The Eagles' Nest

Bullying is a major problem in our schools, workplaces, homes, and online. Pink Shirt Day aims to raise awareness of these issues, as well as raise funds to support programs that foster children’s healthy self-esteem. 

Earl Haig PS will be participating in Pink Shirt Day tomorrow, Wednesday, February 24th. If you have a chance, please consider encouraging your child to wear a pink shirt (or mask?) tomorrow to take a stand against bullying and to stand up for their peers.

As we enter the last week of Black History Month, we want to acknowledge that teachers at Earl Haig have been addressing Black Lives Matter as part of their discussions this month. For families who have the privilege of not experiencing racism, it is especially important to continue these discussions at home and books can be a great part of that effort.

There was a great conversation earlier this month in the Earl Haig Families Facebook group about family resources for Black History Month — here are some of those shared titles (and more!) that are in book collections of fellow EH families:

Kindie/Primary

Sulwe
Ada Twist Scientist
The Day You Began
Don’t Touch My Hair
Dataset series of comics
Science comics
Hair Love
Cleopatra in Space
Ellie Ultra
Jabari Jumps
Zoey and Sassafras
Africville
Viola Desmond will not be Budged
Trailblazers – The Black Pioneers Who Have Shaped Canada (only at Indigo)
Bold Women in Black History
Anti Racist Baby

Junior/Intermediate

What Lane?
The Hate U Give
Slay
Ghost Boys
A Good Kind of Trouble

A Different Booklist and Olds Cool General Store are great spots to find wonderfully curated books and many of the titles above can also be found at the Toronto Public Library.

Send us an email if you have any great book recommendations you think we should share.

In addition to building our own diverse libraries at home, parents and caregivers should always feel comfortable chatting with teachers about what books are being read in class that feature BIPOC kids, queer kids, non binary kids, and disabled kids in regular life. Let’s keep these important conversations going — this month and every month — for the benefit of our whole community.

Happy reading, everyone!

Join us tomorrow evening at 7:00 PM for our next School Advisory Meeting. Shayle Graham, from the TDSB equity committee, will be speaking and answering questions and Marc Mullan, Principal from DA Morrison, will be talking about the transition to middle school for the French Immersion program. We’ll share the full agenda as soon as it is available.

Here are all the tech-y details you need to log in to the meeting:

Join our Zoom meeting
https://tdsb-ca.zoom.us/j/91798453191?pwd=bjd2UElQa1R3NnNEQ1lHRHpzbDZXZz09

Meeting ID: 917 9845 3191
Passcode: 872858
One tap mobile
+16473744685,,91798453191#,,,,872858# Canada +16475580588,,91798453191#,,,,872858# Canada

If you haven’t already, consider signing up for our Google Calendar to make sure you never miss a meeting or event notice. Get the calendar and instructions at the link above.