In This Issue..

October
2015
In This Issue..
Grade 2 .......................... 2
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Science 9 ......................... 2
Proudly displayed in all our classrooms, our
Charter for Success provides guidance for all decisions and actions.
Grade 1 .......................... 3
Grade 3 .......................... 3
UPCOMING IN OCTOBER
Grade 6 .......................... 6
Grade 45T ...................... 7
Grade 7 .......................... 7
Band ............................... 8
Kindergarten .................. 8
ELA 9 .............................. 9
School (Parent) Council .. 9
Grade 4/5M................... 10
Library ......................... 11
And much, much more...
Indus School
Oct. 2 ............
Oct. 5 - 6 ......
Oct. 8 ............
Oct. 8 ............
Oct. 9.............
Oct. 12 ..........
Oct. 13 .........
Oct. 16 ..........
Oct. 16 - 18 ...
Oct. 20 .........
Oct. 22 ..........
Oct. 23 .........
Oct. 26 - 29 ..
Oct. 27 ..........
Oct. 27 .........
Oct. 28 - 29 ...
Oct. 30 .........
7 Indus Court, Indus, AB
Ultimate Tournament at Calgary Academy
Outdoor Education Camping Trip to Paddy’s Flats
Kindergarten field trip to Calgary
Individual Program Plans go home
Professional Learning Day (no students)
Thanksgiving Holiday
Professional Learning Day (no students)
Boys and Girls Volleyball Tournaments
Spirit of the North Ultimate Tournament in Edmonton
Grades 1, 2, & 3 field trip to Heritage Park
Picture Day
Boys and Girls Volleyball Tournaments
Book Fair
Hot Lunch Amato Gelato
We Day
Tripartite (Student, Parent, Teacher) Interviews
Halloween dress up day
T0J 1X1
http://Indus.rockyview.ab.ca
INDUS S.P.I.R.I.T. NEWSLETTER
Page 2
WHO’S WHO IN GRADE 2?
Wow! The Grade 2 stu- of people and amenities
dents are off to a busy in our community. Stustart in September. We dents were required to
have had a lot of fun get- track their life for an entire
ting to know one another, week, by taking pictures
learning classroom rou- of the people they intertines
and
acted with, or the
diving head
places they went in
“Students
first into our
order
to
stay
exciting cur- were required healthy, or for recriculum.
to track their reation or entertainGrade 2 stument.
Students
life for an
dents have
drew self portraits
started pat- entire week.” and sorted all the
terning and
pictures into catebasic facts in
gories in order to
Mathematics. We are better understand what
learning about liquids in makes up a community,
Science and have written and that we rely on differautobiographies
this ent communities in order
month. In Social Studies, to meet our needs.
students revisited what
they learned in Grade 1, Students also spent the
by reviewing the groups month of September revisiting Terry Fox’s dream
and how he inspired a world of
hope. Students
were eager to
participate in the
run of 4.2km to
raise money for
cancer research.
The Grade 2 students are off to a
great start this
year. Thank you
to all parents for
your support to
date. I enjoyed
seeing some of
you at the Back
to School Barbeque and I am
looking forward Abby, Nela, Morgan, James and
to an exciting Emilie sorting their community
pictures.
year.
JUNIOR HIGH SCIENCE
Science 9 is a blended learning environment, where students do both in
class activities and
online
activities.
One of the highlights
of this arrangement
is that students can
complete a lot of
their course work at
any time that is convenient
to
their
schedules.
Eric works on a simulation to learn
about the impact of environmental factors on the genetic traits of rabbits while
Aiden and Oliver access information on
the internet.
We are currently
studying Biological
Diversity and part of their
studies is to develop an
understanding of Natural
Selection and the inher-
itance of traits. While this
process takes multiple
generations of a species
to study in the real world
we are able to utilize
computer technology to
make this possible in a
few class periods.
By
using a computer simulation we can compress
time so we can observe
environmental pressures
on a species in the class.
This lets the students see
the impact of environmental factors on the genetic
traits of rabbits.
OCTOBER 2015
Page 3
LOGAN DELIGHTS & ENLIGHTENS
The Grade 1 students
gave a warm reception to
one of our Grade 9 students. Their assignment
was to do a survey of
themselves
and indicate
their favourite
activities.
They
were
then to find
individuals in
the classroom
that enjoyed
the same activities.
This
required interacting
with
their
classmates
and
gathering and
recording the
necessary
information.
But
before
they
could
take on this
task, their curiosity
took
precedence
and their fascination with
our visitor’s wheelchair
led to many inquiries regarding why he had a
chair and how it func-
tioned. It was student-centric and curiosity-driven at its best! They were not
shy about asking questions and gave
our visitor celebrity status,
eagerly awaiting his answers “They were
on the speed of
the
wheelchair not shy about
and accepting his asking
answers regard- questions and
ing safety first.
gave our
But their excitement grew when visitor
Logan mentioned celebrity
the chair had a status, eagerly
horn and they
delighted in hear- awaiting his
ing it. They were answers …”
able to deduce
which activities
Logan was not
able to participate in and were
thrilled that he
shared many of the same
interests, like camping,
as they do. Thank you
Logan for this enlightening experience! We hope
Logan explains his chair while Carter and his classmates pay rapt attention.
Patterns, patterns everywhere, the Grade 3s had
some they wanted to share. Some go
up and some go down. These are
called increasing and decreasing patterns. How do I know I have a pattern,
you may ask? Well, for a pattern to be
a pattern, they must all follow a rule.
Pattern rules tell us where to start, and
how to skip, forward or backward, it
doesn’t matter; they must be consistent.
Look at our picture. Can you find the
rule we had in mind? Patterns are
everywhere! No matter where you
look, you can even find them in a book.
GRADE 3 PATTERNS
Kayla and
Ali built a
pattern.
Can
you
name the
rule?
INDUS S.P.I.R.I.T. NEWSLETTER
Page 4
ZONES OF REGULATION
We’ve all had a “blue” day. But listen carefully because your child
might also tell you they are feeling
pretty “green” and that doesn’t
mean you should be looking for the
handy-dandy barf bucket. Or they
might tell you they were “yellow”
and suddenly “red”, just before they
pushed a classmate at school and
ended up in ‘trouble’. A blue day
might not mean the same to your
child as what it means to you.
We are teaching the children to
recognize the feelings identified
with each zone and then to use
strategies to manage these feelings and maintain, or return to, a
positive and productive mindset.
The language and strategies
associated with each zone is
being taught throughout the
school. Please ask the classroom teacher more about the
Zones of Regulation.
Here at Indus we have adopted the
use of a program called the Zones
of Regulation. In it, four colours
represent categories or zones of
feelings. A simple version of the
zones is to say: Green is the ready
to learn stage, feeling good; Blue is
tired, bored, sad, maybe sick; Yellow is scared, frustrated, silly, maybe overwhelmed, anxious, and Red
is angry, aggressive, mean or
potentially out of control.
SCHOOL CASH: ONLINE FEE PAYMENTS
Beginning this January, Rocky View
Schools is requesting that parents use our
School Cash Online program to pay for
their children’s Board Established Instructional
Resource
Fees, School Established Optional
Course Fees, and
School Established
Optional Program
Fees. The primary
purpose of our
School
Cash
Online initiative is
to minimize the
administrative
costs
associated
with administrative personnel time, paper,
and other overhead.
Payments made
through School Cash Online are more efficient than processing manual payments
because the payment is
instantly applied to the
selected
outstanding
fees, the funds are immediately deposited into the
school’s bank account,
and receipts and statements are system generated.
We sincerely hope that
you will support our initiative to efficiently process
fees by utilizing School
Cash Online to pay for
your child’s school fees
online.
School Cash
Online is available anytime online and in numerous languages, offers
several payment meth-
ods, provides you with a
summary of your current
balance and account history, and is certified compliant with the Payment
Card Industry (PCI) Data
Security Standard (PCI
DSS). For more information, I encourage you
to access School Cash
Online
at
https://
rockyview.schoolcashonli
ne.com/.
If you would like to discuss, please call Mrs.
Hansen at (403) 9365855.
OCTOBER 2015
Page 5
LOOK MOM; NO HANDS!
Liv rocks the theramin!
Modern music, where, with the
right equipment, a single word can
be repeated , mixed, and made
into an entire song.
BEAKERHEAD!
The Arts and Sciences are different
things, right? Wrong! During a recent visit from a group called Beakerhead, our students in Grades 4
through 6 learned about the science
of sound. They participated in various sessions that explained such
things as how guitars and brass
instruments worked, and one grade
even built their own theramins! The
Grade 7s applied technology to music and experienced the new field of
sampling and mixing to create
songs.
Brynn and Tiffany play the plastic tube
Nadia, Scott, Jayda, Devon,
Mitchell and Ryan all warm
up to the classic one string,
one stick, one washtub
bass.
Adam loves those crickets!
On a different tack, the Grade 8 & 9
classes learned about an emerging
field in nutrition: eating bugs. They
even got to try crickets and grasshoppers
Marla and Cassidy aren’t so sure.
INDUS S.P.I.R.I.T. NEWSLETTER
Page 6
GRADE 6 DEMOCRACY
The federal election is in full
swing, and with it, the Grade 6’s
exploration into democracy and
civic engagement. One inquiry
question we are wrestling
with is, “Should voting
be compulsory in Canada?” Please feel free
to share your political
thoughts with your children!
Using materials
provided by Student Vote,
we are examining the process
of voting and our rights and responsibilities as Canadian citizens. I encourage everyone to
visit www.studentvote.ca and
check out the videos and PowerPoint presentations. This website has excellent resources
to help young Canadians
understand the concepts of
democracy, the Canadian
Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, the various
levels of government
and the electoral process. In September, we used
our polling station and ballot box
to vote for our two representatives on the Indus Student Council. In October, we will be re-
searching the candidates in the new
riding of Bow River, and we will hold
our own class vote in an advance poll
on Oct. 16, choosing who we think
would be the best representative for
our riding. As a Grade 6 teacher, I
enjoy having an election fall within the
school year. It provides the perfect
vehicle to practice democracy in action and make these Social Studies’
concepts come alive for the students.
We will surely have an interesting discussion Oct. 20th after the federal
election results are in! Stay tuned for
our class results next newsletter.
THE ULTIMATE (FRISBEE) TEAM
On September 27th,
the ultimate team represented Indus with
skill and respect at the
Winter is Coming tournament, in Calgary.
Many close games for
both senior and junior
squads with only 1 to
2 points deciding the
games. After a nail
biting, back and forth,
final game, our senior
squad came together for
a 6 to 3 win, defending
our title, earned last year.
Arista Vardy, in Grade 6,
was chosen as the female
Spirit MVP of the tournament.
The team will hit the field
again on the evening of
October 2, when they
play three other schools
as Calgary Academy
hosts its first tournament.
All this play is great practice for our new formations of junior and senior squads who are preparing for the Spirit of the
North and defending the
Junior High Championship up in Edmonton on
October 17th and 18th.
GOALS CANADA
How does one achieve success? The
students learned the answer to this lifechanging question at an amazing presentation from Goals Canada.
The high-energy performer taught the students: how to overcome challenges by
setting and achieving goals; how to learn
by stopping, thinking, and focusing; and
why health matters for learning. He even
got the whole school to join in on a giant
dance!
OCTOBER 2015
Page 7
4/5T: PLANNING FOR THE GOOD LIFE
In Math this last week our students were
working on a project where the Grade 4’s
planned a vacation with a $10 000 budget, while the Grade 5’s had $1 000 000 to
spend. The purpose of this assignment
was to better help them appreciate the
real value of the numbers they will work
with all year. Some had expensive tastes,
while others took joy out of the simpler
things. If your child is one of the ones
with expensive taste, hopefully this project will get you well prepared for their
future.
Is one million dollars enough if you spend lavishly?
S.U.T.P. COUPONS
We are once again
selling these moneysaving coupon books
as a fundraiser here
at
Indus
School.
The youngest student
in
your
family was given an
order envelope to
bring home. If you did
not receive it, or would
like another, please
contact the school. The
$20 cost is very quickly
recovered in
savings,
and our
school
benefits
by using
the profits
to
purchase much-needed
equipment. Thank you
for your support.
PEER HELPERS
PEER HELPERS began
again mid September.
We have a few volunteers in Grade 4/5 who
are dedicating one recess per week to walking the playground to
assist fellow students
who might be feeling a
little “left out”. One of
their main jobs is to
watch for students sitting
on the “buddy bench” on
the west side of the
playground. Students sit
on the bench when they
are feeling “blue” or maybe a little “yellow”. These
colours are associated
with our self-regulation
program (see Zones of
Regulation article). Peer
helpers offer to play or
walk with students. They
are never the bosses of
other students. Currently,
peer helpers work in
teams of two at the afternoon recess.
GRADE 7 CLAY-DOH ARTIFACTS
In Grade 7 Social Studies,
we have been studying
First Nations people, and
their customs and traditions. As a project, the
Grade 7's have each researched a First Nations
group, and re-created an
artifact for that group,
made out of play-doh (well,
actually "clay-doh"). The
artifacts were meant
to represent an important part of life for
that particular First
Nations group. The
Grade 7's did a wonderful job re-creating
a wide range of artifacts.
Well done Grade 7!
INDUS S.P.I.R.I.T. NEWSLETTER
Page 8
BAND UPDATE
Emily
and
Mariah
working the basics on their flutes.
s the
The Indus Bands are
s
i
m
t
ERT: coming
’
C
n
together well this
o
N
D
CO
D
year.
We have already
N
ym! had some talented band stuR BA
g
E
e
N
th
IN
dents from
Chestermere
BEG
20 in
.
t
c
High
School
visit
Indus to run
O
7:00
TEAMING UP FOR SUCCESS IN ECS
This year Kindergarten has
started off with a BANG! We
have been busy learning the
different rules and routines that
we must follow in our classroom
and around the school. The
children are adjusting very well
to being in school for the whole
day and come to class every
day excited to learn new things!
A lot of useful information was
sent home at the Back to
School BBQ to help both parents and children successfully
navigate their way through the
school year!
In Kindergarten, we have the
privilege of working with different specialists in Rocky View
Schools. These people are
important building blocks in
some children developing to their
full potential in Kindergarten. Lyse
Cormier (Speech and Language
Therapist), Sancha Reddick
(Occupational Therapist), and Kim
Mizera (Speech and Language Assistant). All of these wonderful ladies are working with a few of our
children as well as the teachers to
help develop programs to ensure
the success of all students.
Ms. Char Gosling is the other
teacher who has joined our Kindergarten community and the students
(and teacher!) LOVE her! Please
help me welcome Char to our team!
I know with consistent communication and teamwork between school
and home, all of the Kindergarten
students will have a successful and
fantastic first year at school!
clinics with our Junior Band
members. What a great headstart this gave our students!
Now we’re really up and running,
and looking forward to our Beginner Band Concert on October
20.Practice Logs for both the
Junior and Senior Bands have
been distributed.
Students
should be practicing at home
regularly. This year, we are using
the Standard of Excellence
method book, and recordings for
all the songs can easily be found
online. Please visit my site for a
link to recordings, a copy of the
practice log, and a list of upcoming
events.
<http://
indus.rockyview.ab.ca/Members/
Istchenko>
Emergency
Preparedness
The safety of students and staff is
of paramount importance to Indus
School and Rocky View Schools.
We have an extensive array of
emergency procedures designed
by experts to ensure situations are
hadled effectively and efficiently.
Please take a moment to read
about them at: http://
www.rockyview.ab.ca/families/
assets_parents/RVS-ParentSummary.pdf
IS THE BUS ON TIME?
To find out if your child’s bus is on
time, you have two options:
1) Call the Late Bus Line:
403-250-0016
2) There’s an app for that…
Search “first Student Airdrie
on either the Android or Apple app store. Late notifications are updated regularly.
OCTOBER 2015
Page 9
WHO ARE YOU? IT SEEMED PRETTY SIMPLE
Knowing who you are is
important to individual
success and happiness.
Division 3 students are
given identity assignments each September.
With much excitement
and enthusiasm, students
reflect on who they are
and what they are all
about. Grade 9 students
were asked to create a
silhouette of their head,
so as to fill it with things
that were symbolic to
whom they are. Seemed
pretty simple…
As a teacher, I have goals
and objectives for each of
my assignments, but often in the process of doing, students discover,
practice and teach to others competencies that are
as important (if not more
GARBAGE?
For the past few years, the results of
the RVS survey have identified a need
for Indus to take greater steps in environmental stewardship. This year, we
took some significant steps in that direction.
Since increasing our recycling to include plastic and metal, and asking
students to take unfinished food and
unrecyclable waste, back home with
them, we have reduced the amount of
garbage at school by about 70%,
while recycling has increased significantly.
Currently, we do not have the capacity
to compost organic waste, so it is also
being sent home with its owners. The
Science 9 class, however, will be conducting a feasibility study on school
composting as part of their study of
waste management.
important) than the ones I
have
meticulously
planned.
This was just the case for
the Grade 9 assignment.
“Draw a silhouette…”
those were my instructions… I hadn’t given this
drawing task much importance, certainly not as
much weight as the symbolic representation and
writing components of the
assignment. What I saw
as I walked around, were
students problem solving,
critical thinking, collaborating with others, and
communicating with others about what was working. They were sharing
how to work their phones
to get the best shadow,
finding the best tracer in
the
bunch,
deciding
whether to turn off lights and
discussing lots of other information to help get the job
done. The conversations I
heard within the groups confirmed for me that learning is
happening all the time. The
best learning isn’t always
about the goals and objectives a teacher writes on the
page, sometimes it’s about
believing in the learning process and often “holding the
space” for natural learning
opportunities.
Seemed pretty simple…
SCHOOL COUNCIL UPDATE
Indus School Council Society has been granted a casino for January 25 & 26, 2016. This is our school’s largest fundraiser! In order
to ensure a successful casino and the opportunity to be granted
further casinos, we require a number of volunteers for the two day
period. At this time, we are looking for anyone who would like to
volunteer for one of the remaining key positions (Alternate General
Manager, Cash Room Supervisor or Cashier). Afraid of the responsibility? The positions sound more intimidating than they really are, so please don’t let that discourage you from volunteering.
Our last casino was my first time acting as the Casino Chairperson
and General Manager and it was straight forward and a lot of fun.
Our casino advisors explain the position to each person and are
on site through every shift for support. This is a fun, social way to
be a part of the financial viability of our school programs.
Please contact me for further information or to volunteer either by
email at [email protected], by phone or by text at 403-4624870. Interested in volunteering for a different position? Please
stay tuned for further information and additional volunteer position
postings.
Thank you.
Andrea Desjardins, Casino Chairperson
INDUS S.P.I.R.I.T. NEWSLETTER
Page 10
WELCOME TO GRADE 4/5M
er students classroom
routines. We are fortunate
to have a new addition to
our Indus community.
Navada joins us from Calgary. Her friendly nature
has made it easy for her
to develop new friendships.
Ethan uses his ingenuity to turn a skipping
rope into a hammock. Mercedes looks on,
hoping to get a turn...
We have had an exciting first month. September
of any grade carries with it many changes, but
this year the students have had the opportunity to
mix with new peers in their classroom. This
year’s Grade 5 group have already demonstrated
leadership with the Grade 4 group. It is immensely helpful to have older students show the young-
Moving from Division I to
Division II creates new
opportunities. Everyone
seems thrilled to be taking Fine Arts from our
music and art specialists.
Getting your own instrument has been particularly exciting for the Grade 5
students. After only a
month I can see that this
class really enjoys reading. Students are quick to
make book suggestions
to anyone who seems
hesitant to read. Even
the reluctant quickly dis-
cover there is something in
the classroom library of interest. To be able to share
what you have read is an
important part of being a
reader.
It is great to see children
who love the joys of physical movement and friendly
competition. Also, it is a
pleasure to see the healthy
food that each child brings
to school. Microwaving last
night’s dinner, or bringing it
in a thermos, widens lunch
options. Nutritious food really does enhance learning.
Working towards a greener
environment by reducing
waste in lunches has taught
students an important skill
for their future. This year
promises to hold new learning for all of us.
PICTURE DAY & CLASS PHOTOS: October 22
RETAKE DAY: November 19
Watch the Fun Picture Day Prep Video rom a Kids Perspective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d88CG9CezhE

The envelope your child will bring home from school approximately 10 days after photo day will contain your child’s proofs and
important order information.

Your completed photo order must be returned to the school your child attends by the “IMPORTANT ORDER DUE DATE”
stamped in red on the order portion of the form.

Mail LATE ORDERS directly to Lifetouch Canada Inc. or call 1.866.457.8212 to place the order over the phone.
IF YOU REQUIRE A RETAKE, CHECK THE BOX ON THE ORDER FORM, SIGN IT AND HAVE YOUR CHILD RETURN IT TO THE
PHOTOGRAPHER ON RETAKE DAY.
Please contact Lifetouch if you have questions regarding proof order forms and picture packages.
OCTOBER 2015
Page 11
LEARNING COMMONS / LIBRARY
Your family is back into
the fall routine – hockey,
music lessons, harvest,
ringette, football, homework, chores, lunches,
etc. It’s not easy to find
time to read with your
child! But this doesn’t
have to be extra time you
find, reading can be integrated into all your daily
activities. Have your child
read to you in the car
(don’t we all spend too
much time there?!), while
waiting for their sibling at
practice (hockey, music,
etc.), or while you prepare
supper. Use the time you
already have!
Right from the first day of
school, students ask me
“When is Book Fair?” I
love it!
The Monster
Book Fair, containing
Frightfully Good Reads,
will be October 26-29 and
more details will be sent
home by mid-October.
The Accelerated Reader
(AR) program is under-
way, and at the time of this
writing (3 weeks into the
school year), students have
already read and quizzed on
over 460 books! Thank you to
our Parent Council, who pays
for our online subscription to
this very valuable reading
tool.
Remember that children need
to read independently, be
read to, and read with. So go
share a book with your children!
Reading: it will take
you places you
can’t even imagine!
STUDENT COUNCIL
STUDENT COUNCIL ELECTIONS were held on September
22nd. The first meeting was held
on the 23rd and will continue to
happen on Wednesdays at
lunch.
The Council is Najah Virk, Evan
Kasha, Patrick Connor and Emily Wolfenden in Grade 4/5, Jayden Vardy and Devin Hiebert in
Grade 6, Jeannie Nelson and
Justin Wenstrom in Grade 7,
Adam Beck and Emma Tanner
in Grade 8 and Michael Wolf- with our logo are available for sale.
enden and Eric Zambory in Deliberately wearing the right shade
Grade 9. Executive Positions of blue on a Friday (blue jeans don’t
will be decided
count) earns each class a
shortly.
Please
lot of Indus pride and some
Show your
watch for our picto play with as the
pride! Wear points
ture next newsletyear goes on. We are
ter.
Indus BLUE working on a new logo for
a new sale item – a baseFriday is still Indus every Friday. ball cap, which like our
Blue. Indus Pride
tuque, can be worn all day
can be shown eveinside or out, on Fridays.
ry Friday by wearing our Indus
Blue. Indus t-shirts or hoodies
OUR 25th ANNUAL TERRY FOX RUN
We had a fabulous day on
September 24th when everyone from Indus made the 4.2
km trek in support of Cancer
Research. Please send your
pledge forms and money collected in to the school by October 15th. Thank you for supporting this very worthwhile
cause.
INDUS SCHOOL CALENDAR 2015-2016
Please note that all students, not just Kindergarten students, attend on the days
marked as Kindergarten Days.