MEADOWLARK NEWSLETTER
DECEMBER 2017
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
Happy Holidays from Meadowlark Elementary!
Thank you for the support of our food drive for the Andover Food Bank. As of Thursday afternoon, our school has donated 1,014 items. Your families support is very much appreciated!!! The grade level that provides the most items will win a Dunkin Donuts Party. Please continue to send in non-perishable items until Friday, December 8th. On Monday, December 11th, our fifth grade students will be sorting, weighing, and stocking our collected items at the Andover Food Bank. This proved to be a very worthwhile service project last year so we hope that it will have a similar impact this year with our fifth graders. We will be sure to send pictures in an upcoming newsletters!
Additionally, we appreciate your support of the Meadowlark Holiday Giving Project benefiting Meadowlark families in need. Our building's goal is to raise $2500. As of Thursday afternoon, our school has raised $308.66. Last year, our school exceeded this goal and raised $3489 and this money directly helped 22 Meadowlark Families. The fourth grade students will be going to Walmart to purchase the requested items for our families on Tuesday, December 19th. This is also a wonderful service project for our students as they are directly shopping and paying for our families. Any amount is appreciated!!!
I hope that your family has a safe and blessed holiday season!
Mrs. Dana Matheny
DECEMBER CALENDAR
December 1
- 9:30 am - ACMS Students Caroling at Meadowlark
- 8:45 am - All Star Pep Rally
- 3:45 pm - Learning with Legos
December 4
- 3:45 pm - STUCO
- 6:30 pm - Winter Princess Ball @ ACHS
December 5
- 9:15 am - All Star Character Assembly - RESPONSIBILITY
- 9:30 am - 3rd Grade Field Trip to City Arts
December 7
- Aviate Night (see flyer below)
December 8
- Food Drive & Giving Campaign Ends
- 8:45 am - All Star Pep Rally
- 10:00 am - Kindergarten Music Program @ Meadowlark
- 3:45 pm - Learning With Legos
December 11
- 9:00 am - 5th Grade Deliver & Inspect Food Drive Goods at United Methodist Church
December 12
- 6:30 pm - PTO Meeting
December 14
- 4:30 pm - Site Council Meeting
- 5:30 - 8:00 pm - Hometown Christmas @ Andover Central Park
December 15
- 8:45 am - All Star Pep Rally
- 1:00 pm - Circle of Friends - Christmas Caroling at Dillons
- 3:45 pm - Learning With Legos
December 18
- 11:30 am - December Birthday Lunch with Principal Matheny
- 2:00 pm - 4th Grade Holidays Around the World Projects
December 19
- 9:30 am - 4th Grade Shopping Trip to Walmart (Holiday Giving Project)
- 2:00 pm - 5th Grade Band Concert
December 20
- Box Top Pick Up
- 2:15 pm - Kindergarten Make Gingerbread Houses
December 21
- End of 2nd Quarter
- Students Dismiss 2 Hours Early
- Reading Incentives Due
- 9:00 am - Holiday Sing-a-Long Assembly
December 22 - January 3
- NO SCHOOL
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR STAFF!
DECEMBER
7 - Victoria Bay (Paraprofessional)
7 - Rhona Harvey (Secretary)
26 - Fred Taylor (Head Custodian)
FOOD DRIVE & GIVING PROJECT ENDS DECEMBER 8TH!
MEADOWLARK GIVING PROJECT
‘Tis the season for giving, and Meadowlark Elementary has a long tradition of giving to those less fortunate during the winter holiday season. Over the past 17 years, we have raised nearly $30,000 and have helped over 100 Meadowlark families. Last year alone, we raised a record setting $3,489 which helped 23 Meadowlark families!
The goal for our Holiday Giving Campaign for 2017 is to raise at least $2,500. If we meet this goal, Mrs. Matheny will treat the whole school to a Pajama and Hot Cocoa Day!! The class that raises the most money will be rewarded a Pizza Party!
Attached you will find a template of holiday gingerbread girl/boy. Print as many copies as you want, decorate/color them, put a name on it and return to school along with at least $1.00 (any amount over a dollar will be happily and graciously accepted, too!). The whole family can join the fun by coloring a gingerbread boy/girl for every member of the family! While coloring your gingerbread, talk to your children about the spirit of giving. You might consider having them do extra jobs to earn money to donate, have them use a portion of their allowance money, or send them on a “loose change hunt” around the house and in your vehicles.
If you know of a local business or corporation that might be willing to support our Holiday Giving Campaign, please contact them. Ask them to make a donation in your child’s name.
ALL GINGERBREAD & MONEY NEED TO BE COLLECTED
BY FRIDAY, DEC. 8TH.
Thank you all in advance for your generosity and caring. I feel truly blessed to be a part of this wonderful Meadowlark community. May you and yours have a blessed & joyous holiday season.
Blessings,
Dana Matheny
ATTENDANCE MATTERS
Across the country, more than 7 million students are missing so many days of school that they are academically at risk. Chronic absence — missing 10 percent or more of school days due to absence for any reason—excused, unexcused absences and suspensions, can translate into third-graders unable to master reading, sixth-graders failing subjects and ninth-graders dropping out of high school.
This isn’t simply a matter of truancy or skipping school. In fact, many of these absences, especially among our youngest students, are excused. Often absences are tied to health problems, such as asthma, diabetes, and oral and mental health issues. Other barriers including lack of a nearby school bus, a safe route to school or food insecurity make it difficult to go to school every day. In many cases, chronic absence goes unnoticed because schools are counting how many students show up every day rather than examining how many and which students miss so much school that they are falling behind.
While chronic absence presents academic challenges for students not in class, when it reaches high levels in a classroom or school, all students may suffer because the resulting classroom churn hampers teachers’ ability to engage all students and meet their learning needs.
The challenge of improving attendance is to avoid making the incorrect assumption that chronically absent students or their parents simply do not care. By working together, all of us — schools, public officials, public agencies, civic organizations, businesses, philanthropic groups, families and students — can ensure all children can get to school every day so they have an opportunity to learn, flourish and realize their dreams.
To learn more about reducing chronic absenteeism click here.
THINKING CAP QUIZ BOWL
Several Meadowlark Elementary fifth grade students competed in the Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl Contest on Thursday, November 9th. The quiz is a self-scoring, computer contest of 100 multiple-choice questions to be answered by the group. Areas covered included math, geography, government, sports, spelling, science, literature, English, history, general information and just plain fun trivia. Several students selected the team’s answers on the computer while the others read through the questions and answers. Each question offered two chances to answer correctly. Points were awarded based on how fast the question was answered by the group, as well as how accurate. No adult assistance was given! The students scored a total of 883 points with 79% accuracy! The team took 11th place out of 17 fifth grade teams and 31st place out of 42 of the 5th and 6th grade teams region wide.
The 2017 Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl team members include: Bryson P., Jerry C., Grant F., Akil S., Addi D., Ava C., Elia U., Caleb C., Goldie L., Ayden E., Andrew B., and John H.
Congratulations to the team for all their hard work!!!
SPELLING BEE BUZZING THIS WAY!
It’s almost Spelling Bee Time! Our Meadowlark school spelling bee for grades three, four, and five is soon approaching on Thursday, January 18th at 1:45 p.m. in the cafetorium. Everyone is eagerly anticipating who our 2018 school spelling bee winner and alternate will be.
We are not sure who will take first place, but we know it will be one of these eager spellers:
3rd Grade – Cora F., Addi E., Mikey H., and Bryce S. - 4th Grade – Ashley K., Kendall D., Emma J., Megan S., Hannah C., and Presley K. - 5th Grade – Bryson P., Emilie T., Caleb B., Grant F., Chandler R., and Isabella D.
Best of luck spellers!
PENNIES FOR PATIENTS
In October, Student Council sponsored Pennies For Patients. Meadowlark helped the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society give money for those in need. Our Meadowlark grand total was $2,378.97! The most we have every donated! In third place with $277.20 was Miss August’s class! In second place was Mr. Smith’s class with $286.85! They will receive a pizza party for 2nd place. Coming in first place was Miss Hoopes class with $406.80! First place will receive a pasta party from Olive Garden! Thank you for everyone who donated and made this such a successful campaign!
By: Hannah T. and Andrew B.
2017 GUINNESS WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT
2017 Stack Up!
2,400 schools joined together around the world in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most people stacking in one day. Ufortunately for the first time in 11 years we came up short in breaking our previous record.
Nevertheless we consider this year's event a success with 578,704 that participated. The winner of the 2017 Stack Up Cups was Christian Gonzalez from Mrs. Finney's class. We are look forward to going after the record again in the future!
Mrs. Crusinberry
P.E. Teacher
THE FORCES OF NATURE
On November 13th, 4th graders got a visit from Meteorologist Jay Prater from KAKE News to help build some background knowledge to our Reading stories on the Forces of Nature. Mr. Prater showed the kids the many different instruments used to monitor the weather like the barometer, hygrometer, and ground thermometer. The students also got to see a storm chaser video of a tornado in Southwest Kansas as Mr. Prater discussed how tornadoes are formed and how they are categorized by level of damage and wind speed. At the end, students got to ask questions about tornado safety and other storm related questions.
Thanks to Mrs. Weide for arranging a time for Mr. Prater to come out, Mrs. Harvey for running the projector in the cafeteria during the presentation, and special thanks to Jay Prater for coming out to share his knowledge with our students.
SALTY SECOND GRADERS
What does salt, water and flour have to with 2nd graders??? If you guessed creating salt dough maps, you are correct! Students in Miss August, Mrs. Loy and Mrs. Wiltse’s classes enjoyed an afternoon of creating landforms out of salt dough prepared by parent volunteers. They were mounted into cardboard boxes, dried and painted to represent various landforms that were studied throughout their landform unit. Students also had the opportunity to sharpen their speaking and listening skills by having a landform open house for their families. It was fun had by all!
EYE DISSECTION
CIRCLE OF FRIENDS
The Meadowlark Circle of Friends meet on a monthly basis to work on projects, go on field trips and have social time with friends. The Circle of Friends group consists of buddies from the school in all grade levels and are paired with 5th grade peer buddies. For the month of November, the Circle of Friends gathered to make hot chocolate in a jar. These ready made jars will be passed out as gifts during the December activity.
ART NEWS
It has been so exciting to watch the students embrace their creativity as we embark together on this new journey for the Art room! We are practicing a new method together called TAB, or Teaching for Artistic Behavior. In this methodology, students are the artists and choose their mediums, content, and process. The students have been incredibly motivated by pursuing their personal interests. We are continuously reflecting, revising, and expanding on our ideas. This process encourages collaboration and problem solving. In the Art room, every child is an artist and their ideas are worth exploring.
5TH GRADE LUNG DISSECTION
Written by: Goldie L. and Elizabeth R.
Something that you can not miss is our 5th grade lung dissection! As you come in, you smell the putrid lungs of the cow. At first it is very unsettling and you might feel a bit nauseated, but after you have those symptoms, then you will most likely enjoy learning about the cow’s lungs.
For the dissection we had parents that came to chaperone and help the kids “DIG IN”! Some kids found blood vessels and many got parts of the heart too. Surprisingly, we found a lot of fat attached to the lung and it smelled the worst out of the whole lung! Some lungs had a couple small green specks which was inhaled grass that got caught in the lung.
Here is what we learned!
There is the the trachea (windpipe) which conducts inhaled air into the lungs through its tubular branches, called bronchi. The bronchi then divide into smaller and smaller branches called the bronchioles, finally becoming microscopic alveoli. As this happens the lungs grow to about three times their size and when exhaled, they return to normal size keeping the oxygen and putting it into the blood. As you inhale, your diaphragm goes down to make room for your lungs to fill with air and when you exhale, your diaphragm goes up so the extra space is filled. We learned a lot!
ALL-STAR CHARACTER EDUCATION PROGRAM
Friday, October 6 - Character Education Assembly - Respect
Tuesday, December 5 - Character Education Assembly - Responsibility
Wednesday, January 31 - Character Education Assembly - Caring/Kindness
Friday, March 2 - Character Education Assembly - Fairness
Friday, April 13 - Character Education Assembly - Citizenship
These students were all recognized for showing the Character trait RESPECT.
BOX TOP WINNERS
Miss Hoopes 5th Grade Class won the most Box Tops collected for the month of October!
Mr. Bextel's 4th Grade Class won the most Box Tops collected for the month of November!
TURN YOUR GROCERY RECEIPTS INTO CASH FOR OUR SCHOOL!
Earn even more cash to help Meadowlark get what it needs through the Box Tops for Education Bonus App. Turn your everyday receipts into cash for our school. It's free and as easy as 1-2-3. Here's how it works:
BUY
SCAN
EARN
New Features
Now with new and improved geolocations it's easier to find Box Tops offers at stores near you! PLUS, the latest Bonus App updates enable you to:
Edit the school you're supporting
Track your school's earnings progress
See your school's Clip Board
Try it for yourself! You can earn Bonus Box Tops in the Box Tops Bonus App in Combination with the on-pack Box Tops clip and any other coupon, discount, store program or promotion.
DOWNLOAD THE APP TODAY!
Amber Kear
Jessica Cicora
DILLON'S COMMUNITY REWARDS PROGRAM
Dillon's makes fundraising easy---all you have to do is shop at Dillon's and swipe your Plus Shopper's Card! Go to Dillons.com and sign in or create an account to enroll. This enrollment does not have to be updated every year. Once signed in, select your Community Rewards under your Account Settings. Search for Meadowlark to earn extra $$$ for our school!
We currently have 66 households signed up! They shopped at Dillon's between 7.1.2017 and 9.30.2017. Meadowlark received a check for $716.43!
FREDDY'S FAMILY NIGHT
Meadowlark received $98 from Freddy's October Family Night!
Thank you for your support!
SHOPAROO
Every photo of a grocery receipt earns money for our school! Free to download, free to use. Nothing to buy or sell. Help us raise thousands of dollars a year!
- Download the Free Shoparoo App in the App Store & Play Store http://www.shoparoo.com/
- Select Meadowlark
- Take pictures of Receipts!
- Watch Meadowlark earn money!
PEACHJAR
Peachjar is simple and fun to use. Once signed up you'll start to receive emails with flyers in them!
You never have to log in! But you can to manage your account preferences. Login information is sent to you. You will regularly receive emails with the latest flyers. They can also be viewed on the Meadowlark website. Simply look for the Peachjar logo! If you aren't receiving emails, create an account.
2017-2018 DISTRICT CALENDAR
Meadowlark Elementary School
Email: harveyr@usd385.org
Website: http://meadowlark.usd385.org/
Location: 1411 N Main St, Andover, KS, United States
Phone: 316-218-4630
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meadowlarkelementary
Miss Hoopes 5th Grade class won the most Box Tops collected for the month of October!
Congratulations!