HALLOWE’EN

We will have our annual Hallowe’en parade, weather permitting, on Tuesday afternoon just after lunch (leaving at approx. 1:00pm). We go for a little walk, just once around the block, and show off our Hallowe’en costumes to our neighbours. If you’re available to join us on Tuesday afternoon please feel to come and walk with us.

A reminder to all Huron families that we have several students at our school with life threatening allergies and for many students this is an allergy to peanuts and/or tree nuts. We all need to work together to do our best to make Huron as allergy-safe as we can – and this is especially important to remember when it comes to Hallowe’en candy and treats. Please double check all Hallowe’en treats and make sure that anything coming to school is nut free!

QSP

Our QSP fundraiser kicked off last Tuesday, and thanks to the efforts of Huron families, we’ve already raised $1487.00 (as of Thursday morning).

Your support of our QSP fundraiser helps our school, and benefits your family literacy and knowledge of arts, culture and current events by bringing great magazines into your home. Remember too that QSP offers more than just magazines. Shop for chocolates, gifts, wrapping paper, kitchen gadgets and more at https://www.qsp.ca/Login/Index

Every item sold supports Huron when you use the HURON ONLINE ID: 3721180.

PIZZA LUNCH

Our November pizza lunch is planned for Wednesday November 1st. The pizza for Wednesday has already been ordered – students may purchase extra slices for $3.00 each on Wednesday but please make sure students also have something else for lunch just in case there aren’t enough extra slices to meet demand.

SCHOOL CASH ONLINE

Update – as of last Friday, Huron’s “adoption rate” (the percentage of families that have registered) for School Cash Online is now 82.35%. Well done Huron community! If you haven’t yet signed up for School Cash Online please do so as soon as possible. Remember that payment for all school activities, fields trips, fundraisers, spirit wear etc. will eventually need to be made through School Cash Online so please register as soon as you can. During this transition time it is still possible to make payments for some activities using cash or cheque, but eventually School Cash Online will be the only option so we would encourage the remaining 17.65% of our families to get registered.

TREATIES RECOGNITION WEEK

Treaties Recognition Week is the first week of November every year. Treaties Recognition Week was introduced in 2016 to honour the importance of treaties and to help Ontarians learn more about treaty rights and treaty relationships.

For more information please check out the following websites:

https://www.ontario.ca/page/treaties

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/memos/oct2017/min_treaties_recognition_week2017.pdf

CLAY WITH ME – AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM

Hello everyone, I wanted to let you know about Clay with Me, a studio that is offering a wide variety of programs for kids and adults. But most importantly we are offering PA days, after school programs and March break camp. If there is enough of a demand from Huron then we will arrange to pick up and walk your kids to the studio which is located across from Palmerston Junior Public school.

For more information email claywithadrienne@gmail.com or check out: https://www.claywithmepotterystudio.com

Thank you, Adrienne from Clay with Me

LOST AND FOUND

As the weather changes we know from experience that the amount of clothing in Lost and Found seems to increase dramatically, as coats (and perhaps hat and gloves etc.) are removed when the students get hot playing outside…and then not always reclaimed. Please remember to check our Lost and Found structure in the front foyer frequently and take home items that belong to you.

Dear Huron Families:

Starting today, Huron Spiritwear is available for purchase online! We are excited to offer T-Shirts, Shorts, Hoodies, Sweatpants and a Winter Hat for sale – all with a Huron logo. Please see the attached pdf with pictures of the items.

Our primary goal in selling Huron Spiritwear is to raise school spirit! While we do hope to raise some money to replace the well-worn mats on the walls of our gym, we’ve kept the prices as low as possible so we can see lots of Huron Hawks around our hallways.

Spiritwear orders are submitted and paid for using the School Cash Online System: https://tdsb.schoolcashonline.com. Note: There are NO REFUNDS available.

Please place your order today! Orders are due online by FRIDAY NOVEMBER 10th – Items to arrive by DECEMBER 11th (just in time for the holidays).

Here are the steps:

1. Please visit https://tdsb.schoolcashonline.com, register or log-in if you have an existing account

2. Select the child’s name tab and you will see order options here:

- some items are in a separate option

- other items are grouped under “various” – hat, shorts, t-shirts are here

- there are options to “donate” a t-shirt or sweatshirt to the school

3. Personalization is available ONLY on sweatshirts – cost is $10.00

- if you choose this option, you must email Meg Gardner at: meg.gardner@rogers.com with the info to be printed on the lower back of the sweatshirt

4. Prices include delivery to school and HST

All orders and payment must be completed by Friday November 10th.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Meg Gardner at meg.gardner@rogers.com

Thank you!!

The TDSB Claude Watson School for the Arts offers an enriched arts education for students in Grades four through eight who have demonstrated talent in Music, Drama, Dance and Visual Arts. Each day the students divide their time between challenging academic classes and an exceptional arts program that develops their creative potential.

Each student auditions for a place in the Claude Watson School for the Arts. There are 60 places each year in Grade 4. Students interested in placement in Grades 5-8 are welcome to audition but there is very limited places available.

Claude Watson School for the Arts will be holding an information session on Monday, November 13th, 2017, at 7:00pm, for interested families.

Application are available online. The online application system is now open and can be reached by going to http://www.claudewatson.org. Applications will close on Thursday December 21st, 2017.

Please see the attachments for more information.

QSP FUNDRAISER

Huron’s magazine fundraiser with QSP kicks off on Tuesday October 24th and runs until November 7th, with proceeds funding classroom literary materials. Order forms will be coming home with students on Tuesday. Your support of our QSP fundraiser helps our school, and benefits your family literacy and knowledge of arts, culture and current events by bringing great magazines into your home—and if you choose to subscribe to Canadian magazines, you will be supporting Canadian culture and writers! Remember too that QSP offers more than just magazines. Shop for chocolates, gifts, wrapping paper, kitchen gadgets and more.
You can get started now at https://www.qsp.ca/Login/Index
Every item sold supports Huron when you use the HURON ONLINE ID 3721180.

TAKE ME OUTSIDE DAY

Take Me Outside Day, in partnership with The Child and Nature Alliance of Canada, is an opportunity for schools across Canada and around the world to show the importance of getting outside! It is a day to raise awareness about the importance of unplugging and spending time outside – being active and connecting with nature. (From the Take Me Outside website: http://www.takemeoutside.ca) At Huron, teachers are asked to commit to spending 1 hour (or more) outside to celebrate Take Me Outside Day. In the past, we have embarked on neighbourhood walks, identifying specific trees around our community, sketched leaves and trees, experimented with bark and leaf rubbings, read outdoors etc. Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather on the 25th (they will be outside, regardless of the weather) and ask how they celebrated this special day!

HURON EARTH HOUR IN OCTOBER

We will be holding our October Earth Hour on Friday October 27th from 2:20-3:20pm. This is one of many initiatives that we commit to as a Platinum Level Eco-School. Like the global Earth Hour, this is our opportunity as a school community to really focus on our energy consumption and ways we can reduce it. Everywhere in the school we will turn off as many lights as possible and power-down as many electronic devices as we can.

PHOTO RETAKES

If your child was absent on October 17th, our Photo Retake Day is Wednesday November 8th, starting first thing in the morning. They will be taking individual photos for students who were absent as well as select class photos.

We would like to thank everyone who came out to our first School Council meeting of the year last week. It was wonderful to have such a large turn-out and see so many new faces. Special thanks also go to the people who volunteered to serve as members of the Council executive for this year, and we’re please to let you know that we have Co-Chairs, two Ward 10 Reps, a Treasurer, two people who volunteered to head up some of the fundraising activities that School Council has supported for many years, and our Picnic For the Arts Coordinator. Thanks again to everyone who has volunteered to serve in these capacities!

One executive position that we are still looking to fill is Secretary – and we’re asking that everyone in our parent/caregiver community give this some thought. We have to have at least one person volunteer for this position, and ideally we’d love to have two people as we all know that attending every meeting isn’t always possible with busy families. Having two secretaries would allow for a lot more flexibility.

It’s truly not a hard position!! We have a template for Council meetings all set and ready to go and some of the information at School Council meetings is sent to the secretary afterwards for inclusion in the minutes – so all you need to do is ‘cut and paste’.

So please everyone give this some thought, and if you would be willing to act as our School Council Secretary, or Co-Secretary, please let Ms. Howe know.

Here are the dates for School Council meetings for this year (and they’re also in “Huron Happenings” as well). All meetings will start at 6:00pm and babysitting and pizza will be available for children.

Tuesday November 28, 2017

Tuesday January 30, 2018

Tuesday February 27, 2018

Tuesday April 24, 2018

Tuesday May 29, 2018

Tuesday June 19, 2018

Again it was lovely to see everyone at our meeting last week and please know how much your support is valued and appreciated by all Huron Staff!

WASTE FREE LUNCH WEEK
OCT. 16-20 IS WASTE REDUCTION WEEK

From Monday, Oct. 16th to Friday, Oct. 20th, Huron is promoting Canada’s Waste Reduction Week (for more information: http://www.wrwcanada.com/en). As a platinum EcoSchool (the highest environmental certification level at the T.D.S.B.), we are trying a new campaign: Encouraging students to bring no waste lunches – through reusable containers, water bottles, whole fruits and other waste free snack and lunch ideas (please see the attached file on Waste Free Lunches). Our EcoTeam of grade 4-6 leaders made presentations in all the grade 1-6 classrooms Friday about sorting compost, recycling and landfill items correctly, and about waste free lunch. They will present next week to the kindergarten classes. The goal is to build awareness of ways we can reduce the amount of landfill, and to promote proper sorting of materials. We will do a lunchroom audit one day next week to see if items are correctly sorted by students in the recycling and compost bins.

Huron also will continue our boomerang lunch tradition. This means that whatever a student brings to school for lunch comes back home with no waste put in garbage cans OR recycling bins. We will still compost any food scraps like orange peels. During the week, students’ lunches will be checked one day to see if they earn a waste free stamp. We realize this initiative takes a lot of family support – so thank you in advance for trying to make lunches as waste free as you can this next week, and in the future.

PHOTO DAY

Tuesday October 17th is our PHOTO DAY. Individual and class photos will be taken today, with our retake day scheduled for Wed. Nov. 8th. The advice from the photography company is for a light coloured shirt to be worn for the photographs…and of course a great smile is necessary too.

LOST AND FOUND

After only a few weeks our Lost and Found has quite a collection! As usual we have a wonderful selection of clothing, but we also have about 15 water bottles, a dozen lunch bags, a bike helmet, 2 baseball gloves… Please check Lost and Found regularly and take home items that belong to you.

FLU SEASON – MESSAGE FROM TORONTO PUBLIC HEALTH

Please see the attached letter from Toronto Public Health in regards to “Tips to Stay Healthy This Flu Season”.

Students are expected to be at school and in the line with their class when the bell rings at 8:58am – NOT 9:00am. We would in fact encourage students to arrive at school sometime 8:45-8:50am – that way you can ensure your child is on time, plus there will be time for a little play and socializing before school starts. Saying ‘hi’ to their friends is important to do in the morning, so please allow time for that before the bell rings.

Also when students arrive at school please remember to walk around the building and go directly to the school yard. As you know, for safety our front door is locked and the office can be quite busy in the mornings, with Ms. Vallely having to stop whatever she is doing to unlock the door whenever the doorbell rings. If you do need to come into the office then please do ring the doorbell and come in, otherwise please walk around the school and go directly to the school yard. Forms to be handed in etc. can all be given to the classroom teachers, or sent to the office, after the entry bell has rung.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We would like to wish everyone in the Huron community a safe and healthy long weekend and HAPPY THANKSGIVING. Remember that school is closed on Monday for the holiday – we’ll see all students again on Tuesday October 10th.

PHOTO DAY

Please make sure your calendars are marked for Tuesday October 17th – our PHOTO DAY! Individual and class photos will be taken on the 17th so make sure everyone has their best smile at school that day.

OUR ECO-SCHOOL INITIATIVES

As you know, Huron is a PLATINUM LEVEL Eco-School and we are very proud of our accomplishments in this area. Select staff members have volunteered to guide student leaders in our various eco-initiatives throughout the year, and there’s lots of opportunity for parent/caregiver involvement as well – particularly when we have special ‘themed’ activity days such as “Walk to School Day” etc., we always need extra adult hands to help out. Our monthly “Huron Earth Hours” will continue for the 2017/2018 school year. This initiative is a take-off from the Global Earth Hour which is held every April, with “Huron Earth Hours” being held on the last Friday of every month, in the time period between afternoon recess and dismissal. As a school community we are always trying to reduce our energy consumption and for this hour every month we really target our actions in this area. We would like to encourage all families in our school community to try similar activities at home as well. “Waste Reduction Week” is coming up October 16-20 and we will be using this as a springboard to look at ways we can reduce our waste here at the school. A special area of focus throughout the year is going to be reducing the waste (all types – landfill, recycling and compost) in our lunchroom programs. We encourage all students to bring their lunches in reusable containers and in lunchbags – not plastic bags please.

PA DAY – NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

A reminder to everyone that this upcoming Friday – October 6th, 2017 – is a PA Day and there is NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS. Remember also that Monday October 9th is Thanksgiving and school will be closed for the holiday.

LOST AND FOUND

We’re only a month into school and already our Lost and Found has quite a collection! As usual we have a wonderful selection of clothing, but we also have about 15 water bottles, a dozen lunch bags, 2 helmets, 1 baseball glove…
Please check Lost and Found regularly and take home items that belong to you.

PHOTO DAY

Mark your calendars for Tuesday October 17th – our PHOTO DAY. Individual and class photos will be taken today, with our retake day scheduled for Wed. Nov. 8th.