Upcoming Student Activities

Assalam Alaikum dear parents and Happy Monday!

I hope your family enjoyed the break. I would like to share with you our upcoming activities:

Lockdown Drill

Granada’s commitment to safety includes on-going emergency preparedness planning, response training and partnerships with our community's first responders for all emergencies. This week, on Thursday 11/29 at 9am, the school will conduct Code Red Lockdown drill (with local law enforcement). The drill requires the students and teachers to stay in their classrooms and barricade the doors and windows. Then officers from the Santa Clara police will check these barricades and instruct us on making them better. I wanted to keep you informed so you will not be worried if the students mention the lock down in the classroom or the presence of police officers on our school premises. May Allah always protect us.

Buddy Reading

This week our students will have their first reading buddies session!  Reading Buddies is a unique opportunity to build community and to encourage mixed age learning.  Reading with buddies can help students build confidence in their reading, and can encourage children to read for pleasure. In the past, students have listed Reading Buddies among their favorite Reading Day activities. 

Book Fair

The Scholastic Book Fair will be coming to Granada next week. Students and families have a chance to visit the fair and purchase books.

For more info, check the book fair Webpage

To volunteer, go to sign-up page

Sincerely,

Nihad Mourad
Principal

Dear parents,

Assalam Alaikum.  Next week the 6-8 grade students will have their end-of-trimester finals on Monday 11/19, Tuesday 11/20 and Wednesday 11/21. These days are minimum days (8am to 12pm) for all students. Extended Care will be available as usual until 6pm. School will be closed on Thursday 11/22 and Friday 11/23 for Thanksgiving Break.

The Scholastic Book Fair will take place during the first week of December (12/3 - 12/7).  Please visit the Granada Book Fair webpage for more information. Volunteers are needed, please sign up at this link: Sign-up Page.

Due to the end of Daylight Saving Time, the third Khutbah at MCA, which  our grades 4-8 students attend, was cancelled. We changed the schedule and our students will be at the first khutbah from 12:15 to 12:45. This change affected lunch time for grades 5-8. Students will have lunch at 12:45 in the patio area instead of Crescent Cuisine, which is packed with customers at that time. Students will not be able to purchase food from Crescent Cuisine on Friday. Please make sure they bring lunch from home.

K-5 boys received reminders about bathroom manners from their Islamic Studies teachers. I would like to request you to also go over these manners with the boys at home. It is important that they receive a consistent message from home and school. The main points to remember are: 1) Give others privacy by not peeking, 2) Be quick and quiet, 3) Sit when using toilet, 4) Clean with water, and 5) Flush toiled when finished.

This week at GIS:

• Science Night for grades 5-8 parents and students (Wednesday 11/14 at 7pm)
• Spelling Bee Assembly for grades 5-8 (Thursday 11/15 at 1:45pm)

Sincerely,
Nihad Mourad
Principal

Good News

Dear parents,
Assalam Alaikum!

Our students are enjoying the new grass, alhamdulillah! The installation was completed last Wednesday and since then the students were able to play on the turf. This project was made possible due to the donations of Granada students and their families from the Walk-a-Thon (May 2012). I would like to acknowledge a Granada parent who donated materials and his construction crew to work on this project saving us around $9K. May Allah reward you, Br. Abdul-Majid Garfinkel (father of Aleema - 5B and Haseeb - 3B).

More good news! The following students are the Spelling Bee winners in grades 5-8. Congratulations to:

• Fariha Ahmed (5A)
• Naimah Khan (5B)
• Rizq Khateeb (6A)
• Nabeel Sabzwari (7A)
• Sabreen Abdelrahman (8A)

The next competition will be among the five class finalists to determine the school Spelling Bee Champion. The event is scheduled next week on Thursday, November 15.

Last week grades 2-8 students had an opportunity to learn about the two main presidential candidates and to vote for one of them. We introduced this activity to educate our students about the democratic process and the importance of their participation in the election. The majority of our students voted for President Barak Obama for another term.

"We need to teach our kids how to run our country before it's their turn to run our country." Richard Dreyfus.

Sincerely,

Nihad Mourad