Principal: Donna Duriez Vice Principal : Deane Martin Gray

http://blogs.spiritsd.ca/aberdeenschool/

Box 10 Aberdeen, SK

Phone: (306) 253-4333

SEASON OF JOY AND THANKSGIVING!

This is a wonderful time of year at Aberdeen School as we prepare for

Christmas festivities. The excitement of our students is infectious and

creates a wonderful atmosphere in the school. As we re-

flect on the past year, it is amazing to see the growth and

development of the children in the school. We take joy in

every student who attends Aberdeen School; each one is

a wonderful expression of intelligence, creativity and life.

We are grateful for our caring and dedicated staff, who

help to create a rich and positive learning environment. We are also thank-

ful for the involvement and support of our parents, and guardians who nur-

ture and guide our students. It is a great experience working with you

and our School Community Council. We are also appreciative of the mem-

bers of our School Board, our Senior Administration and Central Office

staff, for they, too, work to make a difference in the lives of children.

On Behalf of the Aberdeen School Staff

Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Donna Duriez Deane Martin Gray

Principal Vice-principal

December 2015

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER

Dec 16th K to Gr 6 Winter Festival

1:30 & 7:00 performances

Dec 17th Dress “Christmassy” Spirit

Day

Kindergarten to Grade 12

Dec 18th Gr. 7 to 12 SRC Christmas

Banquet & Last Day of school

before Christmas break

Jan 4th School Resumes

Jan 12th Cap & Gown Grad Portraits

Jan 20th

Next Newsletter will be

distributed

Jan 22nd Last day of Semester 1

Classes for grades 10 to 12

Jan 25th to 28th Gr. 10 to 12 Exams

Jan 29th NO SCHOOL

For All Students

K to 12

Feb. 1st Semester 2 begins

Feb. 5th Report Cards go home for

Grades 6—12

Feb. 8-12 Soccer Candy Grams

Feb. 9th Grade 8 Bake Sale

Feb 15th-19th

February Break

NO SCHOOL

Feb. 24th

Newsletter Distributed

March 2nd

WE DAY!

March 9th

Table Mountain Ski Trip

KINDERGARTEN TO GRADE 6 WINTER FESTIVAL

Main Gym

Wednesday, December 16th

1:30 AND 7:00 pm

Everyone Welcome!

THANK-YOU TO OUR BUS DRIVERS

We would like to take this time to recognize our bus drivers who carry the most precious cargo that any professional driver possibly could — our students. We are proud to have you as part of our team—Cindy

Beaulieu, Randy Chorney, Dolores Dyck, Berna-dette Hamoline, Sandra Janzen, Don Levesque, Howard Elgersma, Tammy Lynchuk, Ron Miniel-

ly, and Paulette Procyshyn.

FAREWELL TO OUR TEACHER INTERNS

Aberdeen School would like to send a warm THANK YOU to 2 interns who joined our staff this semester. Kayla MacKay and Shayna Southern. These ladies were actively

involved in our school. They contributed to numerous extra curricular activities and all while learning how to plan and instruct students in the classroom. Your time and ef-

forts are much appreciated. We will certainly miss all of you.

Good luck in the future as you pursue your teaching career.

Save the Date: Outdoor Classroom Art Gala – Thursday, April 28 If you have any picture frames that you would like to donate to the Gala,

please send them to the school office

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

The Kindergartens have come to school for 31 days. We have become comfortable with our classroom and learning how to take care of it and ourselves and also becoming comfortable with our school and all the peo-

ple we share it with. On top of that we have been working on our ABC’s letter recognition and sounds. In math we have started a new unit on Patterns. The kids have been working hard on the Christmas concert. We made props for our song in the concert with our care partners. Hope to see you there! Have a wonderful Christmas break.

Grade 1

Merry Christmas to all! This is our last newsletter for 2015; it is hard to believe we have been at school for four months. This month we will be focusing many of our activities on Christmas. We have been making several Christmas crafts and we are working hard learning our dance and the songs for our Christmas concert. Our field trip to the WDM was great; thank you to all who came. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to each of you from the Grade One class!

Grade 2 The Grade Two class along with Mrs. Cator’s class enjoyed a great Field Trip to Saskatoon. We visited the Vet College on campus and learned about endangered animals. Most of us even got to hold a huge salamander! What fun! For the afternoon we went to the Western Development Museum and enjoyed our Christmas Scavenger hunt. I think a lot of parents need to take their children back for another visit – there’s many students who want to see more! We’ve

been working on our song for the Christmas Concert and are having a lot of fun with it. As well we’re working on various crafts with our Pine Cone Wreath being the favorite. Happy holidays from the Grade Two children. May your days off be filled with lots of family fun!

Grade 2/3

The Grade 2/3 students really enjoyed going on a field trip to the city last week with Mrs. Pealo’s Grade 2 class. We started off by visiting the University and Saskatchewan to learn about endangered species. Then we were off to the WDM to eat lunch, explore Boomtown while completing a scavenger hunt, and check out the other exhibits. Back at school, sledding on the hill has been popular at recess and intramurals at noon hour add another option to play hard. In Reader’s Workshop we have introduced visualizing as a comprehension strategy. Everyone in the class is thinking while reading, finding different describing words, and jotting them down on a sticky note to share with the class. In art, the students have been busy making Christmas ornaments and decorations. They are eager to perform “The Reindeer Rap” on the stage and see all their preparation pay off on the 16th. It has been a busy month and the students are enthusiastically counting down the days until Santa comes on the 25th!

Grade 3

Christmas is upon us and we have been busy with crafts and lots of Christmas singing and dancing. The Grade Threes have been working on their own versions of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Be sure to ask them to sing it for you. We also did some wonderful Christmas writing and the Clark’s Crossing Gazette will publish the student’s paragraphs soon. They are a great keepsake and I will have a copy for everyone. We had such a fun day of surprises last week and the student’s really appreciated the day even though we were all exhausted! It’s also been a fun month of hat and PJ days. We will be having our Christmas party on Friday the 18th to watch a movie and enjoy snacks. From my-

self and the Grade Threes, please have a safe and happy holiday!

Grade 4

The Grade Fours have had a lovely December and are looking forward to a fantastic Christmas holiday. We have worked hard at preparing for our Christmas concert song. Learning sign language to a song is tricky

but we think we are close to mastering it! We have also been learning about prisms and symmetry in math. Each class we start with a quick draw shape. We have to draw it and then describe all we see in mathematical terms. We have learned the words quadrilateral, trapezoid, and parallelogram. We have also worked on art that has included shape and symmetry. We wish everyone a wonderful Christmas season.

Grade 5A Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! Looking forward to seeing more of the white stuff when we return to school in the new year. What a fun December we have had in Grade 5. We have worked hard on our Christmas concert song and created some great winter art projects. The students have been busy gathering information on First Nations Peo-ple and will be using it to write an essay in the new year. Hopefully every one has been practicing their multiplication facts over the last few weeks so we can see an improvement on our next quiz. These facts will help our a lot as we move onto long multiplication and soon division. Hoping for a fantastic holiday for everyone and a Happy New Year!

Grade 5B

Our Grade 5 class has been enjoying our new approach to mathematics that we have been experimenting with this month. Never before have I seen so much enthusiasm for math class, as demonstrated by the request to have 'math all day' by some students! Students have been receptive to the increased accountability, are making full use of the additional one-on-one time they receive, and are enjoying the ability to work at a pace comfortable for them. Grade 5 students are also hard at work on building their musical skills, as they prepare another piece with tone chimes and handbells for the Christmas concert. Their eagerness for a challenge is allowing them to learn and accom-plish a lot of musical theory and understanding very quickly! We are also hard at work on states of matter in science, having just completed experiments on how substances can be combined to create new ones, and examining how some substance changes are reversible, while others are not.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kelli’s News Grade 6 ELA

"Times are Changing" has been the main topic in Grade 6 ELA the past month as students have been working hard on memorizing lines and preparing the set and program for the elementary Christmas concert. Students have been focus-ing on delivering lines with expression as well as teamwork in preparing for this fantastic short play that brings old-fashioned Santa Claus up to date with his hiring practices in the Toy Factory. We enjoyed sharing a scene from our play with our ePaLs in a holiday-themed SKYPE session as well. Lastly, we have been working on expository writing to share ideas about peace and conflict in literature we have read.

Grade 8 Social Studies

With Canada's role regarding the Syrian Refugee crisis being a hot topic in current events, students have been reading articles to become educated in facts and opinions on this issue in order to write a persuasive essay sharing their opin-ion. We have also been checking in with updates on the COP 21 Climate Change conference in Paris and learning about our new Prime Minister's promises and policies in reducing emissions in Canada.

Mr. Vedress’s News As we near the winter break, it's an exciting time to update you about the goings-on in my classroom. In ELA 7, we are exploring the ‘out of this world’ realm of Science fiction, creating a cover for the book we'd like to read. Social studies 7 has us looking at sustainability and conservation. The grade 8 class is working on a top secret project related to the holiday season. Finally, PE 6, 7 and 8 have been playing Pickler all. Have a great break!

Mr. Herron and Ms. Southern’s News

SS30 - we have just completed our Confederation simulation where students were challenged to 're-do' the BNA Act to resolve problems we have encountered since 1867. Now our last major project of SS30 (in conjunction with ELA30) Canadian Voices has begun. Students are working towards presenting the first week of January. LAW30 - We are nicely into the last unit, Criminal Law. The students are looking forward to our court visit to both Queen's Bench & Provincial courts on Monday Dec 14. We are also preparing for our own 'mock' trial too. PHOTO - All are taking part in a team scavenger hunt looking to create 30 photos! Also, all are in the process of finaliz-ing their Portfolio#1 for the end of January.

SOCIAL 9 - We are completing our study, research and presenting on 'Ancient Civilizations'. In January, we will learn the process of essay writing before beginning our study of the 'Middle Ages' SOCIAL/INFORMATION PROCESSING 10 - We are finishing up our study on Paradise Island and Economy. Following the break, we will be studying ideologies and comparing a variety of government styles and how they work.

Mr. Olnhoff’s News December is always a crazy month, but onward we trek! Health Science 20 elected to research and present on various diseases after completing our unit on diagnostics and medical technology. Math students have been spending most of their time problem solving based on real world geometry and those pesky conversions between the imperial and metric systems. Both Wellness 10 and the senior PE classes have developed their basketball skills while improving their health and fitness. In Chemistry 30 we have examined the energy of reactions and the impli-cation of fossil fuels as our society's primary energy source. The Science 10 group has completed their ex-amination of Sustainability and have begun learning about the nature of matter and subatomic particles.

Mrs. Kulchar’s News

PAA 7 – Students have been busy in the kitchens working on their skills when baking flour mixtures- cookies, muffins, biscuits and more! They will continue to build on these skills in the New Year. PAA 8 – Students are finishing up their unit on Milk and Alternatives. They put their knowledge of cooking with dairy to practice by making homemade chocolate pudding and ice cream in a bag. Next up is learning all about eggs! PAA 9 – Grade 9’s are putting their new sewing skills to good use- finishing up sewing their very own pajama pants. In the New Year they will sew one final project to take home- a heat bag! PAA 20/30 – Grade 11 and 12 students continue to work on their individual projects- applique blankets, hoodies, one-sie pajamas and more! Students who have finished already are working on making mittens- some for themselves and others for those in need! Health 8 – We have finished up our unit on Sustainability and Health and are ending the unit watching ‘The Lorax”- a

perfect ending as we started the unit reading the book! In the New Year students will develop a plan on how they can put their sustainable skills to work. Art 8 – Students have been working on ornaments out of salt dough as well as working with watercolor paints to develop birch tree art work. Life Transitions – We are currently working on developing our money management skills and learning

about how banks and other financial institutions work. All of this is leading up to our next unit on Independent Living.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Mr. Cumming’s News

Mr. Cumming’s math is quickly wrapping up for the semester. The grade 9’s will close out the year looking at ways to organize information that will help them answer word problems. The grade 10’s are exploring linear func-tions and the different ways that you can write the equation of a linear function. The grade 11’s are learning all about quadratic functions and the grade 12’s are learning about logarithmic functions. Finally, in physical science 20, the stu-dents have finished chemical reactions and stoichiometric calculations and are now learning about heat.

Mr. Maier’s News Grade 9-12 English Language Arts We’re glad to be back in Room 115, and while there are still boxes to unpack and things to organize, it’s good to be settled again. Grade 9 has learned what it takes to win “The Most Dangerous Game”, and has reviewed grammar, which is much less dangerous. Grade 10 continues to explore the concept of heroism and the students just completed some very insightful projects on the subject. In Grade 11, childhood stories and priorities are being written and consid-ered. Grade 12 is deep into the legendary Canadian Voices project, due shortly after the Christmas break. Thanks to all parents, guardians, and supporters for playing a part in your student’s education during 2015. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and have a wonderful holiday.

Mrs. Ojukwu’s News Science 6—The grade 6 students are expressing their creativity by putting everything they have learned to-gether by making a booklet/brochure on electricity. Science 7—Students are learning about the different types of rocks- how they are formed and possible uses of each type of rock. They have also discovered that it is possible for rocks to change from one form to the other through the rock cycle. Science 8—Grade 8 are starting the optics unit, investigating different sources of light, lenses and the different technol-ogies related to optics. Science 9—Students are about to finish the reproduction unit and have their final assessment. This was a big unit and lots to learn. Math 6—Students are learning about the different types of angles and trying to draw them. Math 7—Grade 7 students are working with radius, diameter and circumference of circles and discovering the relation-ship between them.

Math 8—Grade 8 students are finishing the unit on fractions and having their final assessment .

Mr. Myrah’s News Grade 6 Health: The group has been working through a unit on “Self” where they have been focusing on themselves and researching who they are. As we wrap up before the break we will begin a new unit on Nutrition. Grade 7 Art & Health: After finishing a unit on Drugs/Peer Pressure, our main focus has been finishing Christmas deco-rations for the gym. The class has been learning different Drama techniques as well that we will continue into the New Year. Our next venture for Health will be a unit on Personal Standards. Grade 9 Art & Health: We have been focusing mostly on Christmas decorations for the Christmas concert in recent weeks. After the break we will be starting a unit in Art with an emphasis on Music. In Health we worked through so-cial issues and how it affects our community. As we have moved forward we will focus more on our individual commu-nities in the New Year.

YEARBOOK

The Yearbook team is in the process of creating a fantastic yearbook! Students are in the lab or-ganizing pictures and creating new exciting layouts. Students can pre-order year-

books for $30.00 each; they can be paid for by cash or cheque! We appreciate

your support and hope you purchase a 2015-2016 yearbook. See Mr. Maier for more information.

GEM The girls had a lot of fun at our November event exploring topics related to digital citizenship as well as making cards to send to a girls orphanage in Afghanistan. Our next event is December

17th at 3:15-5:00pm. We are going to be enjoying some snacks and doing a recycled gift exchange be-fore heading to the rink to go glow bowling from 4-5pm.

CIA Members of the CIA team have been taking turns travelling to the Friendship Inn in Saskatoon to volun-teer serving lunch. We have a couple more dates in January and February coming up for an opportunity

to volunteer so see Mrs. White if you'd like to sign up! Also, congrats to the CIA on hosting a successful bake sale in support of the Red Cross Refugee Relief fund. A total of ______ (ask Mrs. McKay for this to-tal) was raised!

Aberdeen Youth Travel Club

We are on the countdown of 16 months until we head off on a fantastic adventure to Europe to explore Canada's role in the World Wars. This is a 12 day trip covering Germany, Amsterdam, France and

London over the 2017 Easter break. We still have room for more youth to join us. If you are interested in this travel opportunity, please contact Mrs. Kelli White at the school.

WE NEED CASUAL BUS DRIVERS

A casual bus driver has a unique opportunity to impact students and support student learning. You can specify which routes you are willing to cover and earn extra income by driving charter groups. As a casual bus driver, your work schedule follows the school calendar.

Prairie Spirit supports its drivers by providing free training and a bus for the road test. Candidates must have a good driving record and be available to transport students, sometimes on short notice.

Prairie Spirit has 44 schools and covers a wide geographical area surrounding Saskatoon. Application forms and a listing of all Prairie Spirit schools and their locations are available on our website at www.spiritsd.ca/hr. To re-quest an application form, please contact the Division office at 683-2800 or ask your local school for a copy.

For more information about this position, please contact Bill Steckler, Conveyance Manager, at (306) 374-2496.

Please forward your completed application form to:

Human Resources

Prairie Spirit School Division No. 206

Box 809, Warman, SK S0K 4S0 (Fax: 934-8221)

Join the Prairie Spirit team!

REMINDER

Skates transported on the school bus must be in a cloth bag.

Students are allowed to bring hockey sticks on the bus.

WET FOOTWEAR & DRESSING FOR THE WEATHER

It is now the time of year when it is wet, snowy and mucky out. Please remember that all students, including high school students, must remove their outdoor footwear

at the school entrance. For comfort and safety reasons, students must wear indoor footwear at the school. Please ensure that your child is aware of this and has suitable

footwear.

Please be sure your child is dressed for the weather each day. Students have recess in the morning and at lunch. Students need boots and snow pants in order to play in the snow. Also, please

be sure your child is prepared for the cold days of winter and is wearing mittens and a toque. Thank you

to the community members who have donated warm clothing to the school.

We really appreciate your kindness!

Milk Sales

Milk Sales take place each day outside the Grade Two classroom. Milk cards can be pur-chased from Mrs. Pealo. The cards cost $10 and beginning in the New Year they will buy 11 milks.

Due to increased expenses, we have had to go from 12 to 11 milks per card. We offer both choco-late and white milk. Help support our school sales!

SCHOOL BUS NON-OPERATION

The following is information regarding the non operation of school buses in inclement weather:

Winter weather conditions which result in a combination of factors such as severely limited visibility, dangerously high wind chill values, or icy roads, may be seen as reasons for non–operation of the

school buses. Specific conditions which meet or exceed the following criteria can be seen as rea-sons for non-operation of the school buses to schools in the division.

A) combined temperature and wind-chill factor of –40C at 6:00 am.*

B) severely drifted or extremely icy roads.

C) limited visibility because of dense fog, heavy rain, blowing snow or severe dust storms.

*These environmental conditions as announced by Environment Canada .

The decision not to run a bus would be made by the bus driver, who would immediately inform the school principal of the decision. The bus driver will also contact all families on his/her route to

inform them that the bus will not be running. Buses that do not run in the morning because of weather conditions, are not to run at all on that same day. The only exception to this rule will be when the cancellation is a result of reduced visibility due to fog. In that event only, buses will run

for charters and for the afternoon routes if the fog in that area has dissipated at the time of depar-ture.

There is to be no early dismissal due to deteriorating weather conditions. If it is determined that

the buses will not run at the regular dismissal time, previously arranged in-town billeting is to be used for bus students and families are to be notified of those arrangements.

IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT ALL BUS STUDENTS HAVE AN

IN-TOWN BILLET. PLEASE CONTACT THE SCHOOL IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A BILLET!

TaeKwon-Do

Dynamic TaeKwon-Do is accepting new members for the term starting January 11, 2016.

Call Myron Peters at 306-253-4226 for more information

SRC News

The tree has been decorated, the outdoor lights put up and everyone is getting excited about the Christmas season. The classroom doors have been decorated to match the class’s favourite Christmas song. It was a

difficult task for the judges but the winners of the door decorating contest were the Senior Resource Room and the Grade Six Classroom. The SRC is looking forward to the holiday season and has some special activities lined up for the last week

of school. Wednesday - ‘Ugly Sweater’ Day for Grades 7 – 12. Who will be wearing the ugliest Christmas sweater?

- Winter Festival performances for Kindergarten – Grade 6

Thursday - Dress Christmassy Day for Grades 1 - 12. Staff and students will be donning Santa hats,

reindeer antlers as well as many red and green articles of clothing. Friday - The annual Christmas banquet for Grades 7-12 and all staff takes place at the hall. This tradition

that dates back many, many years is one that the students and staff look forward to every year. The SRC would like to thank Mrs. Kulchar for all her help in the preparation of the Christmas banquet. Once

again we send a huge thank you to Elma Wutzke, who has been assisting with the banquet for many years. Again this year the SRC has supported Aberdeen Christmas Miracles by collecting food items and toys, as

well as presenting a cash donation. Thank you to all the families who have contributed to this special pro-ject.

Please check out the new online Crusader clothing site at aberdeen.entripyshops.com There are many items, designs and colours to choose from.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

from ABERDEEN COMPOSITE SCHOOL SRC

Big Sky Soccer Association has begun planning for the 2016 season and we

still require board members, coaches, and volunteers to make our year a success. For a second year, annual meetings will be held in Aberdeen and Vonda and we encourage parents, players and referees to attend and pro-vide their input as to how our organization is run in the district. Recently an e-mail was sent out to members to share their opinions, please take the time to give us your ideas, they are used to shape soccer in our association. New for 2016…..Goal Line will be used for registering players, this system has been used in minor hockey for a couple of years with great success. If you know of anyone new to Canada and thinking of playing soccer, please have them contact Dianne Pilon, a new FIFA law requires players to be released from their home country. This involves paper work and time, the sooner we begin the process the sooner kids can be playing soccer. Big Sky Soccer would like to wish everyone a

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Wishing each and every one of you a safe and

joyful holiday season.

From the staff and students of the Aberdeen School,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Piano/Vocal Lessons—One Spot Available starting immediately

Please contact Val Martens at (306) 260-8676