February 2014
Principal’s Message:
Kindergarten Registration—February 3—7:
As of January 1st, 2014, Glenbrook
Elementary School was able to open
its doors for the purpose of community use. This means that groups in
and around the Shelburne community
can book the school after school
hours for a variety of purposes.
Students are eligible for the Junior Kindergarten program if they will be four
years of age on or before December 31, 2014 and students must be five years
of age on or before December 31, 2014 to register for Senior Kindergarten.
We are hoping that a number of community groups may be interested in
using the facilities at the school (gym
and/or soccer field) to run programs
for students in the evenings. If you
and/or your organization are interested in booking the school for this
type of purpose, please go to the
Boards’ website (www.ugdsb.on.ca)
and located the Community Use link.
The instructions for booking the
school are located there.
Registration will take place from Monday, February 3 to Friday, February 7,
2014 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. in the main office. Parents will
be required to complete the “Student Admission Form” which is found on our
website in PDF version www.ugdsb.on.ca/admission and provide the
following:
 Proof of Birth
 Proof of Date of Entry, if born outside Canada
 Proof of and Full Address
 Immunization Record
 Custody Order Documentation (if applicable)
If you know of a neighbour or friend who presently does not have children at
Glenbrook E. S. and lives within the school boundary, please give them this
information or ask them to contact Mrs. Emmons at the school, 519-925-0580,
Ext. 221.
Olympic Athlete Visit:
“Live Free” Nutrition Program Fundraiser:
Glenbrook is fortunate to be receiving
a visit from Sarah Bonikowski, a local
Olympian rower with the Canadian
Olympic Team at the 2008 Olympics
in Beijing.
On Friday, February 21st, Glenbrook staff and students will hold our first “Live
Free” fundraiser for our Nutrition Program. Students and staff are being asked
to take the challenge to live free of something that we would normally take for
granted. We will write and post the Live Free promises in the front hallway of
the school. Promises for the day may include living without television, computers, video games, internet, cell phones, talking and even living without food
to name just a few! Students are being asked to donate a toonie to the Nutrition Program on this day.
Sarah will be bringing her message
of perseverance and friendship to the
students at Glenbrook. Sarah will be
giving two presentations to Glenbrook students; one for our Grade 1
to 3 students and a second presentation for our Grade 4 to 8 students.
We feel very fortunate to have Ms.
Bonikowski presenting at our school!
Our school nutrition program, run by Kit Stewart and Tara Bernard-McCabe,
serves approximately 30 students every day. Our breakfast club is open to
any student who would like to enjoy some social time with staff and students
while enjoying a healthy breakfast. All of the money raised on our “Live Free”
day will stay in our school and will be utilized to support our Nutrition Program.
We thank Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. Bernard-McCabe for coordinating our Nutrition Program and for organizing this fundraiser
for our students. The Live Free event will be an annual event at
Glenbrook and is a mandatory fundraiser in order to receive
continued financial support for our Nutrition Program from the
Children’s Foundation.
Family Day —Monday, February 17, 2014 (no school)
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Survey:
Report Cards Home:
JK/SK Parents– Learn about your child’s eating and activity habits
Glenbrook students from Senior Kindergarten to Grade 8 will receive their
Provincial Report Cards on Friday,
February 7th. These reports will provide parents with information regarding student progress up until January
31st, 2014.
In February, your JK/SK child will bring home a nutrition survey from Public
Health called “NutriSTEP.” Please take several minutes to fill out the survey
and mail it back to Public Health in the postage-paid envelope provided.
You could win 1 of 6 gift cards valued at $50 for returning the survey.
By filling out the survey, parents can learn about their
child’s eating and activity habits. Many parents realize
their child’s habits are normal while other parents learn a
few things their child could improve on. You can speak to
a Public Health nurse about your child’s growth and development. Call KIDS LINE 1-800-265-7293 ext. 3616.
Revised Pizza Ordering Procedures:
Our School Council is finding that an increasing number of students are bringing in their pizza orders well after the “cut off date” for these orders. In the
past the parents who volunteer to run the Pizza Program have accommodated
these students by accepting the order, adding the information to the class’
master pizza record sheet, recalculating the class order (pizza slice total) and
recalculating the total amount of money in the master pizza envelope. This
represents a tremendous amount of extra work to be completed by the volunteers running the program.
From now on, any late pizza orders will not be accepted. Orders will be returned to the student by the classroom teacher immediately. Students bringing in late orders may be able to receive pizza on pizza day if
they bring the pizza money in on the pizza day and if there are
extra pizza pieces being sold on that day. We appreciate the efforts made by parents to meet the deadlines for ordering pizza.
Grade 8 Graduation Date Set:
We are pleased to announce that the first Grade 8 Graduation to
be held at Glenbrook Elementary School will take place on Tuesday, June 24th. Please mark this date down on your calendars.
School staff are meeting to begin planning this event.
We are excited about developing new traditions surrounding this
celebration. Further information regarding this event will appear
in future newsletters and will be sent home by the staff who
teach our Grade 8 students.
Please take some time to review
these report cards with your child
(ren). These report cards follow a
traditional format with marks/letter
grades being provided for all subject
areas. Learning skills will once again
be highlighted because developing
good work habits is crucial for your
child to be successful in school and
later in life.
If after receiving your child’s report,
you wish to meet with your child’s
teacher to discuss his/her progress,
please contact your child’s teacher at
the school (519) 925-0580. An interview will be scheduled at a mutually
convenient time.
Lost and Found:
We have a Lost & Found box located
inside the front doors of the school.
This box is full of student clothing and
other personal articles that have
been misplaced by students.
Parents are invited to examine the
items in this box in order to determine
whether there is something that belongs to your child. We would like to
ensure that ALL of these pieces of
clothing etc. are returned to their
rightful owners. Your assistance with
this request would be greatly appreciated.
Read This Newsletter and Win a Prize!!!
Win a $20 Gift Certificate for Booklore:
After your family has read this newsletter, please sign and detach this coupon. “Our family” must include at least one
parent/guardian who has read the newsletter. This coupon must be placed in the yellow mailbox in the front office at
Glenbrook school. A ballot will be drawn from the yellow mailbox each month indicating the winning family for the
month. This month’s draw will be held on Friday, February 28th, 2014.
Our family has read the newsletter corresponding to this draw.
Family Name:
___________________________Parent’s Signature:
____________________________
Glenbrook School Council to Hold Dance-a-thon on Friday February 14th:
The students at Glenbrook will be participating in a school wide dance-a-thon on Friday, February 14th, 2014. This will
be our biggest fundraiser of the year. The students voted in mid-January to have a Beach theme for this dance-a-thon.
Ms. Williams is working with a group of staff and students here at the school in order to plan for this event. A special
thanks to Mrs. Faria and Mrs. Fifield for soliciting prizes for this event.
Students will be bringing home an envelope and information sheet in order to collect pledges from family members, relatives and friends. We again ask that students NOT go door to door to seek pledges.
The proceeds raised from this event will be used to purchase computers and playground equipment for
the students at the school. We appreciate the work done by our School Council to arrange this event
and thank all parents for your support of this fundraising initiative.
Mathematics As A Way of Thinking:
In the last few years, there has been some confusion around the “new” way of doing math. It is important to note that today’s math includes all the same mathematical concepts and facts as the “traditional”
math, the only real difference is in the way students learn this information. Today’s math focuses on
understanding math ideas by encouraging discovery and exploration through problem solving.
In our math curriculum, there are 7 mathematical processes: problem solving, selecting tools and
computational strategies, reasoning and proving, representing, communicating, reflecting and
connecting The goal of these processes is to help students become more confident problem solvers.
Below you will find the processes broken down into questions. These questions are meant to be used
as coaching tools to help students with their mathematical thinking. Try them at home. You may be surprised by the answers!
Solving the Problem
What is the question and what do you need to do?
Selecting tools and strategies
Will you need to add, subtract, divide or multiply?
What tools or technology would help you?
Representing (Showing the work)
How are you going to show your ideas? (graphs, numbers, words and symbols)
Reasoning (Making sense)
Does your answer make sense? If not, do you need to fix or change something?
Communicating (Sharing it with others)
How can you explain your answer in writing?
Reflecting (Making it personal)
What worked and what did not? Why?
Connections (Seeing relationships)
Does this problem remind you of anything?
Feb ru a r y 2 0 1 4
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
3
4 Kindergarten
Registration
Glenbrook
Hockey Team
Exhibition Game
(Orangeville)
5 Kindergarten
Registration
6 Kindergarten
Registration
Winter Walk to
School
Day
JK / SK classes
to Theatre
Orangeville
7 Kindergarten
Registration
8
Report Cards
Go Home
Pizza Day
9
16
10
17
Family Day
11
12
Dufferin County Primary Skating
Hockey Tourna- (8:45 a.m.)
ment (Tony
Rose Arena)
Junior Skating
(10:45 a.m.)
School Council
(6:15 p.m.)
13
18
Junior Speech
Finals
20
19
Zumba Classes
for Primary Students
14 Dance-a-thon 15
(Beach Theme)
JK / SK Skating
21
Live Free Day
22
JK / SK Skating
(11:30 a.m.)
Pizza Day
No School
23
24
25
26 Pink Shirt Day 27
(Bully Awareness)
Zumba Classes
28
JK / SK Skating
(11:30 a.m.)
Popcorn Day
News From Mrs. Stewart in the Library: The Forest of Reading has begun in the library. Grades K-3 will be
reading 10 books over the next months and then voting on their favourites. Students in grades 3-6 who have
joined will be part of the Silver Birch club and grade 7-8 students who have joined will be part of the Red Maple
club. Voting will take place in April with a celebration. These clubs are occurring across Ontario and Ontario students will be choosing their favourite book. To see a list of the selected books visit https://www.accessola.org