THE MCKINNON
PIPER
"A Caring Place To Be" October 2010
WOW! Here we are at the very first month of McKinnon P.S. in our fourth year. I am very proud of our hand-picked staff team and I know they are all very excited about the amazing opportunities that lie ahead. Our community newsletter “The McKinnon Piper” will be your connection to your child’s learning, curriculum information and our latest school “happenings”. This title celebrates the life and leadership of our own pioneer leader Malcolm McKinnon and hopefully, helps all of us to keep the positive spirit of our opening day alive throughout the entire school year. As we work with our community to have each child reach their personal best, our mission statement will guide our thoughts and actions:
Our mission is to create a caring and inclusive learning community that facilitates and inspires student successes and values the diversity of our learners. Through collaboration with home and school, we nurture our children's personal, academic and physical growth. This will prepare our students to become empathetic, responsible and active participants in the global community.
This fourth school year together has had a successful and exciting beginning. The teaching staff, Mrs. Padua, our Vice-Principal, Mrs. Litster and Mrs. Ams, our Office Administrators, Mr. Fobert our Head Custodian and I are anticipating a busy and rewarding year ahead for the McKinnon “family"....a very special and historic year as we build on our traditions while looking to the future.
A special welcome is extended to all families new to our school community! Please make a point of introducing yourself to us if you are a new parent in our community. We welcome you to McKinnon P.S. and we hope you are feeling comfortable and relaxed at your school.
We look forward to working with all of you and your children because a strong partnership between home and school is one of the most important factors in ensuring our children’s success in school.
A special invitation is extended to join our School Council and become a parent volunteer. Do plan to find out more about how you can become involved in your school!
We appreciate, too, the efforts of our dedicated custodial and teaching staff who worked throughout the summer preparing the school and classrooms and we know you’ll agree that everything is sparkling bright and inviting for the start of our school year!
Thursday, September 30th will be our Meet the Teacher Open House. It will provide a wonderful opportunity to meet your child's teacher and have your child "show-off" his/her classroom and "beginning-of-the-year" activities. I am particularly proud of our staff for their efforts in making their classroom true showcases for learning. They are an awesome bunch! This year, the McKinnon learning journey will be an exciting and enjoyable one. It will be one where both staff and students with the support of our community will discover ways to improve themselves through a positive work ethic and a love of learning. I take pride in the outstanding staff we have assembled and the collaborative manner that we will work with our School Council and community in the best interests of the children that we share. Together we are already making a difference!
Opportunities to learn, to share and to laugh will occur daily at McKinnon. The positive feedback from parents and students, all suggest that we are already on the right track. We have not lost sight, nor will we, that children are the central focus of our education system. However, there is always room for improvement and we will make every attempt to continue to move forward in the months and years ahead.
As always, we’re here if you need us and we look forward to seeing you in the months ahead.
Mr. N. Black Mrs. A. Padua
Principal Vice-Principal
EQAO RESULTS – WE’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK…
Our results from our 2009-2010 Grade 3 assessment are listed below. Keep in mind this is only a snap shot of your child’s progress at a particular time. We will use these results, as well as other assessment information to create a plan to support your child’s learning. Individual results will be sent home next week. How can your support your child with this assessment- read, read, and read some more! Read fiction, non-fiction, web-site articles, comics, menus, chapter books, graphic novels, shopping lists, road signs, maps, poetry, encyclopaedias, newspapers, and/or instruction manual – fill your child’s world with literacy and make it fun! Together, you are building sound symbol relationships, letter identification, sight vocabulary, inference skills, and most importantly, a love of literacy!
WRITING MATH READING
SCHOOL 81% 85% 76%
PEEL 70% 68% 59%
ARE YOU A BUCKET FILLER?
If your answer is yes - Congratulations!! This question comes from the picture book titled by this same question. The book’s message is to teach our children (and nearby parents) how to make those around us feel good by doing or saying positive things. These acts of kindness makes the receiver of the message and also the person who originated the message feel good about themselves. The book says that we all have buckets and the way we fill our bucket is to do and say positive things to each other. Each teacher has read the book to their class and discussed how it feels to be a “bucket-filler”. Each class now has its own bucket to fill up by cooperating with each other, being polite and helping others solve problems. The buckets are taken throughout the school- in the gym, the library, or the computer lab where students may earn pom-poms to fill it up. Classroom incentives are designed by each class within the school. All our students now have a common language and story to reinforce our caring values to begin the year. It is hoped this activity will get all of us off on the right foot” and lay the foundation for an inviting and caring school climate for all!
THANK-YOU FOR SENDING HOPE TO PAKISTAN
The McKinnon community raised over $1,500.00 in donations to the UNICEF Pakistan Relief fund. This is over one toonie for every student! Thank-you for demonstrating once again that McKinnon P.S. is a truly caring place!
WALK TO SCHOOL PROGRAM UPDATE
Many thanks for all of you for your support in returning our student surveys last week. Members of the Mississauga Traffic Safety Council are now analyzing the results to create a number of quick and safe walking routes to school. The routes will be unveiled to the McKinnon P.S. community on the morning of October 13. Members of the Council will be giving a presentation on the Walk To School Program at our School Council meeting on Monday, October 4 at 7:00 pm in our library. At our Meet-The-Teachers Curriculum Night tomorrow evening, members will be available in the front hall to answer any questions you might have. Stay tuned for more updates later this month!
OUR CROSSING GUARD IS BACK
“ON DUTY”
As many of you already know, our crossing guard Ms. Bania has been “on-duty". To ensure our children's safety, she would like to remind all parents of a few safety rules concerning the cross walk and parking considerations. Please take the time to review these rules with your children:
· Wait for the crossing guard on the curb
· Wait for the crossing guard to escort you across the road even if the cars have stopped at the cross walk
· Anyone riding a bicycle, skateboard or scooters will need to walk, not ride, across the road
· Do not cross with your children on Tacc Dr. in front of the school as drivers will be concentrating on the cross walk pedestrian traffic, and may not see you in this location.
Attention Drivers!!
· Drive with caution within the school area as we have more children and parents walking to school.
· Do not park or drop-off your children on, or close to the cross walk. This is illegal and creates an unsafe situation for children and parents. There should be a clear distance of at least 6 meters on each side of the cross walk.
· Do not stop on the cross walk. If you are in a line of cars, please wait before crossing the cross walk to ensure children can cross safely.
· Drivers stopped at the cross walk cannot proceed until Ms. Bania has returned to the curb and is completely off the road.
· The installation of the cross walk and crossing guard may, on occasion, increase traffic congestion as cars will be stopped for periods of time to allow pedestrians to cross Tacc Dr. Please be patient!
Many thanks for your cooperation. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the office.
TRAFFIC SAFETY
I want to thank all our parents for their patience with our very busy “Kiss ’n Ride” program each morning. To ensure we continue to have a safe and orderly entry into school, please remember the following safety procedures:
· When entering the “Kiss ‘n Ride” area, please drive to the front of the school to ensure as many cars as possible can be served in this area.
· Do not let your children off in any area except in the “Kiss ’n Ride” area. We have no supervision nor staff available.
· Have your children ready to exit the right side of the car. Do not use the left side please!
SCHOOL HOURS
Just to let you know, our dismissal time is 3:00 P.M. from Kindergarten to Grade 5. If your are picking up your child(ren), please be on time.
WE WELCOME OUR NEWEST STAFF MEMBERS…
Ms Atkinson joins us from McBride P.S. and is our new kindergarten teacher. She taught kindergarten and Grade 2 for a number of years at McBride P.S. and Huntington Ridge P.S. We are thrilled to have Ms. Atkinson join the kindergarten team for the remainder of the school year. She is an enthusiastic reader and an avid Toronto Maple Leaf fan!
Mrs. Henderson is also a new kindergarten teacher at McKinnon P.S. this year. Mrs. Henderson comes to us from Willow Glen P.S. and Elmcrest P.S. where she taught kindergarten to grade two. She is thrilled to be part of the McKinnon P.S. staff team and is an avid Newcastle United soccer fan!
Mr. Shackleton has joined our Grade 1 team this fall. He comes to us from Oscar Peterson P.S. and Sheridan Park P.S. where he taught grades two to seven. He is an artist as well as an excellent guitar player. We are pleased to have Mr. Shackleton’s positive spirit and artistic talents as part of the McKinnon P.S. team this year.
CARING IN THE CLASSROOM
McKinnon P.S. is a caring place to be. We care about each other, as well as our school, community, and our environment. Our learning community is built around the following values:
C Cooperation
A Attitude
R Respect
I Include everyone
N Never Give Up
G Get Involved
Our children will strive to learn more about these values through their dynamic and motivating classroom program. Our staff will also model these values by:
· building positive and esteeming relationships with all students,
· working collaboratively with their colleagues
· developing a welcoming school climate and open communication for all.
To support our students to learn more about our caring values, a pro-active social skills program has been developed by our staff. Each month has a special theme and set of values that will be taught and reinforced through a series of picture books, poems, short stories and follow-up classroom discussions. A specific time period after lunch every day has been designated for this purpose. In each newsletter this year, we will outline each theme, set of values and “difference makers” that will be introduced to your child. Our monthly assemblies will also reinforce these values through a special student recognition ceremony. We hope this will reinforce the caring and respectful attitudes and behaviours that we highly value at McKinnon P.S.
Our theme for October is “Sharing our Lives”. For this theme, students are able to see "sharing life" from a spectrum of people and experiences. This way, the curriculum can be seen as a bridge which links their home experiences to their school experience and enables students of a variety of backgrounds to feel valued within the curriculum. The values are:
· respect for self and others
· listening to others
· sharing with others
The “difference-makers” sentence stems based on their class discussions are:
· I listen to others.
· I am thankful for my family and friends.
· My wish for the world is…
We hope these lessons will generate lots of family discussion and will support positive attitudes and behaviours both in school and at home.
FORMS TO BE RETURNED
Thank you, in advance, for being so prompt about returning all the necessary forms. Please help us by watching for and returning:
· Walking excursion consent form in your child's agenda
· the student information computer update form (one per child) – which is being sent home in October.
These consent forms, in particular, are of great importance as they all relate to your child(ren)’s safety and security!