Royal Oak School
Nov 1, 2024
OCTOBER NEWSLETTER
Dear Royal Oak Families,
Our first full month of school is behind us, and it has been one for the books! The glorious weather continues (no snowsuits under costumes this Halloween!) and there have been so many wonderful events and learning experiences for our students. At a glance, the newsletter below includes information about:
-A new fundraiser at ROCS for the holiday season
-The Scholastic Book Fair happening next week, November 4-8
-Parent Teacher Interviews on November 7th
-Our PD Camp running November 11-15 while the school is closed for our November Mid-term Break
-Highlights from our Month, including Halloween, the Cross Country Meet and more!
-Classroom updates about learning for your children across the grades
Yesterday, our students went out into the community to share the joy of Halloween and of being a “kid", with our community at large. We visited our senior friends across the street to sing and share our costumes, and then move throughout Old Town collecting food for our local food bank, Newark Neighbours. Like many learning experiences we prioritize at Royal Oak, this event is significant because it helps to teach our children that as we celebrate a joyful day full of candy, celebration and community, we need to also look outwards and keep in mind those who are less fortunate. Being part of a community means taking care of your community! With the help of you, our amazing parents who donated food, and local businesses in town, we brought in over 1000 food items for those in need, just as food stores need a boost going into the winter season. We thank you for supporting this special day and look forward to sharing the joy and successes of it with you!
Next week, the Upper Middle class will be meeting at Central Church on York Road on November 7th to work with Community Crew, a local non-profit who purchases and plans lunches for food insecure youth in Niagara. Our students will be assisting in making these lunch boxes, while learning more about the need across our schools and region. Another way our students are learning to use their hands to make a difference!
We also look forward to spending time with each parent/family next week on November 7 for Parent Teacher interviews. This is an important opportunity to engage in a conversation with your child’s teacher and learn more about your child’s academic progress and social-emotional development here at school. We encourage you to ask any questions you may have about your child’s learning journey and school and also to provide any information that can help us gain a deeper understanding of your child’s needs so that together, we may enhance their school experience. Please be aware, all interviews are meant to be in-person whenever possible, and an adult only experience to ensure open and candid discussions about your child’s development.
Finally, with nine weeks of school under our belt, we hope that our families, new and returning, are feeling settled and happy with the school year. We are constantly looking for ways to improve as a school, and truly welcome feedback or suggestions from our families about new initiatives you’d like to see, tweaks to improve our systems, or insights you may want to share. If this is the case, please feel free to share them here, or alternatively, send me an email to meet. It would be a pleasure. Help Us Improve!
Warm (and spooky!) regards,
Julia
Julia Murray, Head of School
ROCS Halloween Traditions Continue
ROCS continued a wonderful Halloween tradition again this year by visiting NOTL’s Long Term Care facility, where the students paraded in their costumes for the residents watching from their balconies. The residents love seeing our students dressed in their costumes and enjoyed performances from our Primary students. The yearly tradition has now gone on for over 6 years.
Our Trick-or-Eat event is a highlight for our students every year. Our classes split up to walk the town to collect non-perishable food items for the Newark Neighbours Food Bank, which is a vital part of our Niagara community. We would like to thank all those that helped with this event and everyone that contributed food items for this fantastic organization. There is still time to donate and we will be accepting food donations into next week.
CLASSROOM UPDATES
EARLY YEARS |
October was a very fun month in Early Years! We got to go to the pumpkin patch, celebrate Ms. A's birthday, and dress up for Halloween! In Literacy, we’ve continued learning about our Letters of the Week, working through Literacy centres (including using iPads for RazKids reading and Boom Cards for learning high frequency words), and starting some writing assignments. In Math, we’ve continued to learn about numbers from 0-20, including adding and subtracting. In Inquiry, the kids learned about Types of Communities. We also learned about Trees and Leaves and were able to create beautiful pictures using the leaves we found falling outside. We are so excited for what November has in store for us!
PRIMARY |
October has been an extremely busy but exciting month in the Primary classroom. Natural curiosity, inquiry and wondering have become a very important teaching method at Royal Oak School, and as a result of one child’s natural curiosity the Primary class became mushroom experts. One morning in early October, a student approached Ms. Robin, holding a small stick with three orange mushrooms growing from it, and wanting to show it to the class. This small, yet unique part of nature (found in the courtyard) launched a whole unit of study, learning, inquiry and knowledge building. The students were engaged in independent learning about the lifecycle and parts of a mushroom, designing and building a mushroom in the STEM centre, using a magnifying glass to sketch close-up drawings of different mushrooms, and using computers to discover and record interesting facts about mushrooms. We ended the unit with a mushroom hunt and dissection of the mushrooms that were found in the area around our school. Next up, it's all about pumpkins!
Patterning has been the focus in math this month. Students have been learning about repeating patterns, growing patterns, pattern attributes and pattern rules. One of the activities that students enjoyed completing was collecting various pieces of nature and using this nature to make patterns according to a given pattern rule.
Literacy has involved the Daily 5 centre rotations, Heggerty, UFLI and Writers workshop. Students are in the process of learning how to write a Personal Narrative. To practice this writing style, students worked in a group to write about our trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Students were given the task to write about the beginning, middle and end of the trip and illustrate each section. Creating detailed pictures has been a focus during this unit, as drawing a detailed picture helps the students add details to their writing.
The end of this month has seen the Primary classroom on two field trips. One was to The Great Pumpkin Patch in Fonthill. The children experienced a live demonstration about pumpkins, a trip through a corn and straw maze, a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch, where they were able to choose their own pumpkin and a tasty apple as a snack. The weather was perfect for this outdoor day. The second trip was a walk to the Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library. The students enjoyed listening to Halloween stories, a tour of the library, time in The Hive, and creative time. Students were also able to get their own library books and check-out material. This will be a monthly treat for the students from Primary to Upper Middle.
Looking forward to November, students will be learning about the importance of Remembrance Day, pumpkin discovery, and graphing. We are always learning and discovering in Primary!
PRIMARY JUNIOR |
October has been a busy and exciting month in our classroom! In Math, we’ve been working hard on Number Sense, using base ten blocks to better understand place value and rounding numbers with our “balloon trick.” We’ve also started exploring Financial Literacy, learning about the differences between needs, wants, and investments, and practicing counting coins and bills to build our money management skills.
In Literacy, we kicked off our novel study with The Wild Robot. The students worked hard on their first comprehension activity and showed great understanding of the story so far. We’ve also continued our Daily 5 routine and introduced a new spelling program, which has been a big hit with the students. In addition, students have been writing letters to their family members, asking for something they want—these letters will be mailed out soon!
Thank you to everyone who supported our “Trick or Eat” campaign! Students handed out letters to local businesses, and their efforts have sparked wonderful interest and engagement from the community. Go ROCs!
In Inquiry, we’re wrapping up our Plants unit by reviewing the parts of a plant and their functions. We’ve been monitoring our acorn experiment and writing down our wonders as we finish our plant adaptations project. A highlight of this month was our trip to the beautiful pumpkin patch at Bry-Anne’s. The students had a hands-on learning experience exploring the life cycle of pumpkins, identifying different types of pumpkins, and learning about the plant family they come from. We even got to see an example of prop roots in real life during our journey through the corn maze!
In Art, we’ve started discussing the significance of poppies in relation to Remembrance Day, and soon the students will begin their submissions for the Remembrance Day Poster Contest.
JUNIOR MIDDLE |
Happy October! The Junior Middle class was extremely active in the community as we participated in several events. The class had the opportunity to join the Primary Junior class to hand out letters to local businesses to support the school's Trick or Eat food drive on October 31st. In honor of Remembrance Day, we made beautiful poppy nets with the Poppy Team from the NOTL museum and the rest of the school. These nets are featured outside the school along with wreaths. Each poppy was carefully knitted or crocheted by the Poppy team. To see more of these beautiful displays, you can see them at the NOTL courthouse and the NOTL museum. Finally, our class walked over to the local library with the rest of the school to check out the amazing library facilities, like the Hive, and sign-out books! Our next trip to the library will be on November 22nd. As a class, we always love the opportunity to go out to the community to experience new things and learn!
We have continued exploring various topics in class, such as our Rocks and Minerals unit. We have created a blog website where each student will document their journey through this unit. This website will be used all year to track our learning adventures in Inquiry classes! To wrap up our descriptive writing unit, the students have become realtors to sell spooky haunted houses! Each student was tasked with designing their own haunted house and advertising its key features such as rooms filled with spiders or creepy dolls! While a terrifying assignment, it is one that the students have enjoyed.
It has been yet another wonderful month in the classroom! I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the term will bring!
UPPER MIDDLE |
October has come to an end but the learning has not! As this month ends will are wrapping up several units and moving onto new and exciting things! In math we are finishing up measurement of three dimensional shapes and moving into measuring angles so stay tuned for some fun activities that are to come. In this last week of October we will be wrapping up our Space unit with independent study project presentations on different topics presented by every student. Our Upper Middle students put on their author hats as they wrote what they thought the next chapter of our class novel study would be using their knowledge of the characters and events in the book to propel their predictions. As we move into November, we begin our unit in Comprehension.
Outside of the classroom we have participated in collaborating with the NOTL Museum to decorate nets with poppies knit and crochet by community members in celebration of Remembrance Day coming up. Students learned about the history of the Poppy, why it is used as a symbol of remembrance and what different colours represent. Our students also participated in our Annual Trick-or-Eat by traveling through the community to collect food donations for Newark Neighbours. We traveled to the NOTL library for our first community afternoon and began to explore the wonderful resources the library has to offer. Lastly, at the beginning of the month we welcomed back ROCS Alumni to share what it is like to embark on the journey of highschool and to provide the best tips and tricks for success! Thank you Alumni!
We have many more exciting events coming up in November! Stay tuned.
Royal Oak Holiday Fundraiser - NEW THIS YEAR!
Royal Oak has partnered with two amazing local establishments, The Exchange Brewery and Henry of Pelham Winery, to boost fundraising for our school.
As the holidays grow nearer, we are asking our families who host or frequently are hosted, to consider purchasing any wine or beer for events or dinner parties through the organizations and links below.
An amazing 20% of all purchases will be gifted back to the school!
These purchases, which are a regular purchase for many of us throughout the holiday season, can help the school tremendously throughout November and December and all profits will be used to support student bursaries, new programming and special events here at ROCS. Deliveries of orders made before November 27 will be dropped at the school on December 2, and those after that date will be delivered by December 16.
We will also be sending out an email to each of our families today with the information provided here so you can easily forward the fundraiser to any family or friends you know who could help support this fundraising initiative.
Please consider raising a glass this season with The Exchange Brewery and/or Henry of Pelham to help Royal Oak!
WINE FROM HENRY OF PELHAM
Please use the link below to order your wine and be sure to use the code, ROYAL, at checkout to send your 20% donation directly to Royal Oak!
BEER FROM THE EXCHANGE BREWERY
The Exchange Brewery's delicious and wide array or beers for the season are included in this amazing fundraiser and can be ordered by emailing and sending in the completed spreadsheet below.
High School Transition Information Session and Parent/Teacher Conferences- Thursday, November 7th beginning at 3:45pm
This year, we are doing things a little differently for Parent/Teacher Conferences. Teachers will be staying late on Thursday, November 7th to meet with parents to update them on the successes of their children thus far. Teachers have posted their conference times and please reach out individualy to our specialty teachers if you would like to meet with them. Progress Reports will be live on Toddle as of 3:30pm Friday, November 8th.
Ms. Julia and Ms. Dennis will be presenting a high school transition information session for Grade 8 parents starting at 4pm on November 7. Please RSVP if you would like to attend the session or if you have any questions, please reach out to Ms. Julia or Ms. Dennis prior to the meeting.
NOVEMBER BREAK CAMP AT ROCS
We can't believe November Break is just around the corner (November 11-15). We understand that families may require childcare during our week off, so we are happy to be offering our November Break Camp again this year! If you need your child to attend, please complete this Google Form. Camp is $50/day for each child. If you have multiple children attending, please complete a separate form for each one. Please send your total in an e-transfer to admin@royaloakschool.ca with "November Break Camp" and your child's name in the notes section.
Please note, the deadline to sign your child(ren) up is Friday, November 5th, as we need to staff the camp accordingly. After this date, the form will be closed, and if there are not enough registered, we may have to cancel the camp.
If you have any questions, please reach out to camps@royaloakschool.ca directly.
Fall Scholastic Book Fair Nov.4th to 8th
We are looking forward to hosting the Scholastic Book Fair yet again this year. Times for purchase are listed below and it will be Debit and Credit only this year to help with the organization of the fair. Students will get a first look on Monday, November 4th and will write down any wishlist items they might have. Times for the book fair will vary depending on the day. Please reach to Ms. Robin or Ms. Dennis with any questions. |
Fall Scholastic Book Fair 2024 Schedule
Monday, November 4th to Friday, November 8th
Book Fair will be open for buying: *Debit or Credit only to buy.
Tuesday - 8:30am to 9am and 3:40pm to 5pm
Wednesday- 8:30am to 9am and 3:40pm to 5pm
Thursday- 3:40pm to 7pm
Friday- 8:30am to 9am and 3:40pm to 4:30pm
Remembrance Day Poppy Presentation by the NOTL Museum
ROCS Primary Junior, Junior Middle and Upper Middle students learned about the importance of the “Poppy” this past week when volunteers from the NOTL Museum came to visit the school. They discussed why the poppy is important for Remembrance Day and gave a history lesson for our students. They then helped our students make poppy nets for our school and wreaths for Sentinel Horse and Carriages to remember those animals that were used and died in conflicts throughout history. The Primary Junior class delivered these wreaths and were surprised with a carriage ride back to the school.
On Friday, November 8th, ROCS students will have the opportunity to participate in a presentation from Diane Ross from the Memory Project. The Memory Project organizes school speakers that are Canadian veterans. We will host Diane Ross and her military dog. This presentation will be at 11am and will replace our November 11th ceremony because of the November break. The town of NOTL will still be doing an observance at 11 am on November 11th and has invited Grade 8 student, Mariia Yevtushenko to say the poem, “In Flanders Fields” by Dr. John McCree at the ceremony. We are very proud of Masha and can’t wait to support her at the cenotaph on that Monday.
Clubs Updates:
The Fall term for Clubs is almost at an end, and six weeks of fall clubs will end the week of November 4th for the following clubs:
Monday- Eco Warriors, Comic Book Club
Wednesday- Volleyball Club, Joyful STEM club
Thursday-
Friday- Wonder Club and Volleyball Club
The Homework Clubs will continue year round!
We want to extend a huge thank you to Dr. Steven Khan, dad to Seren and Host of our “Joyful STEM Games” Club, for his organization and work in running our Fall Club. Our students learned so much, were exposed to wonderful new ways of thinking and engaging with games, and had a blast. Thank you, Dr. Khan!
We look forward to introducing our Winter Club Selections to you the second week back in January, for the Winter Club Session that begins the week of January 20th, 2025
Homework Club is Open! We are still offering Homework Club, every week on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3:40 to 4:30pm. Students who need to complete assignments or homework can be referred by parents or teachers to the homework club. Only those students that need to catch-up on missed work or that need a little support for homework completion can attend and they must be signed up by 8:30 am on Wednesday morning. Please reach out to Ms. Robin (Grade 1 to 3 Homework Club) or Ms. Dennis (Grade 4 to 8 Homework Club) if you have any questions or would like to opt in! |
All Weather Play!!
Children play outside in all-weather at ROCS (including light rain, snowy days, and cold conditions). Please send your child with outdoor clothing appropriate to weather conditions. As we enter into the rainy season, please provide indoor shoes so that we are not tracking mud into the classroom spaces and the carpets they lay on. Waterproof and warm clothing should be sent as well as change of socks for older students. For children in Grade 4 and under, please send a spare set of uniform clothes with socks, underwear and a shirt and pants- wet clothes do not make for optimal learning conditions!
Royal Oak Character Award Winners for
September and October
Royal Oak chooses a monthly character trait to teach and foster each month of the school year and our first Character Assembly of the school year took place on Friday, September 27th and celebrated determination. The Primary class presented a wonderful poem and discussion about what they are determined to learn this coming school year. October, students focused on Thankfulness and being Grateful. The Primary Junior class presented an assembly about how thankful they are for our school and its community. This month’s character winners were presented certificates and their choice of a pair of Ice Dogs Hockey tickets, an out of uniform day or a choice from Ms. Dennis’ prize box. |
Congratulations to our September and October winners:
Early Years: Eli K. & Malcolm H.
Primary : Simon A.C. & Emma R.
Primary Junior: Jack F. & Lias B. Junior Middle: Seren K. & Liam G.
Upper Middle: Wes R. & Masha Y.
ROYAL OAK CROSS COUNTRY MEET
6 Runners from ROCS trained hard this season with Ms. Julia in the Royal Oak Running Club, and had the opportunity to compete at Wheatley School against five other schools across the region. Each of our runners gave it their whole heart, and had exceptional runs. A special mention to Lias Badr in Grade 3 for a third place finish amongst over 70 runners!
“Date Night” Babysitting at Royal Oak
Twice a year, Royal Oak teachers provide a “Date Night Out” to Royal Oak families to support special, “adult-only” times of year! The first of these will occur on December 6 from 5:00-9:00 pm at the school to provide some Holiday Shopping time for our families, child free! The cost per child is $40 or $60 for siblings, and includes dinner. Please sign up for this Date Night babysitting by emailing admin@royaloakschool.ca! The sign up will close on Decemeber 2 for planning purposes. Keep your eyes open for our second date night to be released for a Valentine’s Day night out!
Gaga Ball at Royal Oak!
A HUGE thank you goes out to Greg New, Gwenyth’s dad, for his time, efforts and handiwork in creating our very own Gaga ball pit! The students have a new favourite activity at recess and it’s been a wonderful addition to our outdoor play. Thank you, Greg, from the Royal Oak students.
A LOOK AHEAD AT ROCS: NOVEMBER 2024
HAPPY FALL!!!
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