The Cat’s Tale
SCHOOL WESTDALE’S NEWSLETTE R M A Y 2 0 1 5 NUMBER ( 9 0 5 ) 6 8 2 - 9284 From the Principal’s Desk
We’d like to celebrate the vital contribu- Principal: tion our volunteers have made to our Westdale community! We are so fortu- Poppy Gilliam nate at Westdale to have so many people who give their time and talents to help Vice-Principal: make our school a better place. Jane Brown To all of those people who have been able to reorganize their time in order to Secretary: volunteer at our school, we say thank you for helping to make Westdale a better place to learn and grow! Many activities would not be possible without our volun- Dawn Holderney teers who donate their time to: drive & chaperone students on school outings/ extra-curricular sports; read to our students; help in the classrooms; run special
events; assist with or run our fundraising activities; be a member of the school council; act as a mentor to students in need; bake for special days ...and the list goes on! INSIDE THIS In the busy life of a school, we don’t often say thank you enough to these people ISSUE: who enrich the lives of our students with each and every time they give from Breakfast 2 their hearts. So take some time this month to say thank you to a volunteer — Club they do make such a difference in the lives of your children!
Graduation 3 Our volunteer recognition luncheon will be held on Wednesday, May 13th. Please watch for invitations coming home shortly.
Rainkin Run 4 ~ Mrs. Poppy Gilliam
Cooperation 5 winners EQAO Assessments Westdale 6/7 Champions All students in Grades 3 & 6 will be writing the Primary or Junior EQAO assessments starting at the end of May. The assessment will be done by our Grade 3 and 6 stu- Art Show 8/9 dents from May 25th - June 5th. Please ensure that your child arrives at school on time and well-rested each day and that you do not schedule morning ap- pointments for your child on a scheduled assessment day. It is very difficult to Calendar 11 catch a student up once they have missed parts of the assessment. We thank you for your assistance in helping your student to do his/her best. INTRODUCING OUR NEW BREAKFAST CLUB ROOM!
We want to thank everyone who has helped make our new breakfast club room a HUGE success! Thank you to Niagara Nutrition Partners who generously donated a new dishwasher for our space, to our DSBN maintenance crew who altered electrical wiring for us and cut out shelving, to Mrs. Nelson for helping prep our space and to Mrs. Gilliam, Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Shaprio’s class who all helped move all of our equipment and food. Finally, we want to thank our tireless volunteers who help make this program pos- sible. A huge THANKS to Mrs. Young (School Council chair) who volunteers to run the program 3 times a week. We thank Mrs. McAlpine, Mrs. Plue, Mr. Wall, Mrs. MacPherson and Mrs. DeRoos who also all volunteer to run the program, and to Mrs. Dueck for doing all of our shopping every week!!! It’s amazing to see where a vision can take you. Our breakfast club program has definitely made a difference for our students! (Open 5 days a week from 8:25am - 8:40am for grades 1 through 8 — everyone wel- come!) P A G E 3
Summer HEAT 2015
We are pleased to offer SUMMER HEAT, a primary Summer Learning Program, again this year. The program will run from Monday, July 13th to Friday, July 31st for students entering JK to grade 4 in the fall of 2015. Kindergarten Kick Start is for students entering junior and senior kin- dergarten in the fall, while Funshine Kids is for students entering grades 1, 2, 3 and 4. This three week program is entirely FREE, but space is limited so please be sure to register early. Registra- tion can be done online starting Friday, May 1st. The program will begin at 8:15 a.m. with break- fast provided, and it will end at 12:15 p.m. Students will be involved in a variety of learning op- portunities throughout the morning, with a focus on literacy, numeracy and active living. We are excited about being able to offer this amazing program to our families. Check it out on the DSBN website at www.dsbn.org/summerheat
Summer HEAT will be offered at the following sites: St. Catharines - Edith Cavell (literacy and mathematics site), Connaught (literacy and mathematics site), Lincoln Centennial (literacy and mathematics site), Grapeview Kindergarten Graduation
Kindergarten (SK) graduation will be on Friday, June 19th at 1:45pm. Please save the date and help us come out and celebrate our SK’s as they prepare to move to Grade 1!
Grade 8 Graduation Ceremony
Our Grade 8 Graduation Ceremony will be held on Tuesday, June 23rd at 6:30 p.m. at Amici’s Banquet and Conference Centre, which is located at 2740, Merrittville Hwy, just past Brock University. Graduates will be able to invite up to 4 guests each. Graduates are free and each grad will also receive 2 free tickets. An addi- tional 2 tickets per graduate can be purchased. (A waiting list will be created for additional family members to attend, should there be availability. Please notify the office.) The ceremony will last approximately 1 1/2 hours and will be followed by coffee, refreshments and graduation cake. We look forward to sharing this spe- cial event with you and your family. Please look for more information to be coming home soon.
THE CAT’S TALE WESTDALE’S P A G E 4 FUN FAIR JUNE 11th
Our Fun Fair is planned for Thursday, June 11th. If you are interested in helping to plan for the fun fair, please let the office know and we will pass along your information to Autumn Young, our Fun Fair Coordinator. We’ll also be looking for more volunteers to help out the night of the big event. This would be a great opportunity for a secondary school student to get some community service hours.
Moving Over the Summer? If you know for sure that you will be moving out of the Westdale area over the summer, please let the school know as soon as possible. We are beginning to plan for next year and it is helpful to know the numbers of students we can expect to have in each class. Also, please make sure that you keep the office up to date with your contact information so that we can reach you in case of emergency or illness.
It’s not too late to join our team!
This Monday, May 4th is the deadline to register to be a part of the Westdale Wildcat team for the 10th annual Rankin Cancer Run taking place on Saturday, May 23rd. Those who register by Friday will receive a free t-shirt. There will be a free BBQ for all participants following the race. $7,904,000 has been raised over the last 9 years to help cancer care in Niagara. We all know someone affected by cancer. Let's work together to support our community!! See Mrs. Kornelsen or Mrs. Hildebrandt for more information or to register. P A G E 5
WESTDALE SCHOOL’S “HONOURED” STUDENTS FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL Character Trait Award - Cooperation
Grade 1 Mrs. Kornelsen - Francis D., Rim M. & Easton P. Grade 1/2 Mrs. Guitard - Milo P. & Ali H. Grade 2/3 Mrs. Hildebrandt - Umar A. & Dominic L. Grade 3 Mrs. Petro - Selina Q. & Haylee B. Grade 4 - Ms. Marshall - Kaleb C. & Morgan K. Grade 4/5 Mrs. Shapiro - Samantha B., Natasha G. Grade 6 - Dana A. & Riley R. Grade 6/7 Ms. Patten - Jayden B. & Alyssa M. Grade 7/8 Mr. Wall - Liam B. & Taylor D. Grade 8 Mr. Nelson - Nevin F. & Brayden H. Mr. Strickland - Chris I.
Our character trait for May is Citizenship! VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 P A G E 6 CHESS CHAMPIONS!!! Congratulations to the Westdale Tournament Chess Team for their excellent performance at the area 3 tournament in Grimsby on Thursday. Gold medals were awarded to Harry Lengyel (gr. 8), Cameron Weekes (gr. 5) and Austin Shaver (gr. 4). Well done boys! Second place finishers were as follows: Gr1 - Caeden Minda, Gr. 2- Owen Scott, Gr. 3- Ty Kostyniuk and Colin Weekes, Gr. 4 - Harrison Sawatsky and Will McAlpine, and Gr. 7 - Taylor Dueck. All players displayed ex- cellent sportsmanship during the tournament, making Mrs. Guitard very proud! Westdale Tournament Chess Team Members: Caeden Minda, Owen Scott, Rylan Minda, Ty Kostyniuk, Colin Weekes, Aaron Suderman, Harrison Sawatsky, Austin Shaver, Will McAlpine, Kiersen Ellis, Cameron Weekes, Owen Hiltebrand, Jakob Zanth, Taylor Dueck, Brendan Newbold, and Harry Lengyel.
P A G E 7 Gymnastics Champions
Congratulations to the Westdale Gymnastics team who earned 6 1st place ribbons and 5 2nd place ribbons at our local meet. Westdale also won numerous other ribbons in each of the events! Well done girls! Not only did you do phenomenally well, you also represented us with such poise and character. A special thank you to Mrs. Miles, our head coach, as well as Mrs. Philip, Mrs. Hildebrandt, Mrs. Petro and Mrs. Cabaj for helping coach our team!
NEWSLETTER TITLE WESTDALE’S INAUGURAL ART SHOW
Congratulations to all of our students who created such diverse and beautiful works of art which we proudly hung on display throughout the school for our first ever Westdale Art Show. Thanks to Mrs. Kornelsen and Mrs. Petro for organizing the event! It was a wonder- ful night to help celebrate the arts! P A G E 9
JUNIOR GIRLS’ BASKET- BAL
THE CAT’S TALE Make C han ge for C hildre n
WESTDALE COMMUNITY CLEAN UP
SATURDAY, MAY 9th - 10am until 11:30am
Please join us next Saturday, May 9th to help with our Westdale Community Clean Up. Here are some pictures from last year where we had 100 parents/students/staff come to help out. Last year we managed to collect over 30 bags of garbage from our school yard, creek and surrounding areas. Westdale School is also the city sponsor of Rykert Street between Louth and Vansickle. We would love some of our volunteers to tackle Rykert Street cleaning next Saturday as well! Please let your child’s“An ounce teacher of loyalty and/or is worth the office know if youa pound can of join cleverness.” us! ~Elbert Hubbard We will have juice boxes and granola bars available for snacks. P A G E 11 CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Friday, May 1st - 2pm: Cooperation Celebration Assembly
Wednesday, May 13th - Volunteer Tea (12:20pm)
Thursday, May 14th - New to Kindergarten Open House 4 - 6pm
Friday, May 15tth - Staff professional development day (no school)
Monday, May 18th - Victoria Day Holiday (no school)
Wednesday, May 20th - Hot dog day
Wednesday, May 27th - Pita day
Thursday, June 11th - Fun Fair
Thursday, June 18th - Primary trip to Balls Falls
Friday, June 19th - Kindergarten Graduation
Monday, June 22nd - Grade 4 - 8 trip to the Aquarium
Tuesday, June 23rd - Grade 8 Graduation
Wednesday, June 24th - Report cards go home
A special thank you to our Grade 8’s — Evan C., Spencer I., Harry L., Ryan M., Jessica and Jayden who helped Mrs. Gilliam arrange the rest of the tree stumps for our outdoor class- room, and clean up all the front garden beds. The school is looking fantastic and after the neighbourhood cleanup in two weeks, it will be sparkling!
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