January 2016
Stewart Valley School News
Inside this issue:
Principal’s Message
2
December in Review
Christmas Festival
Room 1 News
2/3
Room 2 News
3
Room 3 News
4
Thank You for attending the
Christmas Festival. The
students did an awesome
job entertaining the audience. Also Thank You for
contributing to the lunch.
Thank You ...
School Info
5
Dates & Activities
January 4
Grade 6-8 Curling
January 15
Family Fun Night
February 1 / 2
No School for Students
Thank You to Suzanne
Hogg for organizing the
craft afternoon. Also to the
parents for helping students create crafts!
Thank You to Simon
Skerten for repairing the
Rink.
New Year Highlights
Curling
February 12
Robert Munsch Production
Family Fun Night
February 15—19
The Family Fun Night is
scheduled for Friday, January 15th from 6:00—10.00
p.m. More details to follow.
Grade 6-8 Ski Trip
Winter Holiday - No School
Please remember that
there is not supervision
after school . Skaters
are skating at their own
risk.
Thank You to the SCC for
supplying a Pizza Lunch for
students to enjoy.
Grade 6-8 students will continue to curl on Mondays. In
fact they were back on the
ice on Monday.
February 10
Another Thank You is
extended to Aaron
Moen and Shayne
Stewart for putting in
the ice in our rink over
the break!
School Holidays
Monday, February 1—
Turn Around Day - no
school for students.
Tuesday, February 2 - PD
Day—no school for students.
Ski Trip
Grade 6-8 Ski Trip is
scheduled for Feb. 10th,
2016. Participation forms
have been sent home for
completion. If parents are
attending and require additional participation forms
please contact the school.
Parents must be registered
with the school to receive the
school rate. Thank You for
your prompt attention to this
matter.
Robert Munsch Production
Students will be treated to
an entertaining production
on Friday, February 12th @
1:30 p.m.
Stewart Valley School News
Page 2
Principal’s Message
Happy New Year! I hope everyone
had a wonderful holiday season and
are refreshed and ready for what a
new year will bring. At Stewart Valley
School our teachers are working hard
to implement our new Saskatchewan
Reads initiative through classroom libraries, independent reading renewal,
and continuing to focus on a balanced
plan of shared, guided, and independent reading opportunities. In mathe-
matics, we have supported student
learning through focused intervention, leading to improved confidence and skill acquisition for individuals who have needed extra
support.
Room 1 News
ELA K-2
In the next few months, Room 1
students will continue to read and
write for a variety of purposes. Using the Daily 5 model, students will
read independently and with their
classmates. They will write daily
and participate in word work activities. Students will have many opportunities to participate in guided
reading where they continue to
learn and use reading strategies
that enhance their fluency and comprehension. We will listen to and
discuss works of fiction, non-fiction,
and First Nations literature. Students will strengthen writing skills
through interactive writing. Kindergarten students will solidify their
knowledge of the alphabet and its sounds. They
will begin reading sight
words and writing using
letters and sounds.
Grade one and two will
write friendly letters and step by
step directions.
Kindergarten Math
Kindergarten students will practice
writing and saying the numbers
Our SCC has been busy looking for ways to support our
school learning initiatives. You
were all given a copy of Mary
Poppins by P.L. Travers and
we encourage you to read the
book with your family so that
our teachers and students can
take part in some learning activities at the end of February
and early March. We will also
be hosting a movie night airing
the video version of this title.
What a great opportunity to
compare and contrast a book
to movie while bringing families together.
1-10. We will work on showing a
number to 10 using two parts. For
example, the number 8 can be
made with 4 & 4, 5 & 3 etc. We will
compare the length, height, mass,
and volume of objects using words
like shorter, longer, lighter heavier,
less, more, or almost the same.
ing of these concepts. We will work
with equality and
inequality with
numbers to 100.
Measurement will
also be our focus as we choose nonstandard units, estimate, measure
and compare our measurements.
Grade One Math
Room 1 Social Studies
This term, we will reinforce counting
to 100 using 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s
forward and backward. Students
will add and subtract numbers to 20
using objects, pictures and number
sentences. Mental math strategies
such as making 10 and doubles will
be explored. We will measure objects in terms of length, height,
mass, and volume. We will compare two objects using the terms
longest, shortest, heaviest, and
lightest.
Room one has been learning about
our families. We will continue learning as we explore family traditions
and celebrations. Students will share
interviews they have done with family
members. Students will explore
globes and maps including the maps
of Saskatchewan and Canada. We
will also explore the causes of conflict
and ways of returning to harmony.
Grade Two Math
Grade two students will review adding and subtracting numbers to 20
and then learn to add and subtract
numbers to 100. We will begin by
using manipulatives, then draw pictures, and lastly use number sentences to gain a solid understand-
P.E. K-5
In the K-5 Phys. Ed. class students
are also creating low organized
games and presenting them to the
class. I am always amazed at the
creativity and complexity of the
games the younger students create.
After low organized games we will
move on to basketball.
Page 3
Room 1 Continued
Room 1 Science
Room One has recently began a
unit on Air and Water. Students will
investigate properties of air and
water (in all three states of matter)
within their environment
Health
Students in grades 1 through 5
have been exploring the concepts
of healthy choices and nutrition.
Grade one students have been
learning to make healthy choices
like drinking water and choosing
vegetables over sweets. Grade two
Room 2 News
E.L.A
We are currently working on the
reading strategy of inferring. Inferring is a comprehension strategy
readers use to create meaning by
piecing together clues the author
provides in the text with relevant
personal experiences. Students will
have opportunities to infer through
short visual clips, bumper stickers,
fictional text, as well as poems, and
posters.
Our next writing focus will be
on procedural writing. Students will have the opportunity to view and study a
mentor text and then create
a published copy of an area of interest.
Math 3 and 4
Please see the unit overview documents that were sent home for a
more detailed summary of curricular
content being studied.
Social
In social, we are beginning to expand our focus from the local environment to the global environment,
and begin to explore the relation
students have explored healthy
snacking. Grade three students are
learning about healthy food and
how it corresponds with mind, body,
and their immune system. Grade
four and five students have been
learning how to read food labels
and nutrition facts from fast food
restaurants. Next, we will learn
about illnesses and disease, infectious and non-infectious diseases,
and real and fictional violence.
Fine Arts K-4
In the New Year, we will learn more
about the elements of art and create art using these elements. We
ships between local communities
and the broader world community in
which students live. We have been
studying in detail four countries located on different continents: Peru,
Tunisia, Ukraine, and India. Students are becoming aware of the
geography, food, languages, housing, work, education, and quality of
life.
Fine Arts 5-8
In the New Year, we will learn more
about the elements of art and create art using these elements. We
will be writing plays and songs
based on grade level themes. Students will create dances using the
elements of dance. We will also
focus on First Nations and Metis
artists and their art.
P.E. K-5
In the K-5 Phys. Ed. class students
are also creating low organized
games and presenting them to the
class. I am always amazed at the
creativity and complexity of the
games the younger students create.
After low organized games we will
move on to basketball.
will be writing plays and songs
based on grade level themes. Students will create dances using the
elements of dance. We will also
focus on First Nations and Metis
artists and their art.
French K – 5
We began the year with a review of the
days of the week, months of the year,
and numbers to 31. The students
learned a number of songs and poems,
played games and completed some
worksheets to reinforce the calendar
vocabulary. They also learned some
important differences between the
French and English calendar. We will
continue to use this vocabulary throughout the year. Our current unit is on Fall
or L’automne. Students will be expected to learn 30 vocabulary words
and related ideas through memory
games, songs, stories, class participation and some reading and writing activities.
Math 4 and 5
We began the year with some games,
riddles and activities to get back into
math thinking. Next, the students wrote
the VIN (Vancouver Island Net) which
gives a snapshot of what they remember from their previous grade. Both
grades are now working on the Number
strand of the math curriculum, specifically place value (to 10 000 for grade 4,
to 1 000 000 for grade 5), adding whole
numbers (grade 4) and estimation.
Students have learned different strategies to estimate including: front-end,
compatible numbers – rounding to the
nearest 10, 100, 1000, etc., and compensation – rounding one number up
and one number down (grade5). The
next unit will be multiplication and division. Grade 4 and 5 students will need
to know times tables up to 10 x 10. All
students are improving in showing all
their work and not just giving the answer!
Page 4
Room 3 News
Math 6 & 8
In math 6 we have learned about fractions, percent, ratios and integers. Currently students are learning about
mixed and improper fractions and how
to convert between the two.
In math 8, students have learned about
percent and ratios and just finished a
unit on multiplying fractions. Currently
students are learning about how to multiply and divide integers and will be
looking at order of operations with integers in the near future.
ELA 6-8
In ELA students have been doing narrative writing and have written their own
stories. Also students continue to do
independent reading and conferencing.
Currently students are creating a book
trailers for a book they have recently
read. Book trailers are similar to movie
trailers in which students use pictures,
voice overs and text to advertise their
books. I am excited to see the creative
products students will produce
Over the next few weeks in ELA, we will
be looking at non-fiction and doing
some work around identifying main idea
and supporting details. Also students
will be learning about how to properly
write an expository essay and will eventually write their own.
We will also continue to do read alouds
as a class and students will be learning
different strategies to improve their
comprehension and understanding.
P.E. 6-8
In P.E. we are just wrapping up our low
organized games unit. Once again students are creating their own games and
presenting them to the class. Students
continue to create creative and interesting games. After we finish low organized games we will move on to basketball.
Along with low organized games, students continue to take part in fitness
tests and fitness activities. The goal
with each of these is to improve overall
fitness throughout the year and to record personal bests when we measure
our results in June.
Careers
In Careers we are looking at how to fill
out a job application and how to make a
resume. Students are just finishing
making their own resumes.
Throughout the rest of the year in Careers, we are planning on doing a number of field trips to the city to learn more
about different careers. Once a month
the students, Mrs. Penner and myself
will travel to Swift Current to learn more
about some of the career opportunities
available. Mrs. Penner and I did this
last year and the students really enjoyed it.
Science 6-8
In science, we currently are working
through a unit on light and optics. In this
unit students have had a chance do a
number of different labs in order to understand how light works and the properties of light. We will be having a science test near the end of the month.
In the New Year, we will learn more
about the elements of art and create art
using these elements. We will be writing plays and songs based on grade
level themes. Students will create
dances using the elements of dance.
We will also focus on First Nations and
Metis artists and their art.
Social Studies 6-8
In social studies, we are just finishing a
unit on how our environment affects our
lives. Students will have a test this
week to wrap up the unit. Our next unit
in social will be on Power and Privilege.
French 6 – 8
We began the year with a review of the
days of the week, months of the year,
and numbers to 69. The students
played games and completed some
worksheets to reinforce the calendar
vocabulary. We will continue to use
this vocabulary throughout the year.
Our current unit is Halloween or L’halloween. Students will be learning 28
vocabulary words plus related
questions, prepositions and verbs.
P.A.A. 6-8
The grade 6’s are currently doing guided reading during P.A.A. and so it’s
only the grade 8’s doing P.A.A. The
grade 8’s just finished a unit on design
in which they designed and created
their own children’s toy. This was an
interesting project and students created
some really interesting projects. Our
next unit in P.A.A. is food studies.
Fine Arts 5-8
Health 6 – 8
Students are studying the Grade 8
Health curriculum this year. The big
idea is Support Others. The first unit
deals with discovering what support is,
how it benefits us personally, and how
we can access support. Students completed some self-assessment checklists
to discover ways they liked to receive
support and ways they were comfortable giving support. They also worked
on identifying traits of an effective support person. Then they evaluated which
traits they already had and which ones
they could improve on. As a class, we
will discuss the ideas of ‘learned dependence’ and ‘empowerment’. All of
these concepts will be applied to understanding the impact that available supports and services have on individuals,
families, and communities who have
non-curable diseases and infections.
Decision making and goal setting are a
big part of the Health curriculum. So for
each unit, students will have a journal
style assignment which asks them to
use what they have learned to make an
informed decision on a topic relating to
the unit of study.
Community Announcements
ROGERS HOMETOWN HOCKEY
Swift Current – January 9 & 10, 2016
During the weekend of Saturday, January 9th and Sunday, January 10th, 2016, the Rogers Hometown
Hockey Tour will visit Swift Current and bring with it a weekend of free outdoor hockey festivities for all
ages, culminating in an outdoor viewing party of an NHL game broadcast on Sunday evening, with Ron
MacLean hosting live onsite from the Sportsnet Mobile Studio. There will be many fun, interactive
stations to participate in throughout the weekend as well as the Cheer Like Never Before contest, a
colouring contest, and the Bronco game vs Moose Jaw at
2:00 pm on Sunday.
For more information, visit www.swiftcurrent.ca/rogershockey
Celebrate Our Community, Celebrate Our Game!
Stewart Valley School
301 Stephen Street
Box 70
S0N 2P0
Phone: 306-778-9280
Fax: 306-773-1871