Week of May 1, 2026

 

Looking Back:

Literacy:

Novel Study:  

We continued reading our novel, The Boy at the Back of the Class, and learned more about Ahmed’s past, including why he had to leave his home in Syria and the journey that brought him to England. This helped deepen our understanding of his experiences and perspective.

Students also had the opportunity to try pomegranates and dates, two foods connected to our learning. The pomegranates were a huge hit with the class. The dates were a little less popular, but many students were excited to try something new!

Reading/Writing:

In reading and writing, we read the story The Best Nest and examined the elements of a circle story. We used this as a springboard for planning our own stories that we are beginning to write.

We started by deciding who our main characters would be and brainstormed many possibilities. Students discovered that their main character could be a person, an animal, or even something imaginative. From there, we brainstormed settings that made sense for their characters. Students had to think carefully about creating a setting that is wonderful enough for the main character to want to return to, while also including a problem that makes it less than ideal.  

Grammar:

In grammar, we learned about helping verbs, which work alongside the main verb in a sentence to show tense or add meaning. Words such as is, are, was, were, has, have, can, and will help tell us more about the action taking place. Students practiced identifying helping verbs by participating in a Scoot activity where they moved around the classroom identifying helping verbs.

Cursive:

Students have learned all of the lowercase letters now so please have your child continue to practice this at home.  This week, we have completed A-N capital letters.

Math:

This week in math, we began our algebra unit. Students learned that variables are symbols used to represent unknown or missing values in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division equations. We also explored the idea that equations must be balanced, meaning both sides of the equation need to have the same value. To practice this thinking, we started a fun algebra warm-up where students solved a series of picture-based equations to determine the value of different images. For example, if dog + dog = 16, students must figure out the value of the dog and use that information to solve additional equations that lead to a final mystery problem. Students have been enjoying the challenge of using logic and problem-solving skills in math.

Science:

We began our Living Systems unit by learning about the roles animals play in ecosystems. Through videos and class discussions, students explored how living things can be classified as producers, consumers, or decomposers based on how they get their energy. Students created a title page in their visual journals and then completed a digital activity in which they practiced classifying different animals into their respective groups.

Social Studies:

I am very excited about our new Social Studies unit, which focuses on how Alberta is governed. We began by learning about the three levels of government: federal, provincial, and municipal. This can be a challenging concept for students to understand, so we connected it to something familiar—our school community. We compared the school to the federal government, where the principal is like the Prime Minister and helps make decisions for the whole school. Each grade level acts like a provincial government, making decisions that affect their grade, and each individual classroom represents municipal government, where the teacher takes on a role similar to a Mayor, Reeve, or Chief. We are also beginning an exciting cross-curricular project that will combine our learning about geometry, financial literacy, and municipal and provincial government.

We look forward to sharing more as our project develops.

Buddies:

On Wednesday, we helped our kindergarten buddy class making some spring flowers (shown in the picture above).  On Friday, we helped our grade 1 buddies make tissue paper flowers.  Spring is in the air!

Looking Ahead:

To help prepare for our social studies project, we will go on a community walk to collect natural materials that we can use to build our model communities. Weather permitting, we will likely go on Monday or Thursday afternoon

MTS Reminders - Wednesday April 29

Fun Lunch The next Fun Lunch will be held on Wednesday May 27. Fun Lunch is only for grades 1-4 and our EES students.  Go to healthyhunger.ca Log into you existing account or create a new one. Add your child’s information in the “add child” box – name, province, city, school, grade and class. All Fun Lunches will then populate – select the order now button! Please make sure to send a morning snack with your child on Fun Lunch Days. Orders must be placed by the Friday before the day. May The 4th Be With You!! Who doesn't love a Spirit Day!! On Monday May 4th, staff and students can wear their best Star Wars T-shirts or dress like their favourite character from the movie. Food Support Did you know that the Breakfast Club of Canada has shared research demonstrating that 40% of Alberta’s children experience food insecurity?  This means that 4 out of 10 children do not have access to food when they are hungry.  If your family is experiencing challenges with providing food for your children you can find help at Brown Bagging Calgary.  Complete this form for support and they can deliver lunches to McKenzie Towne School for your children. https://go.bb4ck.org/l/858913/2024-01-15/38fdbw You can also find out more information on their website https://bb4ck.org/ Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids MTS Yearbooks To order go to: https://ybpay.lifetouch.ca/ Use Yearbook ID code: 10614126 Regular Pricing: $34 (April 18 - May 18, 2026) Last day to order:  May 18, 2025 If you have any pictures from any school events (ie, first day of school, Terry Fox Run, Halloween) that you would like to share with the Yearbook Committee, please click on the link below. Once you log in, please enter this code. ADD-PICTURES-TO-YEARBOOK-26 YEARBOOK PICTURES Upcoming Dates May 4                                       STAR WARS DAY - May The 4th Be With You!!! May 6                                       Grade 3 and 4 Students visit McKenzie Highlands May 7                                       Grade 3 Field Trip to Calgary Philharmonic May 12                                     Class Photo Day May 15                                     Non-Instructional Day - NO SCHOOL May 18                                     Victoria Day - NO SCHOOL May 19-21                                Grade 3 and 4 Swimming Lessons at YMCA Seton May 26-28                                Grade 3 and 4 Swimming lessons at YMCA Seton May 27                                     Fun Lunch - Subway June 3                                      Grade 4 Field Trip to Calgary Zoo June 8-15                                 Grade 3 and 4 - Alien In-Line Skating June 17                                    Fun Lunch - Coco Brooks June 25                                    Sports Day June 26                                    Last Day of School