October 14 - Happy Thanksgiving Chris Akkerman Weekly Message
Weekly Message Happy Thanksgiving
Important Dates:
· October 14th – Thanksgiving Day – School is closed
· October 15th – Photo Retakes (You must be in formal uniform to have your photo retakes. If you are not in your formal uniform, you will not have this opportunity)
· October 17 – Walk For Wenjack
· October 17- 6PM - School Council Meeting PM Join the meeting now
· October 21st – Photo Day Grade 4& 5 and Photo Retakes
· October 21 – 24 Book Fair Week (Book fair will be available on Thursday evening at the Celebration of Learning) A great Opportunity to Volunteer with CAS family – The book fair! Please see below.
· October 24 (evening)– Celebration of Learning – Literacy 5:30 - 7PM
· October 25 – PD day- No school for Students.
· October 31- Halloween celebration.
To our CAS Community;
It is at Thanksgiving that we take time to reflect on what we are thankful for, I too, would like to take a moment to give thanks. I am grateful to be the principal at Chris Akkerman School and to have an opportunity to work alongside some of the very best students, families, educators and staff in Calgary!
First, I am thankful for our students. They come to class every day and put significant effort into becoming more skilled and knowledgeable citizens. They are open to innovative ideas, new concepts, and new experiences, and we learn from them every day. They come from different circumstances and backgrounds to learn and grow together. That process is not always easy, but they struggle through the difficult moments together, and they celebrate their successes together. I am proud of them, and I consider myself lucky to lead their school.
The parents at Chris Akkerman School (CAS) are the most enthusiastic and kind I have ever worked with. CAS would not be what it is without the support and the effective partnerships parents have created with our team. We only need to look at the great turn-out from our last School Council meeting to know how very engaged our families are. Our School Council are exceptional examples of the enthusiasm and effort evident in our parent community. Thank you for all you do to always make CAS a great place to learn and to be!
What we do at Chris Akkerman School could never be achieved without the dedication of the staff behind the scenes. From our facility operator, Ms Baljit and our school cleaner to the amazing team in the office headed up by Ms. Shilpa and Ms Aziza, our lunchroom supervisors, lead by Ms Sylvia/ Ms W and our Library Assistant, the persistence and initiative they demonstrate is uncommon, and I appreciate their dedication and professionalism they bring to our school every single day. Thank you!
I could not do what I do without the shared leadership and collaboration of our school leadership team including our Learning Leaders and Assistant Principal. Their dedication to CAS is clear and their work is essential to establishing the organizational culture, positive environment, and student-centered instructional program necessary for our students to grow and thrive. I am grateful every day for the opportunity to work with and learn from them. Thank you!
And of course, the backbone of our organization – the teachers! I want to thank our Teachers, Education Assistants, and School Assistants. The teaching staff at CAS is tireless. They constantly challenge their students and themselves to reach higher and accomplish more. Every day I come to work I am renewed by their energy, their enthusiasm, and their willingness to try new things while remaining grounded in foundational teaching practices. Our teachers are continually adjusting their instruction to help each child reach his or her potential. So, to the Chris Akkerman Teaching team please accept my sincere gratitude and appreciation as I say thank you for your service; your service to our students, your service to our school and your service to our community. To all of our students, families and staff, I wish you a very meaningful Thanksgiving.
Dr. Bettesworth
Literacy Night: October 24th
On October 24th, Chris Akkerman School will be celebrating all things literacy. Literacy is about reading and writing. Your child will share with you the various tasks they are working on in class to learn to read and to read even better. They will also be sharing their writing and the specific skills they are learning to be amazing authors!
Their classroom teachers will be sharing many different ways you can also support your child to become great readers and writers.
There will also be a book fair in the gym.
Come and celebrate Literacy with us!
We will be using conference sign up for all families to ensure there is enough space in each room for all families to have a chance to attend, say hello to the teacher, and spend time with their child learning about literacy.
This will not be a time to conference with your child’s teacher as there is not privacy nor time for each student/ family. If you wish to connect with your child’s teacher about your child, kindly send the teacher an e-mail to make specific arrangements to discuss your child.
School Council Meeting
Thursday October 17th 6PM – 7PM
Microsoft Teams Need help?
Meeting ID: 223 195 094 495
Passcode: EJBVxg
We look forward to meeting and getting to know all of those who volunteered to get involved with School Council at our last meeting.
All parents are welcome to attend and to get involved. If you have never attending a School Council meeting before – please come this week. We need you to be involved so we can continue to provide all students at CAS with amazing learning opportunities.
Please consider joining School Council this Thursday. All families are welcome to attend.
Dr. Bettesworth will be sharing information about our School Development Plan for the school year. This plan guides our teaching and learning focus for the next three school years.
Ms. Bauman will be sharing a slide show of exciting things that have been happening around the school in the past month.
School Council will be making important decisions about events and activities that will happen here at the school for your children. Come out to learn about all we are doing and make decisions that will impact your child!
A note from the office
Demographic Verification - Review required every school year! Many families received a CBE request to get this done ASAP! If you are on an extended absence and left the school early in the school year, it is extremely important that you complete this step right away.
All families must log in to their myCBE account and complete your verification. It is a requirement of all CBE families. This is required by the government of Alberta. Log in and confirm all your information. At this time, you will also need to double check all of your contact information is accurate so we can reach you in an emergency. Every week we call families from CAS and none of their contact information works. When your child is ill or injured you want us to reach you and your child wants us to connect with you. Please take the time to update your information through demographic verification.
https://www.cbe.ab.ca/support/Pages/SchoolEngage-Demographic-Verification-Form.aspx
Parent Login Help:
https://www.cbe.ab.ca/support/Pages/Brightspace-Parent-Login-Help.aspx
Volunteer registration process information:
https://www.cbe.ab.ca/get-involved/volunteer/Pages/volunteer.aspx
We are hopeful all families will fill in a police clearance so you can volunteer with our students.
Please continue your magnificent work leaving message on attendance line for any absentee of your child. Please mention your child’s first name, last name, grade, teacher's name and reason for absence.
If you are picking your child early, please leave message before 1:30 pm with your child first name, last name, grade, and teacher's name, pick up time and reason for leaving.
Medical Forms
A Student Health Plan is required for all students with medical conditions that may impact their access to meaningful education services.
In addition to the Student Health Plan, an Emergency Response Protocol is required for all students with life-threatening allergies and other health conditions.
These forms must be completed annually so if the above apply to your child, please complete the appropriate form and return it to the main office.
Library:
Book fair is coming up the week of October 21-24.
We need Volunteers for the Book Fair.
We need parent volunteers for our book fair. If you have a current police check and have time during the school day to volunteer with the book fair. Please contact Ms Shilpa in the office to get onto our schedule. If you do not yet have your police clearance complete and still want to help the school, we need parent volunteers on Thursday evening. There are various shifts available so you can still join your child as well. Please connect with Ms Shilpa in the office to let us know you can help out!
Required time slot:
Oct 18th Friday- 8:30 to 11:30 am – 2 Volunteers needed to set up
Oct 21 and Oct 22-- 8:30 to 11:30 am and 12:30 to 2:30 pm- 2 Volunteers needed for each session
Oct 23 Oct 24-- 8:30 to 11:30 am and 12:30 to 2:30 pm - 2 Volunteers needed for each session
Oct 24 – evening- 4 Volunteers
Extended Absences
If your family intends to be away from school for more than a week, please schedule an appointment to see Ms. Bauman to sign you off on an extended absence. We need to work together to ensure that students are supported academically while they are missing class. The Calgary Board of Education has set the goal to improve student attendance this year, because attendance is the biggest determiner of academic success. Please bring your travel itinerary, including your child’s flight information (departure and return airline tickets) are now required to document your intended date of return.
Also, if you are absent for reasons other than a family vacation and plan to be away in June or any part of September, we will need specific documentation of this. For example, if you are returning to your home country for a religious reason, if a family member is ill and you need to care for them, your child is seeking medical attention (in another country) etc. We are now required to document this information if you wish your child to continue to be registered at CAS. We appreciate your understanding in this matter.
Ms Bauman takes appointments for extended absences at the beginning and end of the school day.
Halloween At Chris Akkerman School
After discussion with both parents at school council last school year and staff discussions this year it has been determined that Chris Akkerman School will continue to observe Halloween. All students have the opportunity to participate in dressing up if they choose and in participating in activities and tasks that might have a Halloween theme and are based on the curriculum.
Classes may be partaking in Halloween themed curricular activities throughout the day on Thursday, October 31. This could be activities such as predicting how many seeds are in a pumpkin, then retrieving the seeds, estimating the number in a bowl, then confirming the actual number and comparing accuracy. Students might be making patterns with brooms, black cats, and pumpkins in math. In literacy, students might be reading a spooky story with a ghost and a bat as the main characters. Students might complete a writing task where they are describing the setting of a haunted house or a playground on a dark and stormy night. Finally, students might listen to the Monster Mash and move to the rhythm of the song or act out the lyrics.
Students may dress in their TLC School Uniform, their regular casual clothes, black and orange, or a costume of their choice. Students can plan costumes as an individual or as a group. Students can create home made costumes from found objects at home or they can purchase costumes. If individual students or groups of students choose to wear a costume, we ask that costume masks, weapons, treasured items, gloves or accessories be left at home. We also request that costumes not have blood, gore, or violent themes as we do have young children in the school and we do not want them to be frightened. Also, it would be inappropriate to wear a “costume” that is the cultural clothing of another. If you are wondering if something is safe or appropriate in school, if you wonder, then it is best to leave the item at home. As with other years, there is no sharing of food or treats related to Halloween. Finally, October 31 is a learning day so costumes should not interfere with the comfort of students during learning time and need to be able to be worn during outdoor physical activity, outdoor learning times, and recess activities.
