Welcome to

Happy Halloween!

What a great way to celebrate and finish an amazing, successful, busy

month! I am so proud of all our Derek Taylor students and staff! Together they

have learned, struggled, grown, celebrated and created so many more

‘moments’ than we could ever capture in this letter. Even if we have missed an

important event, or tournament - and we have - please don’t let that diminish

the importance of all the accomplishments. Derek Taylor students are

reaching their learning goals every day. Celebrate these moments together -

each step in your child’s learning is valuable. Keep encouraging your child to

persevere, and try their best. Give them compliments, thanks to the PATH’s

program, students are giving and receiving them! And finally...Thank You! For

all the support you give your children and Derek Taylor Public School.

Please have a very safe and fun Halloween to-

night!

Mrs. Janice Barrett, Vice Principal

D ER EK T A YL OR P UB L I C S C H O O L 7321-104A Street

Grande Prairie, Alberta

T8W 0E9

Phone: 780 - 357 - 9174

Website: www.gppsd.ab.ca/school/derektaylor

D E R E K TAY L O R

P U B L I C S C H O O L O c t o b e r 3 1 , 2 0 1 7

Volume 2, Issue 3

DEREK TAYLORPUBLIC S CHOOL

Our week with Trickster was a

huge success! As the students

learned their play, they were

involved in high energy activities

which required the entire class to

work as a team. The students

were engaged in the production

for about 80 minutes each day,

for the entire week. The

production students put on for

their families on the Friday

evening was a wonderful

conclusion to the residency.

Mrs. Radench’s Pre-school

In October, Preschoolers are working on fine-motor skills when they are snipping and gluing and painting paper bag pumpkins. They are working on relationships and measurement (math concepts) during free play time, as they build long lines with blocks to measure how long two bodies are. At circle time students are becoming aware of first letter awareness for their names and other objects e.g. COLIN and CANDY. This is the time of the year when preschoolers meet Handwriting Without Tears character "MATMAN" who is made from the big and small lines and curves that they will use to print the letters for their names. There's LOTS of learning happening in preschool!

Mrs. Heath’s Pre-school

Working on our early math concepts by measur-

ing pumpkins with blocks.

Using our imagination pretending we are scary dinosaurs and chasing the teachers.

Working on fine motor skills by ripping and sticking!

Finding vocab items related to the story we have been reading at circle time.

Having fun following instructions to make playdough.

Cooperating to build a super awesome train track!

Kindergarten In Kindergarten we have focused on Fall and Pumpkins this month. We are continuing to learn all about our letters, and have started practicing our reading skills with our beginning reader booklets. We are busy practicing our counting, sorting and pattern skills.

1HB, 2A, & 2N

It’s POGO Time! POGO stands for Purposeful, Overarching, Grade level Outcomes. Three times each week, the grade one and two classes have the opportunity to work in different classrooms, work with different students and work with different staff. By collaborating together, the teachers are planning activities based on strategies the students need to acquire. It is fun learning together! Learning

Together!

3D

October has been a very busy month in 3L! We started the month by having a great time planning and performing with Trickster. Students are now enjoying taking swimming lessons at the Eastlink Centre. In Math, we have been learning different ways to represent numbers and how to regroup using Base Ten Blocks. In the Pictures we are looking for the mystery number by regrouping!! In Social Studies, students are using their knowledge of maps to create their own make-believe island which includes a title, key and compass rose! In Language Arts, Pop Rocks were a delicious way to help us use our five senses to write a descriptive paragraph!

3D is learning about life cycles in Science. We have mealworms in our classroom which will allow us to observe the life cycle of an insect. We care for them by providing a home, food and water. We conduct safe experiments with our worms (larva). Eventually they will pupate and morph into beetles!

3L

4S

Teamwork and leadership will be an ongoing theme in 4/5M. Whether it be the Grade 5s working to efficiently piece together a puzzle in Science, or students teaching each other the rules of chess in Math, the message has been teamwork and leadership. The medium is the curriculum.

Students in 4S are working hard to learn the ins and outs of PowerPoint. They are busy making a slideshow on a topic of their choice including animals, minions, race cars and seasons. This learning will prepare them for a future research project they will be completing on Alberta's Geographical regions in Social Studies.

4/5M

5/6D

The grade 6 students participated in Student Vote today. They were very excited to cast their ballots and see how their results are compared to the city results on October 16th!

This month in 5/6D we have been busy! We began the month with a full week of Trickster. Our play pulled in concepts from the Social Studies curriculum and allowed the students to learn in a new way. The grade 6 students had the opportunity to attend a political forum and then take part in a mock election at the school.

6C

700 & 701

Our Grade Sevens are honing their research and collaboration skills by searching for specific facts about European explorers. They are learning that being a historian is much like being a detective, you have to follow leads and leave no stone unturned!

Constable Krystle Hunt, our school RCMP liason, was in Ms. Anthony’s grade 7 Health Classes doing a presentation on Bullying, Cyberbullying, and Inap-propriate Messaging this month. The students were very engaged and are look-ing forward to her next visit with us.

800

Our grade 8s have been learning about animal eyes. To wrap-up our unit we dissected cow eyes that were donated by H and M meats.

ISC-B Time sure flies when you are on a train ride across Canada... This month our class was so privileged to work with Jesse and the Trickster team. Students loved learning new games, sharing their ideas, painting props, planning and rehearsing their black light performance! A huge thank you to the parent volunteers who helped, and the

families who came to watch!

This month, students were engaged in a special writing activity. It was a Random Act of Kindness for someone that is very special to them.

ISC-B

DEREK TAYLORPUBLIC S CHOOL

Triple Ball and Volleyball

Grade 5 Triple Ball Grade 5 Triple Ball Grade 7/8 Volleyball

Grade 6 Triple Ball

Grade 5 Triple Ball

Grade 7/8 Volleyball

Halloween Dance

Thank you to our

parent council for

hosting an incredible

family dance. The

milk and cookie table

was enjoyed by many!

DEREK TAYLORPUBLIC S CHOOL

Halloween Assembly

DEREK TAYLORPUBLIC S CHOOL

The Dino-Bytes Canteen will be opening on Wednesday, September 6th. Cheques need to be made out to Trisha Duby.