Posted: April 7, 2024

Families of Douglas Park,

We had an awesome first week back at school! There was lots of excitement among students and staff as classes were back in session. Walking around the school and visiting classrooms, it was great to see kids working hard and having fun with their learning. One of our school goals that we have been working on since the beginning of the school year is building a positive school culture and it is wonderful to see this positivity continue as we venture into Term Three.

In addition to reconnecting with friends and getting back into learning schedules, the first week back at school was made special by having the Stream of Dreams Program at Douglas Park. Thoughout the week, students learned about our local watershed. They learned about different salmon species that make their home there, the importance of fresh water, and how we can all work together to keep our local watershed healthy. As part of their learning, students also had the opportunity to paint a wooden fish that was added to an art display at the front of the school. This program provided our kids with awesome learning and an amazing opportunity to create an art display that will be a part of our school community for years to come. We are very grateful for our PAC who provided the inspiration and funding for the Stream of Dreams at Douglas Park. Many members of our PAC also volunteered time on Friday to help install the art display at the front of the school. This project is another awesome example of what an amazing school community we have and how we all work together to provide a special school experience for our kids.

While we want students to be excited about school and have fun while they are learning, there will always be moments and days when kids struggle. It is during these times that we can support our children with developing effective problem-solving skills, building resiliency and ultimately supporting their mental health and well-being. When kids struggle at school, we encourage them to communicate their concerns to staff members so that they can be supported in solving problems and addressing their concerns. We want students to feel validated and heard. At the same time, we want students to build independence and resiliency by talking out their problem, identifying the size of their problem, and brainstorming effective solutions. By supporting our kids with effective and positive problem-solving skills, we can help them build independence and feel competent and capable.

We are very proud of our kids and it is a privilege to see them grow not only academically, but also in their abilities with solving problems and being active and effective community members.

Looking forward to another great week at Douglas Park!

Mr. Touzeau

Proud Principal of Douglas Park Community School

As always, we want to acknowledge that the Langley School District works, learns and plays on the unceded ancestral lands of the Matsqui, Kwantlen, Katzie and Semiahmoo First Nations

Good Things to Talk About

Growing Potatoes – Ms. Yoon’s class planted potatoes before Spring Break. The students were excited to see how much the plants had grown when they returned to school! The potatoes are a part of the Spuds in Tubs Program that teaches kids about agriculture.

Learning About Elections – This week, Ms. King has been teaching classes about voting and elections. During her lesson, the students learned about the voting process and why it is important. To help build their understanding, the kids got to vote for a class mascot. Before voting, they listened to the campaign speech of each animal and then filled out a ballot to indicate which animal they voted for.

Learning About Longhouses and Note Taking – Ms. Lee’s class was learning about longhouses this week. They were also learning how to effectively take notes. As a part of their learning, the students watched a documentary about longhouses. They paused the documentary intermittently to discuss what they learned and worked as a class to determine how to effectively document their learning in their notes.

Storytelling – Ms. Lategan’s class was practicing retelling stories this week. After reading the classic fairy tale the Three Billy Goats Gruff, the students created finger puppets and props to use for retelling the story. The kids had lots of fun acting out the story with their puppets. Learning to retell a story is an important skill for building reading comprehension and writing skills in young children.

Spring Break Challenge – Ms. Di Sabatino’s class took part in a fun challenge over Spring Break. The challenge involved kids doing different activities that involved them being healthy and active. Some of the students decided to document their challenge by taking pictures and writing about their activities.

Literacy Centres – Lots of awesome reading was happening during literacy stations in Ms. Gulati’s class this week. During this time, students rotate through stations that involve guided reading with teachers, reading with partners, and reading individually. It was impressive to see how the whole class was fully invested in reading their books during this time!

Sewing Leaves – Ms. Lengle’s class has been working on sewing leaves to put on their classroom tree. In the Fall, the students watched the leaves fall off their tree. Over Winter, the tree branches collected snow and now that Spring is here it is time to add new leaves.

Literacy and Tech – Ms. Schober introduced a new literacy station this week to help support the reading development of her students. The program that the kids are using is called Lalilo and it provides a fun and engaging opportunity for students to practice the phonics skills that they are learning in class. After being taught how to use the program, the students will be able to access it during literacy stations independently which will help reinforce concepts taught by their teacher.

Fact Families – Mr. Boehmer’s class was working on their multiplication and division fact families. A fact family is a group of related multiplication and division equations that use the same three numbers. They are often shown as a triangle with the factors on the bottom and the product at the top. The goal of learning about fact families is to help students make the connection between multiplication and division. Knowing one fact in a family can help students solve other math facts.

Math Games – Ms. Lee’s students ended off the day with a class-wide game of “I Have… Who Has?” During the game, students are given cards with numbers represented in different ways (i.e. tallies, based base-10 blocks, playing cards, etc.) Each student has to figure out their number and respond when someone in the classroom calls it out. This game is a fun way for kids to practice their number sense.

Vowel Patterns – During guided reading in Ms. Egmore’s class, students were learning about r-influenced vowel patterns (ur, ure, and ur_e). To help support their learning, the kids were working on words sorts that involved them sorting different words based on their vowel pattern.

Spreading Kindness – This awesome crew has been volunteering to pick up garbage during recess to help keep our school grounds clean!

The Week Ahead

Tuesday

• Reading Link Challenge Championship

Thursday

• Class Picture Day

Friday

• Agri Kids and Venechuk Farms Produce Truck
• PAC Movie Night at 5:45 pm

Month at a Glance

April 11th – Class Picture Day

April 12th – PAC Movie Night

April 12th – Agri Kids and Venechuk Farms Produce Truck

April 18th – Evening Open House for Grade 5s at HD Stafford Middle School

April 26th – Fire Drill at 9:55 am

May 6th – Fire Drill at 2:00 pm

May 10th – Agri Kids and Venechuk Farms Produce Truck

May 17th – Professional Development Day

May 20th – Victoria Day (School Closed)

May 23rd – Lockdown Drill at 10:45 am

May 28th – Regional Track Meet