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McKee McNews February 2018

McKee Public School

35 Church Avenue Toronto, Ontario M2N 6X6

Telephone: 416-395-2680 Safe Arrival Program: 416-395-2688 Fax 416-395-4497

School Website: http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/mckee Twitter: @McKeeSchool

Linda Curtis

Superintendent

416-396-9172

McKee is a dynamic learning environment that has so much

to offer our students. To celebrate the year of the Dog,

McKee is having a Lunar New Year/Fairness Bee Assembly

on Thursday, February 22 at 12:50 pm. We are encouraging our students to wear their

own traditional clothing to the assembly. If you would like to add an authentic voice to the

planning of this assembly, please contact Ms. Kaderbhai at 416-395-2680. We are very

much looking forward to celebrating as a community. A very special happy Lunar New

Year to all those who celebrate.

As we begin our Kindergarten registration, we would like to share that we have developed

a special optional attendance process for a student registering for the first time at McKee

who has a home address that was impacted by our boundary change. This process will be

for those who currently have a sibling attending McKee and who wish to keep their

children together. If this applies to you, more information will be shared during the

kindergarten registration process.

We are also very excited for our Winter Olympic Play Day. Teachers will be discussing

the Olympics with their students and we will be having our own McKee Olympic celebra-

tion on February 27th for Kindergarten students and on Feb 23rd (a.m.) for students in Gr.

1-3 and Gr. 4-5 on Feb. 23 (afternoon only) for our Gr. 4/5 students. Our alternative

weather date is February 26th. Students need to dress warm for this activities as they will

be outdoors for half of the day participating in winter activities.

Thank you again for what you do to support our teachers each and everyday. Please know

that my door is always open and I look forward to hearing from you regarding ways to

ensure your child continues to have a successful school year at McKee.

Warmly,

Jeanette Lang

Principal

Jeanette Lang Maleka Kaderbhai

Principal Vice-Principal

416-395-2680

Alexander Brown

Trustee

416-395-8411

UPCOMING EVENTS

Thursday, February 1

Pizza Day

Thursday, February 8

Hot Lunch Lady

Tuesday, February 13

Report cards go home

Thursday, February 15

Pizza Lunch

Parent Teacher Interviews

Friday, February 16

Lunar New Year

D Day / Interviews

No school for students

Monday, February 19

Family Day NO SCHOOL

Tuesday Feb 20

Prologue—Tribal Vision

Tuesday Feb 20 @ 6:45 p.m.

Trustee Brown’s Ward

Forum @ Lillian PS

Tues Feb 20—23rd

Kindergarten Registration

Wednesday, February 21

SAC @ 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, February 22

Hot Lunch Lady

Tuesday, February 22 @

12:45 Bee Assembly and

Lunar New Year celebration

Wednesday, February 28

Pink Shirt Day

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

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Page 2 McKee McNews February 2018

Dance-a-thon

Wednesday,

March 7th

Yes! McKee’s annual

dance-a-thon is going to

take place on Wednesday,

March 7th

For those who are new to the school, parents can make

donations through their children during our Spirit Week

and over the March Break. More information will be provid-

ed as we get closer to the date. Spirit Week is a fun filled

week, highlighted by our Dance a thon. Everyone looks

forward to this each year. There will be many wonderful

raffle prizes for the students and parents who participate

in this event. All funds are used to enrich the lives of our

students at McKee. Let’s open our wallets and make this

year’s Dance-a-thon the most successful one ever!

Skating at Mitchell Field Arena

Many of our students have been having fun skating at Mitchell Field Arena. The school has 2

sessions booked in February and 5 more in March. Parents are reminded to ensure their chil-

dren have coats and mittens while on the ice. Thank you to all the parents who volunteer to help

our students put on their skates and equipment.

On February 13, students will be receiving their First Term Provincial Report

Card. Teachers will communicate with those parents who require an interview.

If a parent would like to discuss their child’s report card, please communicate

with the teacher to request a mutual time for this discussion.

Dates 1:00—2:00 p.m. 2:00—3:00 p.m.

Monday Feb 5 Li-Wong, Kenedy,

Gagnon, Bitterhoff

Jung, E. Lee,

Trudel, Chu

Tuesday Feb 27 Lazarus, Rosenberg,

Chung, Coles N/A

Lunchroom Supervisors Needed - $11.40/hr.

(supply) or $18.96/hr. (permanent)

If you have experience working with children

and an ability to communicate in English sensi-

tively with our students, parents and others,

please consider joining our team. Your main role

will be to ensure the safety and security of our

students during the daily lunch period for 1 hour

and 15 minutes. Necessary skills include pa-

tience, understanding and the ability to encour-

age positive relations among students.

If interested, please apply online at the following

address or provide a resume to the School:

http://www.tdsb.on.ca/AboutUs/Employment/S

upportStaff/OnCallReplacementOpportunities.as

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Holiday Assembly Page 3 McKee McNews February 2018

Character Education

On January 31st we presented Team-

work certificates to our students in

Grades 1, 3, and 5. Congratulations!

In the month of February, your child will

be involved in learning activities de-

signed to develop “fairness”. Share a

story that will help your child understand

that sometimes “fair” does not mean

“equal”.

Beautiful Art at McKee

Mindfulness

We are so fortunate to be welcoming

Judy Reynolds, a trained Mindfulness

instructor, into 11 of our classrooms.

We have begun by having all of our

Kindergarten classes along with 2 of

our Gr. 1 and 2 of our Gr. 2 classes

involved with this initiative. These clas-

ses help teach our students the lan-

guage they need to better understand

their emotions and develop their self

regulation skills. Ms Reynolds uses a

Monkey puppet to help teach these

concepts. WE have

already seen stu-

dents using these

strategies when deal-

ing with frustration.

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Full Day Kindergarten Registration

Kindergarten registration will officially begin the week of February 20—23rd. Please encourage your

neighbours who have children born in 2014 (Junior Kindergarten) and 2013 (Senior Kindergarten) to call

the office to make an appointment. The office is booking registration appointments. In order to register,

parents will need to present the following:

identification to prove residency (NOT a cell phone bill or driver’s license)

a letter from the Property Management Office indicating the names of the people who live in your unit

child’s birth certificate or passport or permanent resident card

immigration papers, if necessary

record of immunization and health card

Please know that our boundary change will take effect September 2018. Please contact the office if

you would like to apply for optional attendance.

Attention all Parents of Preschool Children

McKee McKids has started to take waiting list forms for their

fulltime and part-time preschool programs for September 2018

McKee McKids is the childcare located in McKee Public School.

If you have a child who will be 31 months by September 2018,

and you want a high quality learning environment please call us

at416-222-1414. You can also email us at

mckeemckids@bellnet.ca or come and visit us when you are at

McKee Public School.

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The Grade 3 Drama Club presented their

own version of the story "The Three Little

Pigs". They worked very hard and demon-

strated excellent cooperation in order to pre-

sent this wonderful play during our Bee as-

sembly. Well done Drama Club! And a spe-

cial thank you to Ms Bose for her work with

leading this Drama club.

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Page 5 McKee McNews February 2018

Scientists in the School

Scientists in the school was really awesome

and fun. The class and I learned about

force, Scientist Fariba taught us about all

kinds of forces like gravity force. We also

got to play with magnets. If you put 2 mag-

nets 6 cm apart, they would roll to each oth-

er and stick! We also tested out catapults!

We also tested which material had most

friction: force; wood, rubber or wall paper. It

turns out it was rubber. We also got a free

cup, card and a poker chip! Scientist in the

school was awesome!

Chengxing

Gr. 3, Ms. Chung’s class

Scientist in the School—Gr. 3—Thanks to SAC for covering the cost!!

Scientist in the School

Last week we had Scientist in the School. Scientist

Fariba came to visit and talk to us about different

types of forces. We learned about gravity, push &

pull, static electricity, friction, and magnetic force.

My favourite forces are static electricity, and push

and pull.

For the push and pull group activity, we placed a

lego man on a car and pushed it towards a ruler.

The man fell off. Then we tried the same thing

again, but with an elastic band over the man’s

waist and the pole. This time he didn't fall off! That’s because the rubber band was holding him down. For our

static electricity activity we used a static octopus and fabric. First we rubbed the octopus with fabric, it started

to stick to everything (like our arms!). Then when we put water on the static octopus, it calmed right down.

Scientist Fariba taught us a few cool magic tricks.

The first trick was about magnets. She placed one magnet under her paper, and then another magnet on top

of the paper. Wherever one magnet went, the other followed! For her next trick, she poured water in a bucket

and swung it in a circle. The water didn't fall! That’s because she wasn't too fast or too slow. Finally, Scientist

Fariba did a trick about friction. She put a card on a cup, and then put a poker chip on top of the card. Then

she pulled the card slowly. The poker chip stayed on top of the card. But when she pulled the card away

quickly the poker chip fell in the cup.

When it was over, I wanted to do more science, because it was so much fun!

By Sawon & Brooke (room 210)

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Holiday Assembly Page 6 McKee McNews February 2018

From the Library:

Hello Parents,

It seems like we never had a Winter break. No sooner did we get back to school, we had the highly anticipat-

ed “Book Fair”. It was a mammoth event to set up and run, but the children loved it. The book fair was not

just about buying books, but it gave the children opportunities to apply real life skills. For the kindergarten,

they chose books they wanted to buy and then learned to ask for help to write down titles. The grade ones

and twos had to write their own lists, applying their printing and adding skills, while the older children learned

to make responsible choices with the money they were entrusted to spend.

It was so nice to see the interaction between the parents and students as they discussed the books they

were choosing. We are not talking about the monetary value, but the content, the readability, making good

choices for educational purposes and for the pure enjoyment of reading.

Thank you, parents for making this the most successful book fair ever. Your donations to the classroom wish

lists were so appreciated. As well as the parents, Mrs. Lang gave $100 from the school budget to support

every classroom library, totalling $3 300! She truly believes that the love of reading is fostered when children

have books they enjoy. The feedback from the children has been so positive. Thank you, Mrs. Lang and

Parents!

When you purchase books from this fair, we get a portion back for the library. We made a total of $15 100

before taxes and deductions. Scholastics allowed us to take $1 410 in books directly from the fair and we

still have almost $3000 to spend in the future. I have always said we had one of the best libraries around

and that is because we have some of the most supportive and generous parents and administrators.

Now that January is almost over, we will get back to exploring the Virtual Library in February. Until then, enjoy

all the books bought from the book fair! Happy reading!

Nancy Charron

January Teamwork Bees

Congratulations to the following students who demonstrated teamwork during the month of January. We are very proud

of you.

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