December 18-22, 2023

HO HO HO! Christmas is around the corner and well deserved winter break! We can’t wait to celebrate the festive season with our families and friends.

This week, we participated in school caroling, read books, watched movies and made special gifts for our families. 

 

    During the week, our students practiced writing skills and signed Christmas cards and wrote letters to Santa.  

On Thursday, all students participated in a special holiday story read aloud by Dr. Slater while enjoying special snacks provided by parents’ council (an orange and a candy cane). 

For pajama day at school, we rested, read stories, ate yummy popcorn, made ginger bread cookies and watched a Christmas movie.

Upcoming Dates 

December 25 - January 5 - NO SCHOOL Winter Break

January 8 - First Day Back from Winter Break

January 15 - PD Day - NO SCHOOL

February 15 & 16 - Teacher's Convention - NO SCHOOL

February 19 - Family Day - NO SCHOOL

We hope you have a fantastic winter break!

Merry Christmas and Happy new Year!

Ms. Veronika, Ms. Emma and Ms. Swapna

December 15, 2023

 Dear Families,

We have had another busy week in EES!

Students have continued to learn about using their five senses to explore winter and Christmas themes.  In Language Arts the students worked on writing sentences, words, phonics and exploring Christmas language.  Math groups have continued to work on addition, number sequencing and shape matching.  Science lessons have involved a variety of winter and holiday-themed experiments, including fake snow, a melting snowman, and dancing jingle bells!

Each class also spent time in the sensory room, the gym, and music.  It is great to have so many fun learning opportunities for our students every day!  There was also time for some winter and holiday art, which is being displayed on our classroom bulletin boards. 

Some of our students also decorated sugar cookies to give away (and to taste!) as we wanted to say thank you to our bus drivers, office staff, and maintenance/cleaning crew.  They turned out beautiful, and delicious!

Next week will include a lot of different holiday events, which is sure to be a lot of fun!

Important Dates:

December 18 - Caroling at 9:00am

December 19 - Festive Sweater Day

December 20 - Fun Lunch - Boston Pizza

December 20 - Caroling at 1:15pm 

December 21 - Pajama Day 

December 25 - January 5 - NO SCHOOL Winter Break

The Magic of Christmas Fundraiser

The last day to bring in donations for The Magic of Christmas will be Monday December 18.

Please see the attached wish list for ideas of items to donate.

For more information or to make a monetary donation, please visit
https://www.themagicofchristmas.org/

Thank you for your support!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Emma, Ms. Swapna & Ms. Veronika

December 4-8, 2023

 

Happy December!

This week we continued learning about the Festival of Hanukkah.

Students learned some interesting facts about the holiday which helped them to acquire new words and improve their vocabulary.

Some of the facts are:

• Hanukkah lasts for eight nights to commemorate how long the holy light burned
• Each night we light one more candle on the Menorah
• The word "Hanukkah" means "dedication"
• Dreidel comes in different sizes and tends to be made of wood, plastic or clay. Each letter on the dreidel means a different move while playing the game

We carried on with an amalgamation of 5 senses topic with Hanukkah, and students experienced it through different activities.

We made beautiful Menorahs from wooden sticks with pretended candles that our students can safely light for Hanukkah.

In Science, we explored density of water versus oil and had fun making oobleck. 

This week we looked for creative and innovative ways to dress up our classroom doors for Christmas. Students were happy and eager to lend a helping hand and get their imagination run wild!

The Magic of Christmas Fundraiser

This holiday season, McKenzie Towne students and staff are encouraged to support The Magic of Christmas. 

Every Christmas Eve, The Magic of Christmas loads up Calgary Transit buses that are magically transformed into “reindeer buses”, with hundreds of gifts and volunteers dressed as Santa and his elves.  Then they deliver Christmas spirit into the homes and hearts of those who need it most.  The school will be collecting until December 18.  Please bring in new, unwrapped donation items (not food) and place them in the boxes located in the front foyer. 

Please see the attached wish list for ideas of items to donate.

For more information or to make a monetary donation, please visit

https://www.themagicofchristmas.org/

Thanks for your support!

Fun Lunch

Our next Fun Lunch will be on December 20.

Fun Lunch is only for grades 1-4 and our EES students. Orders are accepted 1 week prior to the day.

• Go to healthyhunger.ca

• Log into your existing account or create a new one.

• Add your child’s information in the “add child” box – name, province, city, school, grade and class.

• All Fun Lunches will then populate – select the Order Now button!

Upcoming Dates

December 8 - NO SCHOOL - PD Day

December 19 - Festive Sweater Day

December 20 - Fun Lunch - Boston Pizza

December 20 - Caroling at 1:15 pm 

December 21 - Pajama Day 

December 25 - January 5 - NO SCHOOL Winter Break

Have a fantastic weekend!

Ms. Emma, Ms. Swapna and Ms. Veronika

December 1, 2023

 Hello Families, 

Students are getting excited for December to arrive and so are we! 

 

This week we talked about another festival of lights i.e. Hanukkah. Students understood that it is a Jewish holiday that lasts for eight nights and usually occurs in December. We read some stories and sang the “spin a dreidel” song and collaborated it with Language Arts, Math and Science concepts. 

 

In Art, we decorated David’s star with blue and white little stick-on jewels. 

Science lessons involved expansion on last week's learning around sinking and floating, as well as making fake snow and a melting snowman experiment. It was messy, but a really fun learning opportunity!

 

For cooking, students loved rolling out (blue) vanilla frosting on cookies, decorating them and of course, devouring them! 

 

*It’s Here! Digital Decodable Library Resource. This collection of digital decodable books (aligning with the CBE Scope & Sequence) is now available. The digital library provides the opportunity for beginning readers to access these reading materials. The materials will continue to be updated over time, so check back often!*

Important Notes: 

 

-A reminder that next Friday, December 8th is a PD day and there will be no school for students.   

 

-A reminder that if you have any library books at home that have been taken out from MTS, please remember to return them next week. 

- December 19 - Ugly Holiday Sweater Day (wear your favourite holiday sweater) 

- December 20 - Fun Lunch - Boston Pizza 

- December 25 - January 5 - NO SCHOOL Winter Break! 

 

Thank you and have a great weekend everybody! 

Ms. Emma, Ms. Swapna and Ms. Veronika