Newsletter # 9
May 8th, 2015
Mrs. Scott’s Scoop
As you can see by this newsletter, we have many wonderful things happening at East Chilliwack at this time.
We are really enjoying our second round of classes with one of our favorite artists, Mr. Stephan Baker. You should see our incredible artwork! Thank you, Mr. Baker, for supporting the Fine Arts program at our school!
We are really “gearing up” for our 125th Birthday Celebration that will be happening on Tuesday, May 12th. (see section below) We hope to see many previous teachers, principals, students, and community members at our school that day.
125th Birthday Celebration:
On May 12th, we will be celebrating a milestone birthday for our school. We are 125 years old. We have invited the Mayor, our School Trustee, our superintendent of schools, our past principals, etc. to a very special assembly, starting at 12:30 on this day. There will be cake-cutting, performances, speeches, tours, and much more. We hope to have many parents attend. Please be patient with the parking, as this will probably be a very full school for that afternoon, and you may have to walk a bit to get to the front door. See you there!
Run For Water:
On May 14th, our school will be participating in our annual “Run for Water”. This year, all of our classes will be going to FG Leary Fine Arts School to complete the run. We will be there from around 10:20 to 11:20. We need parent volunteers for this event. Please contact Ms. Eburn at the school to let her know if you are able to help out. This year, we are raising money to help pay for a well in Ethiopia. Please come out and cheer us on, run with us, and give generously to this incredible cause.
Mrs. Neufeld is retiring:
For those of you who were at the school prior to me being a part of the East Chilliwack family, you may remember Mrs. Neufeld as the principal here. She has announced her retirement, and there will be a celebration on June 1st at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre, starting at 4:00. I wanted to let our community know in the event that you would like to attend this retirement celebration. Hope to see you there.
Dress Code:
It is always this time of the year that I like to remind students to remember our “Code of Conduct” and to make sure that you are continuing to follow our dress code. Students are not allowed to wear the following: spaghetti straps, revealing t-shirts, shirts with mid-sections showing, t-shirts with questionable words/symbols, bandanas, etc. Thank you, parents, for monitoring what your children choose to wear to school J.
Basketball
We would like to thank our basketball teams for showing incredible sportsmanship and skills while representing East Chilliwack Elementary School this year.
The girls’ basketball team included: Mya S., Claudia K., Ashley K., Jayda V., Megan M., Jillian B., Makaela K., Jessica L., Paige C., Tessa M., Jordana V., and Dayna D.
The boys’ basketball team included: Josh A., Oskar D., Landon J., Tanner K.,
Blake P., Nathan C., Jordyn D., Trask L., Lucas S., Riley Z., Owen Z., Jacob B., Hayden D., Christian K., Ethan M., Daniel S., Carter B., Luc B., Riley K., Dylan R., and Miles R.
Thank you also to our fabulous coaches for donating their time to these wonderful teams: Ms. Smith coached the girls this year, with her assistant coach, Mrs. Laanstra. Mr. Schmidt coached the boy’s team this year.
District Track and Field
The District Track Meet will be happening on June 18th this year. The 1500m race is always the day before the meet (June 17th). Students from Grade 3 to 6 are currently doing activities in their regular gym periods to prepare for this event. Teachers will be choosing our team members and Mrs. Scott will be taking them to the Track and Field event on this day. We are looking for parent volunteers to help out at the track meet for one-hour shifts. EVERY SCHOOL HAS TO HAVE VOLUNTEERS! J Please let Mrs. Thompson know if you are planning to attend the track meet and if you can donate one-hour of your time. I believe that we are responsible for help at the finish line this year. J Thank you.
Year-end Fieldtrips
If you wish to attend a year-end fieldtrip with your son’s/daughter’s class, please make sure that you ask the teacher if they are in need of parent volunteers. We need to organize groups, check for criminal record checks, check for driver’s insurance forms, make sure we have our “headcount” in to the organizations that we are visiting, etc. All of this has to be done prior to the event. Thank you for understanding that it does take some time to organize fieldtrips.
Kindergarten Orientation
If you have a child entering Kindergarten for next year, we would like to invite you to come to our Kindergarten Orientation on June 8th. We would like to kindly ask that siblings stay at home (or with a sitter) for this event, as this will be a special time for you and your child to spend together. (times will be sent home)
Year-End Assessments:
For the months of May and June, teachers are starting their year-end testing with your children. It is imperative that families make these last two months a priority for attendance and for getting to school on time. We have to provide the district with our year-end results, and we need to look at year-end data as a school, for purposes of planning for success with our students. Having to catch-up on student assessments can be very time-consuming, and difficult for the students as well. They should be completing the assessments at the same time as their classmates, and we want to make it as “stress-free” as we can for our kids J. Also, regular bedtimes and healthy eating really does make a difference during assessment-time. Thank you, parents, for making this a priority for your children.
School Photos
Class pictures will be taken on May 20th. There will be an opportunity for parents to purchase group photos as well (eg. teams, Grade 6 grad, peers, etc.) SAY CHEESE!
Volunteer Tea
Please mark your calendars for May 26th for our Volunteer Tea. More information will be coming home about this soon. If you have volunteered in our school in any capacity, please know that you are invited to attend this wonderful event. We try to remember to hand out invitations to all of our volunteers, and there are times when a parent is accidentally forgotten L! Please know that we so appreciate all of you, and would love to see you attend this special event.
Talent Show
Our peer helpers will be organizing our annual talent show this year with the help of Mrs. Buchanan. It will be taking place on June 23rd. More information will be coming home shortly about this exciting event.
Book Fair (Yes, we are having a 2nd Book Fair J)
Mrs. Bergen will be holding a 2nd Scholastic Book Fair on May 26th, 27th, and 28th. We are excited to see what Scholastic has to offer our students for this time of the year! Proceeds will go to purchasing more material for our library next year. Thinking about purchasing some “summer reading material” for your children? Well, this will be the perfect opportunity! Thank you, Mrs. Bergen, for your leadership with this.
Sports’ Day
This year, our Sports’ Day will be on Friday, June 5th. We are currently planning this and will be sending home more information about this shortly.
Year-end Waterslides
This year, we are going to be taking all of our students to the waterslides on June 24th. We will be busing everyone there, and if parents are interested in attending, they need to meet us at the Trans-Canada Waterslides and will have to pay as you enter. We hope that many parents will be able to come out to this event, and we are also hoping to have sunshine that day J!
Ideas for Families: (Something to really think about L)
The False, Exhausting Energy of Fast Foods
In the “Surgeon General’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation” (2010), the Surgeon General lists the primary reasons why the consumption of fast foods has become such a cause of great concern. In addition to the dangers of eating high-density caloric foods, she cites the dangerous consumption of high-frustose drinks (which has been related to both the obesity epidemic and a dental epidemic in children). Also, of concern are the use of food additives, the dangers of caffeinated soft drinks, and the overconsumption of candy. All of these foods are addictive, leading to a rapid release of energy followed by its quick and sharp decline (Taubes, 2007). Recent data indicates that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of calories that children consume daily, and that 50% of these calories come from consuming fats and sugars (Nestle, 2007). These trends have prompted warnings that, because of unhealthy eating habits and physical inactivity, the present generation of children may be the first to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents (Carmona, 2004).
**It’s never too late to look at the eating patterns of our children, and consider the Chilliwack Hospital and Health Care Foundations’ campaign for 5, 2, 1, 0.
5 – Eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day
2 – Power down. No more than 2 hours of screen time a day
1 – Get one hour of exercise every day
0 – Drink “0” sweetened beverages
Dates to Remember:
May 11th - Mr. Baker visits some of our classrooms
May 12th – East Chilliwack’s 125th Birthday Celebration (12:30 – 2:30)
May 13th – Cross-Country Run at Cultus Lake Community School (for students who have signed up)
May 14th - Run for Water at FG Leary (10:20 - 11:20)
May 15th – No school
May 18th – Victoria Day
May 20th – Class/Team pictures
May 25th – Mr. Baker visits some of our classrooms
May 25th – PAC meeting at 7:00 p.m. *This is the AGM.
May 26th – Book Fair (as well as May 27th and 28th)
May 26th – Volunteer Tea (more to come home about this)
May 27th – Grade 6 Gym Blast at RTCS (11:45 – 1:30)
May 28th – Science Fair for some of our classes (10:00 – 2:00)
June 1st – Mr. Baker visits some of our classrooms
June 2nd – Mini-Meet (more info to come about this)
June 3rd – Mrs. Rogers-Stadnyk’s class holds their “Market Fair” (12:30 – 1:55)
June 5th – Sports’ Day
June 8th – Kindergarten Orientation
June 9th – Peers go to the waterslides with Mrs. Scott J
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