Dear Parents:
Thank you for a wonderful year at Our Lady of the Assumption School. I would
like to thank our terrific staff for all their hard work and I would like to thank all
of the parents for advocating, supporting, and encouraging your children.

Together we are making our school a very special place.  2015-16 promises to be an exciting year. We have many exciting ideas and we are welcoming new staff into our OLA family.

On behalf of Our Lady of the Assumption I wish everyone an enjoyable, restful
and safe summer vacation. We will miss our grade 6 students who are moving
on and we look forward to seeing everyone else on September 1.

2015-16 School Year  Please find our school year calendar at http://www.holyspirit.ab.ca/assumption/_cabinet/9/Holy_Spirit_city_schools_calendar_15-16_May_4.pdf

2015-16 Balanced School Day  Please find the bell times for 2015-16 school year at http://www.holyspirit.ab.ca/assumption/_cabinet/9/BSD_bell_times_2015-16.pdf

2015-16 Student Supply List   Please find our supply list at http://www.holyspirit.ab.ca/assumption/_cabinet/9/2015-2016_student_supply_list.pdf
Also, you may go to https://btss.valuedrugmart.com/ to order your school supplies online. The online order code is 131LOTA. Orders need to be placed by July 10.

Bus Routes  Please find the most current bus routes at http://www.holyspirit.ab.ca/page.cfm?pgID=185

START DATES FOR 2015 – 2016 SCHOOL YEAR
September 1, 2015 – First day of classes for Grades 1 – 6
September 1-2, 2015 – Orientation for Kindergarten (by appointment)
September 3, 2015 – First day of classes for Kindergarten
September 9, 2015 – First day of classes for the Early Learning Program

SUMMER OFFICE HOURS
The office will be open on August 25-27 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The office will be closed on August 28. Regular office hours (8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) will begin on August 31, 2015. Please email Mr. Kostiuk at kostiukg@holyspirit.ab.ca if you need to contact the school during the summer.

With kindest regards,
Greg Kostiuk

End of School Year Prayer

Lord, thank you for the past year. For the things we have learned, for the
fun we have had, for the skills and knowledge we have gained, for the help
we gave and received, and for the friends we have made.

We pray for those leaving our school. We wish them all the best; for their
new schools, new friends, and new activities; and for their well-being.
We pray for everyone here. That we have a happy summer holiday, for
safety for those who travel, for families and friends, for help and guidance,
and for continuing growth in faith and hope and love.

Hear us, heavenly Father, as we offer our prayers to you – the prayers we
have said, and the silent prayers of our hearts – through your Son, our
Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Earlier in June I wrote a blog entitled Give Students a Challenge.  It presented this problem that I gave my grade 6 students:

Thank you to my talented son Nathan for providing one possible answer to the problem:

Have a wonderful rest of June and remember to challenge students.

Greg Kostiuk

In addition to my position of Principal, I have the pleasure of teaching.  One of the subjects that I teach is Grade 6 Math.  The Grade 6 math curriculum is challenging for students. With respect to operations, students develop their skills on the basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  Students are not introduced to concepts like exponents or square root.  I think it is important to challenge students, to go beyond the curriculum.  Therefore, I gave my Grade 6 students the following problem:

I gave this problem near the end of the day.  To my surprise, the next morning some of my students were running up to me to say they had solved it!  They solved it, despite not being taught have to use square root or factorials.  I do know students have a wealth of resources at their finger tips, but I was amazed at their excitement in solving a difficult problem.  It reminded me of the importance of challenging students.

Greg Kostiuk

PS – I will post the answer next week.

Based on the popular ‘3 Things for Calgary’ idea, our Leadership Class and Mrs. Marcotte started ‘3 Things for OLA’.   Here is the video the students made to introduce their idea:

We are very excited to see the all the little and big things our students are going to be doing.  A big thank you to the Leadership Class and Mrs. Marcotte for this exciting project.

Greg Kostiuk