Mrs. Larmer: February 2026

Friday, February 27, 2026

This week, we continued to work with rhyming words and Bossy e words such as nose, time, cute, and cake.

In Science. we used playdough to experiment with many of the ways we can manipulate matter. We stretched, broke, cut, squished, and twisted the playdough. We did the same with a piece of paper and compared and contrasted our results. We learned that no matter what we did to change the properties of the paper and playdough, they still remained paper and playdough.

Next week, we will continue to use our playdough to do an activity called "Shapeshifters". The students will use their playdough and some small materials to create two playdough "beings". Both creations will use the exact same materials but will look very different based on how the materials get used.

Mrs. Burch and I plan to take the students on a community walk one day next, weather dependent. We would like to look for natural and manmade landmarks in the community. We had hoped to do this a while ago but were foiled by the weather!

The Grade 1 classes will be celebrating our 100th Day of School on Thursday, March 12. I would like for the students to each bring in a sandwich-sized Ziploc bag with 100 small items. Examples are: Lego pieces, paperclips, popcorn kernels, beads, hair elastics, etc. Please put your child's name on the bag so that it can be returned to them afterward. We will be displaying the bags on a bulletin board in our classroom for a week or so. This is a fantastic way to compare and contrast what "100" can look like! Thank you in advance for your help with this. :)

As St. Patrick's Day is coming up on March 17th, we will be doing a little engineering project! :) The students will be challenged to create a Leprechaun trap. Please send in a shoebox or a shoebox-sized box with your child as soon as possible for this activity. I will be sending home a note requesting a few extra supplies closer to the date.

Mr. van Sluys has started a gymnastics-based unit in Phys. Ed. This will continue for the next two weeks. Please ensure your child is dressed in clothing appropriate for this type of movement. Please see his blog for more detailed information.

Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held after school on Thursday, March 19 and on the morning of Friday, March 20. Please watch your email/Messenger for more information from the office.

Have a great weekend. :)

Saturday, February 21, 2026

This week, we were excited to learn about the Lunar New Year. Yesterday, we made beautiful lanterns with our Grade 4 Buddies. We learned that red symbolizes happiness and good luck and that many of the decorations for the festivities are in red and yellow/gold. We read a book and watched a short video to learn more about some of the traditions families have around this holiday. We learned that one important tradition is to clean their houses extensively to prepare them for a brand new year of fresh beginnings and good luck. :)

We worked a lot with rhyming words this week. I read some rhyming poems and books for the children to hear the rhythms and rhymes and we did two learning activities to practice this skill. Rhyming can be challenging for children at first. If you have rhyming books, songs, or even games at home that you can read or play with your child, this can help them to develop an ear for these words/sounds. You can find free rhyming games on the website Teachers Pay Teachers or by doing a quick Google search.

In Math, we revisited adding to 20 using a number line. We are constantly reviewing and practicing different addition strategies. We also continue to work at solving word problems using the vocabulary in the problems as clues and applying our strategies.

An example of a word problem is: Mr. V has 5 basketballs. A box is delivered with 9 more basketballs. How many basketballs does Mr. V have now?

The students worked in groups of 4 to sort animal pictures into groups that Hibernate, Migrate, and Adapt. I was really pleased to see the cooperation and hear the conversations while the groups tried to come to a consensus. We are now finished our learning about Animals in Winter. We will move back to our learnings on Matter and the properties of objects. This week, we have a fun activity to do with playdough where we experiment with the many different ways we can change its properties - such as it's texture, its size, its length, etc.

We have been watching a few short clips of the Olympic highlights this week to get a feel for the different sports. The students have commented on the courage and skill of the athletes. Our school's bulletin board with names of children displaying excellence, friendship, and respect is now covered with gold medals. Many children in our class have received medals. This has inspired others to do acts of kindness and to demonstrate excellence in their efforts in the classroom, the Gym, and during Music. :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, February 12, 2026

It was a short week and it went by quickly!

We learned a bit about the Winter Olympics this week and watched a short video that introduced us to many of the sports. We also learned the 3 core values of the Olympics - Excellence, Friendship, and Respect. Throughout the duration of the Olympics, we are keeping our eyes out for students who demonstrate these values. When they are noticed, they get to write their name on a yellow paper medal. These medals get displayed on a bulletin board outside the office. The children are very proud when they see their medal up there!

This week in Math, we worked with surveys, data collection, and bar graphs. The students asked each other what their favourite pizza topping was and had to keep track of the answers with check marks. They learned how to take this information and represent it using a bar graph. They also had to look at their data and determine which pizza topping got the most votes and which one got the fewest. We will continue to do more graphing work next week.

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, we listened to a story called Love Is My Favourite Thing and then wrote about a person or a pet we love. The students were asked to write two sentences to explain why they love this person or pet so much. You may want to ask your child who they chose to write about.

The children were very excited to decorate a Valentine's bag to hold all their Valentines. I hope these bags filled with cards made it home alright!

As the snow and ice begins to melt on our field and playground area, we are seeing a lot of mud appear! Please consider sending your child with extra clothes should they have an encounter with the mud and water. We are keeping an eye on these areas and we ask the children to keep out of the puddles. However... 6 year olds have a strong magnetic attraction to these spots and we can't always be there to stop a mess from happening. :)

Jump Rope for Heart is in full-swing and our school community has raised more than $4000.00 to date. Thank you for your amazing support of this fundraiser. The students have been learning the EASY acronym in Gym class for healthy habits.

E - Eat fruits and vegetables

A - Active for one hour each day

S - Screen time - a maximum of 2 hours/day

Y - Yes to water!

Messages from the office:

Jump Rope For Heart

We’re excited to share that every donation made to Jump Rope for Heart this February will be matched by a generous partner (up to $75,000) — doubling the impact of your support!

That means every contribution makes double the impact in supporting life-changing heart and brain research here in Canada.

If you’d like to support our Jump event, you can donate through our school’s fundraising page:

MTS JUMP ROPE FOR HEART

Let’s make this year our most impactful yet! Thank you for supporting our school and Heart & Stroke.

Fun Lunch

The next Fun Lunch will be held on Wednesday February 25.

Fun Lunch is only for grades 1-4 and our EES students.

Go to healthyhunger.ca
Log into you existing account or create a new one.
Add your child’s information in the “add child” box – name, province, city, school, grade and class.
All Fun Lunches will then populate – select the order now button!

Please make sure to send a morning snack with your child on Fun Lunch Days. Orders must be placed by the Friday before the day.

Food Support

Did you know that the Breakfast Club of Canada has shared research demonstrating that 40% of Alberta’s children experience food insecurity? This means that 4 out of 10 children do not have access to food when they are hungry.

If your family is experiencing challenges with providing food for your children you can find help at Brown Bagging Calgary.

Complete this form for support and they can deliver lunches to McKenzie Towne School for your children. https://go.bb4ck.org/l/858913/2024-01-15/38fdbw You can also find out more information on their website https://bb4ck.org/

Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids

Upcoming Dates

WEDNESDAY Wear Red and Hearts for Valentine's Day

THURSDAY & FRIDAY Teacher Convention - NO SCHOOL

February 16 Family Day - NO SCHOOL

February 24 Grade 4 Field Trip - Be Brave Hitmen Game

February 24 Jump Rope for Heart Assembly - 8:30am

February 25 Fun Lunch - Coco Brooks Pizza

February 25 PINK Shirt Day

February 27 Non-Instructional Day - NO SCHOOL

March 3 Sam Centre Field Trip - Penford/Janisse/Massey

March 4 Sam Centre Field Trip - Pynn/Thomson

March 16-20 Book Fair (More Information to come)

March 17 Wear Green for St. Patrick's Day

March 18 Fun Lunch - Subway

March 19 & 20 Parent/Teacher Conferences

March 19 NO SCHOOL for Kindergarten

March 20 Parent/Teacher Conferences - NO SCHOOL

March 23-27 Spring Break - NO SCHOOL

I hope you all can find time to get together as a family and do something you enjoy this weekend.

See you Tuesday! :)

Saturday, February 7, 2026

My apologies for not posting a blog last week. I was sick in bed from Friday until this past Thursday and the blog simply did not happen. :(

This week, the students worked with two different substitute teachers on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, following the same daily routines and schedules as always.

In Literacy, the students used the picture prompt below to write sentences describing what they saw in the photo. They were also prompted to use their imagination to think of a name for the cat, the type of pizza he/she was making, and who was coming to dinner!

We continued to work with Bossy/Magic E this week - practicing how to read and spell words whose vowel sounds get lengthened by the e at the end. For example: cap + e = cape

Every week, we read a poem and do some word work with it. I will have the students use their highlighters to find specific words in the poem, looking for blends that we have been focusing on such as sh, th, ar, or, ing, as well as some sight words we have been learning. I will also ask them to look for opposites or synonyms of words I give them. We read this poem as a group two or three times and then they put it in their duotang. This duotang now contains many poems that the students can practice reading during our daily reading time.

In Math, we have started to solve open-ended questions. Here is the one the students were challenged with this week:

I have 3 bowls of fruit. Each bowl has the same number of fruit in it. How many fruit could each bowl have? How many fruit would I have altogether?

Show as many different answers as you can. Draw pictures and write an equation to go with each.

For example:

2+2+2=6

In Science, the students started to work on an "Over and Under the Snow" art piece to show which animals hibernate, migrate, and adapt. We will finish this work next week.

I sent a pink note home with the students yesterday regarding Valentine's Day cards. If for some reason, your child did not bring one home, please see the note below.

A friendly reminder to return library books by Tuesday each week. Thank you. :)

Notices from the office:

Moving and Planning for 2026-27

If you have moved or are planning to move over the summer months, please notify the school as soon as possible with your new address.

For students attending a new CBE school for the fall please ensure the school knows and Transfer Forms have been completed.

Personal Mobile Devices and Social Media Use in Schools

Just a reminder, K-9 Students are not permitted to use personal mobile devices during the school day. Student devices brought to school must be out of sight and either powered off or set to silent. They should be left in backpacks, lockers or areas designated by teachers or better yet - simply left at home.

If your student is feeling ill, they are to speak with their teacher or office to make arrangements for a pick up.

For more information, please visit the CBE Website on Personal Mobile Devices at School.

Jump Rope for Heart

MTS will hold a special event assembly on Tuesday, February 24, 8:30 am, with special guests Max and Mike Pozzo in attendance as well as representatives from the Heart and Stroke Organization.

In 2018, when Max was a student at MTS he participated in the Jump Rope for Heart program at our school, where he learned about the signs to look for if someone is having a stroke.

Not many 8-year-olds can say they saved a parent's life. Unless your name is Max Pozzo, who knew exactly what to do when his dad Mike suffered a stroke! Max attended a Jump Rope for Heart assembly in 2018 at McKenzie Towne School where he learned the FAST approach to detect whether someone is having a stroke. Five days later, he saved his dad's life by calling 911 because he recognized that his dad was having a stroke.

It will be wonderful to have Max and his Dad visit the school again for this special Jump Rope for Heart event – now 8 years later!

Help us reach our fundraising goal by donating or register to create your own fundraising page to share with family and friends.

Visit our school’s fundraising page to get started. MTS JUMP ROPE FOR HEART