Elementary School - Where it all begins

In Grade 1, students have been exploring how structures connect people and communities, and have been using their research skills to understand how structures are built.

After twenty years of teaching in six different schools, I have worked with thousands of students of various ages, in various settings, and have always hoped that I'm making a positive impact in these young peoples' lives. Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School (STS) is the first school where I regularly see tangible evidence of this positive impact because it is the first place I've taught where it is the norm for student-teacher relationships to extend beyond the student's Grade 12 year; and where it is the norm for teachers and students to share life experiences. 

Earlier this month seven STS students, from Elementary and Middle School, participated in the city-wide Calgary Youth Science Fair (CYSF), held at the University of Calgary Olympic Oval on April 5 and 6. This annual competition encourages and promotes ongoing interest for scientific principles and methods. 

Technology-integrated learning at Strathcona-Tweedsmuir (STS) focuses on the 5 C's: collaboration, communication, critical thinking and computational thinking. The STS curriculum teaches students to be digitally-literate through the introduction of the fifth 'C', computational thinking. STS recognizes that proper technology integration and education is about the design of the learning experiences that not only help students strengthen their digital abilities, but to also help students think critically about what tool best enables their learning in different situations. 

Kindergarten is a special place. Not because it is the beginning of one’s school experience but because it is where children have the greatest sense of adventure, gratitude, wonder, and perseverance.

Thanks to the support of a generous donor, the Elementary School was thrilled to host the Calgary Opera’s Emerging Artists and their performance of “Nemorino and the Magic Potion”

It is a commonly known fact that many people fear public speaking more than death, but you will not hear STS students sharing this sentiment, due to the culture of public speaking that has evolved over our long history. 

The unit of inquiry “How the World Works” is taught throughout all grades at STS. For Grade 5 in particular, the unit focuses on how technology can be used to solve problems.

Computational thinking is a fundamental skill that is developed through the STS curriculum – a skill where students view the completed product and work backwards to fully understand the process leading to the finished product. As part of this skill, students must understand the five steps of the design cycle –ask questions, imagine, plan, create, and improve. These steps guide students as they design a solution to a problem. 

In support of this season's winter giving campaign, STS collected goods for Stephen's Backpacks Society. An initiative that began 10 years ago in Calgary, Stephen's Backpack offers hope in a Christmas backpack gift for children in need.

This year, being committed to our own journey of Reconciliation, STS dedicated part of Marti McKay Week to hosting artists who spoke to our students about the impacts and legacy of Residential Schools in Canada as well as about the resiliency of Indigenous peoples.

This past June, Hassan K. ’25 and his brother Khalil K. ’23 attended the annual general meeting of the RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada).  They were presenters at the meeting and were going to present their projects. Khalil had done his project in 2017 and Hassan had done his this year. Both projects were presented at the CYSF (the Calgary Youth Science Fair) and won awards. 

We are proud of our team because we learned about a problem, decided how to take action and worked as a team to pack over 500 snack bags!