March Newsletter Dates to watch for: March 2 – Grade 4/5 Ski Trip March 3 – Grade 7/8 Science Fair March 4 – Sharing Assembly – 9:30am March 8 – Grade 8 Ski Trip March 9 – Dance-a-thon March 14-18 – March Break March 22 – Switch Day – Friday’s Schedule March 25 – Good Friday March 28 – Easter Monday March 30 – Band Extravaganza March 30 – Switch Day – Monday’s Schedule March 31 – Sharing Assembly – 9:30am April 8 – PD Day April 22 – PD Day

288 Maple Grove Drive Telephone: 905-844-9322 Website: http://mag.hdsb.ca Twitter: @MapleGrove_PS

Superintendent: Mrs. T. Salmini Principal: Mr. G. Donaldson Vice-Principal: Mrs. R. Caruso Trustee: Ann Harvey Hope

Hello Maple Grove Families! We are looking forward to our Dance-a-thon this month, on Wednesday, March 9th! We hope you have been collecting pledges and sponsors from family members and friends to help support our Library Commons initiative. For more information on what we would like to do to transform our Library learning space, please click here . This is one of two fundraisers that is organized by our parent council, and we are hoping each family can gather $25 in support of our school. Each student with $25 in pledges/donations handed in by Monday March 7th receives a free glow ring! Please help them raise funds by contributing pledges on the cashless schools website: https://halton.cashlessschools.com. Out of town relatives and friends can also donate at https://www.pledge.me with a major credit card. Also new for this year, Cosmic Store Items are also available on our cashless site! This allows the students to order their items ahead of time and have them delivered to their classroom. Avoid the disappointment of out of stock items the day of the event! You can also encourage your children to request their favourite music. This can be done at http://musicrequest.ca . The parent council and volunteers are working hard to make this year’s Dance-A-Thon an amazing day for the students. Please have them return their pledge envelopes by Monday, March 7th. This is their entry ticket! All returned envelopes are entered into a raffle to win a class cosmic store prize! Thank you in advance for your continued support. Have a Monumental March, Maple Grove! Mr. G. Donaldson, Principal, Maple Grove P.S.

Fun Fair - SAVE THE DATE!

March Council Meeting Cancelled

Come one….come all to the Spring Fun Fair! Right here at Maple Grove on Saturday May 28th - 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.. Planning is underway and the committee is very excited about what’s in store for both students and their families. Stay tuned for more details.

Our school council meeting for March has been cancelled. Please join us at our next school council meeting which will be held on Monday, April 4th, at 7pm in our staff room. All parents are welcome.

If you would like to volunteer either with planning or the day of the event, please contact, Chris Smith (our Council Chair). [email protected], who can connect you with the team of people organizing the event.

Student Entry This is a reminder that Grades 1-8 Student entry is at the back of the school only. Students should not be using the front doors. To help with this, parents who choose to drive their kids to school are reminded to drop off students at the back of the OTHS parking lot, or on Albion Drive (no parking) and have the students walk to the back. Only parents of kindergarten students should be using the Kiss & Ride. If older siblings of FDK students are in the car as well, please remind them to walk around to the back of the school. The doors at the back of the school are only locked after announcements, around 9:25am. Students entering the property from Maple Grove Drive should use the back path, and not the driveway. Thank you for working together to ensure our student safety and safe passage of our busses into and out of our parking lot.

Intermediate Science & Engineering Fair You are invited to join us at our grades 7 & 8 Science and Engineering Day being held in our gym on Thursday March 3rd. Students have been putting to use their knowledge of the scientific method over the past few months to create and investigate a topic of their choice. Twelve projects will be chosen to represent Maple Grove at this year's Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair being held at Mohawk College on March 31st. Please join us any time between 9:45am 3pm. The gym will not be open for visitors during nutrition breaks (10:55am-11:35am & 1:15pm-1:55pm). Please sign-in at the office upon your arrival. Hope to see you there!

Student of Excellence Each year, every school in Halton selects one graduating student to represent their school as the Student of Excellence. This student will have a special ceremony in May, and her picture will hang in the board office in Burlington for the year. This year, we are pleased to announce that Brooke Westwater has earned the title of Maple Grove’s Student of Excellence. Brooke is a hard-working, inclusive and conscientious individual. Academically, Brooke always strives to do her best, often exceeding expectations. She is involved in many extracurriculars including Student Parliament, intramurals, school volleyball team, school basketball team and science fair. Please join us in congratulating Brooke!

School Visitors In an effort to ensure the safety of our students in the school environment, the Halton District School Board has reviewed the Access to Schools policy. The following statements are extracted from the policy; “All persons visiting the school must sign in at the school office and state the purpose of their visit to the school. A person is not permitted to remain on school premises if the person fails to sign in as required. Persons authorized to be on school premises are not entitled to have access to all areas of the school premises and may only access areas of the school as permitted and as related to their role in the school at that time.” Therefore, we ask all parents/visitors to register at the school office on arrival, prior to entering any other area of the school. This includes situations such as bringing children to school, delivering materials, lunches or messages to staff or students. Those who are volunterring in classrooms are required to wear a visitors badge, identifying to staff and students that they have checked in at the office. When you are delivering forgotten items, such as lunches or gym clothes, please give the items to the office staff. Please do not sign in and deliver the items directly to the classroom or ask to have your child come down to the office at that time. This practice causes frequent interruptions in the instructional time for all students. The office staff will try their best to get the student to come down on their nutritional break. Similarly, important messages only will be conveyed during nutritional breaks as well. Thank you for helping to ensure that we minimize interruptions during the school day, and keep our students safe by following the protocol when visiting the school.

Congratulations Maple Grove! On Tuesday, February 9, for the eighth annual “Give a Little, Help a Lot” Toonie event in support of the Halton Learning Foundation’s Eliminating Barriers Fund, our school raised $279.60 to help support HLF. The Foundation, the charitable organization that supports the Halton District School Board students and programs, initiated “Give a Little, Help a Lot” to raise money to assist individual students and families. We have children who come to school hungry or cold every morning and adolescents who are tired and unfocused because they work part-time to help support their families. We have situations where parents are chronically ill or unemployed, or where single parents are living in shelters with their children. Our school system witnesses the full range of personal challenges and tragedies that take place every day in the wider society. Thank you, Maple Grove!

Eco Green Team Did you know that school lunches are a major source of waste in Ontario? In fact, the average student’s lunch generates a total of 30 kilograms of waste per school year, or an average of 8,500 kilograms of waste per school per year. In an effort to engage students in small environmental initiatives that can make a big impact, the Eco Green Team is challenging Maple Grove to participate in "Waste-Free Lunch Friday's" Challenge for the months of March and April, starting March 4th. Please visit the WFLC’s parent website at www.wastefreelunch.com. Here, you can download resources to help ensure you are doing your part to reduce lunch waste at Maple Grove.

Mercedez-Benz Run Come and run - help to give Maple Grove a chance to repeat our win as the fastest school! Last year quite a number of our students ran the 5K challenge. Some of our younger students participated in the 1K junior jog. And…we brought back the trophy for the fastest school!! Please consider participating this year and help support this very worthy charity as well. Come join Lighthouse for the 5K School Challenge at the Mercedes-Benz race on April 24th. Last year 18 local Oakville schools participated in the 5K school challenge, with all runners receiving an amazing medal and the chance to win the trophy for the fastest school – Maple Grove!! Over 400 children took part in either the 5K challenge, 1K Junior Jog or the Toddler Trot. Teachers and parents also joined in and raced as well! Since 1999, the Lighthouse has supported children and teens after the death of a mother, father or sibling. The journey of acceptance and healing takes time, space and understanding. The Lighthouse is such a place, offering its services free of charge for as long as the child needs support. The Lighthouse needs to raise funds for a new home to better help the families of today and tomorrow. Help us by running and fundraising for Lighthouse - Register today at www.mercedes10K.com

Grade 7 & 8 Academic Support Program Maple Grove is offering a new academic support program for any interested Grade 7 and 8 students starting Tuesday March 22nd. This program will allow students to access teacher support for their studies. The program will run for 12 weeks and will be offered Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 8:10 until 9:10 in Mr. Blake and Mrs. Kay's classrooms. There are limited spots available. If you are interested in signing up your son or daughter, please contact Mrs. Caruso ([email protected]) or Mr. Gardi ([email protected]) for more information and a permission form.