Win or lose this weekend, Monday will be Blue Jays spirit wear day to celebrate their accomplishments and the spirit of team, resiliency and effort. Go Jays Go!

SK

Our youngest students have been having fun with a variety of activities, including singing, dancing, storytime and educational games focused on themes such as numbers, classroom objects, and colours. They're excited to listen to the language and enjoy practicing new words and simple sentences with their teacher. 

Coming up, they will begin a unit on family, where they will introduce their close relatives and discover how gender works in French. Later in November, they will also start learning the names of different body parts in French, building their vocabulary and confidence in the language.

Year 1

Our Year 1 students have been expanding their French vocabulary through a kinaesthetic approach, developing oral fluency with high-frequency, everyday words. This has helped them communicate confidently and effectively. They have also begun engaging with reading, starting with individual words and gradually progressing to short sentences.

I have been thrilled with their pronunciation and growing understanding of simple sentence structures. Several videos showcasing their work in class are available on Seesaw. 

Currently, they are working on a unit about friendship, which will culminate in partner video recordings. In these, students will engage in a short dialogue and share a few reasons why their partner is a special friend.

Year 2

After completing a couple of units focused on practical vocabulary, such as colours and prepositions of place—featuring active games and songs that provided rich opportunities for language practice—Year 2 students are now immersed in a health unit titled “J’ai une vie saine.”

Following a successful introduction to key vocabulary about staying healthy and living a healthy lifestyle, students are working on a project that combines writing and drawing to show their understanding. They will also practice pronouncing the new vocabulary and, when ready, record themselves. Once completed, the project will be shared on Seesaw.

Year 3

Our Year 3 students are enjoying a dynamic French learning experience focused on maximizing language exposure and strengthening oral communication skills.

They're alternating between their audiovisual program, Rémi, and an engaging story set in Senegal, a francophone African country, titled L'arbre ungali. This six-scene play follows a repetitive pattern to help students learn new vocabulary and language structures more effectively.

Throughout this unit, students will have opportunities for both individual and collaborative work, building their reading, speaking, listening, and writing skills as they explore the story.

Year 4

In Year 4, students have been exploring the cultural background of the story “L’aventure de Stéphanie,” which highlights the annual francophone festival Le Festival du Voyageur. Through various videos and documents, they are learning who the “Voyageurs” were and their role in early Canadian history.

This journey back in time examines the initial contact between Indigenous peoples and European Voyageurs in the 17th century, connecting meaningfully to their program of inquiry on Canada.

Students are about to begin a personal project on the festival and its historical origins. The project will involve researching images, writing, watching videos, and completing audio recordings. They will also continue alternating between independent reading using the reader Le voleur and their audiovisual program Rémi.

Throughout all activities, the primary focus remains on maximizing language exposure and strengthening communication skills.

Guillaume Dupre

Primary Years French Teacher

Students in Year 6 are beginning their second unit Number Connections. Year 7 students are beginning their unit on Algebra. Students recently engaged in a “Cubes in paint” activity involving multiple classes and introducing them to algebraic modelling; ask your child about it. 

Re-introducing Math Cafe
In addition to support available to Year 6 and 7 students in class and with their math teachers during Flex Time, students are also encouraged to take advantage of Math Cafe from 8 to 8:30 a.m. and during Flex Time every day except Wednesdays. Students are welcome to visit Math Cafe to practice, work on assigned tasks, seek support, solve mathematical problems and challenges, play with math puzzles and work with other students to prepare for math contests. Math Cafe is temporarily located in Actor’s Court and Bitove Lounge. 

Upcoming math contests for Years 6 and 7 students

BCC contest: Nov. 19 at 3:50 p.m. in Weston Hall — 125 students are registered to write the contest

Riyaz Ismail
Middle School Math Teacher

Year 6 is exploring colour unit 2: Before, during and after

Statement of inquiry: We document change to express our common humanity. 

We have been having such a wonderful autumn with our group of SKs! The class has really settled in, and we 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, and more! 

We are deep in our Who We Are unit now, which explores the concepts of identity and belonging. Through discussions, read-alouds, and activities, we have been learning about different aspects of our identities- including our names, passions and interests, appearance, traits, traditions and celebrations, and clothing.

We’ve had another fabulous month of Tinkering Tuesdays at the Prep! A big thank you to all the students and families who joined in and brought their creativity to life. We’ve been at full capacity for almost every session, with families coming together to share in the joy of creative problem-solving. It has been wonderful to see friends, families and siblings from other schools join in the fun!

This past month, Year 2 and 3 students took on exciting family design challenges, while our SK–Year 5 events included a technology challenge and a Spooky Crafternoon featuring laser-cut haunted houses, mason jar monsters and other frightfully fun creations!

Coming up in November, we’re thrilled to host Year 1 and SK Family Design Challenges along with more SK-Year 5 sessions. Don’t miss out — register below!

A few important reminders:

• Year levels: Some Tuesdays are specific to certain year levels, while others are open to everyone from SK–Year 5. Please check carefully when signing up.

• Registration: Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If the Google Form says the form is closed, the session has reached capacity.
  
  

Time and place: All sessions run from 3:45–4:45 p.m. in the Chen Innovation Lab.

November 4 - Year 1 Family Design Challenge

November 11 - SK–Year 5 Tech Tuesday: Exploring Book Creator for digital book making
Please note: this is a repeated session to give more families an opportunity to explore 

November 18: SK Family Design Challenge
November 25: SK-Year 5 Crafternoon: Winter and Holiday crafts

Joanna Martin
Innovation and Technology Coach
Primary Design Learning Leader

Dear Parents,

We're excited to invite you to our upcoming Prep Academic Programmes Parent Information Session:

 📅 Tuesday, Nov. 12 

🕖  7–8:30 p.m.

📍  Weston. Hall

The evening will begin in Weston Hall with a warm welcome from Head of the Prep School, Sarah Fleming, followed by a joint introduction from Director of the WWCfL, Liz Kennedy, PYP Coordinator, Dianne Jojic and MYP Coordinator, Emilia Martin. Parents will then have the opportunity to join a smaller, focused session of their choice — exploring either the PYP, the MYP, or learning more about the WWCfL.

This annual session is designed to help families better understand the IB curriculum framework and philosophy, while connecting it to practical examples from our classrooms.

We hope you will be able to join us on Nov. 12 for this informative evening.

Warm regards,

Dianne Jojic – PYP Coordinator 

Emilia Martin – MYP Coordinator 

Jordan Small - Director of Academics 

Liz Kennedy - Director of the WWCfL 

Dear Families and Friends of Upper Canada College,

We invite you to a night of theatre! Please join us on Wednesday, Nov. 5, from 6:30–8:30 p.m. in Weston Hall. Admission is free of charge. Donations to the arts department are welcome. 

Year 4, 5 and 6 Plays

When a curious kid convinces his sleepy parents to read "just one more" Elephant and Piggie book, the stories come alive on stage! From silly mishaps to heartfelt moments of friendship, join us as we experience the joy and whimsy of Mo Willems' beloved characters in Elephant and Piggie. 

Year 7 Play

Trapped against their will in a dystopian future, a group of teens must battle against emotionally sensitive guards, limited budgets, and the trigger-happy Gamemaster to be proclaimed the winner. When the odds are this absurdly bleak, it seems certain that only the main character will make it out alive, but first the contestants must decide who the main character is. A bloodthirsty send-up of reality TV and young adult fiction.

With more than 60 students in our two productions, our show is definitely the place to be. 

Jennifer Harper

Year 6 Teacher

Have leftover Halloween candy? Instead of keeping it at home, consider donating to our Halloween Candy Drive! We are collecting candy in support of Robertson House, a Toronto shelter for women and children.

From November 3 to 7, donation bins will be available at the Prep reception for you to drop off any extra Halloween goodies.

Your generosity will help bring some joy to the families at Robertson House, a shelter that fosters the care and growth of women and their children. Thank you for your support!

All Lost and Found items will be laid out in the Prep basement across from the Hixon Family Design Lab from Monday, Nov. 3 to Thursday, Nov. 6. Students and parents are encouraged to come check out the display and retrieve their missing items. Any unclaimed uniform items will be donated to the Used Uniform Sale, and non-uniform items will be donated to charity. 

The best way to find lost items is to label them! Check out the Mabel's Labels PPO Fundraising link here.

Mark your calendars for this year’s Festive Marketplace Friday, Dec. 12. 

A wonderful UCC tradition that includes in-person shopping, an online Festive Auction, a bake sale, a snowball grab, student musical performances and more. Grab lunch with a friend. Meet for a coffee and a freshly baked treat. Enjoy exclusive shopping at one of our local curated vendors. 

Check out our Festive website for everything Festive!

Our annual Festive Auction goes live on Thursday, Dec. 4 at 8 p.m., and closes on Friday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. with new items being added daily.  

Donations are welcome

Our Festive Auction Committee is currently curating amazing items for the auction.

We’re looking for items and experiences to add into our annual auction. Things like chalet and cottage weekends, trips and excursions, sailboat charters, ski passes, golf rounds, tickets to sporting events, opportunities to meet celebrities, movie passes, airline tickets, fun or fine dining, behind-the-scenes chef dinners, a visit to a film set, etc. If you have something you’d like to add to our auction, we’d love to hear from you.

Simply complete this form or send us an email with item details.

If you’d like to donate, but aren’t sure of an item, you can donate money and we’ll curate an auction item on your behalf. Please send cash donations by e-transfer to treasurer@uccpo.ca (please write “auction donation” in the note). 

With your help, we can make this year’s Festive Auction a huge success.