Dec 17 - 22

Things to do over the winter break:🎄🎅🎄

Calgary Zoo - Zoo Lights run from 6:00-9:00 (closed Dec 25) til January 5th
                      - now til Dec 23 - Santa is there in the Atrium, ENMAX Conservatory
                      - every Friday night free gingerbread cookies too
                      - $29.95 adults & $19.95 kids

Heritage Park - Saturday & Sunday Christmas Breakfast Buffet 9:30-2:30pm
                       - Adults $22.75 & Children $13.85

                       - Saturday & Sunday til Dec 23 - 9:30-4:00 - gingerbread decorating, Santa visits,                                   wagon rides, carolling, crafts, snow shoe racing, snow painting

                       - Child (3-6)   $5.70 Youth (7-15)   $7.00 Adults (16-64)   $11.00

Melcor YMCA - Winter Day Camps December 27, 28, 31 & Jan. 2, 3, 4 - 8:30-4:30

                          - play sports, arts & crafts, swim, sing songs

                          - member & non-member pricing

SPARK Science Centre - open 9-4; (closed Dec 25)

                                 - Adult $20.00 Youth (13-17) $16.00 Child (3-12) $16.00

                               - children under 3 is free

Bowness Park Skating -     Skate Rentals & Times

Granary Road Market - Nov 30 - Dec 23: Friday 11-7pm, Saturday & Sunday 9:30-5:30pm - FREE

                                    - evening fire pits, wagon rides, ice skating, snowman building, carols,

                                    & 50+ vendors
                                  - Address: 226066 112th ST W, Foothills, AB  

Lions Festival of Lights - Confederation Park, along 14th ST; 6pm - 12am til Jan 8th
                                       - over 300,000 LED lights!

Christmas at Spruce Meadows - Spruce Meadows; 5-10pm til Jan 7th
                                                  - 1/4 million lights along a 2km car drive

Alberta Ballet - Nutcracker Ballet @ the Southern Alberta Jubilee
                        - Dec 21 thru 24 (matinee & evening performances)
                        - Tickets: https://www.albertaballet.com/nutcracker

Theatre Calgary - A Christmas Carol @ Theatre Calgary 220 - 9th Ave SE, Calgary   
                           - until Dec 24 (matinee & evening performances)
                           - Tickets: https://www.theatrecalgary.com/tickets

Lunchbox Theatre - Santaland Diaries @ Lunchbox Theatre 160 115 9Ave SE, Calgary
                              - until Dec 23
                              - Tickets: http://www.lunchboxtheatre.com/tickets/

Dec 10 - 14

Anxiety & the Stress Response

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a session on anxiety & the stress response during the system wide professional development day. Anxiety is defined as a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. When someone experiences anxiety, whether it be a real or a perceived threat, a feeling of stress ensues. There are 3 levels of stress.

For a child or adult that has prolonged toxic stress it impacts there everyday life and ability to learn. Adverse childhood experiences influence how well a person is able to manage anxiety and stress. Last year I had the chance to take an online certificate program through the Alberta Family Wellness Initiative. The general idea of the 19 module course is outlined in the video below.

Brain Builders

As a person's brain develops and matures (into the mid-20's) there are 3 main areas that develop. The amygdala controls our basic instinct of flight, flight or freeze in times of anxiety or stress. The hippocampus controls our emotions and memory. Finally our prefrontal cortex controls are thinking and sense of logic. Our genes or nature impacts our ability to manage stress. The environment we grow up in as well as the level of support we have (nurture) also impacts our ability to cope. The more negative things you have been exposed to as a child the more likely we are to stay in the fight, flight, freeze brain area then thinking about things logically as well as having the ability to plan, organize and complete tasks.

atrophy - gradually decline in effectiveness (thinking, reasoning & feeling area of the brain)
hypertrophy - increase or enlargement (survival instincts - fight, flight, freeze)

Resources for Help:
Access Mental Health
The Distress Centre
Mental Health Online Resources for Educators (MORE)
AnxietyCanada.com
Alberta Family Wellness Initiative
teenmentalhealth.org
Kids Help Phone 1-800-668-6868

Dec 3 - 7

Back to Class
As some of you may know.... I made a big professional change this year.  I moved from being a classroom teacher (grade 3/4) to a resource position, supporting teachers.  My new role has surprised me in many ways.  I have a lot people to meet outside of Ranchlands, emails to answer and very different kinds of paper work.  For me, the thing I have missed the most are the daily "aha" moments I got to experience with my students. the moment the understand something they have been struggling to figure out or are able to do something they had not been able to before.

This week I have had the pleasure of joining a few grade 1/2 classrooms and spending most of my day with them.  What a treat!!!! They are so excited about learning EVERYTHING and so willing to share all that they know & the connections they make to new topics. We were estimating and then measuring how many cotton balls it took to cover Santa's beard.  The children then represented the number using ten frames, pictures and tally marks.