School Newsletter (October)

October Newsletter

Library

Our library time for the year will be Fridays 11:10-11:40.  Please return books each week on this day.

Message From the Office

Hello Parents and Guardians

Ken Taylor offers noon supervision to all of our Grades 1-4 students.  In order for your child to be eligible for this service you must register using your My CBE account. https://webapps.cbe.ab.ca/MyAccount/Account/LogOn?ReturnUrl=%2fMyAccount%2f.   Please be sure to register for the 4 day week service for $255.00. 

If you do not register for noon supervision your child will need to be picked up over the noon hour. If your child rides the bus you will also need to register for bus service and pay the bussing fee of $355 for the school year.  When you register your child for the bus service they will  automatically be registered for noon supervision and both fees will apply.

Any family needing a waiver is encouraged to apply to the City of Calgary Fair Entry Program to prove income for a CBE waiver, as well as access other benefits of the program. This is optional for families and the CBE will will continue to accept other approved documents as proof of income.  Please visit our CBE website for more detailshttp://www.cbe.ab.ca/registration/fees-and-waivers/Pages/Waivers.aspx 

If you have already registered for noon supervision please disregard this email.

Barb Rocca
Administrative Assistant, Kenneth D. Taylor School

Calgary Board of Education | cbe.ab.ca

t | 403-817-3504

Home Reading

Please note that our home reading program will begin this Friday. Students will be bringing home a purple folder with a book and home reading log inside.  Each night, please spend 15-20 minutes doing the activities listed below. If you do not complete the progression of activities, then please keep the book for an additional night.

1. Do a picture walk through the whole book (look at and discuss/wonder about the pictures before reading).
2. Read the title, author, illustrator and back cover to your child.  Determine together whether the book is fiction/non-fiction.
3. Read the book to your child (model good expression, volume etc.).
4. Co-read the book with your child (letting them read words you omit).
5. Listen to your child read the book to you.  Ensure they track with their finger and use the reading strategies listed in the home reading log.
6. Ask your child to find some of the Fry sight words in the book (they are printed on the back of the home reading log). Make flashcards for the sight words you find and then practice/play with them (e.g. memory match, back writing).
7. Encourage your child to whisper read the book an additional 2 times on his/her own.

Once you have completed the above sequence with a particular book (approximately 1-3 nights), please return the purple folder to school so your child can select a new book.  If your son or daughter is still learning or lacking confidence with the letters of the alphabet, please practice the names and sounds before reading each night.  Use the chart below to do this (for example: "a, /a/, ant").

This Friday is the Terry Fox run and Orange Shirt Day.  If your child has anything orange, he or she is encouraged to wear the colour on Friday (see link below). Please send in toonies for Terry and ensure your child wears comfortable footwear.

Orange Shirt Day

Today we began our patterns unit in math.  We learned that, "A pattern repeats again and again" and that, "First you build the core, then make it again and again."  To practice this concept, we read "Pattern Fish" and then practiced building our own pattern cores.  In printing, we learned how to skip lines in our green writing books.  We practiced writing c, o, a and d on alternating lines with excellent penmanship and correct stroke order.  In science, we began discussing tints and shades.  We cut paint sample cards and then ordered them from lightest to darkest.  Today was also our first day of guided reading during our language arts stations.  We learned how to use our warm up phonics duo tangs, do a picture walk and track while our group members read.

Hello Parents/Guardians,

The office has sent out an email today at 10:00 am with the subject heading “Weekly Dispatch Sept 25-29”.   If you have not received this email it indicates you have not subscribed to receive non-commercial emails from Ken Taylor School and the CBE.  Please follow the attached link in order to subscribe and stay informed.

http://calgary.schoolmessenger.com/cbe_subscribe

Thank you,

Barb Rocca
Administrative Assistant, Kenneth D. Taylor School

Calgary Board of Education | cbe.ab.ca

t | 403-817-3504

We are beginning to delve into poems in our classroom.  So far we have worked on "May There Always Be Sunshine" and "1, 2, Buckle My Shoe."  These poems and many others will soon be added to our poetry books, which will help us work on sight words, fluency and expression in our reading.  In our printing program we are continuing with lower case letters that start with a "magic c."  Today we worked specifically on forming 'a.' We listened to a silly story to help us remember both the short and long 'a' sounds too.  Our phonological awareness activity today was listening for omitted words in a spoken sentence.  We played a fun game where the kids competed against the teacher to practice this skill.  You can practice this at home, by saying a sentence normally the first time, and then saying it again while leaving out one word (for your child to figure out).

We had a very busy day today!  In the morning, we completed our first word sort, following the "Words their Way" spelling program. We reviewed scissor safety and usage, then sorted picture cards according to their beginning sound. Following that, we listened to silly stories about the letters c and o, and then practiced printing them correctly on interlines. In science today, we learned about recycling and landfills. We then practiced sorting materials into the correct bins in our classroom. In the afternoon, we worked on our word awareness skills (being able to hear/distinguish between spoken words in a sentence) and counted the number of words we heard in a given oral sentence.  Many of our sentences came from the book, "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late."  In math, we read a book about sorting and talked about attributes (e.g. size, shape, position) and sets (groups).  Gym was lots of fun, filled with plenty of tag games.

In math right now we are developing our sorting skills and are learning how to sort by many different attributes (e.g. size, shape, colour, position and type). One of our favourite activities is to have our friends guess the attribute we sort by. We also regularly photograph our sorts and then discuss them on the Smartboard. Understanding attributes is important as we move forward into patterning next week.

This year we will be following the Printing Like a Pro handwriting program.  Today, we began by learning how to properly form "magic c" and also worked on developing our tripod pencil grip.  The image below shows our modified pencils that help us with this grip.

This year in reading and writing, one of our focus areas will be on mastering the first 100 words (or more) on the Fry list.  These words are the most commonly used in the English language and appear on the list in order of frequency.  They are meant to be recognized instantly, without sounding out.  The link below has flashcards for you to print.  Remember to encourage your child to identify these sight words in context as you read together each night.

Fry Words Flashcards