Mustang Memo - April 19, 2024

Hey Mustang parents and guardians!

We want to celebrate you! You are all invited to our Volunteer Appreciation Event on Monday, April 29, 2024 starting at 1 p.m. There will be light refreshments and a short presentation by our kindergarten students as well as our grade 3-6 choir. 

We value your support and help in making our school such a great place!

Save that date!

Helene Hewitt & Jay Robertson

Principal & Assistant Principal

You belong here!

Table of Contents

Week At a Glance

Action

• Earth Day Assembly
• Shoe Drive

Opportunity 

• School Supply Ordering is Now Open

Information

• Counsellor's Corner
• LitBits - Fun with Phonemic Awareness at Home
• Parents Make the Difference

WEEK AT A GLANCE

ACTION

Earth Day Assembly

Do you love to celebrate our beautiful planet? So do our Grade 4 students who will be leading our Earth Day Assembly on April 22 at 12:30 in our gym.

They will dazzle us with their public speaking skills and teach us about how to take care of the planet.

After the assembly, classes are invited to join a pitch-in community clean up event where they will pick up garbage from around our playground using garbage bags and gloves.  Parents are welcome to join us for the assembly and the clean up that follows!

Shoe Drive - Soles4Souls

Our school will be participating in the Soles for Souls shoe drive sponsored by Strathcona County. How does it work? According to the County website:

Shoes are a difficult to recycle and are most often sent to the landfill—until now! Strathcona County works with Soles4Souls to collect old shoes and keep them out of the landfill. Soles4Souls distributes donated shoes to those who need them most. If the shoes cannot be reused, they are sent for refurbishing by small businesses in developing economies.

Want to learn more? Check out this video:

OPPORTUNITY

School Supply Ordering is Now Open

Our next year school supply ordering is now open, and it is a great fundraiser. Supplies can be shipped home, or delivered to the school the third week of June for pick up. You can order here: https://www.write-on.ca/shop/

FOR ONLINE ORDERS:
• Go to www.write-on.ca
• Click on “PARENTS – Order Here”
• School Name: Davidson Creek Elementary School - SHERWOOD PARK
• Choose your grade and place your order.
• Complete your order by clicking ‘PLACE ORDER’
• You will receive an automatic email confirmation to confirm your order has been received
• We accept VISA, MC, AMEX, Visa Debit and Interac On-line.

INFORMATION

Counsellor's Corner

This May, Strathcona Family and Community services is offering an exciting new cross-cultural parenting program called “Parenting in Canada”.  If you are new to Canada or not originally from Canada, this is a program worth checking out. Details below!

Parenting in Canada 

Parenting is a journey, no matter where you're from.  

Parenting in Canada is for parents who are not originally from Canada and want to learn how to raise happy, healthy kids. This program creates a space for sharing experiences on parenting in different cultures, discussing challenges, and exploring ways to foster strong family bonds. Parents will learn about community resources that exist for families and tips and tools to support their family’s well-being while honouring their culture and traditions.   

Learn with other parents and support each other on your journey of raising kids in Canada.  

Topic discussions: 

• Week 1: Cultural similarities and differences 
• Week 2: Navigating systems and community resources (schools, healthcare, etc.) 
• Week 3: Parenting in Canada 
• Week 4: Taking care of yourself as a parent 

Limited childcare is available.    

Dates: Wednesday, May 8, 15, 22, 29 (4 sessions—please try to attend all sessions) 

Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm   

Location:  Millennium Place Activity Room 2 & Fun Factory (2000 Premier Way)   

Language: English   

Please register by calling 780-416-6730 or clicking directly on this link Registration for Parenting in Canada program. After you register, we will call you to gather some additional information and confirm if this program is going to be a good fit.   

If you have any questions, please reach out to Linh (linh.nguyen@strathcona.ca) or German (german.villegas@strathcona.ca) who will be facilitating the Parenting in Canada program.  

Madison Bashaw and Kelley Mitchell

DCE Counselling Team

LitBits - Map the Snap

Have you ever heard of orthographic mapping? Words that you can read instantly are called sight words. Orthographic mapping is the process of storing a word permanently in memory for instant retrieval — and key to effortless, accurate, and fluent reading.

So how can we help kids to map words so that they live in their long-term memory? You can do something called Map the Snap. Watch Tamara Martin-Spady to learn how you can do this at home to practice orthographic mapping!

Parents make the difference

Here is this week's article with helpful tips for families:

Promote a ‘can-do’ attitude to strengthen academic success

School is filled with all sorts of challenges—and success depends on how students respond to those challenges. Help your child understand that people can get smarter by trying, persisting and learning from mistakes.

Attitude determines how students think about problems. Suppose, for example, your child is having trouble understanding a science concept. Some children would throw up their hands and say, “I’m not good at science”—and quit trying. But other kids would take another view. “This is a challenge and I love a challenge. ”

Children in the second group believe that even if they don’t understand something now, they will be able to learn it in the future. They have a “can-do” attitude and are more likely to stick with problems—and solve them.

You can encourage this attitude by praising your child’s effort. “That was challenging, but you kept trying different things until you got it!”

Reprinted with permission from the April 2024 issue of Parents make the difference!^®  (Elementary School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2024 The Parent Institute^®, a division of PaperClip Media, Inc. Source: C. Romero, “What We Know About Growth Mindset from Scientific Research,” Mindset Scholars Network.