Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a wonderful fall break. Thank you to all the parents who were able to make it to parent/teacher interviews.  It was a pleasure to talk with you.  Please take a look at what the students had to say about our week;

We are learning how science works - Lucas
We learned that when skittles are mixed with hot water the color melts off - Arjana
We are finishing our last quilt patch - showing how we feel to belong to a community - Mada
Cold water and hot water will do the same thing to the skittles - but cold water takes longer - Morgan
We are learning how to do science - Shivya (the scientific method - Ms. C)
We have been writing about our favorite color - Fawzie
We have been working on number concepts through active learning centers in math - Tegan


Please take note of the following;
- Scholastic orders went home today: orders due Monday Nov. 4th
- Please bring a pair of headphones for the listen to reading center during guided reading. These will only be used by the student that they belong to
- Friday November 1st is a Professional Development day for teachers: no school for students
- Monday November 11th is a Stat: no school for students


If you are looking for something for your child to do instead of technology, the following are some activities and independent learning projects to consider.  Independent learning projects are not part of the classroom curriculum and will not be marked, however students are welcome to share them with their teacher and peers.

1. Play outside with family and friends every single day - even in the rain and snow.
2. Play board games.
3. Make your own board game, complete with rules and all game pieces. Play it with family members to get comfortable talking about it, then bring it to school to share with teacher and peers. This will help with number concepts in math and cooperative play along with many other concepts.
4. Play dice games every day –search online for games or make up your own then teach others how to play – good for number concepts in math and taking turns.
5. Play games with cards every day – search online for games or make up your own, then teach others how to play - good for number concepts in math and taking turns.
6. Read every day – attend the public library for books of interest.
7. Create, write and illustrate a book on topic of choice. Practice reading and talking about it to family and friends at home before bringing it to school to share teacher and peers.
8. Bake together - following recipes is great for numeracy and literacy skills

Have a great week everyone.

Ms. C

We have been finishing our quilts, stay tuned for photo's - Tegan
We have been writing in our Turkey books - Arjana
We are writing about what we are thankful for in our Turkey books - Shadi
We have been learning new games in gym - Henry
We have fun in the gym with the parachute - Omer
I'm thankful for my bike - Lucas
I'm thankful for family - Thunderheart
I'm thankful for the monkey bars outside - Tegan

Our classroom is continuing to talk about bucket filling from the book "How Full is Your Bucket". We are working at understanding that our actions affect not only ourselves, but also the people around us.  We are learning about the importance of kind words and how they affect others.

We welcomed Ms. Wills into our classroom this month.  She is a year 2 education student from Mount Royal University. She will be in our classroom on Thursday mornings.  The students love when she does our read alouds.

We are enjoying Music with Ms. Woodward on M/T/W afternoons.  This is the first time that we have had an official music teacher in a while. She helped the students do a lovely job singing at the potluck last week.

- Our first Healthy Hunger school lunch deadline to order is Friday October 18th - The Spooky Hot Lunch is on October 18th at noon (see note that went home)
- No school on Friday Oct. 11th
- Parent/Teacher interviews are Thursday Oct. 10th from 4-7:30, and Friday Oct. 18th from 8am-1pm
- Dress for the weather - it's getting colder out
- Fall break; no school Monday Oct. 14 to Friday Oct. 18th - first day back is Monday Oct. 21st
- See notes home regarding home reading program starting Monday Oct. 21st

Have a great break everyone. Stay warm. If your looking for something to do, remember to read every day with the students and play dice games and board games.

Always,
Ms. Cheveldeoff

This is what the students have to say:

We will be choosing one song every day after lunch to have a dance party to - whole class
We have been learning how to read - Tegan
We learned about the book Shi-Shi-Etko in honor of Orange Shirt Day - Fawzie
We are working really hard on bringing our quilts together - Zaiden
Our quilts include a patch on our family, community, country, city, school and province - whole class
We only have two more quilt patches left to complete our quilt - Morgan

Some items to take note of:

- There is not school Friday October 11th due to interviews.  

- There is no school the following week from Monday October 14th to Friday October 18th due to Fall break.

- The book fair will remain open on Monday Oct. 7th. If students bring money on Monday we will find a time to visit the book fair for them to make their purchases.

Parent/Teacher conferences are next Thursday and Friday - see the following links

https://portal.cbe.ab.ca/staffinsite/system_tools/student_supports/SIRS/Documents/PowerSchool_Parent_Account_Creation_and_Navigation.pdf- To create an account 

https://sis.cbe.ab.ca/ - Parent Login Page

School Conferences Parent Guide – Parent Guide (How to book a conference)

Sept. 27

September has flown by.  We have been busy doing lots of fun things (and work) in Room 10.

- Working really hard on our quilts - Morgan - Stay tuned to see what they look like.
- Adding patterns to our quilt borders - Tegan
- We have been working towards a goal of 15 marbles this week to earn show and tell time. Last week we earned 15 minutes of free time. - Shivya
- We have been writing about Terry Fox, because he was running to raise money for cancer research - Fawzie
- Terry Fox ran a marathon a day for 143 days - Omer
- We are playing tag games in the Gym - Zaiden
- Sometimes we have Gym outside - Riley
- We are working really hard to read - Shadi
- We have been learning and practicing classroom expectations such as keeping our hands to ourself to stay safe - Lila & Made


To remember:
- Terry Fox run next week
- Dress for the weather - it's getting chilly
- Orange Shirt day is next Thursday
- Library day is every Tuesday and Thursday. Please Bring back books before getting new ones.
- Mr. Bennett reminded us not to jay walk in front of the school

Orange Shirt Day

We will be recognizing Orange Shirt Day on Thursday October 3, 2019. This will be an opportunity for students and staff to learn about the legacy of the residential schools, as well as indigenous ways of knowing. Staff will lead students through a variety of learning activities that will engage students in conversations about belonging, community, and inclusion. A powerful way to do this is through the indigenous pedagogy of circle. Circle defines inclusion, In the circle we are all equal. No one is above, no one is below. No one is in front, no one is behind. The Sacred Circle is designed to create unity. As a way to recognize this very important day, staff and students are encouraged to wear orange. This represents our continued commitment to the Truth and Reconciliation Act as well as honoring the survivors of residential schools. If you have any questions please let us know.

Terry Fox Run

Our Terry Fox run will take place on Wednesday October 2 from 2:00pm-2:45pm. Students will gather for a short assembly, followed by a 20min Terry Fox run on the path close to the Marlborough Park Community Center. On the day of the run, students are encouraged to bring a Toonie for Terry to show their support and help raise money for cancer research. If you have any questions please let us know.

Ryan Nyrerod

Assistant Principal

Cappy Smart School

Calgary Board of Education

Twitter - @MrNrod

t | 403.777.8110 ext 2223

Hello Cappy Smart families,

It’s been a great first few weeks and we have all been very pleased to reconnect with our returning families as well as the many new families who have joined us over the past few weeks. I want to share some important information with you regarding our current class sizes as well as how we are going to ensure that we are providing the best opportunities for all of our students to be successful.

In June, we shared our projections for the 2019-2020 School Year. Our numbers have changed as we have had a few families move in and out of the community/city. The net result of these changes has created some unbalanced class sizes. Please see the chart below regarding our anticipated and current class sizes.

Class Anticipated Class Size – June 2019 

Grade 1/2 18 

Grade 1/2 18 

Grade 1/2 18 

Grade 3/4 25 

Grade 3/4 25 

Grade 4/5 26 

Kindergarten AM/PM 13/13

Current Class Size – September 2019

Grade 1/2 14

Grade 1/2 14

Grade 1/2 17

Grade 3/4 29

Grade 3/4 29

Grade 4/5 28

Kindergarten AM/PM 15/14

In an effort to ensure that all students are receiving the best possible opportunity to have a successful year, we will be redeploying some of our staff. This will create class sizes that are more typical for the grade levels and will allow us to provide new learning opportunities to all students. I have itemized the changes below:

Kindergarten: Ms. Blake will continue to teach the afternoon class. Ms. Woodward will be taking over the morning class after a one-week transition with Ms. Blake.

Grade 1/2: Ms. Woodward will be moving to half time kindergarten and half-time music (all grades). Her students will be divided between Ms. Christensen and Ms. Cheveldeoff’s classes with the same priorities that we used to create the original classes (learning needs come first). We will do our best to ensure that students are placed in the class where they will most likely learn best with their teacher and their classmates. Our Division 1 Education Assistant Ms. Mutual will now spend her time working with 2 grade 1/2 classes instead of 3 which will increase the amount of time that she can support students in the classrooms. Class sizes will be approximately 22 students per class.

Grade 3/4 and 4/5: Classes will now receive support from Ms. Blake in the morning Monday-Thursday. This will allow her to work collaboratively with these grades and provide greater opportunities for students to understand and revisit curriculum. Children will be regrouped based on current needs and the work that the students are engaged in so this number will go up and down. We are not creating a new class. Students will remain assigned to their current homeroom teacher and will regroup as needed.

SKILL 1 and SKILL 2: These classes are maintained by the system and will receive the same staffing and support as they did before.

Reorganizing our school is something that we take very seriously and I would like to assure you that we have considered many options before arriving at the conclusion that we needed to rebalance classes. Based on the number of students in each grade, it makes the most sense to retain the current grade format so that we can welcome any new students we may receive after September without overloading one class or grade.

Mr. Nyrerod and I will be available for questions after school on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and would be happy to discuss this with you in greater detail if you are interested. Please call Ms. Amanda in the office to let us know that you are coming so that we can schedule our time accordingly.

We anticipate putting these changes into effect on Monday, September 16, 2019. Thank you in advance for your support and understanding as we work to support the needs of all of our students from Kindergarten to Grade 5 and in our SKILL classes.

Sincerely,

Erin Bennett

Principal, Cappy Smart School

t | 403-777-8110

ecbennett@cbe.ab.ca

Ryan Nyrerod

Assistant Principal

Cappy Smart School

Calgary Board of Education

Twitter - @MrNrod

t | 403.777.8110 ext 2223