Friday, December 21, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community!

It is hard to believe that December break is upon us already! December seems to have gone by so quickly with so much excitement and learning at Ranchlands School!

We finished our last TSN last Friday exploring the countries of Africa and Korea. Students enjoyed making African masks adding their own unique touches as well as traditional Korean fans with bright, beautiful colours and a theme centring around nature. 

There are many different winter celebrations that take place all over the world. Here is more interesting information about them: 

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/winter-celebrations/#WH-Tree-Lights16x9.jpg

Wishing all of Ranchlands School Community a very happy holiday season and all the best for the New Year! See you all in 2019!

Friday, December 14, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community!

The new patrol schedule has been posted at the patrol station and grade 5/6 classrooms. Here is the schedule for January 2019:

RANCHLANDS SCHOOL PATROL SCHEDULE

January 2019

Monday - Thursday

(Arrive at patrol station)   Jan. 8-11            Jan. 14-18

(8:50)     8:55 – 9:10           Team 2               Team  4 

(12:20)   12:25 – 12:40       Team  14           Team 9

(12:55)   1:00 – 1:15           Team  15            Team 18

(3:45)     3:50 – 4:05           Team 1              Team 3

Friday: only before and after school teams go out.

(8:50)     8:55 – 9:10           Team  2              Team 4

(1:15)     1:20 –1:35            Team  1             Team 3

Monday - Thursday

(Arrive at patrol station)  Jan. 21-25         Jan. 28-Feb. 1

(8:50)     8:55 – 9:10           Team 6               Team  7  

(12:20)   12:25 – 12:40       Team  10            Team  11  

(12:55)   1:00 – 1:15           Team  12            Team  19

(3:45)     3:50 – 4:05           Team  5               Team 8

Friday: only before and after school teams go out.

(8:50)     8:55 – 9:10            Team  6              Team 7

(1:15)     1:20 –1:35             Team  5               Team 8

*Please arrive at the patrol station 5 minutes before you scheduled time in order to be ready.

One of our after school patrol teams was assessed last week by an AMA School School Safety Patrol supervisor and they performed very well! Way to go patrollers! Keep up the great work!

Friday, December 7, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community!

Important Patrol Reminder: There is a patrol meeting this Thursday, December 13, 2018 at lunch in Room 22. All patrollers should bring their lunch and plan to stay for the meeting.

Writing clear sentences with appropriate vocabulary is how we communicate when sharing our ideas or conveying information in written format. One way to assist students with writing sentences and building vocabulary is with the use of sentence frames. Sentence frames are when a sentence is started and a blank space is left for the student to fill in and finish the sentence. The blanks can also be placed in the middle or end of the sentence. The student call fill in one or more words in the blank space based on their vocabulary. Pictures paired with words can also be used to fill in the sentence for students that are just building their vocabulary. 

There are many benefits to using sentence frames including:

• are a useful scaffold/support for all students, including English Language Learners
• can help build both written and oral language skills
• can be adapted to any level of learning
• can be used in academic subjects besides writing; there are often many vocabulary words in math, science, and social studies that students need to learn

Students using sight word sentence frames to create meaningful sentences that they will share with one another! 

Friday, November 30, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community!

Letter recognition and the understanding of the sound-letter connection are the building blocks to reading. This has largely been referred to as phonics. Being able to identify the letters of the English alphabet and the sound(s) that each symbol represents is necessary for all students learning English and can have many benefits including becoming familiar with an alphabet system different from one's home language, spelling patterns unique to the English language, pronunciation, decoding strategies, and confidence. 

An easily accessible and free site on almost all electronic and mobile devices is www.starfall.com.



This is an excellent resource to practice the sound-symbol connection as well as other extension activities related to phonics, word families, and early reading. 📚

Friday, November 23, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community!

It was such a pleasure to meet so many families at our student-led conferences this week! Parents and students alike enjoyed the opportunity to share in learning. Some of our families used an interpreter to help bridge communication and this allowed teachers and parents to connect meaningfully about their child's strengths and learning targets. 

All of our patrollers have now had atleast one rotation of duty. They have shown enthusiasm, dedication, and responsibility in their role as school safety patrollers. 

Here is the new schedule for this month:

RANCHLANDS SCHOOL PATROL SCHEDULE

November-December

Patrol Meeting Thursday, December 13 in Room 22 

Bring your lunch!

Monday - Thursday

(Arrive at patrol station)   Nov. 26-Nov. 30 Dec. 3-Dec. 6      

(8:50)     8:55 – 9:10           Team 1               Team  3  

(12:20)   12:25 – 12:40       Team  9             Team 10 

(12:55)   1:00 – 1:15           Team  12           Team 13

(3:45)     3:50 – 4:05           Team 2               Team 4

Friday: only before and after school teams go out.

(8:50)     8:55 – 9:10           Team 1              Team 3

(1:15)     1:20 –1:35            Team  2             Team 4

Monday - Thursday

(Arrive at patrol station) Dec. 10-Dec. 14 Dec. 17-Dec. 20

(8:50)     8:55 – 9:10           Team 5                Team  8  

(12:20)   12:25 – 12:40       Team  11            Team  19  

(12:55)   1:00 – 1:15           Team  16            Team  17

(3:45)     3:50 – 4:05           Team  6              Team 7

Friday: only before and after school teams go out.

(8:50)     8:55 – 9:10            Team  5               Team 8

(1:15)     1:20 –1:35             Team  6              Team 7

*Please arrive at the patrol station 5 minutes before you scheduled time in order to be ready.

Keep up the great work patrollers!

Friday, November 16, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community!

Our new patrol schedule for November/December is posted up at the Patrol Station as well as in grade 5/6 classrooms. Patrollers can check when they are patrolling in advance. The new schedule will be up on our website soon.


We are having a very exciting time in our Cultural Creativity TSN Fridays! In the past few weeks we have learned about Russia, India, and Africa. We are learning to read maps and globes and discovering just how big - and small- our world really is! 

Did you know that Russia is the biggest country in the world? We learned this and many other interesting facts about Russia our first week. The nesting doll, also known as the matryoshka doll, originated in Russia in 1890. These stacking dolls are made from wood with smaller dolls placed inside larger dolls. We made our nesting dolls from paper, but they are just as beautiful with their bright and bold colours!

Next we learned about India and the Festival of Lights-Diwali. During this time, a special craft called Rangoli is done which consists of making beautiful designs with colourful rice.

Our adventure continues to Africa! Stay tuned for more!

Friday, November 9, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community,

I mentioned in an earlier post that for English Language Learners, it is important to maintain the home language even while learning English. ELL students should continue to be encouraged to speak their home language with their families and community. The same applies for reading. ELL students that have learned to read and write in their home language should continue to do so as well. Research has shown that ELL students that have learned to read in their native language will have an easier time learning to read in their second language (English). The following link provides more detail:

http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/why-reading-your-kids-your-home-language-will-help-them-become-better-readers

Dual and multi language books can be found in some public libraries and specialized book stores; but are usually limited. As such, the International Children's Digital Library is an excellent resource to access dual language stories for children. By using the following link:
http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icdl/SimpleSearchCategory?ilang=English you can search for hundreds of books in many different languages that you can enjoy together with your child. Use the pull down tab next to the word Show to find several books in your home language.

Happy reading!

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The boat ride Author and Illustrator - Herminder Ohri Translator - Pratham Books Team Read this Book  Also available to read in: English, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, Urdu    Add tag for this book:     ?  Number of Pages - 13 Find other books like this one in the library

Summary Vikki, the squirrel, likes to talk big. His cousin came to visit him and they went on a boat ride. They were having fun when things turned rather adventurous.  Publication Date  2009  Languages  Hindi  Contributor  Pratham Books - India  Publisher  Pratham Books - India    This book is available under a Creative Commons Attribution license. Full terms of use and attribution available at: www.prathambooks.org/cc. ISBN  81-8263-042-8   Get This Book  WorldCat (Get this book from a library) Policies  Link to This Book

Friday, November 2, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community!

Adjusting to a new country comes with many new and exciting challenges. At Ranchlands School we can offer supports to our English Language Learners and families to help ease this transition. If you feel you would benefit from an interpreter in your home language for parent-teacher meetings, please feel free to contact me at the school. We also have an in-school settlement worker that can help newcomer families connect to community, school, and government resources and services as well as provide information on various programs in our city. If you feel you could benefit, please let me know and I can assist you with our in-school settlement worker.

The new patrol schedule for November is up. Please check the Ranchlands School website under "Extracurricular".

This week's safety tip:

Friday, October 26, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community!

As an ELL (English Language Learning) teacher at Ranchlands School, it is a pleasure to work with students from all parts of the world with many backgrounds. Our ELL students speak another language in addition to English and many times, speak two or even three languages!

It takes about 1-2 years to become conversational in English and at least 5-7 years to develop academic language. This is just an average and for some students it may vary. While a student is learning English, it is very important to continue to speak one's home language. Research has shown that the stronger an ELL student is in their home language, the more beneficial it will be when learning an additional language such as English.

The CBE has an excellent guide for families on ways in which to keep the home language alive. Here is the link:

https://portal.cbe.ab.ca/staffinsite/teaching/inclusive/ell/Documents/keep-home-language-alive.pdf

Did you know a person who speaks many languages is called a polyglot! 😀

Friday, October 19, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community!

This Thursday we had our first patrol meeting. We reviewed the AMA School Safety Patrol Quiz as a group. The new schedule for November will be posted next week.

A very exciting time was had by both students and staff this Friday at our first Try Something New session! In our group, Cultural Creativity/World Crafts, we explored the country Russia and began our nesting dolls. We are looking forward to completing them at our next session.

This week's safety tip:

Please remember that Friday, October 26 is a Professional Development Day.

Friday, October 12, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community!

This Thursday, October 18 we will be having our first patrol meeting in Room 22! Please bring your lunch and a pencil to the meeting. Any students that are patrollers and do not normally stay for lunch  should bring their lunch that day in order to attend the meeting. We will be taking a look at the AMA School Safety Patroller Quiz together to please review the handbook that was given to patrollers at the training. Patrollers can also find the handbook online at:

https://amaabcainternal.blob.core.windows.net/2018/08/CI-1780-SSP-comic-book.pdf

Any students that were not on the schedule for October, will be on the new schedule for November.

Patrollers, our weather has gone through what seems like many different seasons in just a few weeks! Please make sure you are dressed appropriately for the weather so that you are safe and comfortable when patrolling. Patrollers will not be out during inclement weather which includes temperatures greater than -20C.

This week's safety tip:

Friday, October 5, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community!

Our Learning Commons has a wide variety of books which also include Dual Language books. We have story books in over 30 languages that you can sign out and read at school or at home with your families.

Some of our new families to Canada have been asking about additional homework supports. Below is a link to some after school programs offered by The Calgary Bridge Foundation for Youth:

http://www.cbfy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ASP-Schedule-2017-2018_updated.pdf

Although this schedule is up to date, you can call ahead to make sure the program is running for that day.

Our patrollers demonstrated responsibility and citizenship this first week on duty! A special thanks to all of them for helping to keep our school community safe!

You can access this month's patrol schedule on the Ranchlands School website under "Extracurricular".

Please remember there is no school on Monday, October 8.

Friday, September 28, 2018

Hello Ranchlands School Community!

Welcome to the first entry.

We are very excited to begin our school safety patrollers this Monday, October 1. We have over 80 grade 5 and 6 students who have volunteered their time to keep our school community safe at the crosswalk on Ranchlands Blvd. The new schedule has been posted at the patrol station and in classrooms. It will be available soon on the Ranchlands School website under "Extracurricular".

The annual AMA School Safety Patrol Kick-Off Day was cancelled last Saturday due to inclement weather. It has been rescheduled for tomorrow. Here is more information on the event from the AMA:

The Kick-Off Day originally scheduled for Saturday, September 22 has been cancelled.

NEW EVENT DETAILS:

• NEW DAY: Saturday, September 29, 2018
• Time: 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
• Special price: Patroller $5 (+ GST) with Patrol Card + Family & Friends $5 each (+ GST) with School Patroller
• INCLUDES ALL RIDES!
• Coupons will be handed out at Guest Services (located by the main gate). Coupons to the first 1,000 Patrollers to arrive
• Patrollers - bring your completed entry form to Guest Services
• Team prize draws will be held Monday, October 1, 2018. School winners will be notified by AMA.
• We will not be holding the Kick Off Ceremony at 2:00.
• Please check https://www.calawaypark.com/ for their current operating information.We hope everyone enjoys their time at Calaway Park!

Please help us to keep our students safe along with our patrollers by following the rules of the road.