Volunteer Tea

Please join us for tea!  We will treat you to delicious treats and student entertainment. 

Date: Friday, June 8^th, 2018 

Time: 10:00am 

Location: Lake Bonavista School Gymnasium  

Please RSVP to lakebonavista@cbe.ab.ca 

Thank you for joining us at this adult only event. 

Thanks everyone, 

The Volunteer Tea Committee 

Australian Rules Football

The Australian Football Club of Alberta school program will be at Lake Bonavista School teaching the outdoor game of Footy to our students, each class will have daily sessions with the guest instructor between June 4^h- 8^th, 2018. This highly interactive Physical Education program introduces students to the sport of Footy. Thank you to Mrs. Ross’s Exchange Teachers group for extending this wonderful Active Learning opportunity to us. Please return the Acknowledgement of Risk form by Friday, June 1st so that your child's participation. 

Friday, May 25th, 2018

Hi Families,

I hope you all enjoyed your May long weekend! Can you believe we are in the last leg of the year? This time flies by, but we have so much important work to finish (and even start!) Luckily, the students are showing an amazing amount of engagement in the work we are doing. I am so proud of them all!

Thank you to the families who have shared pictures of their children outside, in nature. They are a fantastic complement to our weekend journal writing, give the students an opportunity to practice their presentation skills in front of the class, and celebrate the many opportunities we have to be outside in our gorgeous Spring weather!

Between swimming and our field-trip, we felt very "on-the-go" this week!

In gym, we added to our repertoire of skipping rhymes by practicing counting rhymes and learning a "Red Hot Pepper" (fast pace) rhyme and action rhyme. All students are loving long-rope skipping! Ask your child to teach you one of the rhymes this weekend!

Thank you to volunteers who have been able to join us for our swimming sessions. We appreciate all the support you give, from keeping us organized and on time, to drying our clothing when we accidentally wear them in the showers out of sheer excitement! Swimming continues on Tuesdays and Thursdays until June 5th.

We thoroughly enjoyed our field trip to Ralph Klein Park on Wednesday! Thank you to the volunteers who were able to join us for the day, we hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did! Something to keep in mind: In addition to a brand-new nature playground opening soon, Ralph Klein Park offers a FREE Summer Nature Drop-In Program. This is the website for more information: http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Parks/Pages/Programs/Dropin-programs.aspx

In your child's mail folder today, please find:

- June Scholastic Book Order. I am sending these home early to ensure they arrive in time for summer holidays. If you would like any summer reading recommendations for your child, please don't hesitate to ask. Orders and payment due by Friday, June 1st. Cheques or online payment only please.

Some reminders for next week:
- Swimming on Tuesday.
- Fish Creek Park Field Trip on Wednesday.
- Swimming on Thursday.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Ms. Thomas

Friday, May 18th, 2018

Hi Families,

This week, we spent time with our buddies, reviewing the Fundamental Needs of People as part of the Third Great Lesson. In the upcoming weeks, students will be researching different cultures throughout time, and identifying how those people met their different material and spiritual needs. Students were quick to point out that this could be a lot of information, so we decided to work with our buddies to create different styles of graphic organizers. Many students from grade 1 and 2 were able to contribute ideas based on how we've organized our work in writing and math, from lists, to table and t-charts.

We will be revisiting this work next week and identifying where we can find information for our research.

Rooms 4, 5 and 7 hosted an assembly this week. They taught us a few different skipping rhymes, and showed us what double-dutch skipping looks like! Many students were keen to learn additional rhymes and try their hand at other skipping skills, so we are revisiting skipping in gym.

Swimming lessons started this week, and students did an amazing job listening to their instructors and getting organized before and after their lessons. We are on a very tight schedule, especially when coming back to the school, so your help in keeping your child's post-lesson routine simple would be appreciated. Two small requests if possible:

- Jeans and leggings are very challenging to put on a damp body. Baggier sweat pants or dresses are easier to slip on.

- Please label any items you send with your child, using a Sharpie on the tag. I am currently the owner of a pair of boys swim trunks, a green towel, and two pairs of goggles that no one seems to be able to identify. The Trico is still open for public swimming while we are there, so it would help us identify whether these items even belong to a Lake Bonavista student.

This Wednesday, May 23rd, we will be going on an all-day field trip to Ralph Klein Park. One more volunteer for the day is required. If you are able to join us, please email me: krthomas@cbe.ab.ca. The current forecast for Wednesday is hot and sunny, and Ralph Klein Park is an open space. Please ensure you watch for weather updates and have your child dress appropriately, with sunscreen, a hat and comfortable, close-toed shoes being requested.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Ms. Thomas

Friday, May 11th, 2018 - Late Post, Sorry!

Hi Families,

This week, we had the opportunity to study two additional poems from Shel Silverstein as inspiration for our own writing. We hope you enjoy our "I Wish" and "Tired" poems.

The students enjoyed experimenting with watercolours to create their Mother's Day gifts. They were so proud to be bringing them home to you. I hope you had a wonderful (and restful) Mother's Day!

We continue with our daily 30x30 challenge!

This week, students conducted a invertebrate study in the school garden, participated in loose parts play throughout the school grounds and engaged in some raindrop photography. We are loving being outside - rain or shine!

We had another amazing field-trip to Fish Creek Park, exploring the area between Glennfield and Voiter's Flats. the rain held off for the morning, with drizzle starting at lunch and continuing through the afternoon. We had many "I wonder" moments as students encountered a weasel, an area where there was a recent fire, several types of bird's nests, flowers, "beaver trees" and a moth emerging from it's cocoon.

We have two additional field trips to Fish Creek Park remaining:

Wednesday, May 30th - Voiter's Flats to Bebo Grove.
Wednesday, June 9th - Bebo Grove to Shannon Terrace.

If you are able to volunteer for either, we would love to have you along!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Ms. Thomas

Friday, May 4th, 2018

Hi Families,

Our 30x30 Challenge continues! I was glad to hear so many children were outside last weekend. Some wrote it in their Monday journal writing, and we added their entries on our challenge calendar wall. We would love to see pictures of students spending time in nature over the weekend - feel free to email me photos of your child in action!

This week, we played with shadows over three days - partner shadows, block tower shadows and character shadows, The students explored manipulating shadows so they grew taller, shorter, and moved in different direction.

We also dined "alfresco" (not "alfredo" as many students have mistaken it for!) for snack with Ms. Gray's class on Thursday and Friday, and then enjoyed reading quietly to ourselves in our Sit Spots.

We also have been able to enjoy outdoor gym a couple of mornings this week, learning the different games printed on our compound (hopscotch and four-square) as well as a couple of Bocce Ball variations, and marbles.

Thank you to school council for sponsoring the Netball program that we've enjoyed in Phys. Ed. this week. We were able to learn how netball is different from basketball, practice our skills, and even apply those skills in games. It was very tricky not dribbling, and trying to get the ball in the hoop without a backboard!

We have started writing our own poetry. Inspired by Shel Silverstein's "Bandaids", we wrote a patterned poem titled, "Ouch!" to share with you this week. It is an example of a list poem, as we share multiple ideas on the same topic. We hope you enjoy it!

On Tuesday, we were treated to a presentation teaching us about wetlands, the water cycle, plants and animals, and invertebrate adaptations. This in-class presentation complements our upcoming field trip to Ralph Klein Park on May 23rd, and is a part of the Mud Between My Toes program sponsored by ConocoPhillips. There was no charge to families for the in-class presentation or the upcoming off-site field trip.

Thursday, May 3rd was Arbour Day! In celebration of Arbour Day, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry provided tree seedlings for all Grade 1 students throughout the province. This is a long-standing tradition to teach the values of trees and their contribution to the Alberta way of life. Arbour Day celebrates the importance of trees and green spaces. It is an annual event held in Canada, the United States and many other countries that share a common vision of greener communities. Arbour Day is the longest running civid greening project in Calgary. To date, annual Arbour Day celebrations in Calgary have distributed over 500,000 tree seedlings to Grade 1 students.

Over the last two days, students have completed their April letters home. This month, grade 1 students continued to write printed letters, while the grade 2s sent emails through their student gmail accounts. If you did not receive an email from your grade 2 child, please let me know and I will try and problem solve.

Today we enjoyed a presentation from Miss Ireland's father, Farmer Steve, about raising chickens and other fowl. He shared a variety of eggs with us, but by far the students favourite egg was a "fart" egg. Fart eggs usually occur in young, newly laying hens as their bodies adjust to the rhythm of egg production.


Finally, we completed our May calendars this week and discovered that May is going to be a very busy and exciting month! We have 5 swimming dates,  3 field trips, 3 Fun Lunches and 1 birthday. *Whew!*

In your child's mail folder this week, please find:

- May Scholastic Book Orders. These are due back Friday, May 11th if you care to order. Cheque or online payment only please.

- Ralph Klein Park field trip forms (green). These are due back Monday, May 21st for review, photocopying and filing.

- Swimming forms (blue). These are due back Tuesday, May 8th so they can be delivered to Trico Centre for lesson assignments.

We are still (desperately) looking for volunteers for our upcoming field trip on Wednesday to Fish Creek Park. If you are able to join us for the day, please contact myself or Martine.

Thank you everyone! Have a wonderful weekend!
Ms. Thomas