Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School

October 2011

"Coming together is a beginning, Keeping together is progress, Working together is success." Henry Ford

Ms. Skalski’s Message Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School wishes to send out a big Oki, Tansi, Abawashded, and welcome to a colorful month and season! October has Thank you, Hiy hiy, Ish nish to graced us with radiant reds, glittery golds, and Capital Power Corporation awesome oranges as we watch Mother Earth for the donation of basketball change into her next season. hoops for our school recreation

Thank you to all of our students, families, program. Capital Power also friends and community members who joined us generously tore down the rink, recently for our Fall Feast, Round Dance and allowing for a safe play surface Apple School Launch. We are off to a great for a variety of fun games and activities. start. Capital Power Corporation is proud to offer We would like to welcome Alaina Farmer to an integrated and focused program of com- our teaching staff. She comes to us after 2 1/2 munity involvement and is committed to years teaching with Northern Lights School citizenship through community investment. Division. We are delighted to have her join our team. Congratulations to Superintendent Ed Wittchen! 2011-2012 classroom teachers: At a ceremony on September 16th, 2011, our Jessica Liddell – Bear Cubs School Superintendent received the CASA Distin- Erin Danforth – Golden Eagles guished Service Award. Mr. Wittchen received Glen Durocher – Mighty Buffalos the award for his leadership as the PD Committee Chair for the past few years. The College of Alaina Farmer - Courageous Foxes Alberta School Superintendents thanked Mr. Victor Tang – Muskwa Wittchen for his efforts to broaden our under- standing of Canadian Education and for his ena- bling of the many networks we enjoy. Alex Soreghy and Leslie Sand are leaving us to begin a new venture up north. They have served as bus drivers, transportation coordina- Contact Us TJ Skalski Principal tors and custodians. We thank them for their Shelley Cygan Admin Assistant devoted services and commitment to our Janet House Home Liaison

MECCS family! We wish them every success. Leslie Sand Transportation & Safety Officer

We send our deepest sympathy to Nelson & Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School Ivy James and their family on the tragic loss of RR 5, Stony Plain, AB T7Z 1X5 their son. Our prayers are with Nelson and his family to find peace and comfort at this diffi- Phone 780.702.7531 & 1.866.721.0488 (toll free) cult time. Fax 780.848.2395 Email [email protected] In kind spirit, Website www.meccs.org Ms. Skalski CALL OR TEXT Transportation HOTLINE 780-699-8310 Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School October 2011

CULTURAL NEWS OCTOBER TEACHING

Respect

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Thank you to all the students that participated in the student sweat and for making it a great time for Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. all of us. I look forward to working with you in more of the upcoming events. All things are bound together.

I will be leaving to Holland on October 11th, 2011 All things connect.” and will return to work on October 28th, 2011. Drumming classes will still happen when I am Chief Seattle gone. See you when I get back!!! 1854 Cree Moon “Freezing

Hiy Hiy, Ish Nish Moon” Kaskitinowipisim To students, families, friends, and community members who attended MECCS Fall Feast, Apple Stoney Moon School Launch, and School Round Dance on September 23 and helped to make it a success! “Ground Freezing Moon”

Aaron Bird, Ubshe Iyadase Waheeba Cultural Mentor

MECCS TRANSPORTATION & SAFETY

BUS: Please call the bus hot line at 780-699-8310 if you know that your child(ren) will NOT be on the bus. Children should be at their stop 3 minutes prior to scheduled pick up.

Edmonton Bus (Edmonton, Enoch, Spruce Grove, Star Lake) Alberta Beach Bus (Beach Corner, Alberta Beach, Paul Band) Paul Band Bus (Paul Band) CALL, or TEXT 780-699-8310 or EMAIL [email protected]

HOT LUNCH PROGRAM

Sponsored Lunch Rates: First two children in immediate family - $2.00/day / Additional children in same family - $1.00/day 2 children per family = Daily rate is $4.00/day, 3 children per family = Daily rate is $5.00/day, etc. Payment can be made by CASH or CHEQUE. ( payable to MECCS)

All NSF cheques will be charged a $25 NSF charge. Download a Hot Lunch form on our website: www.meccs.org.

Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School October 2011

Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School October 2011

October

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

30 31 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Staff Meeting

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Staff Development School Pictures 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Staff

Meeting

DATES TO REMEMBER

October 7 Attendance Assembly October 10 Thanksgiving If you have something you October 18 School Pictures (9 am) would like to share with our November 11 Remembrance Day MECCS community, please email: November 25 No school in lieu of Remembrance Day [email protected]

Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School October 2011

MECCS is honored to welcome

Helmer Twoyoungmen as our Stoney Instructor.

Helmer Twoyoungmen is a member of the Nakoda First Nation in Morley, Al- berta. He is a trained NNADAP ( National Native Alcohol and Drug Addiction Program) counselor, a Stoney Culture teacher, an actor, a talented artist and mu- sician, and has entertained across North America and Europe. Helmer’s knowl- edge and experience, both in his own culture and in the predominant culture, give him a perspective that enables him to reach people of all ages and backgrounds.

Mr. Twoyoungmen’s goal is to teach First Nations young people their Stoney language and culture so that it remains viable and thriving. Helmer will be teaching the young people of MECCS to make instruments such as flutes, hand drums, rattles, and many cultural crafts. Helmer will also be sharing stories from his culture and experiences on a variety of topics.

Reclaiming Hope with Youth Project

We would like to thank Poundmaker’s Lodge for their generous donation of the six forty five gallon drums. Their commitment to helping “Reclaiming Hope with Youth Project” in our school is sincerely appreciated. Our students in grade six to nine will be designing and painting the drums with strength based messages to be used around the school yard for garbage cans as part of our “Reclaiming Hope with Youth Project” Pictures will be posted in our newsletter when the drums are complete.

Illustrator Lorna Bennett will be working with our grade six to nine students teaching drawing, and helping the students to design their messages for our garbage cans, as well as benches and picnic tables to be used out side in our junior high’s “Hope Space”

Lorna attended the Fine Arts/Arts programs at Grant MacEwan College and The Univer- sity of Alberta. After working full time as a designer/illustrator for many years, Lorna be- came a full-time freelance illustrator in 1998 and began to illustrate trade picture books, greeting cards, novel covers, as well as nonfiction, technical illustration, other language books and cookbooks. Lorna has worked as a writer and as an animator in traditional and digital animation with an Edmonton multimedia group; projects include work for the National Film Board and Royal Provincial Museum’s Wild Alberta permanent exhibit multimedia. Lorna has held solo exhibitions of original oil paintings at the Art Gallery of Alberta (formerly the Edmonton Art Gallery), the Royal Alberta Museum, and major li- braries in Edmonton and Calgary. Since 2001 Lorna has travelled in Canada giving illus- trator presentations.

Check out next month’s news letter to see the progress our students are making on their art projects.

Lorna Bennett, Illustrator

Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School October 2011

Apple Slice

September was a fantastic month! The staff and students have par- ticipated in many activities that promote active living and healthy eating.

Taste Testing

Every week the students have tasted a variety of apples, as well as grapes. They compared different apples, such as Gala, Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Pink Lady and Ginger Gold. Ask your child which apple they liked the best! Also, the students tasted red, green and blue grapes, deciding which one was their favourite.

Apples, Apples, Apples

Students have an opportunity to eat sliced apples in the morning and before they go on the bus. Sometimes students receive a whole apple when they get off the bus at the end of the day. The students are striving for 5 servings of fruits or vegetables when they are at school.

Fun Fitness Fridays

Every Friday, each class participates in 30 minutes of physical activity. In September, the students tried a series of fun fitness stations, as well as played parachute games. In addition, some classes played “Noodle Floor Hockey”, which is floor hockey using pool noodles for hockey sticks and a noodle “knot” for the hockey puck!

APPLE Schools Launch

On Friday, September 23, MECCS was officially introduced as an AP- PLE School! Photographs of the students participating in active living and healthy eating were displayed for everyone that attended the event. Thank you to the students, staff, elders, parents and community members for making the APPLE launch a wonderful event!

**Students can look forward to the opening of the Snack Shack (formerly known as MECCS Canteen), as well as “Spooktacular” Fun Fitness Fridays!**

Melissa Purcell APPLE Schools Health Facilitator

Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School October 2011

Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School October 2011