March 2015 Newsletter

Our Lady of Hope Catholic Elementary School
80 Red Cardinal Trail
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4E 4B8
Phone: 905-773-1383
Fax: 905-773-4799
A Catholic Community of Faith
March 2015
PA Day
School Trustees:
Ann Stong
Dominic Mazzotta
Superintendent:
Mary Battista
Principal:
Katherine Pellegrini
Vice Principal:
Fabio Nardo
Safe Arrival Line:
1-855-856-7862
This month we celebrate the virtue of
perseverance, which is linked with the
moral virtue of fortitude. It is this virtue
that helps us through the dark and difficult
days. It gives us the discipline that not
only leads us through the Lenten moments
in our lives but in the intellectually and
morally trying times. This virtue carries
with it the promise of God’s loving presence that is always with us.
yorkcdsb.schoolconnects.com
School Website
olh.ycdsb.ca
Parish Information
Our Lady of the
Annunciation Parish
905-773-5223
Pastor:
Father Peter Lackmanec
Character
Virtue
An Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be always
at your back,
May the sun shine warm
upon your face
And rain fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of
His hand.
Amen.
Please note that Friday, March 13th is
a P.A. Day and there
will be no school for
students.
March Break
This year our March break is from
Monday, March 16th to Friday, March
20th inclusive. Classes resume on
Monday, March 23rd. Please be safe,
get some well deserved rest and enjoy
your family and friends!
Hot Lunch Change
Please note, due to the
Marlies game, all Gr. 4-8 students,
who’ve ordered Sub Sandwiches for
March 25th, will receive their subs on
Thursday, March 26th. Kindergarten
to Gr. 3 students will receive their
subs on Wednesday, March 25th as
scheduled. Thank you for making
note of this on your calendars.
Perseverance
MathWorx Series
I will stick to the
goals I have set for
myself. I will always
believe in myself and
have faith in what
I can
accomplish!
From the team that brought you the Hope Talks series, the Our
Lady of Hope Catholic School Council is excited to bring you the
second installment of MATHWORX 2014-15; a 3 session series
addressing the importance of math, and tools to help parents enrich
the learning experience for their children. This 2nd session is entitled ‘Math and Technology’ and it kicks off on Tuesday, March 31st at Our Lady of Hope at 6:30 PM (See attached Flyer).
Please RSVP to http://ow.ly/G7zUt or on the OLH website (olh.ycdsb.ca) to give
us an idea of how many people to expect. Bring your kids, bring your neighbours, bring your friends. Everyone is welcome.
Marlies Trip Reminders
Once again, we are excited to be preparing for our Grade 4 to 8 trip on Wednesday,
March 25th to see the Toronto Marlies face-off against Oklahoma City. If your child is
attending the trip, please make the following arrangements to ensure the day is a successful one:
 Ensure your child arrives promptly to the school. Students will be convening (into
their bus lines) in the gym between 8:50 and 9:05 AM. The bus will be leaving OLH at 9:05 AM and returning for 3:00 PM.
 Ensure your child has a brown-bagged disposable lunch and snacks, which are peanut free. With over
300 OLH students attending, there will be no opportunities to purchase food at the concession stands.
 Mark your calendars—As mentioned on page 1 of the newsletter, all grade 4-8 students, who have purchased subs for Wednesday, March 25th, will instead receive their sub on Thursday, March 26th.
We look forward to this opportunity to share our appreciation for the blue and white; build community; and
show school spirit. We thank Student Council for initiating this opportunity.
Getting Ready for
September 2015
Please assist us in determining our
staffing and accommodation needs for
the 2015 school year. If you are moving out of the area or if your child will
be attending another school in September, please let us know so that our enrollment
numbers can be adjusted accordingly. Similarly if
you know of anyone who is moving into the area,
please encourage them to contact the school and
register as soon as possible. If you missed kindergarten registration please pick up your registration
package as soon as possible. Parents of preschool
age children who are eligible to start school this
year and who have special needs are encouraged
to contact the school and speak to Mrs. Pellegrini
as soon as possible so that we can have the proper
supports in place for September.
It’s Yearbook Time!!
It’s amazing how quickly time flies! A yearbook is
truly a great way to capture all of those moments.
Our Yearbook Committee is proud to introduce
the 2014-15 OLH Yearbook. Forms have gone
home with your child(ren) and are due back to the
school by March 27th, 2015. The cost is $23 per
yearbook (or 3 for $66). Please make cheques payable to Our Lady of Hope Catholic School.
Luke 4.18 Gently
Used Book Sale
Luke 4.18 is happy to bring back OLH’s
Annual Gently Used Book Sale. As is custom, the sale
takes place in two phases. Firstly, books will be collected from Monday, March 2nd to Friday, March 6th in the
front foyer. Students can simply place the donated books
on the table.
Following the first week of book collection, the actual
Sale will be held from Tuesday, March 10th to Thursday, March 12th. Soft covers will be one dollar and hard
covers will be two dollars. All proceeds will go to support Share Life. "Feel the spirit, get involved, make a
difference"
We would like to thank the community for their milk
bag contributions thus far. Please continue to bring in
more bags!!
The Library Meets Instagram!
Interested in seeing what’s happening in the library?
Check out Mrs.Varlese’s Instagram account. Please follow her and the Our Lady of Hope Library at
svarlese_teacherlibrarian for updates
about reading materials, library activities,
featured books, authors and school initiatives.
Hawk’s Basketball
Volleyball for Share Life
Congratulation to the Boys and Girls Intermediate
Basketball teams for all of your wonderful teamwork
and spirit of cooperation during this year’s season.
You have worked very hard at practice, training for
your games and tournaments.
We would like to once again thank our talented athletes and coaches, in addition to
our generous community and audience for
yet another successful Volleyball for Share
Life campaign. The students showed great skill, teamwork, and enthusiasm throughout all three volleyball
matches. In the meantime, we are happy to say that we
were able to raise approximately $450.00 for Share
Life. We would like to congratulate all of our grade 6
students and Ms. Doyle, who performed a powerful
Black History Month Body Percussion ‘half-time
show’, as well. Go Hawks Go!
The Girls Intermediate Basketball Tournament took
place on Thursday, February 26th at Divine Mercy
CES. The girls showed great spirit and teamwork in a
number of close games but did not advance to the
Regionals. We congratulate them on a terrific season.
The Boys Basketball tournament is on Monday,
March 2nd in our very own school gym. We wish
them the very best. Thank you to all the athletes who
have worked so hard. You are wonderful ambassadors for Our Lady of Hope School.
Thank you to Mr. Paris and Mrs. Bianchi for coaching the Girls Intermediate Basketball team and
Ms. Karam and Ms. Oppedisano for coaching the
Boys Intermediate Basketball team. Your dedication
is much appreciated.
Go HAWKS GO!
OLH Has Got Talent !!
Our Lady of Hope’s Got Talent? Absolutely! What
better way to showcase our talents then with a talent
show! Some fantastic grade 7 leaders have begun to
organize this opportunity with the help of Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Klug, and Mrs. Senior.
Eco News—Earth Hour
Join us in celebrating Earth Hour on Saturday,
March 28th. We will be ‘powering down’ on this
day for this worthwhile Eco initiative.
Acers Intramural Volleyball
The growth in volleyball at OLH has been tremendous.
We would like to congratulate all of our junior athletes
for participating in this year’s Acers intramural volleyball season and thank Ms. Steele, Ms. Minchella, and
Mme. Zammito for providing our students with this
wonderful and fun opportunity to enhance their volleyball skills and sense of school spirit.
Be Yourself Project
We are extremely happy to say that we
have started a new club here at Our Lady
of Hope. Mrs. Senior and a few intermediate girls have put together a club called
the Be Yourself Project (BYP). The BYP
is a group for girls in grades 4-6. The BYP teaches us
Students will be encouraged to sign up on March 9th how to critically read and interpret messages in the
and 11th in the front foyer. The talent show will be
media. It also teaches us to love ourselves for who we
hosting auditions for junior and intermediate students are. We are girls trying to encourage girls to be confithe week after March Break. Be sure to bring your
dent and to BE YOURSELF. The Be Yourself Project
best dance routine,
is very informative, inspiring, and fun! We hope that
magic trick, vocals, or
all junior girls will come out to learn a trick or two
any other talents that
about the media and how it’s great to be YOU. Hopeyou may have!
fully your daughter will take an interest in this great
organization. - Written by Erica P
STUDENT COUNCIL NEWS
RE: Student Council ~ Spirit Days for MARCH 2015
Student Council is excited to plan some exciting spirit days that coincide with some fun calendar days. To
commemorate these various occasions, our Student Council would like to promote the following two “spirit
days” during the month of March. We ask that your child dress in the suggested attire to promote these various themed days:
Thursday, March 12th Tacky Tourist Day Attire
~ To prepare for the March Break, students are encouraged to wear clothing and/or accessories
that make them resemble a tourist on the go, who is ready for March Break (ex: sunglasses,
Hawaiian lays, bathing suit over your regular clothing, etc.); be creative!
Wednesday, March 25th Marlies & Maple Leaf Day
~ Grade 4- 8 Trip to watch the Toronto Marlies at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto.
~ Wear colours of blue and white, and/or anything with the Toronto Marlies / Toronto Maple Leafs.
In addition, Student Council will continue selling Kernels Popcorn every Thursday until March Break. We
would also like to encourage all students to continue bringing-in empty milk bags. The bags need to be clean,
and they will rest flat in a box. Our intention is to collect enough milk bags, so we (Student Council and Luke
4:18 members) will use them to make mats and pillows (that’s right, from the milk bags), which will eventually be sent to Haiti and/or to the Philippines.
Sincerely,
Student Council
&
Student Council Advisor: Mrs. Romano
OLH canSpell 2015— JR & INT
The practice written bee was completed on Feb
17th with almost all participants in attendance.
The competitors now can judge if they need to
increase their studying, or keep at it as they have
been doing. If your child missed the test, you can
test them yourself with 50 words randomly chosen from gr 4-8. After the March break, regular
weekly practices will be held at school during the
lunch recesses. Please encourage your child to be
practicing all words on their lists regularly. More
information will be coming home with your child
regarding ordering Spelling Bee t-shirts for this
year’s competition.
The OLH Bee will be held on MAY 7th at 1:15.
[Please note this is a correction from last
month’s newsletter.]
Being a Global Citizen
For the past month, all of our grade eight
students have being learning about being a
global citizen in their human geography
class. They have collected and donated over $300 dollars to global charities. They have also been raising
awareness throughout the school community with posters, class presentations and morning announcements.
These student leaders have learned how people and the
earth are connected; how to conduct research; set a goal;
measure their goal; and study the impact of their actions
in order to solve real world issues and problems.
Many students were really empowered by this project
and now truly believe that they can make a difference.
We thank the Grade 8s, Ms. Mirabella, and the whole of
the OLH Community for embracing this challenge and,
ultimately, making our world a better place.