Final Blog of the Year!

Hello Parents,

Can you believe we are in the final week!  Wow!  It has been an amazing year, and I would like to say a big 

T H A N K    Y O U !

for making it such a wonderful year.  We have shared some great memories in the classroom with your children.  They all are an amazing group of children!  Thank you for all the welcome backs after my trip last week.  I wish I had a picture or two to show, but unfortunately my memory card is reading "error" and I may have lost them all :-S 

Some important dates this week to note:

Wednesday, June 25 - Sports Day! (Please see note below for information)

Wednesday, June 25 - Last day for PM Class.  Report Cards to come home 

Thursday, June 26 - Last day for AM Class.  Report cards to come home

Friday, June 27 - Appeals day. 

Tuesday, September 2 - First Day back for Grade One!




Sports Day 
Sports day is held in the afternoon, around 1:00.  This year is a western theme, so come dressed in your best stampede outfit, or show your Beluga Pride in a school shirt.  Teachers have prepared a variety of fun games and centres to show our western skills and have some fun.  It is held outside, so apply any sunscreen or bug spray before school.  Morning children are welcome to attend, if accompanied by an adult guardian (as Mrs. Hassam and myself will be supervising the afternoon class).  

In case you haven't heard, this is my last year at Beddington Heights as a Beluga.  I have accepted a position for next year at C. N. Gunn as a full day Kindergarten teacher.  I will miss my Beluga Family.  I hope everyone has a wonderful summer full of memories and family!
Mr. Trechka

June

Hello parents,

This week we are working on finding letters that begin with the sound /y/.  "Yy" can sometimes be a tricky letter to remember the corresponding phoneme (sound) because of its name sounding like it has a /w/.  But we have discovered many different words.  Many of the children were unsure of the yolk of an egg.  After seeing a picture they could recognize it, but not all could remember the taste of it, and if they liked it or not.  We had a discussion about "runny yolks vs hard yolks."  Which camp do you sit in?  We also found a video of a young girl do some amazing yodeling.   We all agreed that that is a very different way of singing than we are used to!

This week you will be receiving the Clay For Kids projects for our Father's Day gifts.  We have worked carefully to build them, then sent them away with the potters to dry and fire in the kiln.  We finally got them back and were very excited to paint them and give them to our Dad's this weekend!

A reminder that the Volunteer Tea is this Friday afternoon.  We want to thank all of our volunteers that have been able to spend some time in the classroom and school helping out our students.  If you have not RSVP'ed, please do so ASAP so that we can be prepared for your visit.

Next week, I will not be in the classroom.  In fact, I will not even be in the country!  My dance group, Suzirya, is performing in Calella, Spain as part of an international dance festival.  Please welcome in Mr. Fisher who will be the guest teacher for the week.  The children have already met Mr. Fisher when he subbed for Mrs. Hassam a few weeks ago.  If there are any questions or concerns next week, Mrs. Hassam or the office will be able to help you out.  I will be back in time for the last week of school to get all of our work packed up and ready to be sent home for the summer!

Have a great week,
Mr T.

June!!

Wow! What a week!

This week we have been focusing on the letter "Xx."  It is a tricky letter as xylophone  actually makes a /z/ sound when at the beginning of the word.  We are looking more at the /ks/ sound that it makes in the middle and end of words such as fox and box.

This week we had a visit from Constable Tyler, our S4 representative. We talked a lot about how police officers are community helpers that we see in our neighborhood. Here are some highlights from his visit:

• ·      Who can help keep our community safe? Police, fire fighters, ambulance drivers, all of us, too!
• ·      “If we are nice to each other, it helps us feel good, and we can make good decisions”
• ·      Police Uniform – Giant red stripe and a patch (Calgary police Services)
• ·      Other adults that wear uniforms that we can trust – Firemen (yellow stripe or special suits), Ambulance drivers (white stripe with some blue), teachers (blue ID badge)
• ·      Tools that he uses on his tool belt all of the time:

o   What tool does he use the most?

§  Pen! Taking notes about everything they talk about with people

o   A special pouch for Keys

o   Flashlight

o   Walky-Talky – we talk in special codes with numbers.  There are over 100!

• ·      Tools that I only use sometimes: (“All of the things on my belt have rules”)

o   Pepper Spray

o   Handcuffs – “Like a time-out for adults to calm down”

o   Baton – for searching, or prying or knocking

o   Gun – in a special holster

o   Magazines – to carry extra ammo

o   Our Senses – Eyes, ears, mouth and nose

o   Strengths – honesty, bravery, courage, commitment

• ·      Police as community helpers  - S4

o   We can see different hats

o   Police officers come from all over the world working in Calgary

o   Police cars

o   Helping in the community with all sorts of events

o   Police officers helping in schools

o   Police cadets – learning to become a police officer

• ·      When to call 911?

o   In an emergency and we need help and the adult can’t call, then we as children can call

o   To get help from police, ambulance, firefighters,

o   They are going to ask, what is happening, what you see, what you smell, what your name is, and what is your address.

o   Can your child say their address in the case of an emergency

• ·      Police cars – New cars to look for!
• ·      Motorcycles, bicycles, helicopters,
• ·      Always look for the patch to tell CPS.  Even with different uniforms, they always have the patch and a red stripe
• ·      Police dogs even have their own badge!
• ·      Police horses even wear a patch.  We horses that can go different places that cars and bikes can’t.

We are also lucky this week to have a visit Thursday afternoon by two olympians at 12:45.  Dylan Moscovitch and Dominique Maltais will be sharing about their journey to the Sochi games.

May 29

Hello Parents,

Wow! Can you believe that June is just around the corner??

This week we are focusing on the letter "Ww" and words that start with the sound /w/.  Mrs. Hassam and I have started calling it "wubble u, double u" as we differentiate between the sound of the letter "Yy" which often gets mixed up.  We have also been talking about our question words (what, where, when, why, who) and the importance of a question mark in writing.  Can you find any question marks in the books you are reading together at home? Here is a link to our friends the storybots for some silly "Ww" fun!

Also, TONIGHT is the Parent Council's Carnival.  Bring your family from 6-8 for some fun games in the gym.  Maverick's are raising money for the Children's Make A Wish Foundation during this event.

Tuesday May 20, 2014

Dear Parents,

Our school will be holding a Grade 1 Orientation for Kindergarten students starting Grade 1 in September 2014.  It will be held this Thursday, May 22nd at 6:00 p.m.  All Grade 1 teachers will be at this Orientation highlighting important information for a smooth transition to Grade 1.  We hope all of you can attend.

Beth Fisher our school community nurse came to visit us today.  She talked about our Pillar of Care for Self by giving us some great information on nutrition and helmet safety.  

Nutrition:

- Ask your child how big a serving size really is! (Believe it or not, it's only the size of your fist!).  

- We learned the 4 different food groups.  How many does your child remember?  

- We need 5 servings of fruits and vegetables (the most important), 4 servings of grains, 2 servings of dairy products and only 1 serving of meats/alternatives in a day.  

- There should always be "lots of colours on your plate."

- Ask your child what is the best drink to have (I'll give you a hint, our body is made up of approximately 70% of it...)

- We wear our helmet on "anything that makes you go faster than our feet."

- Ask your child why we need to wear a helmet.  Did you our skull is the thickness of  3 pennies!

- What does our skull protect?  We talked about how our brain is like our body's computer.  It helps us to breath and makes our heart beat without even thinking about it.

- A proper fit should (1) be snug on our head, (2) sit 2 fingers above our eyebrows, (3) fit 1 finger in the strap under our chin, and (4) make a "V" around our ears.  We use the saying "2-V-1"

- And did you know that helmets have an expiry date?  Check your helmets at home to see if they are still good!

Check out the Helmet Checklist and Canadian Food Guide that your child is bringing home this week.

This week we are focusing on the letter "Uu."  Vowels are fun with the two sounds, such as long letter 'u' in the word unicorn (it says its name) or short letter 'u' in the word umbrella.  Check out the crazy antics of the Storybots for more unbelievable "Uu" words!

May 12

Hello Parents,

There is lots to say this week, so hold on to your hats! First off, I hope everyone has had a wonderful Mother's Day this past weekend!  This week we are focusing on the letter 'Tt' and the sound /t/.  The children discovered that the word Thursday also starts with the letter 'Tt' but makes a different sound /th/.  We had a wonderful discussion about the 'Hh' working to change this sound.  Can you find more /t/ and /th/ sounds?



Last week we had 2 wonderful visitors come into the class.  On Wednesday, was Margery from World Health who brought herrip sticks  to share with us.  She had picked out some awesome music that we recognized and loved.  We got to do some amazing drumming with the stick for a pound workout.  We could feel our muscles after!  Ask your child which pillar of care we are focused on, when brought her



On Friday, Clay for Kids came to teach us about clay.  Did you know it comes from the earth?! "It feels cold and muddy." (Tina) and "The air makes it hard." (Evey).  It was really amazing to see her use the potter's wheel to make a bowl. Our jaws were dropped wide open.





I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who was able to donate books for the Calgary Reads
Book Drive.  Our school has filled an entire van full of books! And the best news, our class brought in the most books!  As a reward, we got to pick a book to take home!  Please be careful not to mix them up with our library books (which need to come back next week).  We had a conversation with our class about the barcodes that help identify our library books.





As the weather warms up, I am noticing more flip flops in our coatroom.  If you are wearing sandals, please send an extra pair of socks in your child's back back for their inside shoes.  It just helps with rubbing and blisters as we work in our runners in the school. Thanks. 

Special Guest In Our Classroom

Hello Parents,

This week we are looking at the letter 'Ss' and all of the special words that start with the sound /s/.  Remember, as we come across soft 'c' words, such as circus and cent, I will be accepting them as a /s/ word, as I draw attention to the phonemes (sounds) of words.  I will point out that with "adult writing" it is made with a 'Cc', but accept their words.

To help build excitement around the letter 'Ss' we are also welcoming Zeus, my corn snake into the classroom for the week.  Rest assured that there are rules and expectations around this creature in our classroom.  Everything is safe, and the children are in not touching or interacting directy with Zeus, he is only handled by myself.  We are looking at his habitat, making observations, and collecting data and "I wonders..." about snakes.  This is beginning an inquiry into living and non-living things. Please take a moment to have a discussion about some "I wonders..." with your child and comment with them in the comment box below. 

Some I wonders from the classroom include:

• I wonder where he would live in the wild.
• I wonder what he eats.
• I wonder if he swims.
• I wonder why he has a swimming pool.
• I wonder how far his tongue stretches out.

We will also have some special presentations this week as WorldHealth comes in to do a special "pound"  fitness routine with us on Wednesday, and Clay for Kids comes in on Friday to work on a clay project!