ECO Team Update
12
Apr
April 22 is Earth Day and April is Earth Month. It will be a very busy month for the Eco Team!
This week will be the last week that the Eco Team will be coming around to check for the Let The Sunlight In and Save Our Resources Contests. The winners will be announced at the Character Trait assembly at the end of the month.
In celebration of Earth Day the ECO team is asking all students and staff to wear different colours representative of our beautiful planet. This will be taking place the week before Earth Day (Earth Day is Mon. April 22).
Monday April 15 – WEAR BLUE FOR WATER
Tuesday April 16 – WEAR GREEN FOR PLANTS
Wednesday April 17 – WEAR YELLOW FOR THE SUN
Thursday April 18 – WEAR RAINBOW COLOURS or ANIMAL PRINTS
Have you started your Spring cleaning? We will be collecting unwanted textiles on April 23, 24 and 25 and the Bag2School truck will pick everything up on the morning of April 25.
On Fri. April 26, we will have our Spring Walk to School Day and we will serve apple and orange juice. Please come and join us outside of the Primary doors before 8:40 am!
The city is holding its Clean Toronto Together campaign on April 26. Some of our classes will be organizing to clean up our school yard/immediate area. This is a classroom-based event.
The Eco team and Mrs. Marchiori’s class will be running the Cooperation assembly on Tuesday, April 30 in the afternoon. Kindergarten and primary classes will come to the gym at 12:40 and the Junior classes at 1:15.
Children often hear a lot of negative content in regards to our planet. It is important to remember to recognize the beauty and all the amazing initiatives that are in place to help support our Eco systems as well.
Thank you for your support in our spirit days!
Sincerely,
The ECO TEAM 🙂
Principal’s Update
31
Mar
Dear Summit Heights families,
We’re in the final three months of school! Depending on when you are reading this, the last day of March may be a distant memory, but if you remember… we had snow! Maybe that’s Mother Nature’s April Fools prank on all of us! On that note, April 1st falls on a Monday this year, so the staff will be keeping our keen eyes out for any students and their April Fools pranks!
We are planning on purging our lost in found, if you are able to, please have your child look through our lost/found items. Parents, if you’d like to take a look, please do so after school. We will donate the unclaimed items by the Easter/Passover long weekend.
Parents, please remember to send your child to school with a lunch. We have had a few instances where students are at school without a lunch. Related to this, please know we ask students to eat their entire lunch, even if they say they ‘don’t like it’. We encourage students to talk to their parents if they don’t like their lunch.
Here’s a summary of last month’s events at our school:
Rodrigo, from Casava Drumming, finished up the drumming/music workshops at the beginning of March. All of our students were able participate in interactive music workshops over a two week period. Students used drums and other percussion instruments, while singing and working as an entire group to perform music. A huge thanks again to SAC for funding this wonderful enrichment program for our entire school!
Students returned back to school after March break in good spirits. As a whole, the transition back to class after a week off of school was smooth. As we have in the past, SAC organized a head/hair screening for the entire school right after the break.
A number of classes went on field trips during March. We had classes go to Forest Valley, Yorkdale mall (as a French language trip) and the Science Centre. We also had Scientists in the School visit Summit Heights last month.
In a joint effort between the school and SAC, we received our shipment of our new lunch bins. These new bins are large enough for an entire class’ lunch bags, while being on casters that make it very easy for a student to push the bin to/from the class and gym. Of note, the bins were purchased for the classes that eat their lunch in the gym only.
On March 14 we were delighted to host Austin Matthews (@AM34), from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Austin spent time talking about how to persevere, and how hard work pays off. He also spent time reading his new children’s book, Bradley’s First Hockey Stick, to some of our students. A huge thanks for the donated autographed stick, which is hidden somewhere in our school. The first student to find the stick gets to keep it!
The last week of March was very busy at our school. We participated in the annual Vow of Silence, organized by our Social Justice League (along with Mrs. Mercer and Mr. Chen). Students took a vow of silence for the day, as a culminating activity where we learned about the lack of child-voice in the world and the many injustices for young people. The vow also raised money for the WE Charity, which helps young people around the world.
Mr. Eschle’s grade 6 students, along with Ms. Brock’s guidance, ran a very meaningful and entertaining assembly on Honesty. Their presentation took the form of a game-show. The junior assembly was bilingual too! Congratulations to the class on an amazing job presenting and to all of our Character Education Award winners!
The last school day of March ended with our school participating in the annual TDSB Earth Hour. On March 29th, between 2-3pm, our school turned off all non-essential lights. We also turned off our computers, SMART board and other electronics. Not to worry however, there was still a great deal of learning in our classes!
Here’s a list of upcoming events in April:
Apr 8 – Casava Assemblies
Apr 10 – Pink Day
Apr 11 – Sibling Photo Day
Apr 12 – SAC Lunch hour programs begin
Apr 16 – School Play
Apr 17 – SAC Meeting
Apr 19 – Good Friday, Passover (no classes)
Apr 22 – Easter Monday (no classes)
Apr 26 – Walk to School Day
* Did you really believe the Austin Matthews item?… APRIL FOOLS! 🙂
Vow of Silence
26
Mar
The Vow of Silence
On Wednesday, March 27th, Summit Heights will be taking a Vow of Silence. This is an event during which teachers will lead their classes in silence.
Some children do not get to use their voices and speak up for themselves. That’s obviously not fair, so Summit Heights is joining forces with We Charity (formerly called Free the Children) to say, “They don’t get to use their voices? Well, neither will we!”
We will need your family’s help! Please bring in a donation of $2-$5 on Wednesday, March 27th. You donation will purchase a sticker that will explain why you are silent. All proceeds will go to We Charity’s work to protect the rights of children in countries around the world.
Thank you in advance for your generosity and support of this important cause.
Sincerely,
The Social Justice League
Earth Hour
25
Mar
EARTH HOUR
On Friday, March 29 all the schools in the Toronto District School Board will be participating in Earth Hour between 2 and 3 pm. At this time, we will turn off all unnecessary lights and refrain from using any electrical items in order to conserve energy.
We will be encouraging all students and families to also take part in the world wide Earth Hour on Saturday, March 30. Between 8:30 and 9:30 pm, lights will be switched off all around the globe.
When the lights do go back on, think about what other changes you can make in your family’s everyday life to help our Earth!
You can go to www.earthhour.org to find more information about Earth Hour.
