Rickson Ridge October 2015
177 Rickson Avenue Guelph, Ontario N1G 4Y6
Tel. 519.766.0862 Fax 519. 766-0720
OCTOBER 2015
We have had a good beginning to school this year. Thank you for your patience and support as we reorganized our classes.
Now that we are into Fall the temperature is inconsistent and mornings can be quite cool. Please remember to send your child with coats and to layer their clothes as they are outside for long periods of time. Putting labels into your child’s clothing is recommended as our lost and found always grows as the year goes
on.
As we continue to have labour unrest please refer to UGDSB home page for current information or changes.
Agendas
Please remember to check your child’s agenda for upcoming events, dates, times ,homework etc.
This is also a good way to communicate with your child’s teacher and include when your child may
be away or late for school. If you have not sent in your money, a reminder that Agendas are $10.
SPORTS AT RICKSON
Sports are well underway this year . Intermediate and Junior cross country runners have been practicing as they tune up for the meets in October. Intermediate will race in Rockwood on October 9th
and Junior students will race in Puslinch on Oct. 19th.
Junior and intermediate soccer will be starting soon and Primary Intramurals are under way.
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RICKSON RIDGE OCTOBER 2015
TERRY FOX RUNK
Terry Fox Run was held Sept 29th from 8:45-12:00pm. Rickson students walked and ran to support Terry
in his efforts to raise awareness and money for Cancer Research. Your donation is appreciated to help
support Cancer Research and to reach towards our school goal of $5000. Terry Fox’s remarkable determination and achievement was and continues to be an inspiration for us all.
HALLOWEEN
Halloween this year is Saturday October 31st . We are planning to celebrate it on Thursday Oct. 29th.
Please remember that masks, and weapon type accessories are not allowed when dressing up for Halloween. The intermediate students will be having a dance and all classes can be involved in pumpkin
decorating. We will also be collecting for the food bank. Please help families in need and donate food for
the food bank.
MESSAGE FROM GUELPH POLICE
Please do your part to reduce traffic in front of our schools. Encourage your child to walk to school. It is
healthy for the body and the mind. Older children should walk to school with friends. Younger children
should walk with the supervision of an adult or an older child. Please consider walking as the first option
for your child to go to and from school.
If you choose to drive your child to school, children in junior and senior grades should be dropped off a
few blocks from the school and walk the rest of the way. Many schools have access to the schoolyard
from neighbouring less congested side streets. This allows parents of primary aged children, JK and
SK, to use the designated Kiss &Ride areas and the roadways closest to the school.
There are many signs in the school zones that regulate parking, stopping, turns, access, and
speed. Drivers who choose to ignore the traffic signs near schools are breaking the law, increasing the danger to all children and motorists in the area. Please obey the rules and drive in
a safe and considerate manner.
SAFETY PATROLLOERS
Thank you to our Safety Patrollers who have now been trained and are out on post to safely walk students and their parents across the street. Please ensure that you walk across with the Patrollers in the
assigned area. This will keep us all safe and we are demonstrating responsibility and respect to our
patrollers who are working so hard in a busy intersection.
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RICKSON RIDGE OCTOBER 2015
LUNCH SUPERVISORS
We are in need of some lunch room supervisors. Can you spare the hour between 12:50and 1:35?
This is a paid position. If you can give one or more days of the week we would really appreciate
your help! Please call the office if you are interested.
HOT LUNCHES
Hot lunches will continue to be provided this year. Three days of the week there will be lunches offered to
purchase. School council is offering subs on Thursday. Our Special Ed class is offering hot dogs on
Wednesday, the school is offering pizza on Tuesday.
Upcoming Events
October
Event
Oct 6th
First day of Pizza
Oct 9th
Picture Day
Intermediate Cross Country
Oct 12
Thanksgiving holiday
Oct 13th
Parent Council 7:00pm
Oct. 19th
Junior Cross Country
Oct 29th
Intermediate Dance
Halloween Celebration
Oct 30th
PD Day-No School
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RICKSON RIDGE OCTOBER 2015
HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILD IN MATH
Mathematics as Problem Solving, Communication, and Reasoning
Helping your child learn to solve problems, to communicate mathematically, and to demonstrate reasoning abilities are fundamental to learning mathematics. These attributes will improve your child's
understanding and interest in math concepts and thinking.
A problem solver is someone who questions, investigates, and explores solutions to problems. They
stick with a problem to find a solution and understand that there may be different ways to arrive at an
answer and attempt different ways to get there. You can encourage your child to be a good problem
solver by involving him or her in family decision making using math.
To communicate mathematically means to use words, numbers, or mathematical symbols to explain situations; to talk about how you arrived at an answer; to listen to others' ways of thinking and
perhaps alter their thinking; to use pictures to explain something; and to write about math, not just
give an answer. You can help your child learn to communicate mathematically by asking your child to
explain a math problem or answer. Ask your child to write about the process she or he used, or to
draw a picture of how he or she arrived at an answer to a problem.
Reasoning ability means thinking logically, being able to see similarities and differences about math
concepts in different domains and make choices based on those differences or similarities. You can
encourage your child to explain his or her reasoning behind answers and encourage them to ask
themselves, “Does this make sense?” As you listen, you will hear your child sharing his or her reasoning.
Our board has a wonderful resource for all of our students that can be accessed 24/7 from school or
from home. It’s called UG2GO and includes Learn360 (educational video streaming), Student Link (a
site children use at school that gives them access to web sites that are kid friendly and relate directly
to their current units of study), Tumblebooks (a site that has hundreds of books children can click on
and have read to them), Overdrive (eBooks and audiobooks), and much more.
When students are at home they can go to this URL:
https://www.ugdsb.on.ca/ug2go
They will be prompted to enter the same Windows username and password that they use at school to
get onto the school network. Once they enter their Windows username/password they will enter the
site and they can then click on any of the resources and be taken directly to the individual resource
without the need for any additional passwords.
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RICKSON RIDGE OCTOBER 2015
Message from Principal of Program
Learning? Thinking? Or Learning to Think?
Everyone sends their child to school to learn. Or do we? Do we send our children to school to become
programmed robots who simply regurgitate facts and formulas, or do we send them to school to learn to
think?
Learning is not about committing ideas to memory. Learning is about exploring ideas and building on our
understanding of the world. Remember your two year old child who never stopped asking “why”? They
were learning to make sense of the world around them. Learning is about problem solving, generating
ideas, analyzing facts, critically evaluating decisions and asking questions to make sense of things. David Perkins in Smart Schools (1992) says that “learning is a consequence of thinking”. Scores on a test
(depending on the test) are not evidence of learning.
I know as a parent, I often said to my children; “think about it”, “think for yourself, or “what do you think?”
For those of you with pre-teens and teens, I’m sure, like me, there were plenty of times you wished you
knew what they were thinking (well, maybe not all the time)!
As parents we need to model thinking and learning for our children. Instead of saying “I don’t know” or
“because I said so”, we need to share our perspectives, insights, ideas and misunderstandings with our
children. We need to share how we plan, organize, make a decision and seek clarity at home or at
work. We need to share our thinking with our children so they can develop their own ideas and learn
how to think.
When our children offer a differing opinion, we need to value what they have to say, instead of allowing it
to become a “because I said so” power struggle. We need to ask our children this simple question; “what
makes you say that?”, and listen – really listen. We need to have them explain and share their thinking
with us. Even when their ideas are very different from ours, we need to give them their voice, and then
offer ours with an explanation as to why we think that way.
Tonight when your children come home from school don’t ask them what they learned today or what
they did. Instead, ask them what made them think today. When they look at you as if you have two
heads and have completely lost it, ask them more questions. Push them to think. Together, we need to
encourage them to question what they see and read on the internet, we need to model for them how to
make informed decisions, and we need to prepare them for jobs not yet created.
Excited, interested energy is learning, because that’s when thinking occurs; that’s when children own
their learning, and that’s what going to school is all about.
Cheryl Van Ooteghem
Principal of Program
MATH FUN
Blue Jay Fever
Have you caught Blue Jay Fever yet, or are you already thinking about the NHL pre-season? Maybe you’re not a
sports enthusiast, and instead are busy taking your children to dance, swimming or music lessons. Whatever the case,
why not incorporate math into these afterschool activities? Here are some quick and easy connections to share with
your children on those early mornings, after school or late night drives that connect math to our everyday lives.
Batting average
This number tells fans how many times a player gets a hit compared to the amount of times he gets up to bat. Simple division is used to figure out a batting average. For each game divide the number of hits the player gets by
the number of times he is at bat. The answer should result in a decimal answer. (For example: Bautista gets
up to bat 8 times, but he only hits 5 times. The equation would be 5 divided by 8 giving a batting average of
0.625.)
Staying out of the penalty box
Which fraction is largest: 5/4, 4/3, 3/2 or 2/1? If the Leafs have a 5 on 4 advantage, and Phaneuf has to decide
whether to draw an opponent away from the play, it's important for him to know that 4/3 is a larger fraction
than 5/4. Math tells us that 4 skaters have a better advantage over 3 than 5 skaters have over 4.
Patterns in Music
Musical pieces often have repeating choruses or bars, similar to patterns. In mathematics, we look for patterns to
explain and predict the unknown. Music uses similar strategies. When looking at a musical piece, musicians
look for notes they recognize to find notes that are less familiar. In this way, notes relate to each other. Relationships are fundamental to mathematics and create an interesting link between music and math. Listen carefully to the music next time. You’ll definitely hear the patterns!
Swimmingly Mathematical
Speed of swim (measurement of distance and time), surface area of palm (area measurement of odd shape), kicking angle of the legs (trigonometry, angle), rhythm of the stroke (sequence, counting, pattern sector), and
breathing (volume of air required, space measurement) are all about the math!
The Science of Dance
There’s the symmetry (between arms and legs, but also between bodies and within a single body), counting, rhythm, momentum, mass, connection, sequence, and shape. Every area of math can be expressed with the human body.
Source: https://www.google.ca
Go Math Go! Go Math Go! Go Math Go! Go Math Go! Go Math Go! Go Math Go! Go Math Go!