Week of May 8, 2026

 

Thank you to our parent volunteers for joining us on our field trip to the Philharmonic. It was a wonderful and unique experience for the students as they were introduced to the orchestra and explored the many ways music can tell stories, express emotions, and bring people together. 

Looking Back:

Literacy:

Novel Study:  

Ask your child about what we learned in our novel this week! Students came home with a map to help them share the journey of our main character, Ahmet, and the long path he took to reach London. We had some wonderful discussions about the different places he travelled through and the challenges he faced along the way.

One of the highlights this week was hearing about how some students (after trying pomegranates at school) had the opportunity to have some at home too.  Thank you for sharing this with them.  

Reading/Writing:

This week, we took our circle story templates and turned them into organizers to help us begin transforming our stories into digital books using the program, Book Creator. After watching me model how to take a circle story and turn it into a published-style book, students are very excited to begin creating their own next week.

This is one of my favourite projects to teach because it combines students’ creativity in writing with the endless possibilities of digital design. They will have the opportunity to manipulate images, fonts, colours, and expression to bring their stories to life in a meaningful and engaging way. Our goal is for every student to feel like a published author by the end of the project.

Students also continued participating in their reading groups. Each group is reading a different novel and working together in a book club format. Lessons begin with students sharing their thinking from the previous chapter, with each student taking on a different role, such as artist, connector, summarizer, vocabulary specialist, or discussion director. Roles change with each chapter so that students have the opportunity to practice a variety of skills. Some groups have already moved on to their second novel! This has been a wonderful way for students to build connections with classmates while developing thoughtful discussions around reading.

Grammar:

In grammar, we learned about linking verbs, which connect the subject of a sentence to more information about it. Words such as is, are, was, were, seem, and become help describe or identify the subject rather than show an action. Students practiced identifying linking verbs by participating in a Scoot activity where they moved around the classroom, reading sentences and finding the linking verb. The practice page was sent home with students for you to review together.

Cursive:

Students have now learned all of the lowercase letters, so please continue encouraging your child to practice these at home to help build fluency and confidence. This week, we also practiced the capital letters R, S, and T as we continue working our way through uppercase letter formation.

Math:

This week in math, we continued our learning in algebra by focusing on solving “mysteries” in word problems. Students practiced identifying important information, determining the steps needed to solve the problem, and using algebraic thinking to find the unknown value.

This is a challenging skill for many students because it requires them to combine their reading comprehension, problem-solving, and math fact fluency all at once. We are encouraging students to slow down, think through each step carefully, and explain their thinking as they solve.

Continued practice with basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts at home will greatly support your child’s confidence and success in this unit.

Science:

This week, we continued our learning about food chains and food webs. Students created their own food chains based on a digital game they explored, then expanded their understanding by learning how multiple food chains connect to form a food web.

One of the highlights of the week was an interactive outdoor predator and prey game. Each student was assigned a role in the food chain, such as a producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, or tertiary consumer (apex predator). Through this active tag-style game, students experienced firsthand how living things depend on one another for survival and how energy moves through an ecosystem.

Ask your child to tell you all about the game and the role they played in the food chain!

Social Studies:

In Social Studies, we went on a community walk to explore nearby parks and gather natural materials to use in our upcoming mini community projects connected to our learning about municipal and provincial government. Students collected items such as sticks, rocks, leaves, and other natural materials that they may incorporate into their creations.

For this project, students are working with a partner and are given a large box to design and build their own community. Their communities must include a variety of municipal services such as roads, fire stations, police departments, and other important features that help a community function. Mrs. Olson and I will act as the provincial government by assigning each student an additional provincial service that must also be included in their community design. Students are working within a budget as they plan and make decisions about what to include.

Right now, students are still in the planning stage, but they will begin building their communities next week. If you have recycled materials at home that your child may wish to use for their project, such as fabric, felt, buttons, cardboard, or glass beads (to represent water), feel free to send them in. Please talk with your child first about what they think they may need so that we do not end up with too many unnecessary materials. Most of the materials used in the projects will come from the natural items we collected during our walk.

Looking Ahead:

As mentioned in the Science section, we may be heading outside again next week to continue our predator and prey game. We are hoping to play at a nearby park, such as Inukshuk Park or the Pirate/Princess Park, as the larger space and natural hiding spots will make the game even more engaging and realistic for the students.

This activity will likely take place on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon next week, weather permitting.

MTS Reminders - May 4 - 8 2026

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. 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  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 12                                     Class Photo Day May 14                                     Kindergarten Open House for 2026/27 Students - 4:00pm - 6:00pm 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 22                                      AM Kindergarten Field Trip to Calgary Farmyard May 26-28                                Grade 3 and 4 Swimming lessons at YMCA Seton May 27                                     Fun Lunch - Subway May 27                                     Grade 1 Field Trip to Calgary Zoo - Carter/Larmer/Burch May 28                                     Grade 1 Field Trip to Calgary Zoo - Watson/Fell May 29                                     PM Kindergarten Field Trip to Calgary Farmyard 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 19                                    Grade 4 Farewell Assembly - 11:00am June 24                                    Kindergarten Graduation  June 25                                    Sports Day June 26                                    Last Day of School