Daysland Digest

It looks like Spring has finally arrived, and hopefully, it will stay for good. We welcome the warm weather, but with it comes a very soggy playground. Our elementary students should be prepared for the wet conditions and will need to have their rubber boots and Spring attire until things dry up.

This week, there was an unfortunate reminder in our school community that online dangers can happen anywhere and anytime. A student received an inappropriate text message from an unknown number demanding money. The student did the right thing and let an adult know. Unfortunately, these situations are more common than we care to think. It is essential to have discussions with young people who own a device, and if they receive messages that are not appropriate from anyone, they need to talk to an adult they trust and ask for help. The RCMP has shared some information with schools in Flagstaff that we include later in this newsletter.

We thank all the families who generously donated to the Food Drive. Your contributions have made a significant difference, and we were able to collect a substantial amount of food that will be delivered to the Food Bank next week.

In April, we have some important events happening. The Grade 1s and 3s will kick off the swimming lesson season starting the week of April 22nd. We welcome Magician Steve Harmer to the school on April 24th to perform for our elementary classes courtesy of FFCS.

This Monday, April 15th, many of our staff will be participating in a BRSD Learning Series Day. Our elementary teachers will be learning about a new Math program called Mathology. Our secondary teachers will have a menu of sessions to choose from, including, but not limited to, a session dedicated to First Nations, Metis and Inuit, Artificial Intelligence, Wellness, as well as a Numeracy session.

Lastly, our final quarter of Junior High Options will begin next Thursday. Forms went home last week and were due today. Students will be informed of which course they will be in on Tuesday.

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

Apr.

11 - Gr. 6 Immunizations

11 - Jr. Badminton Divisionals @ Tofield

15 - Professional Learning Series (no classes)

16 - Jr. Agriculture Option Field Trip

16 to 19 - The Scholastic Book Fair

17 - Sr. Badminton Areas

18 - Jr. Badminton Regionals

22 to 26 - Swimming Lessons (Grade 1 & 3)

26 - Success Starts Early

26 - Sr. Badminton Zones

Grades 1 to 6 will be participating in swimming lessons at the Killam Agriplex in April and May. Permission forms will be available online for each student as lessons draw closer.

Dates and times are as followed:

April 22 to April 26: AM - Grade 1 PM - Grade 3

May 13 to May 17: AM - Grade 5/6 PM - Grade 4

May 27 to May 31: AM - Grade 2

Our Badminton teams have begun competitions - good luck to all players in advancing to the next level of play!

As mentioned in Principal’s Corner, we had a student receive an alarming text message demanding money. These types of scams target young people who may be vulnerable and convinced to believe that they are true. It is essential to have conversations with your child about what to do should they be on the receiving end of one of these messages. Perpetrators can use many different avenues, from text messages to social media and can be very convincing. Let your child know that these types of messages can occur and provide them with steps to take should it happen to them. The RCMP has provided the following pamphlet that can be used to start these conversations.

Just a quick note from all of us involved in Travel Club 2025 to say thanks to our supportive community for making the Forster's Greenhouse Fundraiser such a success! Although the orders were due yesterday, April 9th, last minute orders can be forwarded to Mrs. V. Zimmer until Thursday, April 11th. Deliveries will be made by the travellers in mid-May, and they will be in contact with their customers closer to the date.

We will be hosting our annual Success Starts Early orientation event for incoming Kindergarten students for the 2024-2025 school year. This event will be held on Friday, April 26, 2024. If you have a student in the 4 year-old preschool program, or have already registered your child for kindergarten next year, please watch your email for additional information and an invitation to book an appointment for Success Starts Early. If your child is not currently attending Pre-School and you have not yet registered for next year, please call the school at (780) 374-3676 for more information and to schedule a time for our event.

Second semester fees are now due. Please go into the online payments/ordering to pay your school fees.

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

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

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 Alison Eshpeter Wes Wilson (Principal) Laura Zwack

Chantelle Hayes Karla Breitkreutz Jeannie Hoermann

Jenni Thomas (Assistant Principal)

I. Teena called to order the regular meeting of the Daysland School Council at 7:03 pm.

II. Guest: Dwight Dibben (BRSD Board Trustee) – Update of boundary review process. Working to increase bus drivers and rural routes. Decision regarding grandfathering once boundary decisions made. Meeting with all board tomorrow. Unknown what may happen as a result but goal is to make decision and implement changes for Sept 2024 school year. General discussion occurred about questions/concerns with proposal. Of particular concern was the boundary between Daysland and Bawlf schools as it is not equidistant between the two schools. Those present agreed that secretary would write letter to Board Chair on behalf of School Council expressing the group’s concerns.

III. Open Floor Shout Out – Cristin for all the organizing for the amazing Critters hockey game and for extensive work with Hot Lunch program. Should out to those involved in renovating the Teachers’ Lounge. To Mr Wilson and team for making grade 4-6 and 7-9 ski trip reschedule happen!

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

V. Approval of minutes from last meeting

Minutes from February 13, 2024 were circulated prior to meeting. Motion: Laura moved minutes be accepted as circulated. Chantelle seconded. All in favour. Motion carried.

VI. Correspondence – None

VII. Reports

a) Administrator (Mr Wilson)

1. Thank yous/Acknowledgements

a. Critters Hockey Game: an amazing effort by everyone involved. This will be a huge boost

to our Nutrition program for a long time.

b. Basketball coaches - our b-ball seasons have wrapped up. We want to extend a huge

thank you to our coaches:

i. Wendy Weiss/Marianne Bobik: Mini-Dunkers

ii. Mrs. Reber: Jr. High Girls

iii. Miss. Halback: Jr. High Boys

iv. Mr. Gratrix: Sr. High Boys

v. Tim Guhle: Sr. High Girls

2. Parent Teacher Interviews/Student Led Conferences

a. 77% attendance rate

b. Thanks to all of the families that could join us. If you ever have questions, please connect

with your child’s teacher at any time.

3. First Nations/Metis and Inuit Presentations

a. Today we hosted Joelle Skinner in our Gr. 10 class. She is of Metis background and she

presented on the art of beading to our Gr. 10s and members of our Mental Health

Committee.

b. On May 9th, we will be hosting a presentation on First Nations drumming and dancing

for all students.

4. Breakfast Club Assistance

a. Mrs. Klein is wondering if there are volunteers that would be willing to do some

shopping for our program?

5. School Communication for 2024-25

a. We are potentially looking to change our school communication plan, starting next year.

What we are proposing is that we:

i. Change from two newsletters a month to one (the first Wednesday of each

month)

ii. Each week, a school messenger would be sent with important information/dates

for the week. Suggestions on which day would be the best to communicate?

6. Gr. 4-9 Ski Trip

a. Students went on the last week before Spring Break.

b. Thanks to our parent volunteers, Alison Eshpeter, Cristin Zimmer and Trevor Thomas for

driving and supervising.

7. Student Teacher Returning

a. Helena Brusse has returned to Mrs. McKay’s classroom. She will be with us until April

18th.

8. Steve Harmer - Magician

a. FCSS has funded a return performance for our elementary students on April 24th. We

were not provided any options on dates.

b. Our Gr. 3s will be swimming so unfortunately they will not be able to participate.

9. Theme Day - Tuesday, April 3rd

a. Theme this month is Twin Day

10. School Engagement Grant

a. BRSD has asked us to remind our school councils of the $500 engagement grant that is

available.

b. All funds need to be spent by the end of the school year.

11. Elementary Swimming Lessons in April

a. Gr. 1 & 3: April 22nd-26th

b. Gr. 4-6: May 13th-17th

c. Gr. 2: May 27th-31st

12. Grad Planning Under Way

a. Grad is scheduled for Friday, May 3rd.

b. Banquet is at 5:00pm in the hall. Ceremony to follow at 7:00pm in the gym.

b) Room Reps: Not reported in meeting. Info submitted to secretary for minutes.

Kindergarten (submitted by Chantelle Hayes): Mrs Tanton – It has been a very busy month for Kindergarten! It began with an evening of student led interviews which was a big success! The Kinders loved showing their parents all the skills they've been learning in this crazy room and guiding them around like little bosses. We built traps to catch Lenny the Leprechaun but to no avail, again! He's such a tricky little man! But we caught evidence of him so that satisfied the Kinders, we even caught a picture of him dashing out our door, that was a mind blower! We had a St. Patrick's Day party that was so fun even the Irish would be jealous! On Tuesday we had our Teddy Bear Picnic themed day. We sorted gummy bears, conducted a research project on all the teddy's and stuffies that were brought into our room and classified them accordingly, it was all very scientific and serious business! We ate Bear Paws and Teddy Grahams and even went on a bear hunt. ;) Tomorrow we are having our Easter themed fun day. We will be enjoying Easter themed math & literacy centers in the morning and then building birds nests with rice krispies, egg decorating, crafting and enjoying some good old fashioned games like pin the tail on the bunny, sack races and balancing eggs on spoon races. Happy Easter everyone, from me and all my little party animals!

Grade 1 (submitted by Laura Zwack): Mrs Reber – It’s great to return from spring break and get into the full swing of things again! We spent this week writing and reading about all things Easter! We talked about what makes each student “eggstra” special! In math, we are moving on to a patterns unit! Students will participate in an Easter egg hunt to find different math problems around the school tomorrow! Everything is more fun when there’s chocolate at the end of a task. Students will be starting our energy unit in science after the Easter break. We will observe how different objects move and complete many hands-on experiments. One of the things we get to do is make marble runs and look at movements such as twisting and turning. Our class is also looking forward to swimming lessons in the coming weeks ahead!

Grade 2 (submitted by Kristie Nahajowich): Mrs Schlaut - The Groovy Grade Two's are looking forward to Spring and are enjoying the warmer weather and sunshine. We have finished our addition unit in Math and will continue building our subtraction knowledge as well as begin learning about fractions. In Language Arts, we have been working on reading words that use the spelling of the r-controlled vowels. We have learned a new game called Word-ship that is similar to Battleship to give us lots of practice reading words that have the r-controlled spellings. We are also learning the difference between simple and compound sentences while working on writing a personal narrative. In Social Studies, we have finished learning about Iqaluit and will begin studying a community in Nova Scotia called Meteghan. In Science, we have finished learning about sound energy and will begin investigating light energy next. This week, we are working on a project to disguise Easter Eggs. Be on the lookout for some creative egg ideas coming home soon!

Grade 3 (submitted by Alison Eshpeter): Mrs Schmidt-Tiegen – In ELA this week, we are writing our fairy tales, with a focus on describing our character's well. In our phonics lesson we are reviewing all of the ways to spell the /air/ sound (/air/, /are/, and /ear/). We are also finishing up a mini unit on punctuating dialogue so that we can put those skills to work within our fairy tales. In math, we are finishing up our unit on multiplication and division with learning about the break apart strategy for multiplying larger numbers, as well as learning how to divide when there is a remainder. Leading up to the break I had scheduled our unit test for this coming Thursday, however, with all of the absences before the break, we will push the test to next Wednesday, April 3rd. Mrs. Tanton has written on our board that there is a music test on Wednesday. Mr Wilson – In Science, the class is wrapping up the unit on Matter. We have been learning about the water cycle as well as the different states of matter. We will be doing a unit test next week. In Social, we have been examining the services that people have in the four countries we are studying and how these services make their quality of life better. We have also compared how services in these countries are the same and different from services in Canada.

Grade 4 (submitted by Kirby Schmidt-Teigen): Miss Halback - The grade 4's for to go skiing before spring break. I was very proud of the perseverance they all showed throughout the day. Especially as this was very new to a lot of them. In social, the kids have started learning about the history of First Nations in Alberta. They just finished making a Cree number book to 10. We will be moving on to the Fur Trade soon. In science, we have started our lights and shadows unit. The kids got to go to the basement of the school and experiment with different objects that emit light and reflect light. In math class, we have been working hard at mastering long division and multiplying 3 digit by 1 digit numbers. We will be wrapping up the unit next week. In ELA, the kids just wrapped up their novel study and book report. We have also started a new program called Catch Up My Code that explores the different spelling patterns in the English language. The kids have also created a story plot chart and have started writing their beginning paragraphs. Mrs. Thomas - My grade 4 class just wrapped up their unit on Multiplication and Division and are moving on the understanding Prime and Composite numbers. Following that, we will be tackling Fractions and Percentages! In ELA, we are working on our novel study and will then be starting a Unit on Poetry.

Grade 5 (submitted by Laura Zwack): Mrs Tucker - The Grade 5 class has been very busy. In Language Arts we are completing our Arctic Adventure thematic unit with a dramatic rescue and blog writing assessment. Throughout the unit we explored writing for specific purposes and using descriptive language. Coming up in April we will begin a poetry unit to celebrate National Poetry Month. In Math we continue multiplication and division of 3-digit numbers. We are completing our Mechanisms using Electricity unit with a final project building a locker alarm. In Social we are learning about Canada’s history. Students completed projects focused on specific groups that lived in Canada before Confederation, and we are now moving on to focus on Fur Traders. In exciting news, we have decided on our end of year field trip, and we will be going to Drumheller. We have a full day of activities planned for the end of June. More information will be sent home as times and the itinerary are confirmed.

Grade 6 (submitted by Cristin Zimmer): No report.

Grade 7/8 (submitted by Alison Eshpeter): Mrs McKay - In Math 7, we have just started our Circles and Area unit. Funnily enough, we kicked off the unit on Pi Day (3/14)! Right now we are exploring diameter, radius and circumference. Later in the unit we will tackle finding the area of parallelograms, triangles, and circles. In Math 8, we are wrapping up our unit on square roots and the Pythagorean theorem. We will have a unit test tomorrow, Thursday, March 28. After the Easter weekend, we will be starting a measurement unit on prisms and cylinders. Students will be calculating surface area and volume of these 3D objects, as well as constructing and drawing nets. Please double check with your child that they have rulers at school to use for this unit. Mr Pastachak, Mrs V Zimmer, Mr Kerslake - No updates.

Grade 9 (submitted by Carrie Carrier): Mrs Tobler - In Social Studies, we are currently learning about the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and will be moving into the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Jr High Badminton practices have started, with their first competition next week. Mx Jones - In math 15 we are going over the exponent laws this week! Mr Kerlake - In Science we are just finishing up our unit on biodiversity and understanding how DNA creates diversity. They will have a test this week and move on to their chemistry unit next.

Grade 10 (submitted by Teena Kasha): Mx Jones - In science, we have just begun our chemistry unit. No other updates.

Grade 11 (submitted by Jeanni Hoermann): Mx. Jones: Math 20 - We just finished up our quadratics unit and are moving into trigonometry. Chemistry - We will be finishing up the redox reactions portion of our electrochemistry unit in Chemistry today (March 27th). This means a quiz on Tuesday April 2nd, and a test on the following week of April 8. Mrs. Tobler: In English, we are doing a condensed study of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Sr High Badminton practices have started, with competitions happening in April.

Grade 12 (submitted by Candice Guhle): Mx Jones (Chem 30) - We will be finishing up the redox reactions portion of our electrochemistry unit in Chem today. This means a quiz on Tuesday and a test the following week. Mr. Pastaschak (Social 30) - Students have completed Chapter 6: The Evolution of Modern Liberalism. Students have been looking at economics and the rise of the welfare state. Additionally, students were given a lot of feedback in order to make the proper connections on their position papers over the break. From what I have previewed, the papers appear to be a big improvement. Students had a Chapter 6 quiz today (Wednesday). We will be moving into Nationalism (USSR & Nazi Germany). (Bio 30) - students have been learning about Unit B. The Reproductive System. This topic has the potential to be awkward at times, however students have shown great maturity during these topic discussions. There will be a Concept Quiz on the Male and Female Reproductive Systems on Thursday (Mar 28). We will be moving into Pregnancy and Fetal Development after this quiz. Mrs. Thomas (Grad) - The grade 12's have chosen a theme of "Oh, the places we'll go" and are busy planning and preparing for the big day!

VIII. Business arising from minutes:

a) None

IIIX. New business:

a) Success Starts Early – Mrs Thomas reports April 26 will be “Success Starts Early” at Daysland School for children starting KG in September 2024. Suggestion made for School Council to participate in event. General, agreement that we will participate.

b) $500 grant from School Councils Association – Discussion and general agreement to use funds for promotional stand-up poster and magnets. Mr Wilson will find out where to purchase.

IIX. Adjournment

Teena adjourned the meeting at 8:30pm.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, April 17, 2024 7:00pm at Daysland School.

Monday’s for June 3, 10, 17, 24 from 6:00 pm to 7:00pm

Ages 5-15

Ratio of 1 instructor to 5 juniors

Depending on the age and/or skill level, the focal will be on the fundaments and rules of golf

The cost will be $80/junior

Juniors should have their own equipment, for the younger juniors there will be same extras.

For preschool age 5 parent should be present.

To register, please call the clubhouse at 780-374-3633 after April 15

(max of 20 juniors)

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