Eco News

January
This Month’s Eco focus G.O.O.S

Waste Management

G.O.O.S. Bins

The January focus is minimizing the amount of waste we consume. January is G.O.O.S month, an acronym for Good On the Other Side. Pine Grove has been busy trying their best to reduce waste and recycle paper as much as they can. . G.O.O.S. bins are currently set up in all classrooms (good on the other side bins). Students are encouraged to use recycled paper for their notes, rough work and sketches at home and school. Paper is always good on the other side especially if it is blank because it can still be reused. Rather than recycling construction paper that we have in our classroom, our students can use the other side or pieces of the paper for other work. Some blank pieces of paper that we may throw in the recycling bin can be reused as note paper or rough paper in our homes. This is a great way to reduce the amount of waste we produce and a creative way we can recycle paper without much effort. 

Crayola Challenge!

The challenge is still on. Remind students to bring those markers into our school. Collections will occur in late January. Once again the winning class will be awarded.

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Pine Grove Continues to Reduce their Energy Consumption!

Sweater day

Every Friday til March Break-March 11^th. Wearing layers encourages us to lower the heat in our homes or school which helps to reduce energy!

      Lights Out Wednesday and Friday Continues!

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Pine Grove lets continue to work at saving our planet!

From: Mrs. Avsec and the Eco-club

Kindergarten Registration 2016

Kindergarten Registration to Commence January 15, 2016

Kindergarten registration will commence on January 15, 2016 for the 2016-17 school year. 

Registration forms are available on YRDSB’s website: www.yrdsb.ca. Children who turn four or five years old during 2016, live within the Pine Grove Public School boundary and whose parents are public school tax supporters will be eligible to register for kindergarten. A kindergarten information session for parents is being planned for this spring. For more information please visit the YRDSB website or contact Pine Grove Public School at 905-850-0672.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year 2016!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year 2016! 

The Holidays are now almost over and we hope that everyone has had the opportunity to spend time with people that matter to you - family, loved ones and friends. We also hope that you all had time to rest, relax and rejuvenate so that 2016 can be a fantastic year! Now that the New Year has started, please take some time to reflect on the positive aspects of 2015 and embrace those with enthusiasm and bring that energy into 2016. Monday January 4^th is the first day back which brings thoughts of getting back to routines and setting some goals like: being early for school, making new friends, completing homework, reading with a parent or an older sibling every night and challenging yourself to try something new.

Students brought home their Progress Report Cards on December 11th. This report primarily focuses on information relating to both your child’s learning skills and academic performance relative to the Ministry of Education’s grade level expectations. Both of these areas are important. If students do not have good or excellent learning skills then they are not able to perform academically to the best of their ability.  If your child is still receiving an N (needs improvement) or an S (satisfactory) in any of the learning skills, then attention must be paid to their personal goals.  When you read your child’s report with them talk about how you can support their intended improvements for the remainder of the  first term of school.  Our goal is to have each of our students achieving E (excellent) in all of their learning skills to ensure success in all future learning.  These learning skills are life skills, which, when mastered, will lead students to future success regardless of the academic or career pathways they choose.

To support your child’s learning, you should be seeing homework, assignments and test dates recorded in their agenda every night.  A regular routine for homework completion is necessary for success.  When students complete their work during class time, use that extra time to read just a little more each night or engage your children in fun math-based games such as: Monopoly, The Game of Life or Yahtzee to mention a few.  It is recommended that backpacks are packed the night before to eliminate the rush in the morning. We offer these suggestions to help get our students on the right track for the remainder of the school year.

The cold weather is finally upon us and for the skiers and snowboarders out there, we wish for record amounts of snow in January and February so we can all play catch-up to an extremely slow start to the season! This also means that it is important for children to come to school dressed ready for our winter weather wearing snow pants, boots, hats, mitts, jackets and scarves. Students are expected to go outside for morning recess and lunch recess so that they can get some activity and exercise everyday.  

Please remember to get your children to school on time by 8:25 am. Thank you to those parents who do this consistently! By having your child in class ready to learn you enable them to be as successful as possible and benefit from all the great teaching at Pine Grove P.S.

Greg Brown
Principal

School Cash ONLINE!

Pine Grove P.S. is accepting online payments through School Cash ONLINE!

School Cash Online provides the following benefits:

•   A convenient fee payment option that saves time

•   Reduces paper

•   No more need to send cash or cheques to school 

•   A quick way to register. It takes less than 5 minutes to register.

Parents that opt to participate will receive notification via email of student fees owed (both required and optional), and can make secure online payments by credit card or Interac and receive a receipt.

To view a presentation about the program, go to http://www.kevsoftware.com/movies/ParentRegEnglish/.

Follow the easy steps on the next page to register and get started!
                                                      

Step 1: Register

a)     Click on the School Cash Online button on our school’s website at http://pinegrove.ps.yrdsb.ca/

and select the “Get Started Today” button.

b)    Complete each of the three Registration Steps

*For Security Reasons your password, requires 8 characters,

 one uppercase letter,  one lowercase letter and a number.

Step 2: Confirmation Email

A registration confirmation email will be automatically forwarded to you.  Click on the link provided inside the email to confirm your email and School Cash Online account.  The confirmation link will open the School Cash Online site prompting you to sign into your account.  Use your email address and password just created with your account.

 Step 3: Find Student

NOTE: A STUDENT NUMBER IS REQUIRED

 This step will connect your children to your account.

a)    Enter the School Board Name

b)    Enter the School Name

c)    Enter Your Child’s Student # and Last Name

d)    Select Continue

e)    On the next page confirm that you are related to the child, check in the Agree box and select Continue

f)     Your child has been added to your account 

Step 4: View Items or Add Another Student

If you have more children, select “Add Another Student” option and repeat the steps above.  5 children can be added to one parent account.

If you do not wish to add additional children, select “View Items For Students” option.  A listing of available items for purchase will be displayed.

NEED HELP?

If you require assistance, select the GET HELP option in the top right hand corner of the screen or contact School Cash Online – Parent Help Desk at 1-866-961-1803 or parenthelp@schoolcashonline.com.

York Regional Police Advisory and Safety Tips

York Regional Police Advisory and Safety Tips

The attached community alert was sent to us by York Regional Police with a request to distribute the information to our school communities. In accordance with the Police-Board Protocol, we are sending you the press release along with the following tips to remind your children about personal safety.

Here's what children need to know:

• Their name, age, telephone number, address, city and province.  This can be done through rhyme or song.
• How to contact their parents at any time, by memorizing cell or work numbers.
• How and under what circumstances to call 911.
• To never approach or enter a stranger's vehicle.  A responsible adult would never ask a child for directions or any other question for that matter.
• Make sure they know they have a right to say "no" to an adult, especially when the adult is asking them to do something they have been taught is wrong or feels uncomfortable.  Reminding children of this right is important because children are taught from a young age to respect adults.
• To always tell parents where they will be and to never enter someone's home without their parent's permission.
• If home alone, never admit it when answering the phone. Never answer a knock at the door or speak through it.  Adults can be very persuasive.  Teach your child to call you if there is a knock at the door and if they fear for their safety, teach them to call 911.  Make sure they know that police officers are there to help them and would not get mad if it were a false alarm.
• If they think they are being followed or are in danger they should run home or to a public place.  If someone grabs them, they should try to get away, yelling and screaming while doing so.
• It is important to play in safe areas, never take shortcuts and stick with a buddy whenever possible.

It is never too early or too late to teach children the importance of personal safety.  Common sense, communication and consistency are the keys. Remind children to alert a responsible adult if something strange happens that makes them feel uncomfortable. Remember, crime prevention is everyone's responsibility.

For more information on this subject, visit www.yrp.ca.

York Regional Police Community Alert and Safety Tips

Trustee Greetings

December 2015 – Trustee Greetings for School Newsletters and School Websites

Message From Our Trustee

It is that time of year when our schools brim with energy and excitement for the many diverse celebrations taking place across our region. I am always happy to join the festivities happening in our schools and appreciate the efforts of our students, staff and community members to bring the holiday season alive.

As we wind down 2015, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our parents and guardians for their support of our students and staff over the past few months. A school community is only as strong and welcoming as the people who make up that community. Our students, staff and community members have continued to demonstrate respect, character and commitment in their work and interactions over the last few months. As a trustee, I consider myself very fortunate to work with such supportive community and staff members.

On behalf of all of the trustees and staff of the York Region District School Board, I would like to wish you and your families a very happy holiday season.

All the best for 2016!