Happy Friday Bayside!
What terrific spring weather we had this week! Today you may have seen our teaching staff out and about in the community as Ms. Mask led us in some land-based learning and we spent some time walking in the community and around the pond near our school. She shared a story with us about the Larch tree that I am hopeful many of our teachers will take time to share with their students in the coming weeks. We are working as a school community to build a relationship with the land and to help build our students’ feelings of ownership, stewardship, and care in the world.
This is important learning and we are very excited to share with you that we are creating a naturalization space on our school grounds. We were gifted funding as part of our opening for Indigenous art and we have decided to use the funding to create an outdoor space that will help to bring our community together and will allow us to explore and share Indigenous teachings. Elder Hal Eagle Tail is supporting us in this work and we are excited that he will be coming in June to work with our students. In speaking with Hal, he has encouraged us to invite the voices of the families in our community so that the space will represent and truly be home to everyone in our school community. Construction and hardscaping of the project will take place during the summer months with plantings and other design work occurring next school year and beyond. We will be reaching out to families during the next school year to gather your input for artwork that will help to define the space and will show the beauty and diversity of our population. We look forward to sharing this space and process with you!
Reminders and Updates:
Save the date: We are excited to host Bayside’s Spring Celebration of Learning on Thursday May 16! Each grade and our specialist teachers will be highlighting the amazing learning happening at Bayside with interactive displays and activities. We will also be acknowledging our community in an official playground opening ceremony. We are asking families to please try to attend at the times designated below by the first letter of your last name, just to help us to manage numbers. Here is the schedule:
4:30-5:20 Letters L-Z
5:20-5:40 Playground Opening Ceremony (outside at the playground)
5:40-6:30 Letters A-K
Playground After-Hours: With the beautiful weather, many students and families are enjoying our playground after school. We do want to remind families that Bayside school staff are not able to provide supervision after school hours. We encourage all of our students to go home or check in with a caregiver or adult right after school every day to ensure parents are aware of where they are playing and can be available to support them if they have a problem. In addition, if something happens after hours that you think impacts the school or our students, please don’t hesitate to reach out to let us know bayside@cbe.ab.ca. Thank you for being such wonderful partners and community members in keeping all of our students safe.
Volunteer Opportunities:
SEED School May 8: Ms. Whitelaw’s class is going to SEED school May 6-10 and is in need of volunteers, particularly for Wednesday May 8. If you have a current volunteer clearance and could be available to accompany her grade 5 class on this day we would be so appreciative. Please email prwhitelaw@cbe.ab.ca if you are available or if you have any questions about the day.
Updates From School Council and BSFA:
FREE seminar for Navigating Adolescence with therapist Lisa Smith on May 21st at 6:30pm immediately following the council meeting. Council meeting begins at 5:00pm and all Bayside families are welcome and encouraged to attend! Save the Date! We will share details closer to the event.
Thank you: On behalf of the Bayside School Council, we would like to send a huge thank you to our school community. Your unwavering support and generous donations to our school fundraisers truly make a world of difference. Every dollar contributed is not only valuable but deeply appreciated.🙏🏽🙏🏼🙏
Thanks to your continuous dedication, we were able to host an unforgettable Spring Fling Dance, enhance our Physical Education program by purchasing extra sports equipment and adding Yoga classes, support school Clubs and transformed our playground into a vibrant hub of laughter and adventure during recess.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for being such incredible parents and for making our school a brighter place!”
Coming Up:
Apr. 29-May 3: Walker at Stampede School
May 6-10: Whitelaw at SEED School, Buist at Stampede School
May 10: Snack Shack (more info to come)
May 13: Mindful Monday with Karl (Yoga)
May 16: Spring Celebration of Learning (see above for details)
May 17: Professional Learning Day, No School
May 21: School Council/ BSFA 5:00 PM, “Navigating Adolescence” workshop, 6:30 PM
May 21-24: Gannon at Stampede School
May 23: Healthy Hunger, The Lunch Lady
May 24: Volunteer Tea
May 27-31 Dennis at Stampede School, Lehan at SEED School