Tuesday March 7, 2020 Student Belonging Pick Up Reminder

Dear Parents/Guardians,

The GREAT PICK UP

Just a reminder to check the Simons Valley School website for designated times of when you can pick up your child’s belongings OR see the previous blog post.

Student last name (A-L) ONLY pick up on Thursday and Student last name (M-Z) Tuesday only.

  Please only come during your time. Wednesday April 15^th is an alternate date only to be used if you are unable to come in this Thursday or upcoming Tuesday.

LIBRARY BOOKS and HOME READING BOOKS

All SVS library books/home reading books can be returned the day of your pick up.

FOOD DRIVE

In addition, to the ‘Great Pick Up’, we will also have boxes available for food donations.

The Salvation Army Berkshire Citadel Community Church has been at the forefront of supporting many of our SVS families and this is one way we can help replenish their supplies.  They are in need of canned fruit and vegetables but are grateful for any non-perishable items.

Student Belonging Pick Up Schedule

Dear Simons Valley Parents/Guardians,

Thank you for being the amazing parent group that you are! Your patience and support as we navigate through these uncertain times is so appreciated.  Our school mantra has been ‘We are all in this together!’  and truly what matters the most right now, is how we stay connected in uncertain times.

Many of you have asked about when you are able to come by the school and gather your child’s belongings as well as, returning library books. We would like to offer you the opportunity to come to SVS on

 Thursday April 9^th   AM (only) for student last names starting with A-L

 Tuesday April 14^th AM (only) for student last names starting beginning with M-Z

 ALTERNATE ONLY: Wednesday April 15^th

Please see the schedule below:

    IMPORTANT: In accordance with Alberta Health Services and social distancing:

·       If anyone in your family is ill, please do not come to the school.  Student belongings will not leave the school and we can make arrangements at another time for you to come in when your family is healthy.  We prefer to be cautious and not endanger the staff and their families.

·       Only one parent, (no students will be allowed) is invited to come to the school at their designated time. Please make sure you know your child’s/children’s teacher’s name.  Do not collect for any other families but your own.

·       Ask your child the description of their indoor shoes.

This is not a time to socialize and catch up.  We need you to be as efficient and quick as possible to help maximize the safety of everyone.  We do request that you promptly collect your belongings, not engage in conversation and respect social distancing for your safety and that of our staff. (We don’t mean for this to be so quick and impersonal but health and safety is our number one priority).

Kindly follow the schedule below with the first letter of your child’s last name and enter through the glass doors by the parking lot (Grade One doors) and exit by the front doors on Sandarac Drive. We ask you to try to make it on Thursday/Tuesday and only come on Wednesday as an alternate.

SVS staff is working hard planning and organizing learning materials. We ask that you check your emails and our website Simons Valley School, as it can be translated into a variety of languages. Please feel free to contact us at the school at 403-777-6660 or email your child’s teacher.  Although we have no idea when we will come out of this, if we stand by one another, we can somehow rise above it. After all, when this is all over, all that will really matter is how we treated each other.

Be Brave, Be Kind, Stay Positive,

Chris Snow, Principal

Gina Davidoff, Assistant Principal

  

Thursday, April 9^th, 2020

Students with the last name A       8:00am – 8:20am

Students with the last name A       8:30am – 8:45am

Students with the last name B        8:55am – 9:10am

Students with the last name C       9:20am – 9:35am

Students with the last name D       9:45am – 10:00am

Students with the last name E/F    10:10am – 10:25am

Students with the last name G      10:35am – 10:50am

Students with the last name H-I     11:00am – 11:15am

Students with the last name J/K    11:25am – 11:40am

Students with the last name L        11:50am – 12:05pm

Tuesday, April 14^th, 2020

Students with the last name M        8:30am-8:45am         

Students with the last name N/O    8:55am-9:10am

Students with the last name P/R      9:20am-9:35am

Students with the last name S          9:45am-10:00am

                                                           10:10am-10:25am

Students with the last name T/U     10:35am – 10:50am               

Students with the last name V        11:00am – 11:15am

Students with the last name W-Z    11:25 am – 11:40 pm

Alternate Only: Wednesday April 15th

Students with the last name W-Z     8:30am – 8:45am

Students with the last name V         8:55am – 9:10am       

Students with the last name T/U      9:20am – 9:35am                               

Students with the last name S          9:45am – 10:00am

                                                           10:10am – 10:25am   

Students with the last name P/R    10:35am – 10:50am   

Students with the last name N/O    1:00am – 11:15am               

Students with the last name M      11:25am – 11:40am               

Students with the last name L        11:50am – 12:05pm               

Students with the last name J/K     12:15pm – 12:30pm               

Students with the last name H-I      12:40pm – 12:55pm               

Students with the last name G         1:05pm – 1:20pm                   

Students with the last name E/F       1:30pm – 1:45pm       

Students with the last name D          1:55pm – 2:10 pm      

Students with the last name C          2:20 pm – 2:35pm                  

Students with the last name B           2:45pm – 3:00pm

Students with the last name A           3:10pm – 3:25pm

                       

Getting Started with Online Learning: April 1, 2020

Dear Families,

On Monday  I sent out an important email that required you to answer a few questions and respond.  It is really important that you send these answers back as we are collecting this information to guide as as we begin online learning.  I sent a reminder email yesterday.  If you have not received either email please check your junk folder.

Here is some information about how we will be moving forward in supporting your child’s learning.

Communication

Blogger/ Classroom Blogs - Our classroom blogs will be used to share basic information with parents and students about new lessons and assignments that are posted through Google Classroom.

Parent Communication and Availability 

- All group emails to parents will come through School Messenger. If you do not think your email is up to date in School Messenger, please call Leslie Cropper at Simons Valley School (403-777-6660).

-Please use my email memcgivern@cbe.ab.ca to communicate with me directly. I will be checking my email throughout the day and responding within 24 hours.                                                                                      

-If you would like to speak to me over the phone please send me an email with your name and preferred phone number.  At this point I will be making myself available for video chats, phone calls, etc. with parents by pre-arranged appointments.

Student Lessons and School Work 

-All lessons and assignments will be sent to students via Google Classroom.  You will be sent a link via email to access the classroom by the end of this week (Friday April 3rd). 

-Assignments for each week will be posted by Monday morning.  Feel free to work through the weekly assignments in a way that works for your family’s schedule.

About Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a free online platform that allows students, teachers and parents access to classroom lessons, assignments, assessment, resources and more.  Google classroom takes all of these applications and puts them into one place.  The video below is a brief overview of Google Classroom for parents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Iowi-gmbys

Accessing Google Classroom for the First Time

We will be using Google Classroom as a learning platform as we continue ongoing learning from home. Below is a brief introduction to Google Classroom and how students at Simons Valley School will be accessing the tool.

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is an online platform that enables us to communicate with our students as well as assign and distribute tasks. Google Classroom gives us the ability to work with our students in a safe, manageable, and appropriate way. It will also help students manage their work while learning from home.

Students will access Google Classroom using their CBE G Suite ID (username@educbe.ca). You will be sent your child’s email address and password by the end of this week (Friday April 3rd). As we begin to use these new teaching and learning tools, we will work with our students and their families to help them understand both the benefits and risks of using online tools.

Accessing Google Classroom for the First Time

Google provides excellent resources to help with signing into Google Classroom and joining a class, along with other supports.

§  How do I sign in to Classroom?

§  Join a class as a student

§  Troubleshooting for students

Other Resources

We appreciate that this is a lot of information, along with all of the other resources/emails you have received from the CBE.  Please know that we are here to support both you and your child as we make this transition.  

Sincerely,

Melanie McGivern

Email: memcgivern@cbe.ab.ca

Thursday March 19, 2020

Hello Families! 

We miss all your smiling faces and hope that you are staying healthy and well at home!  Although we don’t know what school will look like just yet, rest assured that we will continue to support students as best as we can.  More information will be sent out once decisions have been made and we have more information.

All student materials such as shoes, journals and JUMP math books will be kept at the school for now.  These items will be scheduled for pick up some time after Spring Break.  Please watch for an email with more information after Spring Break.

Please remember you still has access to the following resources:

Raz-Kids: https://www.raz-kids.com/  

Spelling City: https://www.spellingcity.com/users/memcgivern

Here is a story that you may want to share with your child about Covid-19.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kjcYNyZk95Z9liSShFCtf_xLm1H8PThD

Next week is Spring Break from Monday March 23-Friday March 27th.  Take this time to enjoy activities with your family.

Friday March 13, 2020

Hello Parents/Guardians! 

Please make sure to read all of the information in the reminders section.

W.O.W (Words of the Week) Words: 

1. take
2. every
3. old
4. by
5. after

Weekly Highlights:

• This week in math we learned about skip counting and practiced skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s.  We practiced counting objects by organizing them into groups of 2s and 5s. We then compared whether it was faster to count the objects by 1s or by skip counting. After making our groups, if we had leftovers (eg. not enough to make another full group), we used the counting on strategy to figure out how many we had in all.  For example, 4 groups of 5 with 2 leftover- 5, 10, 15, 20, (counting on the two extra) 21, 22.  We also solved word problems related to skip counting. Such as, a class has 3 groups of 5 children working together and one more group of 4 children. How many children are in the class?  Here are some skip counting videos we used to practice this week:
• Count by 10s:
• Jack Hartmann count by 10s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8CEOlAOGas
• Singing walrus’ count by 10s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gmEe0-_ex8
• Count by 5s:
• Jack Hartmann exercise by 5s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amxVL9KUmq8
• Scratch Garden count by 5s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EemjeA2Djjw
• Count by 2s:
• Jack Hartmann Dancing 2s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCxvNtrcDIs
• Counting by 2s (slower): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyCr0IgbYcI
• Last week we read Snowmen at Night and this week we read Snowmen at work by Caralyn Buehner.  We brainstormed all the different things a snowman could do at night such as drinking hot chocolate, sledding, shoveling their neighbours walkway, and shopping at the grocery store.  We then wrote all about what we would do if we were a snowman at night.  When writing, the students were reminded to make sure that their sentences made sense, they started with an uppercase letter, and ended with a period.  Some of the ideas students came up with were:
• “My snowman is scraping the crunchy snow.”
• “My snowman will run a cafe.”
• “My snowman would go next door and pull out her sparkly gold shovel and shovel the crunchy snow.”
• We finished our read aloud called, Little House on the Prairie: School Days by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  We learned more about what life and school was like in the past. We then watched an episode from the TV series The Little House on the Prairies which was set in the past.  We saw many differences between our school environment and what it was like long ago.  Some of the things that we saw were: 
• Blackboards
• Lanterns
• Wood burning stove in the classroom
• One room for all the students in every grade (and one teacher)
• No technology (E.g. School bell was an actual bell not an electronic chime) 
• We looked at two more artifacts related to the past.  They were a washboard and a wooden ice cream maker.  We enjoyed learning about how these would have been used.  
• The grade 4 students had their celebration of learning, hosting a Heritage Fair.  We enjoyed  looking at all the fabulous presentations and enjoyed learning all about their family histories! Great job!  

Reminders:

COVID -19

Schools have received information from Calgary Board of Education Communications in regards to gatherings from now until Spring Break.

Please note:

• Events including the school and regular staff population of the school MAY continue. This includes events such as after school clubs, practices etc. Schools with scheduled field trips may still continue at this time.
• Events that expand to include populations from other schools and/or parents or other community members should be postponed and further information will be provided after March break if they will be rescheduled or cancelled. This includes events such as Parent Teacher Interviews, school athletic competitions, drama/musical performances etc.

We have chosen to postpone the following:

• March 19th and 20th - Parent Teacher Conferences
  
  
  

Thank you to all parents who have offered to volunteer for the book fair. We will create a new signup sheet when we reschedule Scholastic Book Fair.

We will reschedule our Parent Teacher Conferences at a later date.  Dismissal for Thursday March 19th will continue to be  EARLY DISMISSAL at 1:30pm for Grades 1-6 as well as SKILL. Kindergarten there will be NO SCHOOL.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your support as we all share in these unique times.

Please see the most recent update from the CBE. Keep an eye on the Simons Valley school website for the most up to date information.

http://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/simonsvalley/_layouts/ci/post.aspx?oaid=b598c64d-cd5c-4437-b0bb-067b0ca76d07&oact=20003

Scholastic Book Fair:

The Scholastic Book Fair has unfortunately been cancelled at this time.

Winter Sports Day:

Due to the weather, Winter Sports Day was cancelled for Friday March 13th.  This event has been postponed until further notice.

Ask Me About:

1.     Practice skip counting:

a.     By 2s, 5s, and 10s. 

b.    By 2s, 5s, and 10s with counting on by 1s.  E.g. Hold up 2 fingers for your child they count by 2s.  Then hold up 1 finger-they stop counting by 2s and count on by 1s. Hold up 2 fingers again and then stop counting and start over at 0 counting by 2s.  You can do this for 2s, 5s, and 10s.  

2.     Gather large groups of objects:

a.     Count them by 2s

b.    Count them by 5s

c.     Count them by 10s

3.     READ, READ, READ

4.     When completing your home reading try using at least one adjective (juicy word).