the crossroads connection

Welcome back! We hope that your holiday season was restful and refreshing. Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions? A new year provides us with a wonderful opportunity to create resolutions, or promises to make positive changes in our lives like eating better, going to bed earlier, or exercising more regularly. This is also a chance to talk to your children about ways that they can work toward academic goals. Why not make a New Year School Resolution? Try brainstorming good work/study habits, ideas for organization, or ways to overcome pitfalls encountered in the early part of the term. With report cards coming out in early February, there can be tangible proof just around the corner that hard work and focused effort really makes a difference! On behalf of our entire staff, best wishes for a happy and healthy new year!

Marian Reimer Friesen, Principal

Crossroads Christmas Fun

A Note from the Principal …

W H A T ’ S IN S I D E

* Note from the Principal

* Christmas Fun photos

* Throw No Snow

* Keyboarding for Kids

* School Council Update

* NOTL Home Show

* Junior Volleyball Update

* Countdown to Kindergarten

* Learning Commons

* Did you know?

* Me 2 We supports Red Roof Retreat

* Shining Stars

* Scientist visits Crossroads

* Citizenship Ceremony

* Mad Science

Point to Ponder

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

~Helen Keller

January 2013

Crossroads Publ ic School Mar ian Re imer Fr iesen, 1350 N iagara Stone Road Pr inc ipal Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON, L0S 1J0 Mike Herfst, 905-468-7793 Vice-Pr incipal crossroads.dsbn.org

The Crossroads

Connection School Newsletter

Crossroads School Newsletter – January 2013

Throw No Snow The safety of our students is a prime concern at Crossroads. Thus, we have a strict policy that forbids the throwing of snow. (This includes face washing, snow down coats, kicking snow at others, etc.) Students who throw snow will be subject to the following sequence of action: First Offense: Detention and letter home. Second Offense: Two detentions and letter home. Third Offense: Suspension. We realize that this is a strict policy with strong consequences, but it is our hope that it will encourage safe play.

School Council

Update The Crossroads School Council met in November to learn more about our 2011/2012 EQAO Results and School Improvement Plan. We also discussed regular business and reviewed and provided input into upcoming events.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, January 15th at 7:00 p.m. in the Crossroads Learning Commons/Library. You are always welcome!

Keyboarding for Kids

Mr. Mike Herfst, Vice Principal

If you are looking for ways to make your child’s time more productive after school and

on weekends, you may want to introduce them to the skill of keyboarding. There are

several key reasons for this:

• it helps kids to think faster, and get their ideas down at ‘the speed of thought’

• it’s a more efficient and effective way to produce information

• it’s great for hand-eye co-ordination, letter recognition and an authentic way

to share thoughts and ideas in a technology driven society

Several good websites to develop your child’s keyboard skills can be found by following

the links listed below:

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

http://www.abcya.com/keyboard.htm

Learn more by reading “The Innovative Educator- When and How Should Kids Learn to

Type?”

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.ca/2011/02/when-should-students-start-

learning-to.html

The 5th Annual

NOTL Home Show Saturday, March 2nd, 2013

This is our School Council’s biggest fundraiser of the year!

Proceeds will go to the third phase of our Playground. Mark your calendar and save the 1st and 2nd of March. We’ll

need lots of help before, during and after the event.

If you know any potential vendors, please invite them to visit the Crossroads Website (crossroads.dsbn.org) to download a

Vendor Information Package or email [email protected] for more details.

Please encourage them to act quickly, as space is limited.

Congratulations Junior Volleyball Teams!

Both our Junior Boys and Girls Volleyball teams ended their seasons in December on a high! The Junior girls placed 4th overall, and the boys won the season bringing home our first Championship victory for Crossroads. Congratulations to both teams for representing our school so well!


Children who will be four years of age or older by December 31, 2013 are eligible to enroll in Kindergarten starting September 2013. Going to school for the first time is a major step for children and their parents. At the DSBN, families start that journey together at the ‘Kindergarten Countdown’ open houses. Families can visit our school, tour the kindergarten classrooms, and receive a gift bag filled with fun learning resources and information that will help children develop school readiness skills. Mark your calendar for Thursday, February 7, 2013 from 4-6 p.m. for our Kindergarten Countdown open house. Visit http://www.dsbn.org/kindergarten/ for all the details and to download a registration package! Please help spread the word in our community.

Countdown to Kindergarten

Did you know that… * the Campbell (Cole & Finnegan)

Family won our December Newsletter Draw.

* Mad Science After School Clubs will be starting up with an assembly Monday, January 7th. Information regarding club registration will be sent home that day.

* our Character Trait for January is RESPONSIBILITY.

* our School Council will be preparing a BBQ lunch for students on January 23rd. Ordering information will follow.

* Shop n’ Support orders are due on January 31, 2013.

* all students should have a good pair of indoor shoes at school as snowy shoes or boots are not to be worn in classrooms.

Learning Commons Our recent book fair was a huge success. Our sales put us in the top commission category and we earned over $3000.00 in product from Scholastic! Many of the new books are already in the hands of our students. Thank you for supporting this important fund raiser and a special thanks to our book fair volunteers. We are very fortunate to have an active parent and community volunteer group. They have been busy working in the library ensuring new books are processed and returned books are efficiently put back on the shelf. Their hard work and generous donation of time are greatly appreciated. It's exciting that re-shelving is such an enormous task, as it means that students are making excellent use of our library and reading avidly. In fact, so far this term 4,472 books have been checked out of the Crossroads library! Please take the time in the post-holiday clean-up to look for those lost and overdue books. While we don't charge late fees, we do want to make sure that books are available for other students. Students with overdue books on their account are not able to check out other books. If there is a discrepancy, please let Ms. Andres know. Sometimes books are returned without being checked in properly. Fees are charged only for lost or damaged books. Paperbacks are $5.00 and hardcover books $10.00. You may also choose to replace the book; but check your doghouse, your tree fort and between the bed and the wall first- you never know where those books will turn up!

Keep reading!

Our Me2We Club hosted a PJ Day in December and Donated

$175 to Red Roof Retreat

on behalf of Crossroads!

Way to Go!

Students enjoyed Dufflebag Theatre’s “Rudolphe le Renne au

Nez Rouge” in December!


Crossroads Shining Stars ELP Willms/Foley Austin Leboudec

Avery Froese Kennedy Bartel

ELP Lisi/Thiessen Brayden Byl Miriam Andres Brandon Falk ElP Bartel/Wotherspoon Katia Vassiliev Braeden Dyck Joshua Penner 1 Kent Jenna Marsala David Schmitt Rowan Wiens 1 DeBrouwer Mischa Driedger Sara Enns Wesley Nickel 1/ 2 McIlroy Lauren Davidson Emma Herbst 2 Feletar Logan Hahn Ashleen Hale Keira Walker 2/3 Tompsett Kristian Kradko Brooklyn Makins 3 Willms Cameron Papineau Jamie Rolph Melody Schmidt 3 Smith Baley Goertz Sarah Jeffries Ashley Rowe 4 Thorpe Jenna Cowan Kaitlyn Hope Roman Milana

4/5 O’Connor Camden Davidson Mikey Labonte Sammy Lastiwka Felicia Miele Elissa Redekopp 5 Reschke Emma Andres Kai Bartel Travis Chorney Emily Dube 6 Edmands Lexi Hale Magdalena Ondrasch Colin Pederson 6 McKay Evan Clark Taylor Dueck Jacob Unger 7 MacEwen Talon Carr Jesse Klassen Caleb McCarthy 7/8 Ho Kyle Dickson Graeme Lett Aggie Wall 8 Krake Cassie Koop Nick Petrick Nicholas VanEgmond Justin Wormald FSL Zoccoli Eva Laszlo Rebecca Hope Leah Klassen FSL Peters Felicia Miele Kai Bartel Cassie Koop Arts Willms Ali Neufeld Maddie Neufeld Julia Gonta Andres Josh Poulsen Olivia Miele Cassie Koop

O Canada! Crossroads Public School is both honoured and excited to be holding a Citizenship Ceremony for 30 new Canadians on February 15th between 9:30 and 10:30. Please join us in the gym to help celebrate this monumental and heart-warming event. It is guaranteed to be Canadian history in the making.

Scientist, Carlos Pobes, visited many of our Crossroads classrooms in December to share information about his time as a researcher in the South Pole!


Mad Science, the world’s leading provider of educational and entertaining science programs for children is coming to Crossroads Public School. Their mission is to spark the imagination and curiosity of children everywhere by providing them with fun, entertaining and exciting activities that instill a clear understanding of what science is really all about and how it affects the world around them. They use exciting activities and spectacular demonstrations to capture the attention and imagination of children as we found out during our assembly. Both the students and teachers will be thrilled on 07/Jan/2013 at 1:45 PM when Mad Science comes to the school to do a Spectacular Science show. The assembly will be educational, entertaining and also the kick off to the Mad Science Club. The Club is a 6-week science enrichment program offered to the students. Students who join the science club will go on a voyage of discovery designed to support the Ontario Science and Technology curriculum. They will explore topics from all different areas of science including Animals, Gravity, Energy, Sea Life, Solar Power and Mixtures. The Club will take place on Monday, Jan 21, 28, Feb 4, 11, 25, Mar 4 from 3:20 PM - 4:20 PM. For those of you who have been in the Mad Science Club before, this is a brand new Club with never seen before experiments, new demonstrations and amazing new take home activities. Mad Science also performs Birthday Parties, Camps and Special Events. Give them a call at 905-937-1878 and watch out for them in Malls, at Fairs, Festivals and Scouts and Guides.

www.madscience.org/Niagara

Try at Home Activity

Materials: - Scissors - Two 1 litre plastic pop bottles - Masking tape - Optional: coloured construction paper - Ribbons - Two 2/4 metre strings - Two plastic ring six pack holders - An adult helper

Instructions: 1. Ask your adult helper to cut the bottoms off of the two plastic soda bottles. 2. Fit the bottles together so there is a neck on either end. Tape the bottles together to form a football shape. 3. Cover the bottles with construction paper and ribbon if you want to decorate your zoom ball. 4. Thread the two strings through the bottles. 5. Take the six-pack holders and cut the rings apart to make four two-loop handles. 6. Tie a set of handles to the ends of each string. 7. Get at friend and you are ready to play. Each player holds onto two handles and pulls on the strings until they

are tight. Slide the zoom ball to one end. When it is at your end snap your hands apart to send the zoom ball back to your friend. To catch the zoom ball, keep your hands together.

Explanation: The pushing action of the strings sets the zoom ball in motion. When the zoom ball reaches the other end of the strings, an opposite pushing action, this is your friend snapping the strings, stops the ball for a moment and then sends it in the reverse direction.

the crossroads connection

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