Weekly News
December 7-11, 2015

In This Issue...
Resources

December 2015
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
6 7
Scholastic 
Book Fair Week begins at 2:30pm

Holiday toy drive (all week)
8 9
Grandparents 
Day Lunch
10
Online Scholastic book fair ends
11
Scholastic book fair ends at 9am
12
13 14
Cookie dough,
 Islamic book fair items being received this week (possibly Scholastic book fair items as well)
15 16
Holiday toy drive ends
17 18
Early Dismissal @ 11:45 (Winter Break Begins)
19
Happening NOW
threeScholastic Book Fair

Our annual Scholastic book fair week is here! This is an on site book fair that will be set up in the school for students to purchase books from all week to excite students about reading. Books will range from the age of our ECC students up through 8th grade and will be of all genres - fiction, nonfiction, science, technology, art, history, and more. The book fair will run from Monday afternoon through Friday morning. 

Parents may come in any time to purchase books from the fair. Students may only purchase books if accompanied with an adult. Available payment methods are credit/debit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover), cash, or check (payable to ILM Academy). Please avoid paying cash, especially when there is a long line at the register. Paying via credit/debit card is ideal.

There is also an option to shop Scholastic books through our online fair, which you can access now and begin shopping. There are more books on the online fair than there are at the book fair in the school. Please note that the online fair will end sooner than the regular book fair. It will end on Thursday as opposed to Friday so that we allow more time for the books to ship from Scholastic to us before winter break so we can send the books home to you. There may be a chance that your books arrive after winter break so please bear that in mind when shopping online. 

The school will receive 40% of the profits in Scholastic dollars (which are less than regular dollars but we can use to purchase technology and books directly from the Scholastic website for the school).

Additionally, ECC through middle school teachers will be making a book fair wish list. If you like, you can purchase books from the wish list to be given to that teacher's classroom. These wish lists will be available by Tuesday via email and also posted in the school.
Happening This Week
fourGrandparents Day Lunch

We will have our annual grandparents day lunch on Wednesday, December 9. This is a day when grandparents come to the school to have lunch with the students. The lunch schedules are as follows:
  • ECC (w/ no siblings in Mont-8th) - 11am in ECC classroom only
  • ECC (w/ siblings in Mont-8th) - 11am in community hall (you must sign out ECC students from the ECC classroom and sign them back in)
  • Montssori - 11am in community hall
  • 1st-8th grades - 11:55am-12:45pm

We have changed lunch timings as best we can to have lunches for differing grade levels to coincide.  Due to the differing lunch timings, grandparents will likely have to eat lunch with their grandchildren at different times. Unfortunately, these timings could not be changed, especially for ECC due to nap times and children not being able to stay awake any longer past their lunch time.


Please note that the grandparents have to bring their own lunch, as does your child (unless s/he is signed up for the Wednesday chicken sandwich lunches). Also, grandparents are welcome to visit the book fair with their grandchildren.

If your child's grandparents are not here, you are welcome to come have lunch with your child or send an aunt/uncle, etc. 
Policy on Bringing Toys/Personal Items to School

Students may not bring toys, no matter how big or small, from home or other personal items to school, unless it is for show and tell or a class project. This also includes any toy-like items that may be purchased at the book fair. Such items will be held on by a staff member until the end of the day. Repeated offenses will lead to confiscation for the week.

Bringing items to play with at recess is permissible, such as soccer balls, however they may not use them at any other point during the school day.

On this note, students may also not bring other clothing to wear for any part of the school day, such as jerseys, as they are out of our school uniform policy.
Deadlines in December
oneHoliday Toy Drive

From Monday, December 7 to Wednesday, December 16, the PTA will be holding our annual toy drive for Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital. With the holidays here, we teach our students about the theological differences between Islam and Christianity in regards to Christmas. Two cornerstones of our Islamic studies curriculum, we also teach our students about respecting and tolerating people from all religious backgrounds and giving back to the community. As such, we participate in this annual toy drive to give to children who are patients, and may be spending their holidays in a hospital, so their day can brighten up due to the generosity of local children who happen to be Muslim. 

To target this year's toy drive a little more, we are asking our students of different ages to bring different items. This is ideal, however if you wish to send toys not listed below, the hospital will appreciate it all the same. 
  • ECC and Montessori students: Toys for infants through 3 year olds are needed, such as blocks, teddy bears, pull toys, infant books, and other toys you would typically purchase your child. 
  • 1st-3rd graders: Toys for 6-12 year olds are needed, such as cars, action figures, dolls, Legos, books, Melissa and Doug toys, and anything you would purchase your elementary/middle school child. 
  • 4th-8th graders: Toys for 12 year olds and above are needed, such as card games, board games, movies, books, model airplanes, Nerf guns, sports equipment, light sabers, jewelry, etc. - anything you would buy a 12+ year old. 

Please make sure the toys you bring are NEW, not used. Also, please do NOT wrap them as the hospital will need to sort through them first. There will be boxes in the atrium starting from Monday morning for you to begin dropping off the toys.

twoSoccer Shots - Spring Season

You can sign up for the Spring season of Soccer Shots now if you have a child between the ages of 3-5 . Soccer Shots will begin on January 12 and go through May 10 (with no class on March 15 for Spring Break). They will be on Tuesdays directly after school at the playground. (You will have to come at regular dismissal time to pick up your child and take them to the playground.) The cost is $187 for a 17-week season, or you can pay it in 2 installments of $93.50. You can sign up now by clicking on the "Register Now" button at www.soccershots.org/houston.

If you have questions, please contact Soccer Shots at 281.995.7208 or houston@soccershots.org.
The ILM Academy 2015-2016 Yearbook!

Last year's ILM Academy yearbook was a great success! We are making them again this year and, as before, there will be a large discount if ordered by the end of December. We are going with a new company this year, which will offer better quality and more options and our yearbook will be bigger (48 pages of your student's memories!). Options include upgrading the standard soft cover to a hard cover and add additional page inserts. (There are autograph pages already, but you can add more.)

Click here to order the books (only $20 until December 31) and use the ILM Academy code 12634916 to begin.
Submit Your Pictures for the Yearbook!

The school yearbook is open for you to submit your own pictures of your student or any of our school events. You can do so by clicking here, making an account, and entering with the access code JTEXZW. It is not a guarantee the pictures will be used as it depends on the variety and quality (no cell phone pictures please). The yearbook committee appreciates your help in collecting pictures!
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