Prep School NOVEMBER 9, 2023
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Prep School Highlights
Prep School Highlights
Friday, Nov. 10 to Monday, Nov. 13
Fall midterm break (students return to class Tuesday, Nov. 14)
Tuesday, Nov. 14
📖 Community Reads book club 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Wilder Library
Wednesday, Nov. 15
🕓Student late start day
Friday, Nov. 17
👕UCC spirit dress day
A message from the Head of the Prep School
A message from the Head of the Prep School
Sarah Fleming
Today we had two meaningful Remembrance Day Assemblies in the Prep. For the SK to Year 3 assembly, students sang a song, read a story and reflected with a moment of silence. For Years 4 to 7, students from 7F and 4B put on moving presentations involving spoken word, poetry, movement, music and theatre. We were honoured to have special guests Mr. Laidlaw, Mr. Eaton and Ms. Saunders in attendance. Remembrance Day is an important day to honour our history, and to continue to wish for peace in our contemporary times.
This week also marks my last full time week of work before beginning my leave. I will be in next week for a few additional transitional meetings; however, Julia, Gareth and David will be taking over the bulk of my roles and responsibilities from this point forward.
We have tremendous momentum around many of our operational and strategic goals for this academic year, and I know the team will continue to provide regular updates. You all know that our Prep Leadership Team is deeply committed to a partnership approach with families, and that core value will continue to drive our communication and work in my absence.
I am exceedingly grateful to the entire UCC community for their support during this exciting time for my family. I have the utmost confidence both in the incoming Prep Leadership Team for their calm and steady leadership, responsiveness to feedback and strong focus on improving student learning and wellbeing. As well, I am grateful for all the incredibly skilled professionals in the building who are working hard each day to build strong relationships and design transformational learning experiences for your children.
My email will continue to be active throughout my leave; however, if you have any urgent questions or concerns, please be in touch with Julia, David or Gareth. I look forward to being in touch and introducing my daughter when she chooses to make her debut!
Wishing you all a wonderful long weekend.
Your partner in learning,
Sarah Fleming
Head of the Preparatory School
SIGN UP | Primary and Middle three-way conferences
SIGN UP | Primary and Middle three-way conferences
Please note that pickAtime (pAt) will open at 4 p.m. For your convenience, here is a link to the pAt instructions.
Primary three-way conferences will be held in person on Friday, Nov. 24 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Middle three-way conferences will be held virtually on Thursday, Nov. 23 from 1 to 8 p.m. and Friday, Nov. 24 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Detailed information about conferences will be included in next week's Heads Up.
SK | Update
SK | Update
We have been having such a wonderful autumn with our group of SKs! We are really getting settled in now and have been able to launch a more complex and fulsome learning centre routine. We have enjoyed playing phonics games, making books, sentence writing, graphing with various materials, observing seasonal items from nature and more!
Pride Week served as the perfect review and culmination of our Who We Are unit, which explored the concepts of identity and belonging. We read Elmer, The Patchwork Elephant by David McKee and reflected on how Elmer learned the importance of being yourself and embracing the things that make you unique. In the words of our students, here are some key takeaways from their Pride Week learning and our identity unit:
“It’s about identity, which means all the things that make you who you are.”
“Not to hurt other people’s feelings, not letting their pride go down.”
“You’re beautiful because you’re you.”
“You are special just the way you are and everyone is good at being themselves.” “You don’t have to be the same as other people.”
We were quite impressed with the depth of discussions we were able to have with this group about identity! We were able to extend these conversations into our Halloween Week with a study of Spookley, the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano. When the other pumpkins tease Spookley for being different, the SKs exclaimed “It’s okay to be different, Spookley!” “You’re great just the way you are!” “It’s okay to be any shape!” It was heartwarming to hear them apply this learning.
We are launching our How We Express Ourselves unit. The central idea of the unit is, “we all have feelings and are learning to express them.” We will be thinking about how to identify our feelings and how we might recognize how others are feeling. We will talk about different strategies that help us express our big emotions and will develop an area in the classroom to practice these strategies. We will also follow students’ interests and questions to see where else the unit might take us.
In our math program, we have been exploring numeracy with a focus on building fluency and flexibility when working with numbers from 0-10 (and beyond). The students have particularly enjoyed learning and playing various math games in Math Centre time. These games practise skills such as 1-1 correspondence, counting on, comparing values, number formation, counting strategies, subitizing, and more! We have seen them independently initiating these games during play all throughout the day, though they especially love playing with Mr. Ismail, our Primary Math Coordinator, or playing any game that can be adapted to a teacher vs. students format! Additionally, we are just wrapping up our exploration of data collection and graphing. The students enjoyed coming up with their own questions, collecting data with tally charts, and transferring their information to bar graphs. They also engaged in a lot of rich math talk surrounding our Lego Drive graphing activity!
Thank you all for your continued collaboration so far this year. Your contributions, presence and willingness to participate are greatly valued by students and teachers alike! We look forward to more opportunities to collaborate this year!
Kind regards,
Primary Music | Update
Primary Music | Update
Across the primary grades we're continuing to sing songs related to Remembrance Day and Canadian veterans. We've been discussing the appropriate tone and mood for each song, depending on the message and the audience. Additionally, our students are preparing for upcoming December performances at the Festive Marketplace (selected classes only), and The Festival of Lights (for SK to Year 4). Please stay tuned for more information.
SK to Year 3: In these grades students are exploring various rhythmic symbols and patterns. They then apply this knowledge when playing holiday songs on their Orff instruments. For extra practice please check out the videos posted on Seesaw.
Year 4 and Year 5: These students are making excellent progress on their instruments. They've established a regular practice routine by taking their instruments home on Fridays and returning them on Monday mornings.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Musically,
SK–Year 5 Music Teacher
Year 6–7 Choir Director
Middle French | Update
Middle French | Update
Dear Parents,
We hope this newsletter finds you well. As we embrace the joys of the season and the continuous growth of our students, it is our pleasure to share some exciting updates from the Middle French Department.
Academics
Our Year 6 students have been diligently working on their first unit, and their teachers are now completing their final assessments for Unit 1. We are thrilled to announce that they will soon embark on their second Unit of study, "Bon Appétit." Learning a language is not just about words; it's also about culture and experiencing the essence of a language through its culinary delights. In this new unit, your children will explore the world of French cuisine.
To evaluate their progress, students will be presented with two menus, featuring both formative and summative reading tasks. These tasks aim to develop their comprehension skills by identifying explicit and implicit information, analyzing the conventions used in the text, and making connections to the material (Criterion B). Additionally, they will compose organized and creative responses using a wide range of Unit 2 vocabulary, conventions, and cohesive devices (Criterion D).
We firmly believe in the "backwards design" approach, where we guide students from the outset about what the final assessments will entail, giving them a clear roadmap for their learning journey.
Our Year 7 students have been diligently working on their first unit as well, and they are about to complete their final assessments. After the upcoming long weekend, they will dive into the exciting world of Unit 2, "Les vêtements autour du monde" - Fashion Around the World. Fashion is a unique expression of culture, beliefs, and climate, and this unit will take our students on a worldwide fashion exploration.
Through formative and summative reading tasks, your children will delve into the diversity of school uniforms across the globe. These tasks will enable them to identify explicit and implicit information, analyze the conventions used in the text, and make meaningful connections (Criterion B). Students will also have the opportunity to become fashion critics and express their opinions through formal letter writing, incorporating unit vocabulary and grammar conventions.
Language and Culture
We are excited to announce that UCC's World Languages Week is scheduled from April 15 to April 18. As part of this event, the Prep will host its traditional Semaine Francophone/French Week. We are in the process of organizing special concerts and performances for all levels at the Prep and eagerly anticipate running our traditional French Spelling Bee at the Middle Assembly.
Exchanges
Our first group of students has returned from their enriching 5-week exchange program at L'École La Source in Meudon, France. Six students from Year 7, 8, and 9 had the incredible opportunity to participate in this annual Language and Cultural exchange. They attended school full-time and experienced French culture by staying with billet families during evenings and weekends. We encourage you to read this delightful article about the experiences of one of our talented Year 8 exchange students, Ferrari Zhang.
In the upcoming March Break, our second group of 11 students will be embarking on their own adventure. We encourage you to keep an eye out for our posts in Head's Up related to both French Exchange programs. These exchanges offer our students invaluable experiences and lifelong memories.
We thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to our French program. If you have any questions or require further information, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to sharing more exciting updates with you in the future.
Best regards,
Peter Labancz
French Language Learning Leader
Thank you for donating to the Halloween Candy Drive
Thank you for donating to the Halloween Candy Drive
Thank you to everyone who donated their candy! The women and children at Robertson House shelter are grateful to the UCC community for the yummy treats.
Christina Staikos and Kate Viner
PPO President and Vice President
SAVE THE DATE | Uniform purchasing available on campus
SAVE THE DATE | Uniform purchasing available on campus
DGN-Kilters will be stationed on campus with their mobile sales van, located just outside the William P. Wilder ’40 Arena & Sports Complex on Friday, Nov. 17 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Prep families will have the opportunity to purchase winter dress uniforms, gym attire, colour house t-shirts and hoodies and facilitate exchanges or returns.
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