March 2014

March 2014
God gives us the gift of Lent
so that we can take spiritual stock of
who we are,
where we are going, and
how we are getting there.
And so, we open our hearts and minds
to the spirit of renewal
as we prepare to celebrate once again,
the great mystery of the death and resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray…and we sing in the words of a Lenten song:
Change my heart, O God
Make it ever true
Change my heart, O God
May I be like You.
You are the potter
I am the clay
Mold me and make me
This is what I pray.
May we unwrap the gift of Lent
with faith in the power of healing,
hope in the promise of renewal and
joy in the spirit of the journey.
Author Unknown
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MARCH 2014
Message from the Administration
Dear Parents/Guardians:
To mark the beginning of Lent on Wednesday, March 5th we will have our Ash Wednesday Celebration over
morning broadcast. Students will receive a blessing from their classroom teachers as a reminder to keep their
Lenten promises during this special time of preparation for the joy of Easter and its promise of Resurrection.
Lent is a time when we take time out to look inward, to focus on God’s voice calling us to change, to grow, and to
move forward.
March is also a time that our students celebrate their academic growth. On Friday, March 14th the students will
bring their report cards home for this reporting period. We look forward to celebrating your child’s success this
term on Thursday, March 20th at our Celebration of Learning . Please look for further details in your child’s
report card.
Our Open House will be held Wednesday, March 5th at 6:30 . We welcome registrations in all grades for the
2014-2015 school year. We are asking that you help us spread the good news about St. Gabriel School. Please
join us in sharing the good news by letting your friends, neighbors, co-workers and relatives know about our school.
We appreciate your continuous support ! We would like to also thank Starbucks in advance for
donating the coffee for our Community Meeting being held at St. Gabriel Tuesday, March 4th at 6:30 pm.
On behalf of the entire staff we wish you all a genuine spiritual experience as we begin our Lenten season and that
every good blessing flows into your hearts and homes.
On Monday, March 17th we will dress in green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day !
We leave you with a special Irish Blessing!.
An Irish Blessing to all of you …
May the leprechauns be near you,
To spread luck along the way,
And may all the Irish Angels ,
Smile on you St. Patrick’s Day.
Tisa Haesch
Lori McDonough
Principal
Assistant Principal
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WE ARE
THE
‘HEARTS
AND
HANDS’
OF
CHRIST
ST. GABRIEL SCHOOL
AT
We have seen the inspiration in the eyes of our grade 6 students as they take the concept of Me to
We from their We Day experience to inspire all of the students at St. Gabriel School. During the
season of Lent the grade 6 students will be continuing to present their passion projects. The grade 6
students had many different social justice initiatives that they were interested in. They formed
groups and put together presentations with the primary purpose of raising awareness of the agencies
at work in our Edmonton community and beyond. Some groups have chosen to do some fund raising and
therefore you will find some information coming home in the Friday envelope about the different initiatives . These will include:
BRACELETS
BADGES
BRICKS
WE
FOR THE
FOR
FOR
STOLLERY $1
SCARS $1
SCHOOLS. IN DEVELOPING COMMUNITIES. $1
INVITE OUR FAMILIES TO SUPPORT THESE WORTHY CAUSES DURING
SETTING UP AWARENESS BOOTHS AT THE
AS
WELL... THE
TO SUPPORT
YMCA
CELEBRATION
CHILDCARE WILL BE HAVING A
OF
$1
LEARNING
LENT. OUR
ON
STUDENTS WILL BE
MARCH 20TH.
ICE CREAM SALE ON
MARCH 27TH
AT
12:00
STRONG KIDS CAMPAIGN.
After School Basketball
for St. Gabriel Students
After School Basketball sessions for Grade 1 – 3 students were bursting with enthusiasm as approximately 40 children participated!
After School Basketball - Gr. 1-3 students
Grade 1 – 3 students learned the FUNdamentals of basketball. Skills taught included the triple threat
position, jump stop, ball handling, dribbling, passing and shooting. Many drills and modified games
were used during the sessions. Ask your child to show you the triple threat position or some of the ball
handling activities they have learned.
On February 14, After School Basketball sessions for Grades 4 – 6 began with more than 20 very keen
students participating. Last session for Grades 4 – 6 will be held on March 14.
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REPORT CARDS & CELEBRATION OF LEARNING
Report cards for our students in grades 1-6 will go home on Friday, March 14th. The purpose of the
report card is to share student success, to set goals for further learning and to encourage communication between home and school. Thank you parents for all your work in supporting student learning.
Our Celebration of Learning will take place on Thursday, March 20th from
1:30—4:00 and 5:30-7:30 pm.
We look forward to celebrating your child’s learning with you.
BOOK FAIR
Our scholastic Book Fair will run during the week of March 17th to 21st and will be open during the
CELEBRATION OF LEARNING afternoon and evening.
Parent volunteers are needed to run the Book Fair. Notices will go home in the Friday envelope at a
later date.
100 VOICES PRE-KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM
St. Gabriel is pleased to welcome children from our school community to be a part of our
pre-kindergarten program. Our pre-kindergarten program is called 100 Voices and is specifically for children in their year before kindergarten. Children in our pre-kindergarten program are conditionally accepted if they are three years old by September 30, 2014 or four
years old by March 1, 2015. Program registration for our three year old children is tentative based on screening results for funding purposes. If a child meets criteria as an English
as a Second Language Learner or meets criteria from Alberta Health as a child with mild,
moderate or severe needs, then there is no fee attached to our 100 Voices Program.
If your child does not meet the criteria above, there will be a monthly fee for
our four year old children. Our pre-kindergarten experience is vibrant, full of
language, fine arts and 21st Century Learning, which takes place in our Reggio inspired learning facility.
KINDERGARTEN AND GRADE 1-6 REGISTRATIONS
We will be having our Open House on Wednesday, March 5th from 6:30-7:30 pm to showcase our school and to provide registration information for our pre-kindergarten and kindergarten programs. We are also currently registering students for next year. It is our pleasure to take families who are interested in registering their children on a tour of our school
to demonstrate the learning and community that is evident in our classrooms.
If you have a child, or know of someone that has a child who is five years old by March 1,
2015, please call or come and visit to receive more information about registering your child
at St. Gabriel school for kindergarten. We look forward to our continued work with our children and with our new families as well. Please call the school for more information or to arrange a tour (466-0220).
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St. Gabriel is going outdoors –
Come and join us!
Hope you had a chance to take in some of the exciting Winter Olympics action during February, as well
as get outside yourself to enjoy some winter activities. The students enjoyed chair Olympics during
morning broadcast each day – ask your child to demonstrate some of these activities. Due to very cold
weather, the students were not able to participate in Winter Walk Day 2014 on February 5 outside, but
did enjoy a great walk within the school. We also participated in indoor recess walks throughout the
school. Ask your child to tell you about our walking route.
Nature Activities
 The Little Green Thumbs (LGT) indoor garden has been set
up in the lunch room. Do check it out if you are in the school.
Kindergarten students have planted finger carrots and are enjoying watering them and are excited to see them popping out
of the soil.
 100 Voices students will be planting lettuce very soon. Kindergarten students
hope to also plant beans, pumpkin, junior sunflowers and Marigolds.
Kindergarten students enjoyed making pine cone bird feeders and hanging
them on trees out front of the school in our winter garden.
“Let Nature be your teacher.” – William Wordsworth
We always welcome more hands. Come and enjoy the outdoors! For more information contact our principal, Ms.
Haesch, or Jill (780-469-0513 or jillandgreg@shaw.ca).
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BUSSING
The following radio stations will carry announcements with respect to transportation cancellations due to inclement weather conditions. Every effort will be made to have messages
broadcast commencing not later than 6:30am. In case of long delays, please be sure to give
your children a plan such as to return home or go to a neighbor’s.
CHED/CHQT/CISN/JOE FM/96X/CFCW/KROCK
CFRN/THE BEAR/930 CJCA CBC/CHFA/CKER
SHROVE TUESDAY HOT LUNCH
The annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake luncheon will be on Tuesday March 04, 2014. The Hot Lunch program would like to thank GOLD BAR SOBEY'S and BONNIE DOON MALL ALBERT'S RESTAURANT , for
their donations to our Shrove Tuesday Pancake lunch. Their donations will contribute to a wonderful
event that will be enjoyed by all the students and staff.
We would also like to thank all of our amazing parents who will donate the great gift of their time
to make this event a wonderful day. Without these parent volunteers it would not have been possible
for Shrove Tuesday Hot Lunch to take place.
SAFETY
Thank you to our families for supporting student safety by not walking through or parking in the school staff
parking lot. We appreciate your support in dealing with this very important safety concern.
A reminder that It is vital that children wait and look both ways before they venture across the street even if they
have pressed the button. If your children use the crosswalk, we ask that you reinforce this measure of safety by
talking with them. We will do the same at school. Thank you for your partnership in looking out for the safety of
SKIING AND SNOW BOARDING!
On Friday February 21st the grade 4, 5 and 6 students enjoyed a fun-filled day of skiing and
snowboarding. The weather was chilly but the ski conditions were great!
Thank you to the parents, who volunteered to assist the students on this day.
GRADE 6 DARE PROGRAM
We are pleased to announce that Cst. Greg Schlender is able to offer the Drug Resistance Education
Program to our students in grade 6 beginning March 7, 2014 for 10 sessions. Information for the grade
6 parents will be distributed through the Friday Envelope.
We thank Cst. Schlender in advance for this excellent educational
WELCOME TO OUR STUDENT TEACHERS
During the month of March and April, we welcome three student teachers from the University of Alberta.
Ms. Gallinger will be working in Grade 1, Mr. Koether will be working in Grade 2 and Ms. Desjardins will
be working in Grade 4. They will run a noon time intermural program for grades 1-6 that will start in
mid-March and run until the end of April.
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Dear Friends,
Having had the opportunity to share our common faith with all the staff of the Edmonton Catholic
School District, just recently at their Faith Development Day, on February 4, we have cause to reflect on what that word, used so often, “FAITH,” truly means in the hearts and minds of Catholics.
For some, faith is a set of beliefs, doctrines, and regulations that we are called to follow as a particular religion or creed. To have faith, to say “I believe,” is to profess belief in a set of truths, that are
passed on through that respective faith tradition.
This is, to be sure, partly true, for our faith has what we would call “content.” But equally important
to one’s faith is what we call the “act” of faith, that act which gives authenticity to that content. Our
acts of faith consist in the ways in which we live, the ways we treat each other, give of ourselves to
our families, our school communities, to the world as a whole, all as a response to the content of
our faith.
These two components of faith cannot be separated from each other. In fact, for us as Christians,
these two realities, “content” and “act,” are harmonized in a person, that being Jesus Christ. The
content of our faith is then more than just belief in a man who gave certain wise sayings many
years ago. Rather the content of our faith becomes relationship with that man, who is alive today, in
Word and in Sacrament, in prayer, and in service to our brothers and sisters, whom Christ himself
has called us to see him in (Matthew 28:20). In following this man, therefore, our “act” of faith and
our “content” of faith come in to union; they become one.
As such all the “rules” of our faith are summarized in to one rule, that of love, in imitation of Christ,
who loved the Father with his whole heart, mind, soul, and his neighbor as himself. All the “truths”
of our faith are encapsulated in to one truth, one man, and belief that this one man, as Word of
God, is the full expression of God’s infinite love for all the world.
Pope John Paul II, of Blessed Memory, soon to be Canonized a Saint, called on us to a New Evangelization. This was a call to reignite faith, first in ourselves, and then in our brothers and sisters. We
find this call at the very heart of the meaning of Catholic Education. May we understand this call,
simply and yet profoundly as a call to re-discover Jesus Christ, every day, to know him and to follow
him, particularly in God’s most precious little ones, the children that we serve.
XRichard W. Smith
Archbishop of Edmonton
March 2014
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