On Wednesday, December 1, Royal Oak students welcomed back a special visitor - Pine Cone!

Students were especially excited to see that she arrived safely from the North Pole, fully vaccinated, and had completed her Rapid Antigen test.

Pine Cone is back with many tricks up her sleeve while she is keeping an eye on and learning along with Royal Oak students. We can't wait to see all of the sneaky places she'll pop up.

The Early Years students hang on to each other and the last remnants of fall in their outdoor play. Our nine Early Years students have become such a close and caring group in these past three months. We can't wait to see what they will be up to in 2022!

Dear Royal Oak Families,

It is hard to believe it but December is here! To our families who celebrate Hannukah- a very Happy Hanukkah! I hope this week has been a wonderful one full of celebration and family for you and yours.

Though December still has a full four weeks ahead at the school, the time is already flying and end-of-term projects, consolidation and report card writing are well underway. As we make our way into winter at school, I want to take a moment to acknowledge changes in the world around us. The first COVID vaccine for children is here, and many of our families have already made the choice to have their children vaccinated. As a school, Royal Oak is not mandating vaccination, but rather strongly encouraging families to take this important step in keeping our children and community safe. We anticipate that Health Canada will likely make the COVID vaccine mandatory like the others we vaccinate our children with regularly, and at that time we will move to fall in line with the best medical advice and practice possible for our community. With the arrival of the new variant, Omicrom, to Canada and many countries around the world, we are sadly still in the depths of our fight against COVID, while also battling regular cold and flu season. As always, please take special care to keep your children home if they have symptoms and test if any of the five COVID symptoms are present. A week ago, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop with Dr. Hirji, Niagara's Chief Medical Officer, and in the section below, you will find my recording of his wonderful talk on "COVID Vaccines and Children" as well as other resources for educating ourselves on their safety, efficacy and use. As families start to look to possible travel over the holiday break, I do want to remind the community that no fully unvaccinated child can cross the border without a two-week quarantine before returning to childcare. If you are planning on travelling, let us know as soon as you cement your plans so we can prepare to have your child/ren join us online as a remote learner until their quarantine has ended.

Looking ahead to the winter term, the school has purchased new winter play materials like toboggans, shovels, and snow block makers, and also has a new Winter Club schedule that will go out next week. Clubs will run from January 16- February 25 and will look slightly different than in the fall as we will need to strictly cohort for indoor activities. As always, we aim to provide a balance of creative, dramatic and athletic choices to our families and give students the opportunity to try new things and grow their skills and learning.

I wish you all a very happy and healthy start to our final month of the 2021 school year and please be in touch!

Julia

COVID 19 Resources for Families (all hyperlinked)

Our local High School in Virgil will be hosting a Special tour for Royal Oak students on the afternoon of January 20th. We encourage any students in Grade 6,7 or 8 to join Ms. Julia on this tour. Please e-mail [email protected] to register.

In Grade 3/4 this week, students have been learning to code! This new part of our technology programming has been really exciting, as our Grade 3/4 have advanced technology skills after our time remote learning and are picking coding up quickly.

We also have delved into financial literacy and money units in math and had a real-life learning opportunity at the Candy Shoppe in town, where students had to budget $5.00, estimate their totals and count change for their purchase. These goodies were enjoyed celebrating one of our classmates, River's, last days before her family moved to Toronto.

Royal Oak families wishing to stroll together are invited to gather at “Beau Chapeau” at 6:45pm (TONIGHT) to join the Royal Oak Community in this amazing Holiday Event.