Somos el Futuro Celebrations
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June marked a full and very busy end of the 2011 - 2012 school year at Escuela Canyon Meadows.
Somos el Futuro Celebrations
Family and friends came to bid farewell to our grade 4
students as they received their first International
Spanish Academy Certificates from the Spanish
Ministry of Education for completing their grade 4
schooling in an International Spanish Academy. The
students shared a beautiful selection of songs and
reflections on their time here at Canyon Meadows. We
will miss these students and wish them well next year.
Dia de Español: Don Quijote de la Mancha
This year all Escuela Canyon Meadows students had the opportunity to listen to a version of the classic Spanish
novel Don Quixote de la Mancha. Many versions of the story presented in a variety of forms in all our classrooms.
Friday June 15 we were amazed to see so many characters from Don Quixote arrive through our doors and come
watch Señora Molina’s class bring the story to life on stage.
Fiesta de Aniversario
st
On a beautiful sunny evening on June 21 over 800
students, staff family and friends of Escuela Canyon
Meadows gathered for our Fiesta de Aniversario. This
event publically marked a celebration of our tenth
year as an International Spanish Academy. This fun
family picnic featured a live latin band, Zumba
dancing, face painting, balloon animals, the
opportunity to see inside an ambulance and food
samples from food trucks and our local La Fonda
Latina. A big thank you for the generous Fiesta
leadership of parents Karen Vink, Courtney Raffan,
Marla Seymour, Marnie Palison, to School Council for
funding, to the many parent volunteers for organizing
this fabulous event and to all 800 of you for supporting your school community!
Día de fútbol
th
All of our students participated in an energetic morning or afternoon of soccer activities on June 20 with activities
led by Canyon Meadows teachers and staff from the Premier Academy of Soccer Skills. Thank you to the many
parent volunteers who helped to make this day possible.
Robotics
Thanks in part to a donation from Conoco Phillips, several of our grade
2-4 teachers had the opportunity to work with robotics expert Richard
Gaskell for the past few weeks. Each class explored different aspects of
the curriculum through robotics, with activities ranging from robotic
bees foraging for honey, to robotic knights exploring a medieval castle
to submarine robots exploring a wetland ecosystem. Many parents and
th
families joined us at school on June 26 to witness the students’
learning about robotics. Robotics is part of an intentional study that we
plan to have available to all Canyon Meadows students, Grades 1 – 4 in
the upcoming 2012 – 2013 school year.
Come Join the ECM Lunchroom Team!
With the increased growth in our school population, our lunchroom meal supervisor
team will also be growing. If you or someone you know is interested in working
approximately two hours a day, providing supervision and leadership while CBE’s
most amazing students eat their lunch and play on our playground, let us know!
Send us an email to: CanyonMeadows@cbe.ab.ca
Playground Safety
The playground equipment at our school is inspected monthly by City of Calgary inspectors to ensure that all safety
standards are being met. Our playground equipment continues to meet or exceed all city safety standards.
Following a student injury on the Flying Fox Playground equipment, the school requested an additional Playground
Equipment inspection. To facilitate this inspection, the slider on one of the Flying Foxes was removed. With a
report that the equipment continues to be safe, the slider will be reinstalled shortly. Canyon Meadows staff
continues to emphasize with students the importance of using the playground equipment responsibly and in
particular not throwing, slamming or attempting to catch the moving slider on the Flying Fox.
Jump Rope for Heart www.jumpropeforheart.ca
Canyon Meadows School Community Heart Heroes campaign raised over
$23,000 for the Jump Rope for Heart: Heart & Stroke Foundation. For the
second year in a row, Canyon Meadows School is a leader in the province
both for participants and in donations. By learning to “jump rope” we
continue to see the significant benefits to ensuring our students are
physically active, eat well and live “heart-healthy” while helping others,
raising funds for health education and earn the activity-based thank you-s
for the efforts. Thank you families for helping us to support this initiative.
Lost and Found
At the year-end we are always humbled by the excessive amount of personal belongings that children
leave behind here in the building. For the last two weeks of June over 6 conference tables full of Lost
and Found items were on display to our student and parent population. These are the items that were
not possible to return to children as they had no identifiable marks, names or labels.
As a Go Forward for the 2012 – 2013 School Year, may we suggest:
NOW is the time to order your personalized Mabel’s labels (a School Council fundraiser) so these are
ready to be sewn, stuck, glued or otherwise adhered into all your child’s clothing. As a promise, staff and
volunteers ensure property with labels or names are returned to our students. Check out the school
website or simply click on www.canyonmeadows.mabel.ca for more information.
You thank and support the Canyon Meadows School Council and the Anderson family for the design and
construction of 2 “student friendly” Lost and Found display units. These shelves and basket units will
enhance our elderly and somewhat unfriendly “wooden rolly boxes” which are inaccessible to short
people and tend to get rather smelly with time.
School organization 2012-2013
Escuela Canyon Meadows will be organized by the following classes for the 2012 – 2013 academic school year
6 Kindergarten classes, 6 Grade 1 classes,
5 Grade 2 classes 9 Grade 3/4 classes.
At the time of writing, class sizes range in size from 18 to 23 students.
Keen to learn more about our Year 3 / 4 ………
Blended Learning Classrooms.
Escuela Canyon Meadows Instructional Team is excited to provide blended Spanish Bilingual learning
environments for our all our Grade 3 & 4 classes in September 2012. Movement to a blended or multi-age
classroom has always been part of the preferred future for our program. This past year we had very
successful grade 1/2 and grade 3/4 blended grade classrooms. The latest research, readings and book titles
on the subject are posted on the school website as a way to help you better understand the compelling reasoning
behind this shift. This change has been slow, purposeful and undertaken with staff, resource preparation and
strong student learning at the center.
Students will have the benefit of…
Having one Responsibility Teacher along with professional consultation and relationship of two other
teachers who have regular contact with their learning, assessment and learner profile review.
“Looping” with the same teacher for two years, allows teachers and students to build on previous
relationship and understanding of classroom expectations, thereby reducing lost learning time at the
beginning of the school year
A fluid and expected transition where, over a two year period, half the class will remain constant and the
other half moves on allowing for the development of both new and existing friendships.
Family grouping where the blend of ages, ability, and talent ensures students work at their personal level,
assist and provoke one another into the space of new knowledge according to interest and the task
presented, not simply by chronological year.
A broader range of possibilities for making new friends and learning partners.
A cohesive school culture, as students learn closely in relationship with a wider group of teachers and
peers.
Thank you to those who expressed curiosity, interest, question and support for the Blended Learning
Environments. As is often the case with change; feeling sceptical, curious, or wondering is a healthy response to
reorganization. With the advent of experience and history, many of the wonderings will become obvious and self-
evident as the learning unfolds. With a current group of very successful lead teachers and their Grade 2, 3 and 4
“blended” students, the evidence for strong, personalized learning in a bilingual context is compelling. For the
next couple of months, we suggest you relax, read with your children, play together with passion, wonder about
the possibilities that summer offers families, be joyful in your new leanings, bring these back to your new
classrooms in September and thank you for the continued trust and confidence in knowing your child’s learning is
in the highly capable hands of a strong, multidisciplinary, academic team.
School Development Learning Plans for 2012 - 2013
With a school wide focus on literacy (writing and mathematics (numeracy, problem solving via robotics),
and specifically EcoLiteracy (Year 3 / 4), Canyon Meadows learning communities will have the
opportunity to work with author Blanche Lamont http://teachingreadingandwriting.com, Spanish
speaking mathematician Dr. Paulino Preciado
http://educ.ucalgary.ca/files/educ/CV/armandopreciadobabb_cv_163-184463.pdf, robotics expert
Richard Gaskell http://www.axonlearn.com/content/robotics-school, as well as a visual and performing
artist(s). It is with great anticipation we look forward to new learning, great project work and designing
creative tasks to demonstrate understanding as we retain these experts to work with staff and students.
Staff Passages
At this time of the year we say our fond farewells to …..
Sra. Cecilia Gutierrez (Gr. 4) as she begins her maternity Leave of Absence,
Srta. Marisol Martinez (Kindergarten), Sra. Carolina Sanchez (Gr. 1),
and Sr. Francisco Alvarado, as they further pursue new
horizons in their work with students. We wish these teachers much success,
all the best and thank them for their contributions to teaching and learning
here at Escuela Canyon Meadows.
As well, we heartily thank and send our best wishes to Area V Director Jane
Rogerson who is retiring after 30 years of teaching leadership with the Calgary Board of Education.
And at this time welcome new Area V Director Sydney Smith,
and to the Escuela Canyon Meadows Teaching Team ….
Sra. Charlene Ritten and Sra. Paula Medivil to our Division I Teaching Teams.
A closing with thanks…..
Gratitude is critical and important way to close and send off …. a class, a team, a school, a year,
… So to the people, places, businesses and organizations named here and in previous
newsletters who support our innovation for teaching and learning in the Spanish bilingual
domains at Escuela Canyon Meadows School, know you matter deeply. We thank you now,
always, and in the future. We trust you know how important you, your dollars, initiative,
energy, wisdom, volunteerism and common sense are in the advancement of student learning.
We wish you and yours a safe, joyous and play-filled summer vacation… whatever that looks
like and where ever it will take you. Be safe and we look forward to reacquainting ourselves in
September.
Susan Marinucci
along with the staff & students
@ Escuela Canyon Meadows School
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