n o v e m b e r / d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3 message from
TRANSCRIPT
We know that student achievement will increase when students, parents and the school staff work together. Thank you SHS Parent Council along with English, French Immersion and English Ukrainian Bilingual Program Parent Committees for the many hours of organization and work dedi-cated to school fundraisers, SHS Greening Project and the countless things you do to support and enhance Springfield Heights School. We look forward to our continued partnership in 2014. Best wishes from all the staff at Springfield Heights School! May the New Year bring us all peace, happiness, and good health.
Mario Beauchamp Scott Lysack Principal Vice Principal
As we approach the winter season, we can look back at a very successful first term. It is evident that there is heightened support for stu-dents by parents. Such sup-port goes a long way to im-prove student learning. Cold weather has arrived and that means it is time to dress warmly. Mitts, toques, scarves, ski pants, warm jackets and boots are required in order to make recess time comforta-ble for all students. Term 1 Report Cards will be sent home on Monday, No-vember 25th. We hope that
your child’s Report Card will provide parents with an op-portunity to celebrate success-es and discuss recommenda-tions and plans for improve-ment. Should parents have questions or concerns after receiving their child’s report card, they are welcome to call the teacher(s) involved. Parent/Student/Teacher Con-ferences take place on Thurs-day, November 28th (evening) and Friday, November 29th (morning). Specialists (Music Specialists, Physical Education Specialists, Resource Teachers, and our Guidance Counsellor will also be available to meet with parents during Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences.
Message from Administration...
N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 3
Springfield Heights School 505 Sharron Bay Winnipeg, MB R2G 0H8 P. 204-663-5078
F. 204-668-9285 www.sh.retsd.mb.ca Principal Mario Beauchamp Vice-Principal
Scott Lysack Parent Advisory Council President
Robert Werbowesky [email protected] SHS Lunch Program Karen Netzel
E-Mail: [email protected] Skipper Scholars (Before and After School Program) P. 204-661-8004
Transportation Department P. 204-669-0202 River East Transcona School Division 589 Roch Street
Winnipeg, MB R2K 2P7 P. 204-667-7130 F. 204-661-5618 www.retsd.mb.ca
It’s almost that time of year again - winter concert time! We would like you inform you of some important changes that will be happening at this year’s winter concerts. Because our French Immersion enrollment has significantly increased this year, we do not have enough space to house all of the students and families of our K-4 French Immersion students on one night; as a result, we will be doing 2 separate concerts this year: one for the K-2 students (all programs) on December 17th and another for the grades 3&4 students (all programs including Mrs. Sherby’s 2/3 class) on December 18th. This allows us to showcase a greater variety of songs between 2 great performances! We appreciate your patience and understanding over this predicament and we hope you enjoy the shows!
Thank you, Mme Finlay, K-4 Music Teacher at Springfield Heights School
Winter Concerts Concert Dates:
K-2 Dec. 17th
1:00pm & 6:30pm
Grades 3-4 Dec. 18th
1:00pm & 6:30pm
More than half of Spring-field Heights School fami-lies are already receiving the newsletter via e-mail.
If you are still receiving
paper copies of the news-letter and are interested in
receiving it by e-mail, please let us know by calling the school or
sending a note to school with your child indicating
your e-mail address.
P A G E 2
2013-2014 Dates...
For current
information about SHS,
important dates,
announcements,
contact info, helpful
links, forms, etc. please
visit the Springfield
Heights School Web
Page located at :
http://
schools.retsd.mb.ca/
shs/Pages/
Welcome.aspx
May
13 PAC Meeting 6:30pm
14 Early Dismissal 2:45pm
19 Victoria Day - No School
21 & 22 Gr.5/6 Spring Musical
29 K Stay & Play 6:00pm
June
26 Farewell Assembly 9:30am
27 Last Day - Early Dismissal 2:30pm
Allergies
Many Springfield Heights students have extreme allergies to different foods, in particular
nuts and any nut product, oil or flour. The allergies range from mild to life threatening. Some children may have a reaction if
an item is even in their proximity. As a nut-safe school, please do not send nuts or food containing
nuts to school at any time.
Thank you for your cooperation in keeping all students safe.
Board of Trustees 2013-14
Name Ward Email address Phone Colleen Carswell 1 [email protected] 204-222-1486 George Marshall 1 [email protected] 204-221-8464 John Toews 2 [email protected] 204-663-0475 Robert Fraser 3 [email protected] 204-667 9348 Eva Prysizney 4 [email protected] 204-668-3501 Wayne Ritcher (Vice-chair) 4 [email protected] 204-663-6669 Peter Kotyk (Chair) 5 [email protected] 204-668-4181 Shirley Timm-Rudolph 5 [email protected] 204-414-8239 Greg Proch 6 [email protected] 204-663-1925
November
25 Report Cards sent home
28 P/T Conferences (evening)
29 P/T Conferences (am)/PD (pm) - No School
December
3 PAC Meeting 6:30pm
17 & 18 K-4 Christmas Concert 1:00pm & 6:30pm
19 St. Nicholas Assembly 10:30am
20 Early Dismissal 2:30pm
21 - Jan. 5 Winter Break
January
6 School Re-opens (Day 6)
7 PAC Meeting 6:30pm
15 Early Dismissal 2:45pm
16 Koliada @ BWCS
February
3 PD Day - No School
4 PAC Meeting 6:30pm
11-13 Gr. 6 Winter Camp
17 Louis Riel Day - No School
19 Early Dismissal 2:45pm
20 K Info (evening) 6:30pm
March
4 PAC Meeting 6:30pm
14 PD Day - No School
25 Report Cards sent home
27 P/T Conferences (evenings)
28 P/T Conferences (am)/PD (pm)-No School
29 - Apr. 6 Spring Break
April
7 School Re-opens (Day 5)
8 PAC Meeting 6:30pm
9 Early Dismissal 2:45pm
18 Good Friday - No School
25 PD Day - No School
P A G E 3
it was African but it was a made up language. Ace
Burpee was hosting and there were two other conductors. All
On October 29, a selection of students from a number of
schools from RETSD all came together to create a 200 voice
choir that performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orches-
tra. Three songs were sung:
Sounds of Music medley, Sheep May Safely Graze, and
Adiemus. Only grade six stu-dents from our school went.
They gave us coloured t-shirts, and we wore our own black
pants. We were a little nerv-ous, but after that, we got to
see other choirs perform too.
Dariyan sang a solo with the Senior Choir. The show went
from 7:30 to 9:30. Backstage was where we waited till we
were called on to sing. There was also a Claymation video
and an Intermediate Choir. The music we sang went from
a lullaby-like song to an Afri-
can sounding song. When I first heard Adiemus I thought
the music was great and we all loved the experience.
By Sofia and Dariyan
Singing our Hearts out at the WSO/RETSD Concert
What a night of musical excellence! On October 29th, 15 of SHS's grade 6 students sang their hearts out to a full Concert Hall. They showcased their voices along with 200 other Early Years students from around our division. Our very own grade 6er Dariyan sang a stunning solo with the Senior Choir too! He even met Ace Burpee backstage! I was so proud and honored to have been directing them! Please check out our fun music video on the divisional website! Here are some of their memories from the experience:
Note from Mme Courtney Hi, My name is Sabrina and I got to sing in the WSO Junior Divisional Choir. My favorite part was meeting the con-ductor of the WSO, Julian Pellicano. He was jumpy, exciting and really good with kids. I also loved making a music video with Mme Courtney to Katy Perry's "Roar". I'll always remember my experience! -Sabrina Hi, my name is Amelia. I loved performing with
the WSO. My favorite part was rehearsing with the director, Mme Courtney. My favorite song was "Adiemus" because it gave me goosebumps when everyone was singing their parts together! - Amelia
My favorite part was performing in front of a huge audi-ence at the Centiennal Concert Hall. I loved that they en-joyed the show and clapped really loud for us! -Katy
WSO students posing pretty with Mme Courtney!
P A G E 4
Hello, my name is Brayden.
Over the summer, my dad
had an injured knee and
needed to rest. We
thought that we would
build something in memory
of our friend, Steven. We
decided to build a bench
for Steven’s family and a
bench for the school as
well.
You are invited to visit the
bench which is now in front
of the office. If you need a
quiet place to think or cool
down, the bench is a great
place.
We hope you enjoy the bench
and framed memorial!
-Brayden
Brayden sitting on the memorial bench with his family
Remember to smile and lend a
hand.
Have a great day!
-The Kindness
Club
In Honour of Steven
School Bus Cancelation If the windchill is -45°C or colder at the Winnipeg Airport, the School Division will cancel busses but schools usually remain open. Please listen to the media listed for specific information regarding bus service after approx. 6:30 a.m. This information will also be on the Division website at www.retsd.mb.ca. If the Division has not made an an-nouncement by 6:45 a.m., busses are running.
Thank you for signing in Visitors and volunteers to Springfield Heights School are requested to sign-in at the office. The purpose of this request is to help ensure the safety of our school and to manage the traffic congestion that can take place when visitors stop outside the classrooms in order to meet their children. We ask parents to meet their children outside. This keeps hallways clear and allows staff and students to identify those who are helping out in our classrooms.
P A G E 5
At Springfield Heights…We’re Proud to be a NUT AWARE School
Because nuts can cause severe, life-threatening reactions in some people, we ask that you adopt the following food guidelines to help ensure the safety of all students in our school community. With a little care and planning, it’s quite easy to avoid nuts for school meals and snacks. Being “Nut Aware” is as easy as 1, 2, 3! 1. When packing your child’s lunch/ snacks: DO NOT send food items that contain nuts. DO NOT send food items that were prepared in peanut oil. 2. WASH YOUR HANDS if you eat nuts or nut products before coming to school. 3. Home-Baked goods SHOULD NOT contain nuts and should not be prepared where nuts are chopped or stored. Consider non-food favours such as erasers, pencils, books, CDs, or other items that may be enjoyed by the whole class for classroom treats, parties and birthdays. While peanut allergies are one of the most common food allergies, students can be allergic to or highly sensitive to other food products. Please inquire with the classroom teacher before bringing food treats into the school or classroom.
SAFETY FIRST
We continue to review practices and procedures to ensure the safety of students, staff and visitors at Springfield
Heights School. Safety procedures are as follows:
1. Please make sure that students do not arrive at school before 8:40 a.m. Supervision starts at this time.
2. Parents can stop, drop off, and pick up students on Sharron Bay or the North Kildonan Community Club Parking
Lot. However, do not park on Sharron Bay directly in front of the school. Students must use a crosswalk when
exiting the front of the school or meeting waiting parents on Sharron Bay.
3. Do not drop off or pick up students in the bus loop.
4. Do not use the staff parking lot for student pick up and drop off. This area is for staff only.
5. All parents/guardians arriving to school to pick up their child(ren) at the end of the school day are asked to wait in
the front foyer or outside depending on the door children exit. This is to prevent disruptions to classes still in
session and ensure that strangers are not given access to students.
6. When children leave school early for appointments, etc. the parent or guardian is required to sign a form at the
office with the child’s name, date, parent name (printed). If parents are not known by front office staff,
identification will be requested.
7. At dismissal time, Kindergarten and bus patrols will exit the front doors while Grade 1-6 students will use their
designated doors.
Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. We appreciate your support in helping keep all Students Safe!
Thank you for signing in
P A G E 6
P A G E 7
Flag Football 2013
Intramural Extreme Dodgeball
Run Club/Turkey Trot 2013 It was a great autumn for
the 2013 SHS run club.
Participation was at an all-
time high with 175 students
running at lunch time 3
times a week for just over a
month. Students were en-
couraged to set personal
goals, they were taught
about the importance of
cardiovascular health, and
taught how to pace them-
selves to help them be-
come better runners to
help achieve their goals.
On a brisk Octo-
ber day, with wild turkeys
running rampant, the stu-
dents did a wonderful job
of representing SHS at
Birds Hill Park for the an-
nual Turkey Trot event.
With all of the hard work
and dedication put in over
the last month, the stu-
dents were rewarded with
achieving many of their
personal goals along with
many students gobbling up
top ten results!
done a great job of being
honest and respecting the
rules while being polite and
respectful to our student
leadership referees. As we
are winding down with round
robin play, the teachers are
eagerly awaiting their show-
down with both the 3/4 and
5/6 champions.
Looking ahead, in-
tramural volleyball is next up
Students in grades
3-6 have been participating
in the intramural dodgeball
league during the lunch
hour the past month. A
large number of students
have been representing
each class and have done a
wonderful job of competing
hard while showing great
sportsmanship throughout
the games. Students have
on the schedule and will be
starting mid-November, with
students already being taught
the fundamentals and rules of
the game during P.E. class.
continuing to develop their
throwing, passing, and run-
ning skills. Along with this
the students were taught
the importance of working
with a team and working to
achieve a common goal.
On October 18,
30 SHS students participat-
ed in the divisional Flag
Football tournament. Lo-
cated at the amazing East
Side Eagles Football field,
the students that com-
prised of SHS composed 3
teams and went to battle
with many schools across
the division. SHS students
did just as they are known
to do across the division:
work hard, play as a team
and show excellent sports-
manship towards the other
teams. All 3 teams won
multiple games and had a
great time playing on the
big field!
Over the past
month, 30 stu-
dents have been
braving the cold
autumn morn-
ings to partici-
pate in the SHS
Football Club 2-
3 times a week.
Throughout the
month, the par-
ticipants were
taught basic of-
fensive and de-
fensive football
strategies while
News from the library... P A G E 8
MYRCA Club Six students had the opportunity to attend the MYRCA (Manitoba Young Reader’s Choices Award) Celebration Dinner and met last year’s winner, Chris McMahen, author of Box of Shocks. Our school has 97 students in the MYRCA Club. This is the most we ever had. We have organised a MYRCA Information Meeting with students and their parents on Tuesday, November 5th in our library at 5:30. A good num-
ber of parents answered the invitation. See our school MYR-CA Blog at http://springfieldheightsmyrcablog-henri.blogspot.ca for more in-formation on this year’s book list.
We will be having a Scholastic Book Fair on Thursday, Nov 28th (4:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) and Friday, Nov. 29th, 2013 (9:00 a.m. to 11:30) during Parent-Teacher Conferences. Book Fair profits will be used to buy books for the library. You will also have an opportunity to buy books to support your child’s classroom library. The theme for this year is: Reading Oasis – A Good Place to Discover Hot Books!
Every year students get a chance to meet last year’s winner of
MYRCA. That is how I got to go to the MYRCA Dinner and
met Chris McMahen last year’s winner for his book Box of
Shocks. It was a pretty good book by my standards. At the
dinner I got to hear about the book and his childhood. This
event took place a St Boniface Public Library on September 25.
Chris wrote three other books called: Tabloidology (which I
bought and got signed), Buddy Concrackle’s Amazing Ad-
venture, and Klutz Hood, I personally liked Tabloidology
better, but the other books were really good. Our library has
all his books. Some of the stories that he shared with us were
really inspiring by showing that you can do anything if you set
your mind to it. I and the other kids who went really enjoyed it.
It was definitely a fun and educational experience!
-Avery
Celebration Dinner
Fall Scholastic Book Fair
French Book Clubs
Our school participates in two provincial book clubs: Lis-moi tout [read everything to me] for kindergarten to grade 3 students and Je lis tout [I read everything] for grade 4 to grade 6. They will be starting up in No-vember. The purpose of the clubs is to promote reading and literature among our students. Students will be encouraged to read the selected titles and to fill out a ballot for a draw. In order to encourage participa-tion, the DREF (Direction des ressources éducatives françaises) will
have a monthly draw from December to May 2013. For more information see M. Dupuis' teacher website on our school web site. The reading club is an exciting way to help your child discover the joy of reading in French.
Plastic Bag Round up
P A G E 9
PAC meetings have always been
a great place to meet other
concerned parents and learn
about what is going on in the
school. Now a new format
hopes to make that even more
so. Each month, in addition to
regular PAC business, there will
be a special presentation/
discussion on a topic of general
interest to SHS parents and
guardians. Some of the possi-
ble presentation topics include
the SHS approach to Technolo-
gy in the School, SHS Student
Services plans and programs,
and understanding the "New"
Math curriculum (K-6). Learn-
ing about your child's school is
time well spent, and now PAC
meetings are an even better
way to do it. Don't forget -
Check your SHS fridge magnet
for the next meeting date.
-SHS PAC
The K-Kids unicef committee organized a spooky
Halloween Lab on October 31st.
Every class in the school came down to see our lab,
and had the option of donating money to unicef.
In total we raised $481.25 for unicef.
Way to go Springfield Heights!
Mrs. Slota, Mme Fontaine and the K-Kids unicef
Committee
North Kildonan Community Centre Annual Pancake Breakfast and Craft Sale
Date: Sunday, December 8, 2013 Time: 9:30 am to 2:30 pm Special Guest: Santa Visit: www.nkcc.ca
Message from PAC...
The grand total of the plastic bag round up was 25,740 plastic bags! The class that the collected the most was Mme Guitierrez's room and they will be treated to a class pizza party! Thank you for all of your support for this worthy cause! Reduce, reuse and recycle! -K-Kids
P A G E 1 0
All our Grade 3 to 6 students will be allowed to go to the North Kildonan Community Club on the morning of Friday, December 20th the last day of school before the Christmas holidays, for our school’s annual Skating Party. Students are encouraged to bring skates, sticks, hockey/ringette equipment and a helmet is required to participate. The canteen will be open from 9:30 am to 11:30 am.
We would greatly appreciate the help of 3 or 4 parent volunteers to help behind the counter of the canteen. Finally, Transportation will allow skates to be brought on the bus that day and only if they are in a tote bag.
On Thursday, October 31st, Lionel from Boston Pizza made a special ap-pearance at our school assembly. He was here to present us with a cheque for $500 to go towards books and technology. Thank you all par-ents and students who are participating in the Boston Pizza, Partners in Reading program. When you fill out your reading forms at home you are eligible to receive a free kid’s meal at Boston Pizza. When your teacher collects your forms and at the end of six months returns them to Boston Pizza, our school is eligible to receive $500. Keep on Reading!
Volunteer Policy
We encourage volunteers in the school. All vol-unteers are required to complete a Child Abuse Registry form which are available in the office. All volunteers are asked to sign in at the office and to wear a volunteer name tag while volun-teering at the school. The name tag will help students identify volunteers and visitors in the school and on the playground. Volunteers need to sign out at the office when they are finished volunteering for the day.
Skating Party
Communicable Diseases
Please contact the school if your child develops a communicable disease e.g. Chicken Pox, Rubella (Measles), lice, Fifth’s Disease etc. Please check with a physician about when it is advisable for your child to return to school. At school we follow universal precautions of hand washing as often as possible, using tissues for noses and sneezes and not sharing food, eating utensils or cups.
P A G E 1 1