Dear West Springs Families,
Conferences
It was so lovely to see everyone during the learning conferences over the last couple days. Thank you to School Council and the WSSDA for providing a lovely dinner for our staff, it was enjoyed by all of our hardworking teachers!
Just Like You Presentations
Ask your child to share what they learned from Sasha this week!
Swimming Lessons now finished
Thank you so much to Ms. Wright and all the parent volunteers for supporting our swimming lessons.
Music Notes
Hello West Springs Parents,
I hope you've had a good week. Here are a few learning highlights from each grade.
Kindergarten: We'll be happy to have the kindergarten students back in music next week, now that swimming is done.
Grade 1: Practicing "Do Re Mi" for the Grade 1 Sharing Assembly, including singing, doing actions, and playing boomwhackers to create simple harmony. The Grade 1s will be performing this song together at the end of the sharing assembly on December 5.
Grade 2: Learning to read half note rests (ta-a) and whole notes (ta-a-a-a). Learning to sing an excerpt from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky and starting to learn a silly song with challenging body percussion called "Dum Dum Diddy".
Grade 3: Completing Do,Re,Mi,So,La reading practice and assessments. Listening to various songs for tempo (how fast or slow it is), dynamics (how loud or soft it is) and different emotional qualities.
Grade 4: Completing singing assessments and listening to songs for tempo (how fast or slow it is), dynamics (how loud or soft it is), meter (are beats grouped in 3s or 4s) and different emotional qualities.
Grade 3/4 Choir next week:
We'll have choir practice on Monday at lunch recess.
The Grade 3/4 choir will be the "opening act" for the Grade 1 Sharing assembly is at 10am on Thursday, December 5. We are experimenting with combining the Grade 3/4 choir performance with the Grade 1 Sharing Assembly. The choir will sing around 10am once everyone is in the gym.
Grade 3/4 choir parents are welcome to come for 10am. The Grade 3/4 choir part of the assembly will be very brief. The choir will be singing one song, and will then be sitting down to enjoy the Grade 1 performance. Our season has been brief, and I intend to continue with the choir at some point in the new year, so there should be one or more chances to see them perform again, if it's a challenge to come out for this one.
Grade 3/4 choir students are asked to wear a white top, black pants/skirt/dress, and a scarf or toque as an accessory. However, if they don't have any of these items, that's fine.
I've attached a link to the recorded piano music and a pdf with the lyrics to our song if your kids would like to practice, although there is no expectation of this. I've told them in practice, but in case any of them missed it, I'll have lyric sheets for them to use in the performance if needed for this performance.
https://soundcloud.com/mr-vooys/home-practice-track
On the Horizon
Dec 5 Grade 1 sharing assembly; grades 3 and 4 choir performing 10 am
Dec 5 Parent Council meeting 6:30 pm
Dec 11 Monday/Wednesday Kindergarten Fun Lunch
Dec 12 Spirit Day-Holiday Sweaters/red/white/green; Fun Lunch-Mucho Burrito
Dec 9-12 Just Like You Presentation #2
Dec 18-19 Drum Fit assembly time TBD
Dec 20 Last Day of school before winter break
Jan 6 First day of school after winter break