Central Hub
January 2018
A Note from the Principal
As a team we will take some time in January to assess where we are with our goals for each student and celebrate their accomplishments on Monday, January 15 at the Central Celebration (2:30 p.m.). The first semester has flown by and our students have been learning so much! We will work with a laser focus in January and February, taking all of our professional development on growth mindset, quality questioning, and continue to put it all into practice. These upcoming months are the most important of the year.
Those of us in education affectionately call the beginning of the second semester, the start of the testing season. Please note the following tests which will impact some of your children.
- WIDA for our English Language Learners-January 23-25
- COGAT our high ability predictor test given to students in Kindergarten, Second, New 3rd and 4th, and 5th graders--January 30th-February 9th
- ISTEP Part 1 is given to students in grades 3, 4, and 5--February 26-March 9
- IREAD for third grade students--March 12-March 16
- ISTEP Part 2 for grades 3, 4, and 5--April 16-May 4
- We will continue to monitor growth through our STAR assessments
Teachers will send out specific schedules through their newsletters. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Most of all, I am thrilled to be back in a routine and looking forward to working with you and your children second semester. Please note all of the documents in this newsletter.
Sincerely,
Julie Thacker, principal
IMPORTANT DATES
January 22nd-Tea Time with Mrs. Thacker at 6:30 pm and PTO meeting at 7:00 pm
January 23rd- Literacy Night 5:30-7:30pm
January 26th- PTO Night at Hot-Skates 5:30-7:30 pm
February 5th-9th- Recycle Heart and Sole Shoe donations collected (see info below)
February 9th- Readathon Celebration 4-9pm in the gym
February 14th- Valentine's Day parties in classrooms
February 21st- PTO Restaurant Night at Chicago's Pizza 5-8pm
February 22nd- Art Show 5:30-7:00pm
February 26th- PTO meeting at 7:00pm
Bundle Up for Recess
Children will be expected to go outdoors for recess when the temperature and wind chill is 20 degrees Fahrenheit and above. Students will not go out if it is raining or sleeting. If your child must stay indoors because of illness during recess time, we ask that you write a daily note requesting that your child stay inside. Repeated requests for indoor recess will prompt the nurse to require a written statement from the family doctor concerning the request.
December Value Of The Month: Kindness
Value of the Month Winners!
Braxton Woodrum
Anthony Howard
Cashus Thompson
Lakelyn Riester
Berkeley Todisco
Kathy Stinson- Denzler
Corbin Stockton
Kaiden Merz
Carter Stockton
Luke Alexander
Adeline Hess
Violet Briggs
Alyssa Hamm
Mia Hovermale
Brennan Beikes
Abrielle Dugan
Alexa Perez
Aiden Keith
Abigail Kuhn
Claire Ballard
Molly Larrison
Carson Healey
Hanna Forster
Nolan Vernengo
Student of the Month is Nolan Vernengo
Nolan's Nomination Letter from Mrs. Cragen
I am nominating Nolan Vernengo for being an outstanding example of the value of Kindness for the month of December. Nolan is the epitome of kindness. He takes others’ feelings into consideration when working in small groups and truly cares about every person included. Many times when choosing partners, Nolan will go to the student that is standing off by himself or herself and ask them to be his partner. If there are too many in a group, he will volunteer to go to another group. Nolan has such a positive attitude and never says discouraging things to others. Nolan’s classmates stated that he never has a harsh or negative word to say about anyone. They say he will never let a student play by themselves if they ask to join in an activity. They have seen him stand up for those students that will not defend themselves and always tries to keep peace with everybody. Nolan is an excellent role model for the entire school.
Central C.H.A.M.P.S
Central Elementary is excited to share our Positive Behavior Intervention Support program. Our program is rooted in Central character and the idea that Champions Make Choices and Choices Make Champions. Our faculty was involved in creating and defining a Central CHAMPS student.
The following defines what it means to be a CHAMPS student:
Caring
Honest
Achievement
Making good choices
Prepared to learn
Safety
Furthermore, we have defined our Central Champs expectations in all areas throughout our school. In a continued effort to recognize our students making good choices, as well as build our climate and culture, we use a school-wide Brag Tags programs. All students will receive a necklace (k-2) or a keychain (3-5) along with a Central tag to start the year. This is a way to acknowledge the hard work and positive behavior of our students. Additional tags will be awarded one time a month through specials classes.
Central Read-A-Thon- January 15th-26th
A Note from the Central PTO!
Welcome back Central Families! The PTO hopes everyone had a wonderful holiday and is ready to jump back into the swing of things
Our big event coming up is the Read-a-thon. Everyone should have received a packet home this week in their child's folder laying out all the details and information. Some really fun and exciting things will be happening this year:
*Our first ever Literacy Night: Read Like A Champ! on 1/23 from 5:30-7:30. With all kinds of fun and exciting 'champs' floating around the school.
*Log your student(s) reading on their logs the whole 2 weeks of 1/15 through 1/26
*All students that complete and turn in their logs by 2/2 can enjoy the Celebration Party on 2/9 from 6-8PM.
Didn't get a packet or have questions about the Read-a-thon? Email Nicole Rongo at nicolerongo@yahoo.com
Additional opportunities to help out our school:
*Volunteers will be needed for Valentines Parties on 2/14.
*Don't forget to always support the PTO through our restaurant nights (see dates below)
*Keep collecting Box Tops, scanning receipts into Shoparoo and using Amazon Smile!
Have any PTO questions? Please contact us at plainfieldcentralelementarypto@gmail.com
Recycle Heart and Sole
Attendance
We enjoy seeing your children every day. Although we understand that there will be times when your child is sick and needs to stay home, there is a direct correlation between student attendance and success. Here are a few ways we can work together to make sure your children have very good school attendance and don't feel like they are missing out.
- Schedule all doctor’s appointments outside of the school day if at all possible.
- It is very important to turn in medical notes (doctor, dentist, therapy, etc) to the nurse when returning to school.
- Share with your child how important it is to be at school.
- Make sure to communicate absences in advance, if possible, so the classroom teacher can ensure that your child still has opportunities to learn skills that he/she will miss when they are absent.
- Help to make sure that your child arrives at school on time each day. The doors open at 8:30 and students need to be seated in their classroom each morning by 8:50 or they are counted tardy.
Our teachers work hard to provide the best instruction and we want to make the most of each of our days together. We look forward to seeing you at school!
Visiting for Lunch
We love to see you come eat with your children! But PLEASE remember to bring exact cash or check with you to purchase lunch for yourself or another visitor. We only have a small amount of cash in the register and cannot make change. Lunch is $2.40 for students and $3.25 for adults and visitors.
Also, since we have no way of knowing who puts money on the account, you cannot use your child's lunch card balance towards the purchase of your own lunch.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding.
Changing the End of the Day Transportation Routine
The following information is simplified from our handbook:
- If your child is to go home a way different than their normal arrangement, you must send in a note to the teacher with instructions as to how the child is to go home.
- Please make these arrangements before school or by 1:00 p.m. at the latest.
- If you call requesting that your child become a car rider, you are required to come into the school office to sign out your child. Your child will be waiting in the office lobby until you sign them out.
- If you call requesting that your child ride a bus home instead of being a car rider, we will need to verify that we are speaking to the child’s parent/guardian
- Finally, please note that e-mail notifications of changes for the end of the day ride home will not be accepted.