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

February Notes

Happy Valentine's Day Week!!!

Things to look forward to this week:

Jump Rope for Heart Skipathon tomorrow - grade 3's will skip from 1:15 - 1:45 p.m.

Valentine Card Exchange during the last 2 blocks of the day

AISI project time - Mrs. Fandrick will work with us on story writing skills

Monday, February 19 - Family Day - No School - have fun with your family!!

Tuesday, February 20 - 8:40 a.m. - Half Pints Basketball presentation on bullying

Lots to look forward to during a cold, snowy winter week!!

Coming Soon

Our school is participating in theHeart and Stroke Foundation's
Jump Rope for Heart
on Febraury 14th!
We'll be improving our own heart health
and raising money to do more research
and try to find a cure for this disease.

A jump rope team from Camrose in action!
Look at the ropes go and the leg kicks - they were SO good!

We are learning to skip and practicing our tricks.
Did you know you can jump rope with a single rope, a long rope,
a hula hoop, or jump bands?

If you'd like to, please come and join in skipping with us
on Valentine's Day!

Saying Goodbye

Our school secretary has moved to a new job at Central Office and we had to say good-bye to her last week. It was a sad time for her, as she's been at Calmar school for 14 years. We will miss her dearly but wish her every success as she learns new things. Thank you for doing such an awesome job here, Carol!

Students signed a giant card for her

Everyone got a high 5 or a hug!

First Week Back

It's been cold, windy and snowy but we are back in class! It was great to see everyone on Monday and hear all about the holiday activities and fun. Wow - lots of cool presents came to lots of very good kids! Here's a quick review of this week's activities:

Monday - reading, writing, math - we were back into the groove real quick
Tuesday - started a new unit on basketball in phys ed and finished geometric solids in math
Wednesday - Mrs. K couldn't get through the snowbanks to come to school - there were only 10 kids here
Thursday - reviewing multiplication concepts and preparing for the unit test next week
Friday - finding out lots of new things about 4 countries around the world - we'd like to go on a major fieldtrip to visit!

And we had lots of indoor recess time this week! Hopefully the weather will improve and we can play outside in all the snow next week. Stay warm this weekend!