Hello
Parents/Guardians!
W.O.W (Words of the Week)
Words:
- up
- said
- my
- see
- can
Bonus words:
- seven
- eight
- nine
Weekly Highlights:
- In literacy, we continued to
practice our secret stories and learned the secret story for “ing, ang,
ong, ung.” These four live in the city of Hong Kong where they like
to pass the time watching the clock chime their names. The clock chimes “ING-ANG-ONG-UNG.” We
continued to build our alphabet and letter sound knowledge and have been
applying this when writing. Students were also reminded to use the
secret stories that they know and use the word wall to help them spell
words.
- This week in math we have been
working a lot on vocabulary. Students learned about more, less (or
fewer), and as many (same). We looked at different groups of objects
and then compared quantities. We also drew and built different quantities
using the words more and less. For example, students were asked to
“draw 2 fewer squares than triangles”, or “draw 1 more square than circles.”
- We continued to work on printing
skills and printed letters Uu, Oo, Qq, Ss, Vv, Ww, and Kk. When
printing, students were reminded to always start at the top. We also practiced saying the letter
sounds and brainstormed words that started with the letters we
printed.
- In Science we continued to discuss
the season of Fall. Students created a piece of writing to go with
the Fall person that they made last week. When writing their simple
sentence (“I like to _________), they were reminded to use the secret
stories we have learned and the word wall to help them write their
words. They were also encouraged to use their letter sound knowledge
to use kid spelling and to use finger spaces.
- Orange Shirt Day was on Monday,
September 30th. It is a day when we honour the Indigenous children
who were sent away to residential schools in Canada and learn more about
the history of those schools. We discussed how we would feel if we were
taken away from our families and forced to change our way of life. Please
see the video about Phyllis’ story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3vUqr01kAk
- We have begun a fall inchie art
project that we will be working on over the next few weeks. We have
completed the first of 4 art pieces, a Fall tree. Students sponge painted the background,
then painted a Fall tree using brown paint. They then used tissue
paper in fall colours (red, orange, brown, and yellow) to create the leaves.
Reminders:
Home Reading:
The home reading program
has started. Students went home yesterday with their first home reading
book. Inside the bag they should have a “Just Right Book” at their
current reading level as well as a writing journal. Please ensure that
the writing journal and home reading book are returned in this bag. As a reminder, students should read the book
and then write a sentence about it. The sentence should not be a copying
activity. We want the students writing
their own sentence using kid spelling (this may mean that they only record the
first and last sound of each of their words). If you are concerned that
the teacher will be unable to read your child’s message you can scribe
underneath their kid writing what they have written. Once they have completed their sentence they
should bring their home reading bag back to school to exchange their book for a
new one. We ask that your child read and respond to a book at least twice
a week. It is your child’s responsibility to hand in their home
reading bag when they are ready to exchange their book. They are also
responsible for selecting a new book from the home reading book cart. If
you feel that the level your child is taking home is too easy/hard please write
a note for you child’s teacher.
Headphones:
We are kindly requesting
that parents send in a pair of headphones in a plastic bag labeled with your
child’s name. We would like to use these headphones during our Daily
5 stations when doing listen to reading (Raz-Kids). The headphones will
be stored in your child’s individual book box and be kept at school to be used
until the end of the year. Please do not feel obligated to get fancy
expensive headphones, dollar store headphones will work fine. Please ensure that your child is able to
independently put on and take off these headphones. Thank you to those of
you who have already sent in headphones.
Hot Lunch:
We now have the school year's lunches/snacks available to order in
our Hot Lunch system. You can go in and order the whole year all at once if you
like! Here is the link to the hot lunches system for your
convenience: https://simonsvalleyelementary.hotlunches.net .
Please note below is a list of all the lunches and snacks for the
2019/2020 school year. For all orders the latest you can pay for orders will be
the week before the lunch/snack date. The first lunch is coming up on October
17th and if you would like for your child(ren) to participate in this
lunch, you need to pay for your order by Thursday, October 10th, 2019.
Communication Books:
Please make sure to check
your child’s folder and communication book each day and return it to school. After
checking your child’s communication book please leave it open to the current
page. If you have a note for you child’s teacher it can be
written in here.
Artist in
Residence
Simons
Valley School is pleased to announce that Ryan Jason Allen Willert will be
working with the staff and students in the role of Artist in Residence starting
this upcoming week. Ryan is a full-time artist and storyteller born and raised
in Southern Alberta. Although he was brought up in a non-native community, he
has since reconnected with his Blackfoot roots (Siksika Nation). Ryan learned
the art of black ink drawing from his father Richard (Dicky) Stimson, another
well-known Siksika Nation artist. Among the many exhibitions where he has
presented his work are the City of Calgary and Calgary’s Glenbow Museum. Ryan will be sharing the Buffalo teachings with
our staff and students and in turn creating a mural in our multipurpose area.
Please come hear him speak at the Parent Council meeting Thursday October
10that 7pm.
Labeling Clothing:
Many students have the same
jackets, snow pants, and boots. It is very important that you label
your child’s belongings so that we know who they belong to. This way,
if two students are not sure whose boots are whose they can check the
label.
Ask Me About:
- Why is Orange Shirt Day important?
- Use the links on the side to
review letter sounds with your child. Ask them to record a few
simple words related to something they are interested in. Remind them to
S-T-R-E-T-C-H out the sounds and listen for and record as many sounds as
they can. If your child records the wrong letter, this is okay and you
don’t need to immediately correct them. We want to increase their
confidence in writing independently writing (eg. “lgo” for Lego, “scr” for
soccer, “dns” for dance).
- Ask your child to draw the
following sets:
- More circles than squares
- Fewer circles than squares
- As many circles as squares
