La Gazette d'EMBM

Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Lettuce.
Lettuce who?
Lettuce make 2025 the best year yet! 🥳

Happy New Year, EMBM families! We hope your holiday season was filled with joy, rest, and plenty of new memories. As we step into 2025, we’re already off and running! We’re excited for all the new adventures, growth, and opportunities that this year will bring, and we can’t wait to walk this journey together with you.

January is the perfect time to rejuvenate and start a new—whether it’s getting back into our learning, speaking more French, reconnecting with others or deepening our faith. Together, we’ll continue to build on the wonderful foundation we've already established, with God's guidance leading the way.

As we look ahead, we’re reminded of Philippians 3:13-14:
"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Let’s press on toward the amazing opportunities ahead of us in 2025, full of faith, hope, and excitement!

With excitement, faith, and maybe a little caffeine

Megan & Deanna 😊

Tues. Jan 14th : School Community Council meeting 6:45 (all are welcome)

Wed. Jan 15th Bas Fous - Crazy Socks Day - so put on your craziest socks today

Thur. Jan. 16th : Sacrament parent meeting 6:30 @ St.Joseph Church

Frid. Jan. 17th : LOCCS E-sport tournament & Hot Dog hot lunch day

Tues. Jan. 21st : Family Bingo for grades 3 & 4 (Bake-sale)

Wed. Jan. 22nd : School Mass & early dismissal

Sun. Jan. 26th : Sacrament enrolment Mass 11 a.m.(St-Joseph Parish)

Mon. Jan 27th : Literary character day & EMBM Family Literacy Night 6:00-7:30 (come and go)

Wed. Jan. 29 Journée Tropicale -Tropical Day

Thur. Jan 30th : Hot lunch McDonald's

Frid. Jan 31st : No School - Teacher planning day

-------------------------------

Feb. 5th : Kindergarten information night- 6:30-7:00

Feb. 7th : gr. 5-7 Table Mountain Ski Day

Feb. 7-8th : JP JR Bball District tournament 8 a.m.

Feb. 17th-21st : February Break - No school

As we begin 2025, let us reflect on the rich traditions of our faith. We begin the month off still celebrating the Advent season until the Feast of the Epiphany. January offers several important feast days and opportunities for prayer, unity, and spiritual growth.

• January 1 – Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
• January 6 – Feast of the Epiphany
• January 18-25 – Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
• January 25 – Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

We invite all families to join us for our next school Mass on January 22nd at 9:30 AM, which will be organized by our Grade 6/7 class. It’s a wonderful opportunity to come together as a school community in prayer and worship.

Congratulations to Our Bison Volleyball Teams! 🐾🏐🥇

A huge congratulations to our Bison boys' and girls' volleyball teams for their outstanding performance, bringing home gold in the division tournament! Your hard work, dedication, and teamwork have truly paid off, and we couldn’t be more proud of your achievements.

A heartfelt thank you to the incredible coaches, M. Komar, Mme Bernier, Mme Hodgins, and Mme Anthony, for their unwavering commitment and guidance throughout the season.

After a well deserved break for our athletes, we're gearing up for an exciting basketball season!

Girls basketball team coaches: Mme Westwood and M. Tatton

Boys Basketball team coaches: M.Komar and Mme Fransoo

Congrats to Our Esports Team! 🎮🏆

Huge congratulations to our Esports team for their strong showing at the Esports Canada Under 15 Nationals! As a new club, they’ve worked incredibly hard and made coaches M. Poitras and M. Komar very proud.

The team will compete in the division tournament on January 17th (tentatively) to wrap up the Rocket League season, before transitioning to Brawlhalla for the next session.

Great job, team—keep up the fantastic work!

Reminder of E-sport team practices: Wed. 3:30 & Frid.@ lunch

**NEW** Students will be able to sign up from Jan 6th-10th for the new Chess Club starting up this month. They can pick up a letter at the school office with details.

Let's get ready to cheer on our Bisons! Let the excitement continue! 🌟,

Each year, Family Literacy Week in Saskatchewan celebrates the importance of reading and learning together as a family. This initiative encourages parents, caregivers, and children to enjoy the benefits of reading, share stories, and engage in activities that nurture literacy skills. Whether it's reading together, telling stories, or exploring books in new ways, Family Literacy Week highlights how learning at home strengthens bonds and builds lifelong skills.

EMBM School’s Family Literacy Evening
In honor of Family Literacy Week, EMBM School is excited to host a Family Literacy Evening on Monday, January 27th. This event will offer fun and engaging activities for students and their families to enjoy, fostering a love of reading, writing, and learning together. We invite all families to join us for an evening of stories, interactive reading stations, and more! Stay tuned for more details—coming soon!

Literary character dress up day:

On Monday, January 27th, we will also have a dress up day at school where students and staff can dress up as their favorite literary characters.

We will be hosting a French immersion information night for parents who are interested in enrolling their child in Light of Christ’s K-12 French immersion program for the 2025-2026 school year on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 @ 6:30 p.m. in our EMBM School library. Please come join us to learn about our French immersion program and the benefits of learning French as an additional language, to get a school tour and to have any questions answered about kindergarten at EMBM.

Children who will be 5 years of age by December 31st, 2025 are eligible for kindergarten for the 2025/20256 school year. If you would like to register your child at EMBM for kindergarten – registration forms can be found online at:

http://www.loccsd.ca/index.php/registration/

Our kindergarten program is full-time - Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Bussing is available for kindergarten students if you reside in an eligible area. Further bussing information can be obtained by contacting the Light of Christ Catholic School Division.

If you have any questions about kindergarten, please feel free to contact the school. Thank you.

Please help us spread the word around the community☺!

We’re excited to announce that Bingo Nights are back, thanks to the efforts of our wonderful Parent Council! After last year’s success, we’re making a few fun changes to keep the excitement going.

This year, we ask that the groups for the evening also bring the baked goods for the Bingo Bake Sale, with teachers from the assigned grades running the sale during each event. Be sure to bring your whole family along for a fun night of Bingo, community, and tasty treats! Proceeds from the evening will help with EMBM school excursions and year-end activities.

You’ll find all the details, including grade pairings and event dates, on the poster shared with this message. Further details about the Bingo card cost and a reminder for classrooms about the baked goods will be sent out soon. We can’t wait to see everyone there!

It is important that students get fresh air every day. Students will be going outside for regular recess as often as possible. Please note the following temperature thresholds (taken from LOCCS policy) for recess:

1. Indoor recess may be declared when the temperature is between -25C and -27C (with windchill).

2. Indoor recess will be declared when the temperature is -28C or colder (with or without windchill).

Please ensure that your child has appropriate winter apparel for outdoor recesses, and please remember to label your child’s belongings.

A polar bear club will be starting up shortly for the remaining winter months. Members of this club, with permission from their parents, will be able to go out for recess on days where the temperature is colder than -27 (with or without the wind chill), within reason. A letter with details and sign up will be coming home Wednesday, Jan 8th. Final day to register will be Tuesday, January 14th. Absolutely no forms will be accepted late, as supervision of this club is arranged based on student numbers.

Decisions regarding Light of Christ Schools in-town bus cancellation will be made the day before the anticipated cancellation based on the weather forecast. Buses will be canceled for the following day if the forecast is for -45C or colder. Bus cancellation notice will be communicated by text, FaceBook and Edsby.

For Living Sky School Division buses, decisions for cancellations will be made the evening before whenever possible, but no later than 6:30 a.m. for rural routes and 7:00 a.m. for urban routes the day of. Please check Living Sky’s FaceBook page for bus cancellation notice.

As we come back from break, we want to remind everyone of the best places to drop off and pick up your child from school.

• Parent pick-up loop (best option): there is a parent pick-up loop along 16th Ave. After school, students can wait with a supervisor at this loop until their parent/grandparent arrives. Students can also be dropped off here before school and walk to their designated playground.
• Petit Monde Pre-K pick-up area (another great option): there is a small parking area on 17th Ave. along the fence near Petit Monde Pre-K/and the cement pad between playgrounds. This is another safe zone where students can be dropped off or picked up at.
• 96th Street (NOT a great option and caution is needed): Please do not park in the bus lane on 96th street along the fence line as we have many busses that need this area. If you choose to park on the opposite side of 96th street, please teach students to walk to the corner and cross there. Please DO NOT cross in front or between buses, as accidents have occurred at other schools and we wish to keep our students safe by modeling safe practices around streets and vehicles. Bus drivers have a difficult time seeing those crossing right in front of them, as well as drivers in vehicles passing by.

Please do not enter the staff parking lot and use this as a pick-up or drop-off area as this becomes quite congested and staff need to have access to their parking spaces. Also, please do not encourage students to walk through the parking lot, as it can be difficult to see them at times.

We thank you for your cooperation in keeping our students safe.