We cannot believe that this is the last newsletter for the 2009/2010 school year. It seems that eve-ryone is commenting about how quickly the year has gone by. But, as the say-ing goes “Time flies when you are having fun” and at Quaker Road we have been having a blast. So much has taken place this year. We have been fo-cusing on assessment and the use of anchor charts and our students have found they have been helpful. Plus we have had a number of extra cur-ricular events that have been a huge success (too many to mention here!)

Many parents have been asking whose class their son/daughter will be in next year. Please keep in mind that due to registra-tion changes we are alter-ing class lists right up un-til the first day of school. On Tuesday, September 7th class lists will be posted on classroom win-dows for students to find out whose class they are in.

As with the end of every year we need to say good-bye to some staff. Mlle Lalonde will be heading off to Oakridge Public School to teach Grade 7 Extended French. Mrs. Helin will be moving to

Princess Elizabeth, Ms Boissoneault will be mov-ing to Plymouth and Miss Nowell will be moving to Steele Street. We wish you all the best at your new schools.

We would like to welcome Mme Jinks, Mrs. Bendilis and Mrs. Converset who will be joining the Quaker Road Comets.

We would like to thank all of the staff, students and parents for making the 2009/2010 school year so successful. We wish you all a very relaxing, safe and fun filled summer. We look forward to seeing you all again in September!

We have been making plans for our new Learning Commons, but are unfor-tunately not as far along as we hoped we would be. We are hoping to do some things over the summer, but are looking for indi-viduals who may be able to help us achieve our goal.

If you or anyone you know is able to volunteer their time to reupholster the library furniture we would love to have the chairs done.

We are also looking for someone who can sew and would be willing to volun-teer their time to make us

some large pillows. For both of these projects we would purchase the mate-rials.

Please contact Mrs. Romano or Ms Nunnen-macher if you are able to help us with one (or both) of these projects.

Thank you!

LEARNING COMMONS UPDATE

FROM THE OFFICE….

JUNE 2010

THE COMET

Quaker Road Public School

We would like to

wish everyone a SAFE and HAPPY

summer! We will see you in

September!

First Day of School is

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7,

2010

If you are mov-ing out of the Quaker Road area or your address is

changing, please contact the

school to let us know.

Thanks!

JUNIOR DIVISION

(GR. 4-6)

The junior division asks that you do NOT purchase binders until after the first day of school when teachers will share exactly what is required. The Junior Di-vision asks the you send:

• a basic calculator

• scissors

• markers

• pencil crayons

• a pencil box

• a pencil sharpener

• a pair of headphones (labelled with the child’s name in a zip lock bag)

• pencils (#2 lead, yellow, wood only)

• running shoes (to be kept at school for gym class)

• a change of clothes for gym class

• deodorant (NOT spray)

• a box of Kleenex

• a lock (to be purchased from the school for $5)

• a USB Memory Stick or Flash Drive

• agenda (purchased from school)

INTERMEDIATE DIVISION

(GR. 7-8)

The Intermediate Division asks that you send:

• a pencil case

• a pencil and an eraser

• Blue or black AND red pens

• Pencil crayons

• a ruler

• a mathematics set

• a scientific calculator

• 3 ring binder paper

• 5 individual 1” subject binders (no multi subject binders will be allowed)

• a box of Kleenex

• a USB Memory Stick or Flash Drive

• a pair of headphones la-belled with the child’s name

• a lock (to be purchased from the school for $5)

• a change of clothes for gym class

• running shoes (to be kept at school for gym class)

• agenda (purchased from school)

PRIMARY DIVISON

(GR. K-3)

This division prefers to have “Community” Supplies to promote sharing amongst their students. Grade 3 students have the option of bringing a small pen-cil case with cray-ons, pencils, an eraser, and scissors. Students will NOT need binders.

The Primary Division asks that you send:

• a box of Kleenex for the classroom

• a pair of head-phones in a la-beled baggie

• agenda Gr1-3(purchased from school)

• running shoes (to be kept at school for gym class)

www.readingrockets.org

Check out this website for “10 Weeks of Summer Reading Adventures for You and Your Kids”

It’s not hard to help your children keep their interest in reading and learning during the summer break. This sit offers ten weeks of suggestions to encourage your children to open books even after school doors close.

With more and more stu-dents bringing cell phones, Ipods and other electronic devices to school we want to insure that all students’ be-longings are safe in their lockers during the day. Starting in September we are asking that ALL junior and intermediate stu-dents have a school purchased lock for their lockers. Students are asked to bring $5.00 with them on the first day of school for a lock. Class-room teachers and the office will have the combination lock number on file in case of an emergency. In June if the student wishes he/she may re-turn the lock (in full functioning con-

dition) for a $5.00 refund OR he/she may keep the lock for use the following year. The lock provided to the stu-dent is his/her responsibil-ity. Please take a moment to discuss with your child the

importance of not giving out their locker combination to anyone. In September the homeroom teachers will discuss this with their students as well. We believe this will help alle-viate items going missing from lockers and give our students the peace of mind that their belongings are safe in their lockers and do not have to be carried around all day. Thank you for your support!

True or False? The same helmet can be worn for cycling and skateboarding.

FALSE - Each activity requires a differ-ent helmet to properly protect your brain. However, a bicycle helmet can be worn for rollerblading, BMX cycling and low speed scooters. A skate boarding helmet may be worn for rollerblading, but a rollerblading helmet cannot be worn for skateboarding!

An approved helmet worn correctly can greatly reduce the risk of permanent in-jury or death in the event of a fall or col-lision.

For a bicycle helmet remember:

2 - the front edge of the helmet should be 2 fingers below the eyebrow

V - the shape of the strap around the ears

1 - there should be a space of one finger between the chin and chin strap

Locks for ALL Junior and Intermediate Students

Understanding word meanings is essential for comprehending and understanding what you are reading. However, vocabu-lary is a weak area for many students. Given a list of words to learn, many students will complete the task but many not actually learn what the words really mean in order to develop their spoken language and vocabulary knowledge. Develop-ing vocabulary as part of knowledge structure requires more energy and focus than simply memorizing words.

Develop vocabulary by going beyond the “label” and the “spelling”.

• Teach word synonyms (words that mean the same thing eg. Night/evening/dusk), antonyms or opposites (night/day), and multiple meaning words (eg. Block, a lego block, a city block, a building block). Also teach categories, classifications and associations between words (eg. A shoe and sock go together - are associate and belong in the clothing category as “things you wear”).

• Illustrate new words. Show pictures or video clips that demonstrate the meaning of a word. Help your child draw and label something illustrating the meaning of the word. “Flashcards” can be made more meaningful with pic-tures, as well.

• Play “vocabulary charades”. Have your child draw a word from a hat and act it out.

• Play “find the word used in the real world”. Help your child identify when he hears or sees a new vocabulary word being used in the real world - beyond the learning activities designed for school.

Check our the following website for more ideas and fun ways to develop word meanings:

www.enchantedlearning.com

Develop Word Meanings to Improve Your Child’s Comprehension Skills

HELMET SAFETY

The Green Team is proud to announce that Quaker Road School has earned a gold designation from the Ontario EcoSchools program. We have been very busy all year promoting a respon-sible use of our environment and documenting our successes.

The Ontario EcoSchools was estab-lished to promote ecological literacy, to provide leadership opportunities for students, and to establish envi-ronmentally sound operational prac-tices.

To become certified as an EcoSchool you must demonstrate achievement in four key areas, these are some of the activities the Green Team has done this year:

Energy Conservation:

We have established a Lights Off, Monitors Off team to encourage classrooms to conserve energy. The staff of Quaker Road School have tried hard to print and photocopy on

both sides of the paper.

Waste Minimization:

Towards the end of the year we have initiated an organics collecting pro-gram in every class, af-ter the Green Team learned that organics in municipal waste facilities do not naturally decom-pose, but rather turn into poison. WE have also encouraged the reuse of paper by en-couraging each class to use a GOOS (Good On One Side) bin.

Ecological Literacy:

We collected and documented a wide variety of lessons from teachers and classes across all divisions.

School Ground Greening:

The Green Team secured funding from Metro’s Green Apple program and the TD Friends of the Environ-

ment program to plant a large area of our school ground with na-tive perennials and shrubs. In addition, Mr. Wood has planted a variety of trees around our school grounds to provide future shade for our students.

Once again, we are very proud of the ac-complishments of all the students at the

school, especially the members of the Green Team and congratulate them on our Ontario EcoSchool Gold designa-tion.

We look forward to repeating the process next year and have many new projects in mind, as well as the main-tenance and continuation of the pro-jects that were already started.

hole. Then the animals went around the tree singing Ungalli so they could eat the fruit that was on the tree. They sang Ungallie because that was the name of the tre. Then they ate the fruit. I hope everybody had a great time at the play!

We went to Brock University to watch the play called The Name of the Tree. When I watched The Name of the Tree I thought it would be awesome and it was awesome. The play is about hungry animals who have no food. There is a tree with all the fruits of the world on it. They have to find the name of the tree so they can reach the fruit. The Queen Lion told two animals they stepped in a rabbit hold and they forgot the name of the tree with all the fruits of the world on it. When the tor-toise went, the tortoise didn’t forget after he stepped in the

All About “The Name of the Tree” by Karlee M. (Gr.2)

QUAKER EARNS GREEN GOLD!!

Thank you to Mr. Lafleur and Mrs. Cahill for all of their hard work with the Green Team!!

The Name of the Tree: A Bantu Tale

Retold by: Celia Barker Lottridge

Rankin Cancer Run By Mikayla F (Gr. 3)

The Rankin Cancer Run was on May 29, 2010. We walked 5km or some people stopped at 2km or 3km. It was really cool that there was cancer sur-vivors there. The Rankin Cancer Run was a good event to get people out of the house like it did with me. Even my teachers Mrs. Rice and Mrs. Breadner were there. Even the Ice Dogs were there and they were giving out free autographs. You get a free t-shirt that have a picture that a child drew. They gave away free food there be-cause they knew people would get hungry after all that walking and running. It was awesome and I’m glad a lot of people came to the Rankin Cancer Run. I would like to thank the teachers, students, and parents that came to support the Rankin Can-cer Run. They supported lots of people with can-cer and I hope it save lots of lives by that one walk. ( www.rankincancerrun.com )

As many of you are aware the Green Team at Quaker Road School has been collecting and recycling old cell phones and printer cartridges since last year. We are pleased to add digi-tal cameras to the list of recyclable technology that we can accept. If you have a broken, or old digital cam-era, please send them into the school with your child, or send it into the office. The Green Team has used funds earned through this program in the past to assist with our greening of the schools grounds.

Your continued support is appreci-ated.

On the 15th and the 29th of April the Intermediate Choir consisting of about 35 Inter-mediate students competed in two competitions.

The one on the 15th was in St. Cathari-nes and was the Niagara Choral Music Festival. There we won a silver stan-dard with the two pieces that we had prepared. They were “In this Ancient House” by Ruth Morris Grey and “Give Us Hope” by John Papoulis.

On April 29th the choir traveled to Port Colborne where we attended the Port Colborne Festival of Arts and performed the same song taking home another silver standard. Hopefully the Intermedi-

ate Choir will continue to take part in these competitions for the next few years. The Intermediate Choir is ac-companied by Mr. Gillespie on the pi-ano, and is directed by Mrs. Gracey, who kindly gives up their own free time and breaks to conduct and coach us. The following were the members of the choir: Desiree T., Natasha N., Ashley V., Sarah R., Bethany L., Allyssa P., Jessica W., Rachel P., Becky P., Aislinn B., Jenna M., Emilee L., Jayden L., Ann H., Max-sene M., Brittany V., Allyssa W., Janel R., Ashley M., Rachel M., Teneasha C., Alex A., Anne S., Caity R., Arienne S., Naseem M., Michael M., Carlie D., Paige C., T.J. M., Peter H., Colin K., Alex E., Daniel D., Kelsea R., Hanna G., Hailey E., Ankit S., Will S., Elijah M., Cameron D., Keegan P., Tyler C., Tyler C. and Eric M.

During the months of May and June students have been participating in Track and Field activities at the

school. In preparation for the upcoming meets, students were given an opportunity to practice the events during their Physical Education periods. Our school meet was help at Centennial High School. Although a little chilly a great time was had by all. 53 athletes from Quaker qualified to ad-vance to the next meet at Pride Field in Ridgeway. Here the weather was exactly the opposite, hot and sunny. We had to find a nice shady tree to keep out of the

sun. Congratulations to Randi D, Sloane M., Olivia P., Maxsene M., Jayden L., BJ C., Brandon E., Cameron B., Tyler C., and Jonah W. They will be representing Quaker at the DSBN meet at the Niagara Olympic Club where they will be compet-ing against students from 90 schools within the board. We are very proud of their accomplishments. Special congratu-lations to Sloane on her 3 silver medals (100 m, triple jump, long jump) and to Jayden for her bronze medal in the 800m.

A special thank you to all the parents who have come out to cheer on our students and help out when needed. Your support was greatly appreciated.

When the grade threes and I went to track and field I had a blast! We did a lot of fun activities like the long jump and the 60 metre dash. I did the long jump, the relay and the 200 metre dash. Quaker Road won the trophy by 5 points! It was very suspenseful! That is because Gordon School was in the lead for all of it except for the last race where Quaker Road won! We were very lucky that Centennial High School had volunteered to let us compete there!

fight the God of Water and bring our water back!”. He got on his camel with his sword and left the palace.

On his way to the Water God there was a sandstorm. He fell off the camel in the storm, but got right back up and kept going. Finally, he got to the angry God of Water.

The God of Water had a great water sword and Sasha had an ancient sword and old armor. The Water God slashed his sword and Sasha flipped

Along time ago there was a brave man named Sasha. He lived in Egypt and he was the Pharaoh. He had long black hair.

One day all the water in Egypt ran out, so Sasha said, “Who wants to travel a couple of miles and fight the God of Water?”. But there was no answer.

“We can vote?” he said. But there was still no answer. “No one? Ok! I will go

over, and stabbed him in the shoulder.

Sasha won the battle and he headed home to tell everybody about his jour-ney. He took the Water God’s sword back with him to Egypt and smash it into the fountain in the centre of town. Once the sword smashed in to the fountain all the water came back to the people of Egypt.

Sasha became the most famous Phar-aoh and was remembered by all his people.

Sasha and the Water God By Jared D. (Gr. 5)

Think Recycle Now Accepting Cameras!

Grade 3 Track and Field By Stuart N. (Gr. 3)

The Choir and The Competitions

By Paige CBC (Gr. 7)

Track and Field

This year, I have been very thank-ful to be our school’s president. On behalf of Student Council, I would like to say that it has been a pleas-ure to be able to lead and represent our student body in striving to be-come the best we can be. Our Spirit Days were amazing, and al-most everyone participated in them. We had so many themed days, such as Beach Day, Superheros Day, Pa-jama Day, and even Orange and Black Day for the Fall Festival! We worked together as a whole this

year, and accomplished so much, especially in our fundraisers. This year brought out the best in all of us, and we showed not only people within our school how great we are, but people in the community as well. Good luck to next year’s Student Council President. The job is cer-tainly amazing, and it feel great to work with your friends to make the school a better place. Thank you and have a safe and fun summer.

Throughout the month of May, some of the stu-dents and teach-ers in the Inter-

mediate Division sold “Hershey Milk Chocolate” and “Hershey Milk Chocolate and Almond” chocolate bars. The sales were very success-ful, and they raised a tremendous amount of money! A huge thank you goes out to the students and teach-ers who helped to sell the chocolate bars. Your effort has paid off and we are now one step closer to build-ing a school in Sierra Leone!

Greczkowski, Mr. Yap, Ms. Brenner, Mr. Wood, Ms. Frey, Ms. Lockey, Mr. & Mrs. Read, Mr. Nystrom, Ms. Wentzell, Mrs. Stickney, Mrs. Hotson, B. Lockey, Ms. Stickney, Ms. Nystrom, Mr. Cyopick, Ms. Borisenko, Mr. Waskawich, Mr. St Laurent, Ms. Elliott, Mr. Wiley, Mrs. Ayton, Mrs. Heidebrecht, Mrs. Depagter, Mrs. Chew, Ms. Nagy, Ms. McNall, Mrs. Wood, Mr. Lawless, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Ambrose-Miller, Ms. Coles, Mrs. Loree, Mr. & Mrs. Champoux, Mrs. Nadeali, Ms. Kruitbosch, Mrs. Arm-strong, Mr. Bradley, Mrs. Edge, Mrs. Gostick, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Nagy, Mrs. Read, Mrs. Scarselli, Mrs. Teal,

On Friday, June 11th, the Quaker Road staff hosted

a Volunteer Tea to thank our many volunteers who have helped out around the school this year! Every-one enjoyed a lovely lunch with much laughter and socializing. We would like to send our sincere appreciation to the volunteers who could not attend as well! Thank you to all of our vol-unteers. Ms. Davies, Ms. Bradley, Mr. Romaine, Ms. Kisur, Ms. Colenago, Ms. Dagenais, Ms. Winnicki, Ms. Rendell, Mr. Leclair, Ms. Greenwell, Mrs. Slack, Mrs. LeBlanc, Mrs. Pit-man, Ms. Borisenko, Ms.

Mrs. Whitfield, Ms. Evans, Mrs. Da-vies, Mrs. Elder, Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Karr, Mrs. Pastirik, Mrs. Richard, Mrs. Scholtman, Ms. Veldhuizen, Mrs. Cordiner, Mr. & Mrs. Dube, Mrs. Bar-nes, Mr. Deforest, Mrs. Galambos, Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Kettle, Mrs. Perna, Mrs. Rose, Mrs. Sehgal, Mrs. Warankie, Mrs. Marr, Mrs. Borisenko, Mrs. Dykstra, Mrs. Gomm, Mrs. Jinks, Mrs. Majzoubi, Mrs. Rancourt, Mrs. Royer, Mrs. Stark, Ms. Wheeler, Ms Tbeshat and Mrs. Smith. A big thank you to Mrs. Comfort, Mrs. Ellis, Mrs. Holloway, Ms. Lalonde and Mrs. Ton-nos for organizing in the luncheon.

VOLUNTEER TEA

STUDENT COUNCIL YEAR END MESSAGE By Jessica W. Student Council President

people from each class could win. And here are the three winners:

From 6S = Victoria W., Taylor R. and Hope P.

From 5/6F = Jesse S. and Alycia L., Brittany C., Braidon M. and Samara C.

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mr. Secord and Mrs. Secord for planning such a great day!

On March 11, 2010, class 6S and 5/6F came together and finally made their bridges after weeks of hard planning. The bridges were made out of only 50 straws, 50 straight pins and 30 cm of masking tape. The whole day was in the gym constructing, designing, and testing the bridges. Everyone made fantastic bridges and it showed that everyone worked hard from the two classes, but unfortunately only three

Bridge Building Winners

Chocolate Bar Sales

By Jessica W. (Gr. 8)

Grade 8 Graduation will take place on Friday, June

25th at 6:30 p.m. Congratulations to all of our GRADUATES!! We

thank you for a great year and wish you all the best in Grade 9. We know the future holds great things

This year has been our second year for the Breakfast Club at Quaker Road School. It was suc-cessful again this year thanks to the dedication of the volunteers who run it. Many of our volun-teers are grandparents in our school community. Next year we will be needing volunteers to help run this worthwhile program. If you are interested please contact the school.

There are many questions around Student Nutrition Programs and the Niagara Region Public Health Dept. has created a fact sheet to answer those questions.

What are student nutrition programs? Previously only breakfast programs, student nutrition programs now exist as breakfast, snack or lunch programs.

Why are student nutrition programs so important? Children who have not eaten have difficulty concentrating in school. Hungry children are easily distracted, lethargic, and as a result, often cause disruptions in class. Teachers con-sistently not that student nutrition programs improve students’ ability to pay attention, concentrate on their lessons, exhibit good behavior, and attend classes more often. Student nutrition programs can also provide a chance for chil-dren to improve their social skills, help them learn healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime and provide volunteer opportunities to show children that their community cares.

Why are children not eating before coming to school? There are many reasons why children participate in nutrition programs at school. Many children take the school bus and don’t have time to eat breakfast; fresh fruit and veggies many not be available at home on a regular basis; they like the social aspects of eating with their friends; family fi-nances are tight; both parents working outside the home and don’t always have time to prepare a nutritious snack or lunch as well as early morning sport routines.

Are only children from low-income families allowed to participate? No. All children are always welcome, no questions asked. Hungry children are not necessarily poor children-the problem of coming to school hungry crosses all socio-economic groups. The goal is to ensure that all children attend school well nourished and ready to learn.

What kind of food is served? Depending on the type of meal and time of day, the menu varies. A breakfast might in-clude apples, bananas, 100% juice, cereal, toast, bagels, pancakes, muffins, cheese slices, milk and yogurt.

What is the cost per child of breakfast/snack/lunch? The cost of providing a nutritious breakfast to one child, five days a week throughout the school year, is estimated at $1.00/day or $200/year. The cost of a daily snack (fresh fruit, milk, whole wheat crackers) is about $0.60/day per child or $120/year. For lunch, it is approximately $2 or $400/year. These calculations do not take into account in-kind donations of food and supplies, which reduce the cost consid-erably.

Do parents have to pay for their child/ren to attend? No. It is the mission of student nutrition programs to ensure that all children have access to nutritious food regardless of their ability to pay. Parents, grandparents and local com-munity agencies are encouraged to make financial contributions or in-kind donations to ensure the sustainability of stu-dent nutrition programs. This can be done through the school or agency running the program.

Who is involved in student nutrition programs? Programs are run by volunteers - often parents, school staff and mem-bers of local service organizations. Each program has a program leader, who develops a committee who shares responsi-bility for scheduling, setting menus, budgeting, shopping, and preparing reports. As well, programs often receive support from businesses and/or community groups who sponsor programs and donate products to off-set costs.

How are student nutrition programs funded? The provincial Ministry of Children and Youth Services provide funding for local nutrition programs up to a maximum of 15% of the cost of food and other required essentials. Individual pro-grams are responsible for the remaining costs. Local businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals contribute financial support as well as in-kind donations and volunteer time to plan, support and deliver breakfast, lunch and snack programs. Niagara Nutrition Partners administers the funds on behalf of the ministry in Niagara, as well as providing organizational support and assistance with fundraising at both the school and regional level.

(continued on next page)

STUDENT NUTRITION PROGRAMS a.k.a. QUAKER ROAD BREAKFAST CLUB

(Breakfast Club Continued)

Where do student nutrition programs take place? There are several possible locations for student nutrition pro-grams. Programs can operate out of cafeterias, libraries, classrooms and school gymnasiums, as well as churches or ser-vice club locations. Both elementary and secondary school can operate a student nutrition program.

How many student nutrition programs are there in Niagara? There are currently 157 active nutrition programs oper-ating in the Niagara Region.

For more information, please contact Niagara Nutrition Partners; Niagara North 905-685-1349 (Dee) or Niagara South 905-357-5121 ext 32 (Cathie) or your school nurse.

The Breakfast Club will be hosting a barbecue at September’s Open House. Please watch for details in September. If you would like to make a donation please send money and the following to the school. Thank you!

I would like to support Quaker Road Breakfast Club.

Please find my enclosed contribution of $_________ (please make cheques payable to Quaker Road School)

Name: ____________________________________ Address : _________________________________________________

Would you like a receipt for your donation? __________ yes __________ no

Would you like to be contacted about volunteering with the Breakfast Club? _________ yes __________ no

Thank you for your support!

balloon on your head.

Next, we enjoyed a small snack of rice and water to represent the scarcity of food and poor nutrition in refugee camps around the world. Then we participated in solving a math problem on the ground with chalk. This represented Salva’s difficulties with learning in the refugee camp school with limited resources.

We then enjoyed an authentic Sudanese meal that included Samosas, eggplant stirfry, pota-toes and beef and falafels. For dessert we enjoyed a baklava. After the meal two students from another school visited our class and talked about their lives in Sudan and their experi-ences as refugees. We learned a lot from them and had the op-portunity to ask many interest-

ing questions.

Then we experienced a hard shelter building challenge to show the difficulty of living in a refugee camp and using limited resources to make do. Just for fun we followed that with a wa-ter balloon fight and a scaven-ger hunt.

Overall, the day went very well and the whole class wishes we could do it over and over again!

On June 16th Mr. Lafleur’s grade 4/5 class participated in an activity day based on a true story called “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park. During the course of the day the students overcame chal-lenges, both physical and men-tal.

At the start of the day the eager students were asked to come up with a team name and a chant to encourage their team-mates on their long walk to vic-tory.

The first two events were based on Nya’s ability to carry water. The first activity wearing a blindfold to cover your eyes so that your team leader could navigate you through the obsta-cle course. The second event included a race across the play-ground while balancing a water

A Long Walk to Water Activity Day By Hudson R. (Grade 5)

At the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, the Intermediate Divi-sion of Quaker Road School wanted to raise $8500.00 to help build a school in Sierra Leone, Af-rica. All the Intermediates wanted to raise this money by the end of the school year. We have had many fundraisers including; selling chocolate bars, freezies, candy grams, Easter cookies the pasta supper and the a wake -a- thon.

When Mrs. Gracey first came up with the idea at the beginning of the year for us to raise money to help build a school in a third world country, the intermediates were up for the challenge, but she also had her doubts that it could be done in

a single year. Mrs. Gracey now says that she is amazed along with the 2 other intermediate teachers, Mr. Pelletier, and Mrs. Tonnos, at the dedication, drive and enthusiasm of the Grade 7 and 8 students. Every one of Quaker Roads intermediate stu-dents have helped with this and we are all proud of ourselves. We raised $7300.00 from all of our fundraisers and we didn't want to sop. William S. a grade 8 student here at Quaker Road, came up with the idea to have a car wash on Saturday, June 19th as our last fundraiser of the year, and we are hoping to raise $1200.00 from the car wash so we will have all of the

money as a grand total of $8500.00.

We have had a blast with this. I think that all of the intermediate students have really taken a huge step into reality. Mr.Smith a former "school builder" in a Uganda, a developing country in Africa, came into talk to us and presented a movie of how hard and how long it takes to build these schools. They have to make there own bricks and make the school all by hand. He says, "a school gives a village in an poorly developed and impov-erished country something to help build literacy skills and general education and something to be responsible for."

ceremony. Alex was awarded a first place in the Junior Art cate-gory with her painting Hope and Love, and Sara was awarded a third place in the Intermediate Art category with her painting Work Will Set You Free. It was an hon-our to be invited by these students to attend such a major awards ceremony, where we were treated to a tour of the Holocaust Educa-tion Center, a buffet dinner and were able to meet Mr. Elly Goetz,

a Holocaust Survivor. The girls have had their art work recognized provincially, which is an amazing achievement. Alex's first prize consisted of a $300 Ontario Sav-ings Bond and Sarah's third prize was a $100 Ontario Savings Bond.

Thank you to the Read and the Ayton family for including me in your spectacular celebration of these achievements. I am so proud of Alex and Sarah.

In January Alex A. (Gr. 7) and Sarah R. (Gr. 8) entered the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre's Art and Liter-ary contest. Alex entered in the grade 6 and 7 Junior category and Sarah entered the grade 7 and 8 Intermediate category. Both cre-ated acrylic paintings on the sub-ject We Who Survived. On Thurs-day, June 17th, Alex and Sarah and their families and I traveled to Toronto to attend the Awards

Quaker Road Students Honoured in Provincial Contest By Mrs. Gracey

Time, Effort and Dedication is What it Takes to Build a School. By Brittany V.

Children under the age of 9 years old just can’t cross the street safely alone. Think about all the things you need to do before you cross the street. You think about the speed of cars, how far away is the other side of the road, how fast you can walk or run across, traffic signs and lights, different sounds, and the rules of the road. We do a lot when we stop, look, and listen. This is all too much for children to think about all at once. They do not have the skills to put all the pieces together and make a safe decision.

That is why children need to be told when it is safe to cross. Hold their hands outside. Remind them to stop, look and listen for danger every time you cross a street or walk in a parking lot.

STOP LOOK LISTEN TOGETHER!

Crossing the Street (Pedestrian Safety)

Teaching our Students to THINK when Using the Web for Research Handouts provided by K. Diiorio at the “Passport to Technology” Information Night

It is essential that students learn how to validate the information. The Internet is a place where you can find “proof” of essentially any belief that you can imagine. And for too many students, “if it is on the Internet, it is true.”.

The following story is also true. From Teaching Zack to Think at www.novemberlearning.com

Fourteen year old: “I’m working on a history paper about how the Holocaust never happened.”

Long pause. “Zack, where did you hear that the Holocaust didn’t happen?”

“The Internet. It’s on a webpage at Northwestern University.”

A Few Tip for Ensuring Websites are Valid for Research

Finding the author of a website - http://easywhois.com and enter the URL of the website

Understanding the meaning of the URL of a Website:

.com = commercial, most widely used extension and historically represented business

.net = network, used by Internet Service Providers or other web services

.org = organization, used by non-profit organizations (still doesn’t mean it’s always safe)

.ca = Canada, indicates that the website is registered in Canada

.gov = government agency

.edu = higher education

~ or % = indicates a personal website

Determine the website’s context by finding those who link to it - http://www.altavista.com and type link:URL of website

Find the history of the website - The Wayback Machine at http://www.archive.org has cached websites from the past 15 years.

Alternative Research Sites:

Gale Gengage Databases - Kids InfoBits and Junior Edition K-12 (bottom of the page)

http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/ko_k12elm_d21 Password = trillium

EBSCO Research Databases - Canadian Points of View, Auto Repair Reference Centre

http://search.ebscohost.com/ UserID: dsbn Password ebsco

Grolier Online and Grolier Online Kids

http://go-passport.grolier.com/ Username: dsbniag Password: dsbn3401

333 Quaker Road, Welland, ON 905-732-5412

qrd@dsbn.edu.on.ca

QUAKER ROAD PUBLIC

SCHOOL

J. Romano - Principal H. Nunnenmacher - Vice Principal

M. Comfort - Secretary D. McLachlan - Secretary S. Greer - Superintendent

L. Lemlin - Trustee

Check out our website at www.dsbn.edu.on.ca/schools/quakerroad Make our website your homepage!! From Internet Explorer, click on Tools. Then select Internet Options. In the Home Page field type in our website and click apply. Now whenever you log into Internet Explorer you will be able to see updates right away.

Do You Have a Child Be-tween the Ages of 4 and 6?

If so, please take a moment to en-sure that your child’s immunizations are up-to-date and that he/she has received a:

• booster dose of diphtheria, per-tussis, tetanus and polio (DPTP/Quadracel) between the ages of 4 and 6; and, second dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

If your child has not yet received these vaccines, he/she can be im-munized free of charge at:

• One of our regular immuniza-tion clinics. Please call 905-688-8248 or 1-888-505-6074 ext. 7425 for more information and/or to schedule an appointment. OR Spe-cial ‘catch-up’ immunization clinics are also held across the Niagara region in late August, specifically for children and teens (4 to 18 years of age) that need to get caught up on their immunizations prior to school starting. Visit www.niagararegion.ca for a copy of this schedule.

You can also call your child’s doctor to make an immunization appoint-ment or visit a local walk-in clinic.

Once your child has received his/her immunization(s), please report this information to Niagara Region Public Health using ONE of the fol-lowing:

INTERNET: www.niagararegion.ca

TELEPHONE (Immunization Re-port Line) : 905-688-8248 or 1-888-505-6074 ext. 7459

FAX (a copy of your child’s Im-munization Record) :905-688-8225

If you are a parent/guardian not wishing to immunize your child, you will need to provide Niagara Region Public Health with a legal exemp-tion document (i.e., a statement of medical exemption, or a statement of conscience or religious belief affidavit).

STUDENT TRANSPORTATION FOR SEPTEMBER 2010

Niagara Student Transportation Services (NSTS) is a consortium between the District School Board of Niagara and the Niagara Catholic District School Board. The mandate of NSTS is to plan and manage transportation services for both Boards and to provide safe, efficient and effective trans-portation to the students of Niagara.

NSTS is open all summer planning the 2010-11 transportation routes. You can find bus stop locations and times on our website after August 16 for the 2010-11 school year. You will need your Ontario Education Number (OEN) which is located on your report card to log-on to our secure website. If you have any question, please call us at (905) 346-0290.

FIRST RIDER PROGRAM

The First Rider Program has been designed for very young first time school bus riders. This fun learning experience helps children answer questions and calm concerns about riding the bus to school.

Take advantage of this opportunity that will allow your child to ride the school bus with confidence and teach important school bus safety tips. Please reserve your spot at one of the following First Rider sessions by con-tact the bus operator hosting the session.

Pen Centre August 27 & 28 First Student Canada (905) 688-9600

Seaway Mall August 21 First Student Canada (905) 735-5944

Your child will have an opportunity to practice getting on and off the bus, as well as take a ride on the bus!