June Newsletter is coming home today. Note some important dates:

June 2 - Bike to School Day

June 5 - PD Day

June 25 - Free Stampede Breakfast

June 26 - Last Day of school, report cards go home

To view the rest of the newsletter, please click the following link:

http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b239/publications/newsletters/2014-2015/June%20Newsletter%20(2).pdf

This week, our classes practiced walking to our evacuation site. As we walked, we practiced street safety. We walked very carefully across streets, looked at signs to clues and noticed many things about our community.

 Mrs. Stenbeck was showing us the growth on the tree...she showed us that the darker pine needles are the old ones and that the newer needles are brighter!

We even spotted a very special community member! Who is this person?

Please ask me:
Why did we practice walking to Renfrew School?
What are some things you noticed as you walked?
What are some things you need to look when you're walking or playing outside?

Ms. Toor's class noticed there was a lot of garbage in our community...Can you think of something you can do to make Vista Heights a better place? 

Caterpillar Habitat & Self Protection

Caterpillars are soft bodied and slow moving. This makes them easy prey for predators, like birds, wasps, and mammals. In order to protect themselves from predators, caterpillars use different strategies, including 

Camouflage Some caterpillars blend into their surroundings extraordinarily well. Many are a shade of green that matches their host plant. 

Hiding Some caterpillars encase themselves in a folded leaf or other hiding place.

Students use tissue paper, felt and construction paper to create 

a collage of caterpillar habitat and techniques of self protection.

Can you find the caterpillars?

 Beautiful, colourful drawings of flowers 

attract fluttering butterflies  

on the Room One bulletin board.

We hope that you enjoyed some to the samples of our art!

As you know our school practices fire drills several times during the year to ensure that students and staff know what to do in case of a real fire. Another safety procedure is an "off-site evacuation". Our site is Renfrew Education Center- 2050, 21 street NE. Please read the notice sent home on Monday, May 25th, 2015 for more details. If you have any question, please feel free to email me or Mrs. Traquair.

The following are the dates and times our grade 1/2 classes will be walking to the evacuation site.

Mrs. Queen's students will be walking tomorrow, May 28, 2015 at 9:00 am 

Mr. Beattie's students will be walking tomorrow, May 28, 2015, at 10:45am 

Ms. Toor's students will be walking Friday, May 29, 2015 at 11:00am

Please review street safety with your child.

Here is a video to support at home learning. 

https://jr.brainpop.com/health/besafe/safetysigns/

Username: vistaheights password: brainpop

Top Tips

• Talk to your kids about how to be safe while walking. It’s always best to walk on sidewalks or paths and cross at street corners, using traffic signals and crosswalks.
• Teach kids at an early age to look left, right and left again when crossing the street.
• Children under 10 should cross the street with an adult. Every child is different, but developmentally, it can be hard for kids to judge speed and distance of  cars until age 10.
• Remind kids to make eye contact with drivers before crossing the street and to watch out for cars that are turning or backing up.

As the caterpillars in our classroom continue to grow, so does our knowledge and wonder about butterflies. This week we read the book ‘A Butterfly is Patient’ written by Dianna Hutts Aston and illustrated by Sylvia Long.

This book welcomes children to the world of butterflies by creating a lovely mix of science and wonder. While learning factual information about butterflies we enjoyed the detailed close-up watercolors of a variety of caterpillars and butterflies. We learned that the world’s tiniest butterfly is the Western Pygmy Blue which measures 1.2 cm and that the largest is the Queen Alexandra’s Budwing at 25cm.

Calgary Bike to School Day 2015 on June 2^nd  

This event is promoting healthy choices.  

Any students who bike to school on Tuesday, June 2^nd 
will have their names entered in a draw to win prizes!

For more information visit:  
calgarybiketoschool.weebly.com

*Also, remember to keep your bikes safe at school; lock them up with a proper lock

School Evacuation Drill

Today, students were given a note to bring home which explains the third Safety procedure that we practice in our schools. This year we have practiced fire drills lock-downs and in the next few days we will practice our whole school evacuation. 

Please read the note for additional details