November 15

Good evening Parkdale Families.

We hope that you’ve had a great week practicing for winter time! Our students love the snow and it always makes recess time interesting. Last year, we experimented with a snowball area, which goes along with the OPAL philosophy. However, we are not ready for this yet. Hence, there are NO SNOWBALLS allowed during recesses. Please reiterate this message at home.

The week got started with a beautiful Remembrance Day Assembly where we had several classes perform. Being on stage, after learning and rehearsing is an important skill and experience. We look forward to more of these events, the next being the Kindergarten Concert on December 19th.

This week, you also received your child’s Progress Report Card and had the opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss their progress. If you were unable to schedule this meeting, it is not too late. Please arrange with your child’s teacher another time to meet. 

OPAL

You likely have heard a lot about the OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learn) program. It has created a lot of discussion and concern with both parents and staff.  (e.g., why are there ties, milk crates, kitchen utensils and other things all over the yard?”) We will be having an OPAL assembly on Wednesday for students in grades 1-6 to speak about the play philosophy and to help students learn how to negotiate play during these unstructured recess times. In addition, staff  in classrooms and supervisors on the school yard will continue to have discussions with students so that the program will be successful. We feel that this program is an important part of student’s socialization and enables experiences for students  to play creatively. To help parents better understand the philosophy around OPAL, here are a few articles and documents:

OPAL - Types of Play

OPAL - Principles of Play

OPAL - Risk in Play & Learning

Rough & Tumble Play

Aggression in Young Children

From the Parkdale Green Team

Your Tip of the Week from Parkdale School’s Green Team! 

A few weeks ago, the Globe and Mail reported that up to one fifth of morning rush hour traffic is caused by parents dropping their kids off at school. The Globe also cited a study which found that “the percentage of 11- to 13-year-old students walking to school within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area nearly halved between 1986 and 2016, while the number of kids being driven in cars has nearly tripled.” Walking to school is a healthy physical activity and contributes to less dangerous traffic congestion around Parkdale. If your family can swing it, consider walking one, two, or five mornings a week!  

If you’d like to be a part of Parkdale’s Green Team, send Jen an email at jensmball@gmail.com

...AGAIN

Winter Fair

Dec. 7, 20019 (10:00am - 2:00pm) The Winter Fair needs your help to make it happen!

Please help make this another successful year to help bring our community together for a fun day and raise funds for important initiatives aimed to help our students and school community be well and successful.  

We're looking for help and leadership for:

• Arts & crafts lead(s) - plan and coordinate activities for children to enjoy with volunteers - ideas could include decorating wood ornaments, colouring table, etc.
• Entertainment co-lead with Geoff Olsen (organizing performances, acting as MC, helping to set up/take down, etc.)
• New ideas!: Lead something you want to see happen!
• Silent Auction - Support this awesome fundraiser with gift certificates, play or sports tickets, services, and gifts.
• Penny Auction - Donate or collect new gifts for children to try to win with raffle tickets for (4 for $1).  
• Lucky Dip - Donate smaller used trinkets and items that kids can pick as a prize for free, help to gift wrap these items beforehand.  
• Advertising - Want to be our social media point person?  Up for helping us coordinating getting the news out about this event?

Please contact parkdaleparentcouncil@gmail.com to let us know what you can help with!

Dates to Remember  

• December 6 - PA Day
• December 7 - Parkdale Winter Fair
• December 19 - KG Concert 9:30 AM
• December 20 - last day before Winter Break
• January 6 - School Resumes
• January 17 - PA Day

Please visit our WEBSITE for our school calendar and lots more information: http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/parkdaleps/

Follow us on Twitter @ParkdalePS