Nelson Whynder Elementary January 2020 Newsletter

IMPORTANT DATES:

January 6th-School re-opensJanuary 15th-P-3 Rainbow Fish Performance in WindsorJanuary 17th- Pizza orders and money dueJanuary 20th- LOVE program begins (every Monday) at lunch for students in grade 4, 5 and 6 January 22nd - Pizza Wednesday lunches begin (last pizza day for this order is February 12 th)January 28th-SAC meeting at 6:00 pm in the libraryJanuary 31st- Positive Participation Assembly/Awards with Special Guest Quentrel ProvoFebruary 3rd- Registration month begins (Pre-Primary and Primary)February 4th- Math Family Engagement Afternoon (1:00-2:30 pm)February 17th- Africville Day (no school for students)February 20th- P-6 trip to see the Stadacona Band at Mount Saint Vincent UniversityFebruary 27th-Positive Participation/African Heritage Assembly

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

Dear families,

Happy New Year and welcome back! I trust everyone enjoyed time with family and friends over the holiday break. We are re-energized and looking forward to supporting our students over the next few months to help them reach academic success and well-being.

Our theme for the month of January is Ujima which is the Swahili word "To build and maintain our community together and to make our Brother's and sister's problems, our problems and to solve them together." Throughout the month, we will reinforce and acknowledge examples of this principle within the classroom and throughout the building and playground.

As we push forward, we will continue to support our students in their progress, maintaining high expectations for academic rigour in the classrooms to help them reach success.

Yours in Education,

Ms. Anne Johnson MacDonald

CHRISTMAS DINNER

A special thank you to Paul Keinick (Manager) and his Assistant Sherry from the Panavista Drive SOBEYS who helped plan and prepare our Christmas Dinner. The Panavista Sobeys donated all the food. This is the second year that Sobeys has supported the Christmas Dinner. We were also blessed to have Paul and Sherry join us for the meal. We also wish to thank Councillor David Hensbee for joining our community celebration. A special thank you to Ms.

Fraser, and Ms. Gilda who coordinated and cooked the dinner, and for all the staff members who assisted with serving the meal.

PEACE INITIATIVES

E very month beginning January, a student from each class will be presented with a PEACE AWARD in recognition of their consistent example of good citizenship and peaceful nature and conduct. These awards will be presented at our monthly Positive Participation Assembly. To support our PEACE initiatives Constable Brenda Elson our RCMP School Liaison officer has offered to visit classrooms to have a talk with students around the topic of peace and avoidance of physical violence. She will be visiting during the month of January prior to our assembly. Quentrel Provo (founder of Stop the Violence movement and winner of one of the 100 most influential people of African Descent under the age of 40) will be our special guest presenter for our January assembly.

BREAKFAST PROGRAMOur breakfast program is underway! A highlight is grilled cheese Tuesdays prepared with love by Ms. Johnson McDonald. Breakfast is served to students on arrival until 8:45 am every morning.

PTO NEWS

The PTO (Home and School Committee) would like to thank the school community for their generosity in supporting the Turkey basket raffle. $ 647.60 was raised from ticket sales and donations. The winner of the turkey basket was Ella Payette. Our top ticket seller was J’ahmai Johnson in Pre-Primary.

FUNDRAISING/GRANTS

Amanda Beals who has a daughter in Pre-Primary as well as RBC employees Shawn and Netty, helped with the Christmas concert set-up. In addition to having staff volunteers, the Royal Bank will donate $1000.00 to the school. Other fundraising events have generated the following revenue:Front Row Seat Raffle Draw: $79.00Christmas Concert Silver Collection: $47.90We Bake for Change (We Act Club): $45.35Scholastic Book Order: $158.00 Book Bucks to be spent through Scholastic

SCHOOL CLOTHING ORDERS

School Clothing is now for sale! Please see the order form attached to this newsletter. T-shirts, hoodies and track pants will be available for purchase in youth and adult sizes. Order forms and money (cash only) are to be returned to school by Monday, March 2nd. Clothing orders will be a fundraiser for the school.

PIZZA WEDNESDAYS

Pizza order forms went home the week of January 6 th. Order forms and money are due by January 17th. Pizza will be offered on the following Wednesdays for students who have pre-ordered: January 22nd, January 29th, February 5th, and February 12th. Pizza lunches are a fundraiser for the school.

NELSON WHYNDER CHOIR NEWSIn December, Jennifer Montgomery and Stephanie Clark from the Blue Door Group with support from the Halifax Chamber

of Commerce presented our Choir with Barbie Dolls as part of Mattel’s: You can be Anything Campaign. This particular Barbie was modeled after the career of local Wonder Woman, Dr. Sara Iverson of Dalhousie University. Jennifer said, “We wanted to pay it forward by donating Barbies to a phenomenal group of young ladies who make up the Nelson Whynder Elementary School choir. Their confidence, leadership, and enthusiasm deserves to be celebrated and encouraged. We were honoured to deliver these gifts to celebrate their hard work.”

CHRISTMAS SANTA SHOP Due to the generosity of the community, the Santa Shop was a huge success! We raised over $200.00, and funds will be used to help purchase student incentives (e.g.-Peace Awards). A very special thank you to Meaghan Downey for her efforts in ensuring donations of items for the Shop through social media. We received an outpouring of support from the community including the Delmore Buddy Daye Society, parents and friends providing items for the Shop as well as monetary donations to ensure all students could go shopping. As well, we wanted to give a special shout out to Meaghan Downey, Elaine Wilkie, Capri Provo and Marcus Bennett who spent the day organizing items, wrapping presents, and helping students with their shopping and wrapping of gifts.

SCHOOL/BUS CANCELLATIONS AND DELAYED OPENINGS

The Halifax Regional Centre for Education takes great care when making the decision to cancel schools and/or buses, or delay the opening of school, in the event of severe or inclement weather. When these situations occur, the information is posted on the HRCE’s website at www.hrce.ca, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/HRCE_NS, recorded at 902-464-INFO (4636) and communicated to all local radio stations. Families can also subscribe to receive notice of cancellations and delayed openings by e-mail or text message by following the link on the front page (left side) of the HRCE website.

If weather conditions warrant, the HRCE could implement a delayed opening. Delayed openings would be considered when a severe weather event has concluded but snow clearing or other operations require additional time. Delayed opening may also be considered when the school is experiencing an issue such as a power outage or loss of water and additional time is required to prepare the school to open. If this was to occur, school and Pre-Primary would be delayed by two hours. In our school, this means school would start at 10:20 am.

If Stock Transportation is operating, the expectation will be that students are picked up two hours later than their regularly assigned time pending any weather-related delays. Our lunch and dismissal times will remain at their regularly scheduled times.

DRINKING WATER IN SCHOOLS

As a result of Health Canada’s new guidelines for lead in drinking water, all water sources in all schools in Nova Scotia will be sampled for lead. This sampling must take place in warmer weather between June and October, according to Health Canada’s Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality .

The Province announced in December that all public schools across Nova Scotia will be provided with drinking water starting in January, if:

they have not yet been tested for lead; or they have been tested and it has been determined alternate water is needed.

Nelson Whynder has not been tested to the new protocol. In January, the HRCE Operations team has placed water and dispensers in the school and this water source will remain in the school until the end of the school year. Students are reminded to bring in a water bottle in order to access water in the cooler. The Dental Clinic wishes to remind families that water bottles were given to every student a few years back which they may wish to bring to school if students are not doing so already.

SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL (SAC)

The School Advisory Council is looking for two representatives who have children who attend the school. We are also in need of a representative from the community. Please consider joining the SAC to advise on matters pertaining to the school and education. Meetings are held 6 times a year, with our next meeting being held at 6:00 pm on January 28, 2020 in the school library. For more information, please contact SAC Chair Renise Cain hrce-sac-nwe@gnspes.ca .

DENTAL CLINIC NEWS

The Dental Clinic is open - Happy New Year!The Adult Cleaning Clinic is on Tuesday afternoons; call anytime to book your appointment at 902-462-2041The Children’s Clinic is on Wednesdays from 9:30am - 11:30am and Thursdays 9:30am - 11:30am and 12:30pm - 2:30pm. Just a reminder that we see children when their first tooth comes in or by their 1st birthday. Also, please give us a call if you are unsure of your child (s) next dental appointment or if they need one.

BEE-A-READER PROGRAM

Renise Cain and Kim Scheelar from the Halifax Library launched the BEE-A-READER program on January 10 th. The program will run until March 13th over the lunch hour. The group is fostering their love of reading through book browsing, games and cooperative activities. A second session will be offered starting in April.

NELSON WHYNDER SCHOOL SONG

During their Steps for Excellence event held in October, students in grade 6 participated in a song-writing workshop with NWES Alumni Dyrekia Provo and KeKe Beatz. During the month of December, Dyrekia and KeKe returned to help the students finish an original Nelson Whynder theme song. They have decided that the next step is to turn it into a music video including the whole school so stay tuned.

Grade Primary Mathematician using math vocabulary to share his learning.

Grade 3 / 4 Mathematicians building and

recording their thinking.

Grade 4/5 Mathematicians working on Multiplication and Division strategies.

STUDENTS

AT

WORK

Grade 6 Mathematicians representing their understanding of decimals using base 10 blocks.