St. Peter Canisius Catholic School February 2015 Newsletter http://www.st-clair.net Director: D. Parr Superintendent: A. Sutton Principal: M. McKeown Board Chair: C. Bryden Trustee: M. Roop Lent Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Ash Wednesday is on Wednesday Feb. 18th; all students will receive ashes on this day. Please join us if you are able: 9:00 Mass at Our Lady Help of Christians. Mrs. Sabatini and her grade 2/3 class will be leading us in this celebration. Kindergarten Registration for September 2015 kinderSTARt is a special one day event for parents to register their children for Kindergarten. It’s also a great opportunity for parents and children to learn more about school together! At St. Peter Canisius Catholic School, kinderSTARt will be held on Wednesday, February 25 from 9:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. The program is offered in partnership with the St. Clair Catholic District School Board and our Best Start community partners. Through kinderSTARt children and parents have an early opportunity to visit the school, register for Kindergarten and meet staff in preparation for Full Day Kindergarten in the fall of 2015. We also welcome all younger siblings (18 months to 3 years) to attend. Our community partners are there to offer lots of helpful information about getting ready for school, such as ages and stages growth development, good nutrition, healthy living tips and immunization. It’s a fun and informative event for the whole family! We hope to see you then! School Mass Our next School Mass will take place on Ash Wednesday, February 18th, 2015 and will begin at 9:00 a.m. at Our Lady Help of Christian Church. Please join us as we begin our Lenten journey together. Elmira Chicken Fundraiser We are about mid-way for this year’s Elmira Chicken Fundraiser. We are hoping to have all orders completed and returned by Feb. 9th – please feel free to call Mrs. Cotton if you need another order form sent home or if you need a couple more days to finish your sales. The orders MUST be submitted on Thurs. Feb. 12th. The chicken orders will be delivered on Thurs. Feb. 26th between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. Thanks so much to J. Verstraten and J. Irwin for overseeing this fundraiser. The proceeds will be used to upgrade our playground. Grade 7 Muskoka Woods students will be using their portion of proceeds to support their trip. Grow Your Brain! Programs For Students In February Don’t underestimate the value of letting your child persevere. Learning activities that offer some challenge to students help support their brain growth. Research shows that it is really important for children to take risks in order to learn. When they work through tasks that challenge their thinking, synapses fire in their brain, connections are made and their brain grows. This is how learning occurs. Encourage your child to try on their own first. Praise their efforts and willingness to stick it out and put forth their best effort. Building resilient, flexible learning promotes brain growth! For more information on developing a growth mind-set, heck out this TED Talk video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN34FNbOKXc We have booked several guests into the school in the month of February. The St. Clair Region Conservation Authority will be running three different programs for classroom participation. Go With the Flow, Aquatic Water Awareness have all been booked – and all compliment the Ontario Curriculum. As well, we have booked the Dairy Educator in February to present the highly successful dairy education program. Please see the calendar for more information on dates. Annual Sarnia Spelling Bee The Organization for Literacy in Lambton will be holding the Annual Sarnia Spelling Bee at the Sarnia Public Library Auditorium on Wednesday, March 4, 2015. Any interested students (grade 3+) can see Mrs. Cotton for more information. A+ Report Cards Report cards will be sent home on Tuesday, February 17th. Parents who wish to schedule a 3-Way-Conference with their child’s teacher are asked to call the school to set up a time to visit. The conferences will take place on Thursday, February 19th between 2:45 and 5:00 p.m. (by appointment only). If this evening in not convenient for you, please be assured that your child’s teacher would be happy to meet with you during an alternate day. Please contact him or her to set something up that works for both of you. Public Speaking Happy Valentine’s Day The Watford Legion and Optimist Club are both hosting their annual Public Speaking Contest. Those boys and girls who are interested in attending have been encouraged to pick up forms and register (with parental permission and support). Several teachers have offered to help proof read or edit speeches if requested. The Optimist Contest is being held on Tuesday, February 17th and the Legion Contest is on Tuesday Mar. 2nd. Please call the school if you need more information. ♥ Friday Feb. 13th staff and students will celebrate Valentine’s Day by wearing pink, white and red. Remember to show your school spirit! Hats and Mittens Over the past month we have purchased dozens of warm weather articles for the students to use when they have forgotten or misplaced their own hats or mittens. These extras have also gone missing and we again find our “stash” empty. If you have warm gloves, mittens, neck warmers etc. that have come home and don’t belong to you – please kindly send them back to school OR if you have extras at home that you could donate – that would be VERY helpful. Thanks to several parents who have been knitting us some of these articles. March Break Family Day Please mark your calendars – if you haven’t already done so for March Break. This year schools will be closed for March Break from Monday Mar. 16 to Friday Mar. 20th. If you are expecting to extend your winter break - please let us know so that we will be prepared for your child’s absenteeism. Monday February 16th, Family Day occurs on the third Monday in February of each year, for the purpose of emphasizing and celebrating the importance of families taking time to be together. There will be NO school on this day. What have you got planned? Lenten Mission Project Our Lenten Missions project this year is a monetary donation to PKS Kids. We are asking each family to donate $2.00 toward this worthwhile cause. Being that it is her Grade 8 graduating year, we would like to honour Rachel Willemse, who has lived with PallisterKillian Syndrome all of her life. Her family went 11 years without knowing what her diagnosis was, as this syndrome is very rare. Now thanks to PKS Kids, her family is able to share their experiences and learn from other parents who also have children with this same diagnosis. What is PKS? Pallister-Killian mosaic syndrome is typically caused by the presence of two copies of the short arm of chromosome 12 (12p). It occurs at conception and there is no known cause. Children with this syndrome suffer low muscle tone, seizures, diaphragmatic hernias, global developmental delays, hearing and vision loss among other traits. PKS Kids mission is to promote research, provide education and raise awareness within the medical community in order to ensure early diagnoses of children with Pallister-Killian Syndrome (PKS) and to provide resources and support to families, therapists and caregivers of children with PKS. Helping Your Child to Succeed at School Director’s Insert for February 2015 10 Tips to help your child with writing – Kindergarten to Grade 3 1. Read from a variety of sources. Reading and writing are linked – success in one supports success in the other. Read stories, newspapers, advertisements, instructions, etc. to your child every day and then discuss what you have read. 2. Encourage your child to write. Children love to make their own birthday cards, write thank you notes, make place cards for the table, or send an email to a friend. Save old cards from birthdays and holidays to recycle for homemade cards. Whenever possible, let your child see you writing – grocery lists, instructions on the family whiteboard, emails, etc. – and get them to help. 3. Writing can be done anywhere. Have lots of magnetic letters or words on the fridge. Get a box of chalk and write your names on the driveway or sidewalk. Get a white board – it can be used again and again. 4. Play writing games. Make a game of letter finding. Show them how to form a letter and then go letter hunting in your house or in a book – count the number of "Ds" on a page. Find a picture they like and have them write words or a sentence about it. 5. Help children build their vocabulary. Try rhyming games starting with one word such as "mat". Say and write down all the words that rhyme, like "cat", "hat", "fat" and "splat". You'll be surprised how fast their word list grows. 6. Explore the meaning of words. Create a word book at home and have your child add words as they're learned. Have them note the words they use the most and talk about why. 7. Write to each other. Write notes to your child and leave them in interesting places, like the lunch box. Ask them to write a reply or come up with something new. If they have their own email, email each other. Have kids email jokes to family and friends. 8. Don't limit what you write with or what you write on. The sky's the limit – pudding, sticks or fingers in mud, earth, snow and sand, sparklers, steamed up windows and mirrors, and bubble soap markers for some sudsy learning. 9. Writing comes in all shapes and sizes. Point out different ways writing is used – letters, signs, advertisements, instructions – and explain why they are different. Also point out different ways letters are created – printed, cursive (written) and fancy variations. Let them be inspired to create their own letter art. 10. Start writing at an early age. Children often learn to write before they can read. Encourage this by showing them how to print their name or the names of friends and other family members. Buy them notebooks with lines so they can learn to make their letters correctly or a practice book with letters they can trace.