Dear Leighton Families,

I hope everyone is enjoying these beautiful Fall days filled with cooler temperatures and Fall colors. Somehow the days are turning into weeks and the weeks to months as the seasons change and our students grow in skills and knowledge! With the end of the first quarter quickly approaching, we are looking forward to continuing to dive deep into our reading, writing, and math frameworks to refine our skills and challenge our thinking through using strategies learned, engaging in critical thinking and problem solving, and focusing on the process vs. the product as learning is social and a collaborative endeavor. The excitement of students and the high levels of engagement in classrooms during science and social studies lessons including problem-based learning, hands-on explorations, inquiry, and innovation-driven projects is contagious. The academic rigor coupled with our supportive, safe, and nurturing learning environments that fosters growth in all learners continues to be paramount to our efforts to create the best possible learning environments for each student.

We are looking forward to the bookfair coming up next week Oct 3rd - Oct 7th. We will also be kicking off the month of October with a Spirit Week as we help celebrate homecoming week for our older learners. The month of October is also Bullying Prevention Month where we will be capitalizing on kindness, prosocial behaviors, unity, and good choices while celebrating each Tuesday of the week with a special themed day! Wednesday, Oct 19th is also Unity Day and students can help celebrate this day by wearing orange. See the Spirit Day Flyer below! We are looking forward to a fun-filled, spirit-filled month of October.

As always, I must convey the staff and my appreciation for entrusting us with your children each day! They fill our days with such joy and a love for learning that we continually hope they will pass along to others as we foster a strong sense of character education as well as our academic rigor. Thank you for your continued support, partnership, and teamwork as we work to ensure each learner reaches their fullest potential. We are so proud of all of our Leighton Learners!

Kind Regards,

Michelle Nizen, Building Principal

Ben Lehman, Assistant Principal

Students and staff have been excited about our new "Pom pom" system representing our 3 pillars (green poms=respectful; white= responsible; and black= problem solving) and earning poms for demonstrating these pillars in any area of the school. Each pom earned is used to fill up their classroom pom pom jars. When these jars are filled, student bring their classroom jars to the office and empty them into the Building Wide Pom Pom Pail!!

We are so excited to find out what our building wide reward will be as we have almost filled up our building wide Pom Pom Pail.

Don't be surprised if you child comes home excited about earning the "platinum platter" as a class during lunch and recess. Classes are always working to earn "positive compliments" during lunch and recess. Every two weeks, classes who earn the most "positive compliments" earn the right to display the "platinum platter" outside their classroom door for all to see and enjoy popsicles at lunch or an extra recess with Mrs. Nizen and Mr. Lehman.

Pom Pom Shout Out occur every Friday where we acknowledge students over announcements who have earned a special shout out for outstanding efforts in demonstrating our 3 pillars in their academic or behavioral pursuits. Students will recieve a pom pom shout out reward and those names are entered into a monthly drawing to pick out of our PBIS store at the end of the month.

Leighton Pride is Building Wide!

A special THANK YOU to all of our volunteers for our recent events!

Volunteer Opportunities:

BookFair-https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409044fada629a6f94-lesfall1

Recent Fundraisers:

Mumkins Raised: $7,063

Chipotle Raised: $172.67

Laps For Leighton: $6,500 and counting

Upcoming Events:

9/26-9/30: Leighton Laps Fundraiser during PE times

9/30: Cruisin For Craddock

10/3- 10/7: LES Book Fair

10/5: Family Book Fair Night 5pm-7:30pm LES Media Center

10/5: 2nd AEPTO Meeting 10am at the C&I center

10/14: NO SCHOOL - NEOEA DAY

10/17: NO SCHOOL- PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY

10/24: Angelo's Community Give Back Night

10/25 & 10/30- Miller Conferences

10/31: Fall Festival

Laps for Leighton:

Laps for Leighton Cheddar Up Link here:

https://laps-for-leighton.cheddarup.com

Thank you all so much for your participation in our new event. The kids had a fantastic time, set goals and crushed them. Thank you to Mrs. Barnes, Mr. Spacek & Mrs. Scaffide, Mrs. Nizen, Mr. Lehman & Staff for joining me to put on this event, we are thrilled by the excitement, participation and money raised.

Laps totals and wrist bands will be coming home early next week. If you chose to do donations based on per lap, please have money in by Thursday October 6th. If you have any questions please reach out to Natasha Rodriguez-Olah: Auroraptolesvp@gmail.com.

BOOK FAIR:

The Scholastic Book Fair is coming to LES October 3rd-7th. Students will get the chance to browse the books before making any purchases later in the week. This year's theme is, "Bolder, Prouder, Stronger Reader." All fair info can be found on our school's personal fair website at:

Our School's homepage to set up the eWallet is at: https://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bf/leightonelemschool

Cash and checks will be accepted (as well as credit cards on Family Night.) Follow the link above to set up your eWallet.

Family Night- 10/5: 5:00pm-7:30pm in Media Center

*The only difference this year for our Book Fair is that Scholastic has switched from a wholesaler to a retailer. This affects us because now we have to include tax when your children make purchases. This is a change from the state unfortunately, so we apologize for any inconvenience.

Here is a digital flyer of books that anyone can peruse: https://bookfairsfiles.scholastic.com/homepages/flyer_custom/flyer_custom.html#p=1

Any questions can be directed to this year's book fair chairs:

Erin Toler: toler.erin@gmail.com

Neha Gupta: jains.11amnsl@gmail.com

Community Give Back Night:

October 24th- Lee Angelo's Community Give back night. Lee Angelo's will give back 20% of ALL DAY Sales to the PTO.

New APP coming soon: Schoolze more information to come! For more information please reach out to Auroraptopres@gmail.com

Please remember that when you take your child out of school for a doctor or dentist appointment, the State of Ohio requires that a doctor's note be brought back to the school for attendance purposes. You can give the note to the secretaries in the main office.

If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Tanski in the clinic at 330-954-2285 or email her at atanski@aurora-schools.org

As a reminder, please monitor your child for any COVID-related symptoms and contact our school nurse if you have any questions. We appreciate your attention to this.

• Check your child each day for COVID-related symptoms. If your child is showing any symptoms whatsoever, it is best to keep him/her home to monitor.
• Students sent home with a fever, may not return to school until they are fever-free without medication for at least 24 hours. This means if your child was sent home on Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. with a fever, he/she may not return to school until Thursday. If your child does return the next day, our school nurse will be calling for you to come to pick him/her up. Thank you for your support and efforts in this area.
  
• We have COVID-19 home testing kits available that we can send home with any child or family should you question symptoms or exposure. We will be able to answer any questions about these kits should the need arise.
• Please make sure your Final Forms medical information is up to date. We will closely read the health sections to address any medical concerns.

**** If your child will be absent for an extended period, please reach out to your child's teacher and they will get school work ready for your student for the period of the absence. You may pick up the work outside the main office on a table that will be labeled with your student's name.