News from around Brown - April 2013

Essentials

• Extracurricular activities are back
• Daycare news
• Chess lessons for Grades 1-3
• Garden Fete - May 25
• Battle of the Books - Winners
• Winter After-4 Sessions - End dates
• World Changers update

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ARE BACK 

Parent Council met with the teachers and are delighted to announce that extra-curricular activities are back at Brown!

• Junior Choir starts back Wednesday, April 10th at 7:45 a.m.
• Eco Club is back and those interested can see Mlle Bondy
• World Changers is also back in full swing with a new campaign – those interested can see either Mlle Sulymko or Mme Breslin
• Battle of the Books is back with Mme Gagnon

The spring sports teams are back as follows:

• Soccer – Girls 4/5 and 6, Boys 4/5 and 6
• Ultimate Frisbee – Co-ed
• Track and Field – Co-ed some 3s, 4/5/6
• Water Polo – Co-ed 6 only

Due to the water polo team practices, there will only be free swim on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Sports schedules will be finalized next week.

DAY CARE NEWS
As of September 2013, Unicorn Day Care will be offering, a full-time Toddler program for children 18 to 30  months old, plus we will be expanding our Preschool program. If you are interested in either a Toddler or Preschool spot for your child, please contact Eric Mackey, the Day Care Director, at 416-929-6841.  

CHESS IS BACK FOR SPRING
We are pleased to announce that lunchtime chess lessons are back this spring. Lessons are offered to Grades 1-3, starting the week of April 15th, on Mondays at lunchtime in Room 22. If you would like to register your child for the program, go to the Forms section of www.brownschool.ca, and download the 2013 Spring Chess form or fill one out at the Office.

The chess program will be offered by the Chess & Math Association and is available for a fee of $65 for 8 sessions, first come first serve. For more information, please contact Judy-Ann Bunn at jabunn5@gmail.com.

GARDEN FETE - MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
Garden Fete is fast approaching and will take place on May 25th this year.

Planning is well under way, and once again this year there will be a jumping castle, old-time games, snow cones and a sport zone, plus some exciting new activities such as a photo booth, henna tattoos and a climbing wall!
The event will be offering complimentary lemonade and water again so please be sure to bring your own beverage bottles.
We are looking for donations for prizes, loot bags and event-day volunteers. If you’d like to volunteer, please email us at brownvolunteers@gmail.com
Stay tuned. We'll send home more information in the coming weeks. 

BATTLE OF THE BOOKS
Our grade 5 and 6 students had the opportunity to participate in the Battle of the Books. Congratulations to all the participants and helpers that have made this competition possible.

The winners are

Gold: Book Rangers
Silver: Cheese
Bronze: The Fantastic 5s
Honourable Mention: Team Team

The Battle of the Books titles are from the Silver Birch selection included in the Forest of Reading® 2012, which is Canada's largest recreational reading program. This initiative of the Ontario Library Association (OLA) offers eight reading programs to encourage a love of reading in people of all ages. The Forest® helps celebrate Canadian books, publishers, authors and illustrators. More than 250,000 readers participate annually from their school and/or public library.

Mme Gagnon 

WINTER AFTER-4 SESSION

Our Winter After-4 Session is coming to an end, with final classes as follows:

• Mad Science - Monday, April 15             
• Musical Theatre - Monday, April 15          
• Yoga - Tuesday, April 2                  
• Build A Toy - Tuesday, April 9    
• UGOT Dance - Wednesday, April 3   
• Lego Animation - Thursday, April 4           

Should you have any questions, please contact Kiren at kirenandrob@symptico.ca or Cathy at cathy.steiner@rogers.com. The Spring After-4 schedule is due to be out in the next week. We hope you’ll find some great programs for your children to enjoy. 

WORLD CHANGERS UPDATE

On April 4th, the school was treated to a special assembly led by a representative from Free The Children. Students were able to learn more about the organization and hear about our April campaign called We Are Silent.

April 18th is a Day of Silence and we are asking kids (and teachers) to support children around the world whose basic rights have been denied by being silent (for 20 minutes or 24 hours) and to collect pledges for their silence.

We are Silent is one of Free The Children’s most powerful campaigns. Every year, tens of thousands of participants stand up for children who are being silenced by the denial of their basic human rights, collecting pledges as they take a vow of silence. All over the world, young people will go silent for 24 hours to raise awareness and funds for children without a voice.

Brown School World Changers are asking for your help to make a difference. Every child at Brown has received a donation pledge form, and we are asking for pledges to be collected from April 4th to April 19th. All funds raised will go to support FTC's Adopt A Village initiatives in India. This includes education, healthcare, housing, agriculture and access to clean water.

We will celebrate our fund raising efforts with a school wide dance-a-thon on April 19th. For more information, please visit www.freethechildren.com/get-involved/campaigns/we-are-silent

STUDENTS' WORK - GRADE 6

How to Successfully Pick Up a Duck
by Julia V

Riding a horse or picking up a bunny is pretty frantic, but not as frantic as picking up a duck! They’re soft and somewhat cuddly; trust me, I have done it before.  Now, if you want to try this exciting dare, follow these steps and you will have a duck in your hands in no time.

Step 1: Go to a farm with various ducks so if you aren’t having much luck with one of the ducks, there are many more to choose from.

Step 2: Try to pick calm and cooperative ducks. You can tell they have these features if they are just sitting there and not doing much or if they are just walking around not caring about what’s going on.

Step 3: Take bird food and pile some up on the ground. Put a lot because more ducks will get closer and that makes it easier to pick one up.

Step 4: While one is munching away on some food, carefully get closer to the duck you are targeting to pick up.

Step 5 (Tip): When you have the duck in your hands, don’t freak out or the duck might drop out of your hands and hurt itself while collapsing on the ground.  To avoid this just hold it until it decides it wants to get down and it will flap its wings by itself.

The Lighthouse: An Excerpt
by Margo P.

I am writing about the time we went to the light house at Island School.  The lighthouse is from the 1800's. It was made because there was a war going on.  If any body tried to attack them they would see them coming from afar and would send signal to the soldiers.  Another reason it was made was to send light to the ships coming in so they could find their way.  When we were at Island School they told us the story of a man named  JP Rademuller.  This is how the story begins:

It was 1808 and JP Rademuller was on a boat to Upper Canada (Toronto) to get a job and earn money to buy his own farm.  When he got to his destination, the only job he could find was as a lighthouse keeper.  He would get paid one dollar a day.  JP took the job and worked there for seven years...