PRINCE PHILIP PUBLIC SCHOOL 3112 Dorchester Road N, Niagara Falls Ontario, L2J 2Z7 (905) 356-0521, Fax: (905)356-2163

Website: princephilips.dsbn.org

April 2015 News from the office…

Dear Parents/Guardians, It goes without saying that we are ALL looking forward to Spring and warmer weather ahead. With the Easter Break soon upon us, we hope that our families have a great long weekend together. We would also like to congratulate Mme Klassen and her husband for their well awaited new arrival, a baby boy. Kenneth Klassen was born on March 17th weighing 8 pounds 5 ounces. We wish them much happiness with their new bundle of joy. Prince Philip welcomes Mlle Fodil, who is replacing Mme Klassen for the remainder of the year. It has been a smooth transition with the students and staff. We would like to take this opportunity to further express to our parent/guardian community how committed we are as a staff to ensure student success. Staff work diligently to support students in their academics and social/emotional development. We have been working on many different tasks to enhance the learning environment here at Prince Philip. Staff have been working on developing small group instruction to meet the needs of all our students. Math clubs for all grades are underway every Wednesday from 3:00-4:00 pm. In addition, we have secured a date for supporting parents/guardians in further understanding and supporting their child(ren) in Math at home. Dr. Cathy Marks Krpan, who

teaches in the Department for Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at OISE, will be here on May 27th at 6:30 pm. All

parents/guardians from our neighbouring schools will also be invited to attend. Her focus is on student communication

through inquiry in mathematics and how to support your children in today's math classes. Ms. Racey will also be conducting a survey to better help us meet your needs in supporting your child(ren). You should expect this brief survey this week. We thank you in advance for your continuous support and team effort in building a strong learning environment for our students. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

STUDENTS OF THE MONTH

Congratulations to our March Character Trait recipients for Citizenship/citoyenneté. April Character Trait is

Courage/Courage.

3/4FI- Yashvi P.& Anthony P. 4FI-1- Sofia K. & Avi N. 4FI-2- Bailey D.& Cameron K. 4FI-3- Kyle H., Sam R., & Mikayla T. 5FI-1- Ashley S. & Olivia S. 5FI-2- Jessica N., Drew K., & Andreas S. 5FI-3- David A. & Aleksandra P. 6FI-1- Tim S. & Kyla D. 6FI-2- Gabby C., & Aislin R. 6FI-3- Abbie M. and Emilie B. 7FI-1- Nicholas M. & Haven S. 7FI-2- Urooj K. & Lara P. 7FI-3- Milica M., & James P. 8FI-1- Nick D., Shelby W. & Camryn F. 8FI-2- Jessie Y., & Joshua L. 8FI-3- Sarah C. & Colin C. 7 - Colby N. & Ella T. 7/8- Charmaine B., Emily B., & Samantha M. 8- Ayreanna J., Emily D. & Roan M.

Ms. L. Tisi, Principal & Ms. K. Racey, Vice Principal

Important Dates

Pizza Days—Thursdays (April 2, 9, 16, 23, 30) Sub Days—Tuesdays (April 7, 21) Pita Days–Tuesdays (April 14, 28)

Therapy Tails—Wednesdays (April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29) Math Clubs Gr. 3-8 —Wednesdays (April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29)

April 2, 9—Go Girls April 10, 17, 24, May 1—Game On April 7th—Choir and Singers go to the Choral Festival April 8th—Gr. 8 Grad photos April 13th—Gr. 7&8 Vaccinations Part B -Cystinosis Sunglasses Day for Abby April 14th—Int. Heritage Fair—All Day April 28th– National Day of Mourning April 30th—Character Ed Assembly Jr. @11:00 Int. @ 11:30 --SAC Meeting @ 6:30pm May 4th to 8th—Education Week May 5th—PP Track& Field Day @ Oaks Park May 15th—PD Day - No school for students May 18th—Victoria Day Holiday May 19-22nd—Gr. 8 Québec Trip May 25th—Gr. 7 Trip May 25th –June 5th—Gr. 3&6 EQAO Testing May 26, 27, 28—Taekwondo May 27th - Dr, Cathy Marks Krpan speaker on Math 6:30 pm 2 PP June 3,5,9,11—Taekwondo follow-up session June 9th—Gr. 7 & Gr. 3 Open House for our new students (6-7 pm) June 12th—PD Day - No school for students June 19th—Gr.8 Graduation @ Club Italia June 24th– Term 2 Reports Go Home June 25th—Last day of classes before summer break June 26th—PD Day for staff

SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL

Our Prince Philip School Advisory Council had their March meeting on Thursday, March 26th. Our next SAC meeting will be on April 30th, 2015 at Prince Philip in the Library.

All parents/guardians are welcome. The remainder of this year's meetings are scheduled for May 21st and June 16th.

Student Medical Concerns/Anaphylactic Alert We would like to remind parents/guardians that we have students who have life-threatening allergies to peanuts/nuts.

It is our request that you do not send peanut or nut based food as snacks with your child to school. Even a trace amount, or even the smell of these products, can cause anaphylactic shock and possible death. If your child is recently diagnosed, please inform the school ASAP to ensure the safety of your child. In addition, the DSBN requires an Emergency Action Plan to be completed. These can be obtained at our Office.

GRADE 8 GRADUATION PHOTO DAY IS WEDNESDAY, April 8th , 2015 Students are asked to wear a white shirt/tie or blouse. If students are unable, Lifetouch photography will have shirts and blouses available for students to use for that day. Bring your smiles!!

INTRAMURALS

In the month of April, the Grade 5’s will be playing basketball. We thank our supervising teachers and our student referees for their support. All questions can be answered by going to ppathletics.weebly.com

Information is updated daily and this should be your go-to for all athletics-related information. Be in the know and check us out!! Remember, get involved at Prince Philip! If you are not, you are missing out!

CUSTODY ORDERS

When couples separate or divorce, parents generally share custody of the children. Sometimes, however, other arrangements are made and set out in a court order. The school cannot enforce these alternate arrangements unless we have a copy of the court order on file in your child’s confidential Ontario School Record. Should you have such a court order that we should be aware of, please speak to the principal and share the most current copy with the school office.

Is your child up-to-date on his/her immunizations?

The Immunization of School Pupils Act requires every

Public Health Unit to have one of the following on file for

each child attending school:

-an up-to-date immunization record, or -a legal exemption

document (a statement of medical exemption, or a statement

of conscience or religious belief affidavit).

Parents/Guardians of those elementary school children who do

not have complete immunization records (or legal exemption)

on file with Public Health should be notified by mail by the

Niagara Health System.

Parents may contact their health care provider to obtain

immunization records and/or immunizations. Public Health also

offers immunization clinics. To book an appointment for your

child or for more information call 905-688-8248 or 1-888-505-

6074 ext. 7425.

CHORAL FESTIVAL PARTICIPATION

On April 7, the Junior and Senior choirs, along with the Prince

Philip Singers will perform at the DSBN choral festival at Laura Secord Secondary School.

The full choir will present at 10:45 and PP Singers will perform at 11:05. Bus will be departing the school at 9:40 am.

CUTTING HAIR FOR CANCER CAMPAIGN

On Thursday, March 26, Lara P. and Urooj K. (Grade 7 students) arranged a fundraising assembly for families battling cancer. Both girls cut off over 8 inches of their hair to donate it in order to create wigs for those in need. They asked students of the school to donate to their cause and the response and initiative of our students was extraordinary. Overall, more than $1100 was raised to go to two families within the community who are combatting this disease. We are very proud of the girls and were overwhelmed with the Puma Pride that was on display throughout. Great job to the girls and their classmates in demonstrating that a difference can be made when we strive to help others. We also thank Mr. Whitehead for donating his hair to the cause!

PARENT INFORMATION

Outside the School Day Math Club

Let’s set them up for success… HELP IS AVAILABLE!

Each Wednesday from 2:55pm – 4:10pm, Prince Philip offers

an Outside the School Day Numeracy program to help

Intermediate students accomplish their numeracy goals.

• Students will receive individual and small group

instruction and help with achieving the goals for each

session

• Students bring their materials with them to each

session

• Students will receive assistance with work related to

Numeracy

HOMEWORK CLUB

Prince Philip is now offering "Homework Breaks" during 4 days per cycle:

• Day 1: 12:30 – 12:50

• Day 2: 10:10 – 10:50

• Day 6: 12:30 – 1:10

• Day 7: 10:10 – 10:30

These breaks will give students the opportunity to work on assignments or other school work in the library.

GRADE 6 MATH CLUB

The Grade 6 Math club continues to run on Wednesday afternoons from 3:00 - 4:00. We are very happy with the turnout that we have been seeing. Students who attend Math club have the opportunity to practice their Math skills with their peers through games, activities and problem solving. We have practiced concepts such as Comparing and Ordering Fractions, relating Fractions / Decimals / Percents, and solving complex pattern rules. Students who wish to join the Grade 6 Math club can join at anytime! We hope to see you soon!

SILVER BIRCH READING CLUB

The Silver Birch Reading Club, made up of students in Grades 4, 5 and 6, meets once a week to select a book from a wide variety of Silver Birch Award-nominated titles. Each week, we discuss our choices and share favourite parts. This is a great opportunity for our Junior Division students to be exposed to great Canadian fiction and non-fiction authors. We currently have hard copies of the titles in our school library, as well as many other Silver Birch titles can also be accessed on-line at no charge. The members of Silver Birch have been shown how to do this. We look forward to attending the Silver Birch Convention at the end of April.

HEAD LICE

Parents are an important part of controlling head lice. Children

are especially prone to these pests as they often play close

together where heads may come into contact.

Remind your children to put their tuques and

other headgear their lockers

Long hair should be braided or

pinned close to the head

Hats, combs, brushes should not

be lent or borrowed, and should be washed

regularly

Check your school age children.

once weekly for head lice

Please notify the school immediately

if head lice or nits are found.

When students are found to have lice or nits, parents will be

contacted and students will be sent home because our goal is

to keep the school lice free. The school sends information

home with all students in a class where head lice have been

found. This is also available for parents to assist in the

treatment of head lice.

Grade 3/4 FI "Louis la Grenouille"

The students are very excited about the upcoming presentation of the play Louis la Grenouille. (see school calendar for dates) This play demonstrates a great development of their reading comprehension, oral pronunciation, and drama skills. Parents you are in for a real treat and we are sure you will even be more impressed by this second play. Also we have a special treat for you at the end of the play. We hope everyone will be able to attend!

GRADE 4 MATH CLUB

The challenges of the grade 4 math club have been met with much enthusiasm by those students who are attending. Each week since February, we have been focusing on extensions of the units that are being taught in class. Keep up the great work everyone!!

GYMNASTICS CLUB

Students are really enjoying learning some new gymnastic moves and are working on developing a short routine to be presented later in April at an assembly. Great work everyone and many thanks to the parents and grade 7 student helpers.

ECO-CLUB

We have a very dedicated eco\recycling team who help with the enormous job of recycling the plastic containers and paper bins in the school every other week. Thanks team!! Earth Day is April 22 and we will be planning some activities

to raise awareness about protecting our environment.

JUNIOR BOYS BASKETBALL

Our Junior Boys Basketball Team has been made and our season

has begun! The boys have already been practicing hard and we

wish them luck in their season!

Congratulations to the following athletes for being successful in

making the team: LJ, Jordan, Turner, Tim, Connor, Kaden, Peyton,

Nic, Stefan, Yigit, Daniel, Curin, Nathan, Cameron, Vojislav.

INTERMEDIATE GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Intermediate Girls Basketball team finished their season with a 2 point victory against Glynn A. Green in the DSBN "A" final. Congratulations to the girls on an outstanding season that saw them go 18-0. With those 18 wins they were champions in the Tip Off tournament, the EL Crossley Invitational and the DSBN

tournament. Way to go PUMAS!

GRADE 7I & 7/8H SPELLING BEE

On Wednesday March 11th, we had a Spelling Bee Students were given a list of 250 words from our Airborn novel. In the picture are our top 10 finalists. There were five rounds of the competition before our final speller won! Congratulations to all participants!

Many students participated in the Me to We "We Won't Rest" pajama day to help raise funds for Southridge Shelter. Through hot chocolate sales and the pajama day buy-in, Me to We, with the help of the school community, raised over 400 dollars to donate to Southridge Shelter! Southridge was pleasantly surprised with our donation, and they will use it to buy supplies and food for the people they serve. During our anti-bullying Pink Shirt Day on February 25th, Me

to We challenged the school to wear as much pink as possible to show their support. In total, our members counted over 1000 pink clothes and accessories worn school-wide to support the campaign. Students also handed out over 200 Act of Kindness Cards for acknowledging kind things they saw others doing, and posted over 100 kind notes on other students' lockers. The amount of positive energy in the school that day was incredible! For the months of March and April, our Prince Philip Me to We

group will be taking on some great initiatives such as book drives, taking a Vow of Silence, and supporting water aid for countries in Africa. As usual, we look forward to seeing what the

Me to We students and whole school community are capable of, and are thankful for everyone's continued support, motivation, and engagement in all the initiatives we take on together.

Prince Philip's Breakfast Club

Based on school survey results from Term 1, our school and community supporters at Niagara Nutrition Partners are planning a school based Breakfast Club. The Breakfast Club will run every Monday, Tuesday and Friday starting on April 20th from 7:55am - 8:25am. School breakfast clubs have proven to have many positive influences on attending students and their school communities, and Prince Philip is eager to provide this new opportunity and experience to our students. A letter will be going home with more information on this new program within the next two weeks- so please stay tuned!

Math Minute(s)

Did you know that if you log into D2L, you have direct access to a great many online tools available to all DSBN students?! There you will find both DreamBox and Homework Help! Remember (as outlined in our last newsletter) that students in Grades 3 through 6 should be accessing DreamBox for at least 60 minutes weekly and that each session should be at least 20 minutes in length. Homework Help (which is funded by the Ontario government and administered by TVO's Independent Learning Centre) employs Ontario certified teachers to provide one-to-one tutoring for students in Grades 7-10. Please see the February/March newsletter or call Mme Racey if you have any questions about these great resources! A goal of elementary mathematics education:

To develop life-long mathematicians who have the knowledge, thinking skills, confidence and perseverance to solve problems in their current and future lives. According to the Ontario Curriculum – Grades 1 – 8: Mathematics

The curriculum is designed to help build the solid conceptual foundation in mathematics that will enable students to apply their knowledge and further their learning successfully. It is based on the belief that students learn mathematics most effectively when they are given opportunities to investigate ideas and concepts through problem solving and are then guided carefully into an understanding of the mathematical principles involved. At the same time, it promotes a balanced program in mathematics. The acquisition of operational skills remains an important focus of the curriculum.

In our math classrooms, we strive to allow students opportunities to…

…delve deeply into problems and contexts to question their beliefs and allow new understandings to emerge. Time is also devoted to ‘trying’, ‘practicing’ and ‘mucking about’ with new ideas. New learning is always fragile. Using professional judgment, teachers make instructional decisions that serve to reinforce new learning and address misconceptions. What about procedural efficiency?

Students also need to acquire procedural efficiency and confidence. We want students to look at computations critically. Not all computation strategies work well for all numbers. Not all students will adopt all computation strategies with the same ease but all students need to adopt procedures that work efficiently for them. To reinforce this, encourage your child to pull numbers apart in

ways that make sense to him/her and explore a variety of ways to find a correct answer! For example, talk about how you’d find…

12x25

13x19

39+17 Try not to use a pencil and compare your strategies!

Limited Seating Available. This event is free and open to the public RSVP online at: http://brocku.ca/lifespan-dries For more information contact Jay e Morrisku.ca

Concussions - What are they and what can I do?

Presented by: Dr. Charles Tator

Monday, May 4, 2015

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Brock University - Welch Hall, Room

324

500 Glenridge Ave.

St. Catharines, Ont., L2S 3A1

Have you or a family member ever experienced a concussion? During this community information evening Dr. Charles Tator, Neurosurgeon, will describe what concussions are and how they impact the developing brain. Along the way, Dr. Tator will use his own research to explain how to best identify, treat and prevent concussions — providing tips and information to help parents, educators, practitioners, and coaches better understand this important issue.

Limited Seating Available. This event is free and open to the public RSVP online at: http://brocku.ca/lifespan-development-research/events/speaker-series For more information contact Jayne Morrish - jmorrish@brocku.ca

SOCIAL NETWORKING SAFETY

FOR PARENTS

Date: Tuesday, April 21st, 2015

Location: Victoria Public School Gymnasium

5635 Heritage Drive,

Niagara Falls, Ontario

Time: 6:30pm / Duration: 90min Plus Q&A

Guest Speaker: Paul Davis

Topics: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, CyberBullying, HandHeld Devices, Texting, Xbox & Playstation,

Legal Matters, and a Common Sense Approach to dealing with the technology your children have!

This presentation is targeted for adults

Light Snacks will be available

This is a presentation no parent can afford to miss!

We encourage you to bring other parents/friends from the community

Please sign the form below and return it to your child's school before April 15th so that we can plan for seating and space.

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Yes, we/I will be attending the Internet Safety presentation on Tuesday, April 21st at 6:30 p.m.

Name: _____________ ________________________No. of adults attending____________