NMPPS NEWSFLASH

HONESTYMarch 2014 NMPPS SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Our NewsFlash is produced by the students of Nelson Mandela Park PS for the students and parents/caregivers of our school community

the quality of being fair and truthful the quality of being honest

Digital copies of all past issues can be found at: http://schools.tdsb/nelsonmandelpark

As we continue to work on building our “Cul-ture of Caring” at Nelson Mandela Park PS we are very excited by a recent initiative that we would like to share. We have brought together parents and children from Nelson Mandela Park PS along with parents and children from Lord Dufferin PS to do community building through yoga! The first session was on Wednesday, March 26th and it went very well. It was a beautiful sight to see families from our school and Lord Dufferin come together to do yoga.

The sessions are being led by Andre Talbot, former Canadian Football League player and now part of an organization known as NewLeaf Yoga.Continuing along the line of “Culture of Caring” we have saved up the necessary funds so we can keep our Parent and Family Literacy Centre open over the month of July. We feel that it is vital that our families have every opportunity possible to ensure their children are well prepared to come to school. The work our Parent and Family Literacy Centre at Nelson Mandela Park PS does has a great impact on ensuring children are successful when they enter into Kindergarten. If you have not visited the centre yet, and have pre-school age children we encour-age you to do so. Our Parenting and Family Literacy Centre is open every day from 8:45-12:45, and is located on the ground floor of our school build-ing. Michelle Woulfe is the centre’s coordinator, and

would be very happy to give any new parents/care-givers an orientation and explain how they can get involved with the centre. In terms of being able to offer services to the families of our school community, we are very proud to announce that the Model Schools for Inner Cities pediatric clinic that has been operating out of Sprucecourt PS will now be moving to Nelson Mandela Park PS. Not only will we be receiving this new clinic, but we will be expanding its size so it can serve more families. We are very excited that we are able to offer the medical services our families deserve right in their own community. We will share the clinic’s expected opening date once more logis-tical pieces are sorted out. In order to make space for the new pediatric clinic we will have to relocate our multi-faith reflection room as that space will now be used to house the clinic. Students requiring a prayer space can use the band room which when not in use will also serve as a multi-faith reflec-tion space. We do not have the staff to supervise a reflection space, so it can only be used with parent supervision or during times when it is not possible to pray at home. We are moving forward with the Nelson Mandela Park PS par-ent sponsored initiative to have a school uniform. Parents have decided that our uniform will con-sist of a black golf shirt and black or blue pants/skirt. We had a Par-ent Council meeting last week, and it was decided that we will have a student contest to help design the logo of the uniform. The contest will start the week of March 31st and end by April 9th. We will then have students choose the winning design, and this will be the design used for the sample uniforms we plan to have in our school for the last week of April

March 2014 - PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

or early May. The only new item parents/caregivers will need to purchase is a shirt. It should be noted that we will be giving the first shirt free to all chil-dren. Once we have the sample shirts in the school we will ensure all children get fitted. Then our Par-ent Council has decided to make the last 2 Wednes-days in May and every Wednesday in June a uniform day. After the design contest ends we will organize a parent information session to go over any ques-tions parents/caregivers may have about uniforms. We will also begin dialoguing more with students about uniforms. We will let them know this change will start in mid-May and be fully implemented for next year. In terms of staffing for next year, we just recently received our allocation and our staffing levels look very similar to the staffing we have this year. There is one very nice new addition to our school – we will be having a new junior age (Grade 4-6) Devel-opmental Disability Intensive Support Program. We are very happy that we can offer this class to families in our community who have children that require this high level of support.Lastly, we would like to share a collaboration we recently started with Eric Murphy who is an author that has been working with a group of our students from Grade 6-8 to lead writing workshops to help demystify the writing process, and explain how an author writes a chapter book. The students involved have learned alot and look forward to our upcoming sessions with Eric Murphy.

As always thank you for your support. If you have any questions about anything in the Newsflash please come and talk to myself or Mr. Morgan. Also, you can keep aware of school happenings by vis-iting our school Website at : http://schools.tdsb/nelsonmandelpark. On our school Website you will find lots of useful information including live tweets from me highlighting the many wonderful things occurring on a daily basis at Nelson Mandela Park PS.Sincerely,Jason Kandankery Ainsworth MorganPrincipal Vice-principal Ways We Were Caught Caring ...• Jahmai was helping

another student with his work and told him he was doing a great job.

• Adeel listened in the lunch room.

• Danny and Muhammad worked as a team to tidy up Lego.

• Dylan S. was helping Faazil get caught up on his work.

• Abdul won Raptors tick-ets in the raffle because he was caught cleaning up the classroom with-out being asked.

•

Homework HelpHomework Help is a wonderful online tutoring resource for Math for Gr. 7 & 8 students. It has interactive tutorials and live on-line tutoring. Students can register today and access free tutoring by going to https://homeworkhelp.ilc.org/ and create a free account.Students can register quickly and easily with their Ontario Education Number (OEN) and date of birth.

Nelson Mandela Tribute ShowThistletown Collegiate Institute students per-formed a Nel-son Mandela Tribute Show for all the

students at Nelson Mandela Park PS. It was fantastic! What I liked about the Nelson Mandela play was that they mentioned he was a boxer. I did not know that and it was so cool that he was a very good boxer. I liked all the different dresses, T-shirts, pants they wore and I loved when the man came out and started to sing. I liked his voice, it was strong and powerful. What did you like about the show?Do you know why the high school students did that play for us? I think it was to help us keep his spirit alive and remind us what he did for South Africa and the world.So please do something to keep his spirit alive, or tell someone about Nelson Mandela, for he was a great and powerful man.R.I.P. Nelson Mandela By Jahney Christmas, Gr. 4

SwimmingI go to the new Aquatic Center at Dundas and River with my sister ev-ery Monday for swim-ming les-sons. Some classes are hoping to go swimming this winter and I think it is good exercise for you. Would you like to go swimming with your class this winter? Swimming is good for you because if you do not know how to swim, you may drown in the water. If you know how to swim and take lessons, you will not drown. Swimming is fun because when you go to take lessons, you can learn how to swim with in-structors. Swimming is my favorite sport to do! Get out and swim! At the Aquatic Center, they show you what is coming in the future, like for example a new session of swimming lessons will start April 2nd. Here are some tips-Never go in the water without a lifeguard.-Walk on the deck. -No running-Don’t eat before you go swimming .BY: AMAL, Grade 4

NMPPS School Uniforms LOGO CONTESTWe need a logo design for our school uniform shirt. If you are artistic, or have an idea about what you want our logo to look like, or if you just want to have a go with design, enter the competi-tion. The contest will start the week of March 31st and end by April 8th. We will then have students choose the winning design, and this will be the design used for the sample uniforms we plan to have in our school for the last week of April or early May. Your design must include…..

•this image of Nelson Mandela with fist raised•colour that will show up against black, and dark blue•the name of the school

Excited about SpringSpring is cool, because the weather is getting warmer and you can go to the park more often. You get to go swimming and you will not slip and fall on the ice. You can go outside more and less people will get colds. I am excited for spring because I can go swimming with my friends and go outside and hang out more.Here is a list of activi-ties that Ahasan and I think you can do in the spring time:- soccer - riding a bike- swimming- going to the park- basketballBy: Nafeez, Grade 4

Fun things about springSpring is not cold, it is exciting in spring. We really did not go outside much in winter because it was cold, but in spring time we can go outside because there are a lot of plants and lots of sun. The holidays in spring are: Easter, NawRuz, Passover, St. Patrick’s Day, Losar, Magha Puja, Holi, Mahavir Jayanti, Bai-sakhi, Visakha Puja, Beltane, Mother’s day, Earth Day, and April Fool’s Day. We have day light savings in spring too where we put the clocks forward 1 hour. I am excited about spring because there is a new park being built in May.By Ahasan, Room 214 Gr 4

PacamamboBack in February, Room 214 went to see a play called Pacamambo. It was cool because there were a lot of sound effects and it was dark in the perfor-mance.

There was a dog, but it was an actor who was play-ing the part of a dog and it actually sounded like a real dog. The main characters were a girl, her grand-ma, a dog and a doctor.

We went to the play because we needed fresh air and it was a good opportunity to see a play. It was at the Citadel Theatre. The play was written by Wa-jdi Mouawad. By: Nicole, Gr 4

Talent showApril 17th is the big Annual Talent Show at Nelson Mandela Park Public School. During the show, we show off our talents and have a chance to perform in front of an audience. Students, staff and parents can come to see the students and staff perform in the Talent Show. Some of the acts in the Talent Show include:-Singing -Dancing to music -Performing a play-Playing with instruments -Band -Telling a poem-YMCA-Animal’s performing (Ex: Ms.Werbitsky’s dog) Oh yeah! The talent show is like a party - it is so much fun! There will be student MC’s who will tell us who is going next and what is going to happen during the show.Let’s rock in this year’s Talent Show!By: Riham and Zeina, Gr 4

The Nelson Mandela Park Talent Show is on Thurs-day April 17th at 9 am until 10:30 am in the gym. Parents, students and friends of the community are invited. We hope to have 20 acts at the show. Stu-dents are encouraged to audition. Come show your talent! It could be anything that you are good at. By: Safiya, Gr. 4

Adnaan is helping to remove rocks from our flower beds ready to plant.

Dental Screening is coming up. Danny and Muhamed are taking care of their

teeth by brushing them every day.

The Book Bank Every other week, Grade One goes to the Book Bank. We walk past FreshCo and Lord Dufferin Public School. When we get there, people at the Book Bank read us a book. Our favourite books are Pete the Cat books. After we are finished listening, we pick our own books. The last book I picked was My Little Pony and the last book Samsil picked was Pokemon. We have to get them stamped with a special stamp with ink. Then we get our partners and go back to school. Then we go home with our new books.By: Rukaiya and Samsil, Gr 1

The Great Big Crunch In March, Grade 1 was part of the Great Big Crunch. We all took a big bite of our apples at the same time. We did it at the same time as 100 097 people from around the world. FoodShare organized it to teach people to eat healthy food. Everybody should do it next year because it is fun.By: Samsil and Rukaiya, Gr 1

Hatching EggsMs Tokar’s class is hatching eggs. The baby chicks are due on April 9th. We are keep-ing them warm and turning them, just like a mother hen! We hope all the babies are safe in their eggs.

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REACH FOR THE STARS Ms Cooper has taught the students from Room 315 many different things. So many that by the time I would be done telling you, you’d be 45! But one of the most important things she has taught us is to REACH FOR THE STARS.The saying “reach for the stars” means to not give up and keep trying, it means to achieve your dreams and goals, be all you can be, try your hardest - any-thing is possible if you set your mind to it. Believe in yourself and you’re capable of so much more than you think. If you follow this advice, you’ll be just like us.By: Fiza, Gr. 5

Tech TalkSumdog ContestsIn March, Nelson Mandela Park PS took part in a To-ronto-wide competition. Although we finished in 19th place, we were the Daily Winner on March 22nd and the top students from NMPPS were:-

HamzaK - 969 questions correctNahidA - 953 questions correctTawfiqurR - 942 questions correctMuwdaO - 907 questions correctRidwanulH - 824 questions correct

There is another Toronto contest that starts at 8am on Friday 11th and runs until 8pm the following Thursday. Please let Julie know if you want to particpate in this contest.We also had our local in-school March Madness Contest and the winners of that contest are...

Eggs in the Incubator

Carmen is setting the tone for the day as a new week begins. Here the students are getting instruc-tions for an activity on Children’s Rights. They choose one of the rights and cut out pictures to make a poster. William is particularly proud of his poster....the right to love! These are the children that are exchanging letters with Charlene Burton’s Grade 4 class. They are very excited about writing letters back to Canada!

Dear Friend,Hi my name is Adel. I am nine years old and I am a boy. I’m in grade 4. There are 5 people in my family. My par-ents are from Bangladesh. We like to make each other laugh. My personal inter-ests are: I really like to read. I enjoy read-ing fiction books. I also like sports, art, car-tooning and drawing. I am curious about your home and school routines and the types of food there. What animals do you see there? Your friend, Adel

Dear Friend,My name is Kaden and I am nine years old. I’m in grade 4. I have 5 people in my fam-ily. The country of my origin is Jamaica. I like going outside with my family. My interest is playing sports. I would like to know what your favourite sport is.Your friend, Kaden

The Sensational Connection with South Africa

Did you hear about a group of students from Nelson Mandela Park Public School going to South Africa in 2007 ? Do you know that our school has a sister school in Cape Town?Room 214 is presently working on maintaining a relationship with Battswood Primary School which is our sister school. We are writing letters to stu-dents at our sister school letting them know about ourselves and asking them all sorts of different questions. Our letters were brought to them, hand delivered by Mrs. Guerriere ( Mrs.G ), who is a former teacher at this school, at the end of February. We look forward to receiving their response to our letters, but we will have to wait until the end of April to get them!! By: Saajid and Sadiq, Gr. 4

Notes from South AfricaThe photos are showing you the outside of Batt-swood Primary School, the entrance and inside when you enter. The office is just inside the foyer. You can see our Canadian flag that has been there since our first exchange visit in Decem-ber of 2006. NMPPS and our students are a living presence at Battswood. The photo of our students taken on the steps of NMPPS, is on the Principal’s bulletin board.

Room 214 and Battswood Primary School have been writing letters to each other. We have already sent our letters and are waiting for their response. I think it is really exciting to be writing to a different school in a different country. It is also very nice that we get to know the students better. So in conclusion, it is great to be penpals with Battswood Primary School. By: Safiya

Later Dan-iel’s father sees Ti Moun and doesn’t let her marry Daniel be-cause she’s not wealthy like them. Daniel’s family has a party and they invite Ti Moun. Ti Moun danc-es for Dan-iel and his family. Soon she finds out that Daniel is getting married to a different girl named Andrea. So Daniel and his family throw Ti Moun out of their house, and the newlywed couple threw coins at Ti Moun. Throwing coins at peasants is a tradition that runs in the family. Ti Moun calls to Daniel who throws a coin at her then shuts his house door in Ti Mouns face.Ti Moun dies by drowning herself. Papa Ge then gently brings her back to shore where Asaka trans-formed her into a tree. The tree soon becomes a tree of life and love. The tree then breaks down the gates of Daniel’s hotel. A few years later Daniel’s son plays in Ti Moun’s tree branches. In the end the tree was always a part of the family!THE END By: Fiza, Gr 5

ONCE ON THIS ISLAND A summary of the play. One stormy night a flood filled a village. A scared little peas-ant girl was terri-fied to death by the terrible storm. The little girl prayed and prayed to the gods to some how help her escape the flood. The gods placed the little girl up on a tree and called her Ti Moun. Soon after two villagers found Ti Moun and gave her shelter, they fed her, clothed her and gave her love. One day another terrible storm came and Ti Moun found a smashed up car. There was a very wealthy man in the car. Ti Moun bathed the man, clothed the man, fed the man and loved the man. The man’s name was Daniel. Ti Moun’s father went to Daniel’s father to tell him about Daniel’s car accident. Daniel’s father came and took Daniel and went back to their home. Ti Moun loved the man so she left her village to find Daniel. Ti Moun prayed and prayed to the gods that she wanted to be with Daniel. So god Erzulie made Ti Moun’s wish partly true. Ti Moun found Daniel and healed his broken leg that he had gotten from the car accident.

Bridges (Shared writing by Room 316)

A beam bridge is the simplest form for bridge spans. The simplest kind of beam bridge could be a stone slab. Beam bridges are straight. A beam bridge is the simplest kind of bridge to build.

The Danube bridge, also known as the Friendship bridge, stretches over the Danube River. It is recog-nized as a steel truss and beam bridge. This bridge connects Bulgaria from the south and Romania from the north.

The Chaotianmen bridge is the world’s longest arch bridge, located in China. The bridge runs over the Yangtze River.

Sports UpdateGreat school spirit at the student/staff basketball game. Many classes came down to sup-port the game. It was a lot of fun and good sportsmanship was demon-strated by the players and the audience.

Soccer season is well underway with boys and girls training hard for league games. There are home games scheduled for April 23rd and May 6th. Come out and cheer for our teams! Track and Field season is quickly approaching - get outside and practice.

Recess PlayAs the weather gets warmer, we are finding different ways to play in our wonderful school yard.

Soccer and basketball are always popular with ev-eryone, and there is plenty of room to socialize with friends on the field, or on the rock seats.

We are looking forward to having our garden growing with all sorts of plants. Now that the snow is gone, please remember to stay off the flowerbeds if you are in the garden.

Safety RemindersPlease help teach the

younger students NOT to walk through the

parking lot on the way to school.

Remember to bring rubber boots if you

like to play in the mud!

“And wipe off the mud before you go

inside” says Ori, Gr 1.

Y E POur Youth Empow-ering Parents has started again and it is so wonderful to see our students as experts and our par-ents in the learner role.

Rocking Rm 307

If you haven’t had a chance yet, check out the amaz-ing volcano and rock model created by Rm 307. It’s on display in the front lobby by the elevator. They were learning about different forms of rock and how rock formations were created. They created a working volcano to demonstrate their learning.

Notes from G34In Rm G34, we have been learn-ing all about transportation. We were sorting stickers of cars, trucks, trains to land, sea or air. Nektarios is sit-ting in a card-board car after the students in the class co-loured it and put it together.

We read everywhere. Here Timmy is enjoy-ing enjoying a story with a friend - Carlton the bear who was visiting last month.

Kindergarten Science.In Rm G29, we have been doing Absorption experi-ments. We used paper towel to see how it absorbs liquid over time. We put one end of a paper towel in one jar with blue coloured water and the other end in a jar that was empty. We watched the water travel from one side to the other. It stopped when both jars had water at the same level. Can you figure out why that happened? If not, ask a student from Rm G29!

Don’t forget to submit a poem, story, article, artwork, or edito-rial for the book com-memorating Nelson Mandela. April 15th, 2014 dead-line.

Thistletown Collegiate Institute cast for the Tribute to Mandela performance

NMPPS NEWSFLASH

HONESTYMarch 2014 NMPPS SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Our NewsFlash is produced by the students of Nelson Mandela Park PS for the students and parents/caregivers of our school community

the quality of being fair and truthful the quality of being honest

Digital copies of all past issues can be found at: http://schools.tdsb/nelsonmandelpark

Getting our NMPPS Garden ready!

Coming EventsMar. 28th-Apr. 6th Toronto Storytelling Festival at Daniel’s Spectrum www.torontostorytellingfestival.caApr. 4-9th Dental ScreeningApr. 8th NMP Parent Snack & Chat (9 -10:30 am) ook Bank coming to NMPPSApr. 9th International Day of PinkApr. 17th Talent Show 9:00-10:30amApr. 18th Good Friday ( No school)Apr. 21st Easter Monday (No school)Apr. 22nd Jump Rope for Heart AssemblyApr 27, 1994 South African first multi-racial election Nelson Mandela becomes presidentApr. 28th Sharing Assembly - G01, G07, 140, 221, 114, 314, 325Apr. 29th Sharing Assembly - G29, G32, 128, 225, 316, 323,324, 214 NMP Parent Council (5:30-7 pm)Apr. 30th Stand Up Boys Conference for all NMP Grade 8 boysMay 1st Sharing Assembly - G09, G34, 222, 201, 315, 327, 307May. 13th NMP Parent Snack & Chat (9 -10:30 am)May 19th Victoria Day ( No school)May 21st Uniform DayMay 26th - 30th EQAO - Grade 3May 27th Spring Concert 5:30-6:45pmMay 28th Uniform DayJune 2nd - 5th EQAO - Grade 6Jun 4th Uniform DayJune 6th - 9th Camp Kilcoo for Grade 7&8Jun 11th Uniform DayJun 18th Uniform DayJun 25th Uniform Day

EARTH DAY is Coming...Are YOU Ready?

Tuesday, April 22Earth Day 2014

http://www.earthday.ca/

NewsFlash WordsearchWinners from Feb: 225 Mo-hammed323 Amal323 Sheza140 Farhaze221 Rayaanul225 Ridwanul225 Ebaa323 Noosa201 Alisha201 Israa225 HarrisFind 21 words or terms that are in this NEWSFLASH with more than 6 letters. Hand in your list to WIN!!!!

April 9 is the International Day of PinkThe International Day of Pink is a day of action, born when a youth in a high school in Cambridge, Nova Scotia was bullied because he wore a pink shirt to school. His fellow students decided to stand up to bullying; hundreds of students came to school wearing pink to show support for diversity and stopping discrimination, gender-based bullying, homophobia and transphobia. We invite everyone to make a difference and participate. The International Day of Pink is more than just a symbol of a shared belief in celebrating diversity - it’s also a com-mitment to being open minded, to being understanding of differ-ences and to learning to respect each other.

WEAR PINK ON APRIL 9th!

ThinkB4 you SPEAk!

Rm G09 won a Pizza Party for best school spirit!!