Circle Towanda Elementary
Parent Newsletter - November 2018
Mrs. Turner's Tidbits
What a great day we had yesterday! We always LOVE the parade and all the great costumes! It’s such a fun time to see the children so excited for the parade! Excellent memories every year. Oh, don’t forget to fall back on Sunday, November 4th! It is here already! This year is flying by!!!
Now, one big item…shorts and sandals! The school policy used to state that students are not allowed to wear shorts or sandals/slides after October 31st. They would be allowed to wear them again after spring break. That has been changed!!! We no longer have that policy. Please do make sure your child does dress appropriately for the weather though. The rooms are heated and cooled based on the outside temps. Thanks for your help with this!
Thank you all for attending parent teacher conferences last week! We had record attendance this year! Nearly every classroom had 100% attendance. Mr. Krahn had his very first 100% parent night! He was really super pumped!!! We had all but 2 classes with perfect attendance. Maybe the school messenger helped! Thanks again for coming and visiting with the teachers!
We will hold our first nine-week honor roll breakfast at the Intermediate School on Thursday, November 1st. We will begin at 2:30 (This is a time change for this event) with 6th grade, then 5th and end with 4th grade. I look forward to seeing all of you there who have children on the honor roll. We decided to move to the afternoon so that all students can attend. Many do not have transportation early in the morning other than the school buses. This kept many from receiving the award in front of their peers. We wanted to make sure they had that opportunity. Thanks for understanding. Now, this will change seating for us. You may sit with your child or in the stands. Please let your child know if you want them to save you a spot. You are welcome to take your child with you afterward for a treat or leave them with their teacher to go home as usual. For those who were wondering, we will introduce all of our class representatives and class officers at the Winter Music Program on December 11th.
Thanks to all the parents for working with us on not bringing items with rubber or latex. We do have different allergies and this is one. Unfortunately, with this type of allergy, it never improves. The more a child with this allergy is exposed to latex, the worse it gets. This can turn into a very dangerous, life threatening event. We want to do everything in our power at school to try to prevent 100% of the exposure. We do need the help of all of our staff, students, parents and community to do this. Thank you for always watching out for anything your child brings to school that may have a rubber smell. We need to keep those items out of our school.
PTO is sponsoring a Craft Fair on Saturday, November 3rd!!! This is always a fun event that helps our PTO out with funding. PTO has purchased playground equipment, laminators, benches, blinds and multiple teacher grants. It is through the fund raisers and the donations that we can continue to purchase items to benefit our children. We hope that you will come spend some time with us on Saturday!
We plan to have a special event for Grandparents on the 20th. We would like to invite our Grandparents to come and enjoy a bit of music or plays from our students. We will host one “show”. It will be at the Intermediate School beginning at 2:00pm. Pre-K through 6th grade will perform. If the weather is inclement, we will provide transportation for the Primary students on that day. This will also be a dress up day for students and staff. We look forward to seeing lots of grandparents! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! IMPORTATNT!~ If your child will be leaving with their grandparent, please make sure they are on the list of people allowed to take your child home. If they are not, we will need a note from you stating that they have permission to take your child home with them. I do realize that this coincides with the program at COE. Unfortunately, there is little that we can do since we want to try to pick a date when many “out-of-town” grandparents may be coming to town for the holiday. We appreciate your understanding with this.UPCOMING DATES
11/1 - Honor Roll Breakfast - CTI at 7:30am
11/2 - NO SCHOOL ~ Staff Development
11/3 - 2nd Annual Craft Fair hosted by CTE PTO - 8:30am-3pm in the CTI gym
11/4 - Daylight Savings - remember to change your clocks!
11/5 - PTO/Site Council Meeting @CTP Library 4:15
11/7 - 5th gr. field trip to Halstead
11/8 - Individual Picture Retakes
11/14 - Fall Fundraiser Pickup - CTI lunchroom 3-6pm
11/14 - 6th gr. field trip to Halstead
11/15 - 5th grade Music Trip/Young People's concert 9:45am-12:15pm - Century II Concert Hall
11/16 - T.G.I.F Day!
11/20 - Grandparents Program @CTI - 2pm
11/22, 11/23 & 11/24 - NO SCHOOL - FALL BREAK
Weather Alert
TV Channels: KSN 3; KAKE 10; KWCH 12
Radio Stations: 95.1, 98.7, 104.5, 101.3, 107.3
District Web Page: www.usd375.org
Twitter: circleusd375
Picture Retakes
MISSION STATEMENT
OCTOBER STUDENTS OF THE MONTH
Lilianna Lowry, Hunter Schweigert, Aubrey Aitchison, Madison Spence, Maryn Young, Samuel Griffith, Kylie Skalla, Chord Gooding, Chris Skalla, Brackstand Emond, Alicia Gibson, Matthew Haney, Jobe Cole, Lyla Richards, Kylie Ward, Cooper Bowlin, Landon Krogman, Sophia Lane, Maddy Aitchison, James Andrews, Easton Smith, Owen Richards, Haivynn Cundell, Leah Moore, MacKenzy Waldorf, Devin Tabor, Isabel Marley, Faith Brooks, Mason Herod, Katelyn Paul
SPOTLIGHT SKILL FOR NOVEMBER IS: WISDOM
"Knowledge comes from learning. Wisdom comes from Living"
FOOD DRIVE ~ NOVEMBER 5-9TH - Primary students let's BOX Mrs. Turner in her office with "boxed" food donations and Intermediate students CAN you fill Mrs. Turner's office with "canned" food donation!
Health Policy from Nurse Christan
Cold and Flu season is upon us! With that, I’d like to take a few minutes to remind you that when your child is sick, they don’t learn well and should be home with you. If your child does stay home ill or is ill over the weekend, here are a few reminders from our district health policy about when they are allowed to return to school. They may return when:
Fever has been absent for 24 hours without administration of anti-fever medication
Nausea, vomiting or diarrhea has been absent for 24 hours
Strep throat has been treated with antibiotics for at least 24 hours
Head lice has been treated with lice shampoo according to package instructions and proof of purchase is provided to the school (receipt or box)
Scabies treatment is successfully completed using prescription medication from MD.
No purulent discharge from conjunctivitis (pink eye)
Lesions from impetigo are treated as your doctor advises and covered while in school if “weeping”. (Usually this involves soaking and removing the crusts and applying an antibiotic cream. Very large lesions may need an oral antibiotic, too). A release from your physician will be needed to return to school.
Chicken Pox lesions are all scabbed over and no new lesions have appeared in 48 hours. This usually happens 6-8 days from the onset of the disease. This also applies to a diagnosis of shingles.
Students with scarlet fever, hepatitis, or other illnesses or injuries deemed necessary by the school nurse need to be cleared by their doctor before returning to school.
We want your student to be at school learning just as much as you do, but we also want them to be well so they don’t spread sickness to others. Thanks for doing your part to help keep our students (and staff) healthy!
LIBRARY NEWS
ACCELERATED READER OR AR (Reading Renaissance) is a reading incentive program that shows how well a student understands and remembers details from the book he/she has read. We use the Accelerated Reader (AR) program in our school to encourage independent reading. Students in 2nd-6th grade participate in this program.
AR Procedures
*At the beginning of each quarter, the teacher meets individually with students to establish a point goal. Teachers base this goal on the amount of independent reading time which is provided during the school day as well as considering students’ ability & previous achievements.
*Accuracy goals are established as follows: 2nd & 3rd grades—80% or better
4th-6th grades—85% or better.
*Teachers administer the STAR reading test at the beginning of the year to establish a baseline AR reading level for each student. The STAR test is then administered again at least two more times during the school year to check for progress and adjust reading levels as needed.
*Books in the library are labeled with a colored dot which corresponds to the reading levels. Additionally, all books which have AR quizzes have a special label inside the front cover which provides full AR information. Use www.arbookfind.com to look up books you may have at your home.
*We hold an assembly at the end of each quarter to recognize students for meeting their AR goals. Students must meet BOTH point & accuracy goals. Students meeting their goals are given a Gambino’s pizza coupon. Some classroom teachers also provide incentives for reading at home and participating in AR.
RENAISSANCE HOME CONNECT
If you are interested in following your child’s progress in AR (Accelerated Reader), please email me. Once I receive your email, I will send you the directions on how to login into the website that will allow you to see when your child tests and how well he/she did on the test. It will also let you see how your child is progressing on reaching his/her AR goal for the nine weeks. My email address is dheitzenrater@usd375.org.
DISCARDED BOOK SALE COMING SOON!
In November, BOTH libraries will be having a discarded book sale. Books will be priced at 25 cents no matter what shape the book is in. The dates for these sales are: Nov. 19th, 20th, 26th and 27th. The day of the sales are Mondays and Tuesdays.
ALL FOR BOOKS & THE MINUTE-TO-WIN-IT CHALLENGES
On October 19th during TGIF, eight staff members participated in three minute-to-win-it activities. Three activities were held because the students, parents and staff were able to raise $600 for All for Books during the book fair in September. JOB WELL DONE!! The three staff members who lost the activity they participated in earned a whip cream pie in the face. Here are some pictures to show the fun we had on that day.
GAME #1
Mr. Taylor and Mrs. Cooley trying to shake ping pong balls out of kleenex boxes tied around their waists.
GAME #2
Mrs. Casteel and Mrs. Wellner trying to move M&M’s from one plate to another using a straw.
GAME #3
Mr. LaMunyon, Mrs. Sarkett, Mrs. T. Turner and Mrs. Swilley competing to see who could empty his/her kleenex box the fastest using only one hand.
THE TEACHERS WHO GOT PIE IN THE FACE!!!
POSITIVELY PTO/SITE COUNCIL
The next PTO Meeting is 11/05 @ 4:15 pm at the Primary Library
The Boxtops are in full swing! First nine weeks winners were Mrs. Bair’s 2nd grade class and Mrs. Cooley’s 4th grade class. Each winning class will have a class party. A student from each building who brings in a baggie or a sheet of 25 box tops will be entered into a drawing for a personal pan pizza from Gambinos.
KEEP SENDING THEM IN!!
**Fundraiser pick up is 11/14 from 3:00 to 6:00pm. @ the Intermediate Cafeteria! This fundraiser profit was around 9,000 dollars!!!! WOW!! THAT IS AWESOME FUNDRAISING!!!!
9 SQUARE AND GLOW PARTY WAS ENJOYED BY ALL PARTICIPANTS!
We want to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who helped supply food for Parent/Teacher Conferences. The teachers enjoyed the food and expressed their thanks. If you couldn't help with conference food, there will be another opportunity to contribute in December. PTO always picks a day to supply Christmas Goodies to the entire staff. If you would like to help with that, watch your emails and our Facebook page at the beginning of December.
Thanks again!!! CTE-PTO
2nd Annual Craft Fair Hosted by CTE PTO
Don't forget to come and shop at the craft fair on Saturday, November 3rd from 8:30-3pm, located at Circle Towanda Intermediate gym - 516 North St. Breakfast and lunch meal deals for $5.00, raffle baskets and over 30 vendors to shop!