Principal’s Message:

Today I want to write about something that is somewhat controversial, although one of the most important things that you have ever done in your life. Learning to read. Reading is an incredibly complex skill that we learn when we are young, and the instruction behind it is something that many of our teachers are incredibly passionate about and have strong opinions about. The interesting thing, according to so much of the research that has been done on reading over the last 45 years shows us that many of us may have learned to read in spite of the actual instruction that we were given. 

You see, in the mid-1970s an approach to reading came out that asked students to decipher and decode words by using a variety of strategies. One of the most used strategies that we were taught was to guess the words by using a variety of cues from the context of the book. I vividly remember reading books like “Mr. Mugs” and “Dick and Jane”, and hearing my classmates be told to use the strategy, “to look at the pictures” and see if they could figure out what the sentence at the bottom was saying. The founders of “balanced literacy”, “three-cueing” and its predecessor the “whole language” approach, truly believed they were helping students become better readers. I do not want to say that there is no value in these approaches, like anything, there definitely is! But the least used and often last approach to reading in these theories was the idea of sounding out words. With that said, current peer-reviewed, repeated research has shown us that this phonemic strategy (sounding out words through knowledge of phonemes), often called phonemic awareness, is one of the most influential predictors of overall reading success for students. It definitely shouldn’t have been the last strategy taught, but the very first!

As we have been working through our instructional methods at CCS and BGSD, early literacy has been something that I have become really passionate about. I know that earlier in my career when I taught many of our littles (that have now grown up to be bigs and are maybe even reading this), I didn’t always use the best instructional practices – I just didn’t know). Although, now that I know better, it is our goal to do better, and I am so glad that, as Mrs. Knoppers always used to say, “I didn’t teach them how to read, God did.” 

If I have sparked an interest in phonemic awareness and instruction, or even a ‘wonder’ about how early literacy strategies came to be, I implore you to take a listen to the podcast “Sold a Story”. I think every educator and parent should listen to it, as in 6 easy to listen to episodes it clearly and concisely walks us through this shift and pendulum swing, and how we can best support our early readers. 

Announcements:

Stable Table – Question of the Week

A huge congratulations to theSwitzer family who were randomly selected as the winner of Mr. Simmons’, “traditions question” posted in last week’s Chronicle! A prize will go home today (check backpack)! This week’s question is posted below. Please talk amongst your family, and fill in this form for your chance to win next week!! 

Annnd, for this week’s question…

What is the first book you remember reading growing up?

Helping Hands

2W and 2GM would like to invite CCS to be part of their winter giving project! From now until Friday, December 16th please bring NEW socks and underwear and new or gently used toques and mittens to the bin in front of the office. Donations will be tallied and then delivered to the Leduc HUB. Thank you in advance for being Servant-Workers with us for the less fortunate in our community.

Food Bank Giving Tree

Our PR Committee is heading up the Giving Tree project again this year. We will be collecting donations for the Food Bank. Students/families can bring in dry good food items and/or cash donations. The food item donations can be brought directly to each students’ classroom. Any cash donations should be brought to the school office where there will be a collection jar set up. Donations will be collected until December 22, 2022. For each donation that is brought in, students can take an ornament from the tree near the gym. They can bring the ornament to the office and also get a candy cane reindeer if they would like. Check out our progress on the candy cane tracker in the alcove by the tree near the gym!

Feeding Los Cabos Kids Fundraiser – Grade 5/6LV

Hot Chocolate Fundraiser – Grade 5B

The grade 5B class is doing a hot chocolate fundraiser to hopefully be able to create a Christmas basket for a local Ukrainian refugee family with the proceeds. Items available to order include hot chocolate ($1) with add-on toppings ($0.25 each), apple cider, and cookies ($1) (gluten-free as well). Orders will be taken via the order form on student PowerSchool accounts from December 8 until December 19. The drinks will be delivered to classrooms on Wednesday, December 21 which coincides with PJ dress-up day!

Christmas Concert Presented by Grades 1-3

We are excited about this year’s Christmas concert performance!

God gave us a baby as a gift for Christmas? That seems so random!  Or does it?  Follow Ms. Carol and her Sunday School class as they realize the true meaning of Christmas through random acts of kindness. In the end, they find out how it’s not so random after all! Join us for “Random Acts of Christmas”!

All rehearsals will take place during the school day. The concert performances will take place on Thursday, December 15 at 12:30 and then again in the evening at 6:30 pm.

Report Freeze

A reminder that (today), December 7, we will enter our first “Report Freeze” of the year on PowerSchool. From December 7th until December 16th parents will not be able to access their children’s accounts on PowerSchool. Teachers will have this time to enter final grades, comments, and assignments for Term 1. Access to PowerSchool will be activated again for parents on December 16 at 4:00 pm. From December 16 until after the Christmas break, no new assignments or grades will be added. If you have any questions, please call the CCS office. If it is an assessment question, the subject teacher would be the person to ask via email. Their email can be found in the course section in PowerSchool.

School Council Meeting

In the month of December, there will not be a School Council meeting. We will resume in January and have our meeting on January 25th right after Celebration. Merry Christmas!

Celebration

We hold weekly assemblies, which we call Celebration. We alternate between Wednesday and Thursday mornings each month so our kindergarten students are each able to join us every other month. We will hold Celebration on Thursdaysfor the month of December. All parents are welcome to join us each week!

Hot Lunch

We are excited to once again offer a weekly Hot Lunch Day! This year, Hot Lunches will be on Wednesdays. 

We are noticing that a number of our families are unintentionally placing more than one order for hot lunch day/student. If you are unsure if you have ordered a hot lunch or not, you can always check your email for a confirmation receipt. You can also check under the Completed Forms tab on your student’s PowerSchool account. All of your completed forms will be listed there and you can view them each by clicking on the small eye icon.

Please see the photo below for where to find this.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding Hot Lunch, you can reach our Hot Lunch Coordinator, Mrs. Hofstra, via email at: [email protected]

Lost & Found

We will post weekly pictures of our lost and found. If you see something that is your child’s, please have them stop by the table and pick it up or let the office know.

Athletics:

Basketball

Elementary Girls – will have a game on Thursday during the noon hour recess here at CCS. Come cheer our girls on!

Elementary Boys – will continue to practice at noon hours on selective days.

Senior/Junior Boys – A second tryout will be held TODAY after school until 5:00 pm for all those boys in grades 7-9 who are interested in playing basketball this year.

Senior/Junior Girls – A second tryout was held on Tuesday.

LSCE News:

Purdys Order Pick Up

****Important**** Pick up for Purdys orders has been changed to Friday, December 9 from 2:30-3:00 pm and 3:30-4:00 pm.

Save the Date

The LSCE has some exciting events happening in the new year so mark your calendars!

Saturday/Sunday, April 22/23, 2023 – 40th Anniversary Homecoming Weekend 

Saturday, June 10, 2023 – 3rd Annual CCS Golf Tournament

Fundraising Opportunities  

Social Media

We’re on Instagram! Come say hi and stay up-to-date on all the events and fundraising opportunities we have to offer. You can find us on Instagram with the username “fundraising.lsce”.

Calendar:

December:

• 9 – Purdys Order Pick Up
• 13 – Stawnichy Order Pick Up
• 13 – Grinch Day – Wear Green Dress Up Day
• 15 – Christmas Concert at 12:30 pm & 6:30 pm
• 19 – Formal Day – Wear your Christmas best! Dress Up Day
• 20 – Cozy or Christmassy Socks Dress Up Day
• 21 – Christmas Jammies Dress Up Day
• 22 – ‘Twas the Day Before Christmas Break – Ugly Sweaters! Dress Up Day

January:

• 9 – School Resumes
• 25 – School Council Meeting (Immediately following Celebration)
• 30 – PD Day – No School

Community Events:

Please click on the image below to learn more about community events in our area! Also found under our Parents menu on the website.

The Leduc Family Resource Network has numerous events, webinars and workshops coming up for families to join in on! Please click the link below for more information.

Leduc Family Resource Network

Freeze for Families Fundraiser

City Life Church will be hosting a fundraiser for families in need. A number of people will be participating in a polar plunge to raise money for families in need in our community. The “plunge” will take place on December 10 at 1 pm at Wizard Lake beach. All spectators are welcome! There will be coffee, hot chocolate, and donuts as well! Donations will be received on the day of the event and can also be given online to City Life Church up until December 15th by following the instructions below:

• Go to cty.lc
• Click on give via Tithely
• Click on the Give to arrow and select Bringing Christmas
• Make your donation

100% of all money raised will be going to local families in need. We look forward to seeing you there!

Odds & Ends:

Sign In/Out Form:

In an effort to reduce the amount of shared touched surfaces, we will be using a QR code that you will need to scan with your phone for signing in and out of the school. You can also use this link if you are in your vehicle and need to sign out a student but can’t scan the code. This means that students/parents/visitors can scan the QR code when entering or leaving the office/school to sign in or sign out on their own phone/device.

Parents will also be able to sign their kids out from their vehicle in the parking lot when they arrive to pick them up for appts. etc. please use the link above if you can’t scan the QR code. We do ask that parents pull into a spot (not bus lane) where you can contact the office to let them know you have arrived and we can make eye contact with you
from the staff/office door. Students must also stop by the office before leaving the school. At that point, once a connection is made, we are able to send students out to you.

Facebook Page:

Check out our Facebook page for more highlights of happenings at CCS by clicking here.