Fern Ave. Public School Blog

.: Riverdale Parent Workshop :. Tuesday April 7/09, 7:00 – 9:00 pm Gamer Ed: What Parents need to know about the Video Games Kids Play The debate about the benefits and/or curse that is video games doesn’t seem to end. Are they educational or a mindless waste of time? Do they encourage strategic reasoning or destructive, violent behavior? Underpinning this debate is an age-old truth; we fear what we don’t understand and many parents today don’t know, understand or get gaming. Why do kids have this passionate love affair with video games? How can they invest so much of themselves in blowing up zombies, decorating an igloo or slaying trolls? How do kids get their thumbs and brains to work in tandem when they can’t seem to find their way to the laundry basket? As parents, many of us struggle with issues like appropriate game play, game systems and appropriate titles. Or maybe we’re not even part of the conversation and have allowed our kids to parent themselves through the video game lan

Tonight's School Council Meeting scheduled at 7pm at Fern Avenue Public School has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Thank-You!

Here is this month's newsletter! Read about the exciting events, activities and things happening at Fern Avenue Public School! Happy Reading! uploads/MarchNewsletter.pdf

Toronto Public Health (T.P.H.) provides dental programs to children from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8. To identify children with oral health problems, a screening program is offered to students in accordance with the Ontario Ministry of Health requirements for mandatory health programs. The screening is an assessment by a dental hygienist using sterilized instruments. The dental hygienist will assess the need for topical fluoride, scaling, sealant and any other obvious dental needs. As a follow-up to the screening, only parents whose children are identified as requiring dental services will be notified. A note to that effect will be sent home with your child/ren for your information and action. You may also receive a phone call from T.P.H. dental staff to assist you in accessing care. Please be advised that this screening assessment does not replace the dental examination done by a licensed dentist. The scheduled dates for dental screening at Fern Avenue Public School are: April 27,

Grade 8 Graduation Photos are scheduled for Tuesday, March 31, 2009 from 9:00am to 12:00pm. Both boys and girls are encouraged to dress in white tops/collars. In addition, boys are encouraged to please wear ties.

The following letter was received from TDSB Trustee Irene Atkinson. uploads/Staffing_Cuts_2009-2010.pdf Submitted by Paula Larrondo , Ward 7 rep

HOWARD MUSIC DEPARTMENT IS GOING TO THE OPERA Four Seasons Centre 145 Queen St W Howard Public School is coming to the end of our 2008/2009 Opera season. They would like to thank you once again for your continued support. A total of two hundred and eighty eight students/parents have attended the last four opera's; Don Giovanni, War and Peace, Fidelio and Rusalka. It's now time to order your Opera tickets for the next three dress rehearsals, Simon Boccanegra, La Boheme and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Please note that there are some very important rules that the Canadian Opera Company has asked us to follow in order to keep getting these great bargain tickets. Please remember that the tickets are allotted on a ratio of 1 adult to 3 children. It would be wonderful if parents could plan ahead and take turns accompanying 3 students to the dress rehearsals. Ticket prices are $15 each. Please take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to see the operas in the great house that is

Fern Avenue is looking for interested parents who would be willing to help with this year’s Grade 8 graduation. They would be involved in the planning and set-up of this big event. If you are interested please contact Vera in our office at 416-393-9130 for further details.

Instead of repeatedly visiting the Notice Board to see if there are any posts you haven't read, you might consider subscribing to the RSS feed we've set up to notify our readers whenever we post something new. RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, is a series standard formats recognized by many web browsers, desk-top news readers, and web-based news aggregators that you can set up to gather items from a number of sources on the Internet. A typical RSS reader regularly checks the feeds you've subscribed to for new postings, downloads any updates it finds, and provides you with a way to monitor and read the news items. The instructions for setting up your RSS feeds vary depending on how you choose to use them. For desk-top readers, you will likely need to input the feed's address, which you can retrieve by clicking the icon on the main message board. Many web browsers, including FireFox and Apple's Safari, already have this functionality built-in and can a