Saint Thomas Aquinas School

June 17 Last Day of Classes Gr 7-12

June 18-24 Gr 7-12 Exams, see website for schedule

June 22 Last Jr K Day

June 23 Last Kindergarten Day

June 26 Grad 2021

June 29 Last Day of Classes Gr 1-6

Supply lists for next year can be found here. Or by visiting our website https://sta.ecacs.ca/ and clicking on Parents, School Supplies.

Just a reminder that if your child will be attending STA next year and you have not yet registered, please log in to your PowerSchool account and choose Student Reports. You will see 2 forms to digitally sign. Instructions were sent out in an email but if you require assistance please call the office.

Christian Agcaoili

Lauren Appel

Trysten Beier

Nolan Biever

Brigitte Bouma

Emily Boyd

Brady Chopek

Jenna Degenstien

Carter Ganser

Colton Ganser

Taryn Ganser

Randy Kardos

Sydney Nelson

Evan Paulgaard

Jenna Schmidt

Camden Stuber

Thank you to Park Plains East Teachers for providing a Special Projects Award of $1500.00 to STA school for our new Indoor Garden.

The funding was used towards the purchase of indoor gardening equipment including:

o 3 hydroponics tower garden grow systems, LED indoor grow lights and tower garden dollies

o shelving unit with 5 LED strip lights

o 3 worm composters and supplies

o EC meter, light controller timers, tower garden mineral blends and pH kits

o Peat pellets, trays, pots, planters, potting soil and seeds

The Indoor Garden was used for the new Grade 10 CTS course: Plant Propagation. The students sprouted, transplanted, cared for and harvested many plants throughout the course, as well as composting plant cuttings to produce rich soil. Junior high and elementary classes have had workshops in the indoor garden, learning about cycles of matter and energy, photosynthesis and pollination, as well as identifying various plants. Chemistry 20 students tested and adjusted pH levels and maintained water and nutrients in the garden towers.

The students have benefited from the indoor gardening experiences, including:

· Actively engages students in the gardening process

· Increases students’ understanding and appreciation of agriculture stewardship, such as conservation of water, replenishing soil organic quality, and reducing soil erosion.

· Promotes environmental connection awareness, and activism such as sustainability, use of resources, carbon sequestering, transitions to renewable energy

· Provides opportunities for learning about social justice, inequalities in land usage and ownership, sustainability of feeding the world’s population, impacts of pesticides and chemical fertilizer use, the need to establish a circular economy

· Encourages young people to eat fresh, nutritious and pesticide free fruit and vegetables all year round

· Improves the learning environment, not just physically: such as air quality, but also emotionally and mentally: such as boosting mood, reducing anxiety and increasing sensory stimulus

· Provides a hands on and inquiry based learning, and engagement of students with diverse learning needs

· Develops interpersonal connectedness and collaboration within the classroom, school and community

The indoor gardening project was also funded by a Nutrition Grant through our school division

It was a lot of fun having our very own Zoom meetings just like the 'big' kids! We shared what we had been doing at home, reviewing letters, singing and listening to stories. Now we are back in the school and ready to rock the rest of the year!

Lucky, we were learning about farm this month...because some of us were getting first hand experience while learning from home! It was an experience having class on-line, and fun for a while, but we are so happy to get to see our friends face to face! Learning about life cycles is something that should be seen first hand and our visitors have arrived in our classroom! We will enjoy our last bit of time together and learn everything we can before summer.

June!? Is it possible that time moved even faster in this odd mash-up of in school and out of school learning? First and foremost, thanks to the parents for their support, dedication and patience this year! We've managed to master addition and subtraction to 18, learned an impressive amount of spelling words to add to our writers toolkit, continued to fine tune our printing and feel confident with our knowledge of plants and animals in science. Still in store for us is a Tournament of Books, modified swimming lessons, moving forward with the past in social and a week of virtual field trips! Here's hoping for a smooth finish to a wonderful year!

What a month it was! We started the month off with Hats On for mental health; there were some great hats in our classroom. The kids made some fantastic paper flower bouquets for the wonderful moms in their lives! We got to go back online to explore the rest of our small crawling and flying creature unit along with everything else. The grade 2’s worked through collecting data and creating graphs and they learned a lot about their friends and family during this unit. While online we have started looking into communities in the past in social and creating and understanding patterns in math. In health, we are diving deeper into friendship and what it means to be a good friend. The students are excited to start working on their handwriting. We are excited to finish off the year in the school with our friends!

May has been a busy month in and out of school. The grade 3 students did so well with the transition to online learning for 2 weeks. We are so happy that everyone is back in person. We have started our last science unit looking at animal life cycles, in math we are working on multiplication and division. In social studies our unit is looking at our rights and responsibilities, and how can we be a good global citizen. In language arts we are wrapping up our phonics and will be starting handwriting. This year has just flown by and it is amazing that we are at the end of year. The grade 3’s have put in so much hard work and I am so proud of them!

The grade 4 class has been enjoying May, but they are really looking forward to June! In May, we completed our Mice at Center Ice novel study and have begun to read Loser by Jerry Spinelli. The students love to giggle about Zinkoff and some of his misadventures. In science, the students had fun in our plant unit by growing gladiolus. They are keeping them at home now and nurturing them to be big beautiful flowers! In math, the students have been working on division and multiplication of larger numbers. We were celebrating Alberta and some of the accomplishments of Albertans in our social unit. The students are looking forward to June because of swimming lessons, Drumheller virtual field trips, our dinosaur unit in science, and having some year end fun together.

To wrap up another crazy year, the grade fives will return to in-class instruction! They will be learning all about and getting a chance to experience wetland ecosystems found in our area. They have been learning the history of Canada, right from Confederation to the present. It has enabled them to develop an identity that is unique yet shared amongst the citizens of this great nation. They will also be working to perform their puppet plays virtually this year so other classes and their families can still enjoy them with restrictions in place. They will end the year with a little bit of fun - swimming lessons and a live drama performance!

In grade 5 computers, we have started a google document project. The students have used different fonts, sizes, colors and highlights for the first portion of their projects.

In Language Arts, the class is finishing off the year by working on their main event narrative writing and then looking at the specifics how to wrap up a piece of narrative writing with a solid and extended ending.

In Math, we are working on the Statistics and Probability chapter. The students did a great job creating a survey question and collecting data via a google form. We hope to learn how to use a spreadsheet to draw a bar graph of their data. We will finish off the year with a chapter on Transformations.

In Art, the class will be working on some summer- themed creative and fun projects.

In Religion, the Grade 5s will be wrapping up the end of this challenging year with a continuing focus on the concept of human dignity. We have been looking at ways and examples of being accepting of one another and will also focus on how understanding human dignity can shape our actions towards others.

The grade 6 class is counting down the days to summer. In all subjects we are finalizing our last units and expect to begin reviewing the wide range of curriculum. These tests don’t stand a chance! In other news we are splashing and enjoying this lovely spring weather with swimming lessons starting. The grade 6 class is exciting and looking forward to our last month of the year.

Email: sta.reception@ecacs16.ab.ca
Website: https://sta.ecacs.ca/
Location: Box 390 Provost, AB T0B 3S0
Phone: 780-753-6838
Twitter: @smorepages