The Lewis Link David Lewis Public School

February/March 2012

At the time of writing this newsletter, the 8th of March to be exact, I am sitting in my office looking out the window with the hope for more mild spring weather, like we have enjoyed for most of the winter. January and February are routinely months for renewed goal setting and continued hard work in all of our classrooms. This year has been no exception. Children have busily been working in their classrooms, learning volleyball and basketball skills in the gym, listening to poetry and learning new technology skills on our Smart Boards. Early learners unlock the keys to early literacy and numeracy skills, while our grade 8’s make course selections for continued education in grade 9. Teams, clubs and bands extend learning and broaden experiences! I appreciate the commitment of my staff and the commitment of our children who support these many exciting activities. We have enjoyed many January and February activities, and we have many more planned for March to brighten winter days. We invite you to check with your children regularly. We strive to make each day at David Lewis special for our children. By design, many activities encourage school – wide or buddying involvement. It is our hope that this kind of organization of activities encourages a caring, safe, respectful school community that nurtures

and values all students equally as they develop and grow.

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

By Karen Peach

We enjoyed a fabulous Multicultural dinner and Community evening on Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 . A sincere “Thank You” to our School Council under the leadership of our Chair, Debbie Nelson, and her committee members, who worked with other parents and our staff to execute such a successful evening. A special thanks to Debbie and Jeff Nelson, Diana Hsu, Jaspreet Dhingra, Ian Wong, Rosemary & Jimmy Chan, and Donna Zarafonitis. Special thanks also to Ms. Banerjee and Mr. Henderson, our staff who served the food, and our Talent Show presenters… you were all terrific! Such a talented bunch! A huge thank you to everyone, especially to our talented students and members of the Brass group who shared their special talents.

To all parents who contributed food and sent in gently used items, a most sincere thank you. We are already planning for next year!

ANOTHER ADDITION TO OUR DAVID LEWIS FAMILY

Welcome Charlotte Elizabeth! As planned, Charlotte Elizabeth was born on Friday, February 24th, weighing in at 7lbs 10oz. Ms. MacInnis, her husband Richard, and daughter Annabella are all well and are delighted with the arrival of a darling baby daughter. We miss you, Ms. MacInnis, but wish you an enjoyable year off with your daughters! Your class is in excellent hands under the experienced eye of Mrs. Wendy Hern, who is delighted to be working with the fabulous students in Room 205. We know that your class will continue to achieve excellence in all that they do!

GOODBYE MRS. RASMUS

It is with sadness that the students of Room 201 and the staff at David Lewis say goodbye to Mrs. Rasmus, who will be leaving us on Friday, March 9th. Mrs. Rasmus and her family will be welcoming a baby towards the end of this month and while we will miss you, we all wish you a healthy baby and continued happiness. We will miss your contributions to many events at our busy school and hope that by next March we can welcome you back again. Enjoy your time off with Aleena and baby! We know that Ms. Karygiannis and Mrs. Kumar will continue to work hard with your students to conclude a very successful year of learning.

MY TRIP TO MEDIEVAL TIMES

By: Ryan Yang

On February 9, 2012, my class and I went to the Medieval Times: Dinner & Tournament. It was really fun! When we got to Medieval

Times, we got to go to the dungeon for free! The dungeon was actually a museum of torture devices. We saw things like the beheading sword, a spiky chair and a small wooden version of the guillotine. Then, we got to see a bunch of horses. After that, we went into some sort of amphitheatre. Then, the show started. The beginning of the show was about the Middle Ages. Each time the person playing the king finished talking about a subject, he would have a question period. During question period, the “king” would ask questions based on the subject he just talked about. They were multiple choice questions. Each time the “king” told us one of the choices, a coloured light would shine onto the ground. Each light represented a choice. After the

“king” said the choices, we would shout out the choice we thought was correct. Then, the “king” would announce the correct answer. When the

“king” announced the answer, a guy with a weapon would come out and “stab”

the right choice. One of the subjects was about the stallion which is a type of horse. After the introduction (question period) was done, the real show began. It was about a tournament and who would be the “Champion of the Realm”. In the tournament, there were six knights facing each other. The Blue Knight, the Green Knight, the Red Knight, the Yellow Knight, the Red & Yellow Knight and the Black & White Knight. In the tournament, two people would fight in a joust. Once they fall off

their horse, they would fight with weapons. The two knights fought in a boundary determined by the perimeter of the arena. The winner is the knight who hits the other knight when he is on the ground. A fight is usually five to ten minutes long. The winner fought the next person using the same rules and so on, until there was only one person left. The last person was the “Champion of the Realm”. During the show, a servant came and gave us garlic bread, Pepsi, chicken, 1/3 of a piece of corn, half a baked potato and an apple pie. Once the show was over, we exited the amphitheatre and entered a room full of shops and things on display. One of the things was a model of a knight in real plate armor. I even saw a real falcon in a cage! In only a couple of minutes, all the knights came out and we got to get their autographs. After that, we went back to school. This is what happened on my trip to the Medieval Times.

OUR TRIP TO MEDIEVAL TIMES

by: Sophia Huang On Thursday February 9th the grade 4-5 s went to Medieval Times. We had a fantastic time there!!!!!!

First we went to see the dungeon, it was really scary. Inside the dungeon we saw several machines used in the medieval times to kill (like the executioner’s axe) or to torture (like the noisemaker’s fife) criminals. I think everybody is glad that those torture devices aren’t used in Canada anymore. After walking through the dungeon we waited for the Chancellor to call our color (we were black and white) to go in to the place where the tournament was to be held. When we finally got called, we sat down and waited for the tournament to begin. Unfortunately we got bored and chatted to our server. The tournament began with the Chancellor telling us about the tournament and introducing the knights. We screamed our heads off for the black and white knight! A few minutes later our server came and gave us garlic bread to eat, it was so soft and yummy. Then came the chicken, corn on the cob, and baked potatoes. The food was extremely delicious. Finally the apple tart arrived; it tasted like the apple pie from McDonalds. As our server walked around serving drinks, the Chancellor was talking about the bad things (like the hygiene) about medieval times, while princess Lenore was talking about the good things like the feasts the kings would hold. This was followed by some trivia questions. A knight would stick his spear into the circle with the right answer. Once the trivia was finished, an evil knight captured the prince. The princess was very sad. The king set out with his knights to make peace with their enemy. In the end, the green knight was the one who captured the prince. When we came out of the show we saw a store filled with a lot of stuff like swords and light-up slushies. Our trip was tons of fun!!!!!!

WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! English to communicate with each other. We matched the food items with their names. At around 10:30 am, we went back to school with the food and we got ready to make a salad lunch for everybody. Ms. Karygiannis’s class was in charge of the fruits and we made vegetable salad with Ms. Fung. We had a lot of fun while we were making it. A few minutes later, our lunch was ready for us to enjoy. We all picked our favourite vegetables and fruits, and salad dressing, too. It was fun. We had a chance to communicate with others to improve our speaking skills. We loved the activity.

By: Aaron Lam, Tracy Du On behalf of all ESL students, we would like to thank Ms. Peach, Ms. Fung and Ms. Karygiannis for letting us visit Foody Mart as an extension of our food unit. It was a great morning and it was such a delicious lunch

When we got there, we did not only buy vegetables and fruits, our teachers came up with an idea: for the students to play a scavenger hunt game. In this game, we were supposed to look for vegetables and fruits

we have learned. That was a great idea because it helped us remember the words we learned. We split into groups and we used

KINDERGARTEN

REGISTRATION Do you have a child who turns four before December 31st,

2008? If so, you can register your child for JUNIOR KINDERGARTEN at David Lewis Public School for the upcoming school year (beginning September, 2012) You will need to bring the following information with you:

• Proof of birth date (birth certificate, Passport etc)

• Current Immunization card or papers and Health Card

• Proof of address (e.g. driver’s license, lease, utility bill, etc.)

Art in the Halls

Room 201 showcase their work

Art lessons with Mrs. Fung -

- results in some wonderful artwork

From Art to Culture – the halls are always busy places

Celebrating Chinese New Year at Lewis

- an opportunity to teach and learn!

Multicultural Dinner and Talent Show

Parents & Staff worked hard to feed the crowds…

… and had fun too!!

Good food, good company!

A place to shop….

…and a place to be entertained!

…a place to prepare….

David Lewis has many talented students

Piano, Drums and Violin -

Singing and Dancing – our students can do it all – and do it well!!!

UPCOMING EVENTS Monday, Mar. 12 To MARCH BREAK Friday, Mar. 16 Monday, Mar. 26 Gr. 1 & 2 to Markham Theatre - “GoldiRocks!” - 9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Mar. 29 Rm. 117 & Rm. 103 to Bruce’s Mill Sugarbush - 9:15 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Thursday, Mar. 29 Rm. 105 & Rm. 201 to Black Creek Pioneer

Village – 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Thursday, Apr. 5 SAME Scarborough Math Olympics 2012 – at Agincourt CI – 3:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Friday, Apr. 6 Good Friday – NO SCHOOL Monday, Apr. 9 Easter Monday – NO SCHOOL Wednesday, Apr. 18 Math Caribou Contest – a.m. in the Library Monday, Apr. 30 Scientists In School – Rm. 104 – a.m. Monday, May 7 Music Monday – details to follow

HAVE A WONDERFUL

MARCH BREAK

Monday, March 12th – Friday, March 16th

Back to school on Monday, March 19th