Principals Message

May 2012 Dear Parents and/or Guardians: We look forward to the sun, warm breezes, and the budding of trees and flowers. The month of May will be busy! More activities will take place outdoors as we enjoy the spring weather. We are engaged in track and field and sports activities outside and are doing more exploration of our environment in our Star Garden and surrounding school property. Please make certain your child is dressed appropriately. Layers of clothing make things more comfortable as students can remove sweaters etc. when the day warms up. Please do not allow your child to wear flip flops or open toed sandals to school since that kind of footwear can pose a safety concern. Children who are running, skipping and jumping are more comfortable and safer in running shoes or other supportive footwear! We have many exciting plans for May! The major excitement is due to the upcoming renovations to our school. We will have three additional full day kindergarten areas and they will be located in the following rooms: room 105 (currently Ms. Karmiris room), room 103 (currently the lunch room) and room 101 (currently Mr. Ashtons room). We will also have an additional wing built on the second floor of the school with three new classrooms. The main floor renovations are scheduled to begin within days and Mr. Fletchers, Ms. Johnsons classes and Ms. Karmiris were moved. Entry and dismissal areas were changed as was our lunchroom site. Due to the construction, from now on, all the children must eat in the Primary Gym and the area is quite crowded and noisy. We are very concerned about the safety and health issues. We ask that if you are home during lunch times, please have your child eat lunch at home. We are planning to have all the Kindergarten renovations done for September 4, 2012 but the second floor will only be completed sometime in November 2012. We are excited about the changes and look forward to their completion. We hope that there will not be too many inconveniences and appreciate your cooperation. Please check the information below regarding annual May activities such as our Spring Concert, Junior Kindergarten Welcome and annual Community BBQ that we have with Samuel Hearne Middle School. Please also note that there will be no classes for students on Victoria Day, Monday, May 21. We also were very busy in the last little while. We joined all schools in the Toronto District School Board in noting Earth Hour on Friday, March 30. We also signed up for the 20-Minute Make Over on April 20 and worked hard to clean up school grounds. On April 17 and April 18 we had our Track & Field Play Days dedicated to enhancing our physical skills. Thank you to the staff who organized, supervised and provided support during these active and fun-filled days. On April 26, we will have our Numeracy/ Literacy Night that will focus on the Grade Three EQAO testing preparations. I would like to express appreciation to all the staff, volunteers, and community representatives who planned and will conduct the workshops. We appreciate the interest of all the parents who attend. Our Grade Three classes are getting ready for the EQAO testing in about a month. We consider the EQAO testing process a whole school focus. Beginning in Kindergarten, we support our students as they develop skills in both literacy and numeracy and we build on those skills throughout their school career. We assist students to read passages critically and consider how the material studied connects to their daily living. We encourage students to try and make predictions while reading and reflect upon the concepts introduced. In their writing, we focus on using the correct spelling, grammar and format depending on the purpose of the writing exercise. In many of the writing activities, our EcoSchool goals were used as the subject matter. With our numeracy focus, we assist students in developing problem solving skills as well as computation expertise. We assume responsibility for preparing students for the experience of evaluations well before the Grade Three standardized testing. Students are constantly being encouraged to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways so that they can communicate and transfer their knowledge and skills to many different applications. The EQAO testing is just one way that we evaluate our effectiveness in supporting our childrens learning. Of course, we continue to work on those academic skills after Grade Three as well so that our students become life long learners. We are looking forward to continuing the fun and learning at Oakridge Junior Public School in May! Principal Rita Garry Vice-Principals Rod Zimmerman Janine Small Superintendant Nadira Persaud Trustee Elizabeth Moyer Oakridge Jr. P.S. 110 Byng Avenue Scarborough, ON M1L 3P1 Telephone 416-396-6505 Fax 416-396-6507

R. Garry, Principal

Oakridge is now on Twitter!

Get updates on some of the exciting things happening at Oakridge on your computer or smart phone. You can follow us at: @OakridgeJPS Folk Dance Jamboree: Monday, May 1 Some of our students will be participating in the Folk Dance Jamboree. Thank you to staff and volunteers and students for their hard work. We hope you have a wonderful time.

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The Oakridge Way, May 2012

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Birchmount Track & Field Meet: Wednesday, May 16

Oakridges Track Team will be competing on Wednesday, May 16 and we wish them great luck!

Spring Concert: Thursday, May 10

Please join us on Thursday, May 10 for our Spring Concert in the Junior Gym beginning at 6:30 p.m.!
Pizza Lunch: Orders due May 23 and Pizza lunch is Wednesday, May 30

Pizza forms will go out on Wednesday, May 16. The forms are due back Wednesday, May 23 and Pizza Lunch will be on Wednesday, May 30. We do not accept late order forms and we do not sell pizza slices individually on Pizza Lunch day.
Welcome to Kindergarten: Tuesday, May 24 at 6:00- 7:30 p.m. in the Junior Gym

This is an opportunity for the parents of newly registered Kindergarten students to receive information about their childs first introduction into their school experience. They will receive information from the Public Health nurse. They will meet representatives of the Toronto Public Libraries, Early Years Organization and from the Settlement Organization. They will meet and hear from the TDSB Speech and Language Pathologist who serves Oakridge and meet the teachers who will be teaching kindergarten next year. We look forward to welcoming our youngest students and their parents.
Community BBQ with Samuel Hearne Middle School: Tuesday, June 12

We have changed the date of the Community BBQ from Thursday, May 17 to Tuesday, June 12. We regret any inconvenience this may create. TDSB needs lunchroom supervisors and noon hour assistants:
Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has many new full day kindergarten programs beginning in September 2012. In anticipation, the Board wishes to inform the parent community about the ongoing need for additional lunchroom supervisors and noon hour assistants. Interested candidates may apply online at http:/ www.tdsb.on.ca > Careers @ TDSB and read the job descriptions for both opportunities.

Monday, May 21: No School for students!

Monday, May 21 we have a National Holiday (Queen Victoria Day or Fire Cracker Day) and the school will be closed. We wish our students and their families a delightful long weekend.

School Advisory Committee Meeting: Wednesday, May 16 at 6:30 p.m.

We had our last meeting on March 22. The minutes are posted on the Communication Board in the front foyer. Our final meeting of this school year will be on Wednesday, May 16 at 6:30 p.m.

A few notes about Oakridge:

Kindergarten Registration for September 2012for full day classes
We are still registering children for Kindergarten classes beginning in September 2012! If your child was born in 2008, he or she can be registered now for the next school years Junior Kindergarten classes. You can also register a child for Senior Kindergarten if he or she has not yet attended public school and was born in 2007. Children currently in our Junior Kindergarten classes are automatically placed in our next years Senior Kindergarten classes. Please contact our school office to arrange for an appointment to register your child and to obtain information regarding the documentation needed for registration.

Exciting eco-news!!
Oakridge is entering an environmental contest with an incredible grand prize of $10,000!!!! We can't simply dispose of our electronic waste by throwing it in the garbage. Our goal is to collect as much electronic waste as we can so that at the end of the contest our collected waste weighs more than the other schools in the contest. Electronic waste includes computers, TVs, printers, cameras and personal music devices, such as MP3 players. Please do NOT send household items such as toasters, microwaves and hairdryers. Contest rules state that items can only be brought in between April 30th and May 11th. We are not allowed to accept; either early or late entries. Please send your electronic waste to school with your child, or arrange to drop it by yourself. Let's all work together as a team and win the $10,000 dollars for our school!

Community Walk: Wednesday, May 17 at 3:30 -5:00 p.m.

Please join us for a walk through our neighbourhood. Staff of both Oakridge Jr. P.S. and Samuel Hearne M.S. will be visiting a variety of spots in the community.