February and March 2025
Dear Royal Oak Families Somehow, the longest and coldest winter seems to be slipping past us, and this weekend we “spring forward”! How nice that we have a holiday Monday to help us transition to the time change, and also, a new season! Don’t forget to set your clock forward and enjoy a little sleep in, if you can! It was a true pleasure to see so many of you at our incredible “Seussical” performance on Friday, and a joy to watch every single child in the school participate in this colourful and engaging musical. It has been said, but needs to be said again- thank you to our amazing, incredibly talented Musical Directors, Krista and Brittany! They worked tirelessly with our children and their combined efforts showed! A huge thank you is also necessary to the following parents/volunteers: Shannon Fletcher (Costumes) Julian Mainprize (Sound) Pat and Jackie Crytes (Set design)Robin Ridesic and David Clemmer and Stephane Aubin (donated beverages) It takes a village and we are so fortunate to have parents and staff who are so generous with their time and talents. February and this first week of March have been very busy months at the school. Report cards were sent electronically on February 21, and are an important opporunity to sit down with your child and celebrate their growth and accomplishments. This month has also been full of many field trips and extra opportunities for our children. Despite frigid temperatures at times and record snowfall, it has been such a treat to watch the students enjoy a true winter, with snowman building, forts, and snow soccer as favourite activities. Skating at the Pillar and Post as a school was the first school skating trip in many years, and it was a blast. Thank you to all the parents who loaned skates and helmets, and to those who came out to join us as well. We are so lucky to live in a community that is so walkable, and that offers so many rich activities for our kids!The Re-enrollment deadline for Royal Oak is quickly approaching, and we need to hear from our families about their intentions for the 2025/2026 school year by March 30, 2025. Our Early Years class is almost full for next year, we need to understand which spots we can open to new families. Primary and Primary Junior classes are also welcoming many new families, and to properly staff and create class lists, your attention to this is appreciated. Please use this simple and fast form to let us know your plans, and send the $500 deposit to finance@royaloakschool.ca This money will be deducted from your first tuition payment in July, and is simply a placeholder for your child in their class. The school is closed for the next two weeks for March Break (March 10-21 inclusive), though our amazing teachers are running a March Break Camp next week, March 10-14, which has over twenty children enrolled. March also brings with it many cultural celebrations, and to those celebrating Ramadan, the beginning of Eid, Purum and Holi- Enjoy the wonderful festivities and time with family! Julia Murray, Head of School |
OUTDOOR WINTER FUN AT ROCS |
A Heartfelt Thank You for Making Seussical the Musical a Success!
As the final curtain falls on our production of Seussical the Musical, we want to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who helped bring this whimsical show to life.
First and foremost, to our incredible students—thank you for your boundless energy, passion, and dedication. Your hard work onstage was truly inspiring, and you brought each character to life in a way that only you could. Your commitment to rehearsals and your love for the arts shone through in every performance. You made the impossible seem possible, and we couldn’t be more proud of you!
To the families—thank you for your unwavering support. Whether it was running lines, creating costumes, or helping with transportation, your involvement made all the difference. We know that behind every performer is a family that provides the encouragement and love needed to succeed, and for that, we are incredibly grateful.
Finally, to our talented staff members—thank you for your tireless work behind the scenes. From choreographing, making props, practicing songs both in and out of class time, designing our sets, and helping backstage, you worked countless hours to ensure the production ran smoothly. Your creativity and leadership were the backbone of this entire project, and we couldn’t have done it without you.
Together, we created something truly special, and we hope that everyone who attended the show was able to experience the magic and joy that Seussical brought to the stage. Thank you all for making this a production to remember!
With heartfelt thanks,
Ms.McMackin and Ms.N
Shift in our Daily Schedule for the Third Term
ROCS daily schedules are changing due to our teachers' need to focus on academics for the Third Term. Music and Drama will not be offered at official times in our schedule for the third term. This will allow more focused class time on core subjects like Math, Literacy, Science and Social Studies. Music and Drama will be taught by our homeroom teachers at their discretion. Official Music and Drama classes will commence again in September. If there are any questions, please contact Ms. Julia or Ms. Dennis.
ROCS sings the anthem at the Ice Dogs home game on March 21st
For the third year in a row, ROCS staff and students have the privilege of singing O’Canada at the Ice Dogs home game at the Meridian Centre in St. Catherines. This year because of the schedule, our hockey night falls on Friday, March 21st which is the last day of our March Break. We are very lucky that we were given a date so close to the end of the Ice Dogs season.
To kick off the event, 3 of the Ice Dogs Hockey Team Defencemen visited ROCS to talk about how hard they work to be on the team and what it takes to be such a young person playing on an OHL team so far from their homes and families. The students had a wonderful time hearing their stories and asking questions.
Those families that have reserved tickets will get a reminder email about where to pick up the tickets and where students are to be for singing O’Canada. Many of our teachers will be in attendance to help sing, then bring the students back to their parents to watch the game. Thank you to the Ice Dogs for this opportunity and GO TEAM!
Fenn and The Giant Blue Secret
This week on March 3, we had the pleasure of a visit from Michele Doucet, author/illustrator of the book, “Fenn’s Giant Blue Secret”. MIchele read her book to our Primary, Primary Junior and Junior Middle students, and shared the message of celebrating our own uniqueness. The book follows a bear who is ashamed to be different, until he realizes how special being different really is! Michele followed her book reading with an art project with each child, where they created a creative piece all in blue - that now makes up a beautiful collage that will hang in our school. It was beautiful to see the children’s special creations, and watch them so engaged in the art process. Michele’s book and her bear, Fenn, are available for order on amazon using this link, or through the forms below (where all proceeds go to the author!)
CLASSROOM UPDATES
EARLY YEARS |
What a lovely month we’ve had in Early Years! We’ve spent the past few weeks talking a lot about kindness, acceptance, and friendship, going along with the many holidays celebrated in February. In Literacy, we are reviewing and diving deeper into CVC words and word families. Specifically we’ve been learning about words that use the short a and short o sounds. We’ve also continued our daily Heggerty lessons, where we are learning to listen to words and identify if they rhyme, what sound they hear at the beginning, middle, and end of words, breaking words into syllables. In Math, we started the month learning about data and making different types of surveys and graphs. Currently, we are learning about the different coins we have in Canada. In Inquiry, we’ve been learning about different states of matter, such as identifying solids, liquids, and gasses. Two of the best experiments we’ve done in this unit so far are making Ooblek (or cornstarch mud) and growing crystals! The kids have been working hard and truly deserve their two week March Break! I can't wait to continue sharing their learning with you following the break.
PRIMARY |
It is hard to believe that another month has come and gone in the Primary Classroom. Although the shortest month of the year, it seems like February was one of the busiest months at Royal Oak School. From the beginning of the month to this week, the Primary students have been engaged in so many activities, both within the classroom and beyond. With the beginning of February comes the recognition of Groundhog’s Day. Students learned about these unique animals by reading non-fiction text and completing writing activities. Student wonderings suggested that they wanted to learn more about these creatures, so they have been busy designing and constructing the burrows and tunnels that these animals make underground. They are using a variety of materials and using their imagination and learned knowledge to complete this hands-on task. This is all part of our Everyday Materials, Objects and Structures Inquiry Unit, which will continue with more hands-on discovery centres. Data Management has been the focus for math this month. Primary students have been engaged in group tasks, learning how to sort given items according to one and two attributes, how to construct Venn diagrams to display their sorting rules, conduct surveys with classmates, and display their collected data in pictograms, bar graphs, and line plots. The month of February is not only academically engaging, but so many other important events occurred this month. In February, the Primary students celebrated Valentine’s Day with friends by sharing Valentine cards with each other and decorating their bags to collect their special cards. Valentine’s Day was also the 100th day of school and Primary girls and boys created pictures using the number 100, drew pictures of what they will look like when they are 100 and completed various physical activities in 100 minutes. February is the month we celebrate kindness and one way we do this is by wearing pink shirts on Pink Shirt Day, learning about Black History and participating in Jump Rope for Heart. Primary students learned about what it means to be an upstander and how to stop bullying and were active participants during our Jump Rope event. The boys and girls in Primary have gained a great understanding of and appreciation for Harriett Tubman and her contributions to the Underground Railroad. We will continue our learning of this important part of our history in the spring with a tour of the Voice of Freedom display in Niagara-on-the-Lake and discovering all of the important landmarks in our area. The end of this busy month saw the Primary Class dressed as The Whoo’s in our production of Seussical the Musical and enjoying a visit and reading from Canadian author/illustrator Michele Doucette, who shared with us her book, Fenn’s Giant Blue Secret. What a wonderful visit from an inspirational woman!! Well, after all of this, we wonder what can happen in the spring???
PRIMARY JUNIOR |
February was a packed month filled with exciting learning experiences, projects, and special events! Our class showed incredible enthusiasm and dedication in everything they did, from preparing for Seussical to tackling hands-on challenges in various subjects.
In math, we wrapped up our measurement unit, focusing on perimeter, area, mass, and capacity, and have now moved on to time measurement. The students did a fantastic job on their pretest, and we are eager to dive deeper into this new unit.
In literacy, students completed their product challenge, where they created engaging advertisements using persuasive techniques such as celebrity endorsements, expert opinions, and incentives. Their presentations were fantastic! We also finished reading The Wild Robot and are looking forward to celebrating with a Fork & Film event.
Our science inquiry focused on strong and stable structures. Students explored man-made, nature-made, and animal-made structures, learning about the forces they must withstand. A highlight was our field trip, where we studied Indigenous structures, the materials used in their construction, and their importance. This learning was applied in an exciting engineering challenge, where students worked in teams to build two-story structures designed to withstand earthquakes, hurricanes, and outdoor conditions. We tested them overnight and analyzed the results the next day!
In art, students created surrealism pieces, which turned out wonderfully creative and imaginative. We ended the unit with a gallery walk, where students admired each other’s work and shared thoughtful feedback.
February was a month full of hard work, creativity, and hands-on learning. We can’t wait to see what March brings!
JUNIOR MIDDLE |
Another month has come and gone in the Junior Middle classroom. While the shortest month of the year, it has been jam-packed with many exciting events! This month we explored our community with a fun skating trip at the Pillar and Post. We then had the opportunity to head to Ball's Falls in Lincoln to learn about animals in the winter while taking a beautiful hike to the upper falls. This month was filled with special events such as our snowy Valentine's day, Jump Rope for Heart, and Pink shirt day. Finally, we concluded the month with the long awaited production of Seussical the Musical Jr. I was so proud of the amazing performance from our class and the whole school!
In Math, the students explored the Spatial Sense strand by looking at identifying and classifying different shapes. The students applied this knowledge to solving area and perimeter for rectangles. We concluded this term with our final assignment connecting our Inquiry and Language Arts units! Since January, the students have been learning how structures are impacted by outside forces such as hurricanes. We connected this to our novel study "Safe as Houses" written by Eric Walters, where 3 children fight to survive Hurricane Hazel yet their home gets washed away by the flood. The students applied their knowledge of structure building against forces to create their own house that had to withstand the elements of wind, water, and winter!
When we return from the March Break, we will be starting brand new units! We will be moving on to our next novel study, "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin. This novel study will launch our mystery writing unit where students will explore the mystery genre by writing their own mystery story before participating in a murder mystery story. In inquiry, we will explore the concepts of Light and Sound and how they impact the world around us.
Have an amazing March Break!
UPPER MIDDLE |
Hello Upper Middle Families!
It is hard to believe that it is already March Break! We have been very busy in the Upper Middle classroom but academically and extracurricularly. This past month has been full of colour and life and laughter as we prepared for Seussical the Musical Jr. All of our students worked so very hard to put together the performance as well as build and design props to bring the show to life and we are so proud! As February comes to an end, so does our novel study of The Maze Runner by James Dashner as well as our historical inquiry of the War of 1812. Our students got to travel back in time and go on a field trip that explored the historical sites from the War of 1812 itself. Students visited Queenston Heights park and took part in a guided tour that told the story of the Battle of Queenston Heights. Our second stop was to the Niagara Falls museum where students learned about the Battle of Lundy's Lane as well as got to explore their fantastic War of 1812 exhibit. Students also had the opportunity to explore the rich history of Niagara. Our final stop was Beaverdams Park. Along the way, students presented their learning of individual summaries of battles within the War of 1812. Students are now using their knowledge learned from The Maze Runner and The War of 1812 to write expository essays exploring themes of conflict resolution and collaboration. In math this month students have explored positive and negative integers, representing integers and integer operations. As we move into March we will be moving into fractions and decimals as well as a poetry unit in Language Arts. Our next Inquiry unit will focus on structures. We are wrapping up this term with our Become an Expert Library presentations which is the lead up to our final Genius Hour Project next term.
Have a fantastic and restful March Break and enjoy time with your families.
Our Camp Wenonah trip is fast approaching this year and we will need to start confirming numbers for the trip. Camp Wenonah is located on Bird Lake in Bracebridge, Ontario. Students who are in Grades 3-8 and have registered, will participate in daily activities such as low ropes, water sports, backcountry cooking, and earth art, all while strengthening bonds with classmates, and building independence, confidence and friendships. Having the opportunity to attend camp allows us to live our Inquiry Learning philosophy by helping students learn and connect through experience. Activities have been specifically chosen to align with our educational philosophy and curriculum goals, as well as encourage the development of social-emotional skills such as empathy, collaboration, responsibility and the development of positive relationships with their peers and teachers.
Families that showed interest in their child going to Camp Wenonah, please fill out the permission form sent earlier this week and send a $100 deposit to admin@royaloakschool.ca by March 28th in order to secure your child's spot for camp. You can learn more about Camp Wenonah you can visit their website at https://campwenonah.com/ . If you have any questions, please reach out to Ms. Dennis.
Lower School students... get ready for an unforgettable Week Without Walls from June 3-6! This action-packed week is filled with thrilling activities like a Mad Science demonstration, yoga in the park, a visit from Reptile Kingdom, a delicious treat from Cows Ice Cream, and so much more! It’s the perfect chance for students to explore our community, learn, and have fun together. Plus, this year we have added a BONUS day! On Monday, May 26th, the Early Years and Primary students will all visit the Brock PALS Program! We can't wait to share all that we have planned with you! More details to follow, including specific schedules and pricing for the week.
Mark your calendars... Royal Oak Summer Academy is back! Registration information will be shared on the website, or you can fill out the ROCS Summer Academy Registration Form. New this year - if you refer a new family and they register their child, you will both receive a 10% discount on one full week of camp!
MARCH 2025
COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITIES
The Niagara Pumphouse Arts Centre’s Healing Arts for Kids provides disadvantaged children & youth in the Niagara Region the opportunity to participate at NO CHARGE in our Summer Art Camp. Our definition of disadvantaged is broad, and includes one or more of the following; financial, physical, mental or family status. This summer we are offering In-Studio Summer Art Camp opportunities for children and youth ages 4-12 throughout July and August.
For more information visit: niagarapumphouse.ca/programs
We need your help - please share this with families whose children would benefit from this program by forwarding the attached flyer. This year we have funding to cover a number of summer art camp spots, thanks to the generous support of Rotary Club of Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Testimonials from Parents & Students:
“I believe art is very important to anyone’s life. Having given my kids the opportunity to try it out was beneficial to both the children and myself.
“The experience this class gave my grandson was better than I wished for!"
"The instructors were amazing. They were helpful and kind; incredibly empathetic and supportive"
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at the Niagara Pumphouse Arts Centre - office@niagarapumphouse.ca or 905-468-5455.
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