Wishing the Ogden Community a Wonderful Summer!

Dear Ogden Families;

We have had a good year at Ogden and wish those families leaving for other schools in September all the best. For those returning, we have already begun to plan for an exciting 2015/6 academic year.  A Summary of Marks will be sent to your home address in mid-July providing you with grades for students in Grade 1 to 6 and promotion information for our FDK students.  We also have the following teacher changes to announce.

Mr. Quach will be missed by the Ogden community for his classroom practice of experiential learning and supporting families with extra-curricular activities. His donation of skates to the Ogden community is just one example of his giving nature. We wish Mr. Quach all the best at his new school.

Mr. White is leaving us for a central position where he will ensure that our schools are healthy and safe places for students to learn and staff to work. His expertise in reading instruction and ESL will be missed. We wish him well in his new position.  Joining us on the Grade 1 team will be Ms. Liang. She is also a reading specialist and we welcome her warmly to the Ogden teaching team.

Ms. Berry has made our Outdoor Classroom a place of wonder. Her enthusiasm for continually encouraging the curious nature of our youngest learners will absolutely be missed.  Joining us in September to take on the Outdoor Classroom will be Mr. Roberts. He has a great deal of experience growing food in gardens and is looking forward to sharing his experiences and expertise with us.

Ms. Cheung stepped into our ESL program and made sure that students continued to be well supported. She will not be far away next year and we wish her well in her regular teaching assignment at Lord Lansdowne.

Sanaa Soussan will be leaving us for a school closer to home. We congratulate her on the birth of her son, Brock Ayman and wish her well in her new school and role as a new mother. We will miss her ability to make everyone feel welcome at Ogden. Joining us will be Nigel Dance as VP for both Alpha and Ogden.

Our teachers for next year based on our current projected enrollment with room numbers are:

FDK Team:  Ms. Blakeley(6), Ms. Britt(4), Ms. Brown(7) and Mr. Roberts(Outdoor Classroom)

Grade 1: Ms. Liang(8)

Grade 1/2: Ms. Kruger(2)

Grade 2/3 Team: Ms. Farno(11) and Ms. Nelson(16)

Grade 4/5: Ms. Pitushka(15)

Grade 5/6: Ms. Hahn(12)

Homeschool Program and Resource: Ms. Kwan-Kirton (10)

Health and Physical Education: Mr. Shouldice

ESL and Library: Ms. Sykes

Wishing you all a great summer!

Andreas Ghabrial

May 5th Open House celebrating Education Week and Explorations in Science

This is an opportunity for us to share our classroom spaces with each other and the wider community. Classrooms teachers, parents and community members are welcome to join us for an inside look at the learning activities of our students.

Be sure to sign-in at the office before heading to a classroom experience.

• 9:15 to 10:00 Ideal Community Structures; 5/6 and FDK
• 9:30 to 10:00 Ogden Daycare – Play-based Learning for Pre Ks
• 9:15 to 10:00 Endangered Species: Inquiry and Art in Science; Grade 3 to 6
• 9:15 to 11:00 Vocabulary Building Jeopardy; ESL
• 9:15 – 11:00 Gardening/Outdoor Classroom Inquiry; FDK
• 10:15 to 11:00 Imaginary Garden Inquiry Centres; FDK
• 12:15 to 1:45 Hybrid Habitats – Inquiry and Art in Science; Grade 2
• 12:15 to 1:45 Programming and Coding; Grade 3
• 12:45 to 1:45 STEM Design Challenge Grade 3 to 5
• 2:00 to 3:00 Inquiry in Science: Animal Projects; Grade 1
• 2:00 to 2:30 Bee Movie Screening; FDK

Grade Room	Topic	Time of Exhibition	Activity Description : (Learning Goal)
FDK R.4	Garden Inquiry/Centres/ STEM	10:15 - 11:00	Room 4 can't wait for the flowers to grow outside. Stop by and see all the different activities that are happening to create our imaginary garden (inspired by the book The Imaginary a Garden by Andrew Larsen)
FDK 5/6 Rm 6,14	Ideal Community Structures with Kruger/STEM	9:15 to 10 am	Room 6 and 14 have been working together to learn about structures. We now are creating structures that we feel are important to our community and will be placing them on a large map.
FDK Rm 7	Bee movie screening/STEM	2:00 to 2:30	Students have created a stop motion movie about how bees make honey; They built the set, created all the props, wrote the storyboard, and filmed and edited the movie themselves.
GR.1 Rm 8	Animal Projects/Inquiry in Science	1:15 to 1:45	Grade 1s will be using knowledge from science class drawing on Characteristics of living things to help organize their research information to create their own self-published non-fiction texts after completing a reflective and peer editing process that allows students to use social and communication skills.
Gr. 1/2 Rm 2	Animal Projects	1:15 to 1:45	Students will be working on the same subject matter of researching animals that students have chosen to report on reflecting knowledge they have learned from science classes about the characteristics of living things.  Ms. Brown's class will be using I-pad technology to produce a digital version of their written reports.
Gr. 2 Rm 11	Hybrid Habitats/ Inquiry and Art  in Science	2:00 to 3:00	Students will present habitats designed to meet the needs of hybrid creatures. These creatures incorporate the characteristics that will allow them to adapt to different biomes.
Gr.3 16	Programming and Coding	12:15 to 1:45 PM	Programming and Coding: Students will learn coding language to create his or her own video games online.
Gr. 3-5 Rm 12, 15	Design Challenge with Nelson/ STEM	12:45 to 1:45	Students will take unwanted materials (recyclables/garbage) and reuse/repurpose them by designing and making something new from them.
G3-6 Rm 10	Endangered Species: Inquiry and Art in Science	9:15 to 10 am	Room 10 has been researching “how we can be a part of the solution” in reducing our carbon footprint. We are completing our Endangered Species projects and creating interesting paintings of our animals.
Gr. 1-3 Gym	Physical Education and Health	1:00 to 3:00 pm	Healthy bodies with Daily Physical Activity and Eating Right.
FDK Yard	Gardening / Outdoor Classroom Inquiry	9:15 am to 11:00 am	Rooms 4, 6 and 7 will be observing changes in our early gardening activities, investigating interesting items at our discovery table, and enjoying free exploration in our outdoor classroom.
ESL Rm 19	Vocabulary-Building Jeopardy	9:30 to 11:00 am	Students will write their vocabulary words on cards with assigned points. Then they will use words in sentences that *make sense* to win points.

Student SUCCESS without family STRESS!

A free event for Ogden PS families . . . .

Parent session / discussion:  

“Getting more co-operation and less conflict with your children”

• Kids’ gym activities!

• Door prizes!

• Community resources for families

• Dinner provided!

Friday, May 1 - 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

With: Child Development Institute, Hincks Dellcrest, Childrens Aid Society, Toronto Public Health, University Settlement House, Hong Fook Mental Health, Toronto Family Services

All parents/caregivers welcome!

For more information call:  416-884-2870.

How does sex education fit into the new Ontario Health Curriculum?

All Ogden parents or caregivers are invited!

Parent Coffee TimeMonday, April 13

9:00 – 10:30 a.m.

Drop your kids at school and stay for
FREE coffee/tea, treats and conversation AND . . .

Discussion on:
How does sex education fit into the new Ontario Health Curriculum?
How to talk to your children about sexuality!
Hear from Toronto Public Health, Sexual Health Educator
Come with your questions and your ideas!

With Principal, Andreas Ghabrial and Community Support Worker, Lynne Martens
Building the home school connection….Hope to see you there!

Solar Panels at Ogden Junior Public School

We are excited to tell you that Ogden Junior Public School will have a solar panel installed on its roof this year.  Construction will begin on April 18^th, 2015 and be completed by June 13^th, 2015. (It’s a 6-8 week process). During this time you will see some construction taking place around the school.

The Solar Schools Project is an exciting initiative that will see solar panels installed on the roofs of 311 TDSB schools starting in the spring of 2014. As one of the greenest school boards in Canada, we’re proud that this project will generate energy equivalent to the amount used annually by approximately 4,250 households in Toronto.

The revenue generated from the solar panel installation will be used to fund school rooftop repairs and replacements. Over the course of the project, approximately 4.3 million square feet of school roofs will be repaired or replaced.

Our teachers will be taking advantage of the solar infrastructure that will be built to engage your child in the ongoing debate about the global impact of energy use on the environment and in particular, the specific decisions that need to be made in Ontario to reduce the impact of our own energy consumption.

We are very excited about this project. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school.

Sincerely,

Andreas Ghabrial, Principal

TDSB Safe Schools and Engaged Communities Forum

In October 2014, a steering team was established to conduct an independent review into the circumstances surrounding the death of a student inside North Albion CI. In addition, the team is also reviewing how the Toronto District School Board can be responsive and current to best support safety and care for all students and staff, both before and after critical incidents.

As a part of this review, parents/guardians, students and community members are invited to participate in a Community Forum to discuss how to improve school and community safety.

You are invited to the following Safe Schools and Engaged Communities Forum:

13 January 2015
David and Mary Thomson CI
2740 Lawrence Ave E, Scarborough, ON
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

15 January 2015
Thistletown CI
20 Fordwich Cres, Etobicoke, ON
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Please contact 416-395-8155 if you require an interpreter or childcare at the meeting.

Your feedback is very important and will inform the team as they prepare a report and provide recommendations on how the Toronto District School Board can continue moving the gains made in creating safe and caring school environments out to our school communities.

If you are unable to attend one of the above meetings, you can email your feedback to tdsb@executekinternational.com. 

Ogden's Gift of Hope

On January 9, 2015 Ogden Junior School completed our fundraising drive for PlanCanada. Our “Gift of Hope” was a clean-water well for a classroom in an underprivileged country. Ms. Kwan-Kirton's Homeroom Classroom completed research projects, made posters, collected and counted spare change and did mini-fundraising drives. In one short month, we exceeded our goal and raised enough money to build not one, but two wells at $175 each. As each well costs $700, our gift of $350 was matched 3:1.

        This is only one of Ogden’s many “think outside the box” projects. With a population of approximately 200 students, this “little school with a big heart” does not hesitate to generously dig into its pockets to help others.

In 2005, we raised $300 to buy fruit trees, chickens, and school supplies for Worldvision. In 2009, we completed our brick-by-brick campaign to build a school in rural China through Free the Children. It took us 1 ½ years to raise $6000 through pizza sales, bake sales, and fun fairs. In 2011, our fund-raising project raised $200 for the Red Cross Japanese Tsunami Relief fund. Locally, it has become an annual winter tradition since 2005, for Ogden to collect non-perishable food items for our Local Food Banks.

We are very proud of our students, our staff, and our community for their limitless compassion and generosity in helping those in need wherever that need may be.