Fern Ave. Public School Blog

Fern's next School Council meeting is on Tuesday, March 6th (next week) from 6:30-8:30 in the Staff Room . Per this year's new normal, in advance of our meeting we are soliciting questions that you would like answered or discussed at the meeting. We have a large parent body with a wide range of concerns and we want to make sure that Council meetings are an effective use of your time. Submit your questions via this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BHRHPWQ Please make sure you submit prior to 10pm on Sunday, March 4th to give us time to prepare fact-based answers. Our draft agenda for the meeting will be as follows: 1. Student Council Update 2. Administration Update 3. Playground Fundraisers 4. Committee Updates + Committee Q&A 5. Discussion of Submitted Questions 6. Budget Update Thank you! Fern School Council

The Fern Friends Program is looking to expand our ever popular after school program and we are looking for TEACHERS starting this Spring Session March 27th - May 30th for 10 weeks OR the September Fall session. Programs start at 3:25- 4:45 on Tuesdays or Wednesdays and possible lunch time opportunities. Junior Guitar Teacher * Little Jammers is no longer offered at lunch at Fern Drama Club Teacher Ukulele Teacher We are looking for parents OR local artisans with experience teaching younger grades to design and run fun and engaging classes for our kids. Fern Friends is a collaborative organization giving you the opportunity to design your own program and we take care of the administration. This is a paid position. Please contact luckytaya@gmail.com for more details. Please forward to anyone who might be interested and/or if you have an idea for a class and a desire to teach some amazing kids. We are always looking for new way to help our kids grow. Spring Session Reg

The Terry Fox Foundation has sent Fern a letter regarding our fundraising efforts this year. Many thanks to those who contributed.

Dear Parents/Guardians, In the hustle and bustle of things we sometimes forget to call the office and report our children absent. Sometimes the teacher has the information but unfortunately the office is not notified of the absence. If we do not know ahead of time or the morning of the absence, an attendance is not generated and therefore you receive the cybervoice robo advising of the students absence. In order to prevent the unnecessary calls I ask that you please notify the "safe arrival" telephone line and or send me a note in advance of holidays, appointments etc. Please feel free to contact me if you should have any further questions or concerns. Thank you, Vera

Dear Parent/Guardian, Just a reminder for any grade 8 students who missed the Grad Photos, the retakes will take place this Friday, March 2nd beginning at 9am . Should you wish for your child to purchase a Grad Composite, kindly send $30.00 in the envelope provided earlier. This is only for the purchase of the group composite, the individual photographs and poses are extra and can also be purchased online. Please feel free to contact Vera in the main office should you have any further questions. Thank you.

Countdown begins for STEM Night on March 1 5:30 to 7:30 ! Come check out the Balloon Towers, Friction Lab, Cartesian Divers, Light Theatre, Bristlebots, Marble Runs, Articulated Hands, Egg Splats, Spaghetti Bridges, Cardboard Boats, Hovercrafts, Homemade Harmonicas, Paper Circuit Spacecraft, Marshmallow Catapults... Oh and don't miss the Arts Collective Sharpie Art and the Science Club's Marshmallow Catapults. Eat pizza. Volunteer. :) Lots to do for everyone! Hope to see you there! (Ok, one last plea,... looking for empty 2L bottles with the caps on! Please drop them off in the front hall. Thank you!)

Dear Kindergarten families, The following information is for families who have already consented and signed the Media Release forms. The Kindergarten STEM morning is Thursday, March 1st . Photos and video will be taken of children participating in various STEM activities. The photos/video taken are intended for the evening slideshow, shown only at Fern Avenue. These images will not be made available to the public. Families who have not consented to the Media Release, but wish for their child to participate in this media activity, will receive a separate consent form, specific to this event. Thank you.

This schedule outlines gym usage for sports teams and house leagues for the months of February (end), March and April. Thanks to all helping with teams and athletics!

Our school book fair, put on by Another Story Bookshop, was a great success. Over the course of it's 3-day run from Wednesday, February 14th - Friday February 16th we generated $3,898.00 in sales . Of that amount, our school receives 20% of the sale to purchase new books. Thanks to all parents, students, teachers and members of our community who came out to browse and buy books. If you didn't have the chance to come and visit us while we were set up in the library, you can still visit the store at 315 Roncesvalles Ave . Tell them you're a Fern parent and proceeds of the sale will benefit our school (until the end of this week).

It's coming up fast and soon the whole school (JK-8) will be busy working on their classroom challenges like cardboard boat races in the pool, making robots out of toothbrushes, exploring how light works, building mechanical hands, engineering bridges out of spaghetti, creating marble runs and so much more! On March 1st 5:30 -7:30pm come see what the kids were up to. Check out the STEM night map to find out where class challenges are located. There will be loads of hands-on activities for the whole family to participate in as well. Come make a paper circuit card that lights up, launch marshmallows with a catapult, race bristle bots, experience VR, and make a hovercraft out of CDs and paper plates. (Maps will be available on the night as well). We also have some special guests coming to support STEM @ Fern. We still need many volunteers to make this happen, please sign up here . *We are also in need of more 2L Pop Bottles with the screw cap (washed) Questions? fer

Dear Parents and Guardians, Folk Dance has now opened up for students in Grade 2. Times/Dates remain the same ( Mondays 3:30-4:30pm in the auditorium ). Any interested students should meet in the main foyer after school Monday. We will also be putting out an announcement on Monday to remind students. Thanks in advance, Tara Jamieson French Immersion Kindergarten Fern Avenue Jr. + Sr. Public School

Dear Parents and Caregivers, Students' lost and found items have really piled up these past weeks - and it's time to clear them out! Please do make the time to come inside the school and have a look on the table, clothing rack and in the bins. At the conclusion of the February 16th PA Day (and parent-teacher interviews), all clothing items will be cleared out and donated. Lunch containers will be disposed of. Thank you.

Boxes will be set up by the Eco team/students this Friday February 9th in the main lobby to collect recycled materials for the upcoming STEM night/day. Help your children turn your old CD's into hover crafts and your toothbrushes into robots! If you have any of the following items please drop them off at the school this Friday February 9th . - Paper Tubes - Paper and plastic plates - 2L pop bottles with screw cap (washed0 - Used CD's - Bubble wrap - Staws - Elastic Bands - String - Toothbrushes (washed) Thank you!

A reminder that STEM day and night {Science, Technology, Engineering, Math} is coming up fast - Wednesday February 28th for the grade 7 & 8 students and Thursday March 1 for students from kindergarten to grade 6. We still need several volunteers to assist, including preparation of materials for this amazing event, parents to run activities during the day and evening, and people to set up and clean up. The total number of volunteers needed to make this happen is almost 200!!! We did it last year [very successfully] and we can do it again :) Please take a look at the giant list and see where you can fit yourself in. Any amount of time you can assist is greatly appreciated. Presently, we have no volunteers for Friday February 9 and we need 23 of them . Thank you to all the amazing Fern parents, who provide assistance to make these amazing events happen!!! http://signup.com/login/entry/1106177432019

STEM day & night (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) is coming up fast - Wednesday, February 28th for the grade 7 & 8 students and Thursday, March 1st for the kindergarten to grade 6 students. We need several volunteers to assist, including: preparation of materials for this amazing event, parents to run activities during the day and evening, and people to set up and clean up. The total number of volunteers needed to make this happen is almost 200 ! We did it last year (very successfully) and we can do it again. Please take a look at the giant list and see where you can fit yourself in. Any amount of time you can assist is greatly appreciated. Thank you to all the amazing Fern parents, who provide assistance to make these amazing events happen! http://signup.com/login/entry/1106177432019

Dear Parents/Guardians, Grade 8 Graduation Photo RE TAKES will  be taken on Friday, March 2, 2018. All students who were absent on the original photo day will have an opportunity to have their photo taken as well as an opportunity to purchase a composite. Should you wish your child to purchase a group composite please send $30 cash or cheque (made payable to Edge Imaging) and have the student hand it in to Vera in the main office. Thank you. Vera

Please join us on Thursday, March 1st @ 5:30 - 7:30pm for some STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) inspired fun for the whole family! Come see the classroom STEM Day projects on display (JK-Grade 8) and participate in hands-on activities in the auditorium and first floor classrooms. Pizza will be available for purchase. More details to come but in the meantime...WE NEED YOUR HELP! We are asking the community to help us collect materials to support STEM night activities and make it an Eco friendly event. On Friday, February 9th , boxes will be set up in the foyer for you to bring in the following: • Paper tubes • Paper and plastic plates • 2L pop bottles & screw cap (washed) • Used CD's to make hover-crafts • Pull bottle lids (not flip) liquid soap • Bubble wrap • Straws • Elastic bands • String • Toothbrushes (washed) Our goal is to use as many recycled materials as possible to support

I wanted to share with you the success of the Sunday Family swim at Fern. We had 31 swimmers join us. Everyone seemed to be having a great time and really appreciated the opportunity to swim in their community school pool. There has been a slight change in timing - the Rec Swim will operate from 1:15-2:30 p.m. on February 25 . We look forward to seeing you there. Ellen Howard Director/Owner Zodiac Swim School

We are a group of grade 8's and we’re doing a project in science class. Our job is to raise awareness, create a documentary and help fix a local issue! Our local issue is wasting water and we were hoping to raise money and earn donations. This will help save our water and keep it clean. There will be a bake sale on Tuesday, February 6 during morning and afternoon recess to raise money for Toronto Water and the Ministry of the Environment. We’ve considered the concerns of the parents and what their children will be eating at our sale. So here are our alternatives: cheese buns, zucchini loaf, banana muffins, blueberry muffins, strawberries dipped in dark chocolate ganache and fresh juice boxes. To understand a little more on what our local issue is you can visit our website: http://www.tappoliceofthegreatlakes.wordpress.com or our twitter account: @PoliceTap Thank you for your support.