Fine Arts

The Alberta Opera Company brought their touring production of "The Frog Prince" to our school this week. It was a fabulous fine arts experience with singing and dancing and the students were enthralled. Sets, costumes, surprises, music, dancing - it was a great exposure to things that aren't often in our students' lives. Thank you to companies like this who are willing to tour around the province.



Several of our students got to be supporting actors in the production. Great fun!




She had to go to the swampy place to find the golden ball and then she gave it to the swamp monster family so they could both get out of that place.




He wished and he tried but it didn't happen - he was still a frog!



Moral of the story - You can be a friend to anyone all the time! It was a great fit with our character education assembly topics.

Education Week . . .

was celebrated with several special events last week.

Chris Scheetz from CISN 103.9 dropped by to read at our morning assembly



A little line dancing was our Healthy Hearts activity





A special musical presentation by the Trochu High School Band









Experiencing a western day











Learning more about auctions and auctioneers







Education Week was an event of celebrating all the kinds of awesome learning that happen at CES every single day!

Working Together

After a PD day on Tuesday, I was empowered to work on setting criterion with the students this week. We looked at 3 different curriculum areas over the last 3 days. I want to share what the students decided about each of the topics so I'll post one at a time over the next week. The question I posed in each instance was
"what makes a ........? What does it/he/she look like?"

A. What makes a good reader?
(in the kids' words, using vocabulary that we have used in the classroom all year)
- tries hard
- pays attention to the book/story
- reads with good speed
- checks back when not sure
- practices often
- reads big words
- reads smoothly
- chooses the right book
- understands what is read - comprehends
- makes connections
- to self
- to text
- to the world
- extends the experience
- draws or creates artwork
- writes about what might happen next
- writes another book or story to follow this one
- makes a play based on it
- can write about it
- reader's response
- can visualize (see pictures in your mind)
- makes predictions

WE have the chart up in the room and we refer to it often.
As a reading response, they wrote about 3 things they do now and 1 thing they'd like to improve. I was so proud of them for developing this list - I was really just the scribe. I love celebrating our learning!!!

Thanks to Dr. Anne Davies, who showed us how to do this and made us practice with a sample on Tuesday. She totally empowered me!

Spring is Here!!

At long last, it looks like we are going to have spring! The sunshine and melting snow are being enjoyed by all of us. Here are some activity pictures taken when we went swimming at the end of March. Hopefully it makes you feel like summertime! We will be swimming again near the end of June. If you would like to come with us, please send me a note and I'll save a place for you!

Good-bye, Mr. A!

Mr. Andrais' last day was Friday so we had a chance to do a few special things and say good-bye to him. He will be missed!



Staff presented a painting of the school to Mr. Andrais for him to hang in his new office. He will be definitely be able to remember us!




As the kids left the gym, everyone had a chance to give a hug -



or a high five good-bye to this man who truly has worked to make Calmar Elementary School a special place.

Half Pints Presentation

As part of this month's focus on bullying and character education, the Half Pints Basketball team visited us. They talked about looking different but still being able to do everything we can do - and even doing some things better than most of us, like playing basketball! It was lots of fun to have them play tricks, shoot hoops and talk about their experiences.

Skipathon

Thank you to everyone who supported our Jump Rope for Heart event!
Students raised more than $6000 - thank you for your effort in both fundraising and in skipping. Here's to healthy hearts and bodies!!



Jump Bands




Hula hoops




Follow the leader




Jump the dragons' tail




Hula hoop hopping