March 9-13, 2026

We’re Better Together!
A community is a place where people live, work, and play together. This week in kindergarten, we talked about all the places where we connect with our families, friends, and neighbors.

We drew pictures of fun places we like to go, such as the swimming pool, ice rink, and playground. It was wonderful to see all the different places that make our community special!

We also learned about community helpers and why it is important to help each other. Community helpers are people who work hard to keep our community safe, healthy, and happy.

We talked about how parks and gardens are great places where people can meet, play, and spend time together.

We wondered together: How do parks help bring people in a community together?

What can a community do to make a difference?

We explored these big ideas by reading stories and sharing our thoughts.

Simons Valley Community is a great place to be!

Take a look at our interactive maps below to see the places we discovered.

We continue to learn more Lively Letters. It is a life changing strategy to hear, recognize, and say the letter sounds in our alphabet!  So far we have learned the partner letters "p, b" / “t, d” / "f, v" / "k, g." Mrs. Sutherland introduced a "Superstar" letter this week - "a" Superstar letters say their sound louder and longer! Now we can spell some  words using a "tap and sweep" strategy. You can view the videos with your child in the google classroom. Please practice the letter sounds with your child.

Mark your calendars! The Scholastic Book Fair is coming!

Our school’s Scholastic Book Fair will take place on Monday 16^th March to Friday 20^th  March. Our students will have a chance to browse the books with their teacher from Monday to Thursday during school hours, and open to parents on Thursday evening (4:30 pm – 8:00pm) and Friday morning (8:30am – 1:00pm) during the student-led conferences. Cash and Cards accepted.

 

Your investment in your reader helps our whole school. All purchases earn Scholastic Dollars that can be redeemed for books and educational resources for our school’s classrooms and library.

Kindies are going Swimming starting MONDAY!! 

Our lessons are next week - March 16-19

**Homework practice**

Have your child take a bath at home in their swimsuit. Then get out of the bath, towel off, get dressed. Roll the wet swimsuit in the towel and place in a plastic bag. (it's too wet to go in the backpack.) 

On our swimming days, if possible, have your child wear their swimsuit under their school clothes. This will allow for a quick transition at the pool to the change room and the pool deck for  their swim lesson.

Here is a swimming bag checklist! 

1- swim suit (worn to school under clothing- no underwear) 

1- towel

1- clean pair of underwear

1- plastic or reusable bag for wet items

**Optional- goggles if your child is a swimmer already!

Please unpack and dry the swimsuit and towel each evening!

Label all items with your child's name, including towel tags and swim goggle straps, to prevent mix-ups in the busy pool area. With over 100 items from AM and PM kindies and grade 6 students at daily swim lessons, clear labelling helps ensure belongings are easily identified and returned.

The $40 swim fee includes the cost of the pool swim instructors and the school bus transportation.  Please pay online in your MyCBE PowerSchool Account OR send cash payment in an envelope to the school office. A receipt will be issued for cash payments.

Thank you in advance for your prompt payment.

Link to our school  calendar: Simons Valley School Calendar

Friday Class Schedule

Library Day is Tuesday, March 17, 2026! 

Thank you for helping your child to remember their library book AND plastic protector BAG each Tuesday!! We will return books but not sign out new ones until after Spring Break.

Important Kindergarten Dates...

Monday, March16 - Swimming 
Tuesday, March 17- Swimming & Library Book Return

Wednesday, March 18 - Swimming

Thursday, March 19 -Swimming

Friday, March 20 - Student Led Conferences - NO Classes for Students
MARCH 23-27 - SPRING BREAK - NO Classes
Classes Resume on Monday, March 30

Our Emails

 If you have any questions or need to contact us, our emails are:

Mrs. Oster: rdoster@cbe.ab.ca 

Mrs. Sutherland: klsutherland@cbe.ab.ca 

Mrs. Wiskar: mjwiskar@cbe.ab.ca 

March 2-6, 2026

This week in Kindergarten, we kept learning about our community — the place where we live, work, and play!

We added more details to our personal community maps. The children drew houses, vehicles, and road signs. We talked about what makes a house special. Students noticed shapes, numbers, different materials, and the parts of a house like doors, windows, and roofs. We read A House by Kevin Henkes and shared our ideas about what makes a house feel like a home.

We read books about vehicles and signs we see in our neighborhood. The children were excited to identify school buses, ambulances, fire trucks, and cars by their colours, shapes, and symbols.

As we continued working on our community maps, students added these new details to their drawings. We learned that road signs can be recognized by their shapes and colours, too. The children drew different road signs in their visual journals.

On your way to and from school, ask your child if they can name the shapes and colours of the road signs they see!

We also spent time celebrating what makes each of us special and unique. We read Be You and talked about how we can be proud of who we are, even when we are different from our friends. The children completed their monthly self-portraits, and we are so excited to see how their artwork shows their growth throughout the year.

Lively Letters is a life changing strategy to hear, recognize, and say the letter sounds in our alphabet!  Mrs. Sutherland introduced the partner letters "p, b" and “t, d” using the Lively Letters strategy. You can view the videos with your child. They are posted in the google classroom.  

Fundraising Opportunity!

Good news! Mabel's Labels is having a sale and Simons Valley School is one of the choices for fundraising at checkout...check out the link below if you need a new supply of labels for your kiddos!

Mabel's Labels Sale!

Mark your calendars! The Scholastic Book Fair is coming!

Our school’s Scholastic Book Fair will take place on Monday 16^th March to Friday 20^th  March.

Our students will have a chance to browse the books with their teacher from Monday to Thursday during school hours, and open to parents on Thursday evening (4:30 pm – 8:00pm) and Friday morning (8:30am – 1:00pm) during the student-led conferences. Cash and Cards accepted.

 

There will not be a Virtual option this year.

Your investment in your reader helps our whole school. All purchases earn Scholastic Dollars that can be redeemed for books and educational resources for our school’s classrooms and library.

The countdown to more Bookjoy is on!

Link to our school  calendar: Simons Valley School Calendar

Friday Class Schedule

Library Day is Tuesday, March 10, 2026! 

Thank you for helping your child to remember their library book AND plastic protector BAG each Tuesday!!

Important Kindergarten Dates...

Tuesday, March 10 - Library Day - Return books in their plastic bag

Friday, March 13 - PM Class Attends (9:02-11:58am)

Our Emails

 If you have any questions or need to contact us, our emails are:

Mrs. Oster: rdoster@cbe.ab.ca 

Mrs. Sutherland: klsutherland@cbe.ab.ca 

Mrs. Wiskar: mjwiskar@cbe.ab.ca