IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES

December 17 – SPIRIT DAY: Festive Sweater Day

December 18 – School Council Meeting at 6:00 – Please come to have your voice heard on where ~$20000 of Casino Fundraiser money will be spent. Mrs. Qi will also be presenting about the diversity work happening in the school this year.

December 19 – Popcorn Day (orders due by December 14 through healthyhunger.ca)

December 20 – SPIRIT DAY: PJ Day

December 20 – Last day of classes before Winter Break

January 6 – First day of classes after Winter Break

VOLUNTEERING FOR UPCOMING FIELD TRIPS

All classes in Grades One through Five will be going on a field trip sometime in the new year. (Details for these trips will be communicated by grade once the trip date gets closer.) For these trips, we need volunteers but the clearance process can take up to six weeks to be processed.  (Clearances are good for five years so the application only needs to be completed once if you have not done it before.)

To get the process started, log into your parent MyCBE account at https://sis.cbe.ab.ca/public/home.html and fill in the Volunteer Registration 2024-25 form.

Once this form has been submitted, the school will either approve (if you have clearance already) or we will provide you with an electronic Police Information Check letter and will have the Calgary Police Service send you a voucher code so the application will be free.

FAMILY TIME DURING THE WINTER BREAK

We hope all families enjoy some time together during the two weeks away from school. Activities such as baking, playing games, doing puzzles, making indoor forts, crafting, making bird feeders, going on scavenger hunts, winter hiking, having a movie night, making snow forts, building snowmen, ice skating, and having a winter fire are just a few ideas that will make the weeks off the best they can be. Helping students have some parts of their routine (including bed time) stay consistent will help the transition back to school in January. Have a wonderful break!

WHAT IS A BEDTIME ROUTINE AND WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

Bedtime routines are a consistent, repetitive set of activities that are carried out before bed every night. They help prepare your child for sleep by having them relax and wind down. A predictable routine also gives your child a sense of security and teaches them how to fall asleep on their own.

Research shows that children who follow bedtime routines are more likely to go to sleep earlier, take less time falling asleep, sleep longer, and wake up less during the night. These benefits to sleep quality are still seen years later in children who followed bedtime routines when they were younger.

In addition to improving sleep, bedtime routines teach your child self-care and lay the ground for working memory, attention, and other cognitive skills. They also foster parent-child bonding and may help improve mood, stress levels, and behavior.

In the long term, these benefits translate to better readiness for school, as well as better academic performance and social skills. By contrast, those who don’t follow a bedtime routine in childhood are more likely to have sleep problems and be overweight during adolescence. (From the sleepfoundation.org).

HOW TO BUILD A BEDTIME ROUTINE FOR KIDS

A bedtime routine for kids usually consists of three or four activities, for example, having a snack, brushing teeth, putting on pajamas, and reading a book. These should always be done in the same order. To make the routine even more effective, start winding down the household by dimming the lights and turning off screens in the lead-up to bed.

The bedtime routine should culminate in a goodnight kiss and lights-out. You should leave the room while your child is sleepy but not asleep yet. This way they learn to fall asleep on their own, and they won’t panic if they wake up in the middle of the night and find you gone. Set a consistent bedtime that leaves enough time for your child to sleep the recommended amount of hours for their age. (From the sleepfoundation.org) (Did you know: The recommended sleep per 24-hours for Elementary School age children is 9 to 12 hours.)