It is almost unbelievable that this is the final news-

letter of the school year. Over the last ten months,

our students and staff have so many accomplish-

ments of which to be proud - our students’ academic

achievements, sports teams, clubs, community in-

volvement in various charity organizations, public

speaking, volunteer work, and the list goes on!

We have worked hard to provide your child with a

well-rounded education and know that they have benefited greatly from the vari-

ous opportunities provided to them throughout this year.

I hope that everyone has some exciting plans for the summer and wish you all a

happy and safe summer vacation!

From the Principal’s Desk

I n s i d e t h i s

i s s u e :

Fun Fair 2

Dress Code 2

Report

Cards

2

Sports

Report

3

Silver Birch 5

Westdale’s

Literacy

6

Healthy

Sleep

7

Westdale Public

School

J u n e 2 0 1 1 N E W S L E T T E R

Superintendent:

John Dickson

905-641-1550

Ext. 54120

Principal:

Mrs. G. Harris

Vice-Principal

Mr. W. Dixon

Secretary:

Mrs. P. Pickering

Information on Graduation will go

home to parents on Friday, June

3rd. Remember that the final date

to purchase the additional three

tickets allotted to each graduate is

June 17th. Starting June 20th, all

unclaimed tickets will be sold on a

first-come, first –served basis.

Grade 8 Graduation

Our Senior Kindergarten students

will graduate on Monday, June27th

in our gym at 2:00 p.m.

We look forward to sharing this

special time with you.

Kindergarten

Graduation

P a g e 2

Term 3 Report Cards

Code of Conduct: Dress Code

As the warm weather

is now upon us, it is

time to remind every-

one of the school dress

code. We believe that

what you wear sends a

message about our

school and affects both

your behaviour and

your attitude. We ex-

pect all students at

Westdale to dress for

learning and to show

respect for yourself

and others at all times.

Please keep in mind:

These two pages are an

important part of your

child’s school record

and we encourage all

students to complete

and return it. Should

you have any ques-

tions about your

child’s report, please

contact the school on

the 28th or 29th to dis-

cuss the report with

your child’s teacher.

The final report card

will go home with stu-

dents on Monday,

June 27th. Please re-

turn Page 3 and 4 of

the report card to

school the next day.

W e s t d a l e P u b l i c S c h o o l

•pants must not be worn lower than the hips or with ex-posed undergarments

•short shorts, halter or tube tops or spaghetti strap tops are not permitted (straps must be 3 of your fingers wide)

•see-through or mesh tops are not acceptable •regardless of the age of the student, bare stomachs are

not permitted. Tops must be long enough so that no skin is showing at all times and high enough to cover cleavage

•clothes with written statements, logos, pictures or people that do not promote a positive and safe environ-ment or are suggestive or in bad taste are not per-mitted.

Students who are not dressed appropriately will be asked to cover up

or return home for a change of clothes. The final decision as to

whether the dress is appropriate or not rests with the principal. We

want our school to be an inviting and positive environment for learn-

ing.

Fun Fair

Our Fun Fair is on June 7th. Come on out, rain or shine! All the

popular events will be returning. Come on out and have dinner

and some fun with your family!

Tuesday, June 7th 4-7pm. See you there!

Library Closed for Inventory

P a g e 3 N E W S L E T T E R

Our school library will be closed to circulation during the month of June so that Mr. Dixon and his volun-

teers can conduct an inventory. If you have any library books at home, please return them to school as

soon as possible.

Atom Girls:

Jessica D. (long jump)

Kendra R (high jump) (relay)

Allie H. (high jump) relay)

Alysha B. (relay)

Jayden B. (relay)

Bantam Boys:

Damon J. (100 m) (long jump) (high jump) (relay)

Mitch T. (200 m) (relay)

Mack B. (long jump) (relay)

Adil M. (relay)

Josh V. (high jump)

Bantam Girls:

Alexis W. (shot put)

Midget Boys:

Jaquan S. (100 m) (200 m) (relay) (triple jump)

Eric B. (long jump) (relay)

Vlad C. (shot put) (400 m) (relay)

Brosten M. (relay)

Midget Girls:

Amy E. (shot put)

Peewee Boys:

Ian H. (long jump) (triple jump) (relay)

Owen B. (800 m) (relay) (1500 m)

David T. (relay)

Ali A. (relay)

Congratulations to the following stu-

dents who qualified from our school

track meet to go on to represent West-

dale at the Regional Meet on May 20th:

And, congratulations to these students

who successfully represented Westdale

school and placed in the top eight at the

Regional Meet. GO WILDCATS!

Atom Boys:

Colmen T. (triple jump) (400 m) (high jump) (relay)

Steven P. (triple jump)

Aziz B (high jump) (relay) (100 m)

Matthew L. (relay)

Nicholas B. (relay)

Westdale Track & Field Team

Moving This Summer? School Council

The first School Council meeting in Septem-

ber will be on Tuesday, September 27, 2011.

The first meeting is when elections are held

for Chair, Vice-Chair, Treasurer & Secretary.

If you are interested in any of these positions,

please let the principal know of your interest.

All parents/guardians are welcome at every

meeting. Thank you very much to the

2010/2011 Council members for all the great

work that you have done over the school year

for our children. A special thanks to Lisa

White and her team of volunteers for the ex-

cellent job they did organizing our Fun Fair.

And, thank you very much to everyone who

supported our Fun Fair this year.

If you know for sure that you will be moving

out of the Westdale area over the summer,

please let the school know as soon as pos-

sible. We are beginning to plan for next

year and it is helpful to know the numbers of

students we can expect to have in each

class.

Also, please make sure that you keep the

office up to date with your contact informa-

tion so that we can reach you in case of

emergency or illness.

Rankin Run

Congratulations to all the Westdale

Wildcat participants in the Rankin

Run on Saturday, May 28. It was a

damp morning and we appreci-

ated everyone who gave up their

Saturday morning to make a differ-

ence for our community!!! There

were 9 000 participants altogether

and $600 000 was raised for can-

cer research and development in

the Niagara Region. We had a

team of 71 staff, students and

family , thanks also to Mrs.

Hildebrandt and Mrs. Kornelson for

their leadership of this event . A

special thanks to Ms. McKay for

taking a pie in the face.

DO YOU HAVE YOUR "Learning ADVANTAGE" book YET!

P a g e 5 N E W S L E T T E R

There is still time to get your "Summer Advantage" book. This 192 page, fully coloured, activity book is

designed to maintain children's academic learning over the summer months. There is one activity book per grade level from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 7. Each grade level book contains major units

aligned with the Ontario curriculum expectations and 3 summer fun units. The books have parent infor-

mation pages, evaluation forms; follow up activities and a family focus. In addition to the summer the

books can be used all year long from September to the following June. The cost of each book is $19.05

plus GST. This is a savings of $1-$4 from the retail and online prices. You can visit www.summeradvantage.ca to

download a free unit of the book you would like to order for further review.

Bonus: with all books orders, Summer Advantage will provide attraction discount coupons to numerous

attractions including Wonderland, the CN Tower, Ontario Place, Medieval

Times, Wild Water Kingdom, Wings of Paradise, Centreville, South Sim-

coe Railway, Pucks farm, Zooz, Bowmanville Zoo the Hamilton Civic Muse-

ums and more. (Book orders and attraction coupons will be delivered to your child’s classroom before the end of the school year.)

P a g e 6 N E W S L E T T E R

Help your child get a library card

Getting your child a own library card will make him/her feel special, and will motivate him/her to

use her library card to check out books or other items. The St. Catharines Public Library offers

many summer reading programs, so check them out!

Help your child select books at the right level

A good way to decide whether your child is reading books at the right reading level is to have

him/her read from any page in the book (any page but the first page). If he/she is reading

smoothly and understands what he/she is reading, the book is probably at a good level for her.

If she makes five or more errors in a passage of about 50 words, the level may be too challeng-

ing.

Allow your child to choose his/her own reading material, including popular fiction, magazines,

graphic novels, and comic books. Summer is a time when children can discover the joys of

reading, and they will be more motivated if they are reading something they enjoy. If you are

concerned about the content of what your child is reading, talk with him/her about his/her inter-

ests and set some guidelines for appropriate choices.

Make sure your child sees you reading and writing, whether it's reading the morning newspaper

or making a shopping list. Talk with your child about what you are currently reading, and about

books you read as a child. Turn off the TV for some quiet reading time. Seeing that reading is an

important part of your life will help children understand that reading can be an important part

of theirs.

If you will be spending a lot of time in the car or at home, rent books on CD from the library, and

listen to them together. You can also encourage your child to download a novel from iTunes

and give it a listen on his/her iPod. Allowing our 21st century learners to experience reading in

different ways will show them how enjoyable it can be!

If these suggestions are put into action over the summer, your child will return in September

ready to face the challenges of the new year. Happy reading, everyone!

Bibliography: http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/24593

Westdale’s Spotlight on Literacy for June

“A good book has no ending.” - R. D. Cumming

P a g e 7 N E W S L E T T E R

Alexis F. 100m Kaitlin B. 100m, 200m Aaliyah D. High jump Madison T. 400m, high jump, triple jump

Midget Girls Relay Team: Madison

T., Alexis F., Kaitlin B. & Julie R.

P a g e 8 N E W S L E T T E R

Summer Skills

One of the most exciting things about summer is all the time children have to pursue their interests, such as sports, summer camps and time with friends. Even though they’re on break, the summer offers many oppor-tunities for students to practice their reading skills and work on math concepts. For instance, have the whole family read together each day. Take turns reading out loud, and talk about what you read. Ask children questions about the characters, why might they be acting in a certain manner, or how might they solve a problem or a dilemma they are facing. Questions like “why” and “how” encourage children to think about what they are reading and help them to answer questions about the text, and provide their rationale and evi-dence for those answers.

You could also find ways to make hobbies educational. A child who loves to collect baseball cards, for in-stance, could practice penmanship and literacy skills by writing fan letters to players. He/she could also work on math skills by tracking players' statistics or by visiting educational websites such as coolmath.com.

P a g e 9 N E W S L E T T E R

P a g e 1 0 N E W S L E T T E R