Aldergrove News December 12, 2025

Message from Admin 
Dear Aldergrove Families,

This week was mostly a regular one, but winter made its presence felt! With the inclement weather, buses and school taxis were cancelled, but school remained open. We appreciate everyone’s flexibility during these changes.

We are encouraging students to enjoy playing in the snow while keeping safety as our top priority. Please remind your child that snow stays on the ground—no throwing snowballs. We’ve also begun our tobogganing program, which has been a big hit! Toboggans are provided by the school, and parents must complete the permission form on School Cash Online. Helmets are optional, and families may send one if they’d like their child to wear it.

Thank you for your continued support with our pick-up and drop-off routines. To help reduce congestion, please consider walking to school whenever possible. This small change makes a big difference for safety and flow.

Looking Ahead to Next Week

Primary Sing-Along – Thursday morning

Grade 7/8 Dance – Friday afternoon (organized by our amazing student leaders in the S.P.I.R.I.T. team)

Pajama Day – Friday

Togetherness as We Approach the Holidays

As we move closer to the holiday season, we are reminded of the importance of togetherness. These moments of connection—whether through shared traditions, school events, or simple acts of kindness—help create a sense of belonging and safety for every child. When students feel connected to their school community, they thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.

Quote for the Week:

"The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members." — Coretta Scott King

Thank you for partnering with us to make Aldergrove a place where every child feels safe, valued, and supported.

Warm regards,

Mr. Louca                         Mr. Pamayah

Principal                           Vice Principal

EQAO Results

In the coming days, students who were in Grades 3 and 6 last year will be bringing home their EQAO results. These assessments provide valuable insight into student learning and help guide our ongoing efforts to support achievement.

We are pleased to share that our school-level results are strong, reflecting the hard work of our students and staff. While EQAO is just one measure of learning, it offers an opportunity to celebrate successes and identify areas for continued growth.

Thank you for your partnership in supporting every child’s learning journey.

Snow Expectations at Aldergrove

Winter certainly has arrived with our first real snowfall of this school year. The students are having a great time during our outdoor play time and are able to create some great structures. Please remember that we will be going outside in various weather conditions.  Dressing in layers is always a good idea, with wind resistant jackets and waterproof footwear. Please remind scholars to dress appropriately. Extra socks, mitts, gloves and pants are always good to have on hand.  We check the weather often throughout the day and follow the YRDSB guidelines for cold weather. 

A few things we wanted to share with all of you. 

Snow Expectations - with the snow, comes a few rules we expect our students to follow to ensure all of our students are able to have fun, however also stay safe. 

No throwing snow - we ask students to keep snow (and especially ice) on the ground

Hands off - we remind students that they cannot be pushing other students. Even though the ground may be a little softer. 

Finally, with regards to snow structures, our rule is if you didn’t build it you aren’t breaking it…we encourage our students to be creative with the snow, work and build collaboratively and to be respectful of the work put in by others.

Learning Commons Updates!

Hello Aldergrove Community! Mrs. Szonda here to let you know some of the exciting things that have been happening within our Learning Commons (or Library as many of you know it as) over the past month and a bit. 

Let me begin by thanking all of you who visited the Bookfair or sent money with your child to purchase items. Together we have raised $2000 in Scholastic Credit that will be used to purchase new books and learning materials for the Library.  $550 has already been spent on books that were taken from Bookfair shelves. 

Junior students have engaged in a Lunch and Watch with free author Live Videos by Storyvoice sponsored by Scholastic.  We have had the pleasure of viewing (all the way from JAPAN!) Samuel Sattin, author of “Unico” and “Unico Hunted”, as well as Tui T. Sutherland and Mike Holmes, author and illustrator of the Graphic Novel Series “Wings of Fire”.  Follow this link if you’d like to watch Tui and Mike from home or if your child would like to watch it again! https://storyvoice.scholastic.com/recordings/JeWpAd0tNmAdYXkFygS5

On Friday our Kindergarten friends will be engaging with author Rebecca Gardyn Levington, author of “Little Driedel Learns to Spin”.

Ms. Dash and Mr. Donald’s class lunch and learned along with a YouTube live presentation put on by Logics Academy and sponsored by Google about Ai.  They learned about safety and ethics surrounding the use of Ai, as well as playing around with some new Google Ai learning modules. Links for these will be shared soon so you can explore at home too! 

In the next few weeks, Junior and Intermediate students will be participating in workshops from the YMCA around themes of gambling and addictive behaviours.  These workshops will enhance students critical thinking surrounding “rewards” in video games, media content involving gambling, and financial literacy surrounding real vs fake digital money. 

Primary and Kindergarten students visit the Learning Commons each week to engage in Read Aloud activities focused on Heritage Months or other significant dates such as Diwali or Transgender Awareness. Students often watch videos, hear stories, and engage in discussion around these topics in order to broaden their knowledge of our diverse world. 

Primary students also engage in weekly Makerspace activities that focus around STEM. Some activities they have done are:

Diyas for Diwali and water colour faces for Holi

Coding with Beebot

Building with Lego

Growing patterns using shapes to make animals or plants

Making windsocks to learn about air patterns

Play snow using baking soda and shaving cream

Learning about symmetry and patterns in nature

AND SO MUCH MORE!

Junior to Intermediate classes have the opportunity to sign up for a week of STEM makerspace with me for one week. Ms. Ravisankar and Ms. Sathananthan’s class came and worked on projects related to plants and animals and made projects like a plant light maze, bird beaks, animal camouflage, leaf chromatography and fruit and vegetable dissection.  Ms. Liu’s class engaged in coding learning how to turn a robot into a pet kitten or a wild animal, turn a digital microboard into a thermometer, code a robot dog to go for walks and do tricks, and to demonstrate pollination using Beebot.  Ms. Arakelian’s class is learning about pulleys and gears and they have been busy building projects like a dancing snowman float, elevator systems, a snow plow, a clock that counts down to winter break, and a tow truck.  

Extra Curricular Calendar - December 15 - 19