Greetings Star Lake Families,
Happy Spring; here we are heading into April and spring break! Our students and staff have been working so hard the past few months, we are ready and deserving of a great break. I hope your family has some fun, some relaxation, and of course, some reading planned for your week. I am planning a quick trip to the ocean, some work in my yard, while squeezing in some relaxation and reading too.
We are so excited to spend the next two days meeting with families during Student-Led Conferences. Such a great time for our scholars to share their learning, progress and goals! If you happen to forget to conference time, or need to reschedule, you can reach out to your child’s teacher via email or remind, or call our main office at 253-945-4000. Our goal, as always, is to meet with 100% of our families for this important conversation.
We have some great events and activities coming up this spring:
- Of course, next week April 3-7 is spring break!
- Our “Battle of the Books” competition will be during the school day on April 12th. Mrs. Nelson has been practicing with 3rd-5th grade student teams during lunch. Keep reading those books! I always look forward to this great competition; and the winning team will get to participate in the district battle.
- That same evening, April 12th from 6-8pm, please head to Federal Way High School for our district’s STEM night. You can check out booths, engaging and informative panel discussions, interactive activities and more …all providing exploration and excitement around science, technology, engineering and math!
- There will also be BUS SHUTTLE service available to take you from our Star Lake bus loop directly to Federal Way High School and back. The bus departs from Star Lake at 4:44 (only for students participating in booths), 5:44 and 6:44 and leaves from FWHS to return to Star Lake at 8:10pm.
When our students return from spring break, each classroom with have a morning meeting to revisit behavior expectations and procedures. We all get a little “spring fever” when the sun starts shining and this reboot will serve as a reminder to our students that we still have a great deal of learning left to do this school year. We want all of our student to be kind, safe and productive, and this reminder ensures students know what is expected of them. We have a fabulous community of learners here at Star Lake, and we sure appreciate the support and partnership we have with our families!
Best Regards,
Kris Rennie, principal
253-945-4007
Mark Your Calendars
MARCH
30-31 - NO SCHOOL - Scholar Led Conferences
APRIL
3-7 - NO SCHOOL - Spring Break
12 - BOB Competition
12 - Early Release - School ends at 1:35
12 - STEM Exploration Night 6:00-8:00, Federal Way HS
13 - PTA Skate Night, 6-8:00pm @ El Centro Skate Rink
17 - Class Picture Day
18 - Coffee with the Principal 9-10:00
21 - Backwards Spirit Day - Popcorn and Smencils sold at lunch
26 - Early Release - School ends at 1:35
MAY
10 - Early Release - School ends at 1:35
10 - District BOB Competition, 6:30pm, Todd Beamer HS
11 - 4th & 5th Grade Music Concert, 7:00
18 - 3rd Grade Music Concert, 7:00
19 - Mis-Match Spirit Day
24 - Early Release - School ends at 1:35
29 - Memorial Day - NO SCHOOL
31 - PTA Meeting, 6-7:00, Library
Scholar-Led Conferences
Please make sure you have scheduled an appointment with your child's teacher, otherwise contact our office if you still need a time set up. We look forward to seeing you soon. Our goal is to meet with ALL of our families.
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SPRING BREAK Don't forget that we DO NOT have school on April 3-7th. It is Spring Break! | Talkspace Talkspace is a free and confidential counseling service available for our scholars. Their mental and social-emotional well-being are as important as their physical well-being! If you feel your scholar could benefit from this service, please take advantage of a trained professional in a safe space. To access, locate the icon in Launchpad to Learning. The password for scholars is: FWPS Scholars. | Interested In Joining Our Team?Are you interested in being a paraeducator here at Star Lake? We currently have openings in our self-contained special education classrooms: preschool, K-2 and 3-5.Paraeducators must have an associate’s degree or equivalent college credits or pass the parapro examination. For more information please go to www.fwps.org and click on the yellow box that says “join Team Federal Way” Then under “vacancies” click on “Locations” and then “Star Lake” to see our open positions. You can also contact the district HR department for assistance at 253-945-2073 or reach out to Mrs. Rennie with questions. |
SPRING BREAK
Talkspace
Interested In Joining Our Team?
Are you interested in being a paraeducator here at Star Lake?
We currently have openings in our self-contained special education classrooms: preschool, K-2 and 3-5.Paraeducators must have an associate’s degree or equivalent college credits or pass the parapro examination.
For more information please go to www.fwps.org and click on the yellow box that says “join Team Federal Way”
Then under “vacancies” click on “Locations” and then “Star Lake” to see our open positions. You can also contact the district HR department for assistance at 253-945-2073 or reach out to Mrs. Rennie with questions.
STEM Exploration Night
FWPS is providing six shuttle bus routes servicing each school community for convenient transportation to the event. There will also be a shuttle from the overflow parking lot located at Sacajawea for families who drive to the event. View all transportation information at: http://www.fwps.org/STEMExpo/Transportation
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April 18th Coffee With The Principal Parents, please join us Tuesday, April 18th, 9-10am for a chance to have coffee and treats with Principal Rennie. You will be getting information on upcoming events and will also have a chance to ask any questions you may have. We hope to see you then! | Class Pictures April 17thClass picture day is Monday, April 17. Forms will be sent home after Spring Break. There will be no individual pictures taken this spring. | Clothes Donations NeededKindergarten and 1st grade parents and guardians. Once in a while we get students sent to the office who fall at recess and get mud on their clothes, or in some cases little ones who have had accidents. A gentle reminder for our littlest ones is to have a change of clothes in their backpack in case this happens. At the beginning of the year, we had some extra clothes in the office for these emergencies, however most of those clothes have been issued out.
If you would like to donate clothing items for this cause, we will gladly accept unused underwear, and gently used clothing, mainly pants. Sizes 6 - 8 are the most frequent sizes we need. Just drop them off at our office. |
April 18th Coffee With The Principal
We hope to see you then!
Class Pictures April 17th
Class picture day is Monday, April 17. Forms will be sent home after Spring Break. There will be no individual pictures taken this spring.
Clothes Donations Needed
Kindergarten and 1st grade parents and guardians. Once in a while we get students sent to the office who fall at recess and get mud on their clothes, or in some cases little ones who have had accidents. A gentle reminder for our littlest ones is to have a change of clothes in their backpack in case this happens. At the beginning of the year, we had some extra clothes in the office for these emergencies, however most of those clothes have been issued out.
If you would like to donate clothing items for this cause, we will gladly accept unused underwear, and gently used clothing, mainly pants. Sizes 6 - 8 are the most frequent sizes we need. Just drop them off at our office.
Playground Access Changes
The district security department has made the following revisions to our Star Lake playground gates: gates will be OPEN Mon-Fri 8:15-8:35 for arrival, then locked from 8:35-3:30, and OPEN again 3:30-7:00pm for community access. Gates will also be OPEN 9:00am-7:00pm on weekends and during spring break. These are our spring/summer hours.
Please be sure to close the gates when entering or exiting the playground and to use the provided garbage cans and equipment safely and properly to keep our playground safe and undamaged.
Music Concerts Are Back
Star Lake Concerts are BACK! It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than three years since we’ve had a concert here at Star Lake! And since we’ve not had them, we are feeling a bit RUSTY! We will have evening concerts for each grade level (except Kindergarten, who will be performing at graduation in June), and we invite YOU to be a part of our performance experience!
Please save the appropriate following dates:
4th and 5th Grades: Thursday May 11, 7:00 p.m.
3rd Grade: Thursday May 18, 7:00 p.m.
1st and 2nd Grades: Thursday June 8, 7:00 p.m.
Mr. Garcia
General Music Teacher
Library Learners
Battle of the Books
Star Lake's annual Battle of Books will take place
Wednesday, April 12th at 9:15 in our school gym.
This year nine student teams will battle it out to see
who knows the most about this year's books. The winning
team will move on to the distirct's battle on May 10th
at Todd Beamer High School at 6:30.
First Graders Receive New Books
This week our first grade students are taking home a backpack
of 6 new books for reading at home. The new books are from
Reading is Fundamental, a non-profit literacy organization, in
Washington DC. Students will read them to family at home and add the books to their own home libraries.
Keep reading those books!
Jennifer Nelson, librarian
Counselor's Corner
This month, our schoolwide theme is emotion management. We’ve be prompting students to notice their own feelings by paying attention to clues in their bodies, and we’ve been reminding them to use their Second Step skills to calm down:
- Stop—Use your signal
- Name your feeling
- Calm down: Breathe, count, use positive self-talk
These skills help students calm down strong emotions when faced with learning and social challenges, which helps them succeed academically and get along well with others.
Second Step lessons specifically teach about calming down strong emotions such as anger, disappointment, frustration, and anxiety. You’ll be receiving Home Links that describe why managing strong emotions is important and include fun activities to do with your child to help him or her identify strong feelings and calm down. We hope the Home Links will give you tools to use together when your child is upset.
Please tell your child’s teacher if you have questions about how you can help your child learn to calm down at home.
Mrs. Williams
School Counselor
(253) 945-4005
PBIS: SAFE, KIND AND PRODUCTIVE!
Nurses News
Spring trees are blooming! For some, that means their eyes are itchy and their noses are running, especially on sunny days. If your student has that issue, you might want to remember to give them a non-drowsy antihistamine like Claritin (Loratadine) before school if that is your family’s practice. Once they are here, we can’t give them any medication unless we have the medication in an original container and we have a doctor’s order including the guardian’s/parent’s signature.
Kindergarten Registration Is Open
Do you or a friend or neighbor have a child that will be age 5 by Aug 31st? If so please visit http://www.fwps.org/kiosk
If this is your first student attending Federal Way Schools, then please click on Student Registration and Create a New Account.
If you currently have or have in the past had a student registered in any Federal Way Public School , this includes Preschool & ECEAP, then you already have a ParentVue account. Just click on “ParentVue” to access your family's information. If you forgot your password you can click the “More Info” button. DO NOT make a new account for each student. If you need help recovering a forgotten User ID, please contact Kathy Miller at 253-945-4002 or kamiller@fwps.org. If you need additional information please go to: https://www.fwps.org/Page/7199
PTA Updates
Star Lake Parents and Guardians,
April is filled with exciting PTA events! We are thrilled to bring back Family Skate Night at the newly reopened El Centro (Previously Pattinsons Skate) in Federal Way! See below for more details. We are selling spring smencils April 21st- keep a lookout for presale forms going home after Spring Break. Our last family restaurant night is April 26th at the Federal Way Menchies! Grab a sweet treat and support the PTA. We also have exciting things planned for Staff Appreciation in May as well as a book donation drive as a kickoff to Summer Reading-keep an eye out for more information via our facebook page and the school newsletter.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
April 13th 6-8pm- Family Skate Night at El Centro Federal Way $8 with your own skates, $9 with skate rental
April 21st- Spring Smenicls for sale $1 each at school spirit day
**Keep an eye out for Pre-order Spring Smencils form will be going out after Spring Break
April 26th 2-8pm -Federal Way Menchies is our last fundraiser restaurant night
Please join us for our LAST PTA Meeting May 31st at 6pm in the school library
PTA POPCORN/SPIRIT DAYS:
April 21st- Backwards Day- popcorn and spring smencils for sale
May 19th- Mis-Match Day
June 9-Tropical
Join our Facebook page to keep up with the Star Lake PTA 9.4.55: https://www.facebook.com/groups/StarLakeElementary
Star Lake PTA is always looking for volunteers to help with Fundraisers, Popcorn Fridays, and Book Fair! If you are interested please email us at starlakepta@gmail.com
* Remember that a successful PTA needs your participation. We appreciate your support! If you have any questions, please email us at: starlakepta@gmail.com
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Does Your Scholar Need Extra Support Academically?We are happy to announce the FREE availability of Tutor.com for all scholars in grades 4-12. For your scholar's success, Tutor.com will: · Provide one-to-one FREE tutoring help · Provide access to SAT and PSAT prep · Available 24/7 · Scholars may access through Launchpad to Learning For more information and to access this vital service go to: https://www.fwps.org/Page/8221. It will also be explained in various languages. | Mentor & Me Program
| Because of YouScholars in grades 3–12 have a chance to nominate any Federal Way Public Schools staff member in the district they believe has positively influenced them, their school, and/or their community with the Because of You award. The Superintendent’s Scholar Advisory team reviews these nominations, and each month selects recipients to be recognized at a board meeting. Students may fill out a nomination form at: https://www.fwps.org/becauseofyou. All nomination forms are due by the end of the month. |
Does Your Scholar Need Extra Support Academically?
We are happy to announce the FREE availability of Tutor.com for all scholars in grades 4-12. For your scholar's success, Tutor.com will:
· Provide one-to-one FREE tutoring help
· Provide access to SAT and PSAT prep
· Available 24/7
· Scholars may access through Launchpad to Learning
For more information and to access this vital service go to: https://www.fwps.org/Page/8221. It will also be explained in various languages.
Mentor & Me Program
Make a different in a young person's life: Become a Mentor.
Federal Way Public Schools invites community members to be a mentor for the 2022-23 school year!
Mentors nurture, advocate, support, and share the responsibility to ensure their scholars have multiple opportunities to set and meet goals.
To learn more, click here to provide your contact information.
Because of You
Scholars in grades 3–12 have a chance to nominate any Federal Way Public Schools staff member in the district they believe has positively influenced them, their school, and/or their community with the Because of You award.
The Superintendent’s Scholar Advisory team reviews these nominations, and each month selects recipients to be recognized at a board meeting.
Students may fill out a nomination form at: https://www.fwps.org/becauseofyou. All nomination forms are due by the end of the month.
Star Lake Elementary