Hello Howard Community,

This year’s Dance-A-Thon — a super fun day of dancing for the whole school — will be on Wednesday, February 13th, 2019.

Pledge envelopes should be in kids’ bag today or tomorrow and they are due back on February 10th. Donations can also be made online at https://www.professorjamz.com/howard

**The same link takes you to the all-important song request portal so get your kiddos’ favourites requested before the 13th.

Dance-a-Thon fundraising provides wonderful opportunities for additional enrichment programs for our children, and this year, it has also been a chance for our student council to do some research and learn about organizations (Covenant House and Sistering) that are doing such important work in our community!

If you’d like to get your dancing shoes on and volunteer, just email us at erin.mccaughan@gmail.com to let us know.  Here’s the schedule:

Dance-a-Thon Coordinators,

Candice Levine

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Erin McCaughan

Just a reminder that Howard offers more than just pizza lunch! Sign up for your own account on the Healthy Hunger site for your child, and they can order Pita Pit and Subway lunches.

Please note that the deadline for ordering is the Sunday prior to the Friday lunch day. Visit HealthyHunger.ca to get set up. You can order one at a time, or for the whole year.

Happy lunching!

Music by the Lake for grades 6, 7, 8 :  Applications are due this Saturday!  

Go to the following website https://sites.google.com/a/tdsb.on.ca/music-by-the-lake/

Music by the Lake ( MBTL)  is an 8-day residential instrumental and vocal camp for TDSB students in grade 6, 7 and 8.

It will take place from Saturday May 25th to Saturday June 1st, 2019.

Music by the Lake is a life-changing experience for many young musicians.  Their participation in MBTL continues to develop their appreciation of music, and their musicianship over a week of playing and singing 4 hours a day, seeing professional performances every night, and performing for the entire camp in a small ensemble concert.  It also develops their ability to think critically and to work as a part of a team.  The MBTL application is now open online. It is due tomorrow.

Links to information and application on the website: https://sites.google.com/a/tdsb.on.ca/music-by-the-lake/.

You will not be receiving a hard copy of any forms.  Students who are eligible to attend MBTL include:

Instrumental students ( band, strings, guitar and steel pan) in grades 6, 7 and 8 who are currently enrolled in their school instrumental program and have been for a minimum of a year.

OR:

Interested vocal students in grades 6,7 and 8 .

Students are expected to remain in this program for the full duration, so please make sure there are no conflicts.

Flashback to Howard Dance-A-Thon 2018.

We have begun the countdown to our Dance-a-Thon fundraising event!

Our pep rally on Thursday, January 31st was met with an excited audience and the students seemed pumped to start fundraising for this fun event.

Mark your calendars for Wednesday, February 13th for this year’s Howard Dance-A-Thon.

Pledge envelopes will go home this week so students can begin fundraising. The envelopes can be returned by February 8th – we will be sending reminders closer to the date.

Not only does Dance-a-Thon bring a day of dancing and fun to the school in the middle of February but it also raises funds to offer enrichment programs for Howard students in areas including art, science, tech and mental health. This year the parent community voted at council to donate 1/2 the proceeds from Dance-a-Thon to charitable causes and the new Student Council chose 2 local organizations: Covenant House (directly assists youth in crisis and homeless youth) and Sistering (helps at-risk and socially isolated women).

We personally feel fortunate to live in this supportive and privileged neighbourhood where we are able to raise funds for not only our own children’s needs, but also to share our resources with those in need. It is important to remember that we are all existing on different locations of the same life continuum, and that our location can shift at any given time, without notice.

We hope that we can all bring forward our generous and supportive spirits, and make this another hugely successful Howard Dance-a-Thon.

Happy fundraising!

Dance-a-Thon coordinators,

Candice & Erin

Do you have a child in grade six who loves music? Consider signing them up for Music By the Lake!

Music By the Lake is a co-operative venture of the Toronto District School Board and Camp Wahanowin, providing a residential music camp with band, strings, choral, steel pan, percussion and ukulele. To apply, students must be in grade 6, 7, or 8 in a TDSB school.

This eight-day camp operates from May 25 through June 1, 2019 and is situated at Camp Wahanowin on the shores of Lake Couchiching in the Orillia area. The camp culminates with an onsite Open House and student concert on June 1st, to which TDSB music teachers and officials are invited.

Applications are due this Saturday!

Go to the following website to find out more: http://www.mbtl.ca/index.html