Our focus sight words this week were: to, me, in, is.

The photo below is an example of how we use these words daily during Shared Reading. We read each sentence together first. Then the students have to determine which word belongs in which sentence. Afterwards, we do a word hunt where I ask the students if they can find specific words in the sentences. We have been talking a lot about looking for beginning and end sounds and thinking about whether a word is short or long.

Today, we worked with a decodable text. This is a passage that the children can read by sounding out words and applying their knowledge of sight words such as, in and the. The students were excited to use a highlighter for the first time! :) This page, along with a Roll and Read activity, were sent home in a yellow pocket folder along with a note. I hope you will have time to play the game in the next few days. Please send back the empty folder on Monday.

This week is Metis Week. We learned about the beautiful beadwork done by Metis people and did a dot-paint piece inspired by this art form. We also learned about the Grandfather Teaching of Respect. The buffalo represents Respect. Our dot art was done on a buffalo template. You will be able to see your child's art at Parent-Teacher Conferences next week.

In Math, we did a lot of work with number lines this week. We learned how to use a number line to help us solve addition problems. 

From the office: Parent/Teacher Conferences If your student is in Mrs. Thomson's class, please log into your CBE Account now to book your Parent Teacher Conference for either tonight or tomorrow evening. All other conference bookings will open this Saturday November 22. There are no kindergarten classes on either Thursday the 27 or Friday the 28. There is no school for students in grades 1-4 on Friday, November 28 due to conferences.  Instructions: In order to book a conference please use your MyCBE account https://sis.cbe.ab.ca/public/home.html. Here are instructions for how to register for a conference https://support.cbe.ab.ca/mycbe-powerschool-school-conferences.  Please contact the office if you require support.   These conferences are an opportunity to meet your child’s teacher and to provide teachers with information about your child that is important. Teachers will inform you on how your child is adapting to and settling into the new school year as well as with an academic update based on the information they have gathered since September. In addition, you will be able to review and sign IPP's and Behaviour Support Plans if applicable. Please note that due to labour action, the assessment data gathered is not as robust as usual at this time of year.  However, please be assured that your child’s teacher knows them well and has significant insights into their academic, personal and social needs.  All teachers are looking forward to meeting with you at the conferences. Grade One Winter Concert- Save the Date This year our Music teacher, Mrs. Darr, has had a minimal amount of time to work with and prepare students for a winter concert due to labour action during the 3 weeks in October. Therefore, this year we will be offering only a grade one winter concert performance on Wednesday, December 11 at 1:30 in the West side of the school, in the open area. Please note that the concert will not take place in the gym. All grade one classes will be performing. The concert will be approximately one half hour in length. Families are invited to attend. After the concert, should parents choose to do so, they may pick up their students in their classroom for home time. Students who are not picked up will be dismissed at the usual time of 2:30, following normal dismissal protocols at that time ( busing, day care, or arranged meeting spots outside with caregivers or parents) We are planning for a spring concert for our grades 2/3 classes as well as our traditional Kindergarten and grade 4 farewell assemblies in June. Book Fair McKenzie Towne School is excited to announce that we will be hosting an Owl’s Nest Book Fair during the week of November 24th! Students will have the opportunity to browse and purchase books during school hours throughout the week. Families are also invited to join us for our Family Shopping Events: Thursday, November 27th — 3:30 PM to 7:30 PM Friday, November 28th — 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. McLean at tlmclean@cbe.ab.ca. We can’t wait to share the joy of reading with our McKenzie Towne community! Lost and Found With the colder temperatures, please make sure to send hats and gloves with your student each day. Just a reminder to please label all of your child's outdoor clothing to ensure it is returned to them. Fun Lunch The next Fun Lunch will be held on Wednesday November 26. 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. ** Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. Pynn's classes have been cancelled due to a field trip on November 26. Upcoming Dates Tomorrow                                Heritage Park Field Trip - Coleman & Olson's Classes November 25                          Confluence Historic Site Field Trip - Penford, Janisse & Massy's Classes November 26                          Confluence Historic Site Field Trip - Thomson & Pynn's Classes November 26                          Fun Lunch - Subway November 27                          Heritage Park Field Trip - Kruger & Wickenheiser's Classes November 27                          NO SCHOOL for KINDERGARTEN due to Parent/Teacher Conferences November 27 & 28                  Parent/Teacher Conferences November 28                          NO SCHOOL December 3                             Heritage Park Field Trip - Bossenberry's Class December 8                             Picture Retakes December 11                           Grade 1 Winter Concert - 1:30pm December 17                           Fun Lunch - Coco Brooks December 22 - January 2        Winter Break - NO SCHOOL Please make sure to visit your teacher's blog for classroom updates. Simply click on their name to access the blog. For more information, please visit our website.

This week, we focused on the following four sight words during our morning Shared Reading lessons: like, can, on, and the. Each week, I will be introducing four new words that we will identify and practice when reading simple sentences such as: " I can see a blue bird in the tree".

We also continue to work with consonant, vowel, consonant words (CVC words). We are listening for and identifying the short vowel sounds in words such as: cat, hen, pig, nut, and top.

Our focus letters for printing and Word Work this week were B, H, and R.

On Thursday, we had a short whole-school assembly to commemorate Remembrance Day. As a class, we read The Peace Book by Todd Parr and shared what makes us feel peaceful. The students drew a picture of their chosen activity and wrote a short sentence (with help) to go with it. I will put the pages together to make a class book for the students to look at during our daily quiet reading time.

In Math, we continue to practice representing numbers using dice, dominoes, tally marks, pictures, ten frames, and addition sentences (equations). We have also started to learn how to write a simple addition equation to solve an oral problem, such as: "I have 4 jellybeans and my sister has 5 jellybeans. How many jellybeans do we have altogether?".

We continue to learn about seasonal changes. The students are documenting their learning in their Fall booklet.  Next week, we will be learning about migration, hibernation, and adaptation. We have started to observe flocks of geese getting ready to migrate. Many large Vs of geese are flying overhead while we are out at recess times.

I hope you all enjoy the Fall Break. I look forward to seeing everyone back at school next Thursday, November 13th.

From the office:

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Parent/Teacher Conferences will take place in person at the school on Thursday, November 27 from 3:30pm - 7:30pm and Friday, November 28 from 8:00am to 12:00pm.

Parents will book conference times through their CBE account. Conference bookings will open on Saturday, November 22 at 8:00am and closes on Thursday, November 27 at 2:00pm. 

If parents require support with bookings, they can call the office.  

Kindergarten Conferences will be held at the times above as well as Thursday, November 27 from 8am-12pm. There are no kindergarten classes on either Thursday the 27 or Friday the 28. There is no school for students in grades 1-4 on Friday, November 28 due to conferences. 

This will give families an opportunity to sign IPP's and Behaviour Support Plans.

These conferences are the opportunity to meet your child’s teacher and to provide teachers with information about your child that is important. Teachers will inform you on how your child is adapting to and settling into the new school year but, due to the minimal amount of time spent in school thus far, will not provide information on student learning or achievement. 

Fun Lunch

The next Fun Lunch will be held on Wednesday November 26.

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.

** Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. Pynn's classes have been cancelled due to a field trip on November 26.

Upcoming Dates

November 10-12                     Fall Break - NO SCHOOL

November 20                          Heritage Park Field Trip - Coleman & Olson's Classes

November 25                          Confluence Historic Site Field Trip - Penford, Janisse & Massy's Classes

November 26                          Confluence Historic Site Field Trip - Thomson & Pynn's Classes

November 26                          Fun Lunch - Subway

November 27                          Heritage Park Field Trip - Kruger & Wickenheiser's Classes

November 27                          NO SCHOOL for KINDERGARTEN due to Parent/Teacher Conferences

November 27 & 28                  Parent/Teacher Conferences

November 28                          NO SCHOOL

December 3                             Heritage Park Field Trip - Bossenberry's Class

December 8                             Picture Retakes

December 17                           Fun Lunch - Coco Brooks

December 22 - January 2        Winter Break - NO SCHOOL

It was great to have everyone back in the classroom this week! :)

We jumped right back into our daily routines. We worked on our printing, number representation, CVC words, learning more sight words, and doing a few Halloween themed learning activities. 

This week, I introduced the Indigenous Grandfather Teaching of Courage. We learned that the bear represents courage. We read a couple of books about acts of bravery and shared times when we have been brave. The students also started on a mixed media art piece of a bear. They will finish it on Monday.

We've been enjoying watching grizzly bears in Alaska on a live webcam. They are preparing for hibernation by fishing on salmon in Brook Falls. It's incredible to see how many bears gather here and a lot of fun to watch their fishing techniques! Here's the link, if you'd like to take a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73-EekdVVU8

Next Tuesday will be Picture Day. Individual student pictures will be taken. Our class picture gets taken later in the year. 

On Thursday, November 6, MTS will be holding a short student assembly to honour Remembrance Day. Poppy stickers will be given to each child to wear.

A friendly reminder that our library day is Tuesday. Please have your child return their book by Monday each week.

Fall Break will go as planned. There will not be school for students November 10 - 12. We will return on Thursday, November 13th.

Some students returned to school this week without their indoor shoes. Please ensure your child brings their indoor shoes to school on Monday.

Can I please ask that Halloween candy be limited to one or two pieces in lunches and snacks? Sometimes, children bring quite a few pieces of candy to school with them after the holiday and the sugar can really affect behaviour. Thank you very much for your help with this. :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I hope everyone enjoys a fun and safe evening. :)

 Hello Everyone,

I'd like to apologize for this late blog post as well as for not having posted a blog last week. I have been away from school for quite a few days over the past two weeks and my blog posts got forgotten. I will do my best now to catch you up on what the students have been doing in the classroom.

This week, the children were in the very good hands of a guest/substitute teacher, Ms. Wutherick.

The students continue to work with the alphabet, learning and practicing letter recognition, formation, and sounds. I have also started to introduce many small high-frequency words into our daily Shared Reading. The letters covered this week were F, I, N and the high-frequency words were, "is, can, I, see, it, and, the."

Every day during our morning carpet and calendar time, we read 4 simple sentences as a class. Afterwards, I have the students look for and circle select words or letters in the sentences. I may say things such as: "Can you find the 4-letter word that has two vowels in it?" or "Circle two words that begin with the sound 'kuh'." We spend time talking about the sounds in certain words and where else in the room we may see these words. This may be something you will wish to do with your child during our time away from school. It can be done anywhere - in the line-up at a grocery store, looking at letters on packages, magazines, signs, etc. - while driving in the car, while reading a book with your child, etc.

In Math, our focus has been on correct number identification, formation, and subitizing. Subitizing means to quickly identify a small group of items without counting. We have also been working to identify and represent numbers through tally marks, ten frames, simple pictures, and dice. Here is an example of this work and an activity we have done in class:

With the uncertainty of the strike and how long we may be away from school, here are my suggestions for activities you may wish to do with your child, if you have time:

- Read, read, read with your child. Many children are not yet ready to read. Listening to stories and sharing a book with an older sibling or parent is a great step in developing a love of books. It can also motivate children to learn to read as they want to understand more about the books they see.

- Play simple board games and card games to practice number identification, the concepts of bigger than/ smaller than, and to develop subitizing skills.

 - Have your child practice printing daily - both uppercase and lowercase letters as well as numbers. You can make this fun by having your child use a whiteboard, playdough to form letters and numbers, markers, crayons...

I hope these suggestions help. More importantly, I hope we will all be back in the classroom and school soon.

Thank you for your continued support.

Take care,

Jennifer

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!