Happy Holidays!

Today our ALP class hosted an "open house" where staff and students dropped by for hot chocolate and cookies.  There were crafts to do, songs to sing and stories to read but most of all there was friendship to share.  Yesterday, our ACCESS class presented a wonderful adaptation of a Christmas Carol to an appreciative audience of staff and parents.  A big hit this week was the gingerbread house decorating contest where home rooms competed for TA points.  It has been a fun Christmas season at MidSun.  Of special note is the work our students did to adopt 3 families for Christmas.  Our team of elves delivered our food and gifts to  this week and knowing we helped to make their Christmas a little brighter made us all feel good.

Whatever you will be doing this holiday, we at MidSun want to wish you the very best for the holiday season.  We hope you have a good rest and we look forward to working and learning together in the New Year.

Grade 7 Egg Drop

Students in Grade 7 Science Class were having fun all week dropping eggs in the Atrium! 

The students designed and created a container that would house a raw egg and protect it from any impacts.

Students applied what they had learned about various structure and design concepts such as load bearing forces, tensile strength, compression and tension to create their apparatus. They then tested it by dropping it from the second floor to the atrium and see if it would protect the egg from the impact!

Tutoring Program

Our tutoring program is now on hiatus. The Centennial High school students need to get ready for their Diploma Exam.
The Tutoring program will start again on Feb 22nd 2012.

Do you have lovely calendars you will recycle in the new year?

Do you have lovely calendars you will recycle in the new year?  If so, PLEASE DON’T! 

Instead Donate your beautiful old calendars to the Art Room! Miss Kaminski will use the calendars for inspiration in  drawings and paintings in her art class.  If you have last year’s calendars with pictures of cars, animals, landscapes, cartoons etc.  please consider sending them with your child in January to Miss Kaminski (in the Art Room). If you have any questions, please contact Miss Kaminski at DMKaminski@cbe.ab.ca.

Thank you!

MidSun School Parent Council, Fundraising Update

While the temperature outside may be falling, the fundraising thermometer is on the rise at MidSun School. The MidSun School Education Enhancement Society (MSEES), the fund-raising arm of Parent Council, has made great strides in its first year -- so far pushing our bank account balance to almost $6,000 since September. Thanks to everyone who has supported our school through the many initiatives undertaken to date, including direct donations through the CBE Foundation, the recent Purdy’s chocolate sale, the Epicure sale and fall book fair. We know there are many other organizations seeking your dollars and we greatly appreciate your generosity.

We’re just getting started with our fundraising and plan to launch our grocery gift card program next month. Information on this will be coming home with students on dazzling pink sheets (you can’t miss them) in early January. This program could raise as much as $6,000 a month for our school, so it has the potential to be a significant source of funds. We all buy groceries, so why not get the stores we shop at to give a little back to us!

Just as a reminder, the money we raise will help to enhance our children’s learning experience at MidSun. We are investigating a number of possible matching-grant programs to leverage our dollars even more. Our long-term goal is to purchase SMART Boards for classroom use, though we have a substantial list of other needed items for physed, language/social, math/science, and all of the excellent options available at MidSun. We are also hoping to support the creation of an “outdoor classroom ” on the school grounds.

Please come and join us at our next Parent Council and MSEES meeting on January 12, 2012, in the school library at 7 p.m. We’d love to see you.

Have a safe and happy holiday season.

Staffing update

Ms. Wong has decided to resign from the CBE.  She had many personal reasons for making the decision. While Ms. Wong has only been here for a short time, she has made an impact on our school and her work with the other members of her professional learning community and grade teams appreciated her support.  She also ran the chess club which attracted higher numbers than they have seen for a few years.  We will miss her.

We are fortunate to have a talented and experienced teacher as her replacement.  Please welcome Robert Billing to gold pod. He brings seventeen years of secondary teaching experience to this position.  He received his education in Montreal where he taught for five years.  He moved west in 1997 and became part of the Alberta education system through the Rockyview School Division.  He taught grades nine through twelve at Chestermere High School for eleven years.  He has also worked at West View School in the Calgary Young Offenders Centre for four months under a temporary contract with the CBE. He has worked together with Ms. Wong to make the transition a smooth one for our students.     

Tis the season day on Friday Dec 16

Leadership students are running lots of TA challenges this week for a bit of Seasonal fun over the lunch hour.  This Friday is Tis the season day and students and staff are encouraged to dress festive!