PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

Another busy week has come and gone.  Two weeks remain until summer holidays.  It’s been a wonderful week.

Acknowledgements-

On Monday we acknowledged students who’ve represented the school in sports and teams.  It was great to see so many students called to the front of the gym and be recognized for their participation.  And, today, we recognized student service to the school.  This is for students who are involved in various clubs, leadership, and monitor programs around the school.  Historically parents don’t usually go these assemblies.  However, if you receive a message from your child’s teacher, it may mean that your child is winning an academic, diligence or citizenship award at Monday’s Award Assembly.  If this is the case, or you’re simply interested in acknowledging the kids, parents are welcome to attend Monday, 11 am, in the gym for our Awards Assembly.

Late Requests-

Thank you to those parents who felt compelled to write late placement requests and/or to those parents who wrote requests asking for a specific teacher.  Maple Grove does not do teacher requests.  In the May 3rd blog, we published the educational criteria for making a written request for student placement.  For those of you who followed the criteria your requests have been collated and shared with the casting teachers.  Class Casting for next year will take place in late June.

Ulitmate-

The Gr 7 Ultimate Team has played one game and has another one next week.  This is a coed team of gr 7 students.  We play Wednesday at Kerrisdale Park if you’re interested in watching some fun ultimate.

Grad-

Grad is by ticket only and will be held at the Magee Auditorium on Monday, June 24th.  It’s our first time using the Magee facilities and we’re very excited to see how things go.  Thank you to the parent Grad Committee and to Ms. Smith for all their work in making arrangements to celebrate our Grads.

VSB Summer Programs-

Please make sure you check out the VSB summer programs website for interesting and fun summer activities/ programs and courses for your child.

Sports Day – June 21st 8:30 am to 2:00 pm

Parents!  We are looking forward to a fun day on Friday.  Please note that we start early at 8:30 am and dismissal is at 2:00 pm.  Don’t forget to pick up your child on time at 2:00 pm on June 21st!

We will be using the Magee sports field

The Power of Art – ARTelicious –

The Art of Maple Grove Elementary

We had a very successful second ARTelicious Art Show Extravaganza at Maple Grove on Wednesday afternoon. Congratulations to all our amazing Maple Grove artists for all their imaginative, original, fabulous art. Thank you to all the teachers and supervision aids who helped hang the Art Show. And a big thank you to PAC who funded our Art Show food and contributed to the cost of our art supplies. Thank you to the families who came out and celebrated our artists with us. Thank you also to all the Student Council members for their help. A huge thank you to Mr. Quan and the Magee Strings Orchestra for creating such an elegant and sophisticated atmosphere with their beautiful music. We had two spectacular dance “opening act” performances by Ryan Kong and Jhilian Yan-Klassen.  Thank you to Mr. Evans for being our “sound/ music guy” and for supporting our school- wide art initiative. And thank you to Ms. Smith for organizing and arranging our ARTelicious Art Show.

The creation of art is a uniquely tactile and sensual experience that has an increasingly important role to play in a world dominated by digital technology.  If you looked carefully at each piece of work, you will be able to discern the differences in composition, the choice of colour, the character of the brush strokes and many other nuances that make each piece unique to the individual student who created it. These observations only begin to hint at the value that can be realized when we make art together.

What a special, positive and uplifting community event!

Here are some comments from students regarding their artmaking…….

“Doing art makes me feel like dancing! And sometimes singing too!!!”

“I like how I sometimes even forget what I was worried about when I do my art”.

“Once my mom was sad and I drew her a picture and she cried a little more but then she was happy! It felt good that I made her happy with my art. That is why I think art is important”.

“This girl who never speaks to me, spoke to me in art and said she liked my tree!!! I draw lots of trees now”.

“Did you know that art can help you feel better? Once I had a headache and did not feel good, but I just started drawing and then it went away”.

“I LOVE ART!!!!Art helped me make friends”.

“Ms. Smith says there is no right or wrong in art!!! I like that”.

“Creating art makes me happy”.

Maple Grove Pac Website (Click to enter)

June 21 – Sports Day – early dismissal at 2:00 pm

June 24 – Grade 7 Grad

June 27 – Last Day of School for Students

June 28 – Admin Day

September 3 – Back to School – one hour only from 9:00 am to 10:00 am