Weekly Message: Celebrating Literacy Week. · October 21st – Photo Day Grade 5 and Photo Retakes (Formal uniform is required!) · 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 22- Fun Lunch Healthy Hunger Log In Healthy Hunger Information · October 24 (evening)– Celebration of Learning – Literacy 5:30 - 7PM · October 25 – PD day- No school for Students. · October 31- Halloween celebration. · November 7- Remembrance Day assembly. · November 8- PD Day- No school for students. · November 11- 13- Fall Break Snow is coming! We have all heard, snow is expected to fall on Monday. Please ensure your child arrives at school dressed for the weather. All students will remain outside until the bell rings at 7:50 AM. All students will be out side for lunch recess and snack recess. Also, because we have photos for our older students, the gym will be busy. This means PE will likely be outside as well. It is important all students are dressed appropriately for the weather through the winter months and beginning tomorrow. Warm winter coat (that the student can put on and zip up) Snow pants Boots Warm mitts Touque 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. 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 Healthy Families Make sure you take time together to eat healthy food, relax and get some fresh air, as the seasons change. We know that exercise, rest, and good nutrition helps students build the conditions to achieve academic excellence. | 
