Mustang Memo - October 11, 2024
Today was a great day to enjoy a nice book with family. We were so happy to see so many parents, grandparents, siblings and guardians at the school at lunch today to celebrate the joy of a good book. What a treat to see a loved one in the middle of the day!
Thank you to our Read In Week planning committee of Ms. Heidi and Mrs. Eng who created a great week of events to support a love of reading!
As the weather becomes more chilly, we hope that your family will continue to bundle up, pile up on a cozy couch and read great stories out loud to each other. A shared book read out loud can be such a wonderful experience. Don't like reading out loud? Consider listening to an auditory book as a family. There is something magical about listening to a great book!
Enjoy your weekend!
Helene Hewitt & Jay Robertson
Principal & Assistant Principal
A place where you belong!
Table of Contents
Week At a Glance
Action
- Parent/Student/Teacher Interviews are Coming
Opportunity
- School Council Meeting
- Scholastic Book Fair is Coming
Information
- Counsellor's Corner
- Halloween at Davidson Creek
- What Did Staff Learn on October 4 PL Day?
- School Bus Safety Week
- Parents Make the Difference
WEEK AT A GLANCE
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ACTION
Parent/Student/Teacher Interviews are coming!
It's almost time for our first round of parent/student/teacher interviews! Interviews will take place on October 23 and 24 from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. This round will be using a traditional sit down interview format. Parents are invited to meet with teachers for 10 minutes to check-in on your child's progress. While we wish we could offer longer time slots, the volume of kids at our school makes it mathematically impossible to offer longer time slots and still ensure that all families have an opportunity to sign up.
How do you book your meeting time?
On October 15 at 9 a.m., the online booking option will appear on our website as a heading. Look for the word "Bookings" and click there. The rest is easy!
What if I have some other things to discuss and I know it might exceed 10 minutes?
Get in touch with your child's teacher by email to make an alternate arrangement. Teachers don't mind meeting with you - it's our job! We are on your child's team so make sure to send an email or make a phone call and we'll make it work!
OPPORTUNITY
Upcoming Parent Meetings - October 15
It's almost time for our next school council and DCFS meetings! Join us this Tuesday evening in the library at 6 p.m. This meeting we will be hosting our first ever parent sharing circle. Sharing circles are an important part of our restorative practices in our School Education Plan mental health goal and we want to share the experience in our school council meeting. We will also have an update from our Mental Health Capacity Builder, Julia, on the brain lessons she has been teaching in classrooms!
Here are the documents for the upcoming meetings:
The Scholastic Book Fair is coming to DCE!
The fair will be open from Oct 22 – 25.
Purchases can be made during:
- the Parent/Student/Teacher interview evenings (4pm – 7pm) on Oct. 23 & 24 and
- lunch recesses according to the schedule listed below (for grade 3 through 6 students ONLY*).
Please take NOTE of this schedule for lunch-recess shopping:
- Tuesday, Oct. 22: Grade 3
- Wednesday, Oct. 23: Grade 4
- Thursday, Oct. 24: Grade 5
- Friday, Oct. 25: Grade 6
To keep line-ups manageable, it would be great to have help from parent volunteers. If you can help at the book fair for a lunch recess or an evening (or even part of an evening), please email our librarian, Janeen Eng, at janeen.eng@eips.ca.
You can also visit our Book Fair Homepage for more information and to preview items: https://bookfairs.scholastic.ca/bf/davidsoncreekelemschool
* Students in Kindergarten, Grade 1 or Grade 2, will be able to purchase book fair items during the evenings with their parents. Due to time constraints, we are unable to accommodate the younger students during lunch recesses. Also, the younger kids need one-on-one help to understand how to spend their money, and we do not have enough volunteers to provide that kind of assistance. Thank you for your understanding! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mrs. Eng.
INFORMATION
Counsellor's Corner
The ability to effectively navigate conflicts is a skill that can be built over time through parent modeling and opportunities for practice. Children in elementary school are just learning how to navigate conflicts effectively and commonly either overshoot or undershoot the mark when they are trying to communicate with peers. Helping children understand the difference between assertive, passive and aggressive communication styles is an important part of this process.
This resource from PBS kids details some considerations for helping your child to build the skills they need to be confident and assertive communicators. We’ve shared an excerpt below but encourage you to read the whole resource as it contains some valuable considerations.
How to Make Your Child Speak Up | Parenting… | PBS KIDS for Parents
“All too often we tell kids what to do without actually giving them details on what we mean. “Be assertive” is a fairly bland statement. It lacks an explanation. I always encourage parents to discuss different communication styles with kids.
- Passive: Passive communicators struggle to make eye contact, use a very quiet voice and act as if other peoples’ rights are more important than their own.
- Aggressive: Aggressive communicators are loud, imposing (they might try to stand taller than others) and act as if their rights are more important than the rights of others.
- Assertive: Assertive communicators make eye contact, use a calm but firm voice and respect their own rights and the rights of others equally.
Use characters from books, TV and movies to illustrate these communication styles.
It’s important to remember that in all relationships there will be some degree of conflict. This is normal and expected. It’s the way in which we navigate these conflicts that matters. Assertive communication skills will help to support both your child’s peer relationships, as well as their relationship with you as parents.
As school counsellors, we help children to practice using assertive communication frequently and love to see how their confidence and independence with using this skill builds over time. Taking the time to talk about, model and practice effective conflict resolution with your elementary age child, will benefit them throughout their lives.
Madison Bashaw, M.Ed. and Kelley Mitchell, M.Ed., R. Psych. CHT
Davidson Creek School Counsellors
Halloween at Davidson Creek
Halloween is almost here and we are ready for some spooky fun! In order to make sure that this event is safe and fun for all here is what you can expect!
Halloween Parade
Our Halloween Parade will take place starting around 12:45 p.m. on October 31. Come and watch our little ghouls and goblins prance down the halls in our designated parent area in the gym. We are a large school and so our parade takes a while to make it's way around the school. Prepare to enjoy the show until around 2 p.m. when we hope to be all finished!
Halloween Costumes
Students are welcome to come dressed in their costumes for the day. Please help us out by making sure that costumes are not too scary/grotesque for our youngest students and that students leave weapons at home for their evening Trick-or-Treating! If a costume has a mask, students may wear it during the parade but then take it off during the rest of the day!
We highly recommend avoiding inflatable costumes as they pose a serious safety risk on the stairs. If students do come wearing inflatables, we will ask them to deflate during the parade for their own safety!
Halloween Treats - Staying Safe
Students will be invited to bring a personal treat on October 31 for their classroom party.
Please remember that we are a Nut Aware school and that students may not bring food items that contain nuts to school. This is make sure that all of our little mustangs are safe! Many of our students, as well as some of our staff, have severe nut allergies. Thank you for your cooperation in making sure everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!
What Did Staff Learn on the October 4 PL Day?
When all of the students enjoyed a day off, our staff were hard at work in their learning.
October 4 was a division wide Professional Learning Day focused on Professional Learning Communities for all staff. Teachers gathered in a variety of schools with other teachers of the same grade level where they divided up into smaller groups to set a learning goal and work towards that goal throughout the day. Teachers focused on a variety of topics including math, literacy, writing, assessment and differentiation to name a few.
Administrators also met in Professional Learning Communities to focus on areas of interest. Mrs. Hewitt met with other principals to look at ways to help teachers make sense of the Government of Alberta literacy and numeracy screening data with Mr. Robertson joined the Grade 6 teachers to see what is new in Grade 6 math.
Our educational assistants attended a workshop about Pathological Demand Avoidance presented by two of our speech-language pathologists for the morning. In the afternoon, they worked as a team to discuss how to implement new strategies that will best support the students with whom they work.
It was a great day of collaboration and learning for all!
School Bus Safety Week
Schools throughout Elk Island Public Schools (EIPS) are celebrating School Bus Safety Week from October 21-25. The theme: ‘Bus Rule – Be Clever, Dress for the Weather,’ which focuses on how students should dress appropriately for weather conditions—especially when taking the bus. Throughout the week, various activities are planned, including information sessions, and bus-safety lesson plans. Our school already completed our bus evacuation safety drills in the first week of October.
Terry Fox Run a Success
Thank you to everyone who participated in our Terry Fox Run and fundraising event! Our school raised $2181.50 for cancer research through the Terry Fox Foundation! Way to go, Mustangs!
Parents Make the Difference
Each week we will share an article with helpful tips for families. Here is this week's article:
Empower your child to take responsibility for learning
While children are in school, learning is their job. To do it well, they need to be active learners. To instill responsibility for learning, encourage your child to:
- Be prepared. It’s not enough just to show up to class. It’s also important to get a good night’s sleep, eat a nutritious breakfast and complete assignments.
- Participate in class discussions. Your child should ask and answer questions, and exchange ideas with others in the class.
- Stay organized. Help your child create a system for organizing handouts and other materials. Suggest collecting phone numbers from a few classmates so your child can find out about missing assignments.
- Be persistent. Offer support when your elementary schooler tackles schoolwork and studies for tests. Show confidence in your child’s ability. Say things like, “This hard work will pay off!”
Reprinted with permission from the October 2024 issue of Parents make the difference!® (Elementary School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2024 The Parent Institute®, a division of PaperClip Media, Inc.