April 29, 2016

Hello families and friends,

A few notes about Annie for next week:

• Kids who are on stage are asked to arrive at 5:45 and head to the music room for costumes etc.  
• Students in the Chorus are asked to dress nicely and head to their classrooms at 6:15 pm – line them up Tallest to Smallest
• Our triad will be performing two shows on Wednesday, May 4th – Afternoon at 1:30; Evening at 6:30.
• Doors will open for seating 15 minutes prior to show ( 1:15 / 6:15)
• Students are asked to enter the school through the TEACHER doors – anticipating large line ups at the front of the building.
• Tickets are currently still available for all shows

On Monday, May 9th, we will be having Teacher's Pet come in to our class in the morning and afternoon to do a project with our students around Small Flying and Crawling Animals.  We are looking for 4 volunteers for each of the morning and afternoon to help out with this.  If you are available to come help out in the classroom please email me at <gasoulliere@cbe.ab.ca> and let me know if you will be available to come in the morning or the afternoon, or both.

Over the next few weeks our classroom is going to be participating in the Yellow Fish Road Project.  This non-profit organization seeks to educate students and their communities about the effect of pollution in the storm water drainage system upon the river ecosystems that surround us.  As part of our work in this Canada wide initiative we will going out in our community and painting "Yellow Fish" on the storm drains as a reminder to everyone, that what we put down the storm drain goes straight out to our river water.  In order to do this project we will require approximately 6 volunteers on the afternoon of May 25 to help lead small groups of students in carrying out the painting and distribution of Yellow Fish Road door hangers.  If you are available to help us, please let your child’s teacher know as soon as possible.  Thank you!

Volunteer forms for swimming will be going home next week.

Have a great weekend.

April 27, 2016

Hello families and friends,

A few notes about Annie for next week:

• Kids who are on stage are asked to arrive at 5:45 and head to the music room for costumes etc.  
• Students in the Chorus are asked to dress nicely and head to their classrooms at 6:15 pm – line them up Tallest to Smallest
• Our triad will be performing two shows on Wednesday, May 4th – Afternoon at 1:30; Evening at 6:30.
• Doors will open for seating 15 minutes prior to show ( 1:15 / 6:15)
• Students are asked to enter the school through the TEACHER doors – anticipating large line ups at the front of the building.
• Tickets are currently still available for all shows

On Monday, May 9th, we will be having Teacher's Pet come in to our class in the morning and afternoon to do a project with our students around Small Flying and Crawling Animals.  We are looking for 4 volunteers for each of the morning and afternoon to help out with this.  If you are available to come help out in the classroom please email me at <gasoulliere@cbe.ab.ca> and let me know if you will be able to come for the morning, the afternoon, or both.

Have a great evening!

April 20, 2016

Hello families and friends,

In the morning we continued our work in our class groups on our literacy and numeracy skills.  Then in the afternoon we went into our word work groups.  After that we had a substitute teacher for dance.  Ask your child what they did today.  Then we worked with Mrs. Redwood and Ms. Patton.  We ended our day with finishing up work on our magnet inventions and putting the videos in to IRIS.

Tomorrow, Mr. Soulliere's group will be going out for our nature scavenger hunt with our buddies.  If there is anyone that would be able to volunteer to come out with us from 2:10 until the end of the day please email me at <gasoulliere@cbe.ab.ca>.

Swimming information packages have gone home.  Please fill out as much of them as possible so that the instructors at the swimming pool will have the best information to work with for grouping the children.  These packages are due back next Tuesday, April 26th.

Please continue to send in orders for Annie tickets for our performance on Wednesday, May 4th.  There are shows both at 1:30 and at 6:30.  Tickets are available while supplies last.  If you have already ordered tickets and would like to get more, send in your money with a note indicating how many tickets and for which show.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

April 18, 2016

Hello families and friends,

Our words of the week for this week are "sing", "pick", "any", and "under" for grade ones, and "before", "had", "here", and "does" for grade twos.

A reminder to send in any Annie and Family Movie night ticket orders as soon as possible.  They are both first come, first serve.

This afternoon we continued work on our magnet inventions, thinking about what they could do to make life easier or more fun for the early settlers.  Some of the students have been able to get a video of their work into Iris.  Ask your child what they are making.  Thank you to all of you who sent in materials for the building process.  We are now bursting with cardboard and recyclables!  It has made this work much easier.

Information packages for swimming will be going home tomorrow.  Our classes will be swimming from May 16th to May 19th from 9:45 to 10:30.  If you will be able to volunteer for any or all of the days that week please email me at <gasoulliere@cbe.ab.ca> and let me know what your availabilities will be.

Have a great evening!

Thursday, April 14

Hello families & friends,

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, the Harmony triad had a special visitor in the classroom.  Randy Bottle, a First Nations Elder, spent the mornings teaching our students about the Blackfoot oral storytelling tradition.  In addition, he spoke about the tribal tradition of creating pictures on stone, through pictographs and petrolglyphs, such as the famous ones at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in Alberta.  He told them the story of "Napi and the Rock".

The Okotoks Erratic is the largest rock in the Foothills Erratic Train. The Blackfoot Legend of Napi and the Rock tells how the erratic broke in two.  Napi is the supernatural trickster of the Blackfoot.
Please ask your child about the legend, what they learned from the story and about the drawing they created in their visual journals.

He showed the Grade 1 and 2s a ceremonial rattle used in sacred ceremonies and lullaby's.  Students, do you remember how it was made and what it was made from?  The children then chanted a traditional ceremonial song with Randy.

The Elder also taught the Grade 1 and 2s some Blackfoot words for animals, things in nature and greetings.  Learners, do you remember the word for MOUNTAIN in Blackfoot?  What is a KI YA YO?

They concluded his visit by watching a video called "Thunder Story" spoken in the Blackfoot language, while our guest translated each page of the story into english during the telling of the story.

Enjoy your upcoming weekend!

Ms. Klein

April 11, 2016

Hello families and friends,

Our words of the week for this week are "got", "live", "own", and "just" for grade ones, and "him", "know", "when", and "from" for grade twos.

Tomorrow we are asking for students to wear red in support of the RCMP.

This afternoon we reviewed the things that we had learned about magnets form our experiments, and we talked about ways that life for the settlers was different than our lives now.  This will help lead us into our project on creating something using magnets that could have made life easier or more fun for people back then.  We are still asking that if you have any clean, recyclable materials that we could use for building our designs to send them in.  Things like cereal boxes work great!

Over the next couple days we will be having a special visitor in our class!

Please remember to send in forms for Annie tickets and Family movie night as soon as possible.  Tickets are first come first serve.

Have a great evening,
Mr. Soulliere

April 7, 2016

Hello families and friends,

The EcoTeam is very excited to announce that we are ready to build our Garden Beds.   The beds are designed, and materials ordered.   We are looking for some help, from parents, and members of the community.  We will be building the garden beds on April 16, beginning at 10 am.  If you would like to join us, please bring your own cordless drill!   All other supplies will be onsite.  You must be over 18 years old to participate in this part of the work. Students are welcome to join us, to help sand, and fill the beds with gravel and dirt.  We expect that we will be able to begin at 2 pm, on April 16.  Please bring along a shovel.  If you are available to lend a hand in any way, please let Ms. Goldberg know.  You can contact her at amgoldberg@cbe.ab.ca   Only those who make contact with Ms. Goldberg will be welcome to participate. 

Parents, our class is participating in the the production of Annie Kids on Wednesday, May 4th.   There is an afternoon show at 1:30pm and an evening performance at 6:30pm.  Please note that the tickets are issued in a first come – first served basis.  As stated on the order form, there is a wait list for both afternoon and evening tickets if you may require more than your allotted number.  All students were given a copy of the lyrics required to practice for the musical. Please encourage your child to take some time to practice at home.  We appreciate your support of our music program and are excited to share "Annie Kids" with all of you!

Forms for Family Move Night went home today in your child's Home Communication Folder. If you are interested in attending this evening event, please return the form as soon as possible so that you can reserve a ticket as they are limited. Children cannot attend alone, they need to be accompanied by an adult.

Have a great evening!

April 6, 2016

Hello families and friends,

Today we continued working on our literacy and numeracy skills in the morning.  Then in the afternoon we went into our word work groups before we went to gymnastics.  A reminder that we have gymnastics for the rest of this week and next week, so please make sure that long hair gets tied back.  We also had Mrs. Redwood and Ms. Bendig come in to work with us.  Ask your child what they did.

Over the next few weeks, we will be working with the students on a new design project.  We will be using what we have learned about magnets and the past to design and create something that the settlers could have used to make life easier or more fun.  To start, we will be doing some planning on paper, and then we will be building them!  Before we begin this next week, it would be helpful to talk with your child about what information they have learned about magnets and the community in the past.  We will also require some clean, reusable materials to assist with the building process; things like cereal boxes or milk jugs would be great!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

April 5, 2016

Hello families and friends,

Our words of the week for this week are "see", "new", "bud", "leaf", and "spring" for all students.

For this week and next, the students are doing gymnastics in gym.  Please make sure that if your child has long hair that it is tied back to ensure that it does not become a safety concern.

Over the next three weeks, some of our students will be going down to the pond with our buddy classes for a "spring scavenger hunt".  This will be each Thursday afternoon from 2:10 until just before the end of the day.

This afternoon we did some nature themed seed art.  Ask your child about this.

Have a great evening!