Recyclables and New Weekly Words

Hello families,

This is a reminder to send in recyclables for the gingerbread man traps.  We will start building them with our buddy class this Friday, and to date, we are extremely short of supplies.  We need cardboard boxes (kleenex, cereal, etc.), straws, string, twist ties, any plastic recyclable containers, popsicle sticks.  Anything would be greatly appreciated.

This Thursday is the Xmas concert for our class.  I sent out tickets last week - 2 to each family.  Remember that some of your family can attend the afternoon concert if you were not able to get any extra tickets.  Also, if you will not be able to attend the concert, please send in your tickets ASAP so that other families may use them.

Words of the Week

“ar” Word Family

bar

car

far

star

Sight Words

come

down

help
where

Thanks!

Julie

June 26, 2016

Hello families and friends,

I hope you are all staying warm and dry this weekend!  A reminder that tomorrow is our last day of school for students, and is also Sports Day.  Please ensure that you're child is dressed appropriately for being outdoors for the majority of the morning.  We will also be sending home the remainder of the students' work tomorrow, so please send in an extra bag for them to carry their things in so that their backpack does not get too heavy or overfilled.

Thanks, and have a great day!

June 22, 2016

Hello families and friends,

Tomorrow evening is our Celebration of Learning!  Come out to help in celebrating all of the hard work and learning that we have done this year.  It will be running from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.

We will be continuing to send home work throughout this week and next.  Please remember to send in a spare bag for your child to put things into to ease transferring them from school.

Along with the songs that we will be singing at our assembly on Friday (links to versions of them can be found in the previous post), there is a farewell song that the school will be singing.  The lyrics for this are:

Here today we see your faces and
We’ll remember you

And your days at Cranston School,
Oh we’ll remember you

You must go and choose your path knowing
We’ll remember you

All your friends at Cranston School
Oh We’ll remember you  ( x2)

Oh we’ll remember you

Have a wonderful Wednesday, and hope to see you all tomorrow!

June 21, 2016

Hello families and friends,

We have been practicing hard on our work for our assembly this Friday.  To help ensure that we are prepared for our parts, please help your child to practice their part of the following poem:

We will also be singing the Garden Song by John Denver, and Aloha My Friend.

Parents are welcome to come and watch.  We are planning to begin the assembly at 11:15.

Throughout the rest of this week, we will be starting to send home some of the work and books that we have been working on throughout the year.  To help ease this process, if you could please send in a small bag (e.g. grocery bag) for your child to put these things into so that their backpack does not become too cluttered.

                          Popcorn Friday
Parent council will be selling bags of Kernels Popcorn at school on Friday, June 24 in the morning.  There will be four flavors to choose from: Buttersalt, Dill Pickle, Cheese, and Caramel.  They will be selling for $2.00 each to take home on Friday. If you would like your child to purchase a bag please send a toonie to school
 with them on Friday morning.  In addition, any popcorn that is left over, will be sold on the school compound starting at 11:45 am on June 24th.
A reminder that next Monday, June 27th, is Sports Day and our last day of school.

Have a great afternoon!

June 14, 2016

Hello families and friends,

We have been practicing our songs for our assembly next Friday in music.  We are looking forward to sharing these and our work with all of you!  Next Thursday is also our year end Celebration of Learning.  Come out and share in the learning that we have done this year that evening at 6:00.

As we are winding down towards the end of the year, we will be asking over the next week that all Library and Home Reading books be returned so that they can be inventoried and any missing ones can be located.

A message from the Eco Team:
The garden beds are planted, and already sprouting new plants. Have you taken a look?
Thanks again to The Calgary Foundation for your amazing support for this project, as well as the volunteers and helpers, in out of the school, who have offered to lend a hand with the work. Now that everything is ready to grow, to feed our community, we hope you can lend a hand, over the summer. Ms. Goldberg is creating a WEED AND WATER schedule. If you would like to come and lend a hand for a day, here or there, we would all really appreciate it. It’s a great way to show you care for the school, and the community, and a nice way to learn about gardening.

We probably only need you to offer your time for 2 or 3 days, each time for about an hour, over the summer. You can even bring your little ones, to learn from the growing garden.

Please email Ms. Goldberg if you can lend a hand. She will contact you to discuss dates. Amgoldberg@cbe.ab.ca

Have a great evening!

May 30, 2016

Hello families and friends,

Our groups have been working hard on our small flying and crawling critter research over the last week.  These are coming along very well.  The students have been looking at: their creature's body parts; where it fits in the food chain; how it avoids predators; how it is helpful/harmful or both; where it lives; and other interesting or unique facts.  In our math groups we have been reviewing some of our skills that we had worked on earlier on in the year.

Over the next month, we will be looking at "growth" for our assembly on Friday, June 24th.  Please talk with your child about what this means, and how it looks, to them.  Parents will be welcome to come and watch the assembly.

On Wednesday, June 1st, at lunch time the Eco Team will be outside planting in the new garden beds.  Families are welcome to come out and join in this!

Next Tuesday, June 7th, is Bike to School Day.  This is in an effort to get the students active, have fun, and get some exercise!

This week I will be looking for volunteers to come in and help with putting together the fairy tales that Mr. Soulliere's group have been working on.  If you are available to assist with this in the morning please email me at <gasoulliere@cbe.ab.ca>.

If you have not sent back your child's permission form for soccer, please do that as soon as possible.  This will begin next week.

Now that the weather has been getting warmer, Mr. McDougall will be taking as many opportunities as he can to bring the students outside for phys. ed.  Please help your child to make sure that they are coming to school wearing footwear that is appropriate for being active and running safely outdoors.

If you would like to order pictures, order forms are due back tomorrow.  Scholastic Book Orders for Mr. Soulliere are also due back tomorrow.

Thanks and have a wonderful afternoon!

May 18, 2016

Hello families and friends,

We have been having a great week of swimming!  The students are really enjoying this and have been learning a lot.  Tomorrow will be our last day.  A reminder that Friday will be a PD day so no school for students, and Monday is a holiday.

Over the next few weeks we will be working on a research project about some local small flying and crawling creatures.  Each student has picked a creature, and will be looking for information about where it lives, where it fits in the food chain, its body parts and adaptations, and how it is helpful or harmful.  If you would like to help your child with finding some of this information there is a great search engine for kids called KidRex.

Over the next week, our classroom is going to be continuing our Yellow Fish Road Project.  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 4-5 volunteers on the afternoon of next Wednesday, May 25th 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, and/or another class, please let your child’s teacher know as soon as possible.  We have had a shortage of volunteers for this, so any help would be wonderful.  Thank you!

Picture Order forms are due back Tuesday, May 31st.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

May 14, 2016

Hello families and friends,

Just a reminder that we are swimming all next week in the morning.  The bus is scheduled to leave the school at 9:00 and we will be returning at around 11:15.  Volunteers are able to come with us on the bus or they can meet us at Bob Bahan Swimming Pool.  Please make sure that your child comes with their swim suit and a towel, and an extra bag to put their wet things in after they swim!

Please send back tickets orders for the Spring Dance as soon as possible, they are first come first serve.

Have a great weekend.

May 10, 2016

Hello families and friends,

Yesterday we had a visitor from Teacher's Pet come and work with us on an insect investigation.  Thank you to all the volunteers who came out to support us with this!  The students had a great time with it and they learned a lot about insects.  In the spirit of this activity, our words of the week for this week are "insect", "thorax", "head", "abdomen", and "legs" for all students.  This morning, we had a presentation from Yellow Fish Road.  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 4 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!

In the afternoon we had a practice evacuation.  The students did a great job with this!

The EcoTeam is excited to invite you to our next event to inaugurate our garden beds on Saturday, May 28, 2016 at 1:00 pm.  We plan to plant the plants, and water the garden.  We invite families and members of the community to join us.  We thank The Calgary Foundation Neighbour Grants for this opportunity to see our wish of growing vegetables to serve the community come alive!  Please let Ms. Goldberg know if you are able to attend or lend a hand in any way at <amgoldberg@cbe.ab.ca>.  Bring a hand shovel and a small watering can if you have one!  The event will probably last only 1 hour or so, so please arrive on time!

Next week we will be swimming.  Thank you to all of you who volunteered to help us out with this.  If you noted that you would be able to volunteer but did not get a form please email me at <gasoulliere@cbe.ab.ca> and I will get one to you as soon as possible.

Have a great evening!

May 6, 2016

Hello families and friends,

Enjoy the wonderful weather this weekend!  For next Monday, please make sure that all permission forms for our in-class field trip by Teacher's Pet are filled out and returned.  If you have lost your child's form email me at <gasoulliere@cbe.ab.ca> and I can send you a copy.  We are also still looking for two more volunteers to help out for the afternoon.  If you are available to come help out please email me and I will give you some details about the afternoon.

Permission forms for Swimming and for Yellow Fish Road also need to be returned on Monday.  If you need another copy please email me and one can be sent home.

Volunteer forms for swimming will be sent home at the beginning of next week.  Please note on the form which day or days you will be available to come, as this may have changed since the forms went home earlier.

For parents that are looking to get a hold of Mrs. Stols, she can be reached at <acstols@cbe.ab.ca>.

Have a great weekend!

May 3, 2016

Hello families and friends,

Our words of the week for this week are "wash", "wish", "may", and "show" for grade ones, and "which", "with", "many", and "much" for grade twos.

Some forms have gone home over the last few days for our in-class field trip with Teacher's Pet next Monday and for Yellow Fish Road.  Please fill these out and return them as soon as possible.  If you are available to volunteer on Monday it can be indicated on the form or you can email me at <gasoulliere@cbe.ab.ca>.  We are still looking for 3 volunteers for each of the morning and afternoon.

Tomorrow afternoon and evening are our Annie performances.  Please make sure that your child is here and in the classroom by 6:15 in the evening to be ready to go on.  Students with acting roles are to be at the school by 5:45 and meet in the music room.

Tomorrow is also Hats on For Mental Health Day.  Ask your child about this.

Have a good evening!

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!