Thank you to all parents who have signed up for conferences. If you have not yet signed up, please do so for either Wednesday, November 20th or Thursday November 21st. We encourage your child to come as they would like to present/show some activities or work and share conversations about what we are learning!

There are no classes for Kindergarten on Wednesday, November 20 or Thursday November 21st.

Today the AM class met with their grade 3 Learning Buddy! We introduced ourselves in French and learned a new song together. (It will be posted tomorrow). Also the grade 3 buddies chose a story to read with their kindergarten partner. We will be engaging in fun activities with our grade 3 Learning Buddies every few weeks. (The PM class will be meeting their buddies tomorrow).

We learned and practiced the number 4 - quatre today. We showed different ways to represent the number 4 and counted many items in groups of 4, even making groups with friends. We also gave each other a 'high 4' when we were finished :)

Today we had great conversations about the great majestic buffalo. We learned about where Buffalo live in North America, discussed parts of their big body, and moved around as a heard in the classroom while acting out different actions that buffalo do. We learned many interesting facts about buffalo and why they are important.

During today's sharing circle we made some great connections between what we learned from the Fort Calgary Buffalo kit to our prior knowledge, feelings, thought or questions.
We made some beautiful water art colour buffalo art using a dabbing technique with paint, water, and water colour paper.

Today we started a social thinking program called We Thinkers with Mme. Alana who is our school language speech pathologist. It is a social thinking curriculum for elementary early learning years that helps and supports young learning to develop the skills they need to be a flexible social thinker and social problem solver. During today's lesson we talked about thinking thoughts and feelings and how we express them respectfully and thoughtfully.

Reminder - please sign up for a 15 minute kindergarten conferences for either Wednesday or Thursday. We encourage students to join!

We are looking for large appliance size boxes, example fridge box, for our dramatic play center. If you have a connection or know someone who does, we would very much appreciate it!

Today we read a story called A is for Drum, a Native American Alphabet. We discussed some Indigenous vocabulary from A-Z and how natural materials were made and used and how the land is unique to each group depending of where there homes are located. We looked at a few more artifacts from the buffalo kit and discussed what it was made of and used for. Each student chose an artifact to make a scientific drawing and discussed how it made them feel or why they chose to draw that particular artifact.

Today we looked at more artifacts from our buffalo kit in a large group and then again in small groups.  We also spent some time working in partners doing a 'picture walk' (looking through a book for details and asking questions to each other) of some books that relate to Indigenous people of Canada. We then presented something we found interesting to the large group.

A picture walk is a pre-reading strategy that you can do at home before reading the text to or with your child:

• -It sets a purpose for reading and provides students with opportunities for using visual cues to enhance comprehension.
• -It provides opportunities to make predictions and anticipate the events in a text/story.
• -It helps students make connections to the text/story using their prior or background knowledge.
  -It provides the opportunity to introduce new vocabulary prior to reading.

Reminder:  tomorrow we have book exchange at the library.

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• Just a reminder that November's Parent/Teacher Conferences for Kindergarten to Grade 5 are next THURSDAY, November 21 from 8:00 am - 1:00 pm and 3:30 pm - 7:30 pm.  There is no school for students on Thursday.
  
  
  On Wednesday, November 20, our Kindergarten students have Student/Involved Conferences so their is no classes for Kindergarten on Wednesday, November 20.  Grades 1-5 have regular school on Wednesday.  
  
  
  Friday is a Professional Learning Day for teachers so there is no school for students on this day.
  
  
  The conference booking system opens tomorrow at 4:00 for families. 
  
  
  Please see the VAS website for a reminder of other non-instruction days throughout the school year.  This information can be found at: http://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/varsityacres/Pages/default.aspx under 'Calendar'.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  VASPFS HOLIDAY PURDYS FUNDRAISER IS HERE!!!
  
  
  We are once again fundraising with Purdys chocolatier for the holiday season! VASPFS will receive 25% of all sales.
  
  To order online, go to fundraising.purdys.com and click Login or Create New Account
  Then click Join Campaign. Our customer number is 28645.
  
  All orders must be placed by Monday, November 25th.
  Orders can be picked up on Thursday December 5th between 3-5pm in the school gym.
  
  
  You may forward this info to any friends or relatives that would like to participate!
  Any questions? Please email VASPFS@gmail.com
  
  
  Thank you for your support
  

Today the students went to P.E. where they worked on underhand throws and lunges through games and partner work.

In class, we introduced the students to one of our favorite French songs, On écrit sur les murs (it's up under the song page).  This song is a difficult one but the students want to give it a try!  Parents, here is a version with English lyrics (the best translation we could find), if you want to get the idea of the message.  The writing on the walls in the French video says:  Peace starts with a smile.  We thought it would be a good message for the students to continue thinking about!

We also introduced the PM class to our Buffalo/First Nations topic and the AM class continued looking at artifacts from Fort Calgary in small groups.

Today we drew poppies, attended our Remembrance Day assembly, read the book Hidden Buffalo, and started to look at some of the artifacts that we'll be examining and learning about next week.  Thank you to all the families that came to our assembly and to the PM students and families that also joined us.  We hope that you all have the chance to attend a ceremony, service or are able to take 2 minutes on Monday to mark Remembrance Day with your child.

Today the students worked on printing the letters D, P, B, R and went to music class (make sure to check out Mme Edgett's blog).  We also watched a 1 min video about the poppy and read a book called "Pourquoi?".  Ask your child what it has to do with our Remembrance Day work/why we thought it was a good book to read them this week.

We also added a couple new centers today to go along with our study of the buffalo that we're starting tomorrow.

Reminder that tomorrow is the last day for November Scholastic orders and that everyone is invited to the assembly tomorrow.  If you haven't been to a VAS Remembrance Day assembly before, they're usually pretty special and worth the time.