Topics covered in this post:
1. Midterm Holiday
Friday, February 18 and Monday, February 21
We wish everyone a well-earned mid-term holiday and Family Day.
"The Land of the Colourful Wiggly-Woos"
Izi began this project, wanting to make something with wire. Izi's first shape was named a Twisty Spinny Thingy, which evolved into a a Wiggly-Woo. Other members of the JICS GSA then joined the project, more and more were made, and the Wiggly-Woos became a big family, and Izi was inspired to put them in a park together.
Izi, Eve, Declan, Shyla, Lucas, Mae, Meredith, Noa, Ella, Caitlynn, Sofia
2. COVID-19 Update
a) Rapid Screening Program - Test Distribution
The JICS Lab School has participated in the Rapid Screening Consortium through the Creative Destruction Lab since September 2021. We have been informed that the CDL Rapid Screening Consortium will cease operations effective March 31, 2022.
Due to limited supply of tests, we have 1 box of 5 tests (BTNX Rapid Response) for each child in stock which were distributed today. Families with 2 or more children will receive the (original) Abbott Panbio kit to be shared amongst siblings.
Please continue to upload results onto Thrive each Sunday and Wednesday until the tests run out. It is not clear whether we will receive new test to carry us to March 31, however we think this is unlikely.
We want to take this opportunity to thank our school community for your support in this additional layer of protection and in the collection of informative data. The program has shown, through the sharing of de-identified data via a first-of-its-kind national platform, the value and utility of a rapid screening system and the value of a national platform for data for organizations of all types, sizes, and geographies. The federal and provincial governments have now expanded their use of RATs across the country, as well as new RAT supply prioritization.
b) JICS Daily Screening
The JICS daily is constantly updated as we receive new information from Toronto Public Health. Thank you to all families for completing this important check each morning by 8:00am! On February 11, TPH released an updated COVID-19 Screening Questionnaire for Children/Students/Adults in a JK-12 school setting. We have already updated the JICS Daily Screening form to reflect these changes.
NEW changes:
If a child has had a confirmed COVID-19 infection* in the last 90 days:
The child does NOT need to self-isolate if a household member has symptoms or tests positive
The child does NOT need to self-isolate if they are identified as a close contact of a positive case
Please note: If the child themselves has symptoms, regardless of previous COVID-19 infection, the child must self-isolate
Guidance for counting isolation days: the day symptoms start (or test date if no symptoms) is Day 0.
Being in the same classroom/school/child care cohort is NOT considered a close contact because preventive and protective measures are in place.
*A confirmed COVID-19 infection means: tested positive on a Rapid Antigen, or a PCR test
c) International Travel
Travel restrictions are set to change at 12:01am on February 28, 2022. Children who are unvaccinated will be able to attend school upon return if they travel with a vaccinated companion. This information will be reflected in our daily screening form when it comes into effect.
3. Daycare March Break Camp at JICS
The JICS Daycare is offering March Break Camp to all JICS children (Nursery to Grade 6), including children who have not previous been registered in daycare.
We have planned a wonderful week of engaging activities for the children! We will have daily arts and crafts, outdoor sports and indoor games and fun things to do.
Dates: March 21 to March 25, 2022
Times: 8:00am to 6:00pm daily
Two snacks provided, lunch from home required
Cost: $325.00
Due to safety protocols we need to have a full commitment of the week, no partial week is available. Daily screening will be required.
To register your child/ren, send an email to ics.after.school.daycare@gmail.com
Subject line: “CAMP”
4. We have a new Canadian citizen on staff!
A huge congratulations to Kenisha, JICS Nursery ECE Teacher and Daycare staff member, for officially becoming a Canadian citizen yesterday! Canada is so lucky to have such an incredible person and the JICS family is so proud.
JICS morning Daycare students welcomed Kenisha with a singing of O'Canada!
5. Mask Recycling Program
In an effort to reduce how many single-use disposable masks we send to landfills, we are excited to be participating in a mask recycling program. Our dedicated mask recycling bin can be found inside the doors at 45 Walmer and has a capacity of 1625 masks. Please feel free to drop yours off!
We can recycle:
Vitacore CAN95 and CAN99 respirators
Vitacore surgical masks
Other companies’ disposable 3-layer surgical masks, and 4- or 5-layer KN95 or N95 respirators.
More information about the program can be found here: https://www.vitacore.ca/recycling-program
6. OISE Response to Anti-Asian Incident
You may have heard in the media that last week a serious incident occurred on an OISE online platform in which members of OISE (faculty, adult students) were targeted with racially motivated anti-Asian threats. The incident was reported to the Provost’s Office, Community Safety Office, and Campus Police. Like OISE, the JICS Lab School stands in solidarity with our Asian community and we are appalled that such incidents continue to occur in our community spaces. We emphatically condemn anti-Asian discrimination and racism, and all forms of hate and racial violence. Supports are available for members of the OISE community, and we encourage anyone needing assistance to reach out to the services available at the University of Toronto: Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office
7. 100th Day of School!
Happy 100 Days in School!
We were all so excited to celebrate being in school for 100 days! Below is a note from Grade One and Grade Two about how they celebrated.
A note from Grade One:
Dear JICS Families,
Today is the 100th day of school! This is a special and exciting day. During calendar we have been counting up to 100 days! We have been preparing to celebrate and this is how we did:
In Grade One each child chose 100 items from our classroom bins and created structures out of them
We worked with a 100s chart to see our name pattern
During calendar we put a popsicle stick in bins to represent a day. Every 10 days, we bundle up the popsicle sticks and move them to the ten’s container. Today, we bundled up 10 groups of 10 and moved them into a container for 100s! Today is 1 group of 100, 0 tens, and 0 ones!
We created a sign, so others know it is the 100th day of school
Each of us brought in 100 pieces of an item and then we laid them out to see what 100 of all these different items looks like
We read books about the 100th day of school
We watched and danced to a video with different activities that we did for 100 seconds!
We drew pictures and wrote about all the different things we have done in the past 100 days
We have been learning about powerful words, so we tried to come up with 100 of them!
Dance party! It wouldn’t be a celebration without one!
We hope you can celebrate too!
Love,
The Grade One Community
A note from Grade Two:
The Grade Twos brainstormed and planned many activities for the 100th day of school. Below are all the fun and exciting activities that they did together:
Games – race to 100
Movement measurement game – what can we do in 100 seconds?
Fruit Loop patterning with 100 chart
100 words of kindfulness
Cozy day!
Morning activity with, “What would I be when I am 100 years old…”
Read books about 100 days
8. Black History Month
Each year in February, Canadians are invited to participate in Black History Month festivities and events that honour the legacy of Black Canadians, past and present.
You will have heard from your child’s classroom teacher about some of the ways we have been celebrating, and continue to learn, about Black History Month in your child’s class and specialty subjects.
We are holding a school-wide (JK to Gr 6) zoom assembly on February 22 with Krystle Dos Santos entitled: A History of Motown. Western Canadian Music Award-winning soul singer-songwriter Krystle Dos Santos and her 4-piece band will take students back in time to the peak of Motown Music from the late 1950s to 1980s. Krystle’s powerful and interactive medleys of hits by The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations and the Jackson 5 will have students and teachers singing and dancing in their seats! Students will learn interesting facts about these key artists and about the historical and significant impact that Motown music has had on contemporary soul music today. Enjoy this preview trailer. Thank you, Suzanne and Marcia for coordinating this exciting event. Thank you to the Parents’ Association Patrick Harvey Arts Fund for making this possible!
9. More about School Assemblies
At JICS, we cherish the opportunity to come together as a community to celebrate (Halloween, Festivals of Light) or to recognize important events (Orange Shirt Day, Remembrance Day, Intern’s last day, etc.). A big part of our assemblies are the songs we sing. One of our favourites is “Turn the World Around”. Norah found this wonderful 1977 version featuring the amazing Harry Belafonte & Falumi Prince - Turn the World Around, excerpt from "Harry Belafonte Live at the BCC". We hope you enjoy it with your child/ren.
10. Pink Shirt Day
Pink Shirt Day 2022 is on Wednesday, February 23rd. The day was created to mark a protest organized by two students in Nova Scotia in support of a boy who was bullied for wearing pink. At JICS, we do not want to let such a day pass without honouring it. However, the staff feels that ideas and attitudes around many issues, including those involving the colour pink, are evolving at a very fast rate, and our students are among the vanguard. Many of our younger students view and wear pink without the gendered stigma that it has had in the past. It is for this reason that we would like to reframe Pink Shirt Day 2022 as a celebration of pink as a colour of love and acceptance of all people.
We invite students to wear a pink shirt on February 23rd as an act of love and friendship.
11. Parent Education Events
February 24, 2022 | 7:00-8:00pm
The Importance of Recognizing, Treating, and Preventing Concussions in our Children with Dr. Charles Tator
Concussions are important because there are so many of them, and they all don’t get better. We are fortunate in Ontario that the Ministries of Education, Health and Sports have come together to create PPM158 in 2014 and then Rowan’s Law in 2018 to reinforce to all Ontarians that they should know something about concussions to protect themselves and their children from the ravages of concussion. In schools, this means If we are informed about concussion we can recognize when a concussion has occurred, and we can institute early, informed treatment and we can prevent some concussions from happening and prevent others from progressing to long term suffering. You probably get the picture that concussion requires a multidisciplinary team and a coming together of people from schools, homes, and physicians’ offices to deal with this problem. I will be stressing teamwork in my discussion with parents and teachers at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study Laboratory School, at OISE, U of T.
Dr. Charles Tator, Neurosurgeon
Dr. Charles Tator trained in Neurosurgery and Neuropathology and was Chair of Neurosurgery, at the University of Toronto. He was chief of Neurosurgery at the Toronto Western Hospital, and was a founder of ThinkFirst, Canada, a national brain and spinal cord injury prevention foundation, and Parachute Canada, a national injury prevention agency. He held two research chairs at the University of Toronto, and is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and an inductee of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. Currently, he is a Scientist in the Krembil Brain Institute and Director of the Canadian Concussion Centre at Toronto Western Hospital. His book on Catastrophic Injuries in Sports and Recreation was published by the University of Toronto Press, and his Practice Primer on Concussions appeared in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. He is the author of 437 publications in peer review journals. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurotrauma and the Neuroscientist and is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Concussion.
If participants would like to send questions in advance, please feel free to email them to Chriss.
11. School Enrolment
Thank you, parents for being wonderful ambassadors of the JICS Lab School. School enrolment (Nursery to Grade 6) is full for 2022-2023 school year and many of the very happy families joining our community were informed of the school by you!
13. Upcoming February Events
African Heritage Month
Fri 18 – Midterm Holiday (School closed. Daycare open)
Mon 21 – Family Day Holiday (School & Daycare closed)
Wed 23 – Anti-bullying Day
Thurs 24 – Parent Ed Event: Concussions with Dr. Charles Tator. 7:00-8:00pm. RSVP
14. Upcoming March Events
Read-athon Month
Tues 8 – International Women’s Day
Mon 14 to Fri 18 – March Break. School and Daycare closed.
Mon 21 to Fri 25 – March Break. School closed. Daycare open.
Mon 21 – Nowruz
Mon 28 – Spring Term begins. Daycare opens at 8:00am. School arrival begins at 8:30am.
Thurs 31 – School-wide lice check.
