Usborne Book Fair Coming to Douglasdale!

                                The Usborne Literacy Fair is Coming!

Monday, March 14^th  – Friday, March 18^th

We are very excited to announce we will be holding an Usborne Book Fair here at Douglasdale School.  Come and see Usborne’s award-winning range of entertaining and educational books for children from toddlers to teens!  The range of titles includes arts, crafts, science, history, nature, music, early readers, French, hobbies, sports, activity kits, adventure stories and puzzles.  We have many books which complement and enrich the Alberta Curriculum.  There will be over 300 books on display, including a selection from the more than 40 new titles released this year, and you will also have the chance to choose from over 1000 titles in the Usborne Catalogue.  Rather than taking the books home at once, the books will be ordered and delivered to school approximately 2 weeks later. Come and browse and get to know these outstanding books.

Your purchases will earn 25% of retail sales in free books for use in the school.

FREE BOOK DRAW!

Check out the online catalogue by going to the website www.usborneonline.ca/HeatherB

Assessment and Reporting

On January 8^th the students brought home their first report card of the 2015-16 school year. For those families who are new to the CBE or who have younger students moving from kindergarten into the grades, the report card might look a little different. There are many resources on the CBE website to assist parents in understanding their child’s report card. 

http://www.cbe.ab.ca/programs/curriculum/assessment-and-reporting/Pages/default.aspx

We thought we would use this week’s blog post to address some of the common parent queries.

A report card is divided into subject areas and within those areas into specific REPORT CARD OUTCOMES that describe what your child is expected to know and be able to do (by the end of the school year) according to the Alberta Education Programs of Study. Multiple assessments, along with the teacher’s professional judgment are considered when evaluating student achievement against the CBE report card outcomes.

Rather than receiving one overall grade for a subject, students receive INDICATORS showing the extent to which the child has demonstrated achievement of the report card outcomes. In the fall of 2014 the report card indicators changed from a 5 point scale to a 4 point scale; 1 (Not Meeting) to 4 (Excellent). There is no direct translation from the 5-point indicator scale used in previous years to the 4-point indicator scale that we use now. In other words the new ‘2’ is not the old ‘3.’ 

A ‘2’ in the 4-point indicator scale means that the student has achieved grade level expectations for that report card outcome and that the depth and breadth of their understanding is at a basic level.

Kindergarten is often a child’s first experience with formal schooling. Although many of the report card outcomes are the same as in the higher grades, the outcomes specific to Kindergarten reflect this first exposure to academic life for our young learners. For example, the literacy outcome in Kindergarten, “Uses early literacy strategies to explore, construct and express ideas,” honors the child’s early encounters with text and recognizing the many experiences that ‘grow’ a reader.

The move from grade to grade is always a big one and the leap from Kindergarten to grade one is particularly so! It is important to remember that each grade has a new set of learning outcomes that in many cases build on the year before while also presenting your child with brand new and exciting concepts through which they can explore their world.

Studio Artist Update!

CALLING ALL DDS STUDENTS...

Miss. Sarah (our ACAD Studio Artist) needs our help! Please see her message below for more information on some exciting projects happening in her studio space in our Learning Commons!

HELLO DOUGLASDALE STUDENTS,

You have all been so thoughtful in coming up with ideas on what I should create next and I have to say I am very inspired! I did a lot of brainstorming over the holidays and I think I have come up with a new painting idea, but I need your help before I get started!

If you want to take part in my project coming up, there a few things you can do to get involved!

1)   THINK TANK– Jan. 6^th – 22^nd, 2016

Stop by my studio in the Learning Commons and add your favorite toy ideas to the boxes at the Think Tank!  

2)   MAKER CHALLENGE– Jan. 6^th – 22^nd, 2016

Participate in the Maker Challenge (beside my studio) and submit your blueprint to help make the wooden easels more stable! I’ll be doing a draw from the submissions in a few weeks and the winner will get a special prize!

And last but not least…

3)   TOY DRIVE – Jan. 6^th – 29^th, 2016

I am looking to collect some old toys! If you have ONE old toy or game that you aren’t using anymore and you would like to donate it to the project (meaning you won’t get it back!), please drop it off in my studio! I’ve got a bunch of exciting ideas but before I get started I need to get my hands on some old toys, and hopefully you can help me out!

I can’t wait to see all of your submissions and what you all bring in! I’m in the studio every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 8:30-11:45am and all day on Thursdays until the end of the school year, so if you have any questions feel free to stop by!

SINCERELY, 

MISS SARAH  

Grade 3 & 4 Students Vote!

On Thursday October 15th our grades 3 and 4 students participated in their first ever Student Vote sponsored by CIVIX, which is a "non-partisan registered charity building the skills and habits of citizenship within young Canadians." In the days leading up to Student Vote Day, the students explored concepts such as democracy, rights and responsibilities, levels of government, political parties and the voting process.

VOTE DAY

Student Vote connects with the grade 3 & 4 Social Studies curriculum in a variety of ways including; quality of life, selection of leaders, public service, group decision making, goods and services, natural resources, and it was a natural connection for our grade 4 students who had just returned from a week at City Hall School. In preparation for the vote, students engaged in complex questions such as:

• What responsibilities come with our rights?
• How is voting both a right and a responsibility?
• How does a person make a decision about who to vote for? 
• How is my life affected by government?

After making their identification badges and learning how to correctly mark a ballot, our grade four Poll Clerks and Deputy Returning Officers supervised the votes. Students stepped behind real Elections Canada voting booths with ballots containing the names of the candidates in our Douglasdale, Shepard riding and cast their votes into actual Elections Canada voting boxes. At the end of our exciting day the votes were counted and reported to Student Vote in Ottawa.

THE RESULTS ARE IN 

This year over 850,000 students across Canada cast votes from over 6000 schools. With over half of all schools in the country participating, this was the largest Student Vote event to date! On the evening of the federal election, after the closing of the polls, the Student Vote numbers were released. 

Here are the National Student Vote results:

Liberal Party - 37% of the popular vote with 223 seats

Conservative Party - 26% of the popular vote with 69 seats

NDP - 20% of the popular vote with 40 seats

Green Party - 12% of the popular vote with 4 seats 

Bloc Québécois - 1 seat

Here are the Douglasdale Student Vote results:

Conservative Party - 39.58%

Green Party - 31.25%

Liberal Party - 18.75%

NDP - 10.42%

A complete list of the Student Vote results broken down by country, province, city and school can be found at http://www.studentvote.ca/results/home/national_results/7 

A Week at City Hall

This September each of our grade 4 classes went to City Hall School for a full week of learning. Students met with experts and city official, walked through historic neighborhoods and looked closely at the idea of legacy. Here are some student reflections, photos and creations from their weeks downtown.

Looking (closely) West along the C-Train line

"My favourite part of Historic City hall building is the word “City Hall” above the balcony on the side. I chose this part of the building because it is fading away and they need to repair it. It is also pretty fascinating and it is hard to find."

"We should preserve Historic City Hall because it hides many secrets and will teach future generations what our past was like and will tell us what life was like back in the 1900’s. My favourite part of Historic City hall building is the balcony because back then all the buildings were pretty small and you would have a nice view."

"We should preserve Historic City Hall because it is special, it has the mayor’s office and stuff and it has a lot of hard craftmanship and work into it. My favourite part of Historic City hall building is the clock tower."

"I chose this part of the building because in the olden days most people could not pay for a pocket watch so they could just look at the big clock and tell what time it is and they could hear the big dong on it when the bell rings when it gets to 12 o’clock."

A meeting with the Mayor

"I learned what Mayor Nenshi was before he was Mayor Nenshi. He was a professor."

                         

 A great place to sit and sketch 

Learning about Calgary's new Cycle Track