APRIL NEWSLET T ER Time for Flowers Time for Snow Musical Congratulations to the students and parents involved with the musical Time for Flowers Time for Snow. You have made us all very proud! The students demonstrated their talents during two wonderful performances on Saturday, April 5th. We thank Dimitri Ilias (Music Director), Karen Pearce (Stage Director), and the Home and School Executive members and volunteers. A special thank you goes out to Connie Di Iorio and Dimitra Demerson (Production Managers) for their many months of hard work to bring this project to fruition. Gardenview Places 1st in Quebec in the Canadian National Mathematics League (CNML) Competition It is my pleasure to inform you that the students in the Enriched Math Program with Ms. Landau, an endeavor sponsored by Home and School, recently participated in the prestigious CNML competitions and placed 1st in Quebec and 4th in Canada (out of 250 participating schools). We are also excited to have six Gardenview students ranking in the top 10 in the province: Anthony Mirarchi, Melissa Yu, Alois Orozco, Victoria Anson, David Lanyi, and Kaitlin May Wong. Anthony Mirarchi also placed in the top 30 in Canada. Congratulations to all the students in the enriched math program for their remarkable accomplishments! AP RI L NEW S L ETT ER Quebec Federation of the Home and School Association Writing Contest I am pleased to announce that the Gardenview students of room 21 entered the QFHSA 2014 Family Treasures Writing Contest and excelled above all other contest participants across the province. The 1st prize is being awarded to Michael Guluzian for his essay The Promise. Michael will receive a $100 gift card. The 2nd prize is being awarded to Stephen Mikus for his essay The Piano. Stephen will receive a $50.00 gift card. Honourable mentions are going to Ruth Sivagnanam for her essay The Bracelets and to Rianna Angelopoulos for her poem The Treasure Box. Each will receive a $25.00 Chapters gift card. We also congratulate teacher Nina Wong for giving her students a unique opportunity to share their talents as young writers. Ms Wong also receives $150 for her class for the winning entries. Concours National de Lecture Le Concours national de lecture 2014 s'est tenu du 10 mars au 21 mars. Ce concours consiste à jouer au jeu Récréation qui est un jeu de lecture et d'épellation. Les trois finalistes de chaque classe ont reçu chacun un livre. Puis la compétition de lecture et d'épellation s'est poursuivie entre les gagnants de chacune des classes. Les grands gagnants du 1e cycle sont: Matt L'écuyer (salle 5) en première place; Matheo Roussos (salle 31) en deuxième place; et Eloi Tremblay (salle 4) en troisième place. Félicitations aux gagnants et à tous les participants et participantes! Les gagnants se sont mérités plusieurs prix comme une paire de billets pour la Ronde, le jeu Récréation, des livres et des revues. De plus, chaque participant et enseignante recevront sous peu un billet d'entrée gratuit pour la Ronde! Our Students Excel in all Areas Once again this year the girls from Gardenview Danae Poulopoulos (Grade 5), Sabrina Morelli (Grade 4), Victoria Anson (Grade 6), and Stevie Tsoukalas (Grade 4) excelled in Ringuette. In February the St. Laurent Extreme Atome B team won the final match against Repentigny 7-3. This month, the team will be participating in the Jeux de Montréal. We wish the team and our girls all the best! I am also pleased to inform you that Vincenzo Reale (Grade 2) and Perry Nikolettos (Grade 4) were selected to represent Canada at a soccer tournament in Portugal and Spain this coming month. Following a vigorous selection process the boys will participate in the Mundialito, a prestigious international soccer tournament that is held in Portugal and in Spain every year. It is considered to be the World Cup of soccer for kids. Vincenzo and Perry will be playing against other teams from around the world. We know they will make Canada and Gardenview proud! We also congratulate Jeremy Feldman (Grade 1) and Brandon Nathan (Grade 2) of the Saint-Laurent Novice "B" SONICS for an amazing hockey season. The team placed 1st as Playoff Champions and Division Champions for the 2013-2014 EHL season and finalists at the St-Laurent Annual Tournament. The team members were also the 20132014 Lac saint-Louis Regional Champions. Gardenview Robotics Team Gardenview’s robotics team made up of 5 groups will be attending the annual RoboCup Junior competition at John Rennie High School on April 25th and 26th. One group, part of the Search and Rescue mission, is designing robots that are able to navigate through a two floor building, find a "victim", and bring it to the designated safe zone. Two other groups are preparing their robots for a series of 5 tasks called the Beatles Challenge (shooting a ball through a basket, sumo wrestling, tug-of-war, driving without hitting obstacles, and gathering red objects). Another group is competing against other school teams in a robotic soccer tournament and the last team will be using robots to perform a play on environmental awareness. We wish the Gardenview team success and a rewarding experience. I would like to thank Robotics Instructor, Gio Spina, as well as teacher Valerie Nandhra and parent volunteer Annalisa Cotellessa for working with the students all year and for ensuring the success of the robotics program at Gardenview. Grade 6 Science Fair On Monday, April 14th, Gardenview will be hosting its annual Grade 6 Science Fair with over 75 projects to be displayed in the school gym. The students chose one of the following tasks: to develop an invention, to run an experimental design, or to create works of art using recyclable items. As usual, we will be inviting community members from both the educational and science/tech fields to judge our students’ projects. Parents of Grade 6 students are invited to attend from 10:30 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. End-of-Cycle Exams Please see memo and email sent last week for more details: Grade 2 French: May 5th-May 16th Math: May 20th-June 6th Grade 4 English: May 1st-May 9th French: April 28th-May 9th Math: May 20th-June 6th Grade 6 English: May 1st-May 9th French: May 5th-May 16th Math: May 20th-June 6th Dates to Remember in April Tuesday, April 8th Junkyard Symphony performs at Gardenview for Cycle 2 students Volunteer Dinner for service of 5 years or more (by invitation only) Wednesday, April 9th French Book Fair Monday, April 14th Grade 6 Science Fair Friday, April 18th Easter Holiday Monday, April 21st Easter Holiday Tuesday, April 22nd Governing Board Meeting at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 23rd Home and School Meeting at 7:30 p.m. Fri, April 25th & Sat, April 26th Gardenview Robotics Team competes at John Rennie High School Monday, May 5th Professional Day April is Volunteer Month I would like to take this opportunity to thank our dedicated volunteers for all of their unselfish, caring and noble actions to benefit our students and our school. You deserve our most sincere gratitude for all you do! Evelyne Alfonsi