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.

We have had a busy, fun, and warm week at school. The summery weather brought lots of energy to the classroom and playground!

We enjoyed a great trip to the zoo on Monday and enjoyed a terrific program about Arctic animals. The students were engaged in some games and hands-on activities and got to touch a number of animal artifacts. If they haven't shared any information about this, you may want to ask them which animal's fur they got to feel or if they can tell you the colour of a polar bear's skin (black).

Thanks again to the parents who volunteered for this field trip and spent the day with a small group of students.

Our second field trip will be on Tuesday, June 10th to Heritage Park. Please return the yellow permission form by next Tuesday, June 3rd.

This week we talked about the Past and Present and sorted pictures of items and activities into these two categories. Many children brought back the "interview" form and we will begin sharing these on Monday. I was waiting to receive a few more of the baby photos before making our matching game. If you have not yet emailed me your child's photo, I need you to do so by Monday so your child can be included in this fun game.

Next Thursday is our last book exchange at the library. Please ensure that any outstanding books are returned as soon as possible.

We will be taking advantage of the good weather to take learning activities outside as much as possible. Please ensure your child brings a hat and a water bottle every day.

Our Grade 4 buddies introduced the Grade 1s to a website that we will be using for our upcoming animal research projects. Each student chose an animal they want to learn about and we will start this work next week. This project will include making an animal out of plasticine as well as a diorama of the animal's habitat. Your child will need a shoebox for this project. Please send one in as soon as possible. If you have more than one, I'd appreciate extras. :) * Shoe stores often have extra boxes that they will give you for free. 

Our phonics focus this week was on words containing the long e sound made by the "ea" team. I have been teaching the little verse, "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." to help the students decode words containing the vowel teams. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule! :) The words we were working with this week were: read, team, ear, and beach.

In Math, the students were given an open-ended question about a candy store. Please see photo below. They were told they had $20 to spend and that they were to find as many different combinations of candies to spend their full $20. Many students came up with equations that included 5 or more addends using a hundred chart, a number line, and/or mental math strategies.

We continue to observe the daily changes in our class garden, noting which plants grow the quickest. We also planted bean seeds in plastic cups to see the development of the roots and the "underground" developments of a bean plant.

Thank you to everyone who has sent in a baby photo of your child for our matching game. If you have not done so already, please email me a photo by Wednesday, May 28th at jllarmer@cbe.ab.ca. Thank you! 

IMPORTANT Zoo Field Trip Reminders.

Monday is our trip to the zoo! The forecast looks great. Please ensure you put sunscreen on your child prior to coming to school. You may wish to send some with your child, however, they will need to put it on themselves. Please also ensure that they have a healthy and hearty lunch with two big snacks. The children get quite hungry with all the walking and fresh air. 

Please do not send money with your child as they will not be able to make any purchases.

A water bottle, good walking shoes (sneakers - no sandals, please), and sun hat are also essentials. Our bus will be leaving at 8:40 sharp. Please make sure your child is at school by 8am. Thanks for your help in making this a great day!

We are also very excited to perform for you at our Celebration of Learning this Tuesday in the East end open area (right outside our classroom) at 10:00am. We hope you can come!

I sent home a pink form for you to do with your child regarding grandparents' or parents' memories of being 6 or 7 years old. Please return these as soon as possible so the students can begin sharing these "interviews" with their classmates.

Upcoming Dates:

Tuesday, June 10th - Field Trip to Heritage Park

Tuesday, June 24th  - Sports Day

Thursday, June 26th - Last Day of School! Dismissal at 12:00pm.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful weekend!

This week's phonics' focus was on words with the letter "ow". Our daily Word Work and Shared Reading words were: clown, down, brown, and owl.

In Math, we have been working at solving equations and word problems using 3 or more addends. The students are practicing breaking these long equations into smaller equations to come up with the final answer. We  have also been practicing identifying numbers represented in ten frame blocks (ten rods and ones cubes) as well as working to identify larger and smaller numbers using the < and > symbols.

Our garden box really took off this week and it's been exciting to see our veggies begin to sprout. I'm sure there will be a lot of growth over the weekend!

We have now wrapped up our Social Studies unit on communities and mapping. The students drew a map of their heart to represent all the people, animals, activities, and possessions they hold dear.

We will begin our focus on Past and Present in Social Studies next week. Please send in a copy of a baby photo of your child or email one to me at jllarmer@cbe.ab.ca by Monday, May 26th. We will make a Guess the Baby Face board in our classroom for the students to try and solve. 

Please return the Zoo Field Trip forms as soon as possible if you have not done so already. Thank you to the parents who are volunteering to help with this trip on Monday, May 26th.

Upcoming Dates:

No School Monday, May 19th - Victoria Day

Zoo Field Trip - Monday, May 26

Celebration of Learning - Tuesday, May 27 - 10:15am ( It will be about 40 minutes long).