Mustang Memo - January 31, 2025
What better way to end a week than with a winter dance party!
Thanks to our leadership students, our school enjoyed some music, colouring, and games in the gym. We think that Mr. Robertson was having the most fun as he was having a snowball fight with students using our soft, stuffed pretend snowballs in the gym.
This week was also full of fun as we celebrated our 3rd annual Family Math Night. We had around 100 families who joined us to play games all over the school and seven lucky families left with a family fun prize basket! Thank you to our school council for sponsoring the prizes and to our dedicated teachers for planning, organizing and running the games.
We look forward to seeing you next week at our parent/student/teacher interviews!
Stay warm out there!
Helene Hewitt & Jay Robertson
Principal & Assistant Principal
You belong here!
Table of Contents
Week At a Glance
Action
- Interviews Next Week
- Fee Survey - Not Too Late!
Opportunity
- Pink Shirt Day Buttons
Information
- Counsellor's Corner
- Math Tip
- What Do Teachers Do on PL Days?
- Parents Make the Difference
WEEK AT A GLANCE
| Monday |
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| Tuesday |
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| Wednesday |
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| Thursday |
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| Friday |
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ACTION
Parent/Student/Teacher Interviews Next Week
Parent/student/teacher interviews are on Monday, February 3 and Tuesday, February 4 from 4 to 7 p.m.! Online bookings are now open! Click here to book your 10 minute interview slot!
Fee Survey - Not Too Late!
Thank you to the 39 people who have responded to our 2025-26 Fee Survey. This survey helps us to understand parent perspectives when it comes to setting fees for the next school year. We will share themes from the survey in our February school council meeting and in the Mustang Memo.
You may also choose to indicate your name and email address to be entered into a draw for a $50 Sobey's gift card as a thank you for participating in the survey.
If you meant to respond but it slipped your mind, it's not too late!
Click here to complete the survey.
OPPORTUNITY
Celebrate Kindness with Buttons Designed by DCE Students
For Pink Shirt Day 2025 we decided to do something a little different. Instead of designing a pink shirt, this year our students designed buttons they can wear on Feb. 26th (Pink Shirt Day) with a pink shirt of their choice.
From Monday, February 3 to Friday, buttons can be purchased for $3.50 each on through the fundraising section of our munchalunch website: (munchalunch.com)!
A big congratulations goes to Erica Fink in Mr. Snaterse's Grade 3 class for winning the design contest for the Division One button! Congratulations also to Tanvi Chahal in Mrs. Hansen's Grade 4 class for winning the design contest for the Division Two button!
Order one or both buttons for your kiddos to wear with their pink shirt on Pink Shirt Day to support kindness at our school and in our community! Any funds raised through sales support our kids at DCE!
It's WOW Wednesday on February 5th
February 5th is our next WOW Wednesday! Dress warm and get outside to walk even part way to school! If this Wednesday ends up being a little cold, parking your cars just a little further away from the school and walking the short distance inside still counts! Students who bus to school can run two laps around the back field and this will also count towards WOW Wednesday. We will tally the number of walkers for each class so our students can earn more points towards the end of the year WOW Wednesday class prize! If it ends up being too cold to walk or go outside for recess, we'll skip the count and try again next month. Happy walking!
INFORMATION
Counsellor's Corner
Digital Technology Considerations
“Digital technology has an important role in your life. So it’s helpful to understand the good and bad ways that digital technology can affect you and your family.”
Click here for information from Alberta Health Services that will help you start a conversation about digital technology. You’ll also find tools and resources to help you learn more about using digital technology in a healthy way.
Tips to help you keep your child safe while using social media
- Set up a safety plan. This includes updating security software, using different passwords on social media accounts, teaching youth to only accept friend requests from people they know well, and checking any new sites before your child uses them.
- Block your child from being able to make purchases within applications (called in-app purchases).
- Teach your child about the possible harms of social media.
- Learn how to use the apps that they use to make sure they’re using them safely.
- Know the signs of social media becoming a problem.
How do you know if your child might have a problem with social media?
Social media becomes a problem when it harms your child’s mental or physical health or has unwanted effects on their day-to-day life.
You may want to talk to your child about their social media use if they:
- are on social media often and get upset when they’re interrupted
- don’t want to cut back on using social media, even when they know it’s causing problems
- can’t stop thinking about social media
- feel sad, upset, or frustrated when using or after using social media
- have a hard time keeping up healthy habits, such as sleeping or eating well
- don’t take care of their day-to-day responsibilities or participate in social activities, such as doing school work or chores, going to dances, or spending time with the family pet
- have trouble talking to or being with friends, family, or others in person
- start acting different, such as lying, sneaking around, and pushing limits for online activities
- argue more than usual
Resources
Digital technology
Canadian sedentary behaviour guidelines
How much time children should spend in screen-based activities in a day? Learn how your child can be more active and get a better sleep.
Learning about supporting your teen's social life online
Learn how to support your teen to develop healthy online behaviours.
Media and your child: Making choices
Find out ways to help manage your child’s screen time.
Family media plan
Learn how to create a media plan for your family.
Internet matters
Get online safety tools and guidelines to help children stay safe online.
Protect kids online
Learn how to protect children when they’re online. You’ll also find online education and prevention information to help keep kids safe online and in everyday life.
Protecting and promoting privacy rights
Get information about youth privacy and the importance of privacy when using digital technology.
Cybercrime
Get information about crimes that can be committed online and how to prevent them from happening.
Parental control applications
Find out about parental control apps to help parents and caregivers protect children’s privacy and online safety.
Social media
Explore digital and media literacy
Get educational tools and learning modules from the Media Awareness Network to help you learn more about digital and social media.
Social networking
Learn what stories to keep, how to help manage social networking during the pandemic, and other social networking topics.
Help! Someone shared a photo of me without my consent! – Tip sheet
Get tips on what to do if you post something you regret or someone posts something about you that you didn’t want them to.
18 Social media apps and sites kids are using right now
Learn about social networking applications and sites that teens use.
Screen time and young children
Find out what Canadian pediatricians say about screen time for children under the age of 5.
Social media: What parents should know
Find out what Canadian pediatricians say about sharing information and images through social media.
Social Media Map
Get information about the many social media websites, including those related to gaming.
Gaming
Keeping games fun and friendly
Learn how to keep games fun.
Parental controls for gaming
Get tips to help parents encourage healthy online gaming.
Game age ratings
Get information to help you choose age-appropriate games for children.
Advertising and marketing guidelines – International Age Rating Coalition (IARC)
Learn about game ratings and content and how games are marketed.
Mental Health Resources
Alberta Health Services Help in Tough Times is an up-to-date and comprehensive website where Albertans of all ages can quickly find information about coping and stress management, access to community support services and virtual mental health supports.
Hope for All - Immediate Help Phone Numbers
Alberta Health Services has a text resources and service called Text4Hope.
Important Mental Health Numbers:
- Addiction Helpline – 1-866-332-2322
- Bullying Helpline: 1-888-456-2323 (bullyfreealberta.ca)
- Children's Mental Health Crisis Line: 780-427-4491 (albertahealthservices.ca)
- Community Resources – 211 Alberta
- Crisis Text Line - Text CONNECT to 741741
- Family Violence – Find Supports – 310-1818
- Income Supports – 1-866-644-5135
- Kids Help Phone – 1-800-668-6868 or text CONNECT to 686868
- Mental Health Helpline – 1-877-303-2642
Madison Bashaw & Kelley Mitchell
DCE School Counsellors
Math Tip: All Change Multiplication Game
After family math night, you might be looking for more games to practice math facts at home. Here is a fun game to practice multiplication facts that only requires a deck of cards. Check it out here:
What Do Teachers Do on PL Days?
While students enjoyed a day of rest, our teachers were hard at work doing some professional learning. Our team took some time to review research on how to best build math fact fluency including implementing a school-wide program called Facts on Fire developed by Dr. Brian Poncy, a school psychology professor from Oklahoma State University who specializes in math interventions.
If you'd like to nerd out about research on math fact fluency, you can listen to Dr. Poncy on the Chalk and Talk podcast here.
We also learned more about ways we can best support all students in our classrooms and our staff developed a continuum of supports around best practices for helping students with self-regulation. We ended our day with staff sharing circles where we discussed our key learnings of the day and our plans for what we can implement in our practice going forward.
Parents make the difference
Here is this week's article with helpful tips for families:
Four strategies help you talk with your child about feelings
Elementary schoolers who understand their feelings—and know how to talk about them—are less likely to act out and more likely to express themselves effectively. To get a conversation going about feelings:
- Make a list of different feelings: happy, sad, angry, disappointed, frustrated, scared, mad, etc. Have your child draw a picture of each emotion.
- Ask how your child is feeling every day. Then, talk about the things that make your child feel that way. Listen carefully and be understanding. Don’t ever say that your child shouldn’t feel a certain way.
- Point out your child’s feelings. Say, “You look happy to be outside,” or “You seem frustrated that you haven’t figured out the answer to that science question yet.”
- Talk about healthy ways to manage strong feelings. When angry, your child can take a deep breath and count to ten. When sad, your child can hug a stuffed toy. When discouraged, your child can try a different strategy.
Reprinted with permission from the January 2025 issue of Parents make the difference!® (Elementary School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2025 The Parent Institute®, a division of PaperClip Media, Inc.