Fern Ave. Public School Blog

We have not been able to bring in facilitators for STEM or Arts since 2020, but now that has changed. Please consider donating to the STEM and Arts Fund on School Cash Online.  Click here and see above for the poster of the handout in your child's bag for more details.

Join us in the auditorium for a day of D&D. No experience necessary, all are welcome. Come sign up for a game at 10am, first come first served, spaces will be limited. The games will start shortly after 10 and will go until about 2. There will be pizza for sale (Pizza + a drink will be $5) and we'll have a bake sale. $10 to play $20 bundle includes gameplay, FERNCON dice bag and one ticket to the raffle. See you soon!

We are looking for bakers to donate to the bake sale to help feed all those hungry mages, orcs, and elves. If you can help us out, please email us at fernaveschoolcouncil@gmail.com . Alternatively, you can drop off baked goods Friday at the Office, or Saturday in the foyer between 9-10am . Proceeds of bake sale will go to Grade 8 Graduation celebrations. Thanks, School Council Exec and Grad Committee

Saturday Feb 1st 10am - 2pm , Fern Ave P.S. Auditorium  Calling all brave adventurers, armchair generals, and gamer geeks! Join us for a day of nerdy fun and help us raise funds for Grade 8 grad.  Come play  Dungeons & Dragons NEW this year we'll be introducing some more RPGs (role-playing games) and tabletop miniatures games (to be announced soon) (All ages & all levels welcome, no experience necessary) 10$ - per player Spots are limited, signups start at 10am. Cash only, please. Questions:  laura.ashby.watts@ gmail.com

Those long cardboard tubes from holiday wrap are coveted items in Fern's upcoming STEM festival.  Please send yours in  this week ; there is a collection box in front of the main office only until  Monday January 13 . (Only cardboard tubes for now, thanks; additional STEM materials will be collected in the coming weeks. Watch this space!) Thanks on behalf on Fern's STEM committee.      Thanks!  

Those long cardboard tubes from holiday wrap are coveted items in Fern's upcoming STEM festival. Please send yours in this week; there is a collection box in front of the main office only until Monday, January 13 . (Only cardboard tubes for now, thanks; additional STEM materials will be collected in the coming weeks. Watch this space!) Thanks on behalf on Fern's STEM committee.

Please save your long wrapping-paper cardboard tubes for Fern's STEM event! Fern's upcoming STEM festival gratefully welcomes all your long cardboard tubes (e.g. from wrapping paper) for use in our students' marvellous marble-run creations and more. In early January, we'll announce a drop-off point at school where you can deposit your tubes and we'll store them safely till the fun begins. Thanks and warm wishes for a happy and safe holiday from Fern's STEM team!

Sat, Feb 1st from 10 am - 2 pm  in the Fern Auditorium Calling all brave adventurers, armchair generals, and gamer geeks! Join us for a day of nerdy fun and help us raise funds for grade 8 graduation. FERNCON is a day of Dungeons & Dragons adventures and new this year we'll be introducing other tabletop games (TBD).  No experience necessary, all skill levels welcome. Watch for more details in the new year. If you, or someone you know, are interested in being a DM (Dungeon Master) please contact  laura.ashby.watts@gmail.com .

Two highlights of the STEM Event every year are the Grade 7 Spaghetti Tower competition, and the Grade 8 Boat Race. Congratulations to the winners of the Grade 7 Spaghetti Tower competition whose respective towers (using two packages of spaghetti and a lot of hot glue in under two hours) survived the weight challenge up to 24 pounds: Shout out to the teams of Amir, Andrew and Lukas, and of Sally, Jason and Zach! While the Grade 7’s built spaghetti towers, the Grade 8’s were busy designing and building boats from cardboard and duct tape, and then racing them across the pool . Congratulations to the team of of Jim & Sebastian who finished first with a time of 40.38 seconds! Finally, the winner of the MakerKid Raffle was Maisie C.! Thanks again everyone for making this event such a huge success! School Council Exec and STEM Committee

A huge thanks to all the parents and grade 7&8 students who volunteered in classrooms during the day and the evening. Additional thanks to the administration and the teachers for supporting this event. We could not have done this without you. It was great to see so many teachers and their families stay for the evening event to help out or to enjoy the celebrations. We are grateful to have such a team of enthusiastic staff and admin. A special thank you to parent volunteers Laura, Carol, Dorothy, Stephen, Rick and John for the hours and hours they poured into the STEM Event over the last weeks and months. They designed the projects, collected and organized materials, wrangled volunteers, scheduled classes, worked with the teachers, organized the STEM displays in the Auditorium, along with a million other details. Finally, thanks to all of the Fern families who participated in this event. It was special to see everyone from daycare families just starting with our school commun...

Monday March 25th : Grade 7s will build weight bearing Spaghetti Towers, and Grade 8s will build and race Cardboard Boats across the pool! Tuesday March 26th : Parent facilitated science projects in every Fern class, JK to grade 6. Then, 5:30-7:30pm Tuesday evening, the STEM Night Showcase! Pizza for sale (including vegetarian and vegan options). There is still time to volunteer Monday or Tuesday during the day, Tuesday evening, or Wednesday morning (to help with the wrap-up). Go to our sign up page to volunteer for a half day, or for an hour. https://signup.com/mobileweb/2.0/vspot.html?activitykey=137639510023#anonymous_invite_page A huge thank you to everyone who has already signed up for a volunteer spot, and to the parent volunteers, teachers, and grade 8 students who helped us organize STEM Day supplies last Friday afternoon. We. Cannot. Wait. Questions? Email the STEM Committee at: fernstemcommittee@gmail.com . STEM Committee and School Council Exec

Our 3rd Annual STEM Event is almost here! We still need loads of volunteers for classroom activities on Monday/Tuesday and for the main event on Tuesday night. The list is pretty big so be sure to scroll down to see all the available spots: SIGN UP HERE Again, thank you for your time and support. STEM NIGHT Tuesday, March 26th 5:30-7:30 Come see the classroom STEM activities on display and participate in even more STEM fun for the whole family. Pizza Available for purchase (vegetarian and vegan options) Please welcome our special guests this year: Google Take a VR adventure with Google Cardboard. Experience a Google expedition where VR lets you explore the world virtually while AR brings abstract concepts to life— through collections of 360° scenes and 3D objects, with interesting sites and artifacts along the way. MakerKids Empowering the makers of tomorrow. MakerKids is a makerspace that offers educational classes in coding, robotics, Minecraft and more! Mak...

Hi all, it's that time of year again for our awesome FERN STEM Event and we need you to make it all happen. Absolutely no STEM experience is necessary. STEM Volunteer sign-up list HERE (Please make sure to click the "show more spots" button to see them all). STEM Day(s) - Monday, March 25th & Tuesday, March 26th 9:00 am - 3:30 pm We need many volunteers to support STEM activities, during the school day, in all classrooms from JrK-Grade 8. The volunteer list is divided into morning and afternoon shifts for each activity, and are also listed by grade/teacher if you would specifically like to join your child(s) classroom. STEM Night - Tuesday, March 26th 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm This is the big night, where the whole community is invited to participate and see what the kids were up to. We need volunteers to help set-up, tear down, run activities and generally help out to make our STEM evening event run smoothly. If you've joined us before you know how a...

Save the date: Tuesday, March 26th, 5:30 - 7:30 pm Our FERN STEM event takes place over 2 days and culminates in one big epic STEM Night on March 26th where everyone is invited to participate in all sorts of activities and challenges. It's learning and fun for the whole family! On Monday, March 25th (during the school day) The STEM adventure begins... Grade 7: Spaghetti Tower Build - The grade 7's will be challenged to structurally engineer towers that can hold a load of weight. Those that survive will be ceremoniously destroyed on STEM Night after demonstrating feats of strength. Come watch! Grade 8: Cardboard Boat Build (with the help of lots of duct tape) - teams of grade 8's will build boats, then board them and attempt to race them across the Fern pool! Don't worry we'll capture it all on video to share at STEM Night for all to enjoy. On Tuesday, March 26th the STEM adventures continue (during the school day). Every class will participate in a s...

Introducing the first ever FERNCON! Saturday February 23rd, 10am - 2pm @ Fern PS We need as many DM’s that we can muster up to run some Dungeons & Dragons adventures for players of all levels with pre-made characters. If this is you, please reach out to Laura Watts @ laura.ashby.watts@gmail.com More details about FERNCON coming soon.

Happy New Year! Please bring in your leftover holiday wrap cardboard tubes in support of STEM Night Tuesday, March 26th . There will be a collection box set up outside the office all next week January 21-25th . Thanks for your support! The Fern Stem and Eco Committees

In the spirit of gift-giving this holiday season, STEM needs the gift of your leftover cardboard tubes from your holiday gift wrap. We will put out an official notice in January letting you know when the collection boxes will be available for your paper tube donations. Please set them aside for now. These materials are in support of our annual Fern STEM Night, which is being held on Tuesday, March 26th, 2019 . All of the materials used to make STEM Night a success come from recycled and/or unused household materials. We will post a list of other needed materials in the New Year! Thank-you kindly, and have a very Happy Holiday! Fern STEM and ECO Committees

Do you want to help kids prepare for a world where technology has an even more profound effect on their lives? Help them understand the natural world and explore their curiosity? Give them an edge in learning science, technology, engineering and math? Look no further! Join Fern stem club as an adult volunteer. People contribute however they can, from attending the club Thursday afternoons from 3 to 4:15 and directly helping the kids with their projects, to writing up exercises, giving talks, or sourcing materials. We can use it all! If you have a technical or scientific background, great! If you don't, great! Learn with us! We are setup to work with computers, 3D printing and robotics, but are game for anything in the STEM purview, including basic science. We're having an orientation meeting on Thursday, November 22nd . Contact Toby ( toby.riddell@prevtec.com ) or Rick ( rkogucki@gmail.com ) for location and any other information.

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!)

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...