2 de febrero - Music room notes, important dates and information

 Notes from the Music Room

 

Dear families,

 

We continue working towards a successful Spring Concert for you.  I ask that those of you that look at the blogs, please help your child listen to the song El Barquito de Cascara de Nuez.  I included that in the blog two weeks ago or so. I am also very excited to announce that we will have Señor Waters as our accompanist for the Spring concert!  I have to say that the children are terribly excited about performing for you.  I hope you can all make it to the concert.

 

The Kindergarten children are going to start dancing La Raspa. We have already worked on the most important part of the footwork.  I am attaching a video that guides the steps but please don’t think that this is how we are going to do the dance exactly. For one I don’t call it the Mexican Hat Dance!   Also, in the video they keep on saying Olé… The kids love saying olé but if there is any way that you can refrain from encouraging that, I would be most grateful.  If you explore more of the videos from this channel you might find some gross motor skills for the kids that are fun and helpful to do as a family.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p31lF-hY9u0&t=71s

 

The Grade 1 students are now learning the following Venezuelan folk song:

 

Con real y medio

Con real y medio

Con real y. medio

Compré una pava

La pava tuvo un pavito

Tengo la pava, tengo el pavito

Siempre me queda mi real y medio.

 

Translation: with a dollar and a half I bought a turkey, the turkey had a baby turkey.  I have a turkey and a baby turkey and I am always left with my dollar and a half.

 

With this song we start adding animals.  The video below is quite fast, but the music is representative of Venezuelan instrumentation and the order of the animals is the one that we will be singing.  Please don’t expect the children to sing it that fast… well, not yet anyway.  We won’t perform it that fast either because otherwise the whole concert would be over in 15 min.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoQAYYq8OBI

 

A reminder that February 3 (tomorrow!) is a non-instruction day with no classes for all students.

Registration for the 2023-24 school year is ongoing.  If you are looking to register a younger sibling, please submit an application through the CBE website by February 14 at noon to be included in the lottery.

The next Dalhousie School Council/Parent Society meeting will be held through Teams on February 8 at 6pm.  All are welcome to attend.

Friday, February 10 is Dress in a Pattern Day. Everyone is encouraged to wear their best pattern to school!

There will be no school due to Teachers’ Convention on February 16 & 17 as well as February 20 due to Family Day.

www.dalhousieparentsociety.com – check out our website for all this info and more!

dalhousieschoolparentsociety@gmail.com – email us if you have questions about anything!

Check out our Facebook and Instagram pages as well! Search for Dalhousie Parent Society – tell your friends and fellow parents to give us a follow!

 Dalhousie Parent Society News

***FUNDRAISERS***

BREAKING NEWS OUR CURRENT PLAYGROUND WILL BE REMOVED SUMMER 2024!  - The CBE will be ripping the current playground out. If we do not come together and fundraise to build the new playground, the kids will be left with nothing.  Check out the sign up if you are interested in becoming part of the playground committee! Did you know? You will be supported by the Parent Society in your volunteer role. We have a Playground Lead who will have your back through the whole process!

PURDY’S CHOCOLATES
Want to know the most DELICIOUS way to support us? Order Purdy’s chocolates from our fundraiser! From now until March 3,  2023, you can order Purdy’s treats from our fundraiser by joining our campaign and browsing the tastiest selection of Easter chocolates online. Shop gifts for family, friends, neighbours AND yourself in one convenient place. After all orders are submitted, we’ll sort, distribute, and let you know when you can collect your goodies.

What you’ll need to order:
1. Our campaign number: 61732
2. Go to our fundraising website
3. Click “Join Campaign”
4. Shop, shop, shop away!

Thank you EVERYONE for your support. Even if you can’t buy chocolates from us, it would mean the world if you could share this fundraiser link to everyone you know! Happy chocolating!

MOTHER’S DAY FLOWERS
Visit the website here to see what’s being offered!

***FUN LUNCH***
Volunteers need to have police clearance to volunteer for fun lunch, please email dalhousieschoolparentsociety@gmail.com if you would like us to confirm.  WE NEED VOLUNTEERS!  Feb 7, 15 and 21^st need some spots filled! View the sign up here.

Don’t forget to send students with reusable straws if they have ordered Booster Juice! If they show a fun lunch volunteer they will be entered to win a free Subway fun lunch on March 21.

If your child will be absent and you‘ve already ordered fun lunch please email dalhousieschoolparentsociety@gmail.com before 11:00am and let us know if you’d like to:
-Pick up the order from the office after 12:30pm
-Donate it to the amazing Dalhousie staff
-Have it sent home with a sibling

Upcoming dates:
February 8 - Boston Pizza
Feb 15 – Fat Burger & Booster Juice
Feb 21 – The Saucy Bread Company
Feb 28 – Tim Horton’s 

1 de febrero

Here are some of the activities we worked on this week;

Creating a pattern using different sizes of corazónes (hearts)

Finding snowmen around the room that represent numbers in 10 in 3 different ways (tally marks, dice and ten frames)

Creating our own copos de nieve (snowflakes) with six arms using pattern blocks.

Matching the beginning letter sound to the picture.

Painting hearts using blanco, rojo y morado (white, red and purple) using clothes pins and pompoms.

Here is a new song we have been practicing.  For those who speak/read Spanish, I know there are a couple of spelling errors in the words!  It wasn't me.  LOL

KINDERGARTEN REPORTING AND ASSESSMENT

 

Kindergarten Reporting & Assessment

We are changing how, and how often, we formally communicate progress for kindergarten learners. Last year, families received a report card in January and June. Moving forward families will not receive a January report card. Information on your child’s progress and achievement in kindergarten will be provided through: October: Early Years Evaluation-Teacher Assessment (EYE-TA), October/November: progress discussed during conferences, January/February: Reading Readiness Screening Tool (RRST), March: progress discussed during conferences, and June: Progress reporting via report card. Teachers work to plan the delivery of curriculum content in ways that are engaging, creative and inspiring and will continue to respond to the needs of students as we work through this transition together. As always, if you have specific questions about your child’s learning please connect with their teacher.  Thank you, Katrin Lusignan, Principal

News from the Music Room, important dates and information

 Notes from the Music Room

 

I am happy to say that we are moving along with the preparation of the music for the Spring Concert in March.  Please keep an eye out for an email in the next week asking for help from our wonderful volunteer community.  I will be needing help with props and other performance essentials. 

 

The kindergarten students are learning a new song with very simple vocabulary words:

 

Hola amigo mio y

Cómo estás tú?

Mucho gusto

 

We will also be working on simple steps for the Mexican folk dance la Raspa.

 

The Grade 1s are learning two Venezuelan folk songs:

The first song is:

 

Los chimichimitos estaban bailando el coro corito

Tamboré

Los chimichimitos estaban bailando el coro corito

Tamboré

Que baile la niña tamboré

Que baile el niñito tamboré

Que baile la gata tamboré

Que baile el gatito tamboré

Los chimichimitos estaban bailando el coro corito

Tamboré

Los chimichimitos estaban bailado el coro corito

Tamboré

Que baile la vieja tamboré

Que baile el viejito tamboré

Que baile la mona tamboé

Que baile el monito tamboré

 

Our Grade 2 students are busy working on the instrumentation for our Guatemalan song Vamos a la Mar.

 

Our Grade 3 students are becoming exerts at playing all three different xylophone parts for our song El Barreño.

 

Our Grade 4 students are creating a very exciting instrumental accompaniment part for their song Al Tambor with the djembe drum, the xylophone and the ukulele.

 

The Grade 5 students are working very hard at the lyrics for the Zarzuela song La Tarantula.  Please remind your child to visit his teacher’s Google classroom to work on the difficult pronunciation of the lyrics to this song.  This song will be performed at our March concert as well as at the Jubilee for our Que Pasa concert in May.  Details will follow in the next few weeks.

 

Dalhousie School News

 

Dalhousie students participated in a reading party today.  Ask your child what we did in our class!

 

Families will be able to view online student report cards for grade 1-12 students on Jan. 30. Report cards for the 2022-23 school year can be viewed, downloaded and printed.  Please see here for more information on how to access your child’s report card.    A reminder that there is no report card in January for Kindergarten.  Please see the separate email that was sent with this information.

 

A reminder that February 3 is a non-instruction day with no classes for all students.

The next Dalhousie School Council/Parent Society meeting will be held through Teams on February 8 at 6pm.  All are welcome to attend.

Dalhousie Parent Society Updates 

www.dalhousieparentsociety.com – check out our website for all this info and more!
dalhousieschoolparentsociety@gmail.com – email us if you have questions about anything!
Check out our Facebook and Instagram pages as well! Search for Dalhousie Parent Society

***FUNDRAISERS***
PLAYGROUND COMMITTEE – we are trying SO hard to get the funding to build a new playground but we need more help!  Check out the sign up if you are interested in becoming part of the playground committee!  Did you know? You will be supported by the Parent Society in your volunteer role. We have a Playground Lead who will have your back through the whole process!

 ***FUN LUNCH***
Volunteers need to have police clearance to volunteer for fun lunch, please email dalhousieschoolparentsociety@gmail.com if you would like us to confirm.  WE NEED VOLUNTEERS!  Feb 7, 15 and 21^st need some spots filled! View the sign up here. 

Don’t forget to send students with reusable straws if they have ordered Booster Juice! If they show a fun lunch volunteer they will be entered to win a free Subway fun lunch on March 21.

If your child will be absent and you‘ve already ordered fun lunch please email dalhousieschoolparentsociety@gmail.com before 11:00am and let us know if you’d like to:
-Pick up the order from the office after 12:30pm
-Donate it to the amazing Dalhousie staff
-Have it sent home with a sibling

Upcoming dates:
February 1 - Opa
February 8 - Boston Pizza
Feb 15 – Fat Burger & Booster Juice
Feb 21 – The Saucy Bread Company

25 de enero

 This week, we finished learning about Lunar New Year, and drew some special foods that are eaten during the celebration.  Ask your child to tell you 3 foods that are traditionally eaten!

We used our knowledge of beginning letter sounds to match pictures to words.

We starting learning about number pairs that make 5, and how to represent 5 in different ways using cubes.

Check out these new songs all about the number 5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zija7aVmziY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_DGrdsyirk

Reading Party

 On Friday, January 27, we will be having a Reading Party. Your child is invited to bring a favourite book or two to share with classmates and a small stuffy to read with.  All books and stuffies will go home at the end of the day. 

18 de enero

This week, we began learning about Lunar New Year.  Ask your child about how this holiday is celebrated, what special foods are eaten, and what colours are significant.

We worked on some new literacy and math centers; creating patterns using the vocabulary of "grande, mediano y pequeño" (big, medium and small), using plasticene to represent items from Lunar New Year,  creating snowflakes by referring to a model, and drawing pictures related to winter and recording how many letters in the word.