The Eagles' Nest

The school year might be wrapping up but there is still a lot to get done this month.

Spring Festival Thursday June 2 3:30 – 7:00.  Favourite returning events include the Festival Stage, The ever popular JARS, Bag-a-Bottle, Bake Sale & Cake Walk, Plant-a-Flower, Face Painting & Nail Polish, Arts & Crafts, Button Making, Retro Games
Popcorn & Cotton Candy. The festival can’t run without volunteers, if you can donate an hour of  your time please click here to sign up.

Speaker for Parents:  On Thursday, June 9 we are excited to announce Dona Matthews, author of Beyond Intelligence and Being Smart about Gifted Intelligence will be at the school on to discuss “Growth mindset, ways parents can support a growth mindset in their kids, helping them approach math more positively, enjoy it more and do it better; blowing up myths that some kids are just good at math, and some just aren’t”.  Thanks to the Ministry of Education’s Parents Reaching Out grant for enabling the School Council t0 arrange this evening.  For more information on Dona Matthews check out her website.  The talk will be in the evening (time still to be determined.)  Free childcare will be provided.

Bike to School Week (May 30 –  June 1)   Ms. Dew and Mr. Bush have organized this healthy event to celebrate cycling and active transportation.  Please check your child’s backpack for a handout with details about our school event.  To learn more about the initiative around the GTA visit: biketoschoolweek.ca

Grades will be participating at various times throughout the three days:

Kindergarten – Monday, May 30th 9:00-11:30 am
Grade 1 – Tuesday, May 31st 9:00-10:10 am
Grade 2 – Tuesday, May 31st 10:25-11:40 am
Grade 3 – Tuesday, May 31st 12:40-2:00 pm
Grade 4 – Tuesday, May 31st 2:10-3:10 pm
Grade 5 – Wednesday, June 1st 9:00-10:10 am
Grade 6 – Wednesday, June 1st 10:25-11:40 am

Volunteers are needed, please email courtenay.dew@tdsb.ca  Helmets are mandatory and keep your hands on your handlebars!

The Bottle Drive scheduled for May 28 has been postponed until the 2016-17 academic year. Seems a national cancer support agency has the same idea we did about collecting empties after the May long weekend and will be holding their bottle drive that weekend,  as they have for the past 10 years. Thank you to those who had volunteered to staff the table or had been saving their empties.

Also ahead in June:
FDK Open House – June 14
Staff appreciation luncheon, June 16, potluck donations and volunteer servers sought, email earlhaigschoolcouncil@gmail.com
Grade 8 graduation – June 27

Next School Council meeting: June 15 (last meeting of the year!)

Stay in touch – You can get all sorts of updates via our Twitter account @EarlHaigCouncil and Facebook page http://on.fb.me/20yB1TH

The Earl Haig Spring Festival will be held on Thursday June 2 from 3:30 – 7:00 in the schoolyard. Volunteers are needed to run various events, such as staffing the barbecue, selling food, set up and take down, and running the games and tables. We also need bakers for the Cake Walk and bake sale. To volunteer for any role at the Festival, sign up here.

Jars are a favourite of the festival, and one event which depends on the contributions of all Earl Haig families. We have over 450 students at Earl Haig – that’s a lot of jars!  We rely on jar donations from everyone to ensure no child leaves the jar line disappointed!

If you are new to the Festival, we are here to explain the Jars phenomenon.

1. Find an empty clean jar. (Empty jars (with lids) can be donated to, or picked up for filling from, the Office.)
2. Fill the jar with fun items.
3. Bring the jar to the school office prior to the Spring Festival (by June 1st).
4. The Festival Elves will number every single jar, and remove the jars which are not safe (broken items, old playdough).
5. On the day of the Festival buy tickets for the activities, stand in the Jars line**, when it is your turn hand in ONE ticket and you will pick a number. The jar with the corresponding number will be located by the volunteers and given to you.
6. Voila! Jars.

** Jars have THREE release times, 4:00, 5:00 and 6:00. JARS timeline

Ideas for jars: wrapped candies, crayons, lip balm, hair chalk, sidewalk chalk, small plastic toys, coins, new in the container playdough, seed packets, beads, magnetic letters, post it notes, unfrozen freezies, craft supplies, toy cars, small rubber balls, band aids, erasers…anything child friendly that will fit in a jar.

Bad jar: Clothes pins and string in water.  Oh Pinterest, what have you wrought?

Salad in a jar is a lunchtime mainstay of many, but not a good donation to the Festival.

Confusing Jar: So. Many. Questions.

For the adults we have Bag a Bottle. Please donate a Gift Bag with adult oriented bottles. Examples include olive oil, hand lotion, bath soaps, wine, dish soap. The premise is the exact same, buy a ticket and discover what is in your bag.

We thank you for your donated jars and look forward to seeing you on June 2!

Things are picking up speed as the end of the school year approaches. The School Council has many events in the next few weeks to let you know about, starting with tomorrow night’s School Council meeting from 7 – 8:30. The meeting will be held in the Music Room in the basement and free childcare is provided.

The agenda includes: Robotics and the new Parent Tech Subcommittee,  Spring Festival, Parents Reaching Out Night with speaker Dona Matthews on June 9 and an update from the school.  Hope to see you there!