Topics covered in this post:
Curriculum Night
Activities for Healthy Children Required to Stay Home for a Short Period
COVID Assessment Centre Link
Orange Shirt Day Assembly
PA Fees & Donations
Parent Education
Friday Parent "Information Post" Talks
Upcoming October Events
1. Curriculum Night - Wednesday, October 7, 6:00-7:30pm
A. Why Curriculum Night?
Curriculum Night is the most important parent education event of the year and we expect that all parents will participate. This is your opportunity to learn about what your child’s class will be experiencing and accomplishing this year. Questions you may have about what is taught and how we teach will be addressed. Although it is not an interview about your child (Parent/Teacher Interviews will take place on November 18 & 25), Curriculum Night gives you the fullest picture of the year your child is in, the teachers your child is with, and the expectations and plans for learning at your child's grade level.
B. What is the schedule of the evening?
Curriculum Night 2020, will be on zoom. On Monday, we will email you zoom links to the individual Grade Teams presentations.
6:00 (sharp) - 6:45 (sharp) Separate Curriculum Presentations for Nursery, JK, SK, Gr 1, Gr 2, Gr 3, Gr 4, Gr 5, Gr 6 (zoom links will be provided)
6:45 - 7:30 ALL PARENTS, GRADE TEACHERS, SPECIALTY TEACHERS AND ADMIN: Welcome, Introductions and COVID protocol updates (zoom link will be provided)
C. How will we learn about French, Drama, Special Ed, and Music?
Each specialty teacher has produced an information package about their specialty subject, describing the program for 2020-2021. A link to these documents will be shared on Monday (along with the Curriculum Night zoom links).
2. Activities for Healthy Children Required to Stay Home for a Short Period
We know that the ever-changing landscape of COVID-19 and the resulting practices to ensure community safety to the best of our ability mean that sometimes students who feel healthy may be spending some time at home.
We have collected resources, activities, videos and apps for parents to use with their child/ren while away from school. It is recommended that parents review the various sites and choose what is a good fit for your child. (The division categories below are suggestions, please feel free to choose activities beyond those in your child’s grade division.) The activities require parent set up and are not simply “one-click” for independent use by young children. Be mindful that students do best with many movement breaks; please plan your child’s schedule for the day accordingly.
Find resources here.
For unwell children, we hope they are not engaging in online activities but getting plenty of helpful rest so that they can get better soon.
Students who are required to isolate at home due to COVID for an extended period of time (14 days) will be provided a blended model of instruction set up by the grade teachers and administration.
3. COVID Assessment Centre Link
Yesterday, we sent an important email entitled “COVID-19 Information Update”. We understand that the wait times at COVID assessment centres can be long. Here is a helpful link to “live crowd-sourced wait times from fellow Torontonians in line” at the various centres to help determine your location choices: https://covidwaits.com Thank you, on behalf of everyone in the JICS community, for taking the necessary steps when your child or household member has a COVID symptom.
4. Orange Shirt Day Assembly
Each year, on September 30th, people wear bright orange shirts to respectfully commemorate our collective sadness about the reality of residential schools in Canada, to honour the survivors and their families, and to demonstrate a deep commitment to reconciliation.
This year we held an assembly to acknowledge Orange Shirt Day. Each grade was in their own classroom, outside on the playground, or in front of the school, while using zoom technology to bring us together.
We invited drummer Gabe Gaudet to join us. Gabe is the son of drummer Jimmy Dick and he shared with us with a beautiful Cree song to ignite our hearts and open our minds to the day. We also invited Doug Anderson to speak to us on Orange Shirt Day. Doug is parent of Nigel in Grade 6, author of the Indigenous lens in the second edition of Natural Curiosity: A Resource for Educators, and a wonderful Indigenous scholar and educator who has been teaching of our all students outside in the land over the last few years, both on our campus and by the Humber River. Doug’s message to the students and staff was powerful and inspiring: We are in a story that will be told 1000 years from now. What do you want the story to tell about you?
To view this very special assembly, please click on the link in the Weekly Post email.
Thank you to Krista for her leadership and to the assembly committee and technology team who made this assembly possible, including Nick, Tory, Suzanne, and all the teachers. Each grade continued to explore Orange Shirt Day following the assembly in developmentally appropriate ways by reading stories, sharing media, and having discussions together.
5. PA Fees and Donations
This is a gentle reminder to those who have not done so already to please pay your PA fees and donations here. These fees go a long way to support the school. Here are a few examples of how PA funds are used to build our community:
Lice screening (3x per year)
Parent Education events
Social Worker position
6. Parent Education
JICS Lab School Parenting Series
with Social Worker Ellie Lathrop
We all need community and now more than ever.We would like to invite parents and families to join us this academic year for a series of parenting workshops designed to spark discussion, share information and provide helpful strategies.Our first talk is on Sleep, the foundation for family wellbeing.
This will be a lunchtime chat held on October 27at 12:30pm. More information about how to join this conversation coming soon.
Psychology Foundation Webinar
The Psychology Foundation of Canada presents: The Struggle to Juggle: Working Parents Pandemic Survival Guide with expert panelist, Dr. Rebecca Pillai Riddell (registered clinical psychologist and scientist) on October 7 at 12:00pm.
DESCRIPTION: The pandemic has forced parents to juggle so many more balls in the air just to even attempt to live the ‘new’ normal. Who’d of thunk instead of love letters and chocolates, Lysol wipes are the new most coveted gifts for the busy mom or dad? While this workshop will not give working parents the secret to cloning themselves, it will give them tips to help think and act more strategically based on decades of scientific evidence on how to cope with stress.
7. Friday Parent Information Post Talks
Beginning tomorrow, each Friday at 9:30-10:00am, parents will have an opportunity to connect live with Richard and/or Chriss regarding the information provided in the Thursday Parent Information Post, to ask any other questions parents may have or simply to chat without masks! Please archive the zoom link and password sent in the Weekly Post email for future reference.
We understand that the pandemic and the safety measures we have in place have made access to information and to each other challenging. We miss you and invite suggestions and feedback.
8. Upcoming October Events
Wed 7 – Curriculum Night 6:00pm (zoom links emailed Monday)
Mon 12 – Thanksgiving. School and Daycare closed.
Tues 13 – Gr 6 and Gr 5 Parents Zoom Meeting “Transition to Grade 7” 6:00pm (details emailed)
Mon 19 – Daycare Board Meeting
Tues 20 – Parents’ Association Meeting (TBC)
Tues 27 – Parenting Series on Sleep at 12:30pm
Fri 30 – Halloween (details coming soon)
