a character in the story?
• Can you describe an instance where you or someone you know experienced a comparable event in the story?
• How does the author’s message relate to your life?
The schedule for James Grieve PS students is below:
Grade 3
Tuesday May 23rd AM- Language A PM- Language B
Wednesday May 24th- AM Language C PM Language D
Thursday May 25th AM- Math 1 PM Math 2
Grade 6
Tuesday May 30th AM- Language A PM- Language B
Wednesday May 31st AM Language C PM Language D
Thursday June 1st Math 1 PM Math 2
Home Activities for helping with Math:
Try some of these fun math activities at home:
- Estimate speed/distance/time relationships while traveling with your family. What was the average speed of the last trip you took?
- Examine maps with your family. Estimate distances. Find locations.
- Make a favourite recipe together
- Log and graph sports scores over time. Find trends.
- Log and then graph daily temperatures over a one-week period with your family. (Make sure you take the temperature at the same time each day.)
- Estimate quantities and volumes during activities like gardening, planning food for a trip, or collecting recycling
- Track three different stocks and see how they do in one month
- Do mental calculations such as estimating grocery or restaurant bills
- Pay cash for a purchase at the register. Count your change to make sure the cashier gave you back the correct amount of money.
- Pay cash for a purchase with exactly the required money
- Read stories with your child, identifying mathematical elements like patterns, shapes, numbers, and concepts
- Play family games like Blokus, Battleship, Chess, and games with spinners/dice
- Identify geometric and number patterns in your everyday routine
- Measure household items with non-standard tools (spoon, magazine) as well as standard tools (ruler, tape measure)
- Calculate how long it will take to save for a certain item your family would like to buy using your money from part-time jobs or chores
- Weigh the family and pets. Chart the weights.
- Calculate a bat/run average for a specific baseball player
- Make a weekly schedule with your family. Make time estimations for different activities.
- Read signs with your family while driving. Specifically look for advertising that has a math concept imbedded in it. Talk about it.
- Explain how to calculate the tip at a restaurant. Do the calculation together.
- Open a bank account. Many “youth accounts” have brochures that explain interest rates. Read the literature together and decide which type of account will earn the best rates, minimize your transaction costs, and meet your minimum balance plans.
- Look at sports statistics. Have a discussion about an interesting trend.
- Go grocery shopping together. Compare prices. Estimate price per kilogram. Which is the better price?
- Talk about items “on sale.” Do some internet research to find out whether other vendors have similar products costing more or less.
- Talk about lotteries. Examine the odds.
- Talk about how a credit card works. Look at a statement together.
- Look at your electricity, gas or water bill. Which commodity costs your family the most?
- Look at charts and graphs that appear in newspapers or magazines you receive. Find one that has information that interests your family. Talk about the chart or graph.
- Examine different cell phone packages. Which is the best value for your calling pattern and payment preferences?
- Calculate how much water it takes to fill the bathtub. Calculate how much water is used during a five minute shower. Calculate how much water it would take to water a residential lawn.
- Go to youtube.com and type in “math tricks” into the search line. Explore some of the videos with your family.
- The next time you are in a car and someone is filling it with gas, notice the price per litre. Figure out how many litres you could buy for five bucks. Ask the person who is driving how much fuel his or her car uses per kilogram and then figure out how far you could go for five dollars.
- As a favour, double check someone else’s calculations or offer to do the calculation for that person. “I figured out which is the better deal. Can I tell you?”
Mark Your Calendars
Important Events and Upcoming Trips:
There are lots of trips and events taking place during May and June. It is important for students to be on time so that they don’t miss out on a trip because they are late. We count on volunteers to accompany our trips. If you have a current Vulnerable Sector Police check and you have completed the Volunteer paperwork with our Board Office, please consider volunteering for the class trips.
Please Mark the following important dates for upcoming events:
Wednesday, May 24, 2017 – ‘Start With a Smile’ FDK students registering for the 2017-2018
Friday, May 26, 2017 – Asian Heritage Fair
May 31, 2015 – Fairy Tales Play at Mayfield (Gr. 1 - Gr. 5)
June 2, 2017 – FDK Trip to Chinguacousy Park
June 21, 2017 – Grade 8 Wonderland Graduation Trip
June 23, 2017 – Canada’s 150th Day celebration/Year-End Assembly
June 27, 2017 – Jump Rope For Heart
June 28, 2017 – Grade 8 Graduation