Briargreen School Council Newsletter December 2014 Next School Council meeting Wednesday January 14 th Calendar of Events December 22 to January 2 Winter break January 16 PD Day February 6 Valentine's Day Family Fun Dance February 13 PD Day February 16 Family Day March 16 to 21 March Break April 28 CyberSafety Presentation by Paul Davis Parent Lending Library Now Open! Parents of Briargreen students now have access to books and resources about parenting and education. The book list will soon be published on the website. Parents will send an email request to the school librarian and she will send the book home in their child s backpack. Message from the Chair I can t believe it s December already. I hope you and your family have had a successful start to the school year and have managed to come out to the social events hosted by the school council and/or taken advantage of our offers on coffee, berries, magazines or Mabel's Labels. Thanks to Heather Fenton and the many volunteers who helped make the Welcome Back Barbeque a successful event. As well, a thank you to Wendy He and various volunteers who ran the Lego Movie Night. The kids seemed to really enjoy themselves. I still hear Everything is Awesome being sung around the yard. The Bake Sale took place on December 10 th. We have many more events planned this year, so save the dates! These include the ever popular Valentine's Day Family Fun Dance, which will be on February 6th, and another movie night in the Spring. Paul Davis, an expert in CyberSafety, is coming to the school on April 28 th, courtesy of a Parents Reaching Out grant from the OCDSB. He will be presenting to parents in the evening. More details will come closer to the date. In closing, I would like to acknowledge all our school council members, telephone directory, milk, subway, pizza and other volunteers for their continuing support. Without their help, many of the activities would not run. I can't thank you enough. Everyone is welcome to attend the school council meetings held on the second Wednesday of each month in the school library. We'd love to see you! Happy Holidays! Sharon Edgar Creasey Check out our website http://bgpscouncil.wordpress.com Here you will find information related to the School Council, upcoming events, ongoing programs, subscription to our email distribution list and a lot more! You can also email the School Council at bgpscouncil@gmail.com.
Fundraising By Cynthia Jones Kalhok Heartfelt thanks to the many volunteers who give their time and energy to fundraising activities at Briargreen P.S. This fall, Heather Fenton organized a successful Welcome Back BBQ. Lindi Chambers, Heike Payne, Leslie Penny and Sharon Edgar Creasey have launched our milk, pizza, Subway and QSP magazine subscription programs, respectively. Wendy He put together a fabulous first Movie Night of the year. Many thanks also to our sponsors for these events: Welcome Back BBQ: Shoppers Drug Mart, Loblaws, and yogurt from Kiwi Kraze (Annie Zhang). Movie Night: Dovercourt Recreation Centre, Shoppers Drug Mart, and HTD Canada who lent us the popcorn maker. Briargreen also offers lunch options from The Lunch Lady and Mommy s Yummies. A small portion of these sales is returned to Briargreen. New this year, Amy Henry organized a frozen berry fundraiser. Chrystal Geoffroi planned our traditional Holiday Bake Sale, which was held on December 10th. Thank you to everyone who donated baked goods! For the New Year, volunteers are hard at work planning another Movie Night, offering either Little Caesar s Pizza or more frozen berries, a Valentine s Day Celebration Evening, Book World and Organic Farm vegetable delivery. Thank you to all parents who support our programs. Briargreen continues to partner with Mabel s Labels, one of the best known and well loved brands of labels for all the stuff kids lose. You are able to order the same great labels at the same great prices, while earning dollars for the school at www.briargreen.mabel.ca. Briargreen School Council assesses fundraising activities on a continual basis. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions or are able to volunteer (kalhok@trytel.com), or you can bring your ideas to one of our Council meetings. Treasurer's Report By Karen Weng The funds raised for Briargreen P.S. by the end of November this year are: Welcome back BBQ (September) $1421.68 (includes $500 grant from the OCDSB) Movie Night (November) $642.93 Frozen berries (November) $313.06 Coffee (November) $145.09 Total $2522.76
The School Council and Mrs. McLeod work together to make a plan to use the funds raised to benefit the whole school. Below is an outline of how the funds raised this year will be allocated, as well as some remaining funds from last year. 2014 2015 Council money allocation Arts (MASC presentations etc) $2,000 Arts Workshops (Luv2Groove dance) $3,000 Arts Workshops (Visual Arts materials) $500 Science workshops: $175 x 14 classes x 2 workshops $4,850 Library $2,000 Other (possible ideas: Rocks and Rings $? Curling workshop, Soccer in Schools) Total $10,350+ Monies left from 2013 14 Music instruments (update) $500 Technology: ipads and projectors $4500 6 ipads, approximately $2700 2 projectors, approximately $1800 Supporting students in need $800 Contingency $659 Total $6,459 Ongoing fundraising initiatives QSP magazine subscriptions The paper orders have been given to QSP and those of you who ordered magazines should begin to receive them in the next month or two. Feel free to contact Sharon at sharon@creasey.ca or QSP directly if you have any questions. Magazines are an excellent way to give the gift of reading. QSP provides numerous magazines at discounted prices. They now have Digital Editions as an option if you prefer. You can also renew current subscriptions through QSP even if you did not originally subscribe through them. To order, go to www.qsp.ca and our school code is 3727393.
Rona If you received a discount card for Rona last year, you can continue to use it. You receive 5% off your purchase and Briargreen receives 5% of the amount as well. We are exploring the options for offering the program for new Briargreen families this year. Upcoming School Council initiatives and requests for donations More details will follow in the New Year about the following initiatives. Equator Coffee (every second month) Valentine s Day Dance (February) Please see the flyer on the next page for information. Family Movie Night (Winter) Book World (Spring) Please set aside any used books you may have to donate to Briargreen's used book sale. We will be accepting all gently used children's and adult books. Collection will begin after March Break. Organic Farm Vegetables (Spring/Summer) Staff Appreciation Breakfast (June) Ongoing volunteer opportunities at Briargreen Library Assistants: Help reshelf books Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Please email Joanne Larocque if interested, at joanne.larocque@ocdsb.ca Reading to ESL Students: Work with a teacher and read books in the library to children whose first language is not English. Contact Shirley Stanton if interested, at shirley.stanton@ocdsb.ca
Put on your dancing shoes! Our annual Valentine s Family Dance is coming up, so mark your calendars and save the date. This year s dance will be held on Friday, February 6 th from 7-9pm This is a great night for the whole family to join the fun with a live DJ, food, raffle prizes, giveaways and more. Tickets will be on sale at the door for $10 per family. How can you help? Volunteers It takes a strong team to pull the event together and we re looking for volunteers to help make this dance another huge success. We re looking for people to help set up, decorate the gym, sell food and tickets, and clean up. Prize donations Do you have any small, unused toys around the house (such as loot bag items or toys) that you would like to donate? These make great giveaways for the DJ. We also need donations for raffle prizes, including gift cards, event tickets, toys and more. In the past, we ve had friends, family and local businesses make generous donations such as Sens tickets, gift baskets and electronics. If you have donations to make, please keep them aside until January when they will be collected. More details will come in January. If you re interested in making a donation or volunteering, please contact: bgpscouncil@gmail.com