Volume 2011 - 03 January, 2012

G.I.S. H. Program

G.I.S.H. is an acronym that stands for Gracious, In-dustrious, Self-Control and Honest. The goal of this Character Education Program is to promote and rec-ognize specific behaviours that demonstrate positive attitudes, good values and citizenship. Each month students will be recognized that exemplify these qualities. Certificates will be mailed home at the end of each month. Also, students who are caught demonstrating any of these qualities will be given tickets to be entered into a draw by Division and will receive a prize once a month as well.

Congratulations to the following students for the month of November:

Hayley Anderson Dylan Antonsen Gozde Ayvaz Justus Bargy Nathan Begna Gracyn Bishop Kennedy Bowes Tara Boyd Elisabeth Brown Owen Busch Michelle Chin Alexandria Curran-Cook Sophia DePietro Lucius Eisnor Madeleine Gibson Morgan Goodall Sam Hammermeister Dakota Hutnan Mackenzie Jackshaw Samantha Jeffery Cole Jewers Malena Keehn Michelle Koekemoer Jared Koziol Morgan Laporte Elorra Marchand Virginia Maxfield Haven McEachern Harshika Mehta Mackenzie Morton Jasmine Mustafa Carmella Parks Carmyn Penner Christopher Pike Grayson Popik Ali Ramahi Scott Ramsden Raina Rempel Ava Roberts Janella Roby Lindsay Rose Alexxus Sangster Jacob Schmidt Julia Sheedy Moira Sheedy Paige Squires Brody Stelck Adam Stychin Michael Sutherland Robert Sutherland Evan Tougas Sam-Jaxon Visscher Luke Wangler Ishana Woo

Highlights In This Issue

Principal’s Message………………..……..….2 Recent Happenings…………….……....….….3-6 Parent Information…………….….…..………5-7 Dates to Remember …………………………..6

Duncan Knoll, Principal Email: knolld@spschools.org Erin Steele, Assistant Principal Email: steelee@spschools.org

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Principal’s Message

Happy New Year! As you can tell by our Newsletter, January promises to be an action packed month of events and activities. The scope of involvement varies from Art Club, for grades one and two, to Cheer Team and Basketball at the Junior High level. When you factor in Intramurals and our Ski and Snowboard events, well over fifty per-cent of our student body is engaged at Gish be-yond the classroom. This translates into further building the Gish community. Students, parents and staff deserve a huge pat on the back! Speaking of pats on the back, a special thank you to the parents and friends of Gish that worked the casino on the weekend. Your self-less volunteering will generate approximately $18,000 for the Gish Parents’ Association. This money will go directly to further improving Gish. A special thank you to Mary McMurdo and Michelle Anderson for their extra efforts in working and coordinating the casino. The New Year is often started with resolutions. One resolution I suggest is to dedicate at least thirty minutes an evening to reading, studying and your homework. A tried and true strategy is to work together at the kitchen table for the specified period of time. Often older siblings will be the role models during this time. With over one third of our students already achieving an honours standing many of our students al-ready have excellent study habits in place. Once again, welcome back and have an indus-trious month!

Duncan Knoll

January Activities Include:

∗ Homework Club ∗ Cheerleading ∗ Chess Club ∗ Basketball ∗ Intramurals Gr. 1-9 ∗ Grade 1, & 2 Art Club ∗ Ski Club Gr. 4 - 6

G.I.S. H. Program (Continued)

Congratulations to the following students for the month of December:

Erik Abel Rylan Atkins Raechel Bensusan Kailey Bergmann Hrathvik Bhandary Brett Bishop Brianna Burton Claire Davidson Cassius Devlin Bryce Dhoedt Monica DiPietro Elena Dixon Madison Dunbar Wren Fenske Issac Finlayson Caitlin Frenzel Kennedy Green Marcus Gullion Sydney Herfst Caleb Hrycyk Rebecca Jacobs-Bourassa Joshua Kelada Brynden Kendrick Yahya Kisana Konstantin Klippenstein Nolan Koziol Myla Lanctot John Langford Robyn Lee Tiffany Lee Cullen Marchand Jeremy Matte Thomas Maxfield Jacob McKague Mercedes Murray Brendan Murray Kendra Neumann Carmella Parks Derica Pilgrim Zoe Popik Yousuf Rizvi Brian Sa Nathan Sande Aysha Savoury Kaylee Schlesiger Ian Strike Blayne Thompson Benjamin Traverse Julia Ursulak Nicky Vundla Alyssa Wong Toshan Woo Kenton Zawaduk

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Running Club Running Club is back for Grades 4-6 ! We are pre-paring for Journal Games and other track

events coming up in the spring. Interested runners meet on Mondays after school from 3:15 - 4:15, and Thursdays at lunch from 12:08 -12:30 in the gym. All running abilities welcome! If you have any questions please stop by to see either Mrs. Schneider or Mrs. Drake.

Float Your Boat Grade 8

The grade 8 students had their annual "Float Your Boat" event at Fountain Park pool on December 16. Students made boats out of cardboard boxes and packing tape and raced them across the pool. There were many great designs in this project that focused on buoyancy. We are looking forward to doing this again next year! Special thanks to Rona St. Albert and GLC Moving who donated sup-plies.

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News from the Global Program! Our profile throughout December has been demonstrating diligence. This was a great focus for this month, as there were many events with the holidays quickly approach-ing. With a fresh new year upon us,

the students will be working on their inquiry skills. The Global teachers have been focusing on essential questioning. Introducing students to new topics by posting a quality, focused question can increase curi-osity and engagement. Currently in my grade two class, the students are working toward figuring out ‘Why should we learn to use mental math strategies when we add and subtract?’ They are debating with each other as to which strategies work best. Math is active and the students can use their individual ideas or learn from their peers.

Global Kindergarten – Miss Currie

In kindergarten we have been learning about what it means to be a Global student at Gish. During Novem-ber and December, we have had some opportunities to work along side our grade 6 buddies, who have helped model the Global attributes. In November we collected bottles with our buddies to help raise money to go towards the 100 Classroom Project. I was a bit unsure of how the Kindergarteners would react to handling the sticky containers but they all did a great job! It was a messy job having to sort through the bags, take the lids off the bottles, dump out the extra juice left in the juice boxes, throw out the straws, and finally put the garbage where it was sup-posed to go. The Kindergarteners handled it like champs, didn’t complain, and got the job done; I was so impressed with them!

At the young age of 5, they are already learning how important it is to be cooperative, responsible and dili-gent. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to work with our grade 6 buddies and see them have an interest in the kindergarteners. My students are look-ing forward to helping continue to raise money for the 100 Classroom Project and working with our grade 6 buddies again!

B. Riendeau Lead Teacher

Topics for discussion:

• Information Exchange with Other Cogito Schools • Managing Program Growth • Program Statistics • Future Guest Teacher Topics • Continuous Improvement

Mrs. C. Hunter Lead Teacher

Cogito at Gish

Program Wide Focus on Writing

During the months of January and February, students in Cogito will be working toward developing skills in crea-tive writing. As part of our commitment to developing consistency, students in our program will use a common format for planning and writing stories. Last year we were fortunate to have a writer in resident, Kathy Jessup, who shared her expertise and format for writing. Each grade level uses an age appropriate format that builds on the writing experiences of their previous grade. Over the next few months, students will practice planning, writing and editing their own stories using this approach. Home and School Connection

For children learning to write one of the most difficult aspects is choosing and developing ideas. Here is a simple practice that can help your child become more confident with developing their ideas. Exchange or trade stories! It works quite simply by casually sharing stories as a conver-sation. Choose a topic, and then share a story about the topic. By doing this you are modeling the process for your child. Try to be as descriptive as possible. Then have your child tell a story of their own on the same topic. For ex-ample: The topic might be “Tell a story about a fish”. You may be able to tell about going fishing with your family, your dad or granddad. Your child may then be able to tell a story about a pet fish, watching fish at the pet store... Here is why it works: We write in the same manner with which we speak! The more opportunities your child has to create and tell stories the easier it becomes to write stories. Cogito Steering Committee

A highlight of the Steering Committee meetings has been the “Guest Teacher” presentations. Teachers attend the meeting to present information for parents on specific as-pects of the Cogito program. Last Steering Committee meeting Mrs. Werner provided a review of the Saxon Math program. She outlined a typical day in Cogito Grade two Math. The session was very informative, and well received by parents that attended. The following guest teachers are scheduled to present for the remainder of this school year:

January 17 – Mr. Craig Savich - Cogito Junior High Webpages

February – Ms. Melnychuk - Full Day Kindergarten

April – Madame Reidy & Mrs. Schnieder - French instruction

May/June – Mr. Harrison - Kindergarten Writing program

Next Steering Committee Meeting: - Tuesday, January 17 – 7:00 pm - Library

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CALM ABOUT ANGER Learn how to handle your anger and understand more about yourself and why you do what you do. Anger is never what it appears to be; there is more to this emotion than just expressing your rage. Hurt, pain, or not having your needs met are just some of the issues that can cause one to explode. During this course you will learn the positive and negative uses of anger, learn how to create boundaries and positive support methods, understand that control does not always mean being right, and access the body/soul/spirit ap-proach to get calm about your anger.

Date: Mondays February 27-April 2 Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Fee: Members $75.60 Non-members $100.80

Logos January Highlights

Biblical Heroes

In January, we will be studying and learning about the many Heroic indi-viduals that God used and continues to use to do his work here on earth. Some of them were not the typical heroes that you see in the movies and televi-sion. In fact some of them, such as David, could only do the incredible things they did (like defeat Goliath) with God's help. We will be talking about how through God, all things are possible! He used "ordinary" indi-viduals like you and me to do "extraordinary" things. All they needed to do was ask and then let God help them! What have you asked God to help you with lately?

Praise Services Please watch your child’s agenda for upcoming Praise Service times for 2012

Thank you, thank you, thank you………… Thank you very much to the staff and students of the Leo Nickerson Logos Program for putting on a won-derful Christmas show. Your hard work and dedication gave all of us a great start to the Christmas Season. Also, a huge thank you to Madame Brown for helping all of the Logos classes learn their songs so well, and thanks to Mrs. Murphy for working with the Grade 4 actors so they said their lines confidently and clearly.

Thanks to all who helped with the E.S. Gish Logos Christmas presentation. The staff and students worked especially hard to ensure that we could come together to celebrate Christmas and give praise to our God!

Thanks to all who brought goodies to share, and to those who helped to clean up after the show!

We are so blessed to have such wonderful teachers who don’t mind putting in those extra hours to make the Logos Program so special! They ensure all the Glory is given to God!!

Logos Steering Committee meeting Our next Logos Steering Committee meeting will be January 12, 2012 @ 7pm in the staff room @ E.S. Gish School. Please come and help us in planning events for all our Logos students! Please join us to let us know your ideas and how you can be more involved!

Coming in the 2012………. We will be having a Family Night of Games planned by the Logos Steering Committee upcoming in Febru-ary or March, please keep your eyes open for more information in the agendas.

IT’S BETTER THAN A BOXING DAY SALE! THE 2011/2012 E. S. GISH YEARBOOK IS COMING!!

The 2011/2012 yearbook order form will be com-ing home in Friday envelopes on Friday, January 20. We will be accepting orders from January 23 until January 30 in our initial sales blitz. The cost for the yearbook this year will be $25.00 – the same as last year! (Such a deal!)

Our goal is to sell 100 books on this initial order, as this is our “magic number” to make the pro-duction break even.

We look forward to your support of this endeav-our.

Memories . . . Like the corners of my mind, Misty water-coloured memories, Of the way we were!

(With apologies to Marvin Hamlisch and Barbara Streisand!)

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Dates to Remember Tuesday, Jan. 17 - School Council Mtg. – 6:00 pm – School Library Tuesday, Jan. 17 - Cogito Steering Committee Mtg.–7:00 pm – School Library Saturday, Jan. 21 - Kindergarten Fair – Bellerose High School – 9:30 – 12:20 pm Monday, Jan. 23 - Midterm Exams for Jr. High all week Tuesday, Jan. 24 - Gish Parents’ Association Mtg. - 2:00 pm - Conference Room Friday, Jan. 27 - Grade 5 & 9 – Immunizations - AM Monday, Jan. 30 - Midterm Exams for Jr. High all week Monday, Jan. 30 - Open House (Elementary) - 6:00 - 8:00 pm Wednesday, Feb. 1 - Staff Mtg. - Early Dismissal @ 12:08 - NO KINDERGARTEN CLASSES Thursday, Feb. 2 - School Dance - gr. 7 - 9 - 6:00 - 9:00 pm Wednesday, Feb. 8 - Jr. High Midterm Report go Home Wednesday, Feb. 8 - Winter Walk Day - Period 7 - 2:30 pm start Thursday, Feb. 9 & 10 - Teachers’ Convention - NO Classes Both Days Monday, Feb. 20 - Family Day - School Closed - NO Classes

For more dates to remember please go to our website, esgjh.spschools.org

and click on the Calendar button

SCENT FREE BUILDING

Many people are extremely sensitive to perfumes, colognes, aftershaves and other scented products. Please do not wear them at any time in School. Thank you. www.ab.lung.ca 1-888-LUNG

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As we all know, kids don’t come with an instruction manual so chances are, if

you’re a parent or care-giver, you have questions.

Perhaps you don’t have a specific problem but just want some easy to understand

information and tips on parenting in general and what to expect at your child’s stage

of development.

Whatever your need, no matter how simple or complex, Triple P has the

information, tip sheet, self help book, video, seminar, course or expert to help you.

T r i p l e P — P o s i t i v e Pa r e n t i n g P r o g r a m

S e m i n a r S e r i e s

Triple P Seminar Series are held at District Office, 60 Sir Winston Churchill Ave, St. Al-bert, AB For Questions Regarding Tri-ple P contact: Joan Monson 460.3712 or Sheila Chis-holm 460.3712 To book your spot contact: Rose Sutton 419.6545 or rosa.sutton@spschools.org

Triple P offers support with problems from,

tantrums, misbehaviors, bullying….. Join

the seminar series and create your bag of

tips and strategies. These seminars are

available to all parents & caregivers of ele-

mentary age students in the St. Albert Prot-

estant District. Choose the dates that

work for you. SEMINAR SERIES: Seminar 1:The Power of Positive Parenting Sat, Feb 25, 2012 3-5:00pm Seminar 2:Confident, Competent Children Sat, March 10, 2012 3-5:00pm Seminar 3:Raising Resilient Children; Process Is-sues; Getting Started Sat, March 17, 2012 3-5:00pm