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Dear Prep Families,

This week’s edition of Prep Heads Up includes learning updates along with need-to-know highlights for the week ahead.  Next week is a short week and it is also Valentine’s Day! There is a much anticipated bake sale on Wednesday organized by the PPO — a budget of between $2–$5 should secure them a delicious treat or two.  

At UCC, we believe in putting learning in context, and giving real-world connections whenever possible. We also value learning from external experts!  We were so fortunate this week to have had many special guest presentations. Here are some of the highlights:  

Jake Ernst: We were thrilled to welcome Jake Ernst, Clinical Director at Straight Up Health this week to speak to our Year 3, 4 and 5 students. He spoke with students about social media, friendships and responsible decision making in today’s digital world.  He also asked those kids what they want to hear from their parents, and we are sharing a few of those quotes here. There is nothing more powerful than hearing directly from our children what makes them feel seen and known:

• “I’m proud of you.”

• “How was your day?”

• “I see you improving.”

• “I love you.”

• “I know you worked hard.”

• “You’re doing great!  Keep up the great work!”

• “That’s my boy!”

• “Yes, of course.”

Jake returned in the evening for a powerful parent presentation sponsored by the PO and PPO, and will be speaking with Year 6 and 7 students in March.  

Liz Kleinrock: Our Connor Chair, Liz Kleinrock, returned to UCC again this year.  She met with all students in the Prep on Wednesday to read selected pages from her book, What Jewish Looks Like. The book highlights Jewish trailblazers. Liz Kleinrock is an educator, author and consultant who works in the areas of inquiry-based learning and belonging, two areas that align well with UCC’s focus on transformational learning, wellbeing and pluralism. 

Jim Calder: Year 7 students had the opportunity to learn about the history and cultural importance of the ancient game of Lacrosse, and its Indigenous history.  Jim grew up as one of the only Canadians to play purely field lacrosse, and won many accolades during his playing career.  In more recent years, he has dedicated himself to growing the game as a coach, documenting the history of the game, and has been honoured by the Haudenosaunee for his work preserving the game and using it as a means to begin Truth and Reconciliation.  

Be sure to ask your children about their takeaways from these incredible guest presentations!  

This morning, the Middle assembly was focused on Black Excellence Month. Students from the Upper School spoke about the origins of the Black Excellence Society and explained UCC’s shift from Black History Month to Black Excellence Month. As BZ Coleman-Goldkrand shared: “Black history is the story of excellence, of people like Marcus Garvey, Usain Bolt, Malcom X and Viola Desmond. Our goal with swapping these two simple words is to alter the perspective of our community to view the Black experience not as something to be sad about but rather something to celebrate.” The assembly closed with our continued focus on our belief that at UCC, we want everyone to be able to be their best selves—and the importance of building each other up, confronting single-story thinking, and supporting one another.   

Thank you as always for your ongoing support of all that we do at UCC!

Your partners in learning,

Sarah Fleming, David Girard and Gareth Evans

The Prep Leadership Team

Update | Year 4

Inquiry
Over the next week, we'll be wrapping up our Matter unit along with the experiments we have been conducting in class. Some of these experiments are replicable at home, so make sure to ask your son about what we've been working on! For some fun, hands-on activities, here’s a link to a video with experiments that you can try together at home: Home Experiments.

Looking ahead, we'll be diving into our unit on Biographies. As part of this unit, students will have the opportunity to share family stories with the class, so feel free to start thinking about any personal or family histories that could be shared. In addition, each student will choose an individual to research, write a paragraph about, and introduce as if they were the MC at a special event. The boys will have a list of historical figures to choose from, but they are welcome to bring in their own research materials if they want to study someone who connects more personally with their family. If they choose to go this route, they'll need to bring in both online resources and traditional text sources to support their research. This is a great opportunity for the boys to exercise autonomy and make connections with the people they are studying!

Language
We're finishing up the Project Alpha novel study, focusing on prediction, character development, and dialogue. Be sure to continue having your son read out loud at home, as this reinforces fluency and comprehension. Engage in discussions about the story, asking questions like: “Who do you identify with?” or “Who do you think is the most effective teammate?” These questions help deepen their understanding of the characters and plot.

We're engaged in stop motion movie making which is connected to our novel study and allows students to engage in the story in a dynamic and creative way. In this project, children recreate a scene from the book or predict what might happen next, offering a visual representation of key moments. By using the Brenda and Reid Chen Innovation Lab and green screen technology, they can bring their ideas to life and create scenes that express their understanding of the plot and characters. The combination of storytelling and design skills helps students communicate their ideas more effectively, while also allowing them to explore the process of visual storytelling. It’s a great way for students to apply their comprehension of the book while developing their creative abilities in a hands-on, engaging environment. This aspect of our language studies reinforces both his understanding of the text and his skills in design and technology.

In parallel, we will continue reviewing the key elements of paragraph writing. Students will be refining their ability to craft clear, cohesive paragraphs that include a strong topic sentence, supporting details, transitions, and a concluding sentence. This focus will continue as we move through different writing activities.

Math
We have just finished Unit 7, Fractions, and will now skip over Chapter 8 to start our Graphing unit (Unit 9), with a special focus on line graphs. Students will practice graphing in their workbooks and graph real-life scenarios in their orange workbooks. This is a great opportunity to talk about graphing at home as well! You can discuss how to represent different types of data visually and look at graphs in everyday life (for example, weather charts, sports statistics, or store sales). Help your child make connections to the world around them, such as how graphing can be used to display and interpret information. This could be a fun way to involve your son in tracking things like their favourite sports team’s performance, weather trends, or even a family activity!

Dates to remember:

• Founder’s Dinner — Feb. 24:
  Please join us for the Founder’s Dinner on Feb. 24. It's a wonderful opportunity to connect with our community and celebrate the remarkable achievements of the school and its students. You can find more details and RSVP through the link here: Founder’s Dinner Details.

• Family Day Weekend — Feb. 14 to 17:
  The school will be closed for Family Day Weekend. This is a great time to spend quality time with your loved ones and focus on the wellbeing of your child. Encouraging moments of rest and relaxation with family helps to recharge students both physically and mentally, ensuring they return to school refreshed and ready to engage. We hope you enjoy this well-deserved break together.

Sincerely,

Mark Ferley and Michael Bushey
Year 4 Form Advisers

Update | Primary Art

The kilns (or clay ovens) at the Prep work hard, firing at least one or two handmade pieces from each student in SK to Year 7 every year. We have a small front-load kiln and a much larger top-load kiln, both tucked away in the back of the MYP Art Studio. Each piece actually goes into the kiln twice—once to reach the "bisque" stage and again after students have painted their chosen colour(s) of glaze. After a solid quarter-century of service to Prep Art students, our trusty old kiln was ready for retirement. Nancy Preston (Year 6-7 Art) and I are beyond excited about our brand-new kiln, which was delivered and installed last week. This new top-load kiln is a work of art in itself! The first batch of pieces to be fired are the intricate Year 4 and 5 sculptures!

A huge shout-out to our amazing parent volunteers who help install student artwork around the Prep, making sure the incredible creations of SK to Year 7 students are seen and celebrated. I often catch myself pausing throughout the day to admire the Year 4 landscape paintings currently on display in the Bitove Lounge and on the second floor—they’re just stunning! If you haven’t taken a stroll through the halls lately, I highly recommend it. There’s so much inspiring artwork to take in!

SK students kicked off the new year by creating fibre-art compositions celebrating winter. Many took on the extra challenge of incorporating patterns into their work, applying what they’ve learned in their homerooms. It was impressive to hear students confidently explain their chosen patterns—whether it was “a-b-a-b,” “a-b-c,” “a-b-b-c,” or something entirely their own!

If you attended the Year 1 theatrical production this week, you probably noticed the vibrant t-shirts worn by the performers. This year’s costumes were a fantastic collaboration between Visual Arts, Design, and Homeroom. In art class we discussed elements of effective graphic design and how to effectively balance positive and negative space. A special thank you to our incredible Design Technician, Amy Zhang, for coordinating the scanning, vinyl printing, and heat transfer of the designs onto shirts. It truly takes a village, and we’re so lucky to have one here at the Prep!

Year 1 students are now exploring how artists create the illusion of light using different elements of art. We’re diving into historical techniques like "chiaroscuro" and drawing inspiration from contemporary artists like Nicholas Party, the "monochromatic master." Students will soon be creating their own mixed-media monochromatic compositions using tempera paint and pastels—stay tuned!

Year 2s, inspired by their "Giggles" unit of inquiry, are exploring creative and unusual ways to gain artistic inspiration. They’re also thinking about how to use humour in art in a fun but respectful way. Their challenge? To distort proportions and combine features of everyday objects, plants, and animals in playful, unexpected ways. These imaginative mixed-media drawings and sculptures are sure to bring smiles and a few giggles to the hallways!

Year 3 students have been delving into the concept of perspective—both in terms of artistic technique and deeper meaning. They’ve been experimenting with one-point perspective tricks to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface. By examining Cubist artworks, they’ve also learned how artists can depict multiple angles and viewpoints in a single piece. Be sure to check out their striking oil pastel self-portraits in earthy tones, currently displayed in the Year 3 hallway!

Year 4 and 5 students are deep into their ceramic arts units. Year 4s, after studying mythological characters from ancient civilizations, have designed their own modern-day changemakers—figures symbolizing important issues. Their chosen themes include good sportsmanship, cultural pride, animal protection, plant medicine, peaceful conflict resolution, and friendship. Using slab and other hand-building techniques, they’ve created detailed and symbolic clay masks that will serve as lasting reminders of these meaningful values.

Meanwhile, Year 5s have launched into their storytelling sculptures unit, analyzing the symbolic artwork of contemporary Canadian Indigenous artists. Inspired by these powerful narratives, they’ve been developing their own clay sculptures to visually express personal "pourquoi tales" they’ve written in language arts class. Look out for these incredible pieces on display in mid-February, alongside accompanying Identity Passports (Year 4) and QR Codes (Year 5).

Upcycle Loose Parts for Art!

If you have any of the following items at home, we’d love to put them to good use in the Primary Art Room:

• Dry cleaner plastic bags (for wrapping unfinished clay sculptures)

• Newspapers

• Corks

• 750 ml plastic yogurt tubs

• Magazines with interesting photos of animals, buildings, nature, or people

• Old cookie cutters (we’ll use them for clay)

• Plastic netting (like the kind around clementine boxes or avocado bags)

• Extra-large cylinder aluminum coffee cans (1.36 kg size or larger)

Feel free to reach out anytime if you have ideas, questions, or feedback about the Primary Visual Arts Program.

Sincerely, 

Monika Kastelic,
Primary Visual Arts Specialist

GenAI at the Prep

As noted in the Dec. 19 edition of Heads Up, this year the College employee community has a focus on developing literacy around generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Our Prep faculty have been actively engaging in age-and-stage appropriate conversations around the ethical uses of GenAI in our classrooms and we are excited to share some of the impactful learning experiences that have been happening as a result of our deliberate and purposeful exploration into this emerging tool.

Year 3 Inquiry

In Year 3, students have been exploring entrepreneurship by designing their own businesses and wellbeing products to sell at a Market Day. To enhance this experience, teachers partnered with our Innovation and Technology Coach to create a personalized AI bot using SchoolAI. Acting as a virtual investor, the bot engaged students in real-time conversations, asking questions, providing feedback, and helping them refine their business ideas. Using their iPads, students practiced their communication and pitch skills, receiving personalized feedback to strengthen their plans. Teachers could also monitor interactions through a dashboard, allowing them to provide immediate support or additional prompts to extend their thinking where needed. This innovative use of GenAI is helping our students develop critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and a deeper understanding of the entrepreneurial process in a meaningful and engaging way.

Year 6 Design

Year 6 students used a customized AI feedback tool in MagicSchool while working on the final edits of their wellbeing videos. The “bot” asked students to provide some background on the topic of their video and then encouraged students to revise their written text first, prompting them to shorten and make their statements more memorable. It only offered additional suggestions after the student provided several revision attempts, and then, only provided three additional options. Many students chose to use their own revised statements instead of those recommended by the AI. This highlighted that AI can be a valuable learning partner and tool, but it should never replace a student's own work.

Middle Division Math 

Students were instructed to utilize the Flint AI tool to conduct a self-assessment of their existing knowledge in preparation for an upcoming unit. However, the AI tool generated inaccurate results, which led to a classroom discussion about the potential limitations of AI-based tools, particularly in the fields of mathematics and science. The incident underscored the importance of maintaining a critical and discerning approach when using AI tools, emphasizing the need to consistently verify and validate the information generated by such systems.

Year 7 Project Week

The Innovation and Technology Coaches are excited to be working with the Year 7 team as they focus on Head, Heart and Humanity for Project Week in March. Following a presentation by Jake Ernst, the Year 7s will have two hours of focused learning about GenAI. One hour will be instructional, covering the inner workings of GenAI and its social and ethical implications. In the second hour, students will utilize a purpose-built AI tutor. The AI tutor will provide feedback on student scripts for their elevator pitches, which is the culminating task for the week.

Please note that Prep students are never permitted to use any GenAI tool without explicit instruction from a teacher. Any tools that are offered to our students are customized to their needs and are used in a fully supervised manner. Each interaction is developed using educational AI software that the school has approved and all student interactions are fully tracked and monitored.

Joanna Martin

Primary Innovation and Technology Coach

Sarah Barclay

Middle Innovation and Technology Coach

Student support reminder

During check-ins at the beginning of Health and Life Skills (HLS) classes, many students have recently expressed that they are feeling tired. Some in Years 5–7 have also shared that they are struggling to stay on top of everything they need to do as school work and activity demands build.

It has been just over a month since the holidays ended, and returning to school routines seems to have taken time for some. Many have been experiencing the challenges of waking up earlier, restarting outside and co-curricular activities, and returning to a structured school and homework schedule. In addition, as report cards have recently been sent out students may be feeling added pressure as they reflect on their performance and set goals for improvement.

Given this, we have been reminding students that there are many people who can help support them at school and thought it would be a good time to remind parents as well. 

In addition to teachers, coaches, the Centre for Learning, and our administration, Counsellors Kayla Gosse and Martha Boyce are available to support students who may benefit from some one-to-one time to talk about concerns and build skills to help them manage. Teachers typically refer students for support and sometimes classmates bring friends to our offices, but parents are welcome to reach out as well.  Please speak with your child’s form adviser or connect with us directly if you are interested in support for your child. 

Ups and downs are a normal part of the school experience. While many challenges can be managed independently or with support from family or teachers, there are times when talking to someone who can offer additional strategies, problem-solving assistance, or emotional support can be very beneficial. We want to ensure students know the resources available to them and that it is okay to seek help when needed.  Please help us share this message with your children so they feel empowered to reach out if needed.   

In addition to speaking with students about supports, here are some of the other things we do on an ongoing basis to raise awareness about mental health and wellbeing at the Prep:   

• Regular check-ins during HLS classes that help build self-awareness, provide shared problem solving and reinforce the importance of each person within our community and our potential impact on others

• Links to mental health literacy through the Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum and the ‘Life Skills’ components of the HLS program

• Explicit teaching about emotions and coping skills including stress management

Thank you for helping us create a supportive environment for all students.

Martha Boyce                                                                      

Prep Counsellor                                                                

Health and Life Skills Teacher and Coordinator               

Kayla Gosse

Prep Counsellor

Health and Life Skills Teacher

Valentine’s Day bake sale

The prep is celebrating Valentine's Day with a delightful bake sale on the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 12 in the Bitove Lounge. Please have your son bring in baked or store-bought donations during morning drop off.  To ensure inclusivity, please ensure all baking is nut-free, and we'll also feature a dedicated gluten-free table of treats. If you know what you are bringing/purchasing, please let us know here.

Would you like to volunteer and spend a few hours with us? Click here to sign up.

And for all parents, don't forget to send your child with some money for the bake sale. A budget of $2–$5 should secure them a delicious treat or two!

Should you have any questions or need further information, feel free to reach out via email to bakesale@uccprepparents.ca.

A big thank you from your Prep Bake Sale Team,

Erin, Maria, Rabia and Jennifer

Sign up | 2025–26 PPO Advisory Committee

Dear Prep Parents,

The self-nomination process for the 2025-26 Prep Parent’s Organization (PPO) is now open!

Do you like to connect with other parents and feel part of a community? Maybe you love coming up with new ways to fundraise? Do you just want to be more involved in the school or have ideas about how we can make the Prep more sustainable? Join the PPO!  

Whether it’s a one-off event or a more consistent commitment you’re looking for, there's something for everyone on our committee. Please have a look through our advisory positions here.

PPO self-nominations will be open from Thursday, Jan. 30 to Friday, Feb. 27 at 5 p.m. 

Get involved and nominate yourself by completing this form. If you have any questions, please reach out to pastpresident@uccprepparents.ca.