Akiva Digital Newsletter

December 2017

5778 Kislev-Tevet

Cooki Levy

Our lives, as individuals, families and communities are framed by the choices we make.  The ability to make the right choices is one of the most important things we can teach our children, and sometimes one of the hardest things that we, as adults, must do...

Patrick Essiminy

We have had an exciting and productive first part of our school year and as we reach the midpoint of this year, it is important to recognize some of the amazing Akiva community highlights to date. 

Stacey Smilovitch

“Once there was a tree, and she loved a little boy…”

Fifty years ago, Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree was planted. As we approach Akiva’s 50th anniversary, those timeless themes remain rooted deep within our mission:  say please and thank you - kindness breeds kindness; don’t keep score -  that’s the secret of winning; go barefoot - feel free to be who you truly are; be still – listen, really listen; love – unconditionally.

Grade 5 and 6 Community Building

Our grade 5 and 6 classes enjoyed some outdoor fun and learning up north at Camp Massad in August for our 49th Annual Camp Akiva program.  Students spend time focussing on teambuilding and on building positive relationships as part of this enriching program that helps our students bond and strengthens our Akiva community.

School-wide literary celebration in 3 languages

As part of the Akiva Common Read program, students from kindergarten to grade 6 explored together a literary work through storytelling, art, song, sharing and discussion. This year, The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein, was read in English, French and Hebrew by the whole school.  Through the Akiva Big Brother/Big Sister program, older students learned with younger students.  Fresh fruit was collected in honour of the day to donate to the "Meals on Wheels" program. It was a wonderful day of learning, giving and growing for all.

VIEW VIDEO

Developing learning and thinking skills

This past summer, Akiva grade 4 teacher and STEM coach, Brad Kaplin, participated in the Shoresh Milan International Workshop, where he learned about the Feuerstein teaching methods. The Feuerstein Method is a unique educational technique that teaches students the process behind thinking and learning skills in an organized, structured way. Through attending this workshop, Brad has become certified in the Instrumental Enrichment technique, a teaching approach of the Feuerstein Method that aims to develop students' learning skills through targeted cognitive activities and tasks. For example, as part of the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment program, students work on connecting the dots exercises to help develop their cognitive skills. They develop skills for identifying relationships, strategies for linking events and creating a system of information for understanding. Grade 4 classes have now embarked on a pilot project to acquire new thinking tools and learning strategies through the Feuerstein method.  Thank you to the Gewurz family for their sponsorship of Brad's trip to the workshop in the summer. 

Believe in the power of play

Last year, the school’s Annual Giving Campaign was directed towards funds for a new playground. Through the generosity of the Akiva School community, several lead donors and the Morris & Rosalind Goodman Family foundation, the school was able raise over $400,000 to rebuild and enhance their entire playground area.  With the help of design firm, Fahey et Associes, along with input from teachers, parents and even the youngest Akiva students (Kindergarten children drew pictures of their dream playgrounds.), the new playground was designed and built during the summer break. Set upon a soft ground cover, the enhanced play space offers students many ways to play during their recreational time. Students can climb and explore on a new climbing structure, collaborate and play together in a team sport area, or use their imagination to create with magnets and chalk in the chalkboard area. The playground also includes features to support teaching opportunities as part of the Akiva School educational curriculum.  The central amphitheatre structure allows for impromptu performances and collaborative learning, while the organic garden will be part of the students’ environmental and Jewish learning units.

Meet Sarah Malka

Akiva School has hired a full time French Orthopedagogue, Sarah Malka, to be a part of the Center for Learning team.  Akiva’s Center for Learning focuses on offering enrichment and remediation services to meet the different learning requirements of their students and Orthopedagogie is a specialized field in teaching students with varied learning profiles.  Sarah's role will include working with the teachers in the area of reading and language, as well as implementing remediation services in French.  This new resource will round out the comprehensive services that Akiva School offers to help each student “learn in their own way”.

Stories are worth telling.

In a new program this year, grade 2 students developed an appreciation of classic literature by reading fables and fairy tales. The children were divided into several groups to work on one of these stories as a Reader's Theatre Script. Students focused on volume, expression and tone as they rehearsed their lines. On November 2nd, all their hard work came to life at our very first Reader's Theatre Production: Stories Are Worth Telling! Parents got to see their children read with enthusiasm, embodying some of the most classic characters in story-telling history.

Sukkot celebration and Torah Workshop

Akiva grandparents are an important part of our Akiva community and we love to offer opportunities for them to share in the learning with our students.  In this first part of the year, for the holidays, grandparents came to make Sukkah decorations in the grade 4 classes and do some Torah learning with the grade 2 classes.

GRADE 4 SUKKOT CELEBRATION PHOTOS

GRADE 2 TORAH WORKSHOP PHOTOS

"Walk in my shoes"

Every year, a dedicated team of Akiva parents organize a full day of activities for students while the Akiva staff goes offsite for an inspirational professional development retreat. This year, the theme of the day was "Walk in my shoes". The school was visited by the Mackay Center, Miriam Foundation and Just For Kids, who taught the students, through hands-on activities, what they do and how they help others with special needs. The students also took part in a giant Challah Bake and learned about Chanukah Heroes as well as modern day heroes. It was an amazing day of meaningful learning for our students.

Akiva graduates come back to help Akiva

In November, we were thrilled to have several of our Akiva graduates, from all different grades, come back to help out at the Akiva Open House.  What better way to promote our school than by showing off our articulate and successful Akiva alumni! Thank you to everyone that took the time to help out.

Raising over $40,000 for our school

Thank you to our Akiva community who all came out for an exciting night at the Akiva ORT Gala, featuring the spectacular singer Rudi Bainesay and the amazing Le PeTiT CiRqUe. It was a great night where we were able to come together as a community and support our school. Thanks to our community's generosity, we raised over $40,000.  This amount will be allocated directly to Akiva’s Access and Affordability fund.

For year ended June 30, 2017

The Board of Directors is responsible for furthering Akiva’s mission and ensuring long term financial stability.  Our financial position remains very sound as the school ended the year with net assets of $1,627,000.  The following represents a summary of Akiva School’s audited statement of financial position and statement of operations as at and for the years ended June 30, 2017 and 2016.   The Akiva School Foundation ended the year with assets in excess of $2,547,000.  For more information regarding the Akiva School Foundation, please contact Lynn Garfinkle Etinson at lynn@akivaschool.com.