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ROSH CHODESH KISLEV

By Jenny P., Knesset Communications Rep

Yesterday we had our second Rosh Chodesh assembly for the month of Kislev. This assembly was packed with lots of new and exciting things that will be happening at the OJCS this year. Our leaders for this assembly were Ruben S., Audrey B., and Ben C. To start off the assembly we have to get some RUACH going, and the best way to do so is with the OJCS Ruach Patrol! 

The Ruach Patrol did a great job singing all about Hanukkah and giving the students lots of spirit. 

We then had our assembly MC’s teach us all about Habit #2: Begin With the End in Mind! We saw a video of OJCS students and faculty sharing how they use Habit #2, which is all about goal setting and knowing the end goal that you’re working toward. Please comment below and share how you use Habit #2!

We also had our amazing Rambots come and teach us all about their mission this year, as well as how they use their 7 Habits!

Come see the RAMBots at their First Lego League (FLL) Competition THIS Sunday, December 1st at Carleton University from 8-5pm. I think they are going to do a great job at their competition! The RAMBots also shared about their goal of creating an inclusive playground area at OJCS.

What organization are we supporting with our November Dress Down Day? This month we are donating the Beit Halochem Canada, to help injured Israeli veterans in Canada. Since we had our Remembrance day assembly this month we want to help support a cause related to veterans. 

Lastly, what charity are we giving tzedakah to for the December Dress Down Day? For the month of December we are donating towards The Ottawa Mission to help those that do not have a warm home during Ottawa’s cold winter months. To make this fun we are adding a class challenge! How is this going to work? Each class will be asked to bring in the following items in mens adult sizes:

• Gently used  or new hats
• Gently used or new coats/jackets
• Gently used or new mittens
• NEW socks
• Gently used or new scarves
• Gently used or new winter boots

That’s all for our Kislev assembly, can’t wait for next month’s assembly!

Dear OJCS Families,

I am excited to share our clubs list for the 2019-2020 school year with you.

If you would like to sign your child(ren) up for any of the clubs listed please send me an e-mail by the end of the week with the name of the club, your child’s name, and their grade.

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Kindly,

Mrs.Bertrend

How do we kick off a school year together? By going on a three day, two night retreat together. Are we crazy? No. Do we believe in relationship building and fostering a healthy Middle School community? Absolutely.

Relationship building is at the heart of what we do at OJCS. Before the math lesson (don’t tell Mrs.Cleveland I said that) and mapping exercise in Social Studies, we need to ensure that our students feel a sense of belonging where they are supported, encouraged, and celebrated. Part of this is building healthy relationships with peers in their same grade, peers within the Middle School, and also the Middle School faculty.

Our theme for this year was ‘friendship’ because we certainly do ‘learn better together’ (North Star Alert) and need to synergize (7 Habits Alert) to ensure this is the best school year yet. The three days were filled with discussion, team building, rafting, hiking, praying, bonfires, and much more! Check out the retreat video on Dr.Mitzmacher’s blog ‘2019 Middle School Retreat’.

We are all invited to a community farewell party for our amazing Shinshinim, Inbar and Liam, at the JCC.

Although we are going to have a more intimate goodbye at school (on their last day with us) we encourage you to come join us, as part of our OJCS family, to show our appreciation and support of this wonderful program., which continues to inspire our jewish journey and provides a direct and meaningful connection to Israel.

Hope to see you there. 🙂

Please RSVP to Kara Goodwin at: kgoodwin@jewishottawa.com

By: Abby S., Knesset Communications Representative

Over the past few months, the Knesset has been working hard on the Student Voice Project with Brigitte and Mr. Kom. We launched our suggestion box and our grade representatives have done the student voice surveys in their classes. Every Thursday in our Knesset meetings, we empty out the suggestion box and review the comments.

Today, our co-presidents Daniel Vered and Ari Kotkowski had a meeting with Dr. Mitzmacher to discuss the main suggestions that we received. They talked about old events that students want to bring back and change of lunch rooms. Stay tuned for the results of the meeting! 

We would like to continue to encourage students to share suggestions and your opinions. We want to hear your voice.

Monday, May 13th we welcomed all of our grandparents and special friends to the school! It is a special day for our students and guests, and one that we look forward to each year.

A highlight of the day was the incredible Art Show, organized by Morah Shira.

Congratulations to our grade 4-8 public speaking finalists!

Thank you to Eileen Gallant, Arlene Glube, and @KellyDoell for being our judges for the event!

Coming to OJCS on June 4, 2019…

Our Colour War and Walk/Run are now one combined epic event!

Our theme is ‘4 Teams, 1 Heart’ modelled after the Maccabiah Games ’80 Countries, 1 Heart’ showing that while the day is about sport, it is also about sportsmanship!

Who are the 4 teams?

Jerusalem- Team Blue!

Tel Aviv- Team Green!

Haifa- Team Red!

Netanya- Team Orange!

Which city will win the cup? Teams will earn points throughout the day for event wins, showing sportsmanship, team cheers and RUACH!

OJCS has also partnered with Maccabiah Canada for the event and Maccabiah athletes will be joining us for the opening and closing ceremonies.

Yesterday each student learned what colour team they are on to give lots of time to plan an outfit full of their team colour.

Students also received an invitiation to their school e-mail address to register & create their fundraising pages. Click on the ‘GET STARTED’ link in the e-mail and then follow the prompts to create the page- confirm e-mail address, create password, create fundraising page name such as ‘Jacob-Team Blue’ and hit submit!

This event is also our school fundraiser where students are directly involved in! Each student will have their own fundraising pages on CanadaHelps.org. For each $25 raised, students will receive a ballot for a weekly draw on Fridays for prizes such as a Menchies gift cards, Indigo gift cards, and Cineplex movie night baskets.

Students are also fundraising in their Maccabiah Games  teams. You can track of team fundraising totals at the following link: bit.ly/ojcsmaccabiah2019

Parents are welcome to join us at the school from 3-5pm on June 4, 2019 for our Family Maccabiah Games! Come join us for some cold treats, meet Maccabiah athletes and learn more about Maccabiah Canada, and try our 65′ inflatable obstacle course with your child(ren).

Thank you to the companies who are sponsoring the event!

OJCS is the award recipient of the TELUS and WE Schools ‘Rise Above’ Kindness Award for our dedication to fostering a community of kindness! The $1500 donation was awarded to OJCS in recognition of our commitment to making our classrooms and school community a safe, inclusive, and friendly environment for all students. How have we done this?

• Our OJCS ‘Community of Kindness’ week in November (formerly called ‘Bullying Prevention Week’). One of our school goal’s this year is for students to develop the skills to have healthy and respectful peer relationships. You can read more about the week here: http://ojcsstudentlife.edublogs.org/2018/11/28/ojcs-community-of-kindness-week-hevei-na-im/ 
• Another initiative is that we created our own ‘7 Habits of Kindness’ prototype team who have focused on weaving Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits from his book ‘The Leader in Me’ into our school culture. The 7 Habits focus on developing the character of each person- read more about it here. This has included initiatives such as our monthly assemblies to introduce each habit and sharing resources and teacher PD around the 7 Habits. Each month Dr.Mitzmacher blogs about the ‘Habit of Kindness’ we are focusing on.
• Discussions around the importance of being kind toward one another continues to be part of our curriculum- Mrs.Thompson and the grade 5 class completed a class novel study on the book ‘Wonder’. The students had to complete a WONDERful Acts of Kindness Challenge where students were challenged to complete 4 random acts of kindness. When students completed their act, they gave that person a ‘Pay It Forward’ card in hopes that the person who received the card would carry out there own act of kindness.
• Collaborating with Shannon LaValley from JFS, many of our students have participated in ‘Kindness’ workshops throughout the year to learn more about the importance of being kind and developing each of the 7 Habits.

These are just some of the many initiatives happening at OJCS to help reinforce our North Star that ‘we are each responsible for one another’.  We are so proud of the students for continuing to cultivate our OJCS ‘Community of Kindness’ and for being recognized by TELUS and WE Schools for their dedication.  Continue to visit our Student Life blog to hear how our 7 Habits Team will continue to Rise Above to #EndBullying and build our OJCS ‘Community of Kindness’ with the donation.

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We have so many amazing things happening at OJCS. Here are some of the highlights from our Rosh Chodesh Nisan assembly.

Before we kicked off the assembly we had to give a big OJCS ‘Good Luck’ to all of our grade 7 & 8 students who were off to the Regional Science Fair Competition with Mr.Ray. We are SO proud of each of each student- what an amazing example of student innovation!

Our Assembly was MC’ed by 3 of our OJCS Knesset (Student Council). Each month the students leaders are in charge of our Rosh Chodesh assembly.

Habit #6 from Stephen Covey’s ‘The 7 Habits of Effective People’ was introduced to the students: Synergize. Syngerize means to work together with others to accomplish a goal, while supporting one another and working to the strengths of each person. Grade 4 students introduced the habit to the school and discussed how they had to syngerize at a recent ‘Kindness Workshop’ with Mrs.B and Shannon LaValley from JFS.

Each month at OJCS we have a Dress Down Day where students give tzedakah to a different charity. For the month of March, the school gave tzedakah to the WE Charity to help support the Grade 6 class initiative to lead a local and global project for WE. As a school we were able to raise $250! This money will be used for health and water WE projects such as providing health care for new mothers and children and also providing clean drinking water to communities in need. We also had a WE Schools Coordinator, Jessy Mota, join us via Skype to teach us more about WE Charity and to say a big thank you to our school and the grade 6 class for their support. Way to go, grade 6! What amazing leadership.

For the month of April, our students will be giving tzedakah to Beit Halochem Canada to support disabled veterans of Israel to help rebuild and rehabilitate the lives of over 51,000 Israeli veterans.

Next up we had our L.E.A.F.S (Little Environmental Action Friend Saver) team present a new green intiative at OJCS! The L.E.A.F.S, led by Mr Kom, have been meeting weekly to learn about composting. They will be starting a new composting intiative at the school where all of our paper towels in the washrooms will be placed in green bins to be composted. The student leaders from grades 1-8 on the team taught the school all about the importance of composting and encouraged everyone to do their part to keep our planet green and clean.

Way to go, OJCS!