​FunLunch
Winter Session Opens Dec 14th… and yes, there is Cheese Pizza!
 
FUNLunch Days have been a hugely successful Livingstone fundraiser; but more importantly, they are a lot of fun for the students. We are pleased to be bringing back some of the favorites, as well as expanding the menu to offer more choices.
 
There will be 11 FunLunch Days and 3 Happy Planet Juice Recesses between January 5th and March 31st 2016
 
The winter session includes: Fresh Slice Pizza, Sushi, Pasta Day, Hotdog Day and Happy Planet Smoothies
Please register, or log in to your existing account here to place your order(s) for the Winter Session. All orders and payments must be received 8 days before the lunch date.

We encourage you to purchase all the lunches and juice recesses at once, rather than on a weekly basis. This will limit the amount of volunteer hours needed to organize the orders. However, keep in mind that there are no changes or cancellations. If you are unsure if your child will like the menu, please just order for 1 week and test it out. You can easily do this by REMOVING the unwanted dates before you finalize and pay.
Go here for menu details and dates.

This successful gift card program is a great way for us to raise money for our school. Each time you buy a card a percentage of the value is donated to the school. There is a long list of shops, restaurants and services for you to choose from. The money raised is used to support field trips, organize events and support the needs of the school to enhance our children's learning environment.
 
Forms and more information on purchasing gifts cards is going home on November 5th. You can also find them below. Forms are due back by November 16th.  This is a great way to support your school by buying cards to places where you regularly shop or by getting some of your Christmas shopping done.  
 
Any questions or for more information please contact Stephanie Kulferst at [email protected]

​At our last PAC meeting we asked parents where PAC efforts should be focused and how fundraising dollars should be spent. This feedback will help make sure that parents priorities are represented as we plan PAC events and activities and determine where to allocate funds for the rest of the school year and beyond. 

The main themes that emerged are that parents value community building opportunities, desire more outreach to parents, and would like to advocate for arts, music and library programs. Other priorities include teacher support and student extra curricular education.

Parents would like to see money fundraised go towards enhanced learning opportunities for students such as guest speakers, special activities and educational field trips. There was also a strong desire to devote funds towards physical education programs for all ages as well as towards music, arts/culture and life skills programming. Upgrading technology and supporting the library were also highlighted. 

Over the coming months, your PAC executives will keep these priorities in mind when we recommend items to fund and finalize our fundraising plans. Our goal is to ensure that as much as possible our efforts and funds benefit the entire school. You can help us by passing along suggestions for possible speakers, extra curricular opportunities or special activities that you are aware of, as well as any additional input. If anyone would like to lead a parent speakers committee, to find speakers and collaborate with other groups to share resources, that would also be very helpful.

We will also be looking for volunteers to help with new events that we are planning to bring our community together. Look for details about an upcoming movie night and pancake breakfast in the weekly newsletter.

Thanks for helping to make our school and community so amazing !

Andrew and Cara
PAC Co-chairs

Saturday October 17th and Saturday November 7th 
to collect all Thanksgiving and Halloween party drink containers.
More details to follow, please spread the word. 

If you can help or have any questions, email Caroline at [email protected]

All the details about our recycling fundraising efforts can be found here.

October 13–November 13
Starting right after Thanksgiving

Start collecting your refundable drink containers (no dairy, soy or almond milk cartons please!) and don't forget to ask your extended family, friends and neighbours to keep theirs too.

Our goal is to collect an EXTRA 10,000 pieces of recycling, so please bring in all your bottles and cans and drop them off in the recycling room, close to the gym inside the school.

David Livingstone PAC is selling popcorn cards again this year. The cost will be $15 per card. Each card will give your child 11 bags of popcorn throughout the year. The cards will be stored at the school and handed out to your child on popcorn days which happen roughly once a month. Bags can be purchased on the popcorn day and each bag will cost $2. 

Siblings CAN share a card if you wish.

The first Popcorn sale will be Friday, October 16. The deadline to return your order will be Tuesday, September 29.  


For those who have participated in the past, you will notice an increase in cost. This is to offset our expenses so our PAC can continue to provide this fun experience for the kids and also make sure it continues to be a viable fundraiser. This fundraiser brings in money to support PAC efforts such as (amongst other things) assembly speakers, and providing bursaries for field trips for our students in need. 

As always, we rely on our volunteers. Many hands make light work. Please email us if you can help with any part of the popcorn day process. We especially would like to have more help on the mornings we pop the popcorn.

Thanks to Sophie Yendole for heading up this program.

Are you looking to reduce lost-and-found items this year? 

Consider buying labels and tags from Mabel's Labels  and 20% of your purchase will be given back to our school.

Go to http://mabelslabels.com/support-a-fundraiser and select David Livingstone Elementary before you start shopping. 

by: Andrew Nolan
dad at Livingstone
member of the PAC Communications Team


At first glance, the group of people walking down Main Street last Friday afternoon could have been mistaken for a tour group taking a few too many selfies on oversized phones. In actuality, it was a very interesting exploration of architecture and photography by Ms. Geri's grade 5/6 class. 

Earlier this year, the PAC paid for 10 iPads for our school. Curious about how the technology was being used in the classroom, I had arranged to join them for a part of their photography class. The class started with a brief review of architecture elements on the smart board before we headed out to take pictures along Main Street. 

From what they showed me, the students had already been exploring the history of photography, starting with reproducing the daguerreotype style pictures they had seen when studying the Franklin expedition. Different points of view had also been explored including sky-view, shadows, framing and my favorites the ant-view and giant-view. The architecture lesson focused on looking at details and finding interesting themes among the mish-mash of buildings between 26th and 15th Avenues. I was impressed by how engaged the students were and how the technology facilitated focusing and capturing details of their neighborhood that otherwise would probably have been missed. Although I could not stay, the students would later stream their pictures to the classroom screen and provide feedback to each other. Just another day in the connected (and mobile) classroom.

This is only one of many examples of the iPads in action. How have your kids been using them in their class?

Correction: the previous announcement for this said to contact Naomi, please contact Jodi. If you contact Naomi, it will get to Jodi but the fastest way to go is to contact her directly.

Preparations are currently underway for our annual Multicultural Night. This is a fun time of food, community, and wonderful demonstrations of our cultural diversity. This is also a HUGE fundraiser for the PAC. The primary way this event makes money is from our raffles and 50/50. If you own a business or would like to talk to business owners about donating items for our raffle, please contact Jodi and she will give you the necessary information and documents.