DUNDURN SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

January 7th, 2016 Principal - Mr. Jason Hill

Vice- Principal - Ms. Kirsten Tucker

Admin. Assistant - Mrs. Connie Lenard “A Community of Inclusion, Innovation and Excellence”

Jan. 12th Hot lunch orders due

Jan. 15th Bucket Filler Assembly @ 9:05 SCC Hot Lunch - Pizza

Jan. 29th Teacher Prep Day—No school for students

MESSAGE FROM THE OFFICE

Happy New Year to everyone and I hope that you had an enjoyable holi-day season. All the best to you in 2016 and we look forward to an exciting year here at Dundurn Elementary School.

On December 15th the school held its Christmas Carnival to celebrate the holidays. With our larger student population we wanted to try things a little different this year from the traditional Christmas Concert. The Carnival was extremely well attended and we had the school jam-packed with par-ents, students and family members. The Carnival included: gr.6 street drama performances throughout the evening, beginner band performance, advanced band performance, gr. 3 baby chicks, sleigh rides around the school grounds, ornament decorating craft, cookie decorating (and eat-ing), karaoke, photo booth, picture with Santa, and a Christmas Video showcasing all students. Thank you to the SCC for providing hot choco-late and also running the Christmas Raffle Baskets – congratulations to our many winners. Also thank you to Mr. Gary Grady for launching a fan-tastic fireworks display to end a fun evening, as well as to the Moun-tainview Food and Fuel Store for providing the fireworks. As well, thank you to Mr. Jay Olyniuk and his family for bringing their sleigh and horses out for the evening and sleigh rides.

The community outdoor rink is up and running and hopefully you have had a chance to come out for a skate over the past weeks. There are usually shovels out-and-about so feel free to give the rink a shovel if you could as it helps out with keeping the rink up and running for everyone. Thank you to Mr. Jason Forrest for flooding over the Christmas Holiday as the rink is looking great. As well, thank you to Mr. Kaleb Freeden and BRP Mobile for clearing the rink with a Bobcat to get things up and running. If you are interested in helping with flooding or the rink please contact the school.

Miss Sabrina Wasyliuk, our grade 3 University of Saskatchewan intern, finished up at the school prior to the Christmas Break. Miss Wasyliuk was a great addition to the grade 3 classroom as well as the entire school and we will miss her but know that she will be a fantastic teacher wherever she ends up. The grade 3’s and Mrs. Shannon-Wobeser held a wonderful as-sembly on December 17th, thanking Miss Wasyliuk for her time at Dundurn Elementary and wishing her all the best in her future endeavors.

If you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to contact the school. Again Happy New Year and all the best in 2016!

Jason Hill

Principal Dundurn Elementary School

Box 250, 302 - 3rd Avenue

Dundurn SK. S0K 1K0 (W) 492-2050 (Cell) 291-8076

(Fax) 492-2084

Jan. 7th , 2016

-13 C

Wind Chill –22C

Dates to

Remember

The Dundurn Community

Rink

Counsellor’s Corner – Mrs. Leier

Addressing Excessive Reassurance Seeking

Children and teens look to their parents, teachers and trusted adults for information about the world around them, enabling them to reach expected milestones and mature into adulthood. How-ever, for some children and teens, knowledge is insufficient; they also want reassurance and com-fort that feared outcomes will not occur. Furthermore, they’re dissatisfied with simple reassuranc-es, such as “You’ve studied enough. You’ll do fine,” and seem to need unending examples, prom-ises, and guarantees. This is called reassurance seeking. Listening in on Reassurance Seeking… “Are you sure you locked all the doors? When exactly? Even the back door? What about the windows?”

“Tell me again that it can’t make me sick! Please. Just once more.”

“Did you wash your hands before you cooked dinner? How many pumps?”

Calling mom/dad over & over again from school to make sure they are okay, and when they do not pick up, sending text messag-es instead.

Asking parents to check homework repeatedly to make sure it’s perfect.

Most parents already know that giving reassurance over and over again is not only exhausting but

also doesn’t usually work. Reassurance provision is like pouring water through a net; the water

simply leaks out and you are left with an empty container. Obviously pouring more water in is not

the solution, but what is? Anxiety experts have determined 2 methods that can work for many

families: 1) the all-at-once method; and 2) the gradual method.

ALL-AT-ONCE: This method is also known as the “cold turkey” route. This works best for reassurance seeking

that has not been occurring for long or only occurs in a few small areas. You can explain to your child that his or her anxiety is bossing him/her around and growing stronger by making your child gather an unending supply of reassurance, only to demand more the next day, and the next, and so on. Your child is being held hostage. Explain that you feel confident you can work together to reduce anxiety’s power by eliminating reassurance once and for all. Come up with a few strategies that your child can use when you stop providing the reassurances they crave. For example, teach and practice some relaxed breathing strategies, provide other activ-ities to focus on, and come up with some realistic and helpful thoughts they can use. You might say “I know this is hard for you, but I don’t want to feed your anxiety and help it grow. I’m open to ideas to support you or help you face this but from now on when you ask me _____ I will not answer that question.”

GRADUAL:

This method works best for reassurance that has been a longstanding problem and occurs in more

than one area, or for youth that find the idea of a “cold turkey” approach too hard. You and your

child can use a plan to gradually roll back reassurance in a step-by-step, planned and predictable

way. The Gradual Method will be covered in next month’s newsletter.

Check out our new Twitter account and follow “Dundurn Elem School” for all the latest info on the great things happening at our school. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact Mr. Hill at the school.

We are a ‘Nut Aware’ school At Dundurn School we are committed to provide a safe environment that is inclusive for all children. In common with most other schools, we have a number of children with nut allergies. The purpose of this newsletter item is to give families the infor-mation they need to support us in providing a safe and inclusive school.

Why ‘Nut Aware’? Dundurn School is ‘Nut Aware’. We do not describe the school as being ‘Nut Free’ because we can’t guarantee that students or adults have not brought nuts, or traces of nuts, into the building.

What is Anaphylaxis? Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic reaction that can be life threatening. Approximately 1-2% of Cana-dians live with the risk of an anaphylactic reaction. Food allergies are the most common cause of anaphylaxis. The most common food allergens are peanuts, tree nuts, seafood, egg and milk prod-ucts. Anaphylaxis can affect multiple body systems. This can range from skin inflammation to ana-phylactic shock, which is an explosive over-reaction of the body’s immune system. This can be characterized by swelling, difficulty breathing, abdominal cramps, circulatory collapse, coma and, ultimately, death. Source: Anaphylaxis Canada Prevention It is our responsibility as a school community to avoid exposing students with allergies to the prod-ucts which could start an allergic reaction. This means that we take great care to avoid any prod-ucts that could contain allergens in our school snack program and other food items that are brought into school. We ask parents to exercise care when preparing lunches to carefully check labels and to not send any products which contain nuts, or traces of nuts. We also ask that families exercise care when baking for snack or fundraisers.

Treatment The best treatment for food allergies is prevention. However our staff are trained to recognize the symptoms of an allergic reaction and, if necessary, deliver the medications which help to reduce the reaction. When an incident of anaphylaxis occurs, first responders will be called, as well as the parent of the child.

Common Questions

What if my child has peanut butter for breakfast? Could this cause an allergic reaction for another child at school?

The answer is ‘Yes’. Children should thoroughly wash hands and brush their teeth before coming to school.

Are the peanut butter alternatives, such as ‘Wow Butter’ safe to send to school? There are several peanut butter substitute products which do not contain common allergens, however we ask that parents exercise caution with using these products as they are difficult to distinguish from peanut butter and may cause confusion, or even anxiety, for students with allergies.

More Resources There are many websites which list nut-free and allergen-free products. These can be reached with

a simple Google search. However, families should still carefully check labels.

GOOD SAMARITAN FUND The Dundurn Good Samaritan Fund exists to help children and families access opportunities for sporting or cultural activities. If you would like your child to play hockey, learn to dance, learn to play an instrument or participate in any sporting or cultural activity but the cost is a barrier, please contact the Good Samaritan Fund for assistance. The Fund is administered by Jason Hill and Steve Menshenfriend. Anyone can apply and there is no means test.

To find out more, or apply for assistance, please contact Jason Hill at 492-2050.

Administering Medication School Board policy #413 regulates the ability of employees to dispense medi-

cations. If your child requires medication, prescription or non-prescription, dur-

ing school hours, please contact the school to arrange to pick up the appropri-

ate forms also on the school web site. We are unable to dispense any medica-

tions until this procedure has been followed.

Attendance If your child is absent from school, please contact the school before 8:50 a.m. OR send a note with

a sibling or email. It is our policy to contact all parents if your child is absent and we have not re-ceived notification.

School Phone #306-492-2050 Mrs. Lenard’s email : connie.lenard@spiritsd.ca

Pre Kindergarten - Mrs. Peters

January has arrived and we are enjoying being back at school with all our friends. The New

Year will be all about snow, winter and ice. The Pre K’s are learning new snowman/snowball and polar

bear poems. We will be reading lots of winter books. We will be learning a new

game called snow ball fight in the gym – using old rolled up socks. We made

snow play dough using lots of sparkles!! Whenever we can we will be playing

outside on the awesome snow hills on the school yard. Mrs. Peters will be bring-

ing a big bucket of snow inside the classroom to play with!!!

January is all about literacy with Literacy Day at the end of the month.

For family days this month we will share our favourite books from home. We

will make some awesome snow people with our parents so come and see them in our classroom! Please

remember to bring your child’s favourite book for your family day this month as well as their favourite

dry snack (raisins,, crackers, cereal, dried fruit, chocolate chips, prezels or chips) so we can make a

big bowl of friendship snack to share for family day snack.

Please continue to phone the school if your child will be missing Pre K.

Industrial Alliance Insurance Prairie Spirit provides accident insurance through Industrial Alliance Insurance that provides insurance cover if your child has an accident at school during the school day. Children are also covered if the accident occurs at a time when they are involved in any extra-curricular activities before or after school hours, including school trips. In the unfortunate circum-stances of needing this insurance, the school will need to be notified of the accident immediately so that they can submit an incident report to the insurance company and provide the parent or guardian with a claim form. The parent or guardian will need to pay any expenses initially, then ask the appropriate medical authority to complete and sign the form. The par-ent will then submit the form directly to Alliance Insurance. The claim process is between the parent or guardian and the insurance company. Industrial Alliance Insurance does offer additional KidsPlus Accident Insurance should you wish to purchase it. Details can be found in the KidsPlus Accident Insurance Package.

Grade 1 - Mrs. Granatier – Sabin

December / January News from Grade 1

December was - listening to stories, sharing our Christmas decoration, making crafts, and singing carols.

December was - going , and to the movie. We loved the . It was so much fun!!

January is - talking about our goals for 2016!

January is - learning about the and what animals do in the winter. We have been wondering where

comes from and where the animals go. We will also be ing at the rink.

January is , reading, reading - Grade 1’s will be working hard on choosing “Just Right Books” and

using their schema while reading delicious books. We are also working hard on our words too!!! We will be bringing

books home to read to mom and dad very soon!

January is working hard at Filling Each Other’s

Kindergarten – Mrs. Bellina

Happy New Year! We are excited to head in to our new year!

Kindergarten students are making leaps and bounds with their learning and we will be seeing a lot of growth these next few months! We will be working on our printing – making sure we start our letters at the top and we follow proper formation. We had a great day of skating and are so happy our care partners helped us out! We will hopefully be skating a lot these following months! We are learning sight words and recognizing our letters upper case and lower case! Our independence is growing and we are becoming experts at dressing for

recess by buttoning and zipping up zippers and putting on our own boots. We are working on our math by recognizing and un-derstanding the meaning of numbers from 1 – 10. Kindergarten students have made great friendships and we are excited to explore in 2016!

Grade 3 - Mrs. Shannon – Wobeser

.

We had a good break! No one got anything from Santa (just kidding!). We shared about our vacation and what we did. We had lots of fun over the break. We have a new student in our class named Selina. The chicks are gone and so is Miss. W. The chicks went to Lanes’s farm and Miss. W went back to the U of S to fin-ish studying to be a teacher. We miss Miss.W. and the chicks!

We are working on writing bold beginnings in our stories. We can start them with comedy, sound, statement, talking, questions and actions. We are still writing in our beautiful books. In math we are going to work on adding and subtracting.

In art we drew memory drawings and blind contour drawings. We are also learning about positive and negative space. In gym we are going to work on basket-ball!

And that’s it for January, take five! Grade 3 is awesome!

By Logan, Shonna and Payton

Grade 2 – Mrs. Catton

Happy New Year everyone! The grade two's decided they would like to write their own newsletter entry this month and here is what they came up with.

J- jumping with joy to be back at school A- always go skating to the rink on Fridays N- never be a bully to anyone U- usually we write 5 sentence in our journal with capitals and periods A- Alyssa and Quinn have birthdays this month R- really good at adding and subtracting numbers to 100

Y- year 2016 is going to be epic

Grade 4- Mrs. Krueger

Here’s hoping everyone had a great Christmas holiday. Students have returned with energy and enthusiasm, that’s for sure!

Here’s what’s going on in the Grade 4 classroom: -we are happy to have a new student in our class – welcome to Dundurn Cody! -In Lang Arts, we continue to focus on Reader’s Workshop, and are starting a short Poetry unit this week. -In Math (with Mr. Hill), we have finished our work on multiplication and are now working on division skills. As well, we continue to stretch our math learning through exercises on ixl.com which stu-dents can be using at home or with any computer/device with internet access. -starting a Light unit in Science -finishing up Mining and Resources in Social Studies, then moving on to a map unit -basketball focus in Phys Ed, as well as continuing regular yoga practice. As well, we have been working on fitness circuits (with Mr. Hill), including push-ups, curl-ups, step-ups, skipping, shuttle run and a 5 minute run. -class skating at the rink. We will be booking the rink for ice times – our next session is Monday, Jan 11, from 1:30-3:00. -Citizenship focus this month is Effort & Excellence. We will be discussing how to set high standards for ourselves, and to work toward achieving goals. -In Health (with Mr. Hill) we are looking at the areas of: caring, trustworthiness, fairness, empathy, courage, responsibility, integrity, respect and perseverance. -Happy Birthdays to Wyatt and Chloe this month. From all of us in Grade 4, Happy New Year!

Grade 5 - Ms. Tucker ELA- we’re writing and learning about different types of poetry and reading Pippi Longstocking

Math- we are doing Area and Perimeter

Social studies-- we are studying Canadian Citizenship and writing letters to Darian Durant because he is studying to become a Canadian citizen Phys Ed- we are doing dance

Health- we did problem-solving - (Mr. Hill), students continue to look at what it means to be respon-sible (at school, home, within the community, etc.)

Science- we’re doing weather announcements In grade 5 science - (Mr. Hill), students have continued to work in our Weather Unit. Focus areas included how we predict weather, weather balloons, radar, weather satellites and forecasts. Students are acting as our in- house “weather experts” researching the daily weather conditions for Dundurn and sharing them on the daily announcements over the intercom. Arts Ed. - we are learning about art history

By: Tyler and Tyson

Grade 6 - Mrs. Fiedelleck

Welcome back to a new year! The students were well refreshed after the break and eager to learn. And by eager, I mean they rolled out of bed, made it to school and stayed awake for me( that last part is a bonus!) It didn’t take long to get back in the swing of things though. Our gift guessing game and holiday pie chart got their brains ticking! We started the year by looking at the term “Grit”, how grit helps us to over-come challenges and who shows grit. We plan to set Grit into forward motion by setting New Year resolu-tions.

On our plate this month:

Underground to Canada novel study

Passion Projects

Simple Machines Science Unit

Decimals

Math facts

Basketball season is on for those wishing to join the team

Happy New Year!

When should your child stay home from school?

What are some reasons I should keep my child home from school?

Fever • children with fevers, even slight fevers, should not be sent to school • a fever is a sign of illness

Vomiting and/or diarrhea • children should not return to school until diarrhea has cleared (48 hours have passed since their last symptom)

Respiratory infections • sore throat, coughing, earaches or persistent cough with discharge from nose and/or throat

Rashes • skin rash may be a sign of illness • rashes have different causes • if your child has a rash, see your doctor

Pink eye • your child can return to school after 24 hours of appropriate antibiotic

Dear Parents of Dundurn School Bus Students:

Prairie Spirit has implemented a new program called MyStop, this is a program that will let you track your child’s bus to/from school.

Please see below for more info.

Distribute Credentials

Parents need to contact Dundurn School for a username and password to login to MyStop.

This password is to be used ONLY by a parent.

We do not want just anyone tracking the bus, just the families who are on the bus.

You may use the following website/apps for ease of access:

Website: https://versatrans.spiritsd.ca/onscreen/MyStop/WheresMyBus.aspx

iOS App: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/versatrans-my-stop/id977300092?mt=8

Android App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tyler.versatrans.mystop

Password Changes : Parent(s) should contact the school to request a password change.

DUNDURN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Mr. Jason Hill, Principal Mrs. Kirsten Tucker, Vice Principal

Box 250 DUNDURN, SK. S0K 1K0

Ph: (306) 492-2050 Fax: (306) 492-2084

spiritsd.ca/dundurn

Dear Parent(s) / Guardian(s), September 18, 2015

As part of the Prairie Spirit School Division (PSSD) Safe and Secure Protocol, Dundurn Elemen-

tary School is now locking school exterior doors. The PSSD Safe and Secure Protocol has been

developed in the interest of student safety, while supporting a welcoming learning environ-

ment for our students, parents, staff and community members.

-All access doors (excluding the main/east entrance doors), will be locked at roughly 9:15 am,

after the morning entry bell, and remain locked for the duration of the school day.

-After the doors are locked, all access to our school for the public and late arriving students

will be via the main entrance doors.

-All supervising staff have been issued keys to open perimeter doors during the school day but

the doors will otherwise remain locked.

-Once the doors have been locked, staff members will periodically check for students arriving

late to school. This will be of particular importance for younger students and in cold weather

conditions.

This information has been shared frequently with students via daily announcements during

this week. As well, teachers have spent time in class discussing these initiated changes of the

Safe and Secure Protocol, and answering student questions and concerns. Students have been

instructed to use the main entrance when they need in and there is not a supervisor to open

a locked door.

If you have any questions regarding the Safe and Secure Protocol please contact Mr. Jason Hill,

principal of Dundurn Elementary School.

Sincerely,

Jason Hill