We have had a very busy week with the start of our Three Left Feet dance residency. Alara, our dance instructor, has led us in three sessions. We have now learned the entire choreography for our show next week. We hope that many of you will be able to come to the performance next Thursday, September 25th from 10 - 10:45am.

In Literacy, we have now learned all of the vowels and the two sounds each vowel makes. Each day, we print a letter in our printing notebooks and list many words beginning with this letter/sound. Letter and word games are played during the week to practice and reinforce our learning.

In Math, we are also focusing on practicing the proper formation of the numbers and have worked with numbers 0 - 5 so far. We are also reviewing /learning how to represent numbers using tally marks, ten frames, dice, and numerals.

The students really enjoyed being able to share the special items in their All About Me Bags with their classmates. Thank you for helping your child select items for this activity. We practiced asking the presenters questions about their objects as well as sharing comments.

We have had Gym classes outside this week. Mr van Sluys taught the children some games that can be played on the compound surrounding the playground. They learned hopscotch and some ball games. We will be outside again next week.

Please remember to have your child return their library book on Monday each week as we exchange our books on Tuesday. Mrs. McLean, our librarian, appreciates having time to check the books into the library's system prior to our exchange.

Thank you to everyone who was able to drop-in for our Open House yesterday. I enjoyed speaking with many of you.

This week we started to work in our printing notebooks with the letters A and E. I will introduce the vowels first and then we will work through the rest of the aplphabet. Our focus is on proper letter formation, size, and spacing. We spend time learning the sounds each letter makes and identify words that begin with the letter.

We are doing similar work with the numbers 0 -9. Any extra practice you can provide your child at home for both letter and number formation serves as great review and skill-building opportunities. Children often love fingerpainting, forming the letters/numbers out of playdough, writing them in chalk on the sidewalk, writing with markers, etc.

This week in Gym was spent "conditioning" for today's Terry Fox run. The students set a goal for how many laps they hoped to run and many of them either attained or exceeded their goal. Thank you very much for your generous donations in support of the Canadian Cancer Foundation.

Every day, we have "Calendar Time" in the morning where we practice counting, identifying odd and even numbers, practicing the days of the week and months of the year, and recording how many days we've been at school using numerals, tally marks, ten frames, and place value blocks. Next week, we will be focusing on representing numbers using tally marks and ten frames during our Math lessons.

I sent home a small "homework" task with he students today. Your child has brought home an "All About Me" bag to fill over the weekend with four small objects and/or photos to share with their classmates next week. Please have them choose only 4 objects and make sure they can allfor inside the bag. Please also label their bag with their name. We will share a few bags each day. I'd like to have all the bags back to school by Wednesday.

** We have a dance residency beginning next week with a local dance company called Three Left Feet. Please make sure your child is dressed in clothes that are appropriate for dancing. This residency will be going on for the next two weeks culminating with a sharing assembly in the Gym on Friday, September 25 from 10:45 - 11:30. Parents and family members are welcome to attend! :)

A friendly reminder that our library day is Tuesday. Please have your child return their book by Monday each week to give our librarian time to check the books back into the system. Thank you for your help with this.

I've enjoyed getting to know all the students over the past four days. We have been doing some letter and number review, learning new Grade 1 classroom routines, and have gone to both Gym and Music classes.

Please remember to send your child with a pair of indoor shoes that can be left at school. These shoes should be sneakers that are non-marking and suitable for running in Gym classes.

Please label your child's clothing and belongings. Many items stray from their owners during the day. Having a label makes it easy to get pieces back where they belong.

We ask that toys, stuffed animals, playing cards, etc. be left at home. Children do not have opportunities to play with these during the day and they can often be a distraction when the children know they have them in their backpack. All school supplies are given to the children by the school so it is not necessary to send pencils, crayons, or notebooks to school. Thank you for your support. :)

Our Library day will be Tuesday beginning on September 16th. Your child will be able to take out one book each week and will need to return it by Monday the following week.

A message from Mr. van Sluys (our Gym teacher)

The school Terry Fox Run will take place on Friday, September 12th at 9:00 am. Students are encouraged to bring in Toonies for Terry to support cancer research. If we reach our fundraising goal of $1150, we’ll celebrate the following week with a special “Wear Your Favourite Sports Swag” day!

I am looking forward to meeting you all next Thursday, September 11th at our Open House from 4:30 - 6:30pm.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at jllarmer@cbe.ab.ca with any questions or concerns throughout the year.

I hope you all enjoy a relaxing weekend!

It was a pleasure teaching your child this year. We enjoyed a great last week of Grade 1 together and shed a few tears as we circled up today and shared some of our favourite memories!

I hope you all enjoy a fun and relaxing summer. I look forward to seeing everyone back at MTS in September.

Please see the Curriculum Letter for this term below.

Thank you for all your support this year!

Take good care,

Jennifer Larmer :)

The final countdown is officially upon us!

Some of our classmates have already left for their holidays. We have said goodbye to two of them so far. One of them has traveled to London, England and India and has sent us photos from both locations. It was very exciting to see her posing near the London Eye, Big Ben, and by a mango tree in India!

The students had two blocks of time on the iPads this week to research their animal. They will be working on their shoebox dioramas (animal's habitat) as well as building their animal out of plasticine.

I sent home a note with your child on Thursday re: the diorama and materials they may want to bring from home to create the habitat.

Your child will be bringing home their notebooks, art work, pencil box, and indoor shoes beginning Wednesday. Please send your child with a bag that they can use to transport these items. If your child's last day will be before Thursday, please let me know so that I can make sure they bring everything home in time.

This week will be jam-packed with fun activities!  Please see Upcoming Dates below.

Upcoming Dates

TOMORROW                     Grade 4 Pizza Lunch - Provided by Parent Council

TOMORROW                     Ride Your Bike to School Day

FRIDAY                              Grade 4 Celebration - 11:00am

June 24                               Sports Day

June 25                               Fun Lunch - Little Caesars

June 25                              Report Cards available through your CBE Account

June 26                               Ride Your Bike to School Day

June 26                               ALL Kindergarten classes attend from 8:00am-10:30pm

June 26                               Kindergarten Graduation (ALL Students) - 9:30am

June 26                              LAST DAY of SCHOOL - Dismiss at 12:00pm

For more information visit our website and Teacher Blogs

MTS Traditional Calendar 2024-25.pdf 

Lost & Found

Please make sure to ask your student to take a look at our Lost & Found table. There are a lot of sweatshirts, caps, etc. waiting to be retrieved.

*All unclaimed items will be bagged up on Thursday, June 26 and donated.

Library Books

If your child still has a library book at home, please make sure they return it to the school as soon as possible.

We had a great day at Heritage Park on Tuesday. The students were interested to see the old houses, furnishings, and toys as well as the sternwheeler boat, the animals in the farm area, the midway rides, and much more. A big thank you to the parents who volunteered to help with this day. These field trips could not happen without you! We appreciate your time and energy. :)

Please ensure that all library books are returned this week. The library is now closed and our wonderful librarian, Mrs. McLean needs to begin her annual inventory. Thank you for your support. :)

We will begin our animal research project this week. Thank you to one of our students' moms for collecting many shoeboxes for the children to use for this project. If you have a shoebox at home that you can send in, we are still in need of about 4 boxes. Thank you!

As long as the weather cooperates, we plan to take the students out for a couple more community walks over the next two weeks. These walks allow us to stretch our legs, get some fresh air, and see what we can learn by observing and investigating our neighbourhood.

SPORTS DAY Volunteers Needed

There are a few spots left if you are interested in helping with Sports Day.

This year, Sports Day will take place on Tuesday, June 24 with two sessions:

• Morning Session: 9:00-10:30 AM (AM Kinders, grades 3 and 4)

• Afternoon Session: 1:00-2:15 PM (PM Kinders, grades 1 and 2)

We have 22 stations this year, so we'll need lots of hands on deck. Volunteers will meet in the gym at the start to receive instructions on setting up, running stations, and returning equipment to the gym afterward. Mr. V. will provide all necessary equipment and an instruction sheet for each station. 

Morning volunteers should plan to be at the school from 8:20 to 10:45, and afternoon volunteers from 12:20 to 2:30. 

Here is the link below if you would like to help.

SPORTS DAY

*Only those who have been cleared in the office can volunteer for this event.

Our last Fun Lunch for this school year will be held on Wednesday, June 25.

June 25                               Report Cards available through your CBE Account

June 26                               LAST DAY of SCHOOL - Dismiss at 12:00pm

This week we focused on words that end in "ow" and make the long o sound. Our key words were: show, grow, blow, and yellow.

As we continued to learn and identify story elements, the students wrote descriptive sentences to express the main ideas of a wordless story. The students are beginning to use a variety of sentence starters and are working at writing both exclamatory sentences such as, " Look! The boy is sliding into first base!" and questioning sentences such as, "Did the boy with the red hat just hit the ball?".

Students also worked on developing a character using a web organizer. They created a character - human, animal, robot, etc. -  and had to name it, tell its favourite colour, state two things their character enjoyed doing, and include other facts of their choice. We will put this character into a story next week. 

The students loved trying to match their classmates to the baby pictures! Thank you all for participating in this activity by sending me your child's photo. The pictures are up on one of our classroom bulletin boards and the students enjoy looking at their younger selves! Thank you also for sending in the interview forms. It's been interesting sharing so many different stories from the past. :)

We had another fantastic visit by one of our students' dads on Thursday. Selena's dad, Armando, is a professional musician and songwriter in Calgary. He spoke to both our class and Mrs. Burch's class about his work and the important role music and performing for others has in his life. The students asked many questions and Armando put on a mini-concert for us!

On Friday, the students enjoyed some Freestyle Friday art time where they could choose from a variety of paper sizes and materials to create whatever type of art they wanted. I was really excited to see the variety of work and the level of engagement! Here are a few of the pieces.
 

We are going to Heritage Park on Tuesday. I will send home a reminder sheet on Monday that will include information as to what to bring/wear. Basically, it will be the same information as what was provided for our trip to the zoo. I am still waiting on a few permission forms. Please make sure your child brings their form back on Monday so that they can join us for this fun day.