Year at a Glance, Label It, Punctuality

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Supporting Mathematics at Home

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Monthly Wellness Tips from our Partners at the Regional Municipality of York

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November 2019

Dr. M. Richmon Principal

Ms. R. Yeates Administrative Assistant

Ms. F. Iacovetta Secretary

Phone: 905-889-2448 Fax: 905-889-2578

BGPS Blog: www.bayviewglenps.com

Instagram & Twitter: @bayviewglenps1

Mr. B. Barrett Lead Caretaker

Mr. J. Somerville Caretaker

Mr. David Sherman Trustee

Ms. G. Gibbons Superintendent CEC West

905-764-6830

Ms. V. Kladis and Ms. M. Langer

2019- 2020 School Council Co-chairs

Inside This Issue…..

YORK REGION DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD

October has been a busy month, with many seasonal events and some spe-cial enhancements. October saw Bayview Glen P.S. host guests from both Markham Fire and the York Re-gional Police, along with some outdoor learning on ‘Take Me Outside Day’. Our Student Leadership Team also convened in October and they planned for Spirit Days throughout the year—including a Rainbow Day, Pajama Day, Sports Team Day and Star Wars Day. (Details will be shared as each day ap-proaches.) We look forward to keeping Bayview Glen a great place to teach and learn, where everyone matters and belongs! Well done, student leaders —and there’s lots more to come!

Not surprisingly, November looks no less busy, with a number of events ahead including launching a new well-being initiative, Fall dance with Bounce Entertainment, a food drive in support of the larger community, and a Remem-brance Day assembly. Bayview Glen has also secured a second grant to support our school nutrition program, so we will be looking to expand our ef-forts and consistently make two food groups of healthy snacks available to

our students. Details about many of these events will be shared on our school blog at www.bayviewglenps.com so be sure you’re a subscriber. And if you’re al-ready online, please be sure to follow the school on Instagram and Twitter, as well @bayviewglenps1. Many ‘smaller’ but worthwhile school happen-ings are shared with our community on Instagram and Twitter throughout the year.

This month parents will also receive Progress Reports in which teachers will report on learning skills and academic subjects such as language and math, but instead of assigning a mark or grade as found in the Report Card, they will indicate how well your child is progressing: ‘very well’, ‘well’ or ‘with difficulty’, as well as highlighting strengths and areas to improve before evaluations are completed. Through these reports, and the subsequent Par-ent-Teacher interviews, we hope to encourage early and ongoing commu-nication between you and your child's teacher(s).

We’re looking forward to a wonderful November!

Progress reports will be sent home on Wednesday, November 13th, 2019. Par-ent-teacher interviews will be held on Thursday, November 14th (in the evening) and on the morning of the P.A. Day, Friday, November 15th. We look forward to seeing all of our parents and guardians. This year we will once again be using Edsby to book parent-teacher interviews. The Parent-Teacher interview schedule will open for bookings on November 4th at 10:00 a.m. For help with using Edsby, please visit https://www.edsby.com/help/parents/. The ultimate goal of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning. To better understanding the Progress Report (or subsequent Term 1 or Term 2 Report Cards) please don’t hesitate to speak to your child’s teacher(s). As well, please visit the Ministry of Education’s website to learn more about how to ‘Support your Child's Learning through Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting’ at http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/reportCard.html.

Progress Reports & Parent Teacher Interviews

Administrator’s Message

Bayview Glen P.S. Page 2

Year at a Glance Nov 8, 2019—Fall Dance Nov 15, 2019—P.A. Day Nov 19—Spirit Day (Details TBA) Nov 23, 2019—Breakfast and a Movie Event Nov 28, 2019—School Council Meeting 7 p.m. December 19, 2019—Spirit Day (Details TBA) Dec 23, 2019-Jan 3, 2020—Winter Break Jan 17, 2020—P.A. Day Jan 20, 2020—School Council Meeting 7 p.m. Jan 31, 2020—P.A. Day Feb 17, 2020—Family Day Feb 21, 2020—Winter Wonderland Feb 27, 2020—School Council Meeting 7 p.m. Mar 16, 2020-Mar 20, 2020—March Break Mar 26, 2020—School Council Meeting 7 p.m. April 10, 2020—Good Friday April 13, 2020—Easter Monday April 30, 2020—School Council Meeting 7 p.m. May 18, 2020—Victoria Day May 28, 2020—School Council Meeting 7 p.m. June 1, 2020—P.A. Day June 11, 2020—Fun Fair Event June 26, 2020—P.A. Day

The most comprehensive and up-to-date list of im-portant dates is maintained on the Bayview Glen P.S. Blog. It can be found on the right side-bar widget of the web-site.

Let’s Be Proactive: Label It!

As the weather gets colder, students will start coming to school with the expected seasonal clothing including hats, mittens, scarves and boots. And each winter, we collect mounds of clothing items we dutifully try to return to their rightful owners, but still end up bundling up clothes for donation after they go unclaimed for an extended period. The easiest way for us to ensure students’ personal belongings are returned to them is to make sure that everything is labeled! Please look to include your child’s name on any items of clothing they bring to school, and we’ll do our best to ensure any misplaced clothing finds it way back to its owner.

Punctuality While most routines are now well-established in the school, we are beginning to have some difficulties with students arriving late, and in some cases, chronically late. Please be advised that all students need to be on time for the start of the each school day. We do our best work as a school when stu-dents are present, and late arrivals not only miss out on classroom instruc-tion, they often interrupt lessons underway. Along with this we have students who are arriving at the school prior to our supervision schedule starting. Stu-dents should not arrive at school before 8:15 a.m. as staff are not on duty and there is no supervision.

Punctuality is an important life skill, and in collaboration with you, we can cul-tivate this good habit amongst all our students.

Bayview Glen P.S. Page 3

When we support our children with math, we tend to focus on helping them with specific con-tent areas - for example knowing their facts, measuring distances, how to calculate volume - but did you know that there are other ways we can support them in math? Recent research suggests that executive function skills play a critical role in the development of mathematical proficiency and by helping our children develop these skills, we will help them improve their math.

Executive function skills are a set of cognitive skills that help us manage behaviour, pay atten-tion, remember and follow instructions and think flexibly. These executive function skills in-clude:

Planning

Organizing

Task initiation

Self-monitoring

Emotional control

Impulse control

Sustained attention

Working memory

Cognitive flexibility (ability to shift flexibly from one situation or activity or aspect of a problem to another)

Here are some ideas about how to support the development of these executive function skills at home:

When building with blocks or Lego - before building, have your child plan what pieces they are going to use, have them sort pieces based on different attributes

When starting a puzzle - ask how they plan to organize the pieces to help finish the puzzle (e.g., organize the pieces by colour, separate the border pieces from the inside pieces)

When playing, encourage your child to make comparisons, look at things from a differ-ent perspective or approach the activity in different ways

When reading a book, ask questions that will encourage your child to see things from different characters’ points of view

Practice taking turns when playing

Play games like Simon Says

Ask questions that will require your child to hold multiple pieces of information in their mind in order to get the answer

Play concentration card games

Help your child get started on tasks by asking questions

Support your child to come up with a plan on how to achieve a goal and break it down into smaller pieces

For more information about the cognitive processing areas, how they affect math learning and ways to support them, please check out: http://www.yrdsb.ca/Programs/Math/Documents/2017-Math-LearningDisabilities-Waterfall.pdf

Supporting Mathematics at Home

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Monthly Wellness Tip

IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR TO REVIEW HANDWASHING! Children share many items throughout the school day and at home including books, toys, computers, puzzles, water bottles and sports equipment. Sharing can spread germs that can cause sickness, es-pecially during cold and flu season. Correct handwashing is the best way to prevent the spread of in-fection. Follow these simple steps to help stay healthy:

Sneeze into the bend of your arm rather than into hands

Wash hands before preparing or eating food

Wash hands after using the bathroom, nose blowing, sneezing, handling garbage, touching animals, play-ing outdoors and visiting someone who is sick

Wash hands whenever they look or feel dirty.

Together we can take simple steps to help stop the spread of infection!

This material is provided by York Region Public Health. For more information, visit york.ca/infectionprevention