viernes, 1 de diciembre, 2023

Estimadas familias,

Lockdown Practice – Nov 29, 2023

Lockdowns are a “routine” emergency procedure that we practice with students and staff along with nearly monthly fire drills. Familiarizing ourselves with these experiences are intended to help us remain calm should the situation be real. When we practice lockdowns, we make an announcement “lockdown…lockdown”, teachers visually sweep hallways and close their doors. Students and staff all sit quietly in a designated location within their classroom until approved staff members (Sra. Riquelme, myself, or a CPS officer) open the door. The lockdown practice that occurred on Nov 29 was not a surprise for students. Teachers worked with their classes in advance to understand the protocols for the lockdown practice. The feedback we received from the CPS officer was overwhelmingly positive. Our students were prepared for the drill, followed instructions, and were respectful to the officers as they conducted their sweeps.

Home Reading - New Decodable Library

Parents often ask us what they can do to support the literacy development of their students at home. In previous years, we have held a subscription to RazKids, an online reading platform. This year, we decided not to renew that subscription mainly because teachers found it was not consistently being accessed at home and because the approach to reading has shifted away from levelled readers towards developing phonological awareness through decodable texts. Phonological awareness is the ability to identify and distinguish between sounds in a word and it helps to explain how sounds can work in different ways within a word. The CBE Literacy team and the Early Learning team have developed a Decodable Digital Library, which can be offered as Home Reading support to families. This library (and more online reading programs such as TumbleBooks and TeenBookCloud) can be accessed from the “Learning Commons/Library” section of our Eugene Coste school website: https://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/eugenecoste/teaching-learning/learning-commons- library/resource-list/pages/default.aspx

Havana Cuban Dance Residency – Nov 23 – Dec 7, 2023

Student continue to practice their choreography for their upcoming Winter Learning Celebrations. Lead by dance instructor Marcos Ravelo from Havana Cuban Dance Studio, students are learning a range of Latin dances that many of you might be familiar with such as Merengue, Salsa, Bachata and Reggaetón. We are looking forward to sharing this learning with you on December 6 and December 7. We will have limited seating capacity in the gym due to the space needed for each dance routine. For this reason, we are inviting extended family members to join us for dress rehearsals only.

Please take note of the following dates and times for each performance:

Wednesday, December 6

Dress Rehearsal: 2:00pm 

Performance: 6:00pm-7:00pm

M/W Kinder – Sra. Gray

Grade 1 – Srta. Kelsie and Sr. Traxel 

Grade 2 – Sr. Gossen and Srta. Cecilia

 Grade 3 – Sra. Rumel

Grade 4 – Srta. Monica Grade 5 – Sra. Tamara

December 7 (Thursday)

Dress Rehearsal: 2:00pm Performance: 6:00pm-7:00pm

M/W Kinder & TU/TH Kinder – Sra. Castro

Grade 1 – Sra. Salamanca and Sra. Wolf 

Grade 2 – Sra. Perera

Grade 3 – Sra. Jodi and Sr. Reyes 

Grade 4 – Srta. Micah

Grade 5 – Srta. Van Eerden

For both evenings, doors will open at 5:30 pm. Students are to be brought to classrooms and picked up at the end of the evening. Out of respect for all performers and to enjoy the finale, we ask that all audience members remain for the entire event.

Costumes/Outfits

Kindergarten: Formal/dressy clothing that is comfortable for dancing - any colour Grade 1: Formal/ dressy clothing that is comfortable for dancing - any colour Grade 2: White and Black, in any combination that you have. Dress to impress!

Grade 3: Formal/dressy clothes. Girls: colourful dress or shirt with dark leggings. Boys: Bright coloured collared shirt with dark pants (tie optional)

Grade 4: Red, White, Black - something comfortable for dancing

Grade 5: Hip Hop/Urban Style (oversized bottoms and tops, accessories)