May 2nd, 2019
Dear Families,
What an amazing week! The four performances of Mary Poppins were incredible. Thank you to our students for their hard-work and dedication. A special shout-out to our teachers who made this happen – Mrs. Roth and her team spent countless hours helping our students. We appreciate our volunteers who helped both on stage and behind the curtains. Thank you to the members of our school council who supported the play and organized the snack bar and flowers. Many kudos to our families, our parents, and our friends for their continued support. Everything at Jean Steckle P.S. was “practically perfect in every way.”
Andrea Michelutti, Principal
Planning for September
It is hard to believe that we will soon be making plans for the next school year. The placement of each child based on a combination of the following criteria:
-The academic level of each student
-Each student’s learning skills
-The social/emotional levels of each student
-The relationship that exists between our students
-A balance of students in each classroom
This is a process that we take very seriously and it has a tremendous impact on the whole school year. We do our best to ensure that your child’s placement will best serve his/her learning needs. Parents may choose to submit in writing, characteristics of the child and any observation that they would like the school to keep in mind when developing classes. If you wish us to consider specific information about your child’s placement for September, we ask that you submit this in writing to Ms. Michelutti by May 10. Please understand that this is not an opportunity to request a specific teacher for your child. Since our staffing, organization and procedures for September are not completed at this time, we cannot guarantee placement of your child with a specific staff member. We ask that all families recognize that as a staff, we take class organizations very seriously and give it careful thought, reflection, and planning based on the best interests and needs of all students.
Gardens at Jean Steckle
Starting May 6th, we will begin constructing our Jean Steckle food garden.
The goal is a sustainable food garden project. (Tepperman’s helps build the gardens, Seeds of Diversity brings the seeds and plants, our students take care of the garden) with the hope of selling some of its produce to Borealis or other community partners. The money students raise can be donated toward other community projects of their choice. In this way, we work as a community supporting one another. We feel it is a great community-based model for our students to experience. These organizations are not interested in any form of compensation or advertising but rather feel that supporting these types of projects helps their staff and fulfills the business model that they believe in. Looking forward to the final results.
“Girls Night In”
This year at Jean Steckle, we started a Girl Talk Chapter with some of our Grade 8 girls. This group is designed to empower girls to build confidence and self-esteem, and to provide them with a variety of leadership opportunities. One of our school chapter’s commitment is to host a “Girls Night In” event.
Our fabulous Girl Talk Group is very excited to invite all Grade 5, 6 and 7 girls from Jean Steckle and Janet Metcalfe to a fun filled evening at Jean Steckle on Wednesday, May 15th from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.
The evening will consist of some fun and creative dance moves led by Kim Basler, a Goodlife Group Fitness Instructor, and 10 interactive activity stations run by our Girl Talk members. The night will end with a motivational speaker, Taylor Lindsay-Noel. A portion of the proceeds will go to Innisfree Hospice in Kitchener.
The girls have been working hard preparing for this evening by creating an invitation, posters, activities and organizing guest speakers. They will be inviting Steckle’s Grade 5 and 6 girls at a nutrition break this week. They will be walking over to Metcalfe P.S on Friday, May 3 at 1:20 p.m. with Mrs. Miller, our Child and Youth Worker, to invite their Grade 5, 6, 7 girls. Our girls have worked collaboratively on creating a slideshow presentation about their Girls Night In event and they are VERY excited to invite the younger girls to attend.
If any parents or family members are interested in volunteering the night of our event on May 15, please email Mrs. Tilt at jessica_tilt@wrdsb.ca.
Domino’s Pizza is going “All in for Mateo”
Let’s come together to help Mateo, a one-year-old boy from Kitchener, who had his eye removed last summer and wears a prosthetic one, but he is still not cancer free.
On Saturday, May 4 (10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.) at any Domino’s Pizza Kitchener locations, families can purchase a large pepperoni and cheese pizza for $8.95 and 100% of the pizza sales will be going to support Mateo and his family. If you will be ordering online, please use the code “FUND.”
Upcoming events:
May 10 – Intermediate Track and Field
May 15 – “Girls’ Night In”
May 16 – Kindergarten Information Night (6:00 p.m.)
May 17 – Crazy hair day
May 31 – PA Day
June 27 – Canada Day spirit day