Westminster Public School

Wishing all our families and friends a happy and healthy 2017!

From all WPS, we wish everyone a happy and healthy winter break and a wonderful New Year!  School is closed for the winter break December 26, 2016 -January 6, 2017.

We want to thank you for your kind words, season greetings, yummy treats and gifts. Your kindest is much appreciated. 
May 2017 be filled with good will and compassion for all our children, families and staff.  See you on January 9th, 2017 in the New Year!

With much love,
Mrs. Joseph and the Westminster Staff

On December 23rd, our last day of school before the winter break, we'll be having a TWINSPIRIT DAY.  Your children are invited to pick a friend or two...or more and dress alike. Just like twins!!

We're also having a Holiday Assembly at 11:15 a.m. We will have our Glee Club and a few classes perform, then we'll all sing along to our favourite holiday songs. We're looking forward to singing in the holiday season and the new year together. Parents are always welcome to join us. Tis the season to be jolly...la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!    



 Happy Holidays everyone!

A reminder to bring in your Food Drive donations. Our Holiday Food Drive is underway until Thursday morning December 22nd. The food we collect will be donated to the Humanity First Food Bank and will be given to families and individuals in our community who are in need of food this holiday season and beyond. On Thursday afternoon, Mr. Kaiman's Grade 7/8 class will be delivering our contributions to the food bank themselves and helping to sort packages to be given to those in need. This is an authentic example of charitable giving and giving back to the community.  We know that the contributions from our school and our students will be gratefully received by this charitable organization. 

Please send non-perishable food items to school with your children or place them in the bins located in the hallways outside of the office. 

Thank you.  

Our students and staff have been having fun with early morning pick up hockey games this week... check out this mornings announcements by our hockey teams...

"Good morning hockey fans...Winterfest is in full swing.  The student "Montreal Canadians" took on the All-star Staff...the All-staff staff won 11 to 6 but the first star goes to Sarah K. for a stellar job in goal for the "Canadians".  In tomorrow's game the student Boston Bruins take on the All-star Staff again.   PS. The staff are undefeated...bring it on!!"
Go Wildcats!

As we near the end of 2016, I hope everyone has had a great school year so far and found opportunities to get involved with the life of the school. 
It is wonderful to have opportunities to see not only what our students are learning, but to see how they are learning – collaborating and problem solving, using technology in exciting new ways, and engaged in hands-on activities. 
I want to take this opportunity to thank the dedicated staff members, students, families and community members across our Board.  Thanks to all of the great people we have in our system, we continue to advance student achievement and well-being.
Our Board continues to have a strong commitment to creating welcoming, inclusive learning environments that enable all of our students to thrive. Engaging families in your child’s education and the school community is in an important part of creating that environment.
There are resources for families available on our Board website at www.yrdsb.ca/parents, including inform…

Do you have a favourite recipe that you like to cook with your children? Do you want to have it published in our Westminster School Cookbook so all can enjoy these yummy treats? So here's your chance to share it with our whole community and contribute your recipe to our school cookbook. We're collecting the best recipes from our community for our first fabulous WPS Cookbook!  Once we've got them all published they will be for sale with all proceeds going to enhance our fabulous school! 
Over the winter break why don't you practice your favourite recipes with your children, type out the measurements, ingredients and instructions...have your children practice their procedural writing and have fun while using their writing and authentic math skills. If you want, take a picture of your creations. Then email them to our school council. Make sure you let us know your child's name and grade. Our School Council Cookbook Committee will try to include as many as possible. Onc…

Our Intermediate fundraising committee is selling popcorn and frozen yogurt on Fridays starting December 16th and 24th to raise funds for their end of the year events. If your child would like to participate and buy a healthy snack, please send them to school with $2 for each item.  

Thanks from our student committee!

This month we've talked much about the importance of taking our responsibilities seriously. Our students show responsibility in many ways. At Westminster, we often talk about our responsibility toward our environment, through our recycling campaigns and the world at large, through our charity drives. We also discuss each students' responsibility for their learning and their work habits. They are also responsible for their actions and how they act towards each other.  
We remind our students that creating a positive school climate is everyone's responsibility. This responsibility is important to ensure the emotionally well-being of all our students. This begins by caring for one another and showing kindness and compassion to each other. 

We encourage our students to acknowledge "random acts of kindness".  An act of kindness helps everyone feel better. Thank you for helping your children identify kind acts in their everyday life and their responsibilities at school, …

During the month of December we focus on the character trait of "Responsibility".  On December 14th we will be having a character assembly to recognize those who have displayed this character trait as well as those who displayed November's character trait of "Honesty". Parents are welcome to join us for this assembly hosted by Ms Parekh and Ms Basta's 5/6 classes at 9:15 a.m. 

We are responsible for ourselves, our school and our environment. We are also responsible for the well-being of others. Please help us support this message and remember to send in your donations for our Holiday Food Drive. Thank you. 

A couple of weeks ago York Region hosted our annual YRDSB Quest Conference. Quest is in its 20th year of providing relevant and inspiring professional learning for educators in York Region as well as all over Canada and the world. Each year at WPS, we arrange for some of our teachers to join the discussion and bring back new research and teaching strategies to our school. Our teachers come back rejuvenated and invigorating after connecting with like-minded people in a different environment. Here are some of their reflections:
"There's so much to take away from the Quest Conference that it's difficult to focus on just one thing. The focus this year was 'Deep Learning in a Digital World' ... a clear connection to the Modern Learning work we have worked on. We listened to a variety of keynotes and breakout sessions. It became clear that there was a common resounding message.  The message was the importance of authentic, meaningful learning that provided students with …

Thinking of things to do with your children? There are some exciting events and programs coming up at the Bathurst Clark Resource Library. They include:
Helping Hands, a family volunteering project, on Sunday, Dec. 11th at 2pmMake It! Learn It! Create It! programming, including:Hour of Code on Friday, Dec. 9th at 4pmColouring 2.0 on Thursday, Jan. 5th at 12:30pmLet’s Build a Computer on Friday, Jan. 20th at 11am (for ages 8-12, limited to 10 participants. Pre-register at the Service Desk at the Bathurst Clark Resource Library)Robot Day on Friday, Feb, 3rd at 11amSTEAM Club, Tuesdays at 7pm between Jan. 10th and Feb. 28th (for ages 7 and up)Puppet Show on Thursday, January 5th at 11amKid’s Book Club, first Wednesday of each month at 7pm (ages 8-12)Family Literacy Day on Thursday Jan. 26th at 6:30pm at the City Playhouse (pick up your free tickets at any VPL branch beginning Monday, Jan. 2nd)Family Day celebration on Monday, Feb. 20th from 1-5pm, including a Rob Joy Winter Concert at 2pm…

Remember to come out to our Family Movie Night December 8th. Have fun with your family and friends at this Community Outreach event brought to you by our School Council.

When: December 8th, 2016 

Doors open 6:00 p.m. Snacks and Pizza dinner available while supplies last
Movies start 6:30 p.m. 
Remember to bring your food donations for our Holiday Food Bank as well. 

A reminder that our Holiday Food Drive is underway December 5th- December 21st.  The food we collect will be donated to the Humanity First Food Bank. The food will be give to families and individuals in our community who are in need of food this holiday season and beyond. This year, Mr. Kaiman's Grade 7/8 class will be delivering our contributions to the food bank themselves and helping to sort packages to be given to those in need. This is an authentic example of charitable giving and giving back to the community.  We know that the contributions from our school and our students will be gratefully received by this charitable organization. 

We ask that everyone please help to make this year's drive as successful as possible and help our children see how they can personally make a difference to the life of someone else. Let's work together as a community and make everyone's holiday season happy and joyful.

Please send non-perishable food items to school with your children …

Both our Grade 7/8 students and staff were very affected by Mme. Hans' presentation about her experiences during the war as a "hidden child" in France. Mme. Hans expressed that she felt it was her duty to share her difficult story to help our next generation learn from the mistakes of the past and the importance of tolerance and acceptance of one another. She also reminded our students of the debt they owe their parents and explained that her efforts to share her story were a homage to her mother who worked so hard to save her eight children and keep them from harm during the war. It was her way of saying "thank you" to her mother. Mme Hans evoked a great deal of emotion from all and she enjoyed the hugs of thanks from our students and staff after her speech very much. We thank you Mme Hans for coming to our school. 
Below are some of the reflections from our students:
"The most important lesson I learned from Ms Hans' story is to be grateful for everyth…