What's This I Hear About Fish?

"One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" ~ Dr. Seuss

The Kindergarten children were busy scientists this week as they headed off to the Fish Hatchery as part of their fish and water inquiry. This is what some of them had to say about their trip:

• "We fed 12,000 fish in one tank! When the fish are too big for the tank they go in a lake. They feed the fish 12 times a day!"
• "We made rainbow trout fish hats!"
• "We had to wash our hands before we fed the fish. Even our shoes had to be cleaned when we walked over the black mats so we didn't take any germs in."
• "I think the best part was feeding the fish."
• "My favorite part was when they were jumping."
• "The best part for me was looking inside the aquarium and at the sculptures."
• "I learned how to pet the 'fishes' gently,"
• "When we went in the big room where we fed the fish, it smelled stinky!"

Stream of Dreams

In March, the Kindergarten children will be taking part in the “Stream of Dreams” program. Each child will paint a wooden fish that will become part of the mural installation. The mural’s purpose is to inspire everyone to protect and conserve water to ensure a healthy future for our rivers, lakes, oceans and communities. Each fish painter will learn about the local watershed and how to keep it healthy. Watch for our fish being installed on our school fence on March 18th!

Walk for Water

On March 31st Douglasdale School will be taking part in an interactive Walk for Water spearheaded by the Kindergarten classes. Loonie and/or toonie donations are greatly appreciated. Money raised will be donated to a global clean drinking water initiative.

Families are welcome to join us for this walk. Please refer to our school webpage for more details.

“Water is the driving force in nature.” ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Am I Seeing Double?

We hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend and Family Day. After a VERY successful family dance on the 11th, teachers enjoyed a busy convention learning from speakers who presented on all sorts of topics: math, robotics, resiliency through sport, brain research, Autism, mindfulness, writing, art….the list goes on! Every teacher came back with stories and inspiration from their various sessions.

 Today was Twin Day at DDS which had many of us seeing double! Students were encouraged to find a twin, triplet, quadruplet (or more!) and some of the teachers even got in on the fun! Our next Spirit Day will be Rainbow Day on March 13th. Start dreaming up your colourful outfits!

DDS has a few new faces in the halls. Along with a couple new students, we also have two student teachers here from St. Mary's University for the next 10 weeks. A warm DDS welcome to Ms. McLachlan who is in Mrs. McIntosh's grade one class and Ms. Sleno who is in Mrs. Gimbels grade three class. We are all very excited that you will be learning with us at Douglasdale!

Looking Ahead

• Feb 24 K's to Fish Hatchery
• Feb 25 Calgary Opera Presentation
• Feb. 27 PD Day no school for students
• Mar 2-13 Alien In-Line Skating
• Mar 3 APEGA Family Science Night in the Gym 6pm-8pm

See our website for more upcoming dates

Busy Week At DDS

It was a busy week of learning at Douglasdale! 

Swimming lessons 

Robotics

Yoga at noon

Paper Towel Composting with the Ecco Team

and let's not forget splashing in puddles outside!

             

The list of great learning experiences goes on!

                                                                           

To top off a great week we hosted a hands on Power of Ten parent workshop with renowned math educator Trevor Calkins that saw over 100 families learning:

•   What is different now than when most parents went to school?
  
•   Some of the methods for teaching basic facts and multidigit operations
  changing (+, –, x, ÷)?
  
•   New ideas in learning how to do ‘long division’?
  
•   How they can help at home (the three BIG ideas)?
•   How games help
  
•   What this new word ‘subitize’ means
  
  Thank you school council for helping to sponsor this successful event and thank you Step Ahead for providing complimentary childcare so that more families could participate. The teachers are looking forward to a full day of professional development with Trevor on Friday!
  

A reminder that there is no school for students on Friday January 30th. We will see everyone back on Monday February 2nd. 

Parent Math Night at DDS

Trevor Calkins is a world renowned math educator and will be here at Douglasdale later this month. He will be hosting a parent evening at DDS on the night of January 29th. There is still room for parents to attend the workshop however all Step Ahead childcare spaces are now full. Please sign up if you are interested. Thank you to DDS School Council for helping to sponsor this great learning opportunity. We know it will be a fun and educational evening.  http://poweroften.ca/ 
Staff will be working with Trevor all day on our January 30th PD day. 

Drying Up Our Paper Towel Consumption

Thanks to the Conoco Phillips Environmental Quest grant, DDS is going to start paper towel composting.  Paper towel has consistently been one of the greatest contributors to waste in our school and we are looking forward to making this change for our environment. Riva’s Eco store has kindly contributed to our project by providing low VOC paint for our students to spruce up our indoor composting bins.

Keep your eyes peeled for paper towel compost bins around the school!

Upcoming at DDS

We have some exciting things coming up at Douglasdale in the next few weeks. Watch your child's backpack for notices!


On January 29th we are hosting world renowned math educator Mr. Trevor Calkins for a parent math night.

•   Why do students still need to know their basic facts?

•   What,if anything is different now than it was when most parents went to school?

•   Why are some of the methods for teaching basic facts and multidigit operations

• changing (+, –, x, ÷)?

•   Are there any new ideas in learning how to do ‘long division’?

•   How can parents help at home (the three BIG ideas)?

•   What is the role of praise in developing mathematical ability?

•   How do games help?

•   What does this new word ‘subitize’ mean and why should I care? 

• 
  

• The notice for this event has been on our website and in D2L and we are pleased that the response from families has been very high. Childcare spots are now full however there is still lots of space for parents to come for the workshop so please return the form if you are planning on attending.

• On February 4th the whole school will be heading down to the Jack Singer Concert Hall for a Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra presentation called "Building the Orchestra." There is no cost for his trip. Please watch for the permission forms in the coming days.

• A huge thank you to our School Council for sponsoring these two exciting events!

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Happy New Year!

Welcome back DDS families! We hope that you all had a wonderful break and found lots of time to play, laugh, read and rest. There are many great things to look forward to in the coming months at DDS. Students will go on variety of field trips, will welcome Kananaskis in the Classroom, Calgary Opera and Philharmonic for visits, and of course will engage in lots of hands on learning every day in and around the building. Happy 2015!