October 23rd, 2017

Partnership with the Community – MJ students LOVE to read and it shows! Students in grades 1-6 will be rewarded with a FREE Blizzard for reading six books!  Our local Dairy Queen owner and MJ parent, Rob Maxwell has created a card for students to fill in. Once verified by their teacher; they may redeem their free Blizzard. Thanks to Rob for his ongoing support for MJ.

Lost and Found – Our pile keeps on growing! Students have been reminded to check out the lost and found items that have been placed on the tables outside the gym hallway. There are many hoodies, coats and rain gear.

Halloween – Please see a previous post about the WRDSB’s commitment to student belonging on Halloween – click here to view this post. At MJ, we plan to have a spirit day on Oct. 31st! Our student LIT’s (Leaders in Training), will be hosting a spirit assembly along with cross-graded group activities (Jaguar House Event and Assembly). Students will be spending time together, getting to know each other, working on collaborative tasks and building a positive school culture.

SCIS – The adults on our SCIS team will be meeting on November 14th. We will be looking at the data that was submitted by parents and students last spring. With this data; we will develop next steps for MJ. The goal is to have our students feeling safe, secure and welcomed each and every day. Thank you to MJ parents, Karen McLeod and Harish Pawagi for representing parents on our team.

Magazine Fundraising – Students have done a great job selling magazine subscriptions. Our contact person will pick up all of our orders and let us know how we did by mid-November. Thank you so much for supporting MJ!

Math – MJ teachers/admin are looking forward and developing a plan for a focus on Math at MJ. During our one hour + of Math each day, our students have a comprehensive approach to math. Students are problem solving, building number fluency from conceptual understanding and engaging in purposeful practice to revisit key mathematical concepts. During purposeful practice; students may be engaged in math games, practice problems, Dreambox software and mini-lessons and home connections. Our goal is for students to develop deep mathematical understanding and develop confidence and efficiency over time.

We have applied and been accepted for a PRO Grant (Parents Reaching Out) through the Ministry of Education! With these funds, MJ will be hosting a Math Night. Thanks to a group of parents who will be joining MJ educators to present this evening. Stay tuned as more info will be coming!

To read more about Ontario’s Renewed Math Strategy, click here

We continue to look for volunteers for our Math Kit sign-out. Students love to sign out these kits. Please consider this volunteer job if you are able, even if for a few sessions. Here is the information from our volunteer at MJ page:

Math Kits

Math kits allow for parents and students to have a hands-on connection with fun activities that support the various math strands.

The Coordinator’s role involves:

  • Find volunteers
  • Set up check-in/check-out binder
  • Review with volunteers how to run a math kit check-in/check-out session with students
  • Help replace broken/missing pieces
  • Ensure volunteers have checked all math kits and replaced missing/broken pieces at end of rotation.

Time involved – 15-20 hours, coordinator is busiest at the beginning and end of each rotation.

Position is vacant

Math Kit Sign out Volunteers

There are two volunteers per 12 week rotation:

  • One volunteer goes to each of the classrooms to collect math kits and returns them to the other volunteer in the literacy room.
  • The other volunteer checks the math kits for contents, and working together they check the Math Kits into the computer
    • If nothing is missing from the kit, put it in the correct filing box in the cabinet
    • If there is something missing from the math kits, create a sticker to put into the child’s planner, and place kit in missing pieces bin
    • Also create labels for all students who forgot to return their math kit
  • Once all the kits are checked in, one volunteer can go get batches of kids to pick out new math kits
  • The other volunteer can check-out the math kits
  • Once a month volunteers need to go through the kits to replace missing pieces, instructions/cards, etc.

Time involved – once a week for 12 weeks, 1-1.5 hours/week, option of Tues, Wed or Thurs morning, plus several hours at the end of the rotation to make sure the kits are complete.

Grade 3’s – October to December

Grade 2’s – January to March

Grade 1’s – April to June

Positions are vacant *** volunteers for October to December are urgently needed