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The Lewis Link

David Lewis Public School Trustee: Manna Wong

Area Superintendent: Louis Papathanasakis

Vice-Principal: Lisa Schwartz

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016

Welcome back to another year of learning at our fine school. It is my privilege to be Principal at David

Lewis and to lead our staff and your children as we learn and grow together.

As per Ministry guidelines, there was some movement of children in our grades 1-3 early in the year. All

of this is now a well-established routine and everyone is well settled. I appreciate the co-operation of our

teachers and our parents as we worked carefully and thoughtfully through this province wide exercise.

We continue to grow at our school. Our population is presently at 460 students. We occupy every

teaching/learning space in our school and we have five portables that house our Junior Division students

outside. In an effort to always ensure the safety of our students, I have responded to a concern expressed

by one of our parents about safe access to the school building and we will be installing an additional card

key access mechanism on Door Two outside Room 104 and 105. It is my hope that the students in

Portable 1 and 2 will find this a faster, safer and more convenient way to enter our building.

Congratulations to our grade 4 and grade 7 students. Upon examination of the EQAO data from last May,

I am very pleased to see that our students continue to exceed Board and Provincial expectations. Each

family has been sent the individual student results for parents to examine at their leisure. I am very

pleased with the results that have been achieved by my teachers and your children. We will continue to

ensure that all students at all levels are meaningfully instructed with rich curriculum. The achievements

of our grade 3’s and grade 6’s have been included for everyone to view.

This is the last edition of the newsletter that you will receive in paper format. I have been encouraged to

move with the times and post our newsletter for everyone to read and enjoy. This is a tough transition for

me but with the high cost of materials as well as the man hours to assemble what is often a twelve page

document, it probably makes the best sense. We will continue to use our newsletter as a vehicle to share

many of the special learning events that happen regularly at our busy school and it is my hope that you

will look for it eagerly in the months to come.

PRINCIPAL’S

MESSAGE

By Karen Peach

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School Correspondence/Agenda It is critical that information we send home be reviewed

regularly. Please check your child’s bag to read messages and

memos that are sent home. Many are translated for your

convenience. Also, the school agenda is an essential

communication tool between parents and teachers. The

student’s agenda is used to write down all homework and

assignments that are sent home by the teacher. It is important

that parents check your child’s agenda every night to make sure

all assignments are completed and submitted by the due dates.

Student Attendance

To ensure that our students receive the maximum instructional time, we will be ringing our morning and

afternoon bells at 8:40 a.m. and 12:35 p.m. Children will line up at their door as usual and be admitted to

their classes. Please be diligent about your children’s arrival to school on time. Punctuality is a critical

skill to learn and practice. We will contact you if lateness becomes a problem. Thank you for your

support. If your child does arrive late it is critical that they go to the office to obtain an Admit Slip.

This avoids frightening phone calls home to check for absences. Parking continues to be a challenge, at

times; however, more parents are following the instructions to keep our traffic flowing safely. Good job!

Lunch Time

Once again, we have many students who are staying for lunch – presently over 300 students. If your child

is staying for lunch on a regular basis, I will be checking with all students and their parents to make sure

that alternate arrangements cannot be made. All students staying for lunch must stay on the school

grounds. Your cooperation and support is needed. Your children benefit from a break at lunch. Please

make arrangements for them to come home if at all possible. On rainy days please do not send them back

to school before 12:35 p.m.

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Grade 8 Parent Information Night

Our Grade 8 information night was held on October 8th at 6:30 p.m. in the Music Room. Ms. Elysa

Tarascio, our Guidance Counsellor, prepared and shared essential information for our grade 8 parents on

how to choose schools and programs for their children as they move on to grade 9. 40 parents and

students attended that night. Thank you for your interest.

Meet the Teacher Night

Our Meet the Teacher Night was well attended by over 300 parents on October 6th. Teachers prepared

curriculum expectations for the first term which were available for parents. As always, the teachers at

David Lewis are always willing and available to discuss your concerns about your child’s academic or

social progress/needs at any time in the school day. Please direct any inquiries through your child’s

teacher or the office at 416-396-5810.

Kilometre Club

Our Kilometre Club began on Monday, September 10th. All students must complete one kilometre, but

are encouraged to run more each morning recess. It is critical that we impress on our children a personal

commitment to fitness. Kilometre Club will end on Friday, October 28th. At the end of October, we will

be presenting t-shirts to the top runners in each class.

Terry Fox Walk

Our Terry Fox Walk was on Friday, September 16th, 2016. Students were encouraged to donate a loonie

in support of this worthwhile cause. We will be sending a cheque to the Terry Fox Research Foundation

to further cancer research. Thank you to Ms. McKeag for ensuring that every student in the school knew

the Terry Fox story. Cancer will be beaten!

Cross Country Meet

Under the leadership of Mr. Ferrer, with support from Mr. Niarchos and Mrs. Sewell, 42 students from

grade 1-8 competed in their first cross-country meet at Earl Bales Park on October 17th against 30 other

schools. As always, your children were well supervised by staff who accompanied Mr. Ferrer for the day.

We appreciate the interest of our parents who continue to support us as we encourage our students to be

active and to develop their talents and skills! Four students went on to participate on Oct 21st. Good

luck!

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Junior Girls Slo-Pitch Team

12 girls competed in the Junior Girls Slo-Pitch Tournament that was held on Tuesday, October 11th at our

school. They have been practicing on our diamonds with the greatest of interest. Thank you to Mr. De

Fazio, Mr. Jackson and Ms. Zhang for their interest, skills and patience. The team is showing great spirit

and improving skills! When practices started for the first time, the girls were working hard and

progressing after every practice. They went into the final and played on Oct 20th

. We won the

first game but lost the second one. Students cherish and remember those singular moments in

their lives that are turned into spectacular memories when they overcome insurmountable

mountains and challenges and dig deep to emerge into positive positions and successes. This is

what clearly took place yesterday. It was a moment that will forever be etched in their Psyche.

WOW! It was such a rewarding experience for three teachers that were there to see it happen. I

also wanted to acknowledge the “MINDFULNESS” of Mrs. Peach, our often times unsung Hero.

This is what great leaders do, and they do so without seeking accolades.

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Clubs in School

Eco Club, under the leadership of Ms. Bala and Ms. Mangaloglu continues to raise awareness on how to

recycle and reuse. September is the month for plastic bottles. Students are encouraged to use reusable

water bottles to reduce the amount of garbage. October is the month for batteries. Eco team members

will be collecting used batteries to be disposed in a designated site instead of dumping them into the

landfill.

Math Club, under the leadership of Ms. Kumar and Ms. Fung continues to inspire and extend learning

for our youngsters as they become involved in the busy life at our fine school. A total of 70 students from

grade 3-8 joined. They will be divided into two groups meeting once a week in the library after lunch.

This will happen on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

On Oct 19th, we had our first Math Caribou contest. Congratulations to the following students for

their great achievements in the Math Caribou contest. Out of the total of 5125 students who

competed in the grade 3/4 category, Stanley Lam was placed 100th

and Alina Chi was placed

291th

. Among the 7559 students who competed in the grade 5/6 category, Kevin Zhu was placed

425th

and Eric Li was placed 599th

. Andrew Lin from the grade 7/8 category was placed 133rd

out of 8034 students. Excellent job Andrew! In the grade 9/10 contest, Kevin Yang was placed

108th

. The second Math Caribou Contest will be on Nov 16th

and 17th

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Grade 7 Science

Removing Bones From Owl Pellets On behalf of the grade 7s- Selina, Alissa, Elizabeth, Maggie. G, Meilun and Helen from Room 212

The story goes like this …. Debra, the Northern Pocket

Gopher was prowling through the tunnels as it was scavenging for

lunch. Debra had overslept, and had woken to the rush of midday

Gopher traffic. Panicking, Debra had looked, but with no avail,

had found any source of food. Sighing, Debra had decided to head

up to the surface for a while to gather some juicy berries and the

like. In a daze, Debra swayed to the surface, aching with hunger.

Suddenly, a sneaky barn owl scooped up Debra. Debra was

considered missing among the Gopher community the next day. She

was never found.

In our science lab,

the grade 7 students spent an interesting week pulling owl

pellets apart to collect the bones of the owl's’ meal. The

pellets were from barn owls, and on average, each pellet

contained an average of 3.3 animals. They included animals

like shrews, rodents, and gophers. As we were pulling apart

these cylindrical shaped objects, we learned that owls would

eat animals. We learned how the prey once it is eaten by the

owl, sits in its stomach and strong decomposing acids break

apart and digest the meat. Then, all of the fur and bones would

form the pellet and would be regurgitated out. In this process,

seemingly, all of the animal’s skeleton would be preserved

inside.

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All in all, we really enjoyed doing this hands on activity, and, as this is the first time we tried this

kind of thing in science, doing this again would be a great idea. Thank you Ms. Kumar for this

experience!

This is the skeleton of the Northern Pocket Gopher which we suspect to be Debra, the missing

gopher!!!!!

Onion Cell Microscope Lab

We were making an onion cell slide in the science class with Mrs. Kumar. It was the first time

we were making our own wet mount slides. The materials we were given to use were a slide, a slide

cover, a small chunk of onion on a petri dish, tweezers and a liquid called methylene blue. The first thing

we did was to use the tweezers to peel off a thin layer of the inner onion skin; next we put it on the slide.

Then we dripped two drops of methylene blue onto the onion skin. Methylene blue is a liquid dyed in the

color of blue. Because of its transparency, the onion skin must be dyed with a color so that it can be seen

under a microscope. After that we proceeded to apply the slide cover over the slide where the dyed onion

skin was placed and that was the process of how our onion slide was made.

After we made the slide, we set up the microscope to look

at the cell. The onion cell looked very interesting. It had many

different lines that were actually cell walls. We were also able to

identify the nucleus which was small blue dots here and there and

the cytoplasm which was the clear filling in the cell walls. Overall,

this was a very fun lab and also a good experience for us to not

only learn and spot different parts of the cell but also how to set up

on our own.

~ Written by Ivy and Monica in

Grade 8 from Room 201

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Monthly Traits at David Lewis

September is the month of Respect

October is the month of

Responsibility

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Pot Luck Party in Portable 5

Since September, Mr. Jackson's class has done a great job recognizing why it’s important to

make healthy food choices and what a balanced diet looks like. To celebrate these amazing goals

the students hosted a luncheon that included all 4 food groups! Thank you to all the parents for

their support!

Kindergarten Information Morning

Kindergarten parents were invited to come in for an information morning on Oct 19th

in the staff

room at 8:45 a.m. Our three kindergarten teachers, Ms. Karygiannis, Ms. Maccagnano and Ms.

Zhang shared valued information with our kindergarten parents. Parents were interested to learn

about “How to help their children be successful in Kindergarten” and the “New Kindergarten

Curriculum”.

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Spelling Bees in Room 103 - A fun way to learn spelling with Froot Loops.

Promoting Mental Health and Well

Being at David Lewis……….. Students in P2 are doing meditation in front of the

Reflection Station with Mrs. Bala. The reflection

station is set up beside the Music Room. Students

are encouraged to stop, take 5 deep breaths and

check in by answering a simple question “How are

you feeling today?”

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UNICEF

On Oct 24th

, 25th

and 26th

, our intermediate division held a bake sale and garage sale of gently

used books and toys for students to purchase. The purpose was to help raise money for The

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). They raised a total of $800 in the 3 day sale.

Congratulations!

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UNICEF Fundraising

Have you ever taken a moment to realize how lucky you are to have an opportunity to go

to a wonderful school, have easy access to clean drinking water, and be able to use affordable

school supplies? You probably haven’t, because you live in a developed country called Canada.

But did you know that an organization called UNICEF that stands for United Nation

International Children’s Emergency Fund, helps support children around the world who aren’t as

fortunate as us. This organization has aided children for almost seventy years now, providing

basic everyday life essentials and help: such as learning materials, vaccines for health care,

access to clean drinking water, treatment for severe acute malnutrition, and birth registration.

Although we can’t completely prevent calamities and disasters from happening, we can help

fundraise money and donate it to the children who need it more than we do. This year the

intermediate division at David Lewis P.S were able to fundraise money for UNICEF. By

fundraising and selling items from just a quarter to a dollar, we as a school managed to raise

around eight hundred dollars in just three days! That’s right, we raised $800!!!

It all started when the intermediates were asked to collaborate with one another to think

of ways to help raise money for the children who had lost their homes, due to the aftermath of

Hurricane Matthew which affected Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, Bahamas and the eastern coast of

Canada and the USA. We came up with many different fundraising ideas such as bake sales,

raffles, drinks, face painting, selling treats, art pieces, balloon animals, beverages, toys, and

books. Every one of the grade 7/8 students was then put in groups and as groups we chose a

category that we could use to raise money. There were many announcements made at our school

along with posters that helped us advertise our sale and to bring awareness to UNICEF. Together

as a team we brought in items to support our fundraising idea, and with the approval of Mrs.

Peach everything started to come together.

Sales began on October 24th. The intermediates had set up many tables along the hallway

under the supervision of Mrs. Wall, Mr. Longaphie, Mrs. Kumar, and occasionally, Mrs. Peach.

When the sales were up and running during morning and lunch recess, the students from grades

K-8 loved buying toys and treats, whether it was cards, books, cookies, or cake, the combined

participation of all the students helped in supporting UNICEF, with each cent making a

difference!

This fundraiser was, in fact, the biggest ever done at David Lewis Public School. What

made it additionally memorable was the fact that it was done with the help of the students in the

school. Having all the money raised given to

children around the world made us proud of our

efforts. We are all very thankful for all the

contributions of the students at David Lewis who

have made our school proud by donating over

$800 to the UNICEF foundation this year. After

all, we know it will go to a good cause! Mrs.

Peach will be awarding the Intermediates ice

cream sundaes to acknowledge a job really well

done!

By: Stone Yang, Nicole Zeng,

Christine Lin, Nini Yang, Kaiwen Yang

on behalf of the grade 7/8s

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UNICEF at David Lewis

Written by Ms. Ip and Grade 2 students in Room 104

On October 31st, it is National UNICEF Day. In the month of October, fundraising has

started in our school. All the staffs and students at David Lewis Public School have

participated in raising money for UNICEF so that we can help the poor children around the

world.

In every classroom, there is a tin can to collect donations that students bring in for

UNICEF. The classes were in a competition to see which class raised the most donations! The grade 2

students in Mrs. Cimaglia and Ms. Ip’s class drew posters and made announcements to tell the school

about how our donations are used to help the poor children. The grade 7’s and 8’s did an amazing bake

sale and a garage sale to raise more money. All the money that we collect as a school goes to UNICEF to

buy things that children need.

We are fundraising for UNICEF because we want to help poor children buy water

pumps so that they can drink clean water.

We want to help children buy food so that they won’t be hungry and they will have

energy.

We want to help children buy school tents because they don’t have any schools.

We want to get them school supplies like markers, pencils, notebooks and

erasers so that they can write and draw.

We want to help children buy bicycles so that they can get to school faster or else

they need to walk for a long time.

We want to get soccer balls for schools so that children can have fun through sports.

We want to buy clothing for children so that they won’t freeze to death.

We want to get shelters for children so that they can be safe, stay warm and survive the

cold.

We want to get bandages for children to heal their wounds. We want to buy medicines for

children so that they can stay healthy and when they are sick, they can get better.

WE WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

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Kindergartens’ Whittamore Farm Trip

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Halloween At Lewis Grade 1-3 students are doing activities to celebrate Halloween.

Making a ghost face with paper plates, cutting a paper Jack-O-Lantern on graph paper,

drawing a haunted house and making a lantern.

Primary Halloween

Dance in the Gym on

October 31

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Left: Spooky Staff at

David Lewis

Below: Jack-o-Lantern

carving competition

Teamwork – Thanks to our

caretaker, Clive Thomas, we have one

of the cleanest and best maintained

schools in the TDSB. Students and

teachers appreciate his fine daily

efforts as well as his smiling face!

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Newsletter This will be the last printed edition of the newsletters.

Go on line to David Lewis P.S. to view the bi-monthly newsletter.

这将是新闻稿最后一版的打印。

接着请在 David Lewis P.S. 网站查看双月通讯。

School Council The first meeting was held on Oct 18

th. Mrs. Janaki Thiyagarajan and Mr. Samuel Ko

were appointed as Chair and Co-Chair respectively for the School Council.

The second School Council Meeting will be on Nov 22nd

.

Please find dates and topics in the table below.

第二次学校理事会会议将于 11 月 22 日举行。

当晚主题是互联网欺凌。

Meeting Date Topic

Nov 22, Tuesday Meeting 6:30 p.m. in the library

Jan 17,Tuesday “Mindfulness” A dialogue on Mental Health

Feb 21, Tuesday Community Dinner Talent Show 6:00 p.m.

April 25, Tuesday Preparing for EQAO using technology

May 15, Monday Preparing for Summer. What is available to engage our children

Parent Interview The first parent interview will be on Nov 17

nd.

第一次关于孩子的学习进度的家长会面将在 11 月 17 日。

Math Caribou Contest

The 2nd

math contest will be on Nov 16th

and 17th

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EQAO Results 2015-2016 We congratulate our former grade 3 and 6 students for their very fine results on our most recent

EQAO assessments last May. All of the results were far above the Board and Provincial

averages. Our fine teaching team is to be congratulated for their continued efforts to deliver high

quality curriculum that engages, broadens and extends learning at our fine school!