Eco-Leader Play-to-Go Donations

Attention LBS Families!

Rooms 2 & 3 and looking for donations of loose pieces of lumber and natural materials (such large pinecones, bamboo, tree cookies, burlap, etc.) to help us in our designing and building of our Eco-leader project which will be showcased at the Mayors Expo on June the 5^th.  

Our project goal is to create Play-to-Go kits that contain natural/environmentally friendly materials that facilitate creative play at recess.

If you have any natural materials or loose lumber of any size that you are willing to donate to our cause, please contact Ms. Arnold or Ms. Grant.

Ciarnold@cbe.ab.ca

Chgrant@cbe.ab.ca

Friday, April 27th, 2018

Hi Families,

What a beautiful week to start our 30 x 30 Nature Challenge! We spent the first couple of days helping clean up neighbouring streets and school grounds of garbage left over from the Spring melt. We were able to fill several bags on each day, and will continue our efforts as the wind blows in more! 

We also introduced the practice of Sit Spots with the students as a way to develop connections with nature by sitting alone and in quiet. 

The second round of Guest Readers started this week. If your child brought home a notice indicating that they have volunteered to Guest Read, please make some time to practice a chosen book with them to ensure their success when reading to the class. 

We continued our exploration of homophones with students creating sentences and illustrations for the pairs: sum/some or night/knight, and to/two or wear/where. 

Students were challenged with two similar math problems this week that allowed them to practice their addition and subtraction, as well as persistence with problem solving. Both problems could be solved in many different ways, by drawing, writing or modeling, which all allowed for great discussion on possible different methods. 

In our Opening Circle, we have been solving What's My Number? riddles to support number sense to 100, and develop our mathematical vocabulary (greater than, less than, range, odd, even, sum, digits, ones, tens, skip count). 

On Thursday, we enjoyed being the audience for the Kindergarten concert assembly. It was hard to believe that our grade 1 students were in the same place last year! How time flies! 

Last, we completed our reflections from our Fish Creek Park field trip, looking at a trail map, identifying where we were, where we're going next, and recoding observations and questions. The range of questions, from historical to flora and fauna, was exciting to see. We can't wait to research some of our questions, find our more about the area, and get back to the park! 

Our visiting Netball program starts Monday. If you have not done so already, please send in your child's Acknowledgment of Risk Forms on Monday to ensure their participation. Students without forms CANNOT participate. If the forms have been misplaced, please contact me and I can send a digital copy for you to print and complete. 

The latest (and last!) volunteer email request of the year went out this week. If you are able to volunteer on any of our excursions, please contact myself our Martine. As a reminder, these are the opportunities:

Field trips: Ideally I love 4-5 volunteers per field trip to keep ratios low. These low ratios support the deep connections, ideas and questioning that enrich an experience for the students.

Wednesday, May 9th - Fish Creek Park (all day field trip)
Wednesday, May 23rd - Ralph Klein Park (all day field trip)
Wednesday, May 30th - Fish Creek Park (all day field trip)
Wednesday, June 13th - Fish Creek Park (all day field trip)

Swimming: Volunteers do not have to be available every day. Even if you can come once, that helps. It would be helpful to have 2-3 volunteers a day. Our need is with MALE volunteers especially. Volunteers support with change room, they DO NOT need to swim. Volunteers can either meet us at the Trico about 15 minutes prior to our Swim Lesson Time, or meet us at LBS to take the bus, 15 minutes prior to departure. 

We are swimming:

Thursday, May 17th
Tuesday, May 22nd
Thursday, May 24th
Tuesday, May 29th
Thursday, May 31st
Tuesday, June 5th

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

Guitar Club

LBS is excited to start up Guitar Club for the month of May! Guitar Club is for students in Grade 2-6 that have some experience with a guitar and are interested in learning some new skills. We will be able to invite 10 students to join and thanks to our LBS school council, we will be renting 10 guitars from Long and McQuade making this club free of charge! Guitar Club will be Mondays and Wednesdays at lunch from May 2nd-May 30th. We will need students to be dedicated to this club, meaning if they are at school, they will be attending every Monday and Wednesday at lunch. Any interested students can come to a meeting at lunch time on Friday, April 27th to learn more about this opportunity. 

If you have any questions you can email Mr. Zac Link (zalink@cbe.ab.ca) or Ms. Lauren Midgley (lemidgley@cbe.ab.ca) 

MAPSS General Meeting

MAPSS General Meeting - May 3, 2018,7:00 pm at Action Edge 1835 – 20 Ave NW Calgary Alberta. MAPSS (Montessori Alternative Program School Society). If you have any questions, please contact Kolby Klimack at president@mapss.ca

Netball

Lake Bonavista School is participating in Netball from April 30 until May 7^th in our gymnasium. This sport involves foundational movement skills such as jumping, running, throwing, and catching. As described on the Netball Alberta website (www.netballalberta.com): “Netball is an exciting, fast and skillful game of fair contest: It is a game in which two teams of seven players each strive to keep or gain possession of the ball. Players have specified areas in which they can move.” Parent Council has graciously provided the funding to bring this event into our school.

Consent forms will be sent home in your child’s communication folder. Please sign and return the forms so your child is able to participate in this fun LBS event!

Thanks,

Active Living

Friday, April 20th, 2018

Hi Families,

The highlight of our week was definitely our field-trip to Fish Creek Park. Thank you to all the volunteers who supported the students in their exploration. Students came back with a variety of observations and questions, so we look forward to our additional field-trips in the upcoming months.

If you child enjoyed their time at Fish Creek Park, you may want to put the annual Parks Day and Creekfest in your calendar: https://friendsoffishcreek.org/event/creekfest/

This week, we have also finished filming our folktales. Ms. Thomas now needs to go in and insert the backgrounds against the green screen before they are ready for viewing. When complete, we will find a way to store them in your child's Google Drive to be shared at home.

Given that our Folktales are finished, we will be sending our masks home later this week. Please consider sending in a small box (shoebox size-ish) to transport them safely home.

We have also continued our studies on the Timeline of People with our buddy class. We were introduced to the domestication of animals and students made predictions about why the different animals were domesticated, from food to transportation. They also noticed the emergence of clothing ornamentation.

On Thursday, we were treated to a performance by the Canadian Musical Theatre Co. called "The Birth of the Canadian Pacific Railway". The show told the story of how Canadians enticed the colony of British Columbia to join a young Canada, by offering to build the world's longest railroad that would reach sea to sea.

Starting this week, students in rooms 8, 9 and 11 will be participating in the 30x30 nature Challenge through the David Suzuki Foundation: https://davidsuzuki.org/take-action/act-locally/30x30-nature-challenge/

We'll be kickstarting the challenge with a neighbourhood walk on Monday, looking to help clean up after all the snow melt we've had this week. Students will be accompanied by classroom teachers, and there will be a review of safety expectations before departure. As with any field trip, we want to inform you about some common hazards involved with walking trips in the neighbourhood. Please note this list may not include all of the hazards for a given trip: slips, trips and falls, getting separated from the school, street crossing and pre-exiting medical conditions and/or allergies.

If you have any questions regarding field-trips within walking distance of the school, please feel free to contact me.

Have a wonderful, sunny, weekend!
Ms. Thomas

Friday, April 13th, 2018

Hi Families,

Another weird week for weather, but it helped us out tremendously for our "Seasonal Changes of Water" photography project as we had opportunities to photograph snow, ice and melt. The students are capturing some phenomenal images and we learned some vocabulary for the elements of photography so that we could critique photographs accurately: symmetry, rules of thirds, leading line, contrast, colour, texture, pattern, bird's eye view and ant's eye view.

As a writing activity this week, students looked at the samples of photos from last week that were printed out and chose one to critique using their new vocabulary knowledge.

They also went through their second batch of photos and did a quick "keep/delete" sort. We look forward to continuing this project through the next couple of months. I wonder what water weather this week will bring us?

In the Work Period, students also explored writing with homophones. Given the choice of two homophone pairs, students chose their preferred pair, and created an illustration to explain the difference, and well as a creative sentence using the correct homophone. This week, student chose between see/sea and right/write on one day, and pair/pear and which/witch on the other.

With our buddy class, we have begun exploring the Montessori Timeline of People connecting to the Third Great Lesson: Coming of Human Beings.

Through her research, Maria Montessori believed that the fundamental needs of people could be sorted into two categories: material and spiritual. In our introductory activity, students discussed which needs fit into each category: food, religion, ornamentation, shelter, music, dance, transportation, communication, clothing and defense.

After this activity, students began viewing the Timeline of People, starting with the Lower Paleolithic Period, and were asked, "What do you notice?" Many students noticed that the way of life was addressing survival needs, and all material needs being met, in basic ways. In the Middle Paleolithic Period we start to see people move from a nomadic way of life to building communities, and the beginning of art through rock painting and engravings of animals. Their art communicated their way of life.

We will continue to examine the Timeline of People to see when, how and why other needs are introduced, or how they change over time.

An interesting question came up in our examination of the Timeline so far. Students wondered, "Just because things are getting easier (or more efficient) over time, does that make it better?"

Field-trip forms for our upcoming visit to Fish Creek Park were sent home on Thursday. Please ensure these are returned with payment by Monday so they can be properly accounted for, and processed. These field-trip forms cover all four visits to Fish Creek Park: April 18th, May 9th, May 30th and June 9th. 

We are still looking for two volunteers for Wednesday. If you are able to join us, please email me and I will send home forms ASAP. Thank you!

Given the time of year, and the amount of melting that is happening, it is so important that students wear water-proof boots that are comfortable for walking and pack an extra pair of socks just in case.  A nutritious lunch, snacks and water bottle are also necessary for the day. I recommend students address in layers as ALL our programming will take place outside, and we do not have access to the Visitor's Centre during our visit. 

We are also going to Ralph Klein Park on Wednesday, April 25th and require additional volunteers. Again, please email me if you are able to join us for the day.

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

Keeping Up With the iGens Presentation

On Tuesday, April 24 at 5:30 pm, School Council presents: Keeping Up With the iGens  - Parent Information Session presented by Jennifer Jette, registered psychologist 

Our children, the iGeneration, are growing up in a world permeated by technology. As parents we have a responsibility to support and guide our children in the use of this technology and its interfaces, such as social media and online gaming, and in the development of their digital identity.  This presentation will discuss some of the challenges facing us as parents and ways we can support our children in the healthy use of technology.

Humboldt Broncos Jersey Day

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As we are hearing about the terrible tragedy that occurred in the province of Saskatchewan to the Humboldt Broncos Junior Hockey Team we feel shock, sadness, empathy and so many other emotions.

At Lake Bonavista School, we would like to show our support for the people connected to this sad event. A group of British Columbia hockey parents are asking Canadians to wear a jersey on Thursday, April 12 to show support for those that have been impacted by this tragedy. (https://globalnews.ca/news/4130525/humboldt-broncos-crash-hockey-jersey-day/). 

If students do not have a jersey, they can wear something green.

Students will also be invited to write messages of support that will be collected into a book format and sent to the public school in Humboldt Saskatchewan.

Thank you for supporting our school community's efforts to support the Humboldt Broncos community.

Take care,

Carole Jones

Friday, April 6th, 2018

Hi Families,

Welcome back from Spring Break!

Students started the week by completing their April calendars. We discovered that April is a very busy month, with four birthdays, two field-trips, Netball and a special drama performance! Wow!  Please look for an email regarding volunteer opportunties for our field-trips coming soon.

On Monday, we will be starting our Guest Reader program. Students who volunteered to be a part of the program for this round, will have come home with a notice indicating their reading date. Please ensure you take time to help your child choose an appropriate book, and read it so that they become fluent.

We continued with Number Talks this week, exploring how 10-frames help us discover number combination to 10, and then 20. Some students quickly picked up on the pattern and were able to tell us the connection for every friendly number (i.e. If 4+6 is 10, then 14+6 is 20, 24+6 is 30, 34+6 is 40, etc).

Grade 2 students resumed their Independent Spelling Program this week. They will continue to choose 5 words on Mondays for self-directed study, and test with a buddy on Fridays.

We took the cameras outside on Thursday to explore taking macro shots of snow and ice (we still have plenty of it!) as part of our Seasonal Changes of Water photo project. We took time afterwards to analyze our photos, deleting any that didn't meet basic criteria (snow or ice, in focus, close up), and will continue to develop our skills over the next couple of months.

Each year, National Geographic holds a "Nature Photographer of the Year" contest, with categories including wildlife, landscapes, aerials and underwater. We looked at the different award winners, and started exploring vocabulary to critique photography such as contrast and perspective. ALL of the photos were awe-inspiring! If you would like to view the contest winners with your child, they are here: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/nature-photographer-of-the-year-2017/

One of our classmates shared a special presentation with us about his new pet. Ask your child what they learned about this Bearded Dragon, named Spike.

 Last, we had a special visitor join us Friday. Ask you child who spent the afternoon with us.

In your child's mail folder this week, please find the April Scholastic book order. They are due back next Friday, April 13th. Cheque or online payment only please.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Ms. Thomas