December 12-16th

Week of December 12th Updates / Reminders

Hello Parents / Guardians, Here are just a few reminders before we break for Winter Break. Weather Please ensure your child is dressed for the extreme temperatures (hats, mitts, boots, snow pants and warm jackets).  The students will have some outside time for recess when the temperature is warmer than -20c including windchill.  Donations If you and your family have any children’s (G rated) DVD’s that you would be willing to donatefor indoor lunch/recess, please send them to school on Monday. Christmas time is traditionally associated with a time of giving and sharing. In keeping with the spirit of Christmas, we will be running a Christmas hamper campaign from December 5th through to December 13th. During this time please send your cheques or cash donations to the school in a sealed envelope marked ‘Christmas Hampers’. We will be distributing gift cards from all funds collected to Evanston families who would appreciate a little extra during the holiday season. Caroling Students at Ken Taylor School have been participating in a Creative Movement unit for the three weeks in December. Together we have learned about a variety of cultural celebrations and dances that are from around the world. Each class will have an opportunity to share what we have been learning during our Caroling Assemblies next week. Below is a list of dates and which class is performing when. We welcome parents and guests to come and share in the magic of the season with us. Tuesday, December 13 @ 9:30am  Pearson/Stewart Brar/Bakkan               Thursday, December 15 @ 1:00pm  (Red and Green Day) Hargreaves/Sayani PM Kindergarten   Friday, December 16 @ 8:30am (Pajama Day)  Carstairs/Witczak AM Kindergarten  Steckly/Fraser/Jordan  Lost & Found We have accumulated many lost items in our lost and found.  Please take a moment with your child to make sure none of the items belong to you.  We will be donating any items left over after December 16th. Spirit Days We will be having 2 Spirit Days next week Thursday Dec 15th Red and Green Day Friday Dec 16th Pajama Day Last Day of Classes Dec 16th is our last day of classes before Winter Break.  Please note this is an EARLY DISMISSAL FRIDAY which means students will be done school at 11:30 and there will be NO PM Kindergarten that day.  Report Cards will be sent home on this day as well.   The Staff at Ken Taylor would like to wish your family a relaxing Winter Break.   Thank you!

The students 'light up' my day!

Today my 3 little helpers assisted me with getting paint and markers ready to create these cute Christmas light cards.

In addition to our fun crafts and art, we have been continuing with the sight words of the week so far: the, and, am, with, and the sounds 'ing' and the long  /e/.
We also continue to work with addition and subtraction facts with numbers up to 10.

I wish....

Today Ms. Carstairs' three little helpers did an excellent job! The class wrote down a wish on a Christmas light cut out. Some of the wishes were very sweet and thoughtful. Ask your child what they wished for!

Ms. Carstairs' 24 days of teaching!

Today we opened up the first 3 drawers in our class advent calendar to see who my little helpers would be! These students got to be special helpers for the day. As we continue our countdown to the break, we will choose new helpers each day who will help with a fun project! Today we made our own snowmen! Yesterday we wrote letters to Santa, telling him all the things we have learned in school this year. I wonder what we will be doing tomorrow???

Sight Word Practice!

I have decided to start sending home the Sight Words that we are working on home with the students so that they can practice them at home as well as at school! There will be about 5 words per week. Each word will be in a poem. Have your child use a highlighter or marker and find the Sight Word within the poem. Read the poem together; or have your child read it to you. Have them underline or circle any other sight words they know! Then have them re-write each word and use it in a new sentence. This is not HOMEWORK; it is just extra things to practice at home if you would like your child to have the extra practice and you have the time. Please do not panic if it does not get done each night; it is meant to be helpful not stressful!

Thank you for your continued support in your child's learning!

For Math, we will continue with our number sense pattern by making groups of 10 and relating this to the corresponding addition fact. One way we practiced was by having 10 circles with white on one side and red on the other. The students shook them up in their hands and dropped them on to their desks. Then they counted; how many had red facing up and how many had white facing up? They would colour this on their sheet. How many different combinations of red and white are there that add up to 10? This can be related to addition. If I have 5 red and 5 white; I know that 5+5=10. If I have 6 red and 4 white, I know that 6+4=10! Try it at home!

Class Volunteer Coordinator

Hello Parents and Guardians,

 

Parent Council is still looking for a few parents to volunteer as Parent Volunteer Coordinator for each classroom.  If you have received your CBE police clearance and this position would interest you please contact parent council at councils.kennethdtaylor@gmail.com .

Thanks!

Our Learning

Dear Families,

We had a good week in room 1A!

Here is a breakdown of where we are at in our subject areas:

Language Arts:

Students have been continuing to practice and use their Sight Words.  We will continue to have 5-6 new words each week.  When practicing our words, we do some of the following:

-complete word work activities such as; unscramble, fill in missing letters, circle the correct words, etc...

-practice writing them on whiteboards

-in partners, practice reading them together

-we cheer and sing the words

-build the words with PlayDo and other materials

-practice writing sentences with our Sight Words

-put our Sight Words into our self-made/ personal dictionaries (used when writing in our journals)

Writing:

-Students are beginning to write more decodable ("readable") sentences that include an uppercase letter at the beginning and period at the end.  Students are using kids-spelling (phonetic) of unfamiliar words and accurate usage of familiar words (Sight Words).

-Recently students completed a writing sample that will be sent home, so you can see your child's current writing.

-We are working towards adding more detail to our sentences as well as writing more than one related sentences.

Reading:

-Students are taking part in intense literacy practice each morning for 30 minutes.  These are small groups that are focused on the individual student's current level of literacy development. 

-Students in Mrs. Witzcack's class as well as ours are currently working with Mr. Dyck (Principal), Mrs. Tuttle (Assistant Principal), Mrs. Rempel (Resource Teacher); Miss Aneela (Early Childhood Practioner); Mrs. W and myself during this time.  We are very lucky to have this support and we are seeing the children's literacy skills develop and grow!

-I have started reading with each student to determine their current and accurate level of reading. 

-Remember to log in and practice with the Raz-Kids Home Reading Program.

Mathematics:

-We have moved on from Patterning and Sorting and are moving towards developing Number Sense.

-Students have been working on: "Making 10"; place value; counting to 100; counting on from a given number; skip counting forward by 2s to 20; forward by 5s to 50;  forward by 10s to 100; backwards from 20; filling in missing numbers on a 100 chart; creating and solving basic word problems as a class; math games focusing on place value and counting; using mental math strategies to answer math questions; representing numbers to 20 in various ways; and adding with answers to 10.

-We will be continuing to practice these concepts while focusing on adding with answers up to 20 and their corresponding subtraction facts.  We will be developing our mental math strategies and will be further developing our problem solving skills.

Science:

-We have completed our Creating Colour unit and are going to do a self-assessment of our understanding soon!

-We are now working on our Senses unit.  

-Students are asking if we can do 'Science in a Box,' like Ms. Bakkan's class; so stay tuned for information on that!

Social Studies:

-Students have been working on developing a sense of who they are and what groups they belong to.  

-We are working towards looking more closely at our families and connecting the past with the present.

Art is ongoing and connected to all subject areas.

Health is focusing on positive relationships and staying healthy.

Report Cards:

Report cards will be going home in December.  I am very proud of each student and the individual academic growth that each student has demonstrated!

Please note that report card indictors changed in recent years and that the number indicators "1-4" may have a different meaning than an older family member may have received.

Two years ago, "1" and "2" were not meeting grade level expectations and "3", "4" and "5" were considered meeting grade level expectations from basic to excellent.

Now, "1" is not yet meeting grade level expectations and "2", "3" and "4" are considered meeting grade level expectations are varying degrees.  There is no "above grade level."

Please click on the link below to view a blank version of the report card your child will be bringing home in December.  The first page gives an explanation of the indicators "1-4."  

http://www.cbe.ab.ca/programs/curriculum/assessment-and-reporting/Documents/Sample-Report-Card-Grade-3.pdf

Please also note, although the report card template will be similar to the report card that your child brought home last year in Kindergarten, that the academic expectations have increased significantly since Kindergarten and will continue to do so throughout this year.

Students will be assessed in Music and Physical Education by Mrs. Buonomo and Mrs. Fraser.

Students will receive comments on the report card related to reading, writing, mathematics, and science or social studies.  Comments will also include information about your child's personal development, citizenship and character in learning.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions regarding report cards.  E-mail is the best avenue for these questions.

No School Tomorrow!

Just a reminder that the staff have a professional development opportunity tomorrow so there is no school for the students! Enjoy your weekend:)

Colour/Spirit Day tomorrow

Also for tomorrow; the students were asked to be thoughtful when choosing 1 or 2 colours to wear tomorrow that they think would make great Kenneth Taylor School colours. Mr. Dyck shared his ideas about why he likes the colour purple. Watch his video below! :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwEKt-zXqAVXYkk1ZEh3dzFfTUk/view?usp=sharing

What do you think? Choose your colours for tomorrow!

For tomorrow!

The students are bringing home 'All about me' backpacks that they made. Inside each should be a form with some instructions of how you can help your child fill it up with things that represent who they are. They will be presenting them to the class over the next couple of days!

This week's announcements

Here is a link to the video announcements; (created by our very own music teacher, Mrs. Buonomo!) Please return the purple consent forms by tomorrow if you have not already done so. Also, Wednesday will be a colour spirit day. The students will receive more information on how to choose their colours tomorrow.

Have a wonderful week!

Announcements

It is early dismissal this Friday. The students are done at 11:35 am.

Picture re-takes are tomorrow, Wednesday, 16th.

Place Value

Moving forward with our number sense unit, the students have been working on representing one and two-digit numbers using blocks, pictures and manipulatives. They've discovered that counting out groups and 10 makes large numbers easier to count and are learning to represent these numbers using a one and tens place and by using 10 and 1 cubes. Here they are playing with a partner, rolling a die, writing and then building a 2 digit number using the blocks and their white boards. Ask your child to count a number of objects by making groups of 10 and explaining the process.

Picture a Tree

The students have been depicting trees using a variety of art mediums this year.  Along the way we have discussed seasonal changes, cool and warm colours, and art topics such as 'texture'. Today we were inspired by the story Picture a Tree by Barbara Reid. Barbara makes pictures using plasticine and then takes photographs to use as the illustrations in her books. We decided to watch a video of her using her techniques and try it out for ourselves. Here are our results!

Veterans Food Drive

This (short) week, we will be collecting non-perishable food items for a food drive to support our Veterans. Please help us by donating! Here are some examples of non-perishables.

Remembrance Day assembly

The school will hold an assembly for Remembrance Day on Thursday, Nov. 10th at 9:30. Parents are welcome to join! In the upcoming days we will continue our conversations on the importance of Remembrance Day and incorporate activities in our day to reinforce this learning.  Here are some pictures of our Remembrance Day art that we completed today!

Fun with sight words

There are many ways you can practice sight words with your child at home in a fun and engaging way. We played sight word Tic-tac-toe this morning; get your child to teach you how to play! Some other ideas are Sight Word Twister, word searches in old newspapers with Hi-liters, memory games with flashcards and using stamps, letter magnets or stickers to build words on paper!

Halloween was a success!

I'm glad to see all of the students made it through our busy Halloween! They had a successful day of learning at school before trick or treating and showed up today with smiles on their faces:-) We did many themed activities including describing a pumpkin, Halloween Bingo, Halloween math graphing and using a code to write secret messages! The students also enjoyed showing off their costumes in our school parade.