Zitzman Elementary
Jan/Feb 2018
From Mrs. Armstrong
Second quarter reports are complete and student are now focusing on their third quarter academic, attendance, and leadership goals. As you review your child’s report card, focus on the positives and reinforce the areas needing improvement by setting goals at home. Two big areas of focus should be; reading every night for a minimum of 20 minutes and practicing math facts at least three nights per week. Academic growth occurs when there is reinforced practice at home. Your support is appreciated!
Zitzman Elementary, where leaders learn.
Ronald McDonald Makes a visit to Zitzman Elementary
Purina Dog Show Visits Pre-K through 1st Grade
Ask how you can become a WATCHDOG DAD!
Zitzman Character Coaches
Winter Attendance
Starting January 8th through the month of February Zitzman Elementary will be ‘warming up’ to a great start in the new year with a strong focus on your child’s attendance. We will start small and track attendance percentage based on each grade level with two groups being K-2nd & 3rd-5th. The grade level from the previous week with the HIGHEST attendance percentage will get to enjoy a HUGE, stuffed penguin for the entire week. Taking this Penguin in as if it were their own, giving it a name, warming it with accessories, taking it to lunch and learning with him/her in the classroom! The penguin will travel each Monday to the new grade level winner. BUT THAT’s not all… we also want to look at the big picture and encourage every student to use:
· Habit 1: Be proactive; take responsibility! and
· Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind; have a plan!
At the end of February, we will track down individual students that held an attendance percentage of 95% or higher for the month of January and February. We will invite these students to join us after school on Thursday March 1st for 1 hour [3:45-4:45 pm] to celebrate their accomplishment with a Winter Warm Up snack, craft and game! *Permission slips for individual students will go home in Thursday Folders on Feb. 22nd! We will do our job to communicate the information and expectations to your student but it would be helpful for you to have a conversation as well on how to support your student and prepare a plan to achieve this challenge with focus and attention on the importance of attendance.
Pick-up and Drop-off Procedures
Due to safety, the following procedures must be followed. We appreciate your assistance with these matters.
· Drop off time is 8:15 a.m. Any student(s) that is dropped off before that will be sent to SACC and charged a $10.00 drop in fee.
· Students that arrive after 8:45 a.m. should be signed in by an adult. Students begin their learning day at 8:45 a.m.
· All p.m. arrangements need to be made with the office before 3:00 p.m. NO changes will be made after 3:00.
· Students not picked up by 3:45 p.m. will be charged a $10.00 drop in fee and sent to SACC.
Valentine’s Day Celebration
Valentine’s Day Party will be Wednesday, February 14th. This event will consist of healthy fitness stations based off of a Winter Olympics theme along with the traditional Valentine boxes and exchange of friendship cards. Our 5th grade students will have their annual Sock Hop on that date. We are asking parents to NOT send in candy treats or other food items due to our Health and Wellness Policy. A healthy snack will be provided for the celebration. PTO will be sending out a flier in regard to specific details along with a Sign-Up Genius email for parents wishing to volunteer for the event. Volunteers will assist with our fitness and craft stations. All students will need to wear tennis shoes on Valentine’s Day due to the fitness activities scheduled. We appreciate your support with this event.
Kindergarten Registration
Help us find our future Zitzman Chiefs! Kindergarten registration is now open. Kindergarten students registered prior to March 2nd will get a free school t-shirt at their kindergarten screening. See our school website for more information or call the school office at 636-271-1440.
Music Room Updates...
3rd and 4th Grade Concert is March 6th. The concert will begin at 6:00. Students are expected to wear nice clothes and arrive no earlier than 5:45.
Talent show forms are available from Mr. Johnson.
Students in 5th grade will begin playing the recorder soon!
1st Grade is currently preparing for their April music performance!
What's going on in PE?
This quarter we are learning and practicing:
- Tumbling
- Dance
- Short and long rope jumping
- Pickleball
- Volleyball
Please get outside and be active with your family this winter!!!
Here are a few ideas...
- play catch
- go on a hike
- go on a bike ride
- build a snowman
- rake leaves or shovel snow
- jump rope
*Please make sure to wear TENNIS SHOES on PE days*
From the Library
We will be covering many library skills from now until the end of the school year, so the library will be a busy place! We wanted to send out a reminder that we have many students who have overdue books after winter break. Please help remind your child to remember books on weekly library days.
Students in 4th-5th grade will be working on a writing unit to get ready for Writing on the Wall. We will be discussing plagiarism. We will be using the online World Book Encyclopedia to do note-taking and writing a nonfiction paragraph. World Book Encyclopedia is a great resource and it does have home access. The login information is username – MVR3k5 and the password is Indians.
Students in first and second grades have been listening to the Show Me Picture books all year and we will soon be reading the last two. There are ten books on the list and each student will be able to vote for their favorite in March. Students in third grade can read these books independently and will be invited to vote for their favorite two. Third graders have to read six of the books to be eligible to vote. Students in grades 4-5 can read and vote for their favorite Mark Twain nominated book. They have to read four books to be eligible to vote.
We will be having two more book fairs in the spring! Our next fair will be March 19 – March 23. Then we will have a special BOGO fair that will be April 30 – May 4. More information about both of these book fairs will be sent out later.
Counselor's Corner
Second semester begins our unit on Junior Achievement (JA) in all classes. JA’s elementary school programs are the foundation of its K-12 curricula. Six sequential themes, each with five hands-on activities, work to change students’ lives by helping them understand business and economics. These programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Students put these lessons into action and learn the value of contributing to their communities. Please watch for handouts and materials to come home with your child over the next 6- 8 weeks.
MAP testing information will come home soon and practice for this state wide test will begin this quarter. If you have questions on any of our state tests for 3rd - 5th grade, please feel free to call or email me.
Amy Flexsenhar, 636-271-1440 or aflexsenhar@mvr3.k12.mo.us
News from our Title 1 Teachers
Happy 2018 Zitzman Readers! As Title I Reading Specialists, we join you all in a common mission, reading fluency. What type of flu should you catch this season? reading flu-ency. With your support, kinder through fifth grade Zitzman educators continue to collaborate and celebrate students’ English Language Arts achievements. From kinder students’ learning how to read, speak and write their names to becoming strategic readers, speakers, and writers throughout their academic journey seems like it should take longer than these years. From school to home, our students should be teaching us what they learned during the day, what they question, what they need to clarify, and the best way to summarize and reflect on their findings. Title I is an opportunity to celebrate our learning community through a common language of instruction. This common language begins with the 7 Habits and includes all academic vocabulary encountered throughout their primary years. Room 21 continues to welcome you to discuss ideas and ways to enhance children’s English Language Arts progress and reading fluency. It is our honor to share in the successful education of our students.
The photo is of a group of G4 and G2 strategic readers engaged in Reciprocal Teaching. During Reciprocal Teaching, readers’ share in making evidence based predictions, asking in-text and beyond-the-text questions, clarifying unknown words and/or ideas, and summarizing the main idea with supporting detail.
Tricia Miller
Reading Recovery
Zitzman Elementary
Barbara Savin
Reading Specialist
Truman and Zitzman Elementary