École St. Matthew's School Gazette

We are pleased to share our December newsletter containing important updates and information for all our École St. Matthew's School families.

Here's to a wonderful month ahead,

Charmayne & Allison

Charmayne Rumbolt, Principal

Allison North, Assistant Principal

Term 1 report cards are sent home home to families on Friday, December 1. Our Home-School Conferences will take place in-person on Thursday, December 7 from 12:30 - 4:30 and 5:30 - 7:30. Dismissal will commence at 11:15 on December 7 and there will be no school lunch that day.

Using OPTIS you can book appointments with classroom teachers, instructional resource teachers, physical education teachers and music teachers for Home-School Conferences taking place next Thursday. The OPTIS Scheduler opens for families on Friday, December 1 at 4:00 pm and will close on Wednesday, December 6th at 10:00 am.

To book your interview times, please visit OPTIS and follow instructions shared with all families last week.

In the spirit of giving and sharing at this special time of year, we endeavor to support some of our own École St. Matthew’s School families with our Holiday Cheer program. Thank you to our school community for your generosity in supporting our families over the years. If you or your business would like to help out a family in our community this holiday season, please reach out to Mr. O’Keefe or Ms. Upshall. We will be accepting monetary donations or gift cards from supermarkets, Walmart, Toys R Us and other businesses in the Cowan Heights area.

Please reach out to our Guidance Counsellor, Mr. Craig O'Keefe craigokeefe@nlesd.ca or our Department Head for Special Services Ms. Elizabeth Upshall elizabethupshall@nlesd.ca if you would like to make a donation or provide sponsorship.

Thank you so much for your continued support.

Holiday Cheer Committee

Our Scholastic Book Fair will take place December 4-8. Scholastic Book Fairs are a great source of revenue for our school and learning resources. Last year we recouped nearly $4000 in Scholastic Education Credits. Those funds have been used to purchase Science of Reading literacy manipulatives and STEM Materials that your children are currently using as they learn.

When children buy books and materials at our Fair, they receive a double benefit; they have the joy of owning and treasuring the books they chose themselves AND credits from their purchases empower their in-school learning.

There are three ways YOU can help us fundraise with Scholastic Book Fairs:

1) Volunteer at the Book Fair between December 4th to 8th. Volunteers help us keep the Fair organized and stocked. They are our cashiers and they lead students to books of interest. Volunteers play the very important role of tracking out of stock items so that children can get the book that's sold out on the day. You can register to volunteer with the book fair here: ÉSMS Scholastic Book Fair Volunteer Form.

2) Consider shopping at the Fair for friends and family that are outside the ÉSMS school community. The holiday season will be soon upon us and a book provides a cozy, screen free adventure.

3) Encourage your children to help us do Book Talks on our new and incoming books. Research indicates that most people pick up a new book on the recommendation of a friend. Book Talks help children to organize their thoughts, sequence their comprehension, and gain valuable presenting experience, all while they encourage their peers to get more involved in reading.

Thank you for all your support and for your commitment to helping us build and strengthen children's literacy with the latest learning resources.

The Scholastic Book Fair is a significant source of fundraising for ÉSMS. For each sale made during the fair, ESMS receives Scholastic Dollars which can be used for new library materials and, of particular focus this year, classroom literacy resources for our new UFLY Science of Reading program. When ÉSMS hits the $4000 sales threshold, our return on Fair proceeds goes to 50%. We've set a goal of $6000 for this Fair, so we're aiming high, but not unreasonably so...recent years have passed the $5000 mark. With a $6000 Fair return we will have $3000 with which to outfit every class with new and engaging literacy learning centres. Thank you for your contribution to the success of our fair. For more information on the Fair, please watch this inspiring video prepared by our Grade 7 volunteers.

ArtsSmarts is nearly clued up, but please do visit our MakerSpace during Home-School Conferences to see our ArtsSmarts Exposition. The exposition has over 400 works of art on display. All works are created by local artists and some of whom you may even know very well! The MakerSpace ArtSmarts Exposition is directly across from our Book Fair/Learning Resource Centre and will be open during conferences. Admission is free.

Thanks so much for supporting our last Silly Squad. We raised $221.00 to help support families in our school community this holiday season! Please see below for our upcoming series of holiday silly days!

Our annual tradition of giving at École St. Matthew’s School continues. Our Mitten & Hat Tree has been set up in our main lobby for students and families who wish to donate new mittens, gloves or a hat. The mittens and hats will hang on the tree until Friday, December 15, at which time they will be donated to those in need. Thank you for your support!

Coming Soon: Grade 1 and 2 Present "On With The Snow!"

Thursday 14 December @ 6:30 pm

If cold weather makes you shiver to and fro', you'll love our COOL show about friendship and SNOW! Come see our grade 1 and 2 students warm us into the cold winter weather with a musical about the wonders of winter, and the friendships and fun that come along with it! Featuring shovelers,

snow monsters and friends, learn how real warmth starts from within and

can spread like a blizzard when shared with a song!

Ticket info to come soon. There will be a limited number per student at a cost of 2$ each,

and a raffle for "Best Seats in The House" as well!

If your child had photos taken during our recent retake day, you are reminded that the deadline for placing orders online is Tuesday, December 5.

Our 2023-2024 KinderStart families should have all received correspondence via email regarding our upcoming sessions. Our first KinderStart session will take place on Friday, December 15. As a result, there will be no classes for Kindergarten students that day.

Our forthcoming Climate Change project has furnished us with a heat transfer press. It is suitable for pressing transfers on cotton blends and will be nice for classes doing a t-shirt or bandanna for some special internal event. The press will be used to build awareness around climate change and specifically how a one degree drop in a family's thermostat temperature makes for a big reduction in carbon emissions. We are grateful to the Conservation Corps of Newfoundland and Labrador for supporting this new all-school maker project. We will be sharing more details on the main project in early January and will be welcoming volunteer support.

The fine folks @ Brilliant Labs has furnished us with a large format colour printer (posters up to 13x19). This printer is available specifically for student work and, more specifically, for posters related to positive social action. If a class is studying, for example, World Water Day, they can prepare info posters in Canva and print them for distribution in the school community. Volunteers who wish to advertise Silly Squad events and causes could do similarly. These types of infographics and advertisements link well to the curriculum in visual literacy and prudent selection of information for an audience in the English Language Arts and French Language Arts curricula. We're excited that students can take their lessons outside the classroom, build awareness around important issues and take action for a better world.

The Wellness Coalition of Avalon East has supported our Outdoor Learning efforts by funding a cart containing outdoor cushions, clipboards with integrated rulers, magnifying glasses and numerous book titles which connect to Indigenous culture, tradition and science. The cart will be available for sign out from the Makerspace Google Form and stands at the ready to support learning in Math, Science and well, any subject. We believe the cart is an invaluable addition in our efforts to build connections between the environment, conservation and our human ability to learn everything everywhere.

We are simply delighted to have so many volunteers and community foundations active in supporting deep learning and student engagement at ÉSMS.

École St. Matthew's is ever so thankful for our volunteers! They have served in our library organizing, cataloging and bringing new books to our shelves. They have been fantastic aiding students and our artist Trudy Flowers during our ArtsSmarts program and now this week they're helping our learning, our fundraising, and our students during our Scholastic Book Fair. Along the way, these volunteers have made some new friends (both young and old), too. If you'd like to be a part of our volunteer community reach us through this Google Form or by direct email to launshoemaker@nlesd.ca.

School Lunch ordering for the month of December opened on Tuesday, November 7th and closed on Wednesday, November 15th. If you missed out on the orders for December, you can still register and place an order for January once ordering opens on December 5. Registration is available online only and is required to order meals. To register please visit https://schoollunch.ca/. We also ask that you attempt to select menu options that your child will eat to reduce food wastage.

Wintry weather is upon us, so it is very important that your child is prepared for outside learning and wellness each day as we will continue to go outside for movement breaks and learning as the seasons change. We ask that you encourage your child to check our Lost & Found if they are missing items, and to keep a spare pair of socks in their backpacks should their boots fill with snow while outside.

St. Matthew’s is collecting recycling used eyeglasses in conjunction with the Lions Club. The Lions Club will pick up the glasses, clean and repair them and then send them on to a country in need. Your used glasses will be matched by a professional optometrist to a person in need and your support will help them with reading and learning.

The time may have gone back an hour and daylight is getting shorter but that has not slowed down our love for learning! We made colourful diyas to celebrate Diwali and attended our first school Remembrance Day assembly. Another first was our field trip to O’Brien’s Farm where we saw baby goats. We rode on a REAL yellow school bus!

November also brought guests to our classes. We had storytime and created some art about violence prevention. We have begun a special sealskin crafting project with Ms. Trudy and we look forward to learning more about Labrador and the Inuit culture and life.

In Ms. Williams Grade one class we have been busy investigating the weather, especially our first snowfall and mystery fruit the Canary Melon, it was delicious! We love playing literacy and math games together and with our buddy readers.

Mr. Barry’s class paid tribute to Le Jour de Souvenir by creating personalised French poems inspired by the connections we all shared with our Wall of Honour. Additionally, the class connected and reconnected with other learning spaces within the walls of ESMS including having our first of many visits to the Funshine Room. Speaking of fun, the class had a grand time soaking up their science experiments on anemometers during a rainy day. Somewhere in the universe Axel Rose was singing “November Rain” to us all!

Our 2023-2024 School Council looks forward to working in partnership with all members of our school community to ensure engagement and learning for all.

A list of current council members, together with meeting minutes and upcoming meeting dates can be found on our ÉSMS website. Should a member of the school community wish to attend a Council meeting to speak to a particular matter, please send along a note to charmaynerumbolt@nlesd.ca including name and topic for discussion. This information will then be forwarded to Council Chair John Cowan for inclusion in the next meeting agenda.

There will be no ÉSMS School Council Meeting in December, but Council will reconvene on January 17, 2024 at 5:30 pm.

Feedback Required:

School Council would like to proceed with process for official renaming of St. Matthew's School to École St. Matthew's School as a means to reflect our English and French Immersion streams and our dedication to the promotion of both of Canada's official languages. Any feedback on this initiative can also be forwarded to the above address for consideration by Council.

Policy Corner:

Each month, School Council will highlight an NLESD policy of pertinence and interest. Please find our December selection below:

Acceptable Use of Technology

Friday 1 December

Term 1 Reports released

OPTIS Home-School Meeting Scheduler opens at 4:00 pm

Wednesday 6 December

OPTIS Home-School Meeting Scheduler closes at NOON

Thursday 7 December

Home-School Interviews, early dismissal begins at 12:15 am

Friday 15 December

1st KinderStart Session; no classes for Kindergarten students

LAST DAY for School Lunch Program for December

Wednesday 20 December

Final day of classes prior to holiday break, early dismissal begins at 11:15 am

Tuesday 2 January

School reopens (Day 5 on 7-day Cycle)

Wednesday 17 January

School Council Meeting at 5:30 pm