Daysland Digest

It is hard to believe, but next week marks the end of the first half of the school year. Our Gr. 9-12 classes will begin new courses on February 1st. Please see the Semester Two update with all of the changes in our classes due to the semester change. It has been emailed as an attachment, along with the link to the newsletter. The link to the Semester Two timetables will also be posted on our website shortly.

Over the course of semester one, we had discussions as staff about the need to adopt an official and consistent policy around cell phone usage, specifically in our secondary classes. In consultation with our staff, other schools and our parent council, we are adopting a policy around cell phone expectations for our students. This policy will be implemented during the second semester. The basic principle of the policy is that devices should not be used during instructional time unless permitted by the classroom teacher. Otherwise, they should not be in use or visible. Students are still allowed to have their devices during their break times. For more information, please see the attachment sent in this email. Thank you to our neighbouring schools, which have similar policies and allowed us to use certain aspects of theirs to match our school community.

On January 31st, we have a Staff Collaboration Day, which means there is no school for students. Our staff will be participating in a session with Knowledge Keeper Brad Rabbit. Brad is a valuable and respected voice within the Battle River School Division regarding First Nations, Metis and Inuit. We will collaborate with Bawlf School for the morning of Brad’s session. Topics specifically addressed will be Residential Schools and the '60s Scoop.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at the office.

Jan.

24 to 26 - Exam Week (see exam schedule below)

26 & 27 - Jr. B-Ball at The Comp

26 & 27 - Sr. B B-Ball @ Forestburg

29 - Jr. B-Ball @ Ryley

28 to 30 - Sr. High Ski Trip

30 - Semester 1 Ends

31 - Staff Collaboration Day (no classes)

Feb.

1 - Semester 2 Begins

2 - Curling Areas (Wainwright)

2 & 3 - Jr. B-Ball Home Tournament

5 - Jr. B -Ball vs Viking

6 - THEME DAY - CRAZY SOCKS & HAIR

6 - Sr. B B-Ball vs Cornerstone

7 - Mini Dunkers @ Forestburg

7 - Jr. B-Ball @ Sedgewick

8 - Staff Meeting (Early Dismissal at 11:40am)

8 - Sr. B-Ball vs Viking

9 & 10 - Jr. B-Ball @ ECKS

9 & 10 - Curling Zones (Lacombe)

Senior High Ski Trip is coming up quickly! 23 students and 4 supervisors leave on Sunday afternoon to Jasper, ski/snowboard at Marmot Basin on Monday and Tuesday, and arrive home late on Tuesday night. It will be a great trip!

As of January 15, 2024 we have switched to online permission forms for field trips and extra curricular activities. You will go to the same site that you pay your school fees online. There will be a NEW heading called field/athletic trips where you can find your online field trip form. If you have any questions, please contact the office.

https://www.brsd.ab.ca/families/online-payments-ordering

The International Travel Club will be running a flower fundraiser through Forster's Greenhouse this year, so watch for information in March from travellers on how to order for May delivery. Thank you for your continued support!

Is your child interested in earning College credits while attending High School? Olds college is offering dual credits in a number of different career fields which allow students to earn High school and College credits during the second semester. If you think this might be of interest, please contact Mr. Wilson for more information.

Parents are reminded that BRSD policy requires all students who ride the bus to wear (or carry) clothing suitable for the weather conditions. This includes headgear, hand covering, and appropriate footwear. Students who arrive at school inappropriately dressed will not be allowed to ride home or to/from sporting events or school planned field trips until they have proper gear dropped off or they are picked up by a parent.

As we enter the season of weather related bus delays and cancellations, BRSD would like to remind parents to check their school website or the BRSD website for updates. If there is a change to the schedule it will appear in an ALERT banner at the top of the website. If there is no banner, all routes are running as scheduled. Every family affected by a bus route delay or cancellation also receives an automated phone message.

The next School Council Meeting will be on Wednesday, January 17th at 7:00pm in the Learning Commons.

Everyone Welcome!

If you are interested in purchasing Daysland School clothing, please visit

https://dayslandschool.entripyshops.com

Orders can be paced at any time of the year and will ship directly to the purchaser.

In Attendance: Teena Kasha Cristin Zimmer Kirby Schmidt-Teigen Alison Eshpeter

Chantelle Hayes Carrie Carriere Wes Wilson (Principal) Jeannie Hoermann

Laura Zwack Kristie Nahajowich Jenni Thomas (Assistant Principal)

I. Teena called to order the regular meeting of the Daysland School Council at 7:04 pm.

II. Open Floor Shout Out – To the organizer of the Christmas Buffet (Laura Zwack!) and all the volunteers who contributed time, cooking, and food. It’s the best event of the year! To Mrs Zimmel for her contributions to the school newsletter, especially the jokes!

III. Review of Agenda – Motion: Laura moved agenda be accepted as circulated. Kirby seconded. All in favour. Motion carried.

IV. Approval of minutes from last meeting

Minutes from November 22, 2023 were circulated. Error noted that Carrie Carrier was marked present but was not. Motion: Cristin moved minutes be accepted as corrected. Kristie seconded. All in favour. Motion carried.

V. Correspondence – None

VI. Reports

a) Administrator (Mr. Wilson)

Cell phone policy update – Will be implemented in second semester (Feb 1, 2024). Some classrooms/teachers have already implemented the policy.

Grade 9 will have “Learning Strategies” and “Math 15” next semester, high school prep courses for credit.

1. Thank You

a. Christmas Dinner was amazing. We are grateful for the parent helpers and organizers.

2. Exam Season

a. Classes end on January 23rd for Grade 9-12.

b. Diploma Exams/PATs

i. Students in both Gr. 9 & 12 are writing government exams ELA and Math.

ii. School finals are being written for Math 10/Social 10 & Social, Biology and Physics 20 between January 24th-26th.

3. Semester 2 Begins on February 1st

a. Grade 12s - Social 30, Biology 30, Chemistry 30, Home Ec/PE 30

b. Grade 11s - Math 20, English 20,Physics 30, Home Ec/PE 20

c. Grade 10s - Science 10, English 10, Gr. 10 Option, Home Ec /PE 20

4. Collaboration Day for Teaching Staff on January 31st

a. Knowledge Keeper Brad Rabbit will be presenting at our school on Reconciliation. Specific topics will include Residential Schools and the 60s Scoop.

b. The afternoon will be spent preparing for our transition to Semester 2.

5. Staffing Update

a. Kelsey Jones - covering Rae-Ann’s maternity leave. This will include Chemistry 30, Math 20, and Science 10.

b. Marit Schlaut - has returned from medical leave.

c. Christie Tucker - has transitioned from Gr. 2 to Gr. 5 to cover for Riley Gratrix who has transitioned to Killam School.

d. Cassidy Pfeffer will not be returning to our school in the afternoons due to the Sedgewick students no longer coming for IA in second semester.

6. School Start Online Supply Ordering

a. 2024 Brochure

b. They do provide the option of sending the supply list directly to them (reduce workload for Admin Assistance) and ship directly to parents.

c. I will let them know this week if we are interested.

7. Class Photos

a. Smart Photography has released them and they should be arriving near the end of January.

8. Upcoming Events

a. Sr. High Ski Trip - January 28th-30th

b. La Carnival - February 6th

c. Jo Outloud - Digital Citizenship Presentation in Killam on February 5th

i. Gr. 4-6 in the AM

ii. Gr. 7-9 in the PM

iii. Parent session in evening

9. Mental Health Committee

a. Received funds from the Soaring Grant through AHS last year. These funds have been used to:

i. Transform Room 212 into a student space for clubs (Gr. 7-12).

ii. Provide soft seating options, board games, and soft lighting.

iii. This space will be used for student clubs at noon hour. Clubs will be student run and decided by students in conjunction with our Mental Health Committee and Emma Enright (MHCB).

10.School Generated Funds Report - School Generated Funds (SGF) as of Dec 31, 2023 reported.

b) Room Reps

Kindergarten (submitted by Chantelle Hayes): Mrs Tanton – Everything is just chugging along in Kindergarten. We have been busy learning about patterns and 2D shapes and in literacy we only have 2 letters left to learn! This time next week we will begin the process of reading 3 letter words, which some of them are already able to do! They are AMAZING! Yesterday the Kinders wrote their very first sentence, EVER! It was one of the most exciting moments of the year and we had to share the momentous occasion with a visit to the office to see the Big Cheese! We shared our drawings of the cutest "Rats" you ever did see and Mr. Wilson was able to read the most illustrious sentence he's ever recited when he read what we wrote: "The rat is fat"! And we all cheered!! It was so stinking EXCITING!! They could tell him that their sentence began with a capital and ended with a period (insert fart noise here), so funny! We get to go skating this month and a few times in February, the kids are excited to get on the ice. I've got lots of little hockey players in my class.

Grade 1 (submitted by Laura Zwack): Mrs Reber – Students explored what community is, and the different communities they are a part of. We will learn about natural resources this week that we can find in our local community. In science, students enjoyed exploring their five senses with our popcorn experiment. This week, students will be assessed on their five senses.

Grade 2 (submitted by Kristie Nahajowich): Mrs. Schlaut is back teaching grade 2 after her LOA. Everything if going well in grade two. I'm very happy to be back and really enjoying getting to know all of the grade two students. They're a great group! In ELA, we have discussed what goals we would like to work on this year and achieve. The Grade two's have selected four goals that they would like to achieve. Their hard work turned out fantastic! We have continued working with the UFLI program and the Grade two's are reading up a storm and learning new sounds every week. In math, we are reviewing place values and skip counting and will move into addition and subtraction to 100 next week. Please practice the basic facts to 20 with your child when you can. In science, we have started our new unit on Sound and Light Energy. It has been interesting to listen to different sounds and determine if they are artificial or natural sounds. In social studies, we have been learning about the community of Iqaluit and the culture of the Inuit. It is really cool!

Grade 3 (submitted by Alison Eshpeter): Mrs Schmidt-Tiegen – Due to no buses running last week, we're still tackling some of the concepts, etc. that we meant to cover last week, this week. In ELA we have started Fantastic Mr. Fox, and the students are hooked after having read the first two chapters. They are very eager to continue reading on! Roald Dahl's book is full of such rich vocabulary words (ex. impudent, ravenous, keen, etc.). After learning the definition of these wonderful words, we are challenging ourselves to see how many times we can use them in our own conversations throughout the day. Our class used the word "beastly" a total of 18 times last Tuesday. In math we have really focused on regrouping both in addition and subtraction. We are moving on to three-digit equations this week. Next week we will be moving on to reviewing fact families from grade two and using what we know about related addition and subtraction equations to solve for an unknown number (algebra!). Lastly, if you know your child will be away for the day, it would be great if you cc'd Shannon and Lori (our admin assistants) in your email to me. Due to the fact that I am not with the grade three class in the mornings, I am not the one to do their attendance, and sometimes I read your message too late and I am not able to pass it along to their morning teacher in time. (That would explain why some of your children have been marked absent, even though you have notified me! Sorry!) I have included their emails below. Thank you! Mr Wilson – In Gr. 3 Social, we have examined the celebrations and traditions in our four countries using our Social Studies Roles. We especially thought Yunza was interesting because people dance around a tree with presents tied to the branches. As they dance, they chop it down with an axe until the presents hit the ground. In Science, we have been building 3-D mountain ranges. The students will take pictures with their Chromebooks and label them with the important parts we have learned about. They will use an app called Screencastify to record their voices describing these different landforms, such as valleys, glaciers, and deltas and how they are formed.

Grade 4 (submitted by Kirby Schmidt-Tiegen): Miss Halback - This month the grade 4’s filled their jewel jar and earned themselves a class party. They choose to watch the “One and Only Ivan” as both ELA groups finished the book before Christmas. They also won Oil King tickets through the reading program put on by Oil Kings and Oilers. In social we are just wrapping up natural resources in Alberta. We will be moving on to fossils in Alberta next week. In science we are starting our simple machines unit. The kids are very excited about this as they get to spend some time in makerspace throughout the unit. In math we are just wrapping up our addition and subtraction with decimals unit. We will be moving on to prime and composite numbers as well as our multiplication and division unit. In ELA we have started a new read aloud. We are reading the sequel to “The One and Only Ivan” called “The One and Only Bob.” We have also started working on grammar as well as forming complete sentences. In February we will start a novel study. Students will be reading “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

Grade 5 (submittted by Laura Zwack): All is well.

Grade 6 (submitted by Cristin Zimmer): Mrs McKay - All is well in grade 6. We are moving along in all of our subjects. In ELA, we've just started a nonfiction reading unit. In Math, we are wrapping up multiples, factors, and exponents and will be moving on to order of operations and some algebra. In Science, we are investigating particles and temperature. In Social, they are learning about Alberta's history. The class has started recorders in Music. We are also planning to go skating for Valentine's Day and another day in March.

Grade 7/8 (submitted by Alison Eshpeter): Mrs McKay - Mr Pastachak - For the 7 & 8's in Science they have been looking at Light and Optical Systems. Recently students made a poster project about the history of a variety of optical devices (Timeline Poster). We are now starting to look at the Electromagnetic Spectrum (Radio Waves, Microwaves, Infrared Radiation, Visible Light, UV, X-Rays, Gamma Rays). In English 8 students have been working on how to conduct a survey and write a research paper. The topic for debate is, "School Start Time". Mrs V Zimmer – In Social 7/8, the group has moved from our investigations of worldviews from Europe to America! We are now studying the history of the Aztec peoples and all the interesting facts there. In ELA 7, the new year has us creatively writing about resolutions, visuals, using prompts and helping each other reach our writing potential! Mrs Thomas – Grade 7 and 8s are busy working on quilt blocks that will be sewn together into a project that will be donated to the Critters fundraiser. We were slowed down a little by the snow days, but should finish in time. They are doing a great job!

Grade 9 (submitted by Carrie Carrier): Mrs Tobler/Mrs Tucker - The Gr 9s are busy preparing for and writing the PAT exams. They had their written ELA exam today and will complete the rest next week. They should be busy practicing at home! They will also be starting curling this week, so they need to come to school tomorrow dressed to walk outside in this chilly weather! Signed options preference forms are due back Jan 22. Mrs Thomas - In Home Ec, the class is working on building a quilt together. Each student was assigned a pattern to follow and is responsible for completing it. Students will then sew the blocks together, Mrs. Thomas will finish it by adding a backing and binding and then it will be donated to the Critters fundraiser. They only have a few classes left in Semester 1, so are hoping to finish their blocks in the next week or so!

Grade 10 (submitted by Teena Kasha): Mrs Tobler - Our Gr 10s will be going curling tomorrow and Friday, so they should come dressed to be outside in the weather. Mx Jones - In grade 10 we are wrapping up our measurement unit tomorrow. This includes unit conversions within and between the metric and imperial systems, as well as surface area and volume for three dimensional shapes. As of Friday, we will be fully on final exam review. Mrs V Zimmer ­- Social 10 is wrapping up this week with the students working on a final writing assignment, one last project on human rights, and studying for the final exam next Wednesday. It's been a great semester, and we are looking forward to being together for ELA 10 next semester, too!

Grade 11 (submitted by Jeanni Hoermann): Mrs Tobler – Classes for high school are wrapping up quickly and beginning to prepare for course exams. Study guides have been posted and students should be reviewing at home. Once exams are done, the Sr High Ski Club is heading to Jasper for some skiing!

Grade 12 (submitted by Candice Guhle): Mrs. Zimmer (ELA 30) - Wrapping up ELA30 means diploma exam practice and lots of studying time. Thanks to the family members of our soon-to-be graduates for prioritizing their education! MX Jones (Math 30 & Chem 20) - Gr. 12s have a lot on their plate this week with wrapping up Math 30 along with ELA 30. Those who are taking Chem 20 as well will certainly have a balancing act to perform! Mrs. Thomas (Grad) - Grads received a Google form to sign up for committees and re to watch for an email with information coming out regarding catering options. Mrs. Zimmer (Ski Trip) - Skiers are going January 28 - 30 to Jasper, hoping Mother Nature dumps more snow for us before then, and we've got a huge group (24 student!) so it will be lots of fun! Mrs. Tobler, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Pastachak will be joining me on a charter bus for the journey!

VII. Business arising from minutes:

a) School Supply Ordering – Mr Wilson reported that it would be minimal work for administration support to facilitate the option for parents to order school supplies online and delivered to home or the school. General agreement from those present that the school should offer this option. Mr Wilson will arrange.

VIII. New business:

a) Council of School Councils meeting - Teena reported from last meeting prior to Christmas break. Noted each school council receives $500 annually for promotion events. Ideas shared. Teena will bring more details to next meeting.

b) Class photos – Mr Wilson reports class photos will finally arrive at the end of this month.

IIIX. Adjournment

Teena adjourned the meeting at 7:50pm.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, February 28, 7:00pm at Daysland School.

JP's Country Daycare is hiring a student in Grade 9 to12 to clean after school on Thursdays and Fridays each week from 3:45 to 6:00. Please email jpcountrydaycare@gmail.com if interested. Thank you.

Email: dysgenvm@brsd.ab.ca
Website: daysland.brsd.ab.ca
Location: 5222 50 St, Daysland, AB, Canada
Phone: 780-374-3676
Facebook: https://facebook.com/darlsdynamos
Twitter: @DayslandS