Elm Dale News
January, 2020
Happy New Year!
As we start a new year and decade, I have been pulled into the thought of twenty minutes. It is a manageable amount of time and I have wondered what can be done during these minutes. I challenge us all to spend 20 minutes with your student or students to...
- Enjoy a "device free" meal together
- Go for a walk
- Play a board game
- Read a book aloud, do fun voices for characters!
- Write a handwritten letter to each other
- Pack lunches together
- Play music and have an impromptu dance party
- Bake cookies together
- Do an old exercise video, we all have them stashed somewhere :)
- Draw pictures
- Make 'wish lists"
- Clean out gently used, but no longer used, toys and drop them off at a donation center
- Set a timer and power clean
- Write a thank you letter to a community helper and deliver it together
- If it snowed, surprise a neighbor by shoveling their sidewalk
- Work on a jigsaw puzzle
- Look up places you have always wanted to visit on google maps
Note name Battleship!
Practicing note recognition in music!
Guidance
4K students learning with Mrs. Starnes.
Enjoying a good book, or two!
First Grade students enjoying some reading with friends to start off the new year!
It is starting to feel like Winter
Fresh air and movement is an important part of the school day. Unless the "feels like" temperature is below zero degrees, students will be going outside and anytime there is snow on the ground, students who wish to play in the snow MUST be wearing snow pants & boots. Please make sure students come to school with:
- Coats warm enough for the temperature outside
- Snow pants & boots if the student wishes to play in the snow
- Hats, mittens, gloves, scarves
Despite our best efforts, students may still occasionally get wet or muddy so having an extra change of clothes in their back pack is always a good idea.
Thank you for your help in making sure students stay warm and enjoy their recess time.
Attendance Matters
It is important for your child to be in school and on time every day. for even our youngest learners, attendance is key to success. These early absences correlate with reading difficulties and poor attendance patterns in later years. One California study found that only 17 percent of students who were chronically absent in both kindergarten and first grade were reading proficiently in third grade, compared to 64 percent of those with good attendance. If your child will be out, it is critical that you call your child in (call Elm Dale School at 414-281-7100) and also state the reason why they will be out or late. We are required to code every absence and late arrival or early dismissal. If we are not given a reason, it is automatically marked unexcused.
PTO Dates to Remember
- Oscars Dining Day 4-8 pm 1/9/2020
- Portillos Dining Day 5-8pm 1/15/2020
- Panera Dining Day 4-8pm 1/23/2020
- Monday January 27th (9am-3pm) TEACHER'S HELPER DAY volunteers needed, please sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0E45AEA62FA2F49-teachers2
- Chick Fil A Dining Day 5-8pm 1/28/2020
Raise a Flag!
5K students making and sharing flags from our families home countries!
Back to Business in 4th Grade!
Working on multiple towers in math.
Researching in Grade Three
Researching about Continents.