MCC Academy News
December 2014
Upcoming Events:

December 1-5, 8am-4:30pm: Scholastic Book Fair and IQRA Book Fair - Students are excited to shop our annual book fair at the Skokie campus. This year we are presenting the Scholastic and IQRA Islamic Book Fairs at the same time. This is a great fundraiser for our library and another way for our parents to encourage their children to love reading. Stop by the Skokie campus library to shop from 8am-4:30pm. 

         

December 11, ALL DAY: Mr. Broast Restaurant Fundraiser - Dine at the Mr. Broast Restaurant (Zabiha-halal) anytime on December 11 and 20% of the proceeds from your bill on items purchased off the regular menu (no lunch specials or coupons) will benefit MCC Academy. Remember to tell your server you are dining as part of the MCC Academy fundraiser. Mr. Broast is located at 7947 Golf Rd., Morton Grove, IL.

December 18, 2:15 pm: Early Dismissal -Please pick up your child according to the following schedule:
Early Childhood - 1:55pm-2:15pm
Elementary and Middle School - 2:15pm-2:30pm
There is no after school care and no after school activities available on early dismissal days. Parents, you must pick up your students on time. 

December 22 - January 2  (NO SCHOOL): Winter Break - Students will return to school after the winter break on Monday, January 5, 2015.

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Save-the-Date
MCC Academy Annual Fundraising Dinner
Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015
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Important Reminders about Tuition
  • Monthly Tuition is due by the 10th of every month - late payments will incur a late charge.
  • If you would like to know the balance on your account or what your monthly payment fee is, please email our accountant at salik.rehmani@mccacademy.org
  • If you would like to make a payment via e-check or credit card, you can call the school office and ask to speak with our accountant, Br. Salik Rehmani.

A Note from the School Council


Assalamualaikum Dear Parents, 

 

The cold Chicagoland winds have not diminished the warmth of activity taking place in the School Council.  Save the date for the MCC Academy Annual School Fundraising Dinner, a mere short winter away on Saturday, February 21, 2015, inshallah.  


 
MCCA will be welcoming the national accreditation team from AdvancED for the external review of our school as part of our recertification on December 10 and 11, 2014.  Inshallah, the visit will be be constructive and fruitful. Finally, we wish to thank the many parents and community members who generously donated time, goods and services for the beautification and improved functionality of both school campuses. Courtesy of the invaluable guidance and vision of the PSG, the renovations of both school lobbies as well as painting and decor in the Skokie campus library and staff room may now be newly enjoyed by all.  

 

As always, if you would like to contact the MCC Academy council, please feel free to email me at farisa.hussain@gmail.com or our Council Chair, Mussarat Khan, at mussaratjk@gmail.com.

Parent Support Group (PSG) Update

Key Dates:

Dec 3 and Dec 17 - PSG meeting at Skokie campus
Dec 7 - Coupon Card form collection (turn in orders to teachers)
Dec 9 - Popcorn Sale, Skokie campus
Dec 11 - Mr. Broast Restaurant Family Night fundraiser
Dec 16 - School Store, Skokie campus
Dec 17 - Chili Cook-off, Skokie campus
Tuesdays - Pizza Sale, Morton Grove campus
Wednesdays - Pizza Sale, Skokie campus

PSG meetings are now bi-weekly (only twice a month). We will meet every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month. All meetings will be at the Skokie campus. Meeting room is in the school basement off the cafeteria, marked PSG room. Please attend meetings to actively participate in school activities.

Coupon Card - Place orders now!
Each coupon card features 10 businesses each offering $10 off a $10 purchase. These are one-time use coupons for a total value of $100 in savings! Your cost is only $20 to purchase the coupon card. All funds raised support MCC Academy. We are counting on the support of our parents to help sell these cards. InshAllah, with your help, we are hoping to raise $10,000 in funds. 

Mr. Broast Restaurant Family Night
Thursday, December 11, all day
Dine at the Mr. Broast Restaurant (Zabiha-halal) anytime on December 11 and 20% of the proceeds from your bill on items purchased off the regular menu (no lunch specials or coupons) will benefit MCC Academy. Remember to tell your server you are dining as part of the MCC Academy fundraiser. Mr. Broast is located at 7947 Golf Rd., Morton Grove, IL.

Chili Cook-off!
Wednesday, December 17, 11am-1pm                                            
Stop by anytime between 11am-1pm on December 17 and participate in our chili tasting and vote for winners in the following categories: Overall Best Chili, Most Unique Chili, and Best Vegan Chili. Details are as follows:
  • Looking for a minimum of 10 chili cooks from among parents, teachers and staff of MCCA 
  • Only Zabiha halal beef, turkey, chicken and veggie chili will be served
  • Participants need to cook chili at home and bring to Skokie campus in crockpot along with recipe to share
  • Name your chili - for example, "Belinda's Blazing Hot Chili"
  • All are welcome to participate in the tasting. Recommended donation of $2 would be most appreciated to help in purchasing prizes for winners
  • Not a chili cook? We need additional food item donations including cornbread, sour cream, Frito corn chips, chives, cheddar cheese, desserts
To sign up as a chili cook or to donate any of the side items, please email beltibayan@yahoo.com or sign up at the Skokie campus on the sheet posted on the bulletin board outside of main office. 

Giordano's Night - Date in January TBA 


Questions or comments? Feel free to email Khadija Ahmed at kfahmed93@gmail.com


8th Grade Students Deliver Friday Khutbas (boys) and Khataras (girls)

Once again this year, our 8th grade students have begun delivering their khutbas (for boys) and khataras (for girls) as part of their graduation requirement. Our 8th grade students select an Islamic topic to summarize and speak about to the entire school community. Boys give their khutba during a special Jummah salah at 2pm at the Morton Grove campus and at 1:20pm at the Skokie campus while girls give their khatara sermons during Friday morning assembly at both the Skokie and Morton Grove campuses. Students work closely with their Islamic Studies and History Teacher Maulana Mubeen Kamani to craft a sermon that is accurate in all aspects including references to surahs and ahadith. They are graded on both content and delivery. 

Students Amena Ahmed, Syed Quadri and Wajed Saleem are the most recent 8th graders to complete this requirement. MashAllah, all did a phenomenal job! The sermons are always enjoyable and enlightening. This is a wonderful opportunity for our graduating students to showcase some of the Islamic knowledge they've gleaned over the years at MCC Academy. Feel free to stop by at Friday morning assembly and/or at the special Friday Jummah salah timings and enjoy listening to the students' sermons. 
Internet Safety Presentation Informs 5th Graders 




 

On November 18, School Counselor Mrs. Ayesha Kazi organized an internet safety presentation for both 5th grade classes. The presentation was given by a member of the Cook County Sheriff's Department, by a member of their youth services, Sandra Waters. The presentation informed students of safety rules to keep in mind while using the internet, and shared real-life stories of kids who have used the internet without caution, the consequences they faced, and how they learned to prevent these issues.  

Crescent Girls Basketball Team Plays in Islamic Schools League 




 

This past weekend the MCC Academy Crescents girls basketball team participated in the All-Islamic Schools League game. The girls played really well, mashAllah! CPSA, IFS, Universal and Aqsa schools also participated. Much thanks to Lead Coach Ayah Musa, and Assistant Coaches Medina Skenderi and Yara Musa. 

Skokie Campus Library in Full Winter Mode


Thanks to some very creative and dedicated parent volunteers and school staff members, the Skokie campus library is looking very seasonal. Stop by and check out the fun winter-themed mural anchoring our library. Special thanks to parents Zainab Maghrabi and Haniyyah Siddique as well as Gym Teacher Ms. Zeenat Umar, Resource Teacher Rehana Patel and Librarian Mrs. Emma Qureshi. 
Three Hifth Students Complete Memorization of Holy Qur'an - Graduation on Thursday, December 4, 2014, 6:30pm at MEC Masjid
AlhumdilAllah! Mabrook!

 

Alhamdulillah, by the Permission and Mercy of Allaah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, we have been blessed with the honor of witnessing the completion of the Holy Qur'aan from another batch of students. Mabrook to Mubashir Khan, Mohammed Abdul Muqsith and Ammar Siddiqui. We will celebrate their accomplishment on Thursday, December 4, 2014, at 6:30 pm at the MEC masjid. Our guest speaker will be Hafizh Dr. Kamran Riaz. Please plan to attend this blessed occasion.


MCC Academy Gets Makeover

As you enter MCC Academy at either campus building, you are now greeted with a lobby area that looks especially inviting. The new look and top-notch decor at both campuses is courtesy of our parents, thanks to a significant donation from the MCC Academy Parent Support Group, and two of our community members who donated their design expertise and personal funds toward these makeovers. We are thankful to Asmah Ahmed of Chic Decor for her visionary design for both lobby areas that were freshly painted in our school colors and outfitted with beautiful artwork, rugs and furniture. We're also thankful to MCCA parent and designer Nazneen Ayoob who led the charge of painting and decorating various areas in the Skokie campus including painting the office spaces, library, Skokie campus lobby and teachers' lounge. MashAllah, Mrs. Ayoob not only donated her services, but also much of the material cost for the decor.  JazakAllahkhairun to all who contributed. 

 

Art Class Commences for Grades 1-5th

AlhumdilAllah, we are pleased to announce that our new art education program will begin 2nd quarter with Mrs. Nazia Baig, former MCC Academy TA who has a Bachelor's in Art and who has experience leading art education programs with children. We are piloting this program for students in 1-5th grades. These students will have art class once a week for one quarter this year beginning with first and second-graders this quarter, third and fourth-graders for third quarter, and fifth-graders for fourth quarter

 

Drama Club Presents "Skits with a Message"
 
Alhamdulillah! We have had a great start to Drama Club this year and the students' exuberant energy and creativity has made it easy for us to work together! Creating "skits with a message" has been our goal, centering on teachings from the Qur'an and Sunnah. We currently have nine participants and have performed twice at Friday assemblies. Our final plan for the year will be to perform three additional skits on the last day of our fall session on Friday, December 12. Our winter session will start in January, 2015, following the winter break. Please stay tuned for more information on the new session!

Do you have questions about Drama Club? Please contact: donelle.bergeson@mccacademy.org 

 

Mrs. Gomaa - 5A

Learning life-long skills is an important aspect of 5th grade. This month, during our language arts and writing classes combined, my 5th grade students became masters in professionally writing letters. 

Students wrote people from around the globe who they consider to be their role models, including President Barrack Obama and some famous authors. Kids typed their letters knowing that this is a skill they will continue to practice in their future educational and professional careers. 

Before we mailed the letters out, students properly labeled, sealed, and packaged their envelopes for the very first time. Now, we are eagerly awaiting friendly responses. Some kids have already received letters back, including one from Kate DiCamillo, author of "Because of Winn-Dixie" and other popular books!

Mrs Gomaa's 5th grade scientists are learning about classification. To support their learning, kids performed an experiment classifying their shoes in "kingdoms" and then continued to separate the kingdoms into even smaller groups (genus and species), focusing on specific features and characteristics, just as scientists do for living things.

Mrs. Pathan - 4A

Mrs. Pathan's 4th grade writing class interviewed a family member who is an immigrant and wrote narratives about this person. We started by writing short narratives focusing on topic sentences, grabbers, and details. This lead to their final project: The Immigrant Narrative. In social studies, students learned about the five U.S. regions and what the landforms, natural resources, and climates are like in each region. Students created a fact card with a picture on one of the four climates we focused on: polar, subarctic, temperate, and tropical. Finally, both fourth grade classes were introduced to the Poetry Pals interfaith program by the group's educators who stopped by the school for an introduction about this interfaith program. MCCA fourth-graders will meet with Chicago Jewish Day School and Sacred Heart Catholic School to learn about each religion, build bridges, and create poems. MCCA students were really excited meeting the Poetry Pals educators. Inshahallah, it will be a great year!



Mrs. Malik - Preschool

The preschool class is welcoming two parakeets as class pets, Mango and Asfoor. We started a new class project called "My Teddy and Me." This allows the children to take home Teddy and have an adventure with him over the weekend. The children then draw and write about their adventures in a journal and present it to the class. The preschool class also went on a field trip to the Children's Kohl Museum. Preschoolers are very blessed to have such creative parents. Each parent created a building block with their child's family pictures. The child then presented the project. Preschoolers also learned about dental hygiene. They observed the effect of coke on teeth by using boiled eggs as a replacement for teeth and leaving it soaked in coke. The children were shocked by the results. 
Ms. Barkat - 5B
Fifth graders learn how to be safe when using the internet and why it's important to be careful. A huge thanks to Cook County Sheriff's Youth Services Department for an informative and interactive presentation. 















Ms. Barkat's fifth graders blast from the past. The class created their very own 3-D model homes of early civilizations for social studies. After studying and researching about cultures like the Aztecs and the Inuits, the groups had to present their amazing architecture.

Mrs. Sheikh - 2A

This month my second graders have been really busy learning new things. Science has been fun for them especially when they listened to each other's heartbeat. They explored how the body digests food and how different organs work as partners. To enhance their learning about how people grow and change, they compared their baby pictures with pictures of how they look now. Students enjoyed learning about different landforms and bodies of water in social studies. Children made their own landforms on construction paper. In reading, they did fun activities like making a puppet of their favorite character. Congratulations to my students of the month: Muhamed Alali, Areej Khalil, Zeenat Pehlari, and Mohamed Chabou!
Mrs. Nabeel - 1C

Math - Subtraction Facts to 10: We created "Our Turkey Fact Families" to practice making fact families for numbers 1-10. We love our new math centers where we get to practice math on white boards, using play-doh and other manipulatives to make subtraction stories.

Language Arts/Writing: We created our "Sentence Buddies" to help us remember to write complete sentences. Our "Sentence Buddies" will help us remember to start our sentences with a capital letter (head), have a noun and verb (arms), and lastly end our sentences with correct punctuation marks (feet). 

Science/Art: We went on a nature walk to explore living and non-living things in our playground. 

We also created our Thanksgiving turkey projects where we shared what we are most thankful for. We learned all about plants such the parts of a plant, how plants grow, and what plants need to live. We also created our "Tear Project" to help us learn about the different parts of a plant such as flower, stem, leaves and roots.

Ms. Umar - Physical Education

Ms. Umar's Physical Education classes have been performing various partner workouts on fitness days to build teamwork and strengthen different muscle groups. Students enjoyed working with partners to motivate each other. For sports, we have moved on from doing kickball in September and October to playing basketball for the next couple of months inshAllah. Students have been practicing passing and dribbling skills through different types of drills and soon we will move onto shooting the ball and playing games in teams.
Mrs. Patel - 3A

Mrs. Patel's class has been very busy in science. We are learning about seed germination. We planted our own seeds and students have been busy observing their growth. We planted beans, radish, beets and lettuce. MashaAllah, the plants are blooming beautifully. In math, we are working on memorizing our multiplication facts.  Students are taking weekly timed tests and practicing diligently. We are writing on a daily basis. Students recently wrote about how their hands are a blessing and how they will use their hands to help other people. Their beautiful work is displayed outside our classroom. Third graders are awesome!
Mrs. Azeem - PreK-A

This month, PreK-A has been enjoying story time by acting out what we have been reading. One of our favorite books is called "Sweet Dreams." This story shows us how different animals sleep. As we are entering 2nd Quarter, we are working on our letter sounds. There is a fun racing game we play to help us review. Winter is upon us but we have many ways to have fun indoors! Every Friday, we have Show-and-Tell. 

Mrs. Bozai - 2C

The second quarter has begun and our learning is in full swing! In reading, we are reading folk tales including a fun story called "How the chipmunk got his stripes." We are also practicing writing book reports. In math class we started our multiplication unit and are working hard to learn multiplication tables. We also started to learn about measurement and are having fun measuring things with our rulers. In science class, we are learning about different kinds of habitats. In other news, we were excited to win the box top competition and win the ice cream party. We've also enjoyed writing fictional stories and sharing them with the class. 

Mrs. Akbany - PreK-B

PreK-B talked about what it means to be thankful and to appreciate the things that they have. Each student created a poster titled, "I am Thankful to Allah (SWT) for.." and included pictures of the things they were thankful for. The students used their public speaking skills to present their posters to their classmates.  
Mrs. Motiwala - 2B

Fall has arrived in Mrs. Motiwala's first grade class! We have been a school full of busy fish. After reading "Leaf Man," the first-graders made a leaf and wrote down what they would do if they were a leaf. Come swing by the first grade hallway and read some of their fun responses!

In science, we learned about the five senses and had a parent, Mrs. Ahmed, come in and do a fun activity with the first graders. The students had to use their sense of smell and taste to guess a flavor of Kool-aid. After that, the students used their sense of touch to finger paint using Kool-aid paint! We then continued science by discussing pumpkins. We learned how pumpkins look, smell, taste, feel and sound. The first graders then made their own rough pumpkins using beans of different colors and sizes. 

After learning about fact families in math, students made their very own fact family turkey. They choose two parts and found the whole. After that, students wrote two addition sentences and two subtraction sentences with the whole and the parts.

Come check out all of their hard work in the first grade hallway!
Mrs. Baig - 2B

Second-graders have been working hard on learning about measurements. They got to use their rulers to measure real objects around the classroom and compared different sized items with their classmates. In science, they understood that habitats are animal homes where they live and eat. They read an article on hibernation and listed different animals that sleep during the winter. They also learned a new vocabulary word, estivation, which means a long sleep through the summer. For art, students traced their hands to create turkeys and glued on candy corn. Students also discussed what they where thankful for in their journals. They also made cool robots using crayons, paint, and 3d pieces. Thank you Mrs. Redzovic for coming in for the month of November! 

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