Making a difference for children!
École John Wilson Élementary
Enrichir la vie des enfants!
Student Learning Success
3. A teacher is always assessing student learning.
However, at key times in the school year, a teacher
may add in more formal measurements of student
learning, such as a test or a diagnostic assessment
Student Achievement
like the Fountas& Pinnell Reading Assessment we
use in every grade. These more formal measurements
The end of Term 2 has arrived and Report Cards
are used as benchmarks to determine learning
will be ready to arrive home on March 17th. A
report card is designed to tell you about your child’s accomplishments for a student up to that point in the
school year.
current learning achievements and what learning
and skill developments are next steps for your child. 4. This assessment information is the communicated
Assessing and Reporting
Report cards allow teachers to communicate a
student's level of learning based on our Alberta
curriculum learning requirements. These learning
requirements are called outcomes. There are
multiple learning outcomes in every subject for
every grade. It is these learning outcomes which
guide a teacher’s design of each student’s learning
journey, then the assessment of this learning and
finally the student’s achievement of these learning
outcomes is shared with you in the report card.
How might this learning journey look?
The Student’s Learning Journey
1. The classroom teacher determines how to
present the learning outcomes in a variety of
engaging ways for students.
to parents in a form such as the report card or at
interviews.
5. It is then time to resume the learning journey with
the next chosen learning outcomes to work on in a
classroom.
The learning journey is always in motion and students are constantly improving upon their previous
achievements. Your child’s report card will communicate to you their learning accomplishments to
date. Our Student-led Conferences are a great way to
gain additional understanding about your child’s
learning accomplishments and have much
celebration around these gains with your child.
We look forward to seeing you at
Student-led Interviews on March 21st, 22nd, and
2. The teacher uses a variety of tools and activities the 23rd.
to monitor student learning; creating many op- Respectfully,
portunities for students to practice and gain
Angela Warke
strength with these learning outcomes.
Principal
March 2017
Raising Strong Readers- Building Reading Stamina In Your Child
Having stamina for something means being able to stick with something for periods of time. This stamina, or
endurance, builds strength. Stamina can apply to lots of different areas, such as exercise or painting. It can also apply to
reading.
Teachers often think about a student’s reading stamina. Reading stamina is a child’s ability to focus and read
independently for long-ish periods of time without being distracted or without distracting others. Reading stamina is something
that parents can help students develop. This is a skill that is constantly developed in the primary grades at school. Here’s how
you can help at home:
1. Vary the way the reading is done. Parents can think about this in terms of having their child “read to himself, read to
someone, and listen to reading.” Some combination of the three should make up the reading time, especially for new or
struggling readers.
2. Choose “just right” books. If your child is at a stage of being able to read alone, help him choose books that he is
able to read independently. This means he should be able to decode almost every word in the book correctly. In this situation,
avoid using books that are too difficult to read alone. If your child will be reading with you, choose books that are lively and
engaging.
3. Set reasonable goals. Most young children find it difficult to sit for long periods of time, even with the most engaging
book! When starting out, limit book time to just a few minutes and work up from there. For elementary aged readers, consider
starting with 10-15 minutes of reading time, and work up from there. Add a few minutes to your reading time every week or so.
4. Celebrate progress! Without getting too caught up on the number of minutes spent reading, celebrate the time that is
spent reading. Share your favorite parts of books read, plan the next visit to the library, and share progress with other family
members. For students who participate in reading programs in the classroom, be sure to record the time read in the agenda!
Spending longer periods of time reading means fewer interruptions and more time reading what you love. As your child
moves into higher grades, having reading stamina will help your child navigate the longer texts and assignments. Using these
tips can help develop more stamina in your reader.
École John Wilson Elementary School
Is excited to announce that we are now accepting applications
for our Pre-Kindergarten Program for the 2017-2018 school year.
*Pre-Kindergarten provides a literacy rich learning environment
*We offer half-day programming three days a week
(Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday)

It is an intervention focused program for children with delays in the
following areas: speech/language, social/emotional regulation, fine/
gross motor, medical, etc.



Screening is provided at the school
There is no charge for eligible children to attend the program
Applications are available at the school and on our website:
johnwilsonschool.ca
School Fees are Due
We ask that all school
fees be paid as soon
as possible. Payments
can be made online, or
at the office. Partial payments
towards fees is acceptable, please
contact the office to discuss options.
Thank you
It is École John Wilson Elementary School’s
commitment to our students to continue
surrounding them with strong
values and programs that support their healthy
physical,
social and emotional wellness.
Our BIG 5
1. Be Respectful
2. Be Responsible
3. Be Truthful and Trustworthy
4. Be Cooperative
5. Be Caring
CÉSD Inclement Weather
With the safety of students, staff and parents our highest priority, our Board of
Education has supported our plan to close schools on extreme weather days when
traveling is deemed unsafe for everyone.
To that end, Central Office has developed a procedure that will allow school closures to
involve a single school, a community of schools or the entire school division. To keep this
procedure relatively simple, we believe there are essentially three types of travel days that
occur in our Division. We have coded these days Green (all clear), Yellow (use caution), and
Red (unsafe).
Green days – the days when it is clearly safe for everyone to travel. All busses are running and all of
our schools are open.
Yellow days – the days when busses might not run in some or all areas of the Division, but schools
remain open. On Yellow days, we anticipate that the majority of staff members will be able to drive to their
schools and that learning will proceed as it normally does. (i.e. There may be a small minority of staff who
choose not to travel because they have deemed their unique route unsafe.) Here are a few illustrative
examples of Yellow days:
*Days when County crews need more time for snow removal to allow busses safe access to turnarounds, yet
many other vehicles can still make safe passage through our rural roads.
*Days when there is fog, freezing rain, or low temperatures in the morning, but the weather is relatively
fine for the rest of the day. This type of weather may disrupt bus service, but our staff and our parents can
often travel safely simply by arriving a little later.
Red days – A given school, area or the entire division will be closed. These are days when we are
faced with a full blown blizzard or when we still have a combination of heavy snow, high winds, and very low
visibility. On Red days, to ensure the safety of our staff, parents, and licensed older students, we feel we
need to close schools not only for students, but also for staff. This decision will be made in consultation with
school administrators whenever possible. We believe this is the best way to ensure everyone’s safety. It is
important to note that a Red day may exist for one school, for one area (i.e. all Sundre Schools), or for the
entire Division. Staff will be expected to conduct their work from home as much as possible and, for emergency purposes only, we will be asking our schools to do what they can to have at least one staff member on
site on school closure days to ensure that no students are inadvertently dropped off at the front door of a
school.
LIBRARY BUZZ
We begin March with one of my favorite days…
Crazy Hat Day! We celebrate Dr.Seuss’ birthday with
Crazy Hat Day because he had an extensive hat
collection! We love Dr.Seuss for the fun and
Imagination he brings to our reading. So many of his
books were inspired by very serious topics, but he brings
them to us in a very friendly way that allows us to
really connect with his characters and their situation.
Theodor Seuss Geisel will be our author of the month for March. We
will also be celebrating St.Patrick’s Day and the first signs of Spring (Hooray!).
March 8th is our Cinderella performance, so we will also have
our many different versions of that tale out on display.
One last thing…
OUR SPRING BOOK FAIR!!
Our last book fair for the year will be during
interviews again, running March 21-23,
8:00-7:30 each day.
Hello from Parent Council!
A big thank you to all the families that attended our second École John Wilson movie night in the
gym! We have heard lots of positive feedback and would like to host another one before the school
year is complete. Details will follow when we have more information. A big thank you to the volunteers that helped with February's event!
In February, we also hosted our annual Friendship Picnic which was a another huge hit with
our students! Thank you again to all the parent volunteers that came out to help with the lunch! It
was a lot of fun and very much appreciated. Please keep your eyes open for details about one of our
next exciting events, our École John Wilson Read-a-thon! It is one of our two major fundraisers for
the year and something that our students always look forward to. Parent Council is excited to be a
part of it as well!
Our next Parent Council meeting will be held on March 28th @ 6:30 . We would love for you to come
out and join us! There is always lots of valuable information to learn at these meetings and
we encourage parents to come and find out what we are all about. Childcare is provided free of
charge while we meet. Hope to see you there!
Jena Rice
Parent Council Chair
The
opera
Calgary Opera is coming
to John Wilson !
Wednesday March 8th.
To celebrate the opera performance, we are going to have a
“Favorite Fairy Tale Character”
spirit day. Staff and students are invited to dress up as their fairy tale character.
March 2017
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
3
4
Crazy Hat Day
T/T kindergarten
Day
Hot Dog Day
5
6
7
8
9
10
Cinderella
No School
No School
16
17
11
Fairytale dress
up day
Subway Day
Kindergarten
Open house @ 6
12
13
14
15
18
St. Patrick’s
Day–Wear Green
M/W Kindergarten
Pizza Day
Report Cards
19
20
21
22
23
24
26
Parent Teacher Interviews/Student Lead Conferences No School
Scholastics Book Fair
No M/W kinder
25
26
27
28
29
30
Celebration
T/T Kindergarten
Assembly 11:30
Crazy Hair Day
Last Day to
order hot lunch
31
April 2017
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Hot Dog Day
M/W Kindergarten
9
10
11
12
13
Subway Day
14
15
Good Friday
No School
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
28
30
Spring Break April 17th to April 21st
23
24
25
26
27
Pizza Day
30
T/T Kindergarten