WOW, how the world has changed since my last post.

So I went home on a Friday thinking all was well and hoping to see everyone and BAM. The world was turned upside down and I had to learn how to teach online.

It has been a big learning curve for me and many other teachers. I want to stop and thank you all for your support in this process. I will do everything I can to make sure your students get to keep on learning. They have all progressed this year and we want that growth to continue.

I will try to have fun with them during my videos and change things up as much as I can to make sure they stay engaged.

They can watch the videos over and over that will help them internalize the learning. Repetition is very important for all of our students.

I became a teacher because I love to be around students, to interact with them to support them and to contribute to their growth as wonderful human beings. I believe that they are all capable of learning and it is up to teachers everywhere to accept Nero-diversity and find ways to reach each and every student.

I miss interacting with your children, I miss the smiles the laughter and I miss the challenge of everyday emotions that we work through in learning to do new tasks. I miss seeing the pride on their face when they complete a task and the joy of celebrating with them.

Please Celebrate the little things every day and every lesson. Let them know we all think they are GREAT and that I am joyfully at every attempt. There is no such thing as failure in my class only a chance to learn and try again.

You Can Do IT, Yes You Can.

February

Hello SKILL parents it has been a great year so far your students are working hard and doing great.

Please note: Parent-teacher interviews will be coming up in March, on the 19^th and 20^th Please watch for my email at the beginning of March to let you know when you can book a time.

Movement Game

Here is what we've been doing;

New to our floor is a Movement game which has been painted right in the classroom. the students get the opportunity to jump through the game to improve coordination and help with their moving needs. It has been great fun and we will be adding to and changing it over time.

LIteracy

Here in SKILL the students are finishing up their work on the parts of the body and the five senses. Everyone has worked hard on the new vocabulary and everyone has seen success in various ways. It has been great.  A lot of the work that we have done will be highlighted in our spring assembly set to take place in May. (date will be finalized soon).

The Skill students have also been working on sentence development. The focus is on using periods at the end of thoughts or statements such as ‘I like ice-cream.’ Or ‘I am Tom.’ A sentence book will be coming home with your student please read through it with them as a good way to practice vocabulary and sentence development. Remind them that the period is there to end the thought.

Math

We have been working on number identification and the students are completing their booklets and bringing them home. Please use these to sit down and review with your children they are very proud of the work they have done as am I.

Hello, and Happy New year SKILL parents,

I hope that everyone stayed happy and healthy over the winter break. I feel rejuvenated and am looking forward to a great 2020. 

We have begun a new unit for vocabulary already and are practicing printing and saying our new words: eye, nose, hand, ear, finger, arm, back, elbow, teeth, lips, knee toes, foot, head, and stomach. 

That is the basic list but we may add some more body part names as we go along. Please try to help your student practice these words at home. 

Message from the  VP

We are excited to bring back two programs, Simons Valley Reads

and Simons Valley Mathletes. Both programs were a HUGE success because of volunteers such as you! We are hoping to run an 8-week program of both SVS Reads and Mathletes starting January 28th for 1 hour a week.

Here is a brief description of the two programs (little different from last year) but just as impactful!

SVS Reads

To support our Grade One/ Two/ Three students, we are looking for parent

volunteers who would be able to come once a week for an

hour and work with two students. Volunteers would work with a student for 20 minutes each practicing high-frequency words, sentence work and of course, reading a short story. All of the materials will be provided for you!

SVS Mathletes

The second program, Simons Valley Mathletes is a program designed to

help our grade 3 to 6 students develop proficiency in mathematics. The focus this year will be to strengthen basic math facts. With this program, as SVS Reads, we are looking for parent volunteers who would be able to come once a week for an hour and work with two students. Volunteers would work with each student for 20 minutes making numbers, practicing basic math facts and then playing a math game. All of the materials will be provided for you.

If you are interested in volunteering with either program, please contact us at ggdavidoff@cbe.ab.ca

or bghordern@cbe.ab.ca before January 14th.