Rickson Ridge October 2014
177 Rickson Avenue Guelph, Ontario N1G 4Y6
Tel. 519.766.0862 Fax 519. 766-0720
OCTOBER 2014
We have had a great beginning to school this year. Thank you for your patience and support as we reorganized our classes. Welcome to Ms. Tavares who will be teaching junior core french.
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.
Once again, many thanks to School Council for all of the work that went into the organization of a very successful BBQ. Thanks to staff for making time to meet with parents and for showing off their student’s work.
OPEN HOUSE, BBQ, BOOK FAIR
Thank you to School Council for running a successful BBQ and open house. It was great to meet and see
so many parents and students. Thank you to Mrs. Patrick for running a successful book fair. The book fair
raised over $3,000 with the school getting 60% back in profits.
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.
SPORTS AT RICKSON
The junior and intermediate students had fun watching the U of G soccer team and walking to the University. The intermediate football teams had a great day of football on Sept 25th. Our intermediate
cross country team competes October 7th at Rockwood. Thanks to our coaches for supporting our athletes. Rickson Ridge has great school sport spirit!
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RICKSON RIDGE OCTOB ER 2014
T ERRY F OX RUNK
Terry Fox Run was held Sept 24th from 8:45-10:00am. 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. All students had fun throwing
water balloons at teachers and administration. Thankfully it was a warm day!
HALLOWEEN
Halloween this year is Friday October 31st . 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.
HOT LUNCHES
Hot lunches will continue to be provided this year. Every day 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 and the grade 6 and 8 classes are offering Pita Pit on
Monday and Swiss Chalet on Friday.
EQAO
Results for gr.3 and gr.6 students writing EQAO in
2013/14 who achieved at or above provincial standards
are shown in the chart. There is a comparison of our
school’s results and the rest of the Upper Grand School
Board. Our results are shaded black and the board results
are white.
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RICKSON RIDGE OCTOB ER 2014
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.
Upcoming Events
October
Event
Oct 1
Grade 8 Information night 7:30-8:30pm
Oct 3
Photo Day
Oct 7
School Council 7pm
Oct 7
Intermediate x-country
Oct. 14
Thanksgiving Holiday—no school
Oct 15
Grade 8 to Stratford
Oct 20
Junior x-country
Oct 24
PA day-no school for students
Oct 28
Hepv shots gr 8 girls, Hep B-gr 7’s
Oct. 29
Traffic Safety gr. 1and gr 5
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RICKSON RIDGE OCTOB ER 2014
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 OCTOB ER 2014
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