Friday, Oct. 28th

 Hola Parents and Guardians,

Our week was filled with more exciting learning. In Science we are talking about the roles of all living creatures in an ecosystem (producer, consumer, decomposer), as we build our knowledge of waste and how waste is created and dealt with on our planet (both animal and human waste). 

In Social Studies students required some extra time to complete our knowledge check-in for natural resources, but we will be swiftly moving forward into the natural regions of Alberta next week.  This exploration allows students to better connect with and reflect upon the land they live on, and its richness and beauty. 

In Math we continue to explore number patterns. This topic leads to the some pre-algebra explorations, and sets the foundation for addition and subtraction. Students should work on their basic mental math strategies for addition and subtraction (e.g., how do we quickly and mentally add number that would require carry-over such as 7 + 6, addition with 9, etc.) as well as working to memorize basic multiplication tables up to 10x10 at home, to prepare for upcoming math work which are also relevant to our current unit. 

In English, we continue to grapple with building a summary. We have added some short texts onto Google Classroom that you can use to support your child in their practice of summarizing at home. Formulating a beginning sentence, retelling the story/information in our own words, and picking out the most important information are processes and concepts students continue to need support with. 

In Spanish, we are practicing being interviewed about ourselves and interviewing others about themselves, leading up to an assignment which will have students record a video of their interview. We continue to do guided reading in Spanish every Thursday, and we ask that students DO NOT complete any RazKids book assignments at home, as these are assigned for reading during class. 

In Health we have been tackling the Seven Sacred Teachings. These teachings (respect, love, courage, honesty, wisdom, humility and truth) come from the Anishinaabe people, but have been adopted by many other indigenous groups and indigenous organizations of Turtle Island. This week we concluded our conversation on love, and how we show love to ourselves (self-talk, reflecting and recognizing our strengths, etc.) and love (kindness) to others (our family, our friends, and people we do not know), as well as how we show love and care for nature. 

IMPORTANT UPDATES:

A reminder that Friday, October 28 is a non-instruction day with no school for all students.

With Halloween coming up, students are invited to wear costumes to school on Monday, October 31.  The costumes must be worn the whole day and must be appropriate for school environment meaning no violent or inappropriate content or messaging. Accessories such as swords, guns, knives, weapons etc. should not be brought to school.  As costumes should not impede learning, we ask that no mask even if it’s a half face mask be worn to school.  Those wanting to wear COVID masks are welcome to. Due to dietary restrictions and preferences, no food should be brought to school for sharing purposes.  While well intended, other non-food treats should also be not brought to school (goodie/loot bags).

School photos retakes were originally scheduled to happen on October 17 & 18 have been rescheduled to November 2 & 3.  If you would like your child to have photo retakes, please email your child's teacher to let them know. Class Photos will also happen on the November 2 for all classes with the exception of the Tuesday/Thursday Kindergarten group whose class photo will be taken on November 3.

Dalhousie students will have the opportunity to participate in a 6-day dance residency at school. Sound Kreations will be coming to dance with the students on November 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, and 22. Our students will be participating in a program called CubaNYC where a Spanish speaking instructor will focus on teaching the students hip hop and Latin street dance moves. The cost of this residency will be $7.26 per student which can be paid through your MYCBE account.  This fee is in the process of being posted and you should see it in the next couple of weeks. We are excited to get our groove on, ask your child to see the moves they learned at school.

Tuesday, October, 25th / BOOK FAIR INFO

 In math, we are working on increasing and decreasing patterns. Students have to identify the way that the pattern is changing and then explain the rule that the follows; including the number that is starts with and the amount that it changes by. Students have to use addition and subtraction to complete this task. 

In science, we have started Waste in our World and we have been having some very engaging conversations around what waste is, our role with what we waste,  and looking specifically at waste in nature.

In Spanish, students were introduced to an interview assignment that they will complete with a partner. They will continue to practice their description of themselves including their physical appearance their personality. 

In English, students have been working on completing their book work with chapter one of Fatty Legs. They have to focus on how they organize their work while responding to questions about that novel that includes summarizing, making predictions about future chapters, and working with the vocabulary. They read chapter two today. 

In social, they continue to work on natural resources in Alberta. 

In art we have been working on shading colours. 

BOOK FAIR INFO:

We will be hosting a Scholastic book fair in November, with a virtual and in-person option.  The virtual fair will be active from November 18^th  – November 28^th 2022 inclusive.  

 

https://virtualbookfairs.scholastic.ca/pages/5184055

Students will also be able to purchase books and other items (posters/stationary etc.) in school. Like last year, we will be doing a preview for each class and then the following week students will be allowed to purchase items using CASH. 

THE GRADE 4 DATES: we will preview on Thursday the 17th of Nov and purchase the following Thursday, the 24th, first thing in the morning. 

Parent Survey - Parent Teacher Interviews

During the pandemic, many pieces shifted online, including Parent Teacher Conferences.  Some families indicated that they preferred them online as it allowed flexibility in timing and attendance.  We have formal opportunities for connections with families throughout the year. Thank you for providing feedback for the format and method delivery of our conferences.  Please note that due to logistical parameters that are not in our control, we may not be able to implement all feedback.  Thank you for providing your input.  The survey will close October 28, 2022 at 4pm.

Friday, October 21st, 2022

In math, we continue to work on patterns, we have been working with a variety of different number patterns. 

In social studies, we are talking about the natural resources of Alberta and we looked at a specific case study of Fort McMurray.

In English, we have started our first novel study! We are reading the book Fatty Legs. We will be completing a chapter a week, if all goes to plan. Students will be tasked with completing specific book work after each chapter which includes summarizing, making inferences, predictions and working with the vocabulary. 

In Spanish, we are completing our descriptions of a famous character for our classmates to guess who is speaking and yesterday we completed our day with the guided reading in Spanish. 

In science, we have wrapped up our first experiment and will be moving on to our first full unit, Waste in our World.

SCHOOL INFO/RAZKIDS

Hola Parents and Guardians!

 RazKids is back! Login information can be found on our Google Classroom. We encourage all students to use this wonderful platform to read at home in both English and Spanish. They can listen to a book be read to them, or read it independently, or both!

In class, we will be using RazKids to read books on the topics we are exploring at times, we will ask students to record themselves reading in English and Spanish, and we are also using RazKids as part of our Spanish guided reading groups.

Students have been split up into 4 groups of 7 students each, and they will work on a different station, of our 4 stations in Spanish guided reading each week. The stations are: Read to self, Read to someone, Read with the teacher, and record yourself reading an assigned book (and do the comprehension quiz that follows) on Raz Kids. As we are working hard on growing our reading comprehension. students will also have some follow-up written work to do, such as short summaries which identify the most important information in the story they read (main characters, problem, solution, etc.)

A reminder that Friday, October 28 is a non-instruction day with no school for all students.

Dalhousie Parent Society News

We are having a playground party on Friday, Oct 21^st from 1:30-3:30 pm to explore our current playground and check out some ideas for the new playground we are hoping to build! Join us with your kiddos and ask any questions that you might have! Bring your loonies and toonies to buy a snack while you hang out!

We have launched our holiday fundraisers so you can get a jump on shopping for some goodies!

Check out our Growing Smiles Link to order gorgeous holiday floral arrangements.  Order deadline is Nov 15 and pick up is Nov 29.  Click for holiday magic!

Purdy’s Chocolates!! Need we say more? Grab some delicious treats for that special someone! Order deadline is Nov 26th and pickup is Dec 13th.  Click for yummy chocolate!  Enter customer number 61732 when you shop. 

We’ve started a 50/50 draw for the playground! All cash, winner takes half. Please consider buying some tickets to support our new playground build!! We really need your help!

Fun Lunch Contest Time

CONTEST TIME!!

Win a free fun lunch!!! Nov 15 and Dec 13, bring a reusable straw and show your fun lunch delivery person when you get your Booster Juice to be entered into the draw for a free Subway lunch on Dec 21! Good luck! CONGRATULATIONS to Pari in Room 8 who won the reusable straw contest on October 18! Thank you to everyone who participated!

 

Oct 26 – Fat Burger (deadline Oct 21)

Nov 1 – The Saucy Bread Company (deadline Oct 27)

Nov 9 – Boston Pizza (deadline Nov 4)

Nov 15 – Subway & Booster Juice (deadline Nov 10)

Nov 23 – Coco Brooks (deadline Nov 18)

If your child is going to be absent and you have ordered them a lunch, please email dalhousieschoolparentsociety@gmail.com before 11am the morning of fun lunch and let us know if you would

1.              like it sent home with a sibling

2.              You would like to pick it up

3.              Donate it to the amazing staff

 

*KINDER PARENTS*

Please make sure you are only ordering for the day your child is attending.

 

If you would like to volunteer for fun lunch, check out available spots here

 

If you aren’t sure if you have clearance for volunteering, please email us and we will be able to help you out dalhousieschoolparentsociety@gmail.com

Wednesday, 19th, 2022

In math, we have moved on from creating a patterned quilt (on paper) to working with number patterns. This includes the following three types of patterns, repeating, increasing and decreasing. Students will be practicing these skills today, before we continue on with the lessons. 

In Spanish, students will be working weekly in reading groups. They have all been reintroduced to RazKids and will also rotate through reading to themselves, with a partner and with the teacher. We continue to work on describing ourselves with the verb ser and using vocab about personality traits and physical characteristics. Students have been tasked with creating a description of a famous character, written in the first person. They will have to share their clues, and we will see if we can guess who they wrote about!

In science, we are very close to wrapping up our experiment with paper airplanes. Students will finish gathering their evidence today and write a conclusion. We will be moving on to our next unit, Waste in our World, shortly.  

In social, we are continuing our work on natural resources. 

In gym, we continue to work on a variety of soccer drills. 

Friday, October 14th

Another week done! 

Friday's go by very quickly... Today we were able to go outside and work on sit spots. Students were tasked with writing a short descriptive sentence in their art sketch book about three things they saw and then also sketch it. They also did the same with two things they feel and one thing that they hear. They were able to find a quite seat in nature and and do some good independent work. 

We had time for a very brief gym class and then we came back inside for a work on work session.  After lunch we were able to work on our colour wheel for art, practicing blending colours and learning about warm and cool colours.

Please see the previous post for general school updates. 

Happy weekend! 

School News

School photos retakes were originally scheduled to happen on October 17 & 18 have been rescheduled to November 2 & 3.  If you would like your child to have photo retakes, please email your child's teacher to let them know. Class Photos will also happen on the same days. - Grade 4 will be on the 2nd

Starting on Monday, October 17, 2022 we will be collecting food/non-perishable items for the Veteran’s Food Drive. There will be boxes set up at the front and back door for food drop off. At Dalhousie School, we want to support Calgarians who are less fortunate than us, and one way we are doing this is through the Veteran’s Food Drive. This drive will run until after Remembrance Day. Items that the food bank is urgent need of are the following:

• Kleenex – tissue boxes
• Napkins
• Paper towel
• 1 litre juice cartons
• Juice boxes for lunches
• Cereal
• Coffee and coffee pods
• Pancake mix
• Laundry soap
• Granola bars
• Ziploc bags (medium and large)
• Fabric softener
• Rice packages
• Cookies
• Canned chili / stew
• Mayonnaise
• $25.00 grocery gift cards

Thank you for your support of this worthy cause.

Tuesday, October 11th

 Welcome Back from a short break!

We are getting close to wrapping up our work on telling time. Students are working on a final knowledge check in. There will be more time in their futures... But for now, we will be moving to our patterns unit. Students should be able to tell the time on a digital and analog clock and should also be able to understand and convert to a 24 hour clock. Students are encouraged to continue to practice telling the time at home and in the car, etc!

In English students completed and checked their answers from our summary scavenger hunt. They were then tasked with reading a short story and writing a summary of their own. Summarizing is a big focus in grade 4 and we will be working on a lot of it. Students can be practicing this at home by sharing what they are reading and or watching.

In gym we continue to work on soccer skills. 

In Spanish we practiced speaking about our likes. We are working towards writing a description about ourselves... coming soon!

Thursday, Oct. 6th

No school tomorrow for a PD day.

No school Monday, Oct. 10th for Thanksgiving  - Happy Long Weekend to you all!

In math we are working on telling the time with a 24 hour clock. Students should be practicing telling the time at home, in the car or anytime they have access to a clock!

In Spanish we worked on describing ourselves and sharing a bit about what we have in our lives, family, pets, etc. We had a review of how to use the verb gustar (to like). We will be practicing more next week before expanding our descriptions of ourselves. 

In English teams of three were set off into the learning commons to complete a scavenger hunt about summaries. Only one team was able to find the right answer. We will go over the solutions next week.

In health we started talking about the Seven Sacred Teaching. The first teaching is about Respect and aligns with buffalo. 

In social we completed our first knowledge check-in about landforms. 

Please see previous post about important school info. 

SCHOOL INFO

 Playground Party 

We are having a playground party on Friday, Oct 21^st from 1:30-3:30 pm to explore our current playground and check out some ideas for the new playground we are hoping to build! Join us with your kiddos and ask any questions that you might have!

Did you know?? Our current playground is over 22 years old!!

Check out our Growing Smiles Link to order gorgeous holiday floral arrangements. 

We still need one volunteer to help with Apple delivery. Almost 300 boxes of apples were purchased by our school so the help will be greatly appreciated.  

Fun Lunch Contest Time

Win a free fun lunch!!! On Oct 18, Nov 15, and Dec 13, bring a reusable straw and show your fun lunch delivery person when you get your Booster Juice to be entered into the draw for a free Subway lunch on Dec 21! Good luck!

 Oct 12 – Subway (orders due Oct 7^th)

Oct 18 – Opa & Booster Juice (deadline Oct 13^th)

Oct 26 – Fat Burger (deadline Oct 21^st)

Nov 1 – The Saucy Bread Company (deadline Oct 27^th)

Nov 9 – Boston Pizza (deadline Nov 4^th)

 

Tuesday, October 4th, 2022

Today students completed the Our School Survey with questions about how they feel at school, their access to books and technology at school and a couple specific written questions about their learning and Spanish. 

In math we started looking at the 24 hour clock. Feel free to test your students at home!

In English, we continued our conversation around Truth and Reconciliation, including intergenerational trauma and the lasting impacts of residential schools. Students finished by creating a small art project. They had to trace their hands and write a promise about what they could do to help create a positive change for indigenous people and truth telling. 

In gym, we are working toward learning soccer skills and drills.

Our home reading club started today. Students who are reading below grade level or at the request of their parents during interviews received their reading package today. The expectation is that students will read for a minimum of 15 mins per day. The duotang should be brought in every two weeks for a teacher check-in. 

Dalhousie School News

 Dalhousie School News

Dalhousie students and families participated in the annual Terry Fox run this week. Donations can be made online to the Terry Fox Foundation under Dalhousie School until Monday, October 3. Cash will also be accepted until then. Thank you for your generosity in making this initiative such a success! 

School photos retakes will take place on take place on October 17 & 18, 2022.

There is no school on Friday, October 7 due to a non-instruction day and Monday, October 10 due to Thanksgiving.

Dalhousie Parent Society Updates

Thank you to everyone who purchased for our Apple Fundraiser! Apples will be delivered October 11 from 3pm-5pm at the school. We will need a few volunteers to help with the deliveries. 

Fun Lunch

Oct 4 – Boston Pizza (orders due Sept 29)

Oct 12 – Subway (orders due Oct 7)

Oct 18 – Opa & Booster Juice (deadline Oct 13)

Oct 26 – Fat Burger (deadline Oct 21)

Nov 1 – The Saucy Bread Company (deadline Oct 27)

If your child is going to be absent and you have ordered them a lunch, please email dalhousieschoolparentsociety@gmail.com before 11am the morning of fun lunch and let us know if you would

1.          like it sent home with a sibling

2.          You would like to pick it up

3.          Donate it to the amazing staff

*KINDER PARENTS*

Please make sure you are only ordering for the day your child is attending.

If you would like to volunteer for fun lunch, check out available spots.  

If you aren’t sure if you have clearance for volunteering, please email us and we will be able to help you out dalhousieschoolparentsociety@gmail.com

 Please look on our website www.dalhousieparentsociety.com for all info and more!