Term 1: 3 To 6 Sep, 2019

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3 Sep to 6 Sep 2019 Monday, Sep 2 School closed Tuesday, Sep 3 First day of school Parent social, 9-10am Kindergarten, 10-11am (open house) Grade 1-7, 9-10am in your old class Wednesday, Sep 4 Kindergarten, 9-10am (morning circle routine) Grade 1-7, 9-3pm. normal school starts Thursday, Sep 5 Kindergarten, 9-10am (morning circle routine) Friday, Sep 6 Kindergarten, 9-11am   Looking Ahead: Sep 9: Kindergarten, 9-12pm. class list posted Sep 10: Kindergarten, 9-12pm Sep 11: First full day of Kindergarten Sep 18: Back to school potluck Sep 16: Professional Development day View the school calendar online Welcome back and on behalf of the PAC Executive we wish you all an enjoyable and successful year at Southlands.   Thank you for subscribing to the Southlands PAC newsletters. In order to ensure you are also receiving email communications from the Southlands school office, please ensure you provide the school office with your current email address. You can forward your preferred email address to receive communications from the school to southlands@vsb.bc.ca If you are leaving Southlands, you can unsubscribe from this newsletter using this link.  To change email address receiving the newsletter, use this link If you were forwarded this newsletter and want to subscribe, please join from here. It is highly recommended you enter southlands.elementary@gmail.com and southlands.pacnews@gmail.com into your address book to ensure newsletters deliver to the inbox and do not get caught in spam filters. Message from the Principal Ms. Margaret Paxton   Hello to all of our Southlands families! When I was told that I would be coming to Southlands Elementary, I felt like I had won the lottery.  What a privilege it is for me to be the principal of your wonderful school.  In the summer I joined some of the teachers in learning what it means to be an IB school and I am looking forward to also knowing what it means to be a Southlander!  This will be my 28th year as a teacher and my 15th year as a school administrator.  I love working with staff, students and families to make school a safe and caring place with high expectations for learning.  It is important to me that we create a strong sense of belonging in our community and that we listen to one another with respect for our diversity. I grew up in the Dunbar neighbourhood and worked in Richmond and Squamish before joining the VSB.  I have two children who are now grown up and away from home:  a daughter who is doing a masters’ degree in publishing in Edinburgh and a son who is a barber and photographer in Montreal.  I love running, yoga and my little co-op garden. Please feel free to introduce yourselves and I will try my best to learn everyone’s names.  It is going to be a wonderful school year! Message from the PAC Chair Ms. Nina Monahan   On behalf of our Southlands PAC, welcome to all our families, new and returning, at the start of this new academic year. Our PAC Executive this year is full of new faces and new energy, but continues to be supported by many long-time PAC members whose knowledge and experience are invaluable. Part of what makes our Southlands community so special is the commitment of all our families, who play such an important role in supporting our children and the school staff through their IB journey. This year's PAC will once again be coordinating a wide range of programs to support and enrich our children's education, and there will be many opportunities to get involved! If you have volunteered before but are looking to try something new, or if you haven't yet had the pleasure of taking part, please do not hesitate to reach out to learn more Welcome to our new Executive team for the coming school year 2019/20. The members elected at the AGM were: Chair: Nina Monahan Vice Chair: Farnaz Imani  Secretary: Cecilia Imani Treasurer: Sandy Liu (to be ratified at next PAC meeting) Assistant Treasurer: Jennifer Paterson Fundraising: Renee Hui and Uliana Vankovych Past Chair and DPAC representative: Deb Broadhurst Member-at-large: Melanie Antweiler Members of the PAC committees: Arts Education: Teresa Pizarro, Cathy Dai & Priya Gupta Chinese Community Liasion: Gloria Song, Lana Liu & Wei Zhao (Vicky) Class Parents Coordinator: Michelle McCarthy Cross Country: Heather Couch Facebook Managers: Deb Broadhurst & Caroline Dickson Fruit & Vegetable snack: Li Li Garden Committee: Jodie Dorrington Gift Cards & Grocery vouchers: Priya Gupta Hot Dog & Pizza: Amber Bethell Munch-a-lunch Coordinators: Renee Hui & Uliana Vankovych PAC Newsletter: Abhi Gupta School Directory: Cheryl Ho & Deb Broadhurst Speaker Series: Carolina Palacios Staff Appreciation (May 5th): Karen Tsumura Volunteer coordinator: Cecilia Imani Yearbook Committee: Dina MacDougall We are still looking volunteers for: Musqueam Liaison Team: open Subway lunches coordinator:  open Traffic Safety and Transportation:  open   Back to school photo booth   Please stop by our "Back to School" Photo booth at the lower entrance and take a picture!   We will be changing the hot lunch program from Foodie Kids to Munch a Lunch. More details will be coming soon in future newsletters YVR Banners   Next time you visit the airport be sure to look for the new banners designed by our recent graduate Summer and her dad Thomas Cannell.     Musqueam and YVR celebrated a momentous partnership and commemorated the occasion with a contest opportunity for our father and daughter artist team to create our first joint design. What a great experience it has been for the both of us. After a massive brainstorm: we came up with this design we really like for all the incorporated meaning within. Our ancestors taught us to raise our open hands whenever we give thanks and also as a friendly greeting. Its symbolic of opening our hearts and minds and showing our strength and vulnerability. We put ourselves out there; open up our shell and reach out to let people in. We’ve included this teaching within our design by using Summer’s hands to validate this action; her hands are up welcoming the new friendship. We’ve used a stylized Coast Salish face to symbolically represent our ancestors watching over us and continuing to guide us. Below, you can see a community full of friends rejoicing in the eyes of our ancestors; including people of the past, the present, and the future. It may be that these friends are dancing around a drum, but also, it's a spindle whorl design incorporating four owls. The owl is a known symbol of wisdom, foresight and knowledge. Also, owls are messengers, and guardians between worlds. The artwork is contained by four arrowheads, suggesting a circle, which to us is the circle of life… also another spindle whorl, a reference that spindle whorls define us as Coast Salish peoples. We commonly use the number four in our artwork. Here we use it by way of the owls/people and the four arrowheads representing worldly existence: the four winds, the four directions, the four moons, the four seasons, the four peoples, the cycle of the salmon and so on. This logo design is a timeless story, meant to invoke feelings of a joyful friendship between Musqueam and YVR for years to come. TC SC PYP Essential Elements: Caring and Action Our 2019 Grade 7 Graduating class donated $1300 to the BC Children's Hospital last June.  Well done! Throughout the year any purchases from Mabel's Labels will earn our school 20% of the total sale when you select "Southlands Elementary School (Vancouver)" from the drop down menu https://mabelslabels.ca/en_CA/fundraising/support/ Their labels are waterproof and come with a 100% guarantee.  Join Southlands PAC on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/southlandselementarypac/ Southlands Parents Advisory Council "PAC" southlands.elementary@gmail.com Chair: Nina Monahan Vice Chair: Farnaz Imani  Secretary: Cecilia Imani Treasurer: Sandy Liu  Assistant Treasurer: Jennifer Paterson Fundraising: Renee Hui & Uliana Vankovych Past Chair & DPAC representative: Deb Broadhurst Member-at-large: Melanie Antweiler Our mailing address is: 5351 Camosun Street, Vancouver, BC, V6N 2C4 Please send any feedback on the newsletter to southlands.pacnews@gmail.com VSB Office of the Superintendent contacts Want to change how you receive these emails? 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