Thursday, May 28, 2015

It's been a great week at LKS. Today, we hosted our grade 5-8 Sharing Assemblies and many students received awards for displaying the character trait of integrity. We discussed the value of integrity and the role it plays in being a good person. Tomorrow, the grade 1-3 students will participate in their assembly. 

We also reminded the students of appropriate dress as the warm weather continues and we ask that you have follow up discussions. 

I'd like to thank the parents who attended the parent council meeting on Monday night. We discussed next year's budget and proposals. The council will be publishing a year end newsletter highlighting the wonderful Parent Council initiatives that supported the LKS students this year. 

I also wanted to let you now that you still have access to IXL and RAZ over the summer as our license expires in the fall. We strongly encourage you to keep using it over the break! It's great practise. 

I don't have any news regarding the teacher labour negotiations. 

Teachers are completing final assessments and evaluations over the next few weeks and will be submitting to me final marks. 

We've been finalizing our class lists. Our 1/2 split is now a straight one, and one of our 2 /3 splits is now a straight 2. This is a result of new registrations. This may all change again in the fall depending on the number of students who register over the summer. 

We are so looking forward to Friday's Pan Am games organized by Student Council. It should be a great community builder! 

Have a great weekend. 

June 2015

June 1-4-Dental Screening; Frisbee Conference Finals 
2nd-Grade 6-8 Middle School Concert;Senior Soccer Finals  
3rd-Track and Field Conference Finals 
4th-Folk Dance Festival; Junior Girls Soccer Finals  
5-PA Day
8-Frisbee City Finals 
9-City Track and Field Finals 
10-Grade 4 to Medieval Times; Grade 7 and 8 to Jay's Game  

12-Grade 8 Graduation; Grade 6 Shale Pit Clean Up 

15-19-Grade 8 Quebec Trip

17-Kindie Sharing Assembly

19-Grade 1-7 Sharing Assembly; Grade 6 Shale Pit Clean Up 
22-Volunteer Coffee 

24-Report Cards Go Home

25-Student Assembly; Lunch on Lawn; Last Day of School 

August 2015
31-Office opens 

September 2015
8-School Begins
15-Curriculum Night at 7:00 p.m. 

October 2015
12-Thanksgiving 

November 2015
13-PA Day 

December 2015
Dec 21-Jan 1, 2016-School Holidays 

January 2016
4-School Begins 

February 2016
12-PA Day
15-Family Day 

March 2016
14-18-March Break 
25-28-Good Friday/Easter Monday 

April 2016

May 2016
23-Victoria Day 

June 2016 
10-PA Day
29-Last Day for Students 

Thursday, May 21, 2015

I hope you all had a great long-weekend. I know the kids really enjoyed their extended time with friends and family. 

As you can see by the calendar, many sports and clubs are continuing with final conferences moving right into June. Furthermore, the students are continuing their studies with final assessments, evaluations and year end projects and presentations.  I encourage you to speak to your children about the importance of staying focused on their studies as we know it can be tempting, especially for the older students, to lose attention as June draws near. We will reiterate this with the students at next week's sharing assemblies. 

Our last Parent Council meeting is on the 25th. Once again, I'd like to thank the Executive including Mrs. Kidd and Mrs. Fuda (Co-Chairs), Mrs. Riach (Treasurer), Ms. Chechik (Secretary) and Mrs. Miller (Grade Parent Coordinator). Under their direction, leadership and support, they have collaborated with other voting members of council on many initiatives this year to enrich the lives of our students. They are to be commended for their ongoing efforts. 

I would like to say goodbye to Ms. Miller as she will be retiring from her long-standing role as her eldest is moving to secondary school. She has been an outstanding leader and supporter of LKS as she has recruited parents for class reps, written the weekly Bulletins, liased with parents and staff, driven sports teams to games, spear-headed the grade 8 yearbook (twice) and has done countless "invisible" jobs around the school for years. The staff and parents will miss you Karen. 

I'd also like to thank the other parents who have chaired a wide variety of committees on Parent Council including: Ms. Tortice, Ms. Sharpe, Ms. Greifenberger, Ms. Forte, Ms. Raymond, Ms. Beveridge, Ms. Mohtashani, Ms. Delonghi, Ms. Moorehead, Ms. Barrett, Ms. Hodgson, Mr. Cunningham, Ms. Fisher, Ms. DeBortoli, Ms. Gardner, Ms. Collings, Ms. Clarke, Ms. Taylor and Ms. Almeida. Your support and contributions to the school are greatly appreciated. 

As some of you know our special education staffing has been reduced to 2 teachers. Staff brainstormed a variety of strategies that we could use to restructure resource in order to provide optimal support to our students requiring remedial assistance. We will be utilizing the following strategies:  

-prioritize any extra teaching time to provide  extra support 
-recruit parent volunteers to assist in reading and math 
-continue to focus on early interventions
-support staff will increase the number of students in small group setting
-implement 12 week sessions with students and then monitor in class setting
-grade one students will remain in class first term (as usual); grade 2 and 3 students will be provided intense support first term where required 
-junior/intermediate resource will be limited; quiet space and extra time for test taking available 

I hope everyone has a great weekend. 

May 2015
25th-Parent Council @ 7:00 p.m
26th-Scientists visits Ms. Hall 

27th-Grade 1-8 Sharing Assembly
28th-Author Visit-Helaine Becker 
29th-Pizza Lunch; Pan Am Games for whole school 

June 2015

June 1-4-Dental Screening; Frisbee Conference Finals 
2nd-Grade 6-8 Middle School Concert 
3rd-Track and Field Conference Finals 
4th-Folk Dance Festival 
5-PA Day
8-Frisbee City Finals 
9-City Track and Field Finals 
10-Grade 4 to Medieval Times; Grade 7 and 8 to Jay's Game  

12-Grade 8 Graduation; Grade 6 Shale Pit Clean Up 

15-19-Grade 8 Quebec Trip

17-Kindie Sharing Assembly

19-Grade 1-7 Sharing Assembly; Grade 6 Shale Pit Clean Up 

24-Report Cards Go Home

25-Student Assembly; Lunch on Lawn; Last Day of School 

August 2015
31-Office opens 

September 2015
8-School Begins
15-Curriculum Night at 7:00 p.m. 

October 2015
12-Thanksgiving 

November 2015
13-PA Day 

December 2015
Dec 21-Jan 1, 2016-School Holidays 

January 2016
4-School Begins 

February 2016
12-PA Day
15-Family Day 

March 2016
14-18-March Break 
25-28-Good Friday/Easter Monday 

April 2016

May 2016
23-Victoria Day 

June 2016 
10-PA Day
29-Last Day for Students 

Monday, May 19, 2015

Due to the labour negotiations, the province has postponed the grade 3 and 6 EQAO this year.

Friday, may 22, 2015

 Last night, we hosted a parent workshop on how to talk to your children about growth and development. It was great timing because it coincided with the release of the new curriculum; I’d love to say we planned it that way, but we didn't.  The speaker presented tips for parents to follow and I also answered questions about how the curriculum is taught at LKS.

At the school level, our staff will be trained on the new curriculum for implementation next school year. For now, we will continue on as we always have at LKS. Generally, we teach the growth and development unit in third term during health periods. As the children get older, we separate the co-ed classes, depending on the topic. As a physical education teacher, I've taught health for approximately 27 years now and the classes are generally structured the same. We teach the curriculum, but we are also very cognizant of the individual needs in the classroom. Educators, regardless of the subject matter, always have to provide differentiated instruction based on the individual needs of the class and need to be respectful when presenting information during lessons and class discussions. Furthermore, we look at this as another great opportunity to work in partnership with you as follow up discussions can happen at home. 

At the workshop, the attending parents had children spanning a wide age range, and it was reassuring to share tips and strategies.

The presenter shared the  following tips for parents to keep in mind when talking to your children:  

-normalize giggling and awkwardness

-it not just about sex

-talk early and talk often

-clarify where they are at (before and after)

-you don’t need to have all the answers

-take advantage of teachable moments

-talk about the good and not so good stuff (STI’s)

-talk to boys about girl “stuff” and vice versa

-talk in generalities

-talk in the third person

-exercise your own comfort and knowledge 

I'd like to thank Milena Forte, our parent council rep, who organized our workshop last night. 

I have been given no new direction on the labour negotiations. 

I hope you all have a great weekend. 

May 2015 
18-Victoria Day
19th-Book Fair until the 22nd; Sr Boy's Soccer Tournament  

20-Kindie Sharing Assembly; Harbourfront visit (Ms. Wilson, Ms. Kim, Ms. Mandel, Ms. Zapp i (grade 2) Ms. Hoffman (grade 2); Grade 7 Vaccines; Sr Girl's Soccer Tourney  
21st-Harbourfront visit: Ms. Gibson, Ms. Younger, Ms. Olson to Harbourfront; Artist visits Ms. Tyndall; Jr Frisbee Tournament; Grade 7 and 8 vaccines 
22-Grade 7 Shale Pit Clean Up; Artist visits Mrs. I's class; Mrs. Caligiuri/Ms. Moser host Scientist in the School   

25th-Parent Council @ 7:00 p.m
26th-Scientists visits Ms. Hall 

27th-Grade 1-8 Sharing Assembly
29th-Pizza Lunch; PanAm Games for whole school 

June 2015

June 1-4-Dental Screening; Frisbee Conference Finals 
2nd-Grade 6-8 Middle School Concert 
3rd-Track and Field Conference Finals 
5-PA Day
8-Frisbee City Finals 
9-City Track and Field Finals 
10-Grade 4 to Medieval Times; Grade 7 and 8 to Jay's Game  

12-Grade 8 Graduation; Grade 6 Shale Pit Clean Up 

15-19-Grade 8 Quebec Trip

17-Kindie Sharing Assembly

19-Grade 1-7 Sharing Assembly; Grade 6 Shale Pit Clean Up 

24-Report Cards Go Home

25-Student Assembly; Lunch on Lawn; Last Day of School 


August 2015
31-Office opens 

September 2015
8-School Begins
15-Curriculum Night at 7:00 p.m. 

Job Action

Just to let you know that the grade parents will be sending home a letter regarding the job action on Monday. The schools will be open.

Friday, May 8, 2015

Congratulations to our Jr. Girl's Soccer team and Mr. Ourique as they have advanced to the semi-finals in a couple of weeks. You should be so proud of yourselves girls. 

I also want to thank Mr. Samotowka and Mrs. Kimm for taking our grade 7s Strings to Humber Valley on Monday for enrichment music classes. This was a first for LKS and it was a great experience. 

Our grade 3 students loved Black Creek this week; thanks to all of the parent volunteers and Mrs. Zappi, Ms. Hoffman, Ms. Walker, Ms. Najder and Mrs. Heath. 

I'd also like to thank Mr. Bracht for organizing the Aussie X program. All of the students from K-8 participated in the program and it was fabulous to watch them learn new skills. 

The grade 6 classes participated in science classes with Scientist in the School this week. They were studying "Critters" and classification systems. 

A big thank you to Parent Council and you for funding many of the enrichment activities this week like Aussie X and Scientists. These experiences build the students' skills and knowledge base.  

A big thank you to all the parents, students and staff who participated in the Springfest organization. The weather finally co-operated and the kids had a blast. A big thanks to our committee leads: Mrs. Kidd, Mrs. Fuda, Mrs. Riach, Mrs. Haslam, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Thomas and Mr. Cunningham, Mrs. Needham, Mrs. Maitland. Another thanks to Mrs. Heaps, Mrs. Doyle, Mrs. Moorehead, Mrs. Barrett, Mrs. Needham and Mrs. Caruba-Gomes for organizing the amazing Dinner Dance this year. Both of these events are not only big fundraisers, but create a sense of community. 

As many of you know, talks  have begun between ETFO (Elementary Teachers Federation)and the government resulting in a strike action as of Monday. During the strike, please know that student safety and learning continue to be our focus. When we get new information from the Board, we will send it to you. Please continue to check the grade parent emails, my blog and the TDSB website for information. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I hope to see you on Wednesday night for our parent workshop on how to talk to your kids about growth and development. 

May 2015

14th-Celebration Lunch for Forest of Reading (grade 3-8) 
15th-Author Hazel Hutchinson visits; Grade 7 Shale Pit Clean Up; Sr Frisbee Tourney 
18-Victoria Day
19th-Book Fair until the 22nd; Sr Boy's Soccer Tournament  

20-Kindie Sharing Assembly; Harbourfront visit (Ms. Wilson, Ms. Kim, Ms. Mandel, Ms. Zapp i (grade 2) Ms. Hoffman (grade 2); Grade 7 Vaccines; Sr Girl's Soccer Tourney  
21st-Harbourfront visit: Ms. Gibson, Ms. Younger, Ms. Olson; Artist visits Ms. Tyndall; Jr Frisbee Tournament 
22-Grade 7 Shale Pit Clean Up  

25th-Parent Council @ 7:00 p.m
26th-Scientists visits Ms. Hall 

27th-Grade 1-8 Sharing Assembly
29th-Pizza Lunch 

June 2015

June 1-4-Dental Screening; Frisbee Conference Finals 
2nd-Grade 6-8 Middle School Concert 
3rd-Track and Field Conference Finals 
5-PA Day
8-Frisbee City Finals 
9-City Track and Field Finals 
10-Grade 4 to Medieval Times; Grade 7 and 8 to Jay's Game  

12-Grade 8 Graduation; Grade 6 Shale Pit Clean Up 

15-19-Grade 8 Quebec Trip

17-Kindie Sharing Assembly

19-Grade 1-7 Sharing Assembly; Grade 6 Shale Pit Clean Up 

24-Report Cards Go Home

25-Student Assembly; Lunch on Lawn; Last Day of School 


August 2015
31-Office opens 

September 2015
8-School Begins
15-Curriculum Night at 7:00 p.m.