Alpha betcha say Mother Teresa kids

The letter A was top of mind for Nigel McCarthy during a fun alphabet-themed event at Mother Teresa Early Childhood Education Centre during Family Literacy Week.

GEOFF LEE WRITER

objects on his creation, including a stuffed giraffe, a packaged gift and a green gadget.

“I did it with my mom,” he said. “My mom is going to be here today to see it.” in French.

The youngster also said it was lots of fun learning the alphabet— with some prompting from Pitts.

“We read a story for each letter. We had to find all the letters in the book,” said Bishop.

Pitts says her students’ hard work and excitement were so amazing.

“They are so proud of everything they’ve done and it’s something we really want to encourage,” she said.

McCarty notes Family Literacy Week is happening across the whole division at the elementary level and celebrates how one step leads to the next in the literacy process.

Mother Teresa was also set to host a celebration of learning the very next day.

“Families are going to come back after school,” said Pitts.

“We have centres set up that they’ll be going through where kids can show them all the amazing things they’ve learned so far this year.”

The director of education at the Lloydminster Catholic School Division helped to cheer on a colourful alphabet parade and fashion show by kindergarten students at the school last Wednesday.

“When I was in Grade 1, A stood for apple, but today, I think it stands for the A-plus that Mother Theresa is getting in its pursuit of literacy,” said McCarthy.

Heads were in swivel mode as waves of kids displaying alphabet poster capes paraded around the hallways before gathering in the gym for an assembly with parents on hand.

“Today, we are having our alphabet fashion show celebrating the fact our students have finished learning the whole alphabet,” explained kindergarten teacher Brea Pitts.

“We started in October and we were able to finish all 26 letters before Christmas.”

Pitts says they sent home all supplies, so students could work with their families to create alphabet posters.

The letter G covered everything it could on a poster made by a young boy named Bishop, including his last name, Gadwa, along with G-words such as giraffe, God, groceries, gift and green gadget.

For extra emphasis, he affixed some toys and

Pitts says the alphabet is a big focus of literacy in kindergarten so they thought Family Literacy Week would be the perfect opportunity to start celebrating.

“We read every single day and we encourage students to love reading and choose their own books and really find enjoyment in it,” added Pitts.

The kindergarten students also helped to make alphabet soup to enjoy with their families.

“Yesterday they started preparing the vegetables for the soups,” said principal Sheila Jurke.

“So today, together with their families, they will be taking part in having alphabet soup for lunch as well as our other Grades 1 and 2 families.”

McCarthy says the highlight of literacy week is having parents, staff and the board of trustees get to visit the schools and be part of the literacy process.

“And it’s not just them, it’s athletic teams coming in and it’s all sorts of community members who get to play a part in the most important building block of all learning, which is literacy,” he said.

“At the end of the week, we get to celebrate with the opening of Carnival, which is another form of literacy