• Mark your calendars -  the EMJS Make Sale is on Friday Dec 6 from 3-5pm. If you are new to EMJS and haven't heard of the Make Sale before, it is a festive family event where you can do art-making and crafting activities with your children, and purchase baked goods and homemade crafts to help raise funds to support the arts at EMJS.  

• The Visual Arts Committee is looking for donations of crafts and baked goods to sell at the Make Sale. If you and your child(ren) have time to do some crafting over the next couple of weeks (there are lots of ideas on Pinterest!!), we will have donation boxes in classrooms beginning next week. At previous Make Sales, donated crafts have included ornaments, homemade wrapping paper, cards and stationary, clothing, reusable bags, hair accessories, magnets, plants, baking kits, craft kits, items purchased from other craft fairs, and more. 

• If crafting isn't your thing, consider volunteering in another way to help make the event a success. The bake sale table needs lots of goodies, and volunteers are needed to help at all the crafting stations and the Art Hive and to sell food (hot dogs, popcorn, baked goods). And if you are available to join the organizing committee with setup and pricing items the night before, your assistance will be greatly appreciated! Sign up here:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a084aafac2ba02-make

• For all the bakers out there, please consider reviewing these tips on how to make bake sale goodies both delicious and nutritious: https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthy-eating/bake-sales

This year your generosity will help us in two ways.

1. We will adopt several Victoria families for the holidays and provide them with a hamper filled with gifts and food that they have requested. Similar to last year, your online donations will allow us to support some EMJS families appreciating assistance this holiday season as well as a number of local families identified through the Stan Hagen Centre for Families. We will use your donations to purchase grocery gift cards and specific items that our adopted families have requested on their 'wish list' such as a transit pass, clothing, household items or toys for their kids. Stay tuned for a request for parent volunteers to help with shopping in December. 
    
2. To engage our children in this process, we will also be doing a loonie/toonie drive in December and collecting items in the classrooms the week after the Make Sale to supplement the holiday hampers and build care packages for the homeless in partnership a local organization such as Our Place Society. We will send out more information in December about the types of things that are needed for these care packages (e.g. toothbrush, socks, lotion, lip balm, wipes, bottled water, tissues, pen & paper, a note of encouragement or a joke to brighten their day, etc.) and hope people will be able to send in something small with their child so everyone has a chance to participate in the giving process. Stay tuned for more details.

Now an EMJS tradition, families of grade 5 students have the option to purchase an EMJS hoodie in honour of your child's last year at elementary school. The hoodie will have the EMJS Logo on the front and signatures of all grade 5s on the back.

Orders due with payment by FRIDAY NOV. 29.

Delivery: just before winter break!  

Order online at: https://emjs.hotlunches.net (if you have not yet registered this year use access code EMJS to create an account) and pay online with Visa, Visa Debit, Amex or MasterCard. If you need to pay by cash/cheque or are having any issues placing your order online, please email us and we will make sure you are not missed.  

Samples to Try-on by the gym: Monday Nov 18 at lunch recess, and Thursday Nov 21 after school. We will have forms for kids to take home outlining what they tried on and what size fit best. Hopefully this will make online ordering easier.

Financial assistance is available (contact the school counsellor after you select your option/size online).  

• If you missed the order deadline for our lunches, not to worry - you can still order for the remaining weeks. The deadline to place an order for the December hot lunch is Wednesday, Nov 27th (https://emjs.hotlunches.net). 

• Our next meeting is Thursday, November 28th at 7pm in the library. Childcare is available for children aged 3+. Meeting minutes and handouts from the October meeting are here: https://emjs.hotlunches.net/admin/view-doc.php?dnum=10055

• Your EMJS Thrifty Foods Smile Card can be loaded every time you shop and Thrifty Foods generously donates 5% of what you load on the card back to our school!  We are fundraising for a gym projector that is high on the school's wishlist ($6000).  Every little bit helps!
• Load up your EMJS Fairway Market Community Card and use it at Fairway Markets the same way as the Smile Card.
• When buying bread at Cobs Bread on Oak Bay Avenue, tell them you have a “Dough Raiser” account under the name “Margaret Jenkins”.
• When buying shoes at Finn & Izzy on Oak Bay Avenue, tell them you would like to support Margaret Jenkins school.
• Before your bottle returns are processed at any Return-It Bottle Depot location, let the attendant know you would like the payout to go to “École Margaret Jenkins PAC”
• More details about these programs: https://emjs.hotlunches.net/admin/view-doc.php?dnum=9694

Head Lice Awareness

Head lice are common in BC schools. Although they are a bother, head lice are not a health risk.

Head lice spread quickly by close, head-to-head contact. Lice cannot live on furniture or carpet, and they cannot jump or fly. There may be few or no symptoms, but itching may occur.

You can help by:

• Checking your child’s head with the wet combing method of detection once a week throughout the year. 
• Review the pamphlet How to Get Ride of Head Lice Wet Combing, available here: https://www.islandhealth.ca/sites/default/files/2018-08/wet-combing-head-lice-removal.pdf.
• Encouraging your child to wear their hair tied back.
• Treating if you notice live lice on your child’s head.
• Reminding family and friends about the importance of routine head checks, using the wet combing method.
• For more information:
  • Contact the Public Health Unit
  • Read the HealthLink BC File on Head Lice available here: http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthfiles/hfile06.stm