Windsor School News June 2015

Principal’s Message: This school year has flown by quickly. In reflecting back on the school year many highlights come to mind, including the Energy

106 Dance Party, Winter Concert, Guest Readers, Sporting activities, Grade 4/5 “Factory Girl” Play, Wacky Wednesdays, Painted

Lady Butterflies, the Hoop Dancer, to name a few activities. The last few weeks of school will be very busy. There are many

school field trips planned, Grade 7/8’s have “Life Days” as well as Art, Band and Guitar show. Bump-up Day is scheduled for June

23rd at 9:45. Report cards will be sent home on June 29th. Students will be dismissed at 2:15 on the last day of school, Tuesday,

June 30th.

Our staffing picture has been settled with the following list of staff:

Kindergarten: Mrs. Carol Drosdowech

Grade 1: Mrs. Shelly McKay

Grade 2/3: Mrs. Charlene Donato/Mrs. Joyce Leganchuk

Grade 3/4: Mrs. Sally Robin

Grade 4/5: Mr. Geoff Nuytten

Grade 5/6: Mme. Colleen Neil

Grade 7/8: Mr. Chris Arnold

Grade 7/8: Mr. Greg Priddle/Mr. Darren Loney

Physical Education: Mrs. Kelly Bale

Music Teacher: Mrs. Jen Braun

Band & Guitar Teacher: Mr. Stephen Kay

Literacy Teacher: Mrs. Joyce Leganchuk

Student Services Teachers: Mme. Danelle Bradshaw and Mr. Greg Priddle

Library Assistant: Mrs. Colleen Fowler

Educational Assistants: Mrs. Debra Toews, Mr. Jan Mulder, Mr. Lawrence Reevie, Mrs. Monique Korsch, Mrs. Kim Malo,

Mrs. Cara Velnes, Mr. Dan Kamenicky

Secretarial Staff: Mrs. Lori Grapentine and Mrs. Leecole Chapman

Custodial Staff: Mr. Tim Wishnicki, Mrs. Sylvia Corrigal, Mrs. Theresa Laws

Principal: Mr. Ken Bartel

We want to thank our term Educational Assistants that have helped out so much this year. We wish Ms Tara Best and Mrs. Connie

Sawatzky all the best in the future. Both have contributed positively to our school and we thank them for their dedicated service to

our students and community. Ms Best will be placed in another school in the division, due to surplus Educational Assistants, while

Mrs. Sawatzky’s term has ended.

We will be holding Opening Day Conferences on September 8th and 9th. Conferences will be 20 minutes long and will be sched-

uled for Tuesday afternoon and evening, September 8th, and Wednesday afternoon, September 9th beginning at 1 p.m. Conferences

will give parents and students a chance to meet with their teacher, visit the classroom and bring their supplies. Appointments can

be booked on the Conference Manager found on the School webpage. Classes will begin Thursday, September 10 th.

Personally, I would like to thank students, parents, staff and the community for a great first year at Windsor School. Windsor

School represents a wonderful community that definitely demonstrates an attitude of caring. I look forward to September and the

start of another school year.

As a staff, we would like to wish students and parents a relaxing and safe summer holiday!

Inside this Issue

Kindergarten News 2 Gr. 1/2 News 3 Gr. 2/3 News 4&5 Gr. 3 News 6&7 Gr. 4/5 News 8&9 Gr. 5/6 News 10 GR. 7/8 News 11

Happenings in the Art Room 12&13 Physical Education 14 Patrol News 14 Library News 15 Call to report absence 16 Windsor Website & Twitter 16 LRSD News 17&18

MEMORIES IN THE MAKING

The farm field trip is a bit of a kindergarten tradition. Each June we board the school bus hoping for good

weather and a bit of old fashioned farm fun. This year was no different. Our farm trip began in the morning when

18 kindergartens, 10 parents and 1 teacher (myself) were getting ready to leave. Just before lining up for the bus

one little girl told me she had been waiting for this day her entire life! How sweet I thought, yet a small part of me

worried she may have set her expectations too high.

The bus ride went smoothly. For the first time in years we got there on time and without getting lost. We de-

scended off the bus and were told straight away that many of the farm activities were closed down earlier this week.

Priding myself on being a person who can go with the flow, I remained positive we would enjoy our day. The sun

was shinning and there was a cool breeze and a few clouds to give us relief.

We started at the lasso station. Each student got a chance to lasso a bull, but not before the farmer demonstrat-

ed how to lasso and hogtie a “volunteer” from our group. I am sure at that point Grace Brown’s dad was relieved

that Madden’s uncle had joined us for the trip.

Next up, the bunny station. It was very exciting as we got to pet and feed the bunnies. It was during this sta-

tion that we started hearing the cries of hunger. This is kindergarten remember and we had missed our morning

snack time. Worried that one of my students wouldn’t make it to lunch I took out my emergency granola bar. Un-

fortunately it wasn’t chocolate covered so it was quickly refused.

The cries for food intensified and I assured the children we had only one more station before lunch: The Nutri-

tion Station. I wondered if maybe they’d serve us a healthy farm snack. No such luck, though we did enjoy a half an

hour of sorting different grains and learning about different types of feed for the animals.

Finally it was time for lunch at the picnic tables. They were full so we enjoyed our lunch in the cool of the

shade, on the soft grass eating healthy lunches from home. It was a peaceful, picnic style, family lunch.

After eating we got to visit the petting zoo. The petting zoo is what we really come for and the children were

thrilled to pet the pigs, goats, sheep, ponies and a baby bull. Even better for some was seeing the animals go to the

bathroom! It just doesn’t get funnier than that for some young ones.

It was getting hotter and hotter and we were getting tired. We carried on because the chicken station was next

and seeing chicks and hens is part of a real farm experience. By this time it was hard for all of us to pay attention to

the long talk on the physiology of chicks and hens, especially when the teacher (myself) is squealing with delight

over the herd of deer she just saw running by. My apologies.

At this point we were more than ready to wrap things up. One student wasn’t even going to make it to the bus

ride home before falling asleep! We opted to forgo the junior farmer station and ended with a short walk to see the

deer in the meadow. They were beautiful and the children were thrilled when they came right up to us to eat.

At long last it was time to go back on the bus and head for home. Considering that some were ready to go

back to the city just after ten, I am proud that we made it though a day at the farm. All in all, it wasn’t the best farm

trip we have been on but it probably won’t be my last. Depending on when I retire I could have between 10 and 20

more to go! (Jude’s mom who has been on 7 farm trips may have just enjoyed her last.)

In a way it was a like a big family road trip. Full of ups and downs but an adventure none the same. We got

too hot, the bathrooms weren’t what we are used to at home and the some of the main attractions were closed. Yet it

was fun because we were together and we kept our sense of humour and adventure alive. And like all family trips

only two questions count in the end. One, did you return with as many children as you left with, and two, did you

avoid a trip to the hospital? By these measures it was another successful kindergarten trip to the farm. Thank you to

all the parents for being there with me. It wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun

without you.

Happy Trails and Happy Summer,

Carol Drosdowech

Wow, it’s June already… Where has the time gone? We are busy

these days in room 5 finishing up a few projects. Our grass head

growing experiment was a success! We had a lot fun with planting,

observing, trimming and measuring how fast they grew. Hope you had

a chance to take a peek at your child’s grass journal. We have read

the Diary of a Worm, Diary of a Spider and Diary of a fly. Now we

are doing some of our own creative writing, making our own animal di-

aries. We hope you will enjoy reading them when they come home

later this month! We are learning all about 2-D and 3-D shapes in

Math. I just wanted to take this opportunity to let you know how

much I have enjoyed teaching your children this year. Watching

them grow and learn has been a great journey. Have a fun, safe and

restful summer!

ELA:

We have researched countries like Egypt, Philippines, Brazil, Mexico and China.

There are a lot of countries that my classmates have studied. There are a lot of cool

stuff my classmates found like when people open the coffin of King Tut, then King

Tut will grab you and pull you into the coffin. In Egypt people called that the

Mummy’s Curse.—Connor

In ELA we have spelling tests and we get corrected.—David

Social Studies:

We are learning about Ancient Egypt. We know why the pyra-

mids are a perfect triangle and here’s why- so they can communi-

cate with their Gods and Goddesses. They respected a lot of Gods

and Goddesses. Some of the Gods are:

The sun god, the sky god, the god of family and the god of chil-

dren. They used papyrus to make paper. The mummification pro-

cess was fascinating!—Helen & Tatyana

We have been doing Treaty Education. A treaty is a promise to be

kind to each other. We are all Treaty people.—Connor

Art:

We have been studying Ancient Egypt. We learned about King Tut’s Death Mask

and colored a picture.—Rain

We are studying about Ancient Egypt. We made a Death Mask to go with it. We

got a coloring page with King Tut’s face.

Health:

My classmates have met two people and their names are Andrea and Darlene. They

taught us all about Courage and Respect.—Connor & Mathew

We have been working on Dental Health. We have made a toy mouth. We did dental

worksheets. Brush your teeth twice a day!—Jack

We have been working on Dental Health. We did dental worksheets. See the den-

tist every year!--Payton

Math:

We have been learning about multiplication in the morning with Mrs. Donato. She told

us that when you are doing multiplication, you split the numbers into groups and add

them up.—Hailey

We were learning about multiplication. It was hard at first and then it was easy. We

were learning lots of math like adding, subtracting and multiplication. It was fun learn-

ing lots of math. – Judiya

In the morning we study measurement on the mimeo in the math sentence. We measure

watches, cars, and more on the mimeo.—Toby

In Math we have been problem solving with 2 and 3 digits. In Math we

have been working on telling the time with worksheets and riddles.—

David

We have been doing something called math centres. We have switched

them a couple of times. One is Bingo.—Roan

Science:

We watched the caterpillars grow to be butterflies. The stages are: an

egg, then a caterpillar, the chrysalis and then the butterfly.—Rhyder

We watched the chrysalis open and turn into a butterfly. We were re-

searching about the egg to the butterfly. –Katherine

We were doing a picture of a sky scraper with our “one of a kind”

teacher’s helper- Miss Smythe.—Fiona

Our teacher helped us with symmetry and we did it on our skyscrap-

er.—Genevieve

Jackson and I made a structure called the “Haunted Golf Course” and

it sure was hard to make.—Ben

My class made Golf Courses—for example- Toby and Jack made a

castle, it was kind of tricky. Then we had Payton and Connor make a

fun one.—Jackson

Tadpoles to Frogs

We got the frog eggs from Luke’s pond. When we got them

there was like two thousand eggs. The eggs looked like little ti-

ny drops with black circles on the inside. Soon the eggs started

hatching.

The tadpoles eat boiled lettuce and spinach and sometimes other

tadpoles. We have exactly nine tadpoles now. We gave the oth-

ers back to Luke and Mrs. Best. Tadpoles get really big. If we

kept them all it would have been too crowded. A few people are

taking tadpoles home at the end of the year. Frogs are amphibi-

ans they can live in water and on land.

By Taylor, Noah, Morgan, Luke, Asher and Skyler

In Math we are learning about fractions. We made pictures out of fraction

circles. The denominator is the bottom number of a fraction. A denomi-

nator tells the number of parts the whole thing is divided into. The purple

pieces in my picture are fifths. I used 3/5 of a whole piece.

In Taylor’s fish the pink pieces are tenths, the

blue piece is a fourth and the green is a half.

Non-Fiction Books

We have been learning about non-fiction books. Non-fiction means it is true. Fiction

means it is made up. Here are some facts. Some snakes lay eggs. Some give birth to live

little snakes. Some snakes live on dry land and some swim in oceans.

There is a frog that communicates by dancing. It lives near waterfalls and its sounds would

not be heard by other frogs.

A magma chamber is like a room filled with melted

rock.

By Nicholas, Noah, Dante and Donya

Manitoba Museum When the grade threes went to the museum they learned about Ancient Egypt. Gracie and Aubree were mummified. First classmates took out their organs and put them into canopic jars. To get the brain out the Ancient Egyptians had to chisel away a bone and then use a hook to break up the brain then turn the body over to let the brain pour out. The Ancient Egyptians thought the brain was useless. We also mummified carrots. We first dipped the carrot in the Nile River water. Then we rolled it in natron, which is a special type of salt that would dry the body out. Then we wrapped it in linen. We added glue to represent resin. The last step was to roll the carrot in cinnamon to make it smell nice and then we wrapped it again. In a week we will make coffins for our mummified carrots. We saw a small shaduf that was used to get water from the Nile River. We went to the Nonsuch which is a boat. It was copied from an actual boat. It smelled really old.

By: Olivia, Gracie, Cassidy, Caylee, Kaleigh and Cait

Our school went to Winnipeg Harvest and changed people’s lives.

We got to do fun stuff

Grade 4/5 Newsletter

We got to make a pretend buffalo hunt.

Talent show - lots of us are in it!

Oak Hammock Marsh – a great field trip.

I movie - we made iMoviesthis year.

Clouds – we studied them in Science

Metis people and Louis Riel –was he a hero or a traitor?

paper mache – messy fun!

Weather – we studied this in Science.

The End- by Minseup and Hannah

Science/Art In Art, we made coil pots, glazed and painted them. We also made teepees on huge can-

vases to present as gifts to the younger classrooms. In Science, we studied electricity and

weather.

SS/ELA In Mr. Arnold’s ELA writer’s class we have been working on creating our own maga-

zines. In social studies and ELA with Mme Neil, we have been working on centres about

Aboriginal communities, we play and design a game that teaches a skill, make music,

and create artifacts that represent the community our group chose. We also wrote poems

about rivers in Canada.

Phys. Ed In Phys. Ed we’ve been doing warm ups, playing soccer, playing games on Friday or

Thursday, and we also had a soccer baseball games with grades 4 to 8. At the beginning

of June we went to Glenwood School for an afternoon of field events, we played ulti-

mate Frisbee, handball, soccer, and soccer baseball.

Math The Grade 5/6 class has been working on fractions, angles, triangles, and measurements.

We learned how to use a protractor. We have just finished conditioning, which is where

Mme. Neil says a series of math questions that the students then have to write down the

answer before 4 seconds is over. It helps us with our basic facts in multiplication and di-

vision.

Current and Past Events Our class is very excited for end of the year. We will soon be heading to Camp Douglas

where we will zip line, do high ropes, archery and go in the outdoor pool. All the grade 5

and 6 patrols went to Fun Mountain on Wednesday for a fun day and to thank us for all

of our hard work. We are running the early year’s field day on June 29th. On the last day

of school, we are walking to BDI for a treat!

Written by many grade 5/6 students and edited by

Mme Neil

Grade 7/8 News

Happenings in the Art Room

Happenings in the Art Room

Physical Education:

Recently just wrapped up track and field season here at Windsor School. I

personally would like to thank all 23 student athletes for participating and

competing in several meets. Windsor finished 3rd in the team event and

sent 9 athletes to the provincial championships.

Reminder to all grade 7/8 students that participated in volleyball or bas-

ketball to please bring back their Windsor jerseys.

Mr. Sung

Patrol News:

Thank you to all of our patrols who have consistently demonstrated their

reliability and responsibility in helping Windsor students cross the streets

safely. Our grade 5 & 6 2014-15 patrols went to Fun Mountain on

Wednesday, June 17th. The Grade 4’s had a pizza party on June 12th. A

big thanks to our school and our Home and School Association and for

covering the cost these events.

This year’s dedicated patrols have been: From Grade 6: Alex, Bronwyn,

Shaun, Claire, JD, Marcel, Jade, Abby, Erik, Stephanie, Ethan, Emma,

Kate, Bryn, & Steven. From Grade 5: Dominic, Lucas G., Thea, Brook-

lyn, Tommy, Erika, Cameron, Jackson, Jillian, Tava, & Lucas S. From

Grade 4: Maddie, Victor, Maddox, Liv, Max, Cara, William, & Hannah.

Windsor School Library

Happy Summer Reading

Even though our school library will close for the summer months, students can continue to find great reading materials at their local public library. Keeping reading in the forefront over the summer is one of the best ways in which children can improve their reading skills and return to school with increased confidence. Summer reading programs have actually been in existence for well over a hundred years. These programs began as a means of encouraging children to retain and prac-tice their reading skills during the summer months. By making use of the public li-brary over the summer, children can continue to make reading for pleasure and for information a habit, rather than as an activity that takes place only during the school year. Research has confirmed that students can experience a significant learning loss (sometimes referred to as the “summer slide”) over the summer months, partic-ularly in the area of reading. Studies have also shown that students who participate in summer reading programs are more likely to retain their reading skills over the summer months. By keeping children active and engaged in reading, summer read-ing programs can contribute to a child’s literacy development and in turn, foster a lifelong love of reading and learning. Public libraries across Canada offer a variety of free programs to encourage stu-dents to continue reading over July and August. Summer reading clubs have be-come popular with children because the programs often include reading-related ac-tivities such as storytelling, games, crafts, reading challenges, contests, and special guest readers. Once again this summer, public libraries in Winnipeg will offer the TD Summer Reading Club. Registration begins on Monday, June 22nd and the club runs until Friday, August 21st, 2015. More information on the TD Summer Reading Club is available online at http://www.tdsummerreadingclub.ca/ or at any Winni-peg Public Library branch. Happy summer reading!

Call to Report Absence

Please call the office @ (204) 237-4057 to notify us of your child’s absence. A message can be left on the school answering machine at any time. Your help with this important process eliminates time spent communicating redundant information and expending unwarranted concern regarding your child’s whereabouts.

Did you know Windsor School is

on Twitter? Please follow

us @windsorLRSD for

what’s happening at Wind-

sor School!

You can also find out what is happening at Windsor

School by checking out our new website! Please go

to www.lrsd.net and find Windsor School in the

community of schools.

Changes to Windsor School for September There will be several changes to Windsor School by the time students return back to

school in September. One of the changes that is happening is that our students will be wel-

coming Grade 8 students that are part of the Manitoba Soccer Association’s National Devel-

opment Centre (NDC). This is a program that currently is in Glenlawn Collegiate and for

next year will be part of Windsor School. At this time there are eight students registered for

the next school year.

Also there will be some physical changes to Windsor starting in June and continuing un-

til the end of August. In June you will see that old hallway bulletin boards will be taken

down from the wall in the Kindergarten to Grade 5/6 hallways. Painting and wall repair will

occur as well as new bulletin boards being put up. If you have been in the office area, you

will have seen that the office had a partial make-over during Winter Break. This will be com-

pleted in July, allowing our secretaries to have new shelving units. In Room 7, there will be

new flooring being put in. Finally the gymnasium will look different in September as the

foam that is on the ceiling and duct work will be scraped off and then painted.

HOST AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT

The International Student Program is accepting applications for

homestay families for our international students. Families are com-

pensated per month while hosting a student.

If you are considering hosting and international student and would

like more information, please call the Homestay Coordinator, Eve-

lyn Sieben. Please reach her at 204-223-0674 to discuss further de-

tails. You can also send your questions or application request by

email to evelyn.sieben@lrsd.net to see how this program could fit

with your family.