In Attendance:
Teena Kasha
Wes Wilson (Principal)
Deanna Maertz
Jenni Thomas (Assistant Principal)
Kirby Schmidt-Teigen
Cassidy Lindseth
Amber Erickson
Shannon Wasilenkoff
Natasha Smith
Cristin Zimmer
Alison Eshpeter
Shyanne Lindballe
I. Teena Kasha called to order the regular meeting of the Daysland School Council at 7:04 pm.
II. Open Floor Shout Out – All parents and staff in attendance. Welcome to all the new faces! Deanna Maertz is our official School Board Trustee. Welcome to her!
III. Review of Agenda – Cristin moved to accept the agenda. Alison seconded. All in favour. Motion carried.
IV. Approval of minutes from last meeting – September 17, 2025, minutes were circulated prior to meeting. Alison moved minutes accepted as circulated. Cassidy seconded. All in favour. Motion carried.
V. Correspondence –No new correspondence.
VI. Reports
a)Administrator (Mr. Wilson/Mrs. Thomas)
(i)Admin Report – See attached report provided by Wes Wilson.
Key topics: shout outs, upcoming dates, Sr. Girls volleyball, snow days, staffing update, post-strike
return to learning, AERR school results and Growth Plan (December 11th should have updates)
Room Rep Reports:
Kindergarten (submitted by Cassidy Lindseth): Mrs. Tanton – The Kinders had a great start to the year learning classroom routines and building confidence as they’ve settled into their new learning environment.
The Kinders had their first field trip of the year back in September, apple picking, where they enjoyed picking apples from Shannon Irving’s apple tree in her backyard. There is something magical about picking fresh fruit directly from the source, and the students were excited to experience it for themselves and of course enjoyed sampling the fruits of their efforts, as well. Tomorrow the Kinders, along with the grade 1 class will be heading to Providence Place. We plan on playing some bingo, performing some songs and reading some books with the grandma’s and grandpa’s that live there.
Academically speaking the Kinders have been busy learning their letters and letter sounds, printing, working with numbers 0-5, patterning and learning about their community. They have just begun learning the snappy little song they will perform for our upcoming Christmas concert.
Grade 1 (submitted by Shannon Wasilenkoff): Mrs. Reber – Our Grade 1 classroom has been buzzing with excitement as we’ve begun our Secret Stories—students are eagerly searching for every secret sound and clue as they try to figure out who the secret hero might be! In math, we’ve been having a blast learning new games like Race to 100, Knockout, and Back and Forth, all of which keep the kids cheering, thinking, and having fun without even realizing how much they’re learning. We are excited to join the Kindergarten class on a mini field trip to Providence Place tomorrow. This class is full of energy, curiosity, and eagerness, and they make every day lively and joyful. And of course, the kids are always keeping us entertained with their endless 6–7 jokes—and by reminding us exactly how many days are left until Christmas! 🎄😄
Grade 2 (submitted by Amber Erickson): Mrs. Schlaut - We are happy to be back and welcome Miss. Huseby to our classroom. We are lucky to have her and are learning lots of new things from her. She will be with us until our last week in December. In Math class, we have been learning about place value, building numbers by ones, tens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands. We will be moving into reviewing our basic facts to 10 in the next couple of weeks. In ELA, we have been reviewing our digraphs and practicing our reading skills, we have also written some clues about ourselves in a fun Halloween themed activity, and now we have just started our new writing unit. We are learning the difference between a fact and an opinion. We are looking forward to writing about information that we have learned. In Science, Miss. Huseby is teaching us about sound energy. We did a cool experiment that included humming and sprinkles. It was fun! Everything is going well in grade two.
Grade 3 (submitted by Shyanne Lindballe): Mrs. Schmidt-Teigen - In ELAL we are starting our first novel study, Freckle Juice. In Math we are finishing up place value with rounding four and five digit numbers to the nearest ten, hundred and thousand. In Science we finished up talking about the water cycle by creating a small hands-on project to demonstrate our learning. In Social Studies we are on the topic of Alberta's landmarks. Each student will choose either a natural or constructed landmark found within Alberta and recreate it in the Makerspace.
Grade 4 (submitted by Kristie Nahajowich): Miss Pfeffer- Things are going great in Grade 4! In Language Arts, we’ve been focusing on paragraph writing, and students are becoming more confident with descriptive, informational, and opinion paragraphs. In Math, we’re working on addition and subtraction with decimal numbers and using a variety of strategies. In Science, we’re finishing our waste management unit, and students are very excited to use our classroom composting machine to compost food scraps over the next few weeks. In Social Studies, we’re learning about the first settlements in Canada and exploring who the early settlers were and how they lived. The Grade 4 class did a wonderful job singing their song for Remembrance Day!
Grade 5 (submitted by Jenni Thomas): Mrs. Thomas/Mr. Wilson - In ELA, the Grade 5s are working on perfecting writing informational texts. In Science, they wrapped up their unit on Matter and have moved on to learning about various Astronomical Phenomenon, like why we have seasons and what causes the Northern Lights. In Social, they are nearing the end of their first big unit on Time and Place. In Math, we have completed our unit on numbers and we are now working on addition and subtraction of larger numbers and then we will move to multiplication and division before Christmas. In PE, we have been working on our Volleyball skills and we will move to basketball next week. Today, many of them also had their final Mini-slammers tournament. Mrs. McKay said it was a great day! Mini Dunkers usually kicks off shortly after Christmas.
Grade 6 (submitted by Brenda McKay): Mrs. McKay – We are back in the swing of things in grade 6. Last week, we had a "Starbooks" book tasting, where we got to sample different novels to make a selection for book clubs. We will be reading these books with our groups for the next 5 weeks or so, culminating with a final project before Christmas. We are moving along in math and will be having a test next week on multiples, factors, and exponents. In Science, we are learning all about the effects of climate change. As for Social Studies, we are almost finished our unit on democracy and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Our next unit of study will be the Roman Republic. I can't forget to mention the Christmas concert. Everyone is pumped to be the stars of the show this year, and we are busy memorizing lines and learning songs.
Grade 7/8 (submitted by Cristin Zimmer): In Science, the Grade 7/8 class has been working on their Light and Optics unit and has been conducting experiments to explore how light travels. In ELA, they started a new book called The Barren Grounds and have been working on their Remembrance Day projects. In Math, the Grade 7 class has been working on adding and subtracting fractions, while the Grade 8 class has been working on multiplying and dividing mixed fractions. In Social Studies, they have been learning about the Renaissance and what life was like in Italy during that time. In Gym, they recently finished their volleyball unit and have begun their basketball unit.
Grade 9 (submitted by Alison Eshpeter): Mrs. Tobler (ELA 9/Phys Ed 9) - The Grade 9s are currently working through a study of The Hunger Games novel, with a focus on character and struggle. Students are focusing on deeper thinking skills and analysis, rather than plot recall. It is going well so far!
On Nov 18, Grade 9 and 10 Phys Ed went Scuba Diving in Killam. We were excited about this new experience.
Mrs. Walker (Science 9) - In Science, we are finishing up the unit on Biological Diversity. Students completed a project to end the unit by designing a zoo exhibit for an endangered species. We will be moving on to the next unit on Space Exploration later this week.
Mrs. V Zimmer (Social 9) - In Social we are finishing up our study of Canada's government and moving on to its justice system. It's been interesting seeing these systems in action with the teacher's strike.
Mrs. M Zimmer (Math 9) - We just finished our first unit on Rational numbers before Nov. break, a few students are still trying to write that test, so I will have those marks posted and finalized soon.
We have started our second unit on Square Roots, and Exponents. It is a mixture of two chapters in the textbook. :)
Industrial Arts 9 - We made push sticks to safely push wood while sawing. We are now making cabinet shelves.
Grade 10 (submitted by Jenni Thomas): In Science, the grade 10s just finished their chemistry unit and had their first physics test today. For ELA, they completed their novel studies and wrapped up a movie analysis. Today, they began working on analyzing photos and images. In Math 10-3, they have been working on area of shapes and composite shapes and have their first quiz on that tomorrow. The Phys Ed 10 class has been doing some wrestling lately, then went scuba diving yesterday and will spend the rest of the week setting up for zones.
Grade 11 (submitted by Carrie Carriere) – Mrs. Walker- In Bio, we are in our body systems unit. We are starting with the digestive system and looking at how it breaks down the three main types of nutrients we ingest. Later in this unit students will also explore the respiratory and circulatory systems, as well as complete a dissection. In Chem, we have started the second half of our solutions, acids and bases unit. Students will start by exploring the properties of acids and bases, then look at the theoretical explanation for those properties and calculations related to pH.
Mrs. Tobler – We have finished a very successful unit of the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, about the impact of the Holocaust on Identity. Currently, we are working through a combined film / text study of Shakespeare's Macbeth. It is going well!
Grade 12 (submitted by Teena Kasha) – Mrs. V. Zimmer – The biggest celebration to report for this group is the cancelling of the January diploma exams! We wrapped up our novel study and are moving on into multi-genre work, so the fun begins. With so much more class time, what we study will be selected to fit this group perfectly.Mrs. Walker- In Chem, we have started the second half of our solutions, acids and bases unit. Students will start by exploring the properties of acids and bases, then look at the theoretical explanation for those properties and calculations related to pH. Mrs. M. Zimmer - We are almost halfway through both 30-1 and 30-2 courses. Students will write their next big unit exam next week. Since there is no diploma, we will work towards getting through all outcomes by the end of the semester. I believe we should be able to get through it all without having to miss anything, or push stuff through quickly.
VII. Business arising from minutes: Nothing to report
VIII. New business: Hot lunch update from Cristin. Subway and Panago wanted us to make up our days rather than cancel. Nov 28th Subway, Panago Dec 12th.
IX. Adjournment
adjourned the meeting at 7:34pm.
Next Meeting: Wednesday, January 21st, 2026, 7:00pm at Daysland School.
