John McCrae Monthly 565 Fred McLaren Blvd. Markham ON L6E 1N7 Phone: 905▪294▪9122 Fax: 905▪294▪8196

March 2016

Message from the Administrators Principal: Helen Hart

Vice Principal: Lindsey Rhamey

Superintendent:

Dan Wu

905-940-7800

Trustee: Billy Pang

647-461-9965

School Council Members: Suboshan Thevarajah Michael Chun Bing Deng Jennifer Shum Anna Leung Helena Ke Margaret Mao Meg Liang Yamini Varma Sally Zhou Sheila Lau

e-mail: johnmccraeparentcouncil@yrdsb.ca

School e-mail: john.mccrae.ps@yrdsb.ca

School Website: http://www.yrdsb.ca/schools/johnmccrae.ps/Pages/default.aspx

Twitter: @johnmccraeps

Dear John McCrae Families,

So many amazing things are happening at John McCrae and we are very proud of our staff, stu-

dent and parent champions! Last week we were able to provide new classroom libraries for each

and every homeroom class. The students and staff were bubbling over with excitement when

their brand new books arrived. Ask your child which book they enjoyed from their new library!

Under the direction of Ms. Grandbois and the Artist in Residence, Ms. Sylvia Chan, our Grade 8

students participated in an Artist in Residence (AIR) Project which involved a World War 1 inquiry.

The students created sculptures, researched and answered inquiry questions and engaged in

drama experiences during the week long project. The sculptures will be making their way to the

Board office for others to enjoy in the coming months. Ms. Chan is currently engaged in a series

of six Paint a Smile sessions with the students in our Community Class . She is helping them

learn concepts in Visual Arts and each week they are producing different artistic pieces.

We have switched the location of our Kiss and Ride to the north parking lot loop off Stricker Ave.

We continue to need to remind parents to follow safe practices when dropping off or picking up

your child(ren) from school. As a school, we are relying on everyone to help keep our students

safe. Thanks for your support and cooperation.

We are now in the last few months of school and cannot believe how quickly the year has passed.

Please follow us through our website or better yet, follow us on Twitter @johnmccraeps. Our

newsletters are posted on a regular basis on our website.

Helen Hart Lindsey Rhamey

Principal Vice Principal

Page 2 John McCrae Monthly

SAFE ARRIVAL PROGRAM Report Absences to 1.855.203.2994

John McCrae launched a new absence reporting system called

Safe Arrival. It allows parents to report their child’s absence

quickly and conveniently in one of three ways:

1. Parents call into an automated interactive telephone system

via a toll free number (1-855-203-2994) through which ab-

sences can be reported.

2. P a r e n t s c a n l o g i n t o a w e b s i t e ,

yorkrdsb.schoolconnects.com to authenticate their Portal

account to report absences and update contact information.

3. Parents who have authenticated their accounts and have

either an iOS or Android device can download an app that

can be used to report absences.

The system will be available 24 hours/day, 7 days a week. Future

absences can be reported at any time.

CHANGE OF CLOTHES

Wet weather is here!

We ask that parents send a change

of clothes to school with their younger children.

An extra pair of pants and socks will avoid the office having to

make a call to you if your child gets wet, by accident, at recess.

Grade 3 and Grade 6 EQAO

Our Grade 3 and 6 students will be writing their EQAO tests from

May 25, 2016 to June 8, 2016. If you are interested in information

and resources that are available for you to download you can ac-

cess them at http://www.eqao.com/. Our teachers will share

more information about the exact dates of the testing as soon as

they are available. Please avoid scheduling trips or appointments

during this time period if your child will be writing EQAO.

John McCrae P.S. will soon be accepting online payments through School Cash ONLINE!

School Cash Online is an easy to use, safe way to pay for your children’s school fees! School Cash Online provides the following benefits: • A convenient fee payment option that saves time • Reduces paper • No more need to send cash or cheques to school • A quick way to register. It takes less than 5 minutes to register.

Parents are encouraged to participate. You will receive notification via email of student fees (both required and optional) as well as permission forms for field trips and can make secure online payments by credit card or Interac and receive a receipt. Stay tuned for more details coming home with your children in a flyer on April 5th!

Page 3 John McCrae Monthly

Music News

Junior students are hard at work on their recorder unit and are progressing through their recorder belts! Keep up the hard work!

John McCrae's extra curricular groups are in full swing. Junior Concert Band, Senior Concert Band, and Jazz Band meet weekly for

regular rehearsals to prepare for Spring Arts Night on May 5th. Congratulations to the 8 students, Balaji, Tiffany, Jasper, Benjamin,

Jeffrey, Selina, Alexia and Rebecca, who will be attending York Region Elementary Enrichment Band. The Area Band tour starts soon

for the 8 students from McCrae who are in Markham Area Band. Our concert at McCrae is on April 28th at 2 pm for students and 7 pm

for families of band members.

Thank you to all of the families who helped to support our Dance-A-Thon Fundraiser for musical instruments. We were able to pur-

chase three brand new French Horns. The first one has arrived at the school and is already being played!

Old French Horn New French Horn!!!!

Healthy Schools Program

We are fortunate to be able to partner with York Region and a number of other agencies who help us with our Healthy

Schools Programs. A healthy school involves the whole school community working together to help students, staff and fami-

lies make healthier choices. A healthy school creates a healthier environment for living, learning and working. Healthy

schools promote youth engagement and resiliency, which helps students to:

Improve their concentration and learning

Increase confidence, motivation, self-esteem and mental well-being

Obtain a greater sense of empowerment and connectedness

Access services they need in their community

Foster leadership skills and develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments

Build their resume and earn community service hours

York Region provides support on a variety of health topics. The health team consists of Public Health Nurses, nutritionists,

health inspectors and dental professionals. The team provides consultation, resources and support for health policy develop-

ment, links to community organizations, referrals to public health services and educational workshops, presentations and dis-

plays.

Save the Date for our Family Healthy Living Conference

The evening of May 12, 2016 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. More details will follow!

JOHN MCCRAE PUBLIC SCHOOL

John McCrae Monthly Page 4

DANCE-A-THON FUNDRAISER

On February 19, 2016, JMPS students participated in our Dance-A-Thon Fund-

raiser. It was a huge success and we thank our students and their families for

their generous donations. The funds raised this year were used to revitalize

our music program by the purchase of three new French Horns. Ms Yu’s Grade

2/3 class raised the most money and enjoyed time with Gary Bulian, a jui jitzu

martial arts intstructor as their reward He provided one and a half hours of

one-to-one demonstration time with our students and brought along Cindy, his

partner to demonstrate with the students. What an experience! The second

place class was Mrs. Miles’s Grade 4/5 class. They received two magazine sub-

scriptions of their choice for their class to enjoy. They chose Chop Chop and

Sports Illustrated for Kids and are excited to receive their magazines soon.

The three top student fundraisers— Meagan from Mrs. Miles’ s class, Marcus

from Ms Yu’s class, and Nathaniel from Mrs. Richardson/Mrs. Naazneen’s class

enjoyed individual gift cards to Chapters. We thank everyone again for their

generous support.

John McCrae Monthly Page 5

Kiss and Ride Program at John McCrae Public School

The safety of our students is very important to us; therefore, we ask for your support as we continue to keep our children safe. The location of the new Kiss and Ride loop is now at the north side of the school by the parking lot. The entrance by the front of the school is a Fire Evacuation Route and will only be used by buses and by emer-gency vehicles and will not be used as a Kiss and Ride or drop-off.

The Kiss and Ride program is intended for parents who are dropping off or picking up their child(ren). It is not in-tended for individuals who want to leave their vehicle to walk their child(ren) to the playground or to assist their child(ren) to leave the car. If you want to accompany your child to the fence of the playground, you must park your vehicle on the street (or in another designated space) and walk your child to the school yard.

There will be NO PARKING in the parking lot for parents.

In an effort to make drop-off and pick-up as orderly and safe as possible we ask that drivers respect the following rules:

1. Obey the road rules, crosswalks, and speed limits.

2. Move your vehicle up as far along the curb side of the loop as possible.

3. Have your child(ren) enter and exit the vehicle from the curb side of the loop (exit from the RIGHT side of the vehicle ONLY).

4. The Kiss & Ride area is one way only.

5. Your child(ren) should have their backpacks nearby to enable them to exit the vehicle quickly.

Never leave your car parked, idling or unattended.

We have begun using our Kiss and Ride Contracts. Drivers received a tag indicating that they are part of the Kiss and Ride program. Drivers without tags will not be allowed to use the Kiss and Ride area.

Save the Date for our Spring Arts Night The evening of May 5, 2016 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

More details will follow about this wonderful celebration of Music, Drama and Visual Arts performances and pieces from students of all ages!

PIZZA DAY and MILK ORDERS

We appreciate you supporting our Pizza Day and Milk Programs.

We will soon be asking you to order pizza and milk using our School Cash

Literacy Corner

Literacy continues to be a priority for York Region District School

Board and for John McCrae. We are continuing on our journey to

improve EACH students’ achievement in literacy, focusing on read-

ing for meaning by developing higher order, critical thinking skills.

Please take some time at home to ask your child about their learn-

ing each day. Your support at home will help embed key learning

practices, attitudes and expectations which will have a positive

impact on achievement.

If you are interested in learning more about how to support your

child’s learning at home please visit the Ontario Ministry of Educa-

tion’s website:

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/howcanihelp.html

Are you Moving?

Please let the office know in writing if you

are moving or you know your child will no

longer be attending John McCrae in the

2016 – 2017 school year.

This will help us plan our classes for the

next year.

Math Learning at John McCrae

A team of JMPS teachers who are our Math Lead Learners have been engaged in exciting learning along with math consultants from our Board and teachers from Stonebridge PS. Our team is engaged in in-quiring and learning together about the components of a comprehen-sive math program – balancing basic math concepts, practising new concepts and developing the advanced thinking skills needed for problem solving.