Park Layne Elementary Monthly News
February 2018
Welcome to Our February Digital Newsletter
News About our Tecumseh Elementary PTO
PTO is a great way to get involved and help out our schools. Our next PTO meeting will be Monday, March5 at 7 pm in the Tecumseh Middle School library. Enter the front doors of the middle school and the library is about halfway back the main hallway on your right. If you would like to get involved with the planning of our PTO Spring Festival, join us at 6 pm that same night for a festival meeting prior to the regular PTO meeting. Did you miss out on our spirit wear sale of t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc. If so, stop by the school office to purchase extras that were ordered. We have a great variety of styles and sizes available in each elementary office. Sign up for Remind alerts for PTO by following this link. Check out the PTO Facebook page for updates as well. Thanks to everyone who supported our PTO sponsored book fair. The book fair was a tremendous success and the PTO was able to donate hundreds of dollars worth of books to classrooms and the library with the profits from the book fair.
Mrs. Fell's Class January Boxtop Champs and Mrs. Mullen's Class Repeat Winners for February
In February, Mrs. Mullen's kindergarten class came out on top again with 786 Box Tops. Mrs. Howard's class was second with 340 and Mrs. Stryker's class brought in 284 for a third place finish. We have collected 12,436 Box Tops this year for total earnings of $1,243.60! Thanks so much and please keep collecting and spreading the word.
Click the link below for a list of our Morning Announcements. Remember, kids are featured on the announcement for their birthday, when they are Hot Ticket Winners and kids also serve as announcers of the lunch menu and weather.
STEAM in the Library
Recently, the Park Layne Elementary School Library was awarded a Tecumseh Education Foundation grant to purchase items to support our S.T.E.A.M. area in our school library. S.T.E.A.M. is science, technology, engineering, arts and math. The Park Layne E.S. library has an amazing new collection of books for our students supporting S.T.E.A.M. We now have the start up kits of LEGOs ( thanks to the Altrusa International Inc.), and will soon be receiving additional LEGOs, Duplo kits, magnets, Magformers, musical instruments, and magnifying glasses, thanks to T.E.F.
Our students at Park Layne love to perform experiments with Mrs. Ray using our library books. All students are given opportunities to be involved in the weekly lessons as well. As we grow and learn in the Park Layne library it is very important to match our students with books that they are interested in and activities to go with them. And, now, we have great resources to use, grow and learn from with our great books. Thank you to all who support the T.E.F. and our school!
PTO Mini Grant Winners Announced
Things to Ask Your Child Instead of "How Was Your Day?"
Remind Text Message Alerts - Stay Connected
Word of the Month
December Word of the Month - Giving
January Word of the Month - Patient
November Word of the Month - Thankful
Listening Skills - Help Your Child Develop This Important Skill
Children who are good listeners often grow up to become good communicators and certainly perform better in school, but we are finding that more and more kids are struggling with this important skill. As kids spend more time on electronic devices, they spend much less time interacting with peers and adults and their abilities to listen and respond are being impacted. We are finding it necessary to intentionally teach the skill of listening. It’s an important skill to develop at an early age and, like a muscle, it needs regular exercise to grow stronger. Here are seven everyday ways you can help build your child’s listening skills at home:
1. Get their full attention. Encourage your child to look at you when they listen. Their full attention is important, and this gets them into the habit of giving their full attention to what’s being said.
2. Make reading an interactive activity. While reading aloud, stop before turning the page and ask, “What do you think will happen next?” Ask your child to explain their answer to see how well they’ve been listening. If they haven’t been listening, avoid criticizing and instead, aim to get them into a fun habit of predicting what will happen next.
3. Play listening games. Games, like Simon Says, help your child build listening comprehension skills in a fun and rewarding way. You can even make up your own listening games at home. For example, ask your child to find objects around the house by giving them two-part verbal instructions, then gradually progress to three-part, four-part, and so on. For example, “Find a spoon and a yellow toy.” Set a timer for 30 seconds or a minute to make it more fun.
4. Play “story chain”. This is a fun activity that the whole family can play together. Have one person start an original story by saying one line (e.g. “Once upon a time, there was a bear who lived in a cave”). Then go around in a circle so that each person contributes a sentence to the story.
5. Place an emphasis on common speech signals. Help your child listen out for important cues by placing an emphasis on common speech signals when you talk. These could include words like ‘now’, ‘next’ and ‘finally’.
6. Help your child to build their vocabulary. Talk to your kids. Use teacher newsletters to get information about what kids are learning in school and then talk with your kids about it. If you know kids are studying communities at school, talk about our community, point our parts of our community as you drive including doctor and dentist offices, the library, restaurants, fire station, etc.
7. Be a good listener too. Avoid interrupting your child when they are talking, and show them that you’re listening to what they have to say. Give positive indicators like nodding, smiling, saying supporting words, and following up with questions or elaborating on what they have said to show interest. We must model what good listening looks like.
100th Day of School
Wow! This staff is OLD! 100 Years on the 100th Day of school.
They sure have aged well! 100 years old on the 100th Day of school.
Looking good on the 100th Day of school
Crazy Dance Party - PBIS Reward
Looking cool at our Crazy Dance Party
Dancing to YMCA!
Wow! You've got some great dance moves.
The Cat in the Hat Assembly
What a crazy Cat in the Hat!
The Cat in the Hat Assembly
We Need Your Help
- Extra Clothes for Kids Who Have Accidents at School. Sweatpants are best but any long pants - boys and girls - Sizes 4 - 10
- Items for Dressing Kids for the 100th Day of School - We keep extra costumes for our Fall Parade so thought we could do the same for the 100th Day for kids who forget. If you have any of the following you could donate, that would be great; old eye glasses we can pop the lenses out of, costume jewelry like pearls, sweaters for girls, suspenders or ties for boys, etc.
Upcoming Events
February
26 - Read-a-Thon Begins
26 - Read Across America Spirit Day - Wear Red and Blue
27 - Read Across America Spirit Day - Wear Gray and Animal Ears
28 - Read Across America Spirit Day - Crazy or Mismatched shoes and/or socks
March
1 - Read Across America Spirit Day - Dress for Success
1 - Spring Picture Day
2 - Read Across America Spirit Day - Pajama Day and Stuffed Animal Day
2 - Box Top Collection Day
5 - 7 pm PTO Meeting at TMS
7 - 2-Hour Delay Inservice Day
9 - Read-a-Thon Concludes
9 - End of 3rd Quarter
19 - 22 Kindergarten Registration
20 1st Grade Spring Music Program
26 - 30 Spring Break
National Trails Parks and Recreation Spring Brochure
Park Layne Elementary
Email: karyl.strader@tecumsehlocal.org
Website: http://www.tecumseh.k12.oh.us/parklayneelementary_home.aspx
Location: 12355 Dille Road New Carlisle, OH 45344
Phone: (937)845-4470
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Tecumseh-Local-Schools-163864873630840/