Mountain View Newsletter November - December 2015

Almadina Language Charter Academy

Important

Dates:

Ahmed Abbas

Assembly

- Dec. 11th @ 1:30pm

Acceptance Assembly

- Dec. 16th @ 9:00am

Winter Break

- Dec. 19th - Jan. 4th

Classes Resume

- Jan. 5th

Respect Virtue

- Jan. 5th - Feb.

15th

Interim Reports

-Jan. 29th

Principal’s Message 1

Parent Information 2

Virtues 3

WEP and School

Counsellor

4

Technology and Bus

Concerns

5

Special Events 6

Special Events 7

Inside this issue:

Dear Parents,

Our school year is passing by quickly! We are fast approaching our last few weeks of school before Winter Break. It has been a busy few months of learning and growing at Almadina. We have had a number of amazing assemblies that showcased student performances with our Virtues programming.

Through the Wellness Empowerment Program, our students participated again in the “We Scare Hunger” campaign. We continue to make contributions to our Calgary community through fundraising for the Terry Fox foundation and cancer research. This helps

students understand the value of our virtues in action.

As well, it has been inspiring to visit class-rooms and see staff and students engaged in meaningful learning tasks. We had strong attendance at our recent parent teacher interviews. These interviews are important to find out where your child has strengths and areas for growth. Despite very cold weather, we had a strong turnout at interviews. Parent teacher interviews are a time for sharing student progress with the Alberta Program of Studies and our Language Benchmarks. As always, you can keep track of your

child’s progress through email and agenda communication with the teacher.

All parents are encouraged to attend our monthly School Council meeting. This is a forum for parents to learn more about the school and share in discussions around events and programming. Please check the website for upcoming dates.

Looking ahead to the New Year, we continue to be committed to excellence in our learning journey. On behalf of our staff, I wish you happy holidays and a joyous new year!

Sincerely, Shakila Raja Principal

Principal’s Message

Published By: Ms.Marr, Mrs.Chambers, Mrs.Sondergaard, and Mrs.Rollins

Pictures from the Almadina BBQ On Sept 27, Almadina staff, students,

parents, and board members came out to celebrate the start of the new school year with great food and

activities at our annual Almadina BBQ. Thanks to everyone that came!

Reporting Student Absences

The flu is going around! If your child is absent,

please make sure to call the office and report their

absence. Please call the office at (403) 543-5074

and leave a message with Ms.Chamseddine.

Be Snow Safe!

Parent Information

Winter Break Ideas!

Calgary weather can change

at a moments notice! Our

students should always be

prepared for winter weather.

Please ensure your child

comes to school with winter

appropriate clothing: mitts/

gloves, a hat, a winter jacket,

snow pants, and snow boots.

Where does a

polar bear keep

its money?

In a snow bank!

Food Safety and Allergies

As we have some students with allergies at

our school, please do not send any food with

your child for sharing with other students.

This includes birthday treats. If you would

like your child to share something with the

class on their birthday, small non-edible

items from the dollar store are a safe option.

Please try not to send any food

with your child that contains nuts.

Please also notify the school right

away if your child has an allergy

that we are not yet aware of.

Running out of ideas on how to spend winter break? Here are some activities

that you could do with your family:

-Sledding -Visit the Zoo lights -Make cookies as a family

-Build a snowman! -Drink hot chocolate -Winter crafts (snowmen, snowflakes)

-Skating -Play a board game -Read winter stories together

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Conscience Assembly

This month’s Virtue

Acceptance Virtues Update

“Sometimes it takes just

ONE to stand up!

It takes just ONE voice

to make everyone

count!”

Acceptance Assembly:

December 16, 2015

at 9:00am

The Conscience Assembly on Oct. 28th was a great success. It was wonderful to see such a great turnout of parents

and family who came to watch students perform from Mrs. Mcleod’s, Ms. Hutchinson’s, Mr. Kadri’s, and Mrs. Moore’s

classes. Thank you Almadina, for demonstrating the importance of using your conscience to make the right choice,

and being proud of yourself for striving to do the right thing.

Congratulations to all our Conscience

Virtue Winners! Keep up the fantastic

work on using your virtues!

At Almadina, we value the individual differences, beliefs,

and experiences that each of our students and staff members

bring to our school and classroom community. Acceptance

means to respect the dignity and rights of all persons, even

those whose beliefs and behaviours differ from our own.

As a school wide activity, all classes have shared the story

“One” by Kathryn Otoshi which has helped us discover

the importance of learning to accept each others’

differences and how it can take just one voice to stand up

and make sure everyone counts! Students discussed what

it means to value, include, and stand by our classmates

and peers. As our students learn the meaning of

acceptance, they learn to treat their peers with respect,

they become caring individuals, and everyone feels a

sense of safety and belonging. At Almadina, we are free to

be unique individuals; each with something great to

contribute!

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Helping the student and

family to set goals to aid

positive change.

A relationship of trust.

Confidentiality is vital to

successful counselling.

Counselling services and

programs promote the

personal/social,

educational, and career

development of all

students.

If you have any further questions

about this or my services for

your child, please do not

hesitate to contact Ms. Jacob the

School Counsellor at

sjacob@esl-almadina.com

-Ms. Jacob

Counselling is:

The process that occurs

when a student and

counsellor set time aside

in order to explore

difficulties which may

include the behavioural,

academic, or emotional

feelings of the student.

The Wellness Empowerment

Program (WEP) is here to

support students, teachers and

parents in a variety of different

areas. This year WEP will

continue to run boys and girls

clubs, offer classroom

presentations on mental health

to all grades, host school wide

events and work with individual

students on many different

topics that focus on social,

emotional, behavioural, physical

and academic wellness.

October Theme:

Let’s Keep us Physically

Healthy!!!

Students were taught about

Grungy Germ. Grungy Germ

likes to hide on our hands and

get inside of our bodies. When

inside our bodies, he can make

us sick. One way to stop

Grungy Germ is to always wash

our hands before we eat and

after we play outside.

Students were taught how their

brains work by taking a journey

through all the parts of the

brain.

What is Counselling?

Wellness Empowerment Program (WEP)

November - December

Theme:

Let’s Keep our

Brains Healthy!!

It is important to

understand that our brains

control everything we do -

thinking, feeling,

remembering, playing, etc.

Students learned how to

protect their brain - sleep,

eat healthy, drink water,

exercise, wear seatbelts and

wear helmets.

- Mrs. Plumb

PAGE 4

For some great educational

books there are a few out there

that use a concept called

Augmented Reality. Augmented

reality is technology that places

computer generated images into

the user’s real world.

At our Scholastic Book Fair I

bought a book from the Jurassic

Park Movie that uses

Augmented Reality. It is called

Jurassic World - Where Dinosaurs Come to Life. It

offers incredible facts about

dinosaurs and even use images

to show the size difference

between you and a dinosaur.

There are many other books

that utilize this technology. Here

are a few more:

iScience

iSolar System

iDinosaur

There are even colouring books

that bring children’s colouring

pages to life.

Crayola Color Alive

(different titles)

Disney Color and Play

(different titles)

Educational Technology: Augmented Reality

Photo (Left):

The Velociraptor and I are about the same size, even

though it is standing on a

table.

How To Address Bus Concerns

If you have any concerns

about buses we ask that you

contact the school first before

speaking to anyone else. The

school will address any

concerns that you might have.

Mrs. Haque is in charge of

this at the Mountain View

Campus and Mr. El-Rafih at

the Ogden Campus.

Thank you.

An app that is ready to

download is Quiver

(quivervision.com).

Quiver’s web page have

free and paid colouring pages

that can be printed off that

work with the app.

Regardless what you do this

winter break, have a safe and

fun time!

-Ms. Reid

Educational Technologist

PAGE 5

Intramurals - Dodge ball

Pictures from our Almadina

Special Events

PAGE 6

Calgary Food Drive Ahmad Abbas Fundraiser

CIBC Run for the Cure

On October 4th, 2015, members of Almadina

staff came together in support of Breast

Cancer research. Altogether we raised a total

of $3,020 for this great cause. It just comes to

show that here at Almadina we do our part!

In Round 1 of Intramurals, students from Gr.3 displayed

their sportsmanship and target skills while Playing King’s

Court Dodge ball. Team #3 was victorious among the

students, but gave a great effort as they were defeated in

their final game against the teachers!

A special thank you to all our generous families

here at Almadina who contributed to our annual

“We scare Hunger” Food Drive.

Almadina’s 6th Annual Ahmad Abbas

fundraiser to support the Children’s

Hospital is underway from Nov. 25th to

Dec. 11th. Every year we remember a

special Almadina student who left a big

impression on our hearts.

Money raised, will go towards helping the sick and injured children

feel comfortable, happy, and safe during their long days spent in the

hospital. Students who donate at least $10 will get their name put

in a draw for a chance to throw a pie at a teacher! We appreciate

any donation amount, and thank you for your generosity!

We collected a

staggering amount

of food that will

help many

deserving families

in Calgary.

Terry Fox Run

Pyjama Day Principal for a Day

Lilyana and Rianna

El-Hajjar raised an

astonishing $1,110 to

support Terry Fox

Fundraising efforts.

To reward their hard

work and dedication,

they got to be principal

for a day!

Great work, ladies!

Remembrance Day

As a reward for meeting our school wide goal of raising at

least $2000 for the Terry Fox Organization, students got to

wear their comfortable pyjama’s to school!

It was a great day for a run as the

entire school came out to get some

exercise and show our support for a

great cause. As a whole school, with the

generous support of Almadina family

and friends, we raised $2,643 to

support Cancer research. Way to go

Almadina!

Our Remembrance Day assembly was a heartfelt success. Students shared their

fantastic artistic and written creations to show their gratitude towards the many

soldiers who sacrificed their lives for our freedom here in Canada. We definitely

showed great empathy and respect on this important day. Congratulations to

those students and classes who won the Remembrance Day art contest!

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