December 2012

Ryerson P.S.

749 Grand Valley Drive

Atte nd an ce Li ne : 519 -570 -812 3 5532 Principal: Mr. Peter Berndt Vice Principal: Mrs. Beverlie Stewart

X 3 726

Schoo l L ine 51 9-65 3-

Office Manager: Ms. Wendy Knowles School Council President: Mrs. Amy Willard-Brown

Vice Principals Message

It appears that winter has really arrived! We have had a few snowflakes, shorter days, and some cold gusts of wind. Its nice to see Christmas lights twinkling around the community and to be reminded that our Winter Break is fast approaching! Time has flown since the beginning of the school year. It has been such a pleasure for me to be at Ryerson working with the wonderful staff and getting to know you and your children. The past few weeks have been a flurry of activity. The staff worked hard at preparing progress reports and appreciated the time you took to meet to discuss your childs achievements. We had a great Loud and Bright Spirit Day last week and have been focusing on INTEGRITY as our Character Key. Through our website, newsletters, phone calls, and notes home, we continue our efforts to keep the lines of communication open between school and home. We hope that you are able to join us for one of our Winter Concerts on either Wednesday, December 19 (12:15 p.m.) or Thursday, December 20 (9:30 a.m.). Whether you celebrate Christmas with your family or will be enjoying time off from your regular schedules, the Ryerson staff, Peter Berndt and I wish you very Happy Holidays! Sincerely, Mrs. Beverlie Stewart

Special Dates
December 5 December 7 December 10-21 December 12 December 12 December 19 December 19 & 20 December 21 December 22 January 4

Pita Lunch 1st NB Character Education Assembly Winter Food Drive RMI lunch 1st NB School Council @ 6:45 Pita Lunch 1st NB Winter Concerts Spirit Day: PJ & Board Game Day Winter Holidays Begin 1st day back in the New Year

The Fresh Tracks

The Fresh Track Special Education staff have been working with many students in the Waterloo Region at their own schools for the past six weeks. Some of those students will now be visiting Ryerson for a short time on December 4 to 7th. While they are here they will be joining the rest of the school for Nutrition Breaks outside. The Ryerson population has always been very welcoming to the Fresh Tracks students who always enjoy making new Ryerson friends. Don Durant Fresh Tracks Primary Behavior Program

R.M.I. Orders The food and lunch orders for January have been sent home and are due Thursday, December 6. Please remember to fill out all of the information on the forms, including the teacher's name and order totals, so your child receives their

correct order! Thanks for supporting our school milk and lunch program.

Board. Families are requested not to upload images of children other than their own to the Internet.

Reminder Safe Arrival Program A reminder for parents to please notify the school (519) 570-8123 ext 3726 if your child is ill or will be late due to an appointment. Please state your name, your childs name (spelling the last name), grade and teachers name and the reason for the absence. Please contact the school EACH day your child is absent unless you know they will not return until a certain date. If a student is absent and no phone call/note has been received a phone call home will take place to ensure the childs safety. Arriving Late Please ensure you sign your child in at the office if they arrive after the bell. The student will need an admission slip to enter the classroom. Leaving Early When students are leaving early for the day, please write a note in the planner indicating the time you need to pick the student up, and you may meet them in the office at that time. All students leaving during the day need to be signed out in the office.

Save the Date

Ryerson Night with the Winterhawks Mark your calendars! This years Night at the Cambridge Winterhawks is scheduled for Saturday January 26th. For those who havent attended before, this is a fun night out to watch some great local hockey while socializing with fellow Raptor families and staff. This year we managed to secure the Skate with the Hawks night, so children can bring their skates and will have the opportunity to skate with members of the Cambridge Winterhawks after the game. Order forms for tickets will go home before the holidays in December and will be due back early in January in order to ensure that tickets are received in time for the game.

Ryersons Winter Concert

Come out and enjoy seeing the students of Ryerson performing and celebrating the coming of winter and the holiday season. The performances will take place on

Wednesday, December 19th at 12:15pm and on Thursday December 20th at 9:30am.

There will be 2 concerts, each lasting around 1 to 1 hours in length. Each concert will be identical to each other. All are welcome to attend. Seating is based on a first come, first serve basis. Although classes present individually or in groups, we do ask that you remain for the entire concert and not leave at the completion of your childs presentation. Admission is free to the concert, but we do ask that you please bring in an item or two for the Food Bank. Prior to and after the concert, School Council will be selling home reading books/plates which you may purchase to support our home reading program. This also makes a great teacher gift if you are looking for one. We look forward to working with your child in preparing for this event and hope you are able to join us for one of the concerts!
Parents and students should be aware that those attending the event may take photographs or videos, which is beyond the control of the school or the Waterloo Region District School

Kenyan Art Auction The students in room 20 would like to thank all of the supporters of her Kenyan art auction. We are extremely excited to report that we reached our goal of $1000. In fact we raised $1060 to support our blogging buddies at St. Lawrence Orphanage School!!! The students were very excited as we totaled the donations and art payments that came in. We feel so good knowing that we are helping others. Your contributions not only made our day, we know it will go a long way to support our international friends in their rebuilding efforts. We believe that this is a great cause and we, once again, want to thank our supporters for their generosity. Thanks for your gift of giving!

Athavan - Mrs. Edgell/Mrs. Sanderson Ahmed A. - Miss Munroe/Mrs. Gute Haniya N. - Mrs. Kewley Tyler - Mrs. Van Rees Hannah B. - Miss A. Bates Cole M. - Mr. Hoyte Liam S. - Mrs. McKinnon Viktoria J. - Mrs. Smith Kushreet H. - Miss Kiefer-Cox Cassidy G. - Miss McMullen Brooklyn W. - Mme. Claus Jamie C. - Mrs. Piraino-Crandon Emilyn F. - Mrs. Doerner Julia M. - Mrs. Roberge Hannah - Miss. L. Bates Elisha A. - Mr. Grant Claire R. - Miss Nichol Shelby D. - Miss Gill Leadership Team - Kidz Korner The Leadership Team has been involved in many things since our last newsletter! First, as part of Black and Orange Spirit Day We acted out different ways to be safe while trick-ortreating in a series of skits. As part of our Remembrance Day assembly, Navya and Hannah were excellent MCs, and the rest of the Leadership Team helped with the placing of the class wreaths. An event that we were involved in outside of Ryerson was "WE Day" on Wednesday, November the14th. We saw famous actor, Martin Sheen, as well as motivational speaker Spencer West. Among the new speakers were Homeless to Harvard author Liz Murray, speaking about homelessness and Molly Burke speaking about bullying. We also enjoyed the "One Drop" necklaces that would light up during performances! Some of the most popular performances were when Sean Desmond would dance and we all got to perform the WE Day dance. WE Day was an amazing event and we thought it was very inspiring. Speaking of dancing, the Leadership Club made three new DPA dances this month to songs like "Payphone Remix", "Let Me Love You Remix" "and "Good Feeling". It has been very busy this month, both at school and in the community! Stay tuned for inspiring activities in the month of December and January! The Leadership Team Linnea Bates Gr.6 Ryerson P.S Character Education at Ryerson In October, we focused on the key of SPEAK WITH GOOD PURPOSE. The following students were chosen by their classmates as the person who demonstrated Speak With Good Purpose on the most consistent basis: Damian P. - Mrs. Haefling/Mrs. Shergill Keeratbir - Mrs. Fowler/Mrs. Warburton Jaime S. - Mrs. Campbell/Mrs. Hodgson Stay tuned next newsletter for our November Students of the Month for INTEGRITY! Please refer to the Character Education page in your childs planner if you would like more information about the 8 Keys of Excellence. Jen Ruppert SCHOOL COUNCIL DECEMBER UPDATE It has been a very busy fall! We started the year with two fundraisers-a donation request and the QSP campaign. Our donation request raised approximately $2500 and the QSP campaign raised almost $3000 (which is 3x what was raised through QSP last year!). Thank-you to everyone who participated in both of these fundraisers. $5 500 raised brings us closer to our goal of raising $15 000 this year to be used to support various programs within the school. This fall, we used some of that money to purchase trees as part of the School Greening Project. $1500 allowed us to purchase 5 good sized trees which will definitely enhance the playground in years to come. Moving forward, we have a couple of events to look forward to. December brings the Buy a Book fundraiser. Book plates will be available for sale by order shortly as well as at both of the Holiday Concerts. A donation of $10 allows you to buy a book for the home reading program and have your name in it on a Raptor book plate. All funds raised from this program will go directly to the Home Reading program. Those who make donations can also request a holiday card to be used for teachers as this makes a great Holiday teacher gift! Moving into January we will see our Ryerson night at the Winterhawks. With the absence of NHL hockey so far this season, this is a great way to get out and see some local hockey and socialize with the Ryerson Community. Watch for order forms early in January. Looking ahead to February, we will be gearing up for our Dance-a-thon. At this time we are looking for prizes for the Dance-a-thon. If you are aware of any prize donation opportunities, please contact me at [email protected].

Before Thanks for your support of School Council at Ryerson! Amy Willard-Brown School Council Chair

Ryerson Back Field Greening Project

Ryerson's back field has gone through some major transformations over the past 3 months. Work on the first stage of the Greening Project began back in August. Fundraising by Parent Council made it possible for us to enlarge the berm behind the existing outdoor classroom, create a new activity station with rocks, sand pit and a small berm, and install a stone dust path leading to the outdoor classroom and the activity centre. The second stage involved planting new trees. Funding from the Grand River Conservation Authority and the Region of Waterloo allowed us to plant six larger maple and basswood trees. The trees were planted near the outdoor classroom and lining the new path. The new berm and sand pit have proven to be very popular with the students. Both are always filled with rollers and diggers. Once the warmer weather returns, the field will look amazing with all the leaves on the new trees. You can just imagine the students sitting beneath them in the shade. Fundraising for the next stages of the Greening Project continues. The plans include the installation of a balance beam structure in the newest activity centre and construction of an additional activity centre. We are also looking to plant another ten to twelve trees. Consider participating in the various Parent Council initiatives in order to make the next stage possible.

After