Superintendent: Dan Wu: 905-940-7800 Trustee: Billy Pang 647-461-9965

Message from the Principal’s Desk

It’s hard to believe that June is just around the corner. We are looking for-ward to the warmer temperatures. Along with spring comes rain and un-fortunately this creates many “pavement only” recesses while we allow the grass to dry . Things will be very busy throughout the month of May as you will see on our May calendar. We are looking forward to all the wonderful spring events that will be taking place such as the Spring Fling Concert, welcoming our new Junior Kindergarten students to two sessions of Wel-come to Kindergarten, another Aussie X event hosted by our School Coun-cil and of course more athletic events. It is certainly proving to be a very busy and exciting month ahead! We have received the staffing that directs us in our class organization for the 2016-2017 school year. We have met with staff to share the tentative school organization. As we organize for next year, our staff will make every effort to place students in the best learning environment for each child to be successful. We take into account individual needs, academic achieve-ment, emotional and social development, number of boys and girls, and work habits. Parents wishing to provide input into this process are re-quested to submit a letter to the principal by May 13th. The school does not accept requests for specific teachers, straight grade classes or specific friendship groupings. While your input is carefully considered, the final decision about a child’s class placement rests with the school. As we approach the end of the 2015- 2016 school year, there are many thank you’s that we would like to extend. Our caretakers, secretaries and educational assistants are exceptional and without them, many of the ex-tras that we do at Unionville Meadows would not happen. Their work, often behind the scenes, is essential to our smooth running school. To our entire staff at Unionville Meadows P.S., please accept our sincerest thank you for everything that you do. We would also like to thank the many vol-unteers for the tremendous support we received again this year at Union-ville Meadows. From the parents who accompany classes on field trips, volunteer in the classrooms, the snack and milk programs and all those on the School Council. Volunteers have continued the strong tradition of con-tributing to the overall success of our school. It has been another success-ful year thanks to all your support and involvement. We thank you with the upmost gratitude and appreciation! As a token of our deep apprecia-tion we look forward to seeing all our volunteers at our Volunteer Tea on May 17th at 3:15.

Leeanne Hughes-Fernandes & Tina Diavolitsis

MAY AT A GLANCE!

5 - Spring Fling Concert 6 - PA Day:No School 9 - Badminton Area Tournament 10 - Sports/Mustang Wear Day; Art Series - Sultan of String: Ragas, Reels and Rumba (with Sitar Master, Anwar Khurshid) 1:30 – 2:30 pm Gr.3-8 in Gym 12 - Markham Stouffville School Challenge Run in Block 1; School Council Meeting at 6:30 pm 13 - Grade 7 History Trip- Rise To Rebellion 9:30-1:30 @ Georgina Pioneer Village 16 - Fire Department Final Visit Grades 1-3; CMHA Gr. 8

workshop 11am 17 - Welcome to Kindergarten Night for parents in Learn-ing Commons 6:30 – 7:30 pm 19 - Aussie X parent engagement evening; Regional Bad-minton tournament 20 - String Ensemble at Wonderland all day 23 - Victoria Day – No school 25 - Special Needs T&F; rain date May 27 26 - WTK evening for families 6:30 – 7:30 pm in K class-rooms

Principal - Leeanne Hughes-Fernandes Vice Principal - Tina Diavolitsis Unionville Meadows P. S. 355 South Unionville Avenue, Markham, Ontario L3R 5C8

Phone: (905) 479-4795 Fax: (905) 479-1105 Website: www.unionvillemeadows.ps.yrdsb.ca

UNIONVILLE MEADOWS MESSENGER

May 2016

SAVE THE DATE!

Gr. 3 May 27, 30 & 31, 2016 Gr. 6 May 25, 26 & 27, 2016 Grade 8 Graduation, Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 7 p.m.

Markham Stouffville Hospital School Challenge We are excited that Unionville Meadows P.S. is going to host a Markham Stouffville Hospital School Challenge event here at our school. As of April 29th, we have raised $1400 from your generous donations. Funds from this event will go toward updating and improving medical technology that will better serve the community.

This year, our objective is to involve the entire school community by holding a local walk in the Unionville Meadows area to raise money for the hospital and promote physical activity for students. We are asking all students to partici-pate in this worthwhile event by contributing at least a toonie to support our local hospital. Our school event will be held on Thursday, May 12, 2016 a.m. between 8:30 and 10:10 a.m. Dr. Bear will be at Unionville Meadows on the morning of May 12 cheering us on! Tax receipts will be issued to families who wish to donate over $25. T-shirts will be given to those students who donated over $25. In order to build momentum and spirit around this wonderful event, we will be participating in the school pledge in-centive program sponsored by Canadian Tire Corporation. The prizing for schools this year is: $1000-$1999 = $250 gift card to Canadian Tire $2000-$4999 = $350 gift card to Canadian Tire $5000+ = $500 gift card to Canadian Tire Our school would love to benefit from this incentive program! All monies are due to the office by May 10, 2016. Thank you for supporting this worthwhile cause!

Chai & Chat at Unionville Meadows P.S Please Join Us! Our second Chai and Chat meeting will be held Wednesday May 4th from 1:30 - 2:45 PM. It will be an interactive workshop on Building Self-Esteem in Your Child. Mandarin and Cantonese translation

will be available along with light refreshments. Registration forms were sent home with students or are available in the office if needed. Please call the school if you require more details.

Celebrating Earth Day and the Spirit of Goodness at UMPS!

Our Earth Day celebration was an enormous success. Students marked the day by singing songs and acknowl-edging the importance of taking care of mother earth as well as each other. One highlight was watching Vanessa in Mrs. Piedimonte's class donate 9" of her hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. This is a campaign that supports women fighting Breast Cancer. The campaign creates free, real-hair wigs for women with cancer. Vanessa grew her hair with the intention of donating it so it can be used to craft beautiful, high-quality wigs which will go to women affected by hair loss from cancer. Staff and students enjoyed partaking in this event. We hope others will also follow Vanessa’s lead and contribute to a worthwhile cause that will support those who need it most!

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Planning for the 2016/2017 School Year

This is the time of year that we begin the planning process for the upcoming school year and determine how many classes we will have in each grade. If you are planning on moving out of our area before September 2016, please let the office know (in writing) as soon as possible. Please include the last day of attendance and the school your child(ren) will be attending. Also, if you know of anyone moving into the Unionville Meadows area please also let the office know. Our Kindergarten registrations continue. If you know of anyone in the neighbourhood whose child was born in 2012, please remind them to come into the school as soon as possible to register their child for Junior Kinder-garten.

Athletic News Our Junior Girls just finished their season with a strong showing at the YRDSB Area tournament. Looking to win their 3rd straight Junior Girls champi-onship and 5th straight Girls championship overall, they played hard and overcame some early adver-sity in order to advance to the finals. In the finals, they lost a close game to Ar-madale PS, 18-11. The girls’ 2nd place finish caps off a very successful season. The girls finished with 15-4-1 record including a victory during the Greensbor-ough tournament. Each girl has made strides as a basketball player, athlete and teammate. Their positive attitudes and determination to achieve their goals were paramount for our success. They supported each other and carried them-selves with dignity and humility. Thank you girls, for such a great season! Keep ballin’! A special thanks as well to Mrs. Hussain, Mr. Irvine and Mr. McDonnell for coaching and supporting the team!

Our Junior Boys just finished a wildly successful season. The boys managed to take home banners as champions of the Ashton Meadows and Black Walnut tournaments. They capped off their successful season with a dramatic YRDSB Area tournament. The boys advanced to the finals and played a thrilling game losing by 2 points. Although they would have loved to have won, a second place finish out of 15 teams is still a great success. Great job all season boys. You should be very proud. Get ready to come back next season and avenge that loss. Thank you to Mr. Andonoff for coaching and leading our team to such a successful season! Our Badminton team has just been formed and the boys and girls are preparing

for their YRDSB Area tournament. As two-time returning champions, they look

to be very competitive. Keep your ear to the ground and follow their successes

in the games and tournaments. Thank you to Miss Lupp, Mrs. Moore, Mr. Au

and Mr. Yip for coaching and their support!

Primary/Junior Family Math Night Family Math Night was a huge success at Unionville Meadows P.S. Students from Grades 1 to 6 along with their parents and guardians participated in an interactive and educational event that allowed everyone to experience the fun side of Math. Students shared with their parents the experience of playing math games while at the same time thinking critically and using their problem solving skills to solve various mathematical challenges presented to them. We hope that parents took away some great ideas that can be done at home with their children. Thank you as well to all the teachers who planned , led and supervised this event. As well, we are appreciative of the many Junior students in Mrs. Piedimonte’s and Ms. Woo’s classes who were student leaders and facilitated the various activities.