The Good News
November 20, 2016 - St. John XXIII School
Leadership Team Message
Welcome back! We sincerely hope our St. John XXIII families had a relaxing Fall Break. We know many of you travelled to warmer temperatures, visited family, had play-dates, or just had a well-deserved "stay-cation". Whatever you did, we hope it restored your soul and tomorrow finds you ready to get back at it!
In keeping with our focus on literacy, here is our latest tip - Remember, with your partnership, we are committed to building strong & confident readers at St. John!
Building Strong and Confident Readers
Listening
In our last newsletter, we explained how critical it is for children to be able to play with sounds in order to become strong readers and writers. In order to play with sounds, children need to be able to listen and focus. This week, we wanted to give you a few more listening ideas since the ability to listen plays such an important role in hearing sounds in our language. Check out the following website for some great games such as Simon Says, Telephone, and Freeze Dance.
http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/52641/listening-skills
Want your child to “listen” when you are talking to them? Have them stop what they are doing so they can focus on your words. As much as we’d like to think the brain can multi-task, it can actually only focus on one thing at a time. Which means if your child is putting on their seatbelt, pulling on a stuck rubber boot, or bunny hopping down the stairs they CAN”T focus on your words as well. Be direct and don't overload with too much information so that your child can be successful!
Mrs. Melnyk & Mrs. Weller
3-Way Conferences
Thank you for another successful round of Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences. Parental involvement is one of the key indicators of student success and it was fantastic to see so many parents last week.
Remembrance Day Celebration
Scholastic "Bookaneer" Fair
Star Wars marathon for Families First
A Book for Every Child
Looking Ahead . . .
November 21 Lifetouch School Picture Retakes
November 21 Grade 1 Woodworking Project
November 24 Subway Hot Lunch (by pre-order only)
November 24 School Lockdown Drill
November 25 Holodomor Memorial Day (Ukrainian Famine Genocide) acknowledged in prayer
November 28 Advent Assembly 9:00 am
November 29 Alberta Opera performs Hansel & Gretel 2:00 pm (everyone welcome)
November 30 OLA School's Musical Theatre presents Elf Jr. 6:30 pm at the Shell Theatre
December 1 PSC Meeting 9:00 am in the library
December 1 OLA School's Musical Theatre presents Elf Jr. 12:00 & 6:30 pm at the Shell Theatre
December 3 Star Wars Marathon at St. John Paul II School Gym
December 8 Choir, Chimes & Handbell Christmas Concert 7:00 pm
December 21 Grade 1 & 2 Christmas Concert
December 22 Grade 3 & 4 Christmas Concert
"We don’t have to go far or come up with grand projects to be charitable. Often the people closest to us could use our help."
Pope Francis
via Twitter November 16, 2016
9526 - 89 St. Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Email: stj@eics.ab.ca
Website: stj.eics.ab.ca
Phone: 780-998-7777
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stjohnXXIII/
Twitter: @St_JohnXXIII