Noon Supervision Reminder

Hello Parents and Guardians

 

Ken Taylor offers noon supervision to all of our Grades 1-4 students.  In order for your child to be eligible for this service you must register using your My CBE account. https://webapps.cbe.ab.ca/MyAccount/Account/LogOn?ReturnUrl=%2fMyAccount%2f.   Please be sure to register for the 4 day week service for $255.00. 

 

If you do not register for noon supervision your child will need to be picked up over the noon hour. If your child rides the bus you will also need to register for bus service and pay the bussing fee of $355 for the school year.  When you register your child for the bus service they will  automatically be registered for noon supervision and both fees will apply.

 

Any family needing a waiver is encouraged to apply to the City of Calgary Fair Entry Program to prove income for a CBE waiver, as well as access other benefits of the program. This is optional for families and the CBE will will continue to accept other approved documents as proof of income.  Please visit our CBE website for more details http://www.cbe.ab.ca/registration/fees-and-waivers/Pages/Waivers.aspx 

 

If you have already registered for noon supervision please disregard this email.

 

Barb Rocca
Administrative Assistant, Kenneth D. Taylor School

Calgary Board of Education | cbe.ab.ca

t | 403-817-3504

Wondering Wednesday

Dear Parents:

A special shout out to my voluntary shoe monitors, thank you for your mindful attention to keeping our shoes looking tidy and organized.  You are living the KTS values of helpfulness and responsibility you are role models to the younger students.

To expand our background knowledge about Orange Shirt Day,  over the last two days we have been learning and connecting to different perspectives by reading the picture book:  When I Was Eight Based on the true story of Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

Here is a video of the book  being read incase you want to enjoy this compelling story:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSBrkJn3NeI

Orange Shirt Day supports  every child.  All children's voices should be heard and celebrated.   "Orange Shirt Day is a legacy of the St. Joseph Mission (SJM) residential school commemoration event held in Williams Lake, BC, Canada, in the spring of 2013. It grew out of Phyllis' story of having her shiny new orange shirt taken away on her first day of school at the Mission, and it has become an opportunity to keep the discussion on all aspects of residential schools happening annually."
 Here is a link to the website to learn more about this important issue:http://www.orangeshirtday.org/

We learned a new thinking routine today that helps us take on different perspectives or point of views.  It is called Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono.

Considering this was our first time using this routine, I was absolutely blown away by the brilliant reasoning about this very serious historical event.  We broke up into groups of 3 and practiced using three of the hats:  white, red and black.  Here are some photos of the conversations and ideas captured on white boards.  The dialogue sparked by the book When I was Eight  was powerful and sophisticated.    

Here are some photos of us in the Learning Commons.  Our regular library time will be on Wednesday afternoons from 12:10-12:40.  So, students should return library books every Wednesday so they can sign out new books each week.  Thank you.  

Toonies for Terry Fox.  Please feel free to donate a toonie

to celebrate the Terry Fox Foundation and the continued research into cancer.  We will be running on Friday morning to celebrate this important cause.

Our Thinking and Learning for Sept. 18-22

Another amazing learning week.  Thank you metacognites for your mindful conversation, your questions build your background knowledge.

"The brain is like a muscle.  When it is in use we feel very good.  Understanding is joyous. " -- Carl Sagan

Thank you for meeting me at conferences  on Thursday and Friday.  I really value getting your perspective on your child because we are a team who  support successful learning of all students in our classroom.

A reminder that Monday is a PD day and so there is no school for students.

We have trying our best to live the Ken Taylor Values each and every day:
At Kenneth D. Taylor students have HEART:

Helpfulness

Empathy

Acceptance

Responsibility

Truthfulness

As the oldest students we have a responsibility to be helpful and to act like ambassadors everyday.  Here are some photos of us trying out our ambassador walk in the hallways.

This was our first week on the computers, we discussed the importance of being a digital citizen and how you act the same way online as you would in person. We know how important it is to keep our passwords private and to act with respect in digital environments. At Ken Taylor School we care about ourselves, each other and the environment (surroundings). These values transfer over to computers as well, we are lucky to be able to use technology to expand our background knowledge and so we must treat the computers with respect.

In Humanities we have begun our exploration of Alberta’s regions. We began exploring by Zooming into the regions, here is a link for you check out at home: http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/sszi/en/

We are learning how to read different types of texts. Using our reading powers to read on-line text promotes our critical thinking skills because you have to decide which of the information is important to understand the main idea. You have to use your connecting, questioning and inferencing skills to filter through the words and graphics (pictures, symbols, photos). We started a learning task this week to allow us to practice these skills. It is called the Alberta Amazing Race. This was powerful and challenging because students had to work in groups and share strategies to discover the answers to the clues. Here are some photos of us on the computers doing this task:

teamwork = global mind

reading together = transformed thinking

In science.  We have been investigating the impact  of waste in our world.  We are discovering how nature is the best recycler, humans can learn many lessons from nature.

Check out our "ecotree".

It's ecologically friendly because it's made out of newspaper, a reusable resource.  It is an example of alternate ways to use human trash.  We can upcycle trash and make art that tells a story.   Our newspaper tree  represents an ecosystem.  The prefix eco means habitat, environment or surroundings.

 An ecosystem is made of living and non-living objects and organisms.  Can you identify the living and non-living things in our ecosystem?

We brainstormed all our connections to newspaper, here are our ideas:

Newspaper is …

A natural resource

A human made product that comes from a tree

Something that is not harmful to nature

A product that wastes trees

A resource that we can reuse

A product that can be used for many things

recycled paper

Great for making things

Great for design thinking

Newspaper can be …

used to upcycle

It can be “downcycled” back into compost

Can be transformed because it is flexible

Newspaper ...

Makes great prototypes

Starts out as a seed

Tells a story

Tells a story about the ecosystem and the world!
Here are some important vocabulary words and definitions connected to waste in our world:

Compost: mixture of decomposed plant and other organic matter.
Decomposition: breakdown of organic material.
Inorganic: material, usually non-living, that is not easily decomposed.
Organic: material, usually living, that is easily decomposed.
Squirm: a group of worms
Microorganisms: any organism that is too small to see with the unaided eye — such as a bacterium.

Tuning into Safety on Tuesday

Dear Parents:
Today we had our first fire drill of the year.  I'm so proud of how well our class did.  They exited silently, were mindful of the safety concerns and understood the serious expectations of this practice.  It is important to be role models for the kindergarten classrooms in our hallway and our grade fours did a wonderful job.  Congratulations to you all.

Just a note to let you know that we are having our introduction to the book fair tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept. 20th.  Students will be able to browse and check out books that they might want to purchase.  They will not be buying tomorrow, just looking and deciding.  Then on Thursday afternoon they will be able to purchase books, so this would be the day to bring their money, if they wish to buy.  Otherwise you will be able to visit the book fair Thursday night and Friday morning during parent-teacher conferences.

Please Subscribe to stay informed

Here is a link to subscribe

http://calgary.schoolmessenger.com/cbe_subscribe

Due to Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, you need to subscribe below if you want to continue receiving commercial electronic messages on school topics such as student fees, picture days, field trip costs, yearbooks, fun lunches and more.

Our Second Week Sept 11-15

Dear Parents:
Our first full week of school has been a busy one, our classroom is buzzing with learning.  Thank you so much for all or your kind donations of beautiful flowers from your garden.  You will see the results of our artistic talents below.  As well,  thank you to those who brought in newspapers for us to upcycle.

Here is a photo of the web we brainstormed to write our Home Journals to you this week.
It will help you make connections between and about our learning.  We are currently focusing on the following curriculum areas:  Science (Waste in Our World), Humanities (Alberta and it's geography and history through our class novel),  Literacy (writing responses using the see/think/wonder framework), reading independently and reading in a group using the reciprocal teaching framework.  We have been reading all types of media this week including videos, magazine articles, infographics, fiction and fiction texts.  In math we have been looking at problem solving through a problem of the week based on data and probability.  We have been practicing our mental math fluency using dice with a partner as well as our multiplication and division strategies.  The students completed a numeracy assessment (number and operations)  this week as well.

Our learning connections this week.  

We also worked on text to text connections between waste in our world and recycled materials to create and design some artwork.  We are using newspaper to create a tree to represent an ecosystem.  We are learning the difference between how humans handle waste and how nature does.  The second design project we worked on was using a natural dye to paint with through a process called flower pounding.  Here is a link to some more information on flower pounding incase you want to try it yourself:  https://oliverands.com/community/blog/2015/06/flower-pounding-technique.html

Here are some photos for you to see the students at work:

  

mindful decisions about color and placement 

working together to create the trunk our our tree

flower pounding using simple machines 

recycling newspapers to create art.  

Here are some of the completed designs using the natural dye from flowers.  There was no waste here because we put the used flowers directly into our green compost bins to decompose and return nutrients to the soil.  Someone said "hey, it's like the hammer is painting."  Another student said "this is so peaceful."  It is a mindful task.  

 Parent Teacher conferences are this week on Thursday from 3:30-7:30 and on Friday from 8:00 - 1:00.  If you haven't already had a chance to book a time, please try and do so this week.  It is a wonderful opportunity for us to discuss the learning strategies that work best for your child.  Thank you.  Here is a link to website for booking:  https://webapps.cbe.ab.ca/MyAccount/Account/LogOn?ReturnUrl=%2fMyAccount%2f

Our First Week of School - Sept 5-8

Dear Parents,

We had an a great first week of school. The students adjusted well to the routines and expectations of our learning community.


Here is a link to Alberta Education and the grade four curriculum

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/13/fd/31/13fd313badf0d281416666b570f6006b.jpg

Highlights from the week:

During Literacy, the students selected a book of choice and began to pay attention to their thinking voice using the reading powers. Metacognition means thinking about your thinking and the reading powers offer us a language to understand what goes on in our brain as we read, write and think.

All readers visualize as they read, they make connections to things they have done or what they have read or seen in movies. As we read we ask questions and we make inferences about what we are reading to answer these questions. Finally, our thinking is transformed as we read because we learn something new.

In Math, the students are collecting data to create a bar graph. The data is based on questions that helped the students get to know each other. In the upcoming days, we will look at strategies to read our graphs. We also are practicing our multiplication and division strategies and learning about time on an analog clock. We discovered that time and fractions are connected. For example, if you cut (divide) the clock in half then each half is equal to 30 minutes because 60/2=30. If you cut the clock into quarters then each quarter is equal to 15 minutes. You can jump to multiplication now and realize that 15 x 4 = 60 or 30 X 2 = 60.

We began reading our class novel The Amazing Alberta Time Travel Adventures of Wild Roping Roxy and Family Day Ray by Rob Lenard. This is a wonderful book connected to Social Studies as we begin our exploration of Alberta’s History. Learning about the past helps us understand our identity and our heritage.

Important Information:

If you have flowers in your garden that you wouldn’t mind sending for an art project, it would be much appreciated if you could send them to school with your child by Friday, September 15.

Sincerely,


Ms. Hargreaves