Spring sprang for us on Friday! What a fabulous day to be outside and complete our enactment. Huge thank you to Ms. Cabral and Ms. Bates for coordinating and organizing the day and to the teachers for supporting students through practices and oral storytelling. Also, a heartfelt thank you to Elder Roy Chief Bear and Elder Hayden Melting Tallow for sharing their wisdom with grade teams. We hope to have the drone footage and pictures available for sharing in the coming weeks.
This week we look forward to having “Blank Page” artists in our school for a week-long artist in residence. They will be working with all students from Kindergarten to Grade 5 with the story of the bison at the centre of their work. Eventually, every student will create their own bison art piece which will be mounted to our fence surrounding our parking lot/outdoor classroom. The story of the Bison is important to Treaty 7 peoples and many lessons can be shared with students from this work in relation to ‘facing the storm’. The video students will be viewing prior to engaging in their art work has been linked below in case you want to share in our work.
We would like to extend a huge thank you to our CPS School Council and Parent Association for their financial support of this artist in residence. As a result of their funding, we are able to bring the cost of the project down to $10.00 per student, a fee that is currently payable in your MyCBE account.
Speaking of fees, we urge all families to log in and pay any outstanding fees. This includes noon supervision, busing (if your child takes the bus), ISM (student supply fees) as well as field trip fees. If you have questions about fees, please contact the school office at 403-777-8063 ext 0.
Field trips and in-school guest speakers as well as artist in residences are supplementaI activities that support student learning. A recent parent survey, currently posted on our school website, raised some questions about the purpose of field trips and the choice of offerings at CPS.
The CBE values off-site activities and indicates that they enable students to participate in quality learning experiences that are:
Supporting educational outcomes
Relevant, flexible, and accessible
Connected to the Alberta Program of Studies curriculum and learning outcomes, Guide to Education and CBE Results statements.
This last point is the most important. Students engage in field trips only if they have a curricular connection. For example, this is why our grade 3 students are travelling further away to Drumheller to study:
Science: Students analyze changes in earth's surface and explain how its layers hold stories of the past. Social Studies: Students investigate natural and created features of Alberta.
And why our grade 5 students are heading to Telus Spark to study:
Science: Students investigate the internal systems of organisms and explain how they support vital biological processes.
In the coming weeks, I hope to be able to clarify more about field trips including fees and finding balance in our off-site activities.
Dates of Significance
April 13- 17 – Education Week
April 14 - Vaisakhi
To celebrate Education Week this week, Fashion Friday will be dress as your favourite teacher or school staff personnel and/or wear something that represents them (i.e. their favourite colour, their hair style). We would like to celebrate all staff who make Citadel Park School such a great place to learn!
