April 2-5, 2024

Supporting Learning at Home

Here are some ways that you can support your child's learning at home this week:

• Reading daily with your child and having them read to you
• Practicing fast facts and friends of 10 games
• Counting backwards from 20 to 0
• Practicing printing names with the correct upper and lowercase letters

Learning Resources for Home

Epic! Books: our class code is jyr5828. Each child has an account and can click their name to begin reading.

Khan Academy Kids: our class code is 6DF45KZ3. You will need to sign up your child when you enter the code.

Teach Your Monster To Read: our class code is 16699796. When you click the link or enter the code, you will need to type your child’s name with a capital letter (i.e.: Ben). This website is free on your computer, or you can download the app to a device. 

Our learning in English Language Arts & Literature:

• We learned about different jobs for the letter "y". This week we learned how "y" make the sound of a long i when it is at the end of a one-syllable word such as fly, cry, and shy.
• We learned about different types of stories, such as fiction and non-fiction! We thought about how fictional books are from our imagination and non-fiction is about real-life things. 
• We learned about different elements of a story – such as characters, setting, and events. We'll be exploring this more as we move into creating our own stories!

Our learning in Math:

• We are continuing to practice our fast facts to gain fluency.
• We started learning about 3D shapes and their names! We'll be continuing this into next week.

Our learning in Science:

• We practiced the scientific method to determine what will happen when we put a marshmallow peep in different types of liquids. Ask me which one worked the best!
• We want to say a big thank you to Xavier's mom for donating the Peeps!

Celebrating "National Find a Rainbow Day"! 

• We learned about how rainbows are formed and the order of the colours. Ask me what the order is!
• We created rainbows in the correct order using materials in the Makerspace!
• We made beautiful artwork with a rainbow in the background. 

Our learning in Phys Ed & Buddies:

• In phys ed, we have been playing crazy versions of different types of sports! Ask me what this means!
• Today during buddies, our grade 4 buddies taught us about different kinds of foods and food groups like carbohydrates, protein, and vegetables/fruits. After, we played math games!

IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES

April 8 – Lunch recess and afternoon recess will be indoors due to the Solar Eclipse. 

April 11 – Papa Johns Family Pizza Night (See flier that is coming home Monday for information and the code to receive 15% off.)

WILL YOUR CHILD BE ABSENT THIS WEEK?

With the Solar Eclipse on Monday and Eid being celebrated by many of our families this week, we are asking families to call the absence line at 403-817-3444 to inform the school if their child or children will be absent.  

APRIL 22 to 26 IS LITERACY WEEK

April 22 to 26 is Literacy Week! There are a few spirit days during that week that we want to give families time to prepare for to get in the literacy spirit. We would love to see as many students participate as possible! 

Read my Shirt Day on Monday, April 22 - Your child can wear a shirt that has words or letters on it for others to read. 

Dress as Your Favourite Book Character is Tuesday, April 23 - Your child can dress up fully as their favourite book character, or wear something small that gives a hint at what character they might love. (Such as wearing a paper bag crown for Elizabeth in ‘The Paper Bag Princess’; mouse ears for the mouse in ‘If You Give a Mouse a Cookie’; or a lightning bolt on the cheek for Harry in ‘Harry Potter’; etc.) 

Stop, Drop and Read Day is Thursday, April 25 - Students will carry a book everywhere with them throughout the day and will stop to read whenever they hear an announcement. They can choose to bring a favourite book from home on this day if they would like.

Our ‘Whole School Read Out’ is Friday, April 26 - Everyone in the whole school will go out to the field, pick a spot and read outside. Students should be dressed in layers for this day so they will be warm enough, or cool enough, depending on the day. Each student has a grey foam ‘sit upon’ that we use during outdoor learning opportunities to keep them dry in the case that the ground is wet.

We are also hosting a Family Literacy Event on Thursday, April 25 from 4:30 – 6:00 where families are invited into the classrooms to play literacy games, have their child teach them some of the literacy stations they do at school, do some shared writing, and visit the Book Fair in the Learning Commons. Families can stay for a little bit or a longer bit, depending on what works for them! There will also be literacy game prizes that students can enter to win and a Literacy Bingo sheet for families to take home. 

Thanks to our Parent Fundraising Society, there will also be several food trucks in the Hug & Go from 4:30 on.   

We hope the week provides some fun for students and families and promotes the importance of literacy in daily life. 

SOLAR ECLIPSE

On Monday, April 8 a partial solar eclipse will be visible in Calgary. The solar event will begin just before noon and conclude by 2 PM, with the maximum coverage occurring at 12:43 PM. 

We know that this provides a unique learning experience for students and staff in our schools; however, there can be serious impacts to vision as a result of viewing the eclipse in an unsafe manner. 

During this partial solar eclipse on Monday, we would like to invite all students to remain at school during the lunch break. Please send a lunch with your child. If students are not participating in educational activities around the event, schools may choose to have students will be involved in supervised indoor activities.   

If you decide that your child will walk home for lunch on Monday, please discuss with your child not to look at the sun to protect his/her eyes from damage by the solar eclipse.  

During a solar eclipse, looking directly at the sun is dangerous. Safe viewing of the eclipse requires wearing specialized glasses or watching through a telescope or solar binoculars that have specialized lenses and should only be performed under the direction of a professional.  

For more safety information can be found on the NASA website or from the Canadian Association of Optometrists. 

If you have further questions, please contact your school office.