October 7 - 10

Hello Parents/Guardians! 

W.O.W (Words of the Week) Words:

1. up
2. said
3. my
4. can
5. see

Bonus words:

1. leaves
2. Fall
3. fun

These are 5 words that we will be working with all week.  The W.O.W words are words students will encounter while reading and when writing independently.  Here are some ideas of what you can do at home with the W.O.W words:

• Make flash cards and have your child practice reading them.
• Look for these words when reading each night.  Home reading hasn’t yet started but students can use their library books or books they have at home.
• Have your child practice writing the W.O.W words
• Make the W.O.W words out of playdoh
• Look for the Secret Story spelling patterns in the W.O.W words. (letter sounds chunks, eg. th)
• Tell you a sentence using the W.O.W words.
• Write a sentence using the W.O.W words.

Weekly Highlights:

• In literacy, we continued to practice our secret stories and learned the secret story of “mommy e”.  When there is only one letter between mommy e and another vowel (ie “shape”) she will point to the vowel and say, “You say your name!” and then she will be quiet. If there is more than one letter between her and the vowel (ie “butter”) then her arms are too short to reach the other vowel and tell it to say its name.

• In math we learned about “more”, “less”, “fewer” and “the same as”. We talked about the number line and where you would look to find numbers that mean more (to the right on the number line) and where you would look to find numbers that are less on the number line (to the left).
• We continued to work on printing skills and printed letters Qq, Oo, Hh, Ii, Pp, Rr, Uu, Vv, Ww, Yy, Xx, Zz..  We have now finished practicing all the letters of the alphabet. 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 talked about why we have Fall and things we do in the Fall. We are almost finished making our “little humans” doing their Fall activities and they will be displayed outside of room 11.
• When writing in their journal students were reminded to: add the date, draw a sketch on the white part of the page, add labels, and write a sentence using kid writing on the lines, then to add colour if they have time.  We did some writing about things we like to do in the Fall and also things we are thankful for in preparation for making our classroom book for Thanksgiving.

Reminders:

No school:

There will be no school on Friday, October 11 or Monday, October 14 (Thanksgiving Day).

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.

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 10^th at 7pm.

Scholastic Book Orders:

October scholastic orders are due back on Monday, October 21. This is a voluntary program. Please do not feel obligated to purchase anything.

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.  

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.

Communication Books:

Please make sure to check your child’s folder and communication book each day and return it to school. If you have a note for you child’s teacher it can be written in here.  We are using a post-it note to help us find the current page in our communication books. Please leave it in your child’s book.

Library:

Students are able to sign out a new library book Monday to Thursday.  It is expected that your child’s library book will be returned in the plastic bag that was provided.  If your child has lost the plastic bag it is parents responsibility to provide a new one.  It is your child’s responsibility to put their library book into the basket each morning if they would like to exchange it.