Mark Your Calendars:

• Oct. 31, 2023: Costume Parade – 10:00am
• Oct. 31, 2023: Halloween Howler – 10:30am –2:30pm
• Nov. 3, 2023: Deadline to order Mr. Pretzels fun snack
• Nov. 4, 2023: Turn clocks back 1 hour
• Nov. 6, 2023: Student photo retakes
• Nov. 8, 2023: Remembrance Day Assembly 11:00am
• Nov. 8, 2023: Snack Day at recess – Mr. Pretzels
• Nov. 9, 2023: System Indigenous Education Professional Learning Day – No School
• Nov. 10– 14, 2023: Fall Break – No School for Students
• Nov. 15, 2023: Rm 1 Mr. T’s Class to Open Minds School
• Nov. 16, 2023: Rm 8 Ms. Szczepanski’s Class to Open Minds School
• Nov. 20 – 24, 2023: Scholastic Book Fair
• Nov. 21, 2023: School Council meeting 6:30-8:30pm
• Nov. 23, 2023: School Conferences 4:00-7:30pm
• Nov. 24, 2023: No-School for Students - School Conferences 8:30am –1:00pm
• Nov. 24, 2023: Deadline to order Subway Fun Lunch
• Nov. 29, 2023: Fun Lunch- Subway

Dear Silver Springs School Parents and Guardians,

Happy Halloween: We are looking forward to celebrating this fun and festive day as a school community. Please note that children will be able to wear Halloween costumes to school for the full day on Tuesday, October 31, 2023. As students will be wearing costumes for the entire day, please ensure that your child is able to sit comfortably in their costume, participate in gym class, and go outside for recess and lunch break. No costume - No worries!  You are welcome to wear orange or black, our school apparel, or your favourite T-shirt!   To ensure that all members in our school community are able to enjoy this holiday, I wanted to send a reminder to please be thoughtful in the selection of costume being worn to school. The following two guidelines should be considered when selecting costumes that will be worn at school: 

• Be kind and consider the school community: costumes that are revealing or could be offensive or perpetuate the stereotype of someone’s gender identity, culture, race, religion, age, or disability must not be worn. 
• Be thoughtful and safe: costumes that depict violence, alcohol or drugs are not appropriate. Similarly, replica weapons (e.g. guns, knives, axes, swords, etc.) must not be brought to school. 

We also know that in previous years some families prepared treats to share on this holiday. Due to allergies and student food restrictions, we ask that you do not send treats of any kind. We do, however, ask that parents send along a special treat/ snack for their own child to enjoy on that day.

Halloween Howler: Parent volunteers from our School Council are coordinating the Halloween Howler. Between 10:30am – 2:30pm, grade level groupings will come to the gym to participate in cooperative Halloween themed activities and games. We are excited to have our students connect and develop a sense of belonging on this special day. Each grade team will also be provided with a jar of candies for students to practice their estimation skills and enter a guess. The student from each grade team with the closest guess will win the jar of candy to take home later that day. We are so thankful to our committed group of parent volunteers and our School Council for making this special event a reality.

Costume Parade: At 10:00am, we will be holding a school-wide costume parade. Parents are invited to be a part of this by viewing the students as they parade through the learning commons. We ask families to sit at the tables or stand along the walls to allow for students to pass easily through the area. If you are bringing along younger siblings, please make sure they are supervised and kept close. We will open the front doors for families to enter the school at 9:45am.

Jacket Racket: Silver Springs School will be participating in a community service initiative by supporting Jacket Racket this year between October 30 and November 10, 2023. Jacket Racket has been providing clean, gently used winter jackets to Calgary children since the 1980’s. The project runs every year from mid-October to mid-November. Gently used/clean coats, snow pants, hats and mittens will be collected at the school until November 10. Boots cannot be collected as part of this campaign. You can send donated items (bagged) with your children to the school and they will be picked up from the classrooms in the morning by our Peace Ambassadors.  Items will be sorted by our student team and dropped off on November 17, 2023 to the Jacket Racket organization. We need a volunteer or two to help with the final drop-off. If you can help deliver the items on November 17 between 10:00 am and 12:00 to the warehouse location, please contact Ms. Burrows at dsburrows@cbe.ab.ca

Home Reading at Silver Springs School: Through our school development plan and our professional learning time this year, our staff are learning more about current research related to reading and early literacy to better implement the new Alberta K-6 ELAL curriculum. Based on this information, our teachers will be shifting their home reading program. Students will now be selecting a range of books to read with their families over the week, rather than being assigned to a specific level of books. Please refer to emails or messages from your child’s teacher for more information on how our grade teams will be making this transition and how you as parents can support your child. For additional information please access the CBE’s Home Literacy Support document.

Student Photo Retakes: Photo retakes are scheduled for Monday, November 6 in the morning.  If you would like your child to have a retake of their school photo, please email Maureen Bouchart mlbouchart@cbe.ab.ca and she will put your name on the list.

Lunch Supervision, Bus Fees, and Student Supply Fees: These fees have been added to MyCBE parent accounts as of October 16.  The lunch supervision fee is $305/year. The bus fee is $260/year.  The student supply fee is $40 (grade 1-6 students) and $20 for Kindergarten students. You can now login and pay all or part of your fees.  If you need to apply for a fee waiver, it is better to do it sooner rather than later. Here is a link to information on fee waivers https://www.cbe.ab.ca/registration/fees-and-waivers/Pages/Waivers.aspx

Contacting our Front Office: We kindly ask that if you have inquiries about fees and payments, fun lunches (ordering or missed orders), lost and found items, school photos, attendance, volunteering, police checks, or notices, that you contact Mrs. Bouchart directly in our front office at 403-777-6070 or  mlbouchart@cbe.ab.ca.

Children’s Mental Health and Parenting Summit: This annual summit is hosted by the Institute of Child Psychology and is happening from November 14 to 17. This year, this ground breaking event is entirely FREE and brings together a diverse community of parents, professionals, researchers, and authors, all dedicated to exploring the science of parenting and fostering positive mental health in our children. Register NOW for FREE!

Sincerely,

Michelle Ryskamp,

Principal, Silver Springs School

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SCHOOL COUNCIL UPDATES

2022-2023 Yearbooks: There are still 14 extra copies of the 2022-2023 yearbook available at a cost of $20 each. Please stop by the school office if you are interested in purchasing one.

Healthy Hunger: Our next "Fun Snack" is from Mr. Pretzels on November 8th. The order cut off is 5 days before the fun snack, so for the next snack, please get your orders in by November 3rd. Did you know? You can order Fun Lunches ahead of time up until January right now on the website. Please log onto the Healthy Hunger website for more order information: https://healthyhunger.ca/

We need volunteers to help on the Fun Lunch days! Please sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090E4FADAB28A0FF2-funlunch2

Thank you,

Loyce Sakuhuni and Olivia Parsons

(School Council Chair and Vice Chair)

sssparentcouncil@gmail.com