Dear Parents and Guardians
On Tuesday, November 5, the grade 2 team will be attending the BPAC meeting at 6:30pm. They are presenting first. If you would like to hear more about what is happening in grade 2 and are curious about who all the teachers on the grade 2 team are – please come and join us, even if you only wish to join us for the first part.
Tuesday morning also has Lantern Parade from 10:15 - 10:45 AM a German tradition called Martin’s Day a religious observance in Germany that is particularly popular with children. It is dedicated to St. Martin of Tours and celebrates modesty and altruism - both values commonly associated with Saint Martin. Families walk with lanterns through their communities in Germany to ‘bring light into the darkness’. In northern Germany the celebration is called Lantern Festival. (Laternenfest) and while keeping the topic of kindness and charity, it is not connected with the catholic St. Martin. It is still a children’s festival with lanterns being built at home or at school.
November 26 is Family Math Night. Please plan on coming! Ms. Tetz will have many games etc for you to explore that all support math learning at home. Most of our grade 4-6 students struggle with grade 2 subtraction of numbers under 20. Example: 15-6 or 17-9 or 11-4. Asking your child questions like this while driving, would be helpful. If they can do all those basic facts, practicing multiplication and division questions in the car is the next step. In math, automaticity of basic facts is essential for all higher-level math. During our initial numeracy testing, it became clear that NUMBER LINES are difficult for most students. Division 2 students struggle putting fractions on a number line as well as large numbers (1/5 on a number line of 1/1 or 6/7 on a number line of 1). Division 1 students struggle with putting a 3 on a number line of 10 or 25 on a line of 100. Please, take some time at night to see how your child is doing with a number line. All you need is a piece of paper, draw a line, put arrows on each end (because they keep going), put a 0 on the left and a different number on the right and … have fun asking your child what goes on the number line. You decide!
Playing Cribbage with your child/ren instantly teaches them addition facts up to 31 as well as strategy and probability.
Ms. Tetz is still hoping for more pictures of family members who served in the Canadian Military, Police, Fire Service, Paramedics for the Remembrance Day presentation by Tuesday November 5. Please email the photos directly to her at attetz@cbe.ab.ca
As our weather is changing. We just had a first real frost and -5C. Please ensure that your student arrives with proper winter clothing.
We still have about 40 Demographic forms outstanding that were sent home in paper. Please ensure to check them and return them to the main office. Alberta Education requires schools to update and/or confirm parent demographic data to be updated annually.
If you have a student on an IPP, please expect a call from the office to book your parent-teacher conference time for either November 28 in the evening or November 29 during the morning. Conferences will go live for parents to access on November 21.
Warm regards,
Meike Thomsen, Principal
Dates to Remember
November 5: Lantern Parade, 10:15 to 10:45am. BPAC, 6:30 pm
November 7: Remembrance Day Presentation
November 8: No School; Non-Instruction Day
November 11-13: No School; Fall Break
November 14: Classes Resume
November 19-22: Ms. Dietrich, Grade 3 to Calgary Open Minds week-long field trip: Eco School
November 26: Family Math Night; 6:00 – 7:30 pm
November 26-29: Book Fair Now a day longer to be open during the family math night too!
November 28: Parent-Teacher Conferences, 4:15 to 8:00pm
November 29: No School; Parent-Teacher Conferences, 8:00 to 1:00pm
December 3: BPAC, 6:30pm
December 18: German Winter Celebration, 6:00-7:00 pm
December 19: Community Winter Celebration, 6:00-7:00 pm
December 20: Last Day of School
December 23-January 3: Winter Break
January 6: Classes Resume
January 7: BPAC 6:30 pm
January 13-17: Frau Hauck, Grade 2: Calgary Open Minds, Library School
January 20-24: Ms. Buckner, Grade 3: Calgary Open Minds, Library School
January 31: No School, Non-Instruction Day
February 4: BPAC 6:30 pm
February 13-14: No School; Teachers Convention
February 17: No School, Family Day
February 24-27: Ms. Halvorson, Grade 1, Calgary Open Minds, Arts Commons
February 24-27 and March 17: Community Grade 6, Calgary Open Minds, Arts Commons
February 28: No School, Non-Instruction Day
March 3-6: Ms. Ruhrmann, Grade 1, Calgary Open Minds, Arts Commons
March 4: BPAC 6:30 pm
March 10-14: Ms. Tessier, Grade 4, Calgary Open Minds, Jube School