Kudos to all the volunteers, for managing a continuous stream of hungry families and providing genuine "service with a smile". Overall presentation was "Backyard Style", making the burgers, hot dogs, and samosas all the more toothsome. The "Sweets" table (at which your Correspondent spent an inordinate amount of time) had a small but very tasty selection of home-made delicacies, ranging from mini-donuts, to chocolate chip cookies, to spelt-and-cottage-cheese corn muffins. 

A few observations to help capture the essence of the dining experience:

• burger texture was just right, each flamed with care, resulting in a juicy inner sheltered by a crispy outer;
• hot dogs were well-grilled: attentive and continuous turning revealed a savoury character, with boisterous hints of beefy goodness, subtle undertones of pork, taking one back to the slow, hot days of grassy-field fun and frolic;
• samosas were huge: indeed, something to behold. Gentle spicing offered an unobtrusive but tantalizing hint of Sub-Continent delights (and, surprisingly, would have paired well with a dry Riesling, at least according to some);
• muffin granularity was on par with the best, each bite releasing a gentle but well-balanced overture of sweet and savoury;
• cookies and mini-donuts ... well, they sold too soon for a degustation. 'Nuff said!

Overall, it was a fantastic evening, and a precursor to what should surely be another successful (and educational!) year at Lord Tennyson.

A few observations from your correspondent:

• the general pandemonium of several hundred children, with parents, uncles, aunts, and assorted siblings was surprisingly well-contained and well-behaved, though we suspect that there will be more than one happy dog being walked the next morning at the fields, sniffing out a few dropped smarties.
• the starts were so "energetic" that we strongly suspect the lead "rabbits" of running for their lives than setting a pace or showing the route.

And here are some select photos from the event for your enjoyment.

The date has been set for this fall's Tennyson Parents Night Out! 

Thursday, Oct 17, 7pm at Ceili's Pub (7th and Burrard)
Book your sitter now so you don't miss it.

See photos and the blog entry from the first ever Tennyson Parents Night Out!  which happened last March.

$20 tickets include a burger and a beer/wine with half of the money coming back to Tennyson (proceeds shared by PAC and Quebec 2015).
Tickets will be available in October, stay tuned for more info.

Thanks to ABC Life Literacy Canada for this article on homework, and thanks to Beth Elliott for suggesting it for our blog.

Home is the Key to Homework

(August 21, 2013 — Toronto, Ont.) — After a long summer, it can be tough for kids to get their focus back on school and homework. But homework is a key part of education and it’s important that kids not only complete it, but also understand what they’ve learned.

Studies show that children's achievements in school improve with increased parent involvement in their education. So get involved in your kids’ homework – you might even learn something new too!

ABC Life Literacy Canada offers 10 tips on how to make homework a part of your family’s daily routine. Establishing good homework habits for younger children helps them develop effective study skills for high school and beyond.

1. Have a specific – and limited – time each day for homework. An hour should be enough for younger children. Early in the evening is best, so that when homework is done there is still time for play. Starting later means rushing to get finished before bedtime, when kids may become too tired to concentrate.
2. Have a regular place for homework. For older kids somewhere “quiet” might be best, but younger kids often do better in a common area like the kitchen or at the dining room table, with an adult nearby.
3. Limit distractions and temptation. Turn off the TV, cell phones and other electronics during homework hour – for the whole family.
4. Parents can do their own routine tasks during homework hour, but should be readily available to help, encourage, and answer questions. But don’t do their homework for them!
5. Start with the hardest subject first, since it will probably take the most time and effort.
6. Kids can become overwhelmed with big assignments or projects. Parents can help them break the project down into smaller steps.
7. When kids resist or delay doing homework, parents can help motivate them by using positive language (“When you finish your homework, you’ll be able to …”) instead of negative language (“If you don’t finish your homework, you won’t be able to …”).
8. Kids have different learning styles, and parents can help them develop effective methods for doing their homework. However, if homework is a constant struggle, talk to the teacher.
9. Show kids how the skills they are learning relate to real life. For example, if a child is learning math, collect receipts from the supermarket and calculate the weekly or monthly cost of your groceries.
10. Don’t limit family learning to homework hour. Make learning a part of daily life by embracing everyday learning opportunities.

For other family literacy tips and activities, visit the HSBC Learning Activity Centre at www.FamilyLiteracyDay.ca

Tennyson's Cross Country running team got off to a terrific start on Friday morning with over 70 students showing up for the first practice of the year. The team's fearless leader / stand-up comic, parent Chris Fuoco, led things off with a pep talk to get everyone in the mood.  (Why the hard hat? "Because it's work!"). This was followed by stretching and a run around the school.

It's not too late to join! The team meets every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8:00am until mid-October. The team will also partake in a number of meets this year:

     Tennyson Fun Meet (4pm start)
        Friday September 20,
        Training, then pizza, then swim
        Hillcrest Park (meet East Ball field)

     Mini-Meets (all start 3:30pm)
        Tuesday September 24, Camosun Park (East side of Track)
        Thursday October 3, Vanier Park (meet by pond)
        Wednesday October 9, Jericho Park (meet by pond)

     District Meet:
        Thursday October 17, Trout Lake (meet by pond)

More information is available on the Cross Country page.

The third annual PAC "Kick-Start" direct appeal fundraiser is now underway.  Information about the campaign is being sent home with kids starting today. Please see the Kick-Start page on our website for more information and a downloadable donation form.

Last year, families donated $9600.  We hope to be at least this successful again this year.  It goes a long way towards our budget which requires $19,575 in fundraising for 2013-2014.

Please note that we expect that this will be the only tax-deductible fundraising initiative that the PAC will run this year.

For more information on how PAC uses these funds, please see our PAC fundraising page, and please consider making a tax-deductible donation.  

Thank you in advance for your support!

Your 2013-2014 PAC Executive

Hello to all Grade 6 Families,

We will be holding our first meeting of the year to start planning for Quebec 2015 this week.  Our current grade 6 students will be invited in 2015, when they are in grade 7, to participate in an exchange program with another school in Quebec. During the exchange students will spend one week in Quebec with a host family in February and then host a student at their own home from Quebec in May.  This exchange is a valuable opportunity for all the children to enrich their learning and understanding of the french language as well as the french culture.  As with everything there are expenses associated with the Quebec trip. To minimize these expenses the grade 6 families at Lord Tennyson organise a variety of fundraising activities and events to reduce the cost.  

This Wednesday, September 11th at 7pm, in the library at school, we will be holding a meeting for all grade 6 families to discuss the upcoming fundraising year.  We hope all grade 6 families at Tennyson can attend this event to find out more about Quebec, their role and how they can help with fundraising.  Everyone participating in the Quebec exchange must participate in the fundraising too.

Quebec 2015 first event for the year will be hosting the "Welcome Back BBQ" on Thursday September 26th and so we need to start planning.  If you are unable to attend the meeting for any reason please email Kyle Beauliv at kbeauliv@gmail.com.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday night.

Kyle Beauliv
Chair Quebec 2015

Lord Tennyson offers the VSB Elementary Strings Program to Grades 4-7 students as an enrichment to the regular music curriculum. Students can choose from the violin, viola, and cello. Participation is optional, and class size is limited to 28 students per grade. 

The itinerant Strings teacher comes to the school once per week to teach the intermediate grades. Students leave their regular class to participate in this program.  Students are expected to practice at home during the week. The students perform in at least two evening concerts each year, one in December and one in the late Spring.

Registration for the Grade 4 beginner class occurs in May of the students' Grade 3 year.  Registration information will be posted on this website once announced.

See our blog entries for the 2012-2013 end-of-year Strings concert here and here.

Is your child in a split class this year? 5 of our 17 classes are "combined classes" this year, representing about 1/3 of our students. 

For more information on split / combined classes, please see the VSB brochure on this topic.

With our children back to school (likely with shiny new clothes), possibly there are a lot of clothes that that do not have a home. 

Over the months of September & October the Quebec 2015 parents need your help in collecting garbage bags of used clothes. These clothes will be provided to the Big Brothers Renew Crew which will help with their mentorship programs. So there are wins all around – money is raised for Tennyson students to travel to Quebec; Big Brothers matches children up with much needed mentors and clothes get recycled. 

If you have any clothes from your family that are no longer needed please: 1) put them in a green garbage bag, 2) bring them to the school and 3) put them on the stage in the school gym. Our goal is to collect 500-600 bags. 

The Clothing Drive ends on Thursday, Oct 31.

For more information, please contact Craig Hewson.


Thanks for reading and we hope that you will join in and help with this worthy project. 


Quebec 2015