November newsletter - Ramsay Community Association in Calgary

A Word from Miss Speight, Principal of Ramsay School
Miss Speight, Principal • mmspeight@cbe.ab.ca • 403-777-6790
The Dot, By Peter Reynolds
in the classroom as we created our dots
together. Our children are indeed, master
artists!
You can see the Masterpiece created by the students of Ramsay
School in the school’s stairway!
For anyone who has been afraid to express ourselves -
from a child in art class to an adult whose fear has shut down
a long-held dream, Peter H. Reynolds’ book, The Dot, is
there to remind us all to “Make your mark, and see where it
takes you!”
All of the students at Ramsay School participated in a
school wide activity on the first day to explore what kind
of mark they could make individually and how our marks
together make a masterpiece! Thank you to each of our parents
who were able to share a story with us at our assembly
on our first day of school and to those who could volunteer
A Word From the Classrooms!
Grade 2/3: Miss Pitts
The grade 2/3s have had a great start to the school year!
We kicked off September with a project in which we looked
closely at ourselves, and what makes us special. Students read
The Important Book, by Margaret Wise Brown, and used the
pattern of the book to discuss and write about what makes
them important. We then spent time looking closely at our
unique features, and created self-portraits using a variety of
materials. Please feel free to come up to room 7 and meet our
community of learners!
Students have also delved into a novel study with the
grade1/2 class, titled the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.
Students are exploring the principles of care through the story
of a china rabbit named Edward who has difficulty showing
others that he cares. Students have begun to do an analysis of
the many characters in the story, and how and why they did
or did not show care for self and others throughout the book.
What started as a simple reading of The Grouchy Ladybug,
by Eric Carle, has commenced our science units on small
crawling and flying creatures and animal life cycles. Students
connected the story to the many ladybugs they had been finding
on the schoolyard. Students have been exploring “What
is Beautiful” about ladybugs and other insects, studying their
anatomy and lifecycles,
as well as
exploring how they
help the environment
and our community.
We were also
lucky to work with
Judy Dofoo, a writer
and visual artist,
this week. Judy
has been giving us
the opportunity to
look very closely at
beautiful objects in
the world. Students
have been using
their visual journals
to think deeply
about how they
use their five senses
to observe objects.
A highlight of the
time with Judy was
looking closely at
poppy-seed pods.
Ramsay News page 14