News From Around Brown - May 2012

Music News

We hope you enjoyed the Brown School Spring Concert today!

Brownstock, The Sound Garden at Garden Fete, is on Saturday, May 26th.

This stage provides an opportunity for Brown students and Brown School alumni to share their talents with the community.  If you are interested  in performing (full bands, musicians, dancers, etc.), please contact Tyler Ellis (a.k.a. "Mr. Ellis").

Song Sung Brown

The Grade 4, 5 and 6 members of the Junior Choir are proud to present: Song Sung Brown, The Brown School Junior Choir in concert, on Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in the Gym.

Don't miss this truly wonderful evening of song.

Autism Awareness

We at Brown are supportive of Autism Awareness.

  

All are invited to participate in a raffle to raise funds for Autism Speaks, to win one of four Autism Speaks Blue Lanterns - batteries included! Tickets will cost $1.00 each, and will be on sale ouside of the main office during lunch periods from June 4th to 8th .  

Autism Speaks also has a walk-a-thon every year to promote Autism awareness. All funds raised are used for autism research, prevention, education and to provide support for families.

www.walknowforautismspeaks.ca/toronto

Announcing Unicorn Day Care's New Summer Camp Programs!

This summer, Unicorn Day Care is offering a variety of new and exciting programs for our campers, including an enriched art based program, plus a greater focus on sports and physical fitness.

You can enrol your younger children in our new Morning Nursery Program, or our Full Day PreSchool Program. For your 4 or 5 year olds you can try our new Full Day JK/SK Program and of course, back by popular demand, older campers will have fun in our Sports and Arts based School Age Summer Camp Program.

Please contact the day care office at 416 929 6841 or visit us at: www.brownschool.ca, and click on the Day Care link to see program descriptions and pre-registration forms.

•  All Programs are run by fully qualified registered Early Childhood Educators.
• Programs are offered by the week.
• We offer sibling discounts, plus discounts for children registered for 5 weeks or more.

AND OUR PRICES ARE FROZEN AGAIN!!

Outreach - Sports Equipment Drive at Garden Fete

As part of Garden Fete on May 26th, the Outreach Committee will be conducting a sports equipment drive for JR Wilcox Public School.  This drive will complete our year-long sponsorship of our neighbourhood school, for which we have received heart-felt thank yous for our efforts.

At the Fete, we will collect new and gently used age-appropriate sports equipment that the school and its students are able to use.  For example, sports balls (soccer, volleyball, footballs), baseball bats/gloves, hockey equipment, bicycles/scooters and helmets, skates, tennis/badminton racquets, etc. would be gladly accepted.  At this time, we will not be collecting sportwear or shoes.

All equipment can be dropped off with the volunteer in the designated space right outside the tennis court entrance at the back of the school. We thank you in advance for your donations!

 

Brown is “Greener than Ever” at Garden Fete

The fabulous Garden Fete Committee is helping to make Brown “Greener that Ever”. Our goal this year is to produce only one bag of garbage for landfill. We can achieve this by making the following efforts:

• Bring a water bottle, coffee mug or cup from home and you will be rewarded with free lemonade and coffee.
• If you forget to bring you own drink container - cups will be provided but there will be a cost for lemonade and coffee. You can also buy a water bottle for $5.00 at the Eco-kids table.
• Sort all your waste at the Eco-Depot. There are categories for all the types of waste, and volunteers will be there to answer any questions.

Look forward to seeing you at Garden Fete!

Brown School Eco-Committee

Garden Fete 2012 is only 2 weeks away...

Thank you to the 175 parents volunteering to make this event a success.  We have space for 100 more.  If you haven't signed up to share one hour of your time, don't wait.  Email brownvolunteers@gmail.com. This event only happens because of the generosity of all of our parents.

Think green... bring a drink container and drink free all day!

Buy advance "Play all Day" passes and SAVE!! SAVE!! SAVE!!
$20 now or $25 on may 26th

Brown School Garden Fete Committee


The Yellow Fish Road

Have you noticed the yellow fish painted near the storm drains in our neighbourhood?  Have you wondered why they are there?

On April 24, Rooms 28, 35 and 16 participated in Watershed on Wheels’ “Yellow Fish Road” programme. We learned that the water that goes into the storm drains goes directly into Lake Ontario. This means that any litter, chemicals, pesticides, salt, chlorine, soap from washing your car, etc., goes directly into our beautiful lake without being filtered.  We were shocked to learn that this is the number one source of pollution in Lake Ontario!

We painted the yellow fish by the storm drains and handed out information to the homes in our neighbourhood to help people to learn to be careful about what chemicals and products they use in their yards, so that we don’t keep polluting our lake.  We hope you will share this information with your friends and families.

Together we can make a difference!

From: Rooms 16, 28 and 35

Eco-News

April was a busy month for the Eco-kids and Eco-team at Brown.  We kicked off  Earth Month with an assembly to help educate the rest of the school about:

• The importance of the boomerang lunch programme: Students bring home all of their waste so that discussions can be had about appropriate portion-sizes, saving food for later instead of throwing it away, and sorting the real waste into the appropriate bins - including the compost, which we don’t have at school.
  
• Food miles: How far our food travels to get to our plates and how we can try to select local foods and products when they are available.
  
• The pollution and waste created by the bottled water industry.

Our school yard clean-up and annual grounds beautification on April 20 was a big success.  The eco-kids planted more Native plants and some protective shrubs in our Sage Garden. 

We also held an eco-swap on April 25-26, where students rotated from teacher to teacher, engaging in a variety of activities and learning about the environment from oil spills...

Oil extraction and oil spills demo

...to reusable art...

Art made from recycled/reused bits and pieces

...to recycling relays!  Hopefully, these initiatives sparked some interesting discussions and newfound awareness at home and school.

Check out the "Reduce Your Ecological Footprint" display outside the Main Office!

 

News from Around Brown - Apr 2012

Library News - Nouvelles de la bibliotheque

Andrew Larsen Author's Visit at Brown School

Brown School had the pleasure to welcome Andrew Larsen author of many picture books (French and English) and a novel called The Luck of Jude. His picture book The Imaginary Garden / Le jardin imaginaire de grand-papa was a finalist last year for the Forest of Reading contest.

Thank you for your visit Mr. Larsen. You inspire our students!!

The Battle of the Books is underway!

Brown's first Battle of the Books commenced last Wednesday with six fierce teams competing at lunchtime.

Just a reminder to all Grade 4, 5, 6 participants: battles will run Monday and Wednesday lunchtimes in the library. To see which day your team competes, listen to morning announcements or see the tournament schedule outside the library. Win or lose, all teams will play at least two battles. The final battle is scheduled in May at a school assembly. The winning team will then go on to face Whitney Public School for the Duo-School Championship (date TBD).

We have had an amazing response for this first Battle of the Books - 60 participants - and we look forward to seeing them battle...over BOOKS!

Kids - keep reading and keep talking books!

Outreach Committee News

The Brown Outreach Committee has two remaining initiatives in its work with our neighbourhood sister school, JR Wilcox.  If you recall, we have completed two amazingly successful drives for this school - a breakfast food drive in the fall and a warm clothes drive in January.

For the week of April 23rd, we will be conducting a new/gently used book drive for JR Wilcox's library (ages 4-12).  We ask that you scan through your children's reading shelves for books that they may have outgrown and place them in the bins available outside the Brown Office.

The Committee and JR Wilcox appreciate your donations.

And note, our final drive will be a sports equipment drive held during our Garden Fete celebrations.  More to come....

 

Announcing Unicorn Day Care's New Summer Camp Programs!

This summer, Unicorn Day Care is offering a variety of new and exciting programs for our campers, including an enriched art based program, plus a greater focus on sports and physical fitness.

You can enrol your younger children in our new Morning Nursery Program, or our Full Day PreSchool Program. For your 4 or 5 year olds you can try our new Full Day JK/SK Program and of course, back by popular demand, older campers will have fun in our Sports and Arts based School Age Summer Camp Program.

Please contact the day care office at 416 929 6841 or visit us at: www.brownschool.ca, and click on the Day Care link to see program descriptions and pre-registration forms.

 

• All Programs are run by fully qualified registered Early Childhood Educators. 

• Programs are offered by the week.
• We offer sibling discounts, plus discounts for children registered for 5 weeks or more.

AND OUR PRICES ARE FROZEN AGAIN!!

News from Around Brown - Mar 2012

Outreach Committee

The Brown Outreach Committee would like to thank everyone – children, staff and parents – for their incredible support of our chosen charity for the month, Free the Children. We were incredibly successful with our fundraising and on top of all that, we had a lot of fun with all our planned activities.  No doubt, Free the Children will be touched by and appreciative of our efforts.

Again, thank you for your generousity and for making a difference.

The Brown Outreach Committee

News from Around Brown - Feb 2012

From the Library: The Battle of the Books is underway - but there is still time to sign up!

The Battle of the Books Reading Competition launched this month with a highly entertaining demonstration match between eight of our junior school teachers.

The Battle of the Books is a reading program for children in Grades 4-6. Children who are interested in participating form teams of four and, amongst their team, read 10 Silver Birch fiction books which are available in the library. Starting in late March, teams will compete against each other in a 'game show' format answering factual questions about the books. For example: What grade was Harry Potter in when he arrived at Hogwarts? 

The 'battles' will take place at lunch time from March 22 - April 5th, ending with a final 'BATTLE' assembly between the top two teams and an inter-school competition thereafter.

Battle of the Books Silver Birch Fiction Titles 2012

Better Than Weird by Anna Kerz

Crossing to Freedom by Virginia Schwartz

Ghost Messages by Jacqueline Guest

Ghosts of the Titanic by Julie Lawson

McGuillicuddy Book of Personal Records by Colleen Sydor

Milo - Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze by Alan Silberberg

Neil Flambe and the Aztec Abduction by Kevin Sylvester

That Boy Red by Rachna Gilmore

Undergrounders by David Skuy

Parents: please encourage your kids to participate in this year's Battle of the Books. The battles are lots of fun and the benefits are many:

• the momentum created by reading (up to) ten books encourages further reading
• encourages 'book talk' amongst friends - imagine!
• encourages deeper reading of books
• provides recognition for 'readers' for their strengths
• opportunity to have fun with friends around books! Sign-up sheets are outside the library.

Marie-France Gagnon

Attention: Parents of Grade 6 Students (French and English)

The planning has already begun for this year's Grade 6 graduation.  Letters were sent out to all  the students last Friday, February 10th, with the initial information. If you didn't  receive a letter, wish to have an electronic copy, or would like to take part in planning or helping with this exciting event for our children, please contact Elizabeth MacLachlan at elizabeth@artform.com. 

It is very important that we have enough pictures of all the kids for both the yearbook and the slide show at the graduation so please start sifting through your collections.  Please read through the letter sent out and don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.  Graduation day is on June 21st!

February is Outreach Month!

We are through three exciting events already this month in our Free the Children fundraising drive!

Brie, an inspiring speaker from the organization, kicked us off, along with the “Outreach Kids’ FlashMob”. We even got to see a picture of a school Brown P.S. helped to build a few years ago in Kenya! Be sure to ask your children what messages they heard during this moving assembly. 

We followed with our successful popcorn sales and Valentine lollipop deliveries.  And more is coming:

• February 16th:  Crazy Hair Day – hats, hair colour, accessories, gel – you decide....for just a toonie
• February 24th – School Wide Bingo – pick your lucky card (or two), for great prizes...for just a toonie
• February 29th – Annual Dance-a-thon – hip hop to the bunny hop – all is possible with Mr. Ellis’ great tracks and amazing decorations

And many parents have elected to go on-line for their donations – it’s quick and easy.  Just go to the following link: 

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1337045&langPref=en-CA&Referrer=http%3a%2f%2fwww.freethechildren.com%2fdonate%2f

Let the fun of February for a great cause continue.

News from Around Brown - Jan 2012

Library News - Nouvelles de la bibliotheque

Family Literacy Day

Family Literacy Day is on January 27th.   ABC Canada has a number of resources that you may wish to use to promote literacy at home including a story contest, colouring contest and a passport that provides activities that support the development of multiple literacies at home. 

Please visit ABC Canada's website for resources in both French and English:

http://abclifeliteracy.ca/family-literacy-day

Forest of Reading

All our Junior classes have been introduced to most of the Forest of Reading Books. The students are very excited about The Battle of the Books that will take place sometime in March. 

Keep on Reading, Kids!

Marie-France Gagnon

Outreach's Warm Clothing Drive

As part of the Outreach Committee's ongoing support of our neighbourhood TDSB school (JR Wilcox PS), we have been collecting warm clothes since the week of January 16th. The warm clothing drive runs until Thursday, January 26th. A box is available outside the Brown school office for all new or gently used hats, gloves, scarves, snowpants, snowjackets, fleeces, boots and warm socks.


Unicorn

Brown School's next PD Day is Friday, January 27th. Need care?  Unicorn has limited spaces available for any Brown Student.  Please contact the day care for fees and activity schedule for the day at 416 929 6841.

March Break is fast approaching. Unicorn Day Care has space for March Break Camp, for any child ages 2-1/2 to 12 years old.  The camp runs from Monday, March 12th through to Friday, March 16th 2012, between the hours of 7:30am to 6:00pm.  All snacks, lunches and Trip Costs are included in the fees. Come to Unicorn this March Break for trips, visitors and lots of fun, learning interactions!

Please visit the day care office or call 416 929 6841 for more information.

News from Around Brown - Dec 2011

WINTER FEST ~ IVAL D’HIVER

December 15, 2011 ~ 9:10 to 10:30

Students performing:

AM Kindergarten

All Grade 1, 2 and 3 students

All Junior students involved in the performing arts at Brown: Choir, Strings or Band

 

The morning's program may be viewed/downloaded at http://www.brownschool.ca/

 

Nouvelles de la bibliothèque / Library News 

The Canadian Children's Book Centre has given every Grade One student a free Canadian Children's book. This year, Grade One children nation-wide will take home GIFTS/CADEAUX, written by Jo Ellen Bogart, illustrated by Barbara Reid. I hope you enjoy reading this book with your child.

Please click the following link with activities for further enjoyment:

http://www.bookcentre.ca/bookgiveaway_gifts_activities_en

Happy Holidays ! Joyeux Temps des Fetes !

Outreach

Holiday Hampers:  THANK YOU Brown community for making 25 families a little bit happier this season with your thoughtfulness and generosity!

Stay tuned for our return to J.R. Wilcox P.S with a warm clothes drive in early January.

Happy holidays.

Unicorn Day Care

Unicorn Day Care wishes Brown and Unicorn Families all the best for the Holidays.

Need care during Brown School’s December break? One day, two days...three days…more?

Unicorn has lots of spaces available for any Brown Student! Unicorn Day Care will be open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 7:30-6:00pm of the first week of holidays, and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for the second week of holidays January 2012, from 7:30- 6:00pm.

Please contact the day care for fees and activity schedule for the days. 416 929 6841.

News from Around Brown - Nov 2011

Don't forget to circle this date on your calendars!

WINTER FEST ~ IVAL D’HIVER

December 15, 2011 ~ 9:10 to 10:30

Students performing:

AM Kindergarten

All Grade 1, 2 and 3 students

All Junior students involved in the performing arts at Brown: Choir, Strings or Band

Don't Miss the FLING SING on November 17!

Don't miss the FLING SING performance of the grade 6 members of the Junior Choir as they kick off the festivities at Fall Fling.  Performance begins at 6:50 p.m.

Library News/ Nouvelles de la bibliothèque de Brown

The Library is happy to announce that we have received new books purchased in September  from the cataloguing centre. If you would like to see our great collection, please visit the Library!

-- Marie-France Gagnon

Unicorn Day Care

Brown School's next PD Day is November 18th.  Need care?  Unicorn has limited spaces available for any Brown Student.  Please contact the day care for fees and activity schedule for the day. 416 929 6841.

MOvember at Brown

The men at Brown PS have decided to unite and join the distinguished club of Moustachery. Why you may ask? Well, in 2010 tragically more than 4,400 men will die as a direct result of prostate cancer. All the men at Brown will continue to sport our moustaches until the end of Movember.

The students will also get a chance to get involved as we will declare every Monday in November to be "Moustache Mondays at Brown".

The students will be permitted to wear paper or felt moustaches made at home or even draw their own moustaches on with costume make-up, it's up to you!

Students may choose to drop off a small donation($0.25 to $2.00) in the box found in the main office, you can't miss it!

If parents would like to help in the cause to fight prostate cancer please copy or click the link below into your web browser and click on "DONATE TO THE TEAM" as the men at Brown will be very grateful.

Any dollar amount helps. http://mobro.co/BROWNSCHOOL 

Outreach

In October, we asked for your help with a Breakfast Drive for JR Wilcox School. This elementary school ran out of funding for its breakfast program and as a result, many children are heading to school each morning with empty stomachs. Thanks to those of you who have already contributed. We delivered two large boxes to the school today and the administration was extremely thankful. We have decided to extend our Breakfast Drive by another week so that we can send as much food to these children as possible. From November 7-11, Outreach would like to challenge each child at Brown School to bring in one non perishable breakfast item. That would mean we could send about 550 items to JR Wilcox! Some ideas of what to bring are: cereal, granola bars, dried fruit, crackers, jam and fruit cups. Food must of course be nut free and can be left in the boxes in front of the office.

It won't be long before Outreach starts working on their Holiday Hampers!! With this initiative, Brown is able to make a real difference to 25 Toronto families who need a little help during the holiday season. Profiles for each family will be available and distributed to each class by November 28th. Stay tuned!

Invitation from Greenwood College Parents


For parents of Grade 6 students who may be considering private school for Grade 7, Greenwood College wishes to invite you to a gathering hosted by Greenwood College parents.  Please see the invitation below for more information:

http://brownschool.ca/documents/Greenwood%20Comes%20Home%20Invitation.pdf  

News from Around Brown - Oct 2011

Library News-Nouvelles de la bibliothèque

The Library and Learning Resources and Interdisciplinary Studies Department is very pleased to provide TDSB schools with a rich collection of online resources chosen specifically to meet K-12 curricular needs.

The school library website provides 24/7 access to online encylopedias, databases, e-books, and media resources from home, enabling students, staff and parents to access current, relevant, and reliable information for academic and personal use.

Some products are password protected during remote or home access and so each Brown student will be provided "learnmarks" a card which has all the logins and passwords. Also extra copies can be found in the library. We hope that you can use these resources with your family.

-- Marie-France Gagnon, Teacher-Librarian

Outreach

Me to We Day

By Roxy S. and Amelia F. (Grade 5 Students)

A couple of weeks ago, 13 kids from the Outreach Club went to Me to We Day, a special event created by Free the Children.  It took place at the Air Canada Centre and the place was filled with tens of thousands of children!

Me to We Day is about brave and generous people who come up on stage because they are inspired to help kids in need around the world.  They saw how children were living and they could not just walk away and do nothing. So when the speakers came up on stage they inspired us to also help and make a difference. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of kids! 

When we arrived at the ACC it was packed!  First we did the We Day Dance, a couple of times with Shawn Desman!  We saw Joe Jonas perform a song and he was also one of the main hosts. We listened to Patch Adams, the funny clown, who helps children in hospitals and we saw Spencer West, a man with only an upper body who is going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro on his hands to raise money for East Africa!  Nickki Yanofsky also performed I believe, the 2010 Olympic song, and Dalton McGuinty was a speaker too.  We were also very inspired by Craig and Marc Kielburger, the founders of Free the Children.

The thing that is cool is that we were all there for the same reason:  TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!  So it was a huge event for us and the Outreach Club. Hopefully we can go again next year!

Thank You!

A BIG THANK YOU to Mme Breslin and Mme Sulymko for making the Me to We field trip happen for these Brown Students!

On another very positive note, our first 2011/12 school-wide Outreach efforts have to-date been highly successful with our Thanksgiving Food Drive.  As of last Friday, we have had over 15 full large boxes delivered to the Toronto Food Bank (with likely more delivered the week of October 11th with last minute drop-offs).  Thank you all for your generousity - your contributions will make a difference in many families' lives over the holiday period.

Litterless Lunch Tips from the Eco Club

• Get children to help pack their lunches with healthy foods.
• Only pack as much food as your child will eat.  Uneaten food will come back as Brown has a boomerang lunch program.
• Use re-useable lunch bag/box for carrying a lunch.  Talk to other Brown parents and ask your child what lunch bins they have seen at school that they like.  There are several options, including bento-style lunchboxes that are available online by searching “litterless lunchbox”.
• Label all containers, thermoses, and water bottles so they have a better chance of coming home.  There are local online companies that will provide affordable custom labels which are sturdy and washable.  Or use a permanent marker.
• Use a refillable bottle for drinks- it’s cheaper and kids can save drinks for later! Avoid drinks in packages that cannot be resealed. After a few sips drinks are often discarded.
• Use a thermos for cold drinks or hot soups.
• Put sandwiches, muffins etc in “Tupperware” style containers, instead of plastic bags.  Stainless steel containers are great for foods that are not wet, and plastic containers that lock on all 4 sides are easier for little hands to open and close.
• Avoid or minimize use of pre-packaged, single-serving portions of snacks.  Some parents like to freeze yogurt tubes to help keep the whole container fresh.  Any packaging that is in your child’s lunch should be returned to their lunchbox and will come home.
• If your child’s favourite fruit is cut up apple sections, you can sprinkle a few drops of lemon juice to prevent it from going brown.
• Put re-useable cutlery and napkins in your child’s lunch box.
• Prepare extra food at dinnertime and use the leftovers for lunches.
• Minimize the morning rush (when you’ll reach for the convenience, over-packaged items) and pack lunches the night before and refrigerate overnight.

News from Around Brown - Sept 2011

Library News/ Nouvelles de la bibliothèque de Brown

Borrowing Policy

In general, the primary and junior students will have the opportunity to visit the library once per week. The junior students will have the opportunity to use the library for research at various times during the year; there is also an open book exchange time every day.

Lost Books

A partial replacement fee of $10 paperbacks/$20 hard covers will be charged for lost and damaged books.

Donations

Donations of new or “like-new” books are always welcome at the library. Please see Mme Gagnon for further details.

Volunteers

If you would like to volunteer in the library this year, please pick up a volunteer form from Mme Gagnon.

Lunch Program 

This school year we will continue to offer enrichment to our Lunch Program.  If your child stays at school for lunch, they are in this programme!  Our enriched Lunch Program includes indoor/outdoor sports, swimming and club activities during recess. 

We also offer a daily milk and monthly pizza lunch option.  The form for pizza and milk will be sent home this week, and should be returned with payment (cash or cheques payable to Brown School Lunch Program) by September 22^nd to ensure participation in October’s pizza lunch.  

Pizza Lunch Dates for 2011-2012

Fall:  October 28, November 25, December 16

Winter:  January 20, February 24

Spring:  March 30, April 27, May 18, June 22

Lunch Program General Guidelines

We are pleased to offer several classroom sites for Grades 1-2 to use to eat their lunches. Students in Grades 3-6 will eat lunch in the Gymnasium. 

To ensure that the program runs efficiently and safely for the large number of students staying for lunch, please observe the following:

• We request that you do not send food that needs to be refrigerated or microwaved. Please consider using thermoses and/or cold packs to keep your child’s lunch at the right temperature until lunchtime.
• Peanut Butter and Nut Products should not be sent to School – this includes products that “may contain nuts”.  Please see the Allergy Safe Suggestions for Parents section below for more information.
• We expect “Litterless Lunches” for environmental reasons.
• We have a “boomerang” program, which means everything your child does not consume goes back home, as well as all  litter. This will allow you to monitor how much food is being uneaten, and dispose of food waste in your green bin. 

Lunchtime Sports

First Term is Flag Football!

Once again Mr. Profiti will be running the Lunchtime Flag Football League three days a week (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) for the students in Grade 4, 5 and 6. If your child is interested in joining this fun house league please have them sign up with Mr. Profiti in the Gym as soon as possible. See Sports Corner below for more details!

Recreational “Noon” Swim for Grades 1 - 6

See the Aquatics News section below for full details!

Outreach News

The Toronto School Board has initiated a Toonie Tuesday event on Tuesday, September 20 for East Africa Relief.  To learn more, go to:

http://www.tdsb.on.ca/about_us/media_room/Room.aspshow=allNews&view=detailed&self=30743 
or speak to your child about the announcements made and posters mounted at the school.

The global charitable organization that Brown is associating with this year is, once again, Free the Children.  Free the Children is sponsoring "We Day" on Tuesday, September 27th at the ACC for which 13 lucky students from Brown will attend.  This day-long event has young people from across North America coming together to celebrate the positive actions they are taking and to launch a movement of youth working for social change. Through messages from world-renowned celebrities, speakers and musicians, young people not only learn about a diverse range of current issues, they gain the inspiration and knowledge needed to act.

Finally, stay tuned for the Thanksgiving Food Drive in early October.  Boxes will be available outside the office and the library for donations of canned and non-perishable food items.  All items received will be delivered to the Toronto Food Bank in time for the holiday by the Outreach Committee.

News from Around Brown - June 2011

Library News

Summer is here! Splash your kids into the public library’s summer reading program if you need books or fun things to do.

Also, a reminder that all library books should have been returned by June 7th. If you think your book is lost please pay the appropriate amount:

Paperback $ 10.00

Hardcover $ 20.00

Have a fantastic summer! Bon été!

Marie-France Gagnon, Teacher-librarian

QSP Fundraiser Returns This Fall

The QSP Magazine Fundraiser will be returning to our school this fall so please save your magazine orders (new or renewal) and order through our campaign to support your child’s education. If you can't wait until our campaign begins this fall, you can order any time of the year at http://www.qsp.ca/.

Exciting News From the Outreach Committee

Sage Garden Project is Underway

If you bought a water bottle at Garden Fete, than you have already seen the logo for the Sage Garden and may be wondering what it is all about. It is part of a garden and art mural project which is currently underway at Brown School. The project was kicked off in May when a Native Elder came and talked to each class about the importance of plants to native culture and the significance of the medicine wheel.

The Sage garden will be planted in the garden area near the sitting rocks. A series of murals that depict the plants and their properties will be attached to the fence to add colour and interest to the school yard.

Many of the classes in the school have been involved in creating artwork for the murals.  The classes were assigned a plant and asked to research its properties, the types of insects it attracts and any medicinal uses. The students then collaborated as to how to depict this information in a mural. The painting of the murals will take place this week and we are hoping that all stages of the garden will be completed by the end of the school year.

Brown is Bringing Back the Canadian Wild!

In April, the Earth Rangers and their animal ambassadors visited Brown to help raise awareness about the need to protect endangered species and their homes in Canada.  Without hesitation, the Brown community took on the challenge to protect the Jefferson salamander of the Happy Valley Forest (Ontario), the grizzly bear of the Great Bear Rainforest (BC), the peregrine falcon of the Upper Bay of Fundy (New Brunswick) and the wolverine of Crow's Nest Pass (Alberta).  Through a "Wild and Wacky" spirit day, a bake sale and a pledge campaign, the students raised an incredible $7,525.51!  What a great way to show your commitment to preserving our precious biodiversity right here at home, Brown!!  Great job!                                                     

Thank you from the Outreach Committee

A big thank you to all the students who participated in this year's Outreach Committee activities.  It was fun and we accomplished a lot.  A special thank you to teachers Mme Breslin, Mme Sulymko and Ms Hirsch!  Looking forward to reacquainting ourselves with our fellow members, as well as meeting new members, in September.  Have a great summer!