McMurrich Staff Appreciation Luncheon - March 11th

On Thursday, March 11th the McMurrich Home & School Association will be hosting our annual STAFF APPRECIATION LUNCH!!

Parents will be providing a potluck lunch for the staff as a Thank You for all of their hard work this year. Please contribute potluck dishes (salads, appetizers, mains, breads, desserts, drinks) and plan to attend this lunch! If you can contribute a dish or can help set up the lunch, please email or phone Lee Mendelsohn-LiVolsi ASAP (more information in this document). Any letters/cards of appreciation are also encouraged!

Changing the World, One Rhyme at a Time - McMurrich's 2nd Annual Poetry Night

The Be The Change Student Committee will be hosting McMurrich's 2nd Annual Poetry Night "Changing the World, One Rhyme at a Time" on Thursday, March 25th from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm. This is an opportunity for students to show their talent through dance, drama, music and poetry. During the evening there will be ten open mic sessions to give the parent audience a chance to express your talent alongside the McMurrich student performers! The McMurrich Community is supporting the Alternative Income Program (AIP) with this is event. AIP is part of Free the Children.

Auditions
Primary: Wednesday, March 3rd at 11:35 am - bring your lunch to Rm 204
Junior: Tuesday, March 2nd at 11:35 am - bring your lunch to Rm 204
Poem: Original poems are encouraged! Or choose a poem that inspires you.
Theme of Poem: Positive and/or inspirational messages

Make sure you incorporate drama, music, props and/or expression into your poems and auditions! Performers that are invited back are expected to attend rehearsals the following week.

Tickets
Tickets will be on sale Monday, March 8th - more details to follow after auditions.

We hope you can join us at Poetry Night to support the McMurrich Community and AIP. We are "Changing the World, One Rhyme at a Time"!

The Great Kapok Tree - Room 207

The students of Room 207 will be presenting a 15 minute play based on Lynne Cherry's book The Great Kapok Tree. We will be presenting the play 4 times. The parents of Room 207 students are welcome to join us!

Tuesday, March 9 at 11:00 am
Wednesday, March 10 at 1:00 pm
Thursday, March 11 at 11:00 am
Thursday, March 11 at 1:00 pm

Black History Month Assembly

Please note that the assembly for Black History Month is TODAY, February 18th, and will begin at 1:30 pm. All parents are welcome to attend.

Rm 300 Olympic Presentation

By: Clara and Timmy, Room 300

The winter Olympics are coming and Mr. Cooley's class is so excited that we decide to share it with everyone in our school! Everyday, students from Mr. Cooley's class do a countdown on the announcements. We also create signs that said IT for people to get REALLY excited.

Our class did a presentation on the 15 sports at the January student of the month assembly that will be participating in the Olympics. There are alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, Nordic combined, short track speed skating, skeleton, ski jumping, snowboarding, and speed skating.

Each student had to research on a sport we were assigned on and a Canadian athlete. We had time to research in class and we would just like to thank Mr. Cooley, Donald (volunteer), and Mr. Cobb. Everybody thought it was very fun and we learned a lot!

Grade 6 Boys Basketball and Girls Volleyball Teams

Grade 5 Girls Volleyball and Boys Basketball Teams

McMurrich Wins Central Region 21st Century Digital Classroom Challenge!

The Microsoft - MindShare Learning Report™ 21st Century Digital Classroom Challenge is an rigorous event aimed to inspire teachers, along with their students from across Canada to share their successful classroom practices using technology. Teachers from publicly funded schools entered to qualify to win one of three technology prize packs valued at over $15,000 for their school. Three national winners were announced with Ms. Rambaran (Rm 300) and Ms. Capitao-Tavares (Rm 210) winning for the Central region.

The judges commented on our entry "I LOVED seeing how the teachers were collaborating to get their kids collaborating. Also a creative way of showing how the kids are taking their not having to "power down" to enter the class and therefore, integrating their lives into the classes." (Mali Bickley, Last year's contest winner, teacher, W.H.Day Elementary School)

Watch the winning video by clicking here. This was a joint effort by Rooms 210 and 300 with their teachers. Robert Martellacci, president and publisher of The MindShare Learning Report came to interview Ms. Capitao-Tavares and Ms. Rambaran and to award our school with a prize package that includes $15,000 in classroom technology.

Our win was noted online in a number of locations including:
B2E and TDSB.

Congratulations McMurrich - excellent work!

PE Students of the Month

Every month we celebrate one primary and one junior student who demonstrate living a healthy lifestyle and good sportsmanship. Past PE Students of the Month include:

September -- Lillian (Rm 200) and Alfonsa (Rm 201)
October -- Jordan (Rm 206) and Jacob (Rm 203)
November -- Erica (Rm 207) and Noah (Rm 202)
December -- Oscar (Rm 208) and Clara (Rm 300)
January -- Henry (Rm 202) and Neal (Rm 300)

The Golden Shoe Award

This school year was the beginning of a coveted new award – The Golden Shoe Award. Each month an activity is chosen for the students to perform. The award is presented to the classroom that performs the most of that month's activity per student. The past months have not been easy and the competition is fierce! The past winners include:

September -- Room 210 (1688 laps around the field – 58 laps per student)
October -- Room 100 (75,160 jumping jacks – 2,684 per student)
November -- Room 213 (4,930 burpees – 246 per student)
December -- Room 202 (222,200 squats – 9,258 per student)
January -- Room 300 (204,113 knee lifts – 6,584 per student)