Purdy’s Easter Chocolate Fundraiser

Easter is coming early (Sunday, March 31) this year so get your chocolate orders in with the PAC Purdys Chocolatier Fundraiser!

Choose from Easter gift boxes, fun chocolate bunnies, Sweet Georgia Browns and more. Funds raised support Hastings Elementary PAC initiatives and events. Get your Easter gift-shopping done while supporting the school.

Visit: https://fundraising.purdys.com/1269200-115796

Click Shop Online in the Tabs up top

Choose your chocolate treats!

Deadline to order is Feb 27th.

Products will be available for pick up at the school March 13th (the week before Spring Break)

Burger and Bevvie Night is Back!

Tickets on Sale NOW!! Saturday February 25th

After a very long 3 year break, the Hastings PAC is very excited to be hosting the very popular Burger & Bevvie Night at The Princeton once again!
When: Saturday, February 25th!
Where: The Princeton Hotel – 1901 Powell Street
What: Adults only social event to bring together the Hastings School parent community
Book the sitter and get your tickets online at EVENTBRITE
Tickets are only $26 each and that includes all services fees. Your ticket gets you a burger, fries, one beverage, karaoke entertainment, and good times!
Doors open at 6pm, and first burgers are served at 6:30pm.
Kitchen closes at 10pm, but event goes until 11pm.
This is a wonderful way to meet other parents and caregivers. While this
event is primarily intended to be a community building event, any
proceeds will go to the Hastings PAC to fund initiatives such as
classroom supplies, dance and phys.ed programs, art supplies, to name a
few! So grab some friends and come out for a fun night while raising
money for the PAC!
Only 100 tickets are available! Get yours now!
We hope to see you there!

Hastings Reads! 2023

Hello Hastings school community!

Many
of you will remember in 2021, Hastings held a library diversity book
drive. It was incredibly
successful, with hundreds of book titles suggested by students,
care-givers, and teachers and over $5000 raised to purchase those books
and more. The intention was to ensure that the books in our school
library reflected the diversity in our school community
and around the world. Since then, much work has gone into purchasing
and cataloguing many of those books, and now we are ready to get going
on a second project…….. HASTINGS READS!

As
the book drive
happened during a time when restrictions were in place and care-givers
weren’t allowed into the school, we want to make sure that all kids (and
adults) know about and take the opportunity to dive into these great
new books! So, using the popular yearly event
CBC’s Canada Reads as inspiration, we are going to have our own ‘Battle of the Books.’ 🎉

Learn about
Canada Reads.

All classes and children will be involved and to kick things off,
everyone will receive their own Hastings Reads! 2023 bookmark. There is a
spot on the back where kids can write their name and division number, to
prevent them getting lost. 😉 Participation for the
different grades will look like this:

Kindergarten to grade 3: The school librarian, Chris Donegan, will read from the new book list to each of the classes during their library time.

Grades 4 and 5: Children will each have their own checklist of
the new books, which they will be able to borrow from the library. Once a
book is read, they’ll check it on their list. Prizes will be awarded to
classes when they reach certain milestones
of books read in total.

Grades 6 and 7: The Hastings Reads! the subcommittee has been very
busy behind the scenes. The librarians on the subcommittee (we are lucky
to have several), have chosen 5 books for each of the 6/7
classes. From those five books, children will be able
to choose which book that they’d like to ‘champion’ as a group. A class
is welcome to have multiple groups championing a book. Children are
welcome and encouraged to read more than just the book they’d like to
champion, as the class that reads the most books
will earn a class prize. Classes have five copies of each of their five
books. While some were purchased through our awesome neighbourhood book
store –

Iron Dog Books on Hastings St – half the books were either donated or heavily discounted by the publishers. And then in May, the final event, our very own ‘battle of the books,’ will take place! Date to be announced soon! As
we would like to make the final event as inclusive as possible, the
logistics of what that will look like are still being determined, but
we are already lining up local personalities from the book community, as moderators.

The grades 6/7 teachers have received their books and checklists, the
grades 4 and 5 children will receive their checklists this week, posters are up, Hastings Reads book
displays are set
up in the library, and
all children will soon be receiving their Hastings Reads bookmarks. So,
everything is ready to go and the challenge is on!

Ask your children to tell you more about Hastings Reads and let’s talk about books!!

On behalf of the Hastings Reads! subcommittee, the Hastings Anti-racism Committee, and the Hastings PAC

Staff Appreciation Breakfast

Monday, June 27th

We are so fortunate to have fabulous teachers and staff at our school! Help the PAC say thank you to them as the year draws to a close. Bring a breakfast item for staff to share. Drop off baking, fruit, cheese, or other yummy treats anytime between 8:30-9:30am. The PAC will be providing coffee from Laughing Bean.

Please label the food item and any dishes or utensils you bring in, and pick up at the end of the day or next morning. Thank you!

Speaker Series: Self-Regulation

May 17^th – Self-regulation speaker Trent Doiron – part 1

June 1^st – Self-regulation speaker Trent Doiron – part 2

June 15^th – Self-regulation speaker Trent Doiron – part 3

7:00-8:30pm via ZOOM

Self-regulation is the ability to manage our thoughts, behavior, and energy to achieve the best outcomes possible in the moment. A person’s self-regulation is influenced by external factors such as their environment and interactions with others. Parents can help their children by learning to co-regulate. Often parents are used to having to manage the outcome of a strong reaction from their child after it occurs. Co-regulating enables parents to use proactive planning to impact a favourable environment before a “situation” potentially occurs. It is far easier to manage energy than it is to manage behaviour.

The Hastings PAC is delighted to introduce our next three-part webinar series on Self-Regulation – what it means and how parents and caregivers can learn co-regulation strategies that can help our children and ourselves. Trent Doiron will be presenting this series and is specialized in self-regulation. Trent is a Youth & Family Worker at Tillicum Community Annex and has been supporting kids in schools with their social-emotional growth and school readiness for nearly 30 years. He has provided training to parents and educators in trauma-informed practice, play-skill development, proactive behaviour interventions, and more.

The content and strategies covered in this series are designed to be applicable to children of all ages, youth and adults. The following is an outline of each session with dates to add to your calendar:

Tuesday, May 17th 7:00-8:30pm
Session 1 – Self-regulation – Explaining the Basics

In this session Trent will discuss the basics of self-regulation and what it looks like, as well as explain why and how it is easier to manage energy than it is to manage behaviour. He will talk us through co-regulation and how it works and why it works, and give us some easy tips for helping ourselves and our kids to stay well regulated.

Wednesday, June 1st 7:00-8:30pm
Session 2 – Self-regulation – The Five Domains

Using the model of Canada’s own expert Dr Stuart Shanker, Trent will introduce us to the biological, emotional, cognitive, social and pro-social aspects to self-regulation. He will explain how this model is a powerful method for understanding stress and managing energy flow, and demonstrate how parents and teachers can better understand children’s stress and enhance self-regulation.

Wednesday, June 15st 7:00-8:30pm
Session 3 – Self-regulation – Adding Tools to the Toolbox

This will be a working session in which Trent will interact with participants to problem-solve together. He will provide self regulation examples with practical tips to affect outcomes. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to bring along questions, challenges, or scenarios that Trent can help to problem-solve with applied strategies.

Book your tickets! Tickets can be booked through Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/next-speaker-series-self-regulation-in-children-teens-tickets-328545918687

Tickets are available for reservation by donation, starting at $1. For planning purposes it helps us to have registrations in advance. We are grateful for any donations to assist us with the cost of the speaker. Please pay what you can afford – thank you!

All registrants are invited to submit any questions or topics that you would like to see included as part of the session. Please email info@hastingspac.ca with your questions.