Elm Street Elementary
Progress Report Newsletter, November 2016
Sock Hop Dance(s) for 60 Year Celebration
On Monday, October 31, Elm Street students and staff joined together to twist, limbo and more during a Sock Hop as part of our 60 Year Celebration. The event was perfectly timed as it was held on the 60th school day of Elm Street's 60th school year. It just so happened that it also fell right on Halloween which made it all the more fun to dress the part!
Each grade level had their own time to shake, rattle, and roll in their socks. Special thanks to Mr. Tate and Coach Baker for being our school-wide hosts for the day-long event! You certainly made the time fly by and helped us enjoy the time together. Ms. Pigott, Ms. Kennedy, and several others were part of the action as well.
It was an absolute delight to spend time having 1956-style fun with our students and staff! Some of our students really have the hang of the hand jive and others have stellar hula hoop skills! All in all, it was a great day to kick off our shoes, just like those in 1956 might have done to avoid scuffing the gymnasium floors, and dance away!
Hula Hoop Contest
Resting our feet after dancing!
How low can you go?!?
Read for the Record
On Thursday, October 27, Elm joined hundreds of other students in the nation in participating in Read for the Record. This year's book, The Bear Ate Your Sandwich, was shared with all Elm Street students. This year, thanks to Ms. Florise, we were also able to enjoy hearing the book in Spanish! She was willing and able to make a video recording of the book to share with our school through our ESN broadcast that day. Click here or on the youtube video image below to view the video of Ms. Florise reading the book in Spanish. Thanks for sharing your fluent Spanish, Ms. Florise and thank you, Ms. Wimbley for organizing this part of the day!
We appreciate each and every volunteer who came out to read with students on this day in support of Read for the Record. We are always happy to have guests in our schools, especially guests who help model reading fluency and lead students in comprehension and enjoyment of a new book. Special thanks to Mrs. Ewing and all volunteer readers! Thank you also to Student Council for serving as hosts for our guests. A few snapshots appear below the video. More can be seen on twitter.com @ElmStMedia.
Can-A-Thon Collection: Last Day To Give 11/18
For the past 3 weeks, the students of Elm Street have participated in the annual Can-A-Thon to benefit the Coweta County Food Pantry. Cans and other non-perishable food items have been collected in each homeroom, with the prize of extra recess going to the class that collects the most cans. Students have enjoyed competing with other classes and checking our school bulletin board graphs to see the current classroom leaders!
Thank you to all the students, parents and teachers for their donations to help the Coweta Food Pantry during this season of giving. So proud of the way you have given to support others. It is wonderful to see this food lining our hallways, ready and waiting to be delivered to Coweta Food Pantry to support families in a time of need. Special thanks to the student council members who helped with the collection, counting, and tallies for this year's can drive.
Picture Retake Day is Thursday, December 1
Not happy with the way something looked that first go round?
Retake day is here: Thursday, December 1.
Parents, please send a note to let your child's teacher know if you want your child to take part in picture retakes.
Mark your calendars!
Great holiday and other annual events ahead!
Reading Caves
Open for students December 14-20; parent volunteers welcome to help set up caves in media center beginning on December 12.
Chorus Concert
Friday, December 15, 6:00 p.m.
Family Caroling Night
Friday, December 16, 5:00 p.m.
Holiday Dress Days
Monday, December 19 - Holiday Hat Day!
Tuesday, December 20 - Pajama Day!
Our Kindergarten Program is Tuesday, December 13 at 6:00 p.m. as well!
Winter Holiday Break is Wednesday, December 21 - Wednesday, January 4. School resumes for students on Thursday, January 5, 2017. We wish your family the warmest greetings throughout this holiday season!
Affidavits are due! Goal: 100% by Thanksgiving
If you have not turned in your green affidavit of residency this year along with your two proofs, it is due now. While affidavits are officially due in the county in the next few weeks, our goal was to be 100% by Thanksgiving. Help us reach our goal and show we are thankful to be together at Elm Street! Don't forget, we have a notary on staff to assist you if needed.
Box Tops - Highest FAll Collectors, keep clipping for February!
Top Classrooms:
1. Springfield-887
2. Allen-864
3. Wilson- 603
4. Cahlink-556
A picture of top student collectors will be shared in a future newsletter. Thanks to all students, staff, and families who took part. Lots of our Thanksgiving favorites have Box Tops on them, so keep your eyes peeled during holiday cooking and save them all. Hope you'll help spread the word to friends and family near and far to keep clipping for the February submission!
Vote for Books held in early November
Custodial Appreciation Day! Nov. 16, 2016
Chess Club and Yoga Club starting soon!
Elm Street's new Yoga Club, sponsored by Dr. Christi Hildebrand, Principal, will begin on Tuesday, December 9 at 7:10 a.m. Details for the club as well as the google form to join is available by clicking here. (Bus riders will arrive in time to take part; participating car riders should unload near the gym at 7:10 a.m.) No experience is necessary to take part. Dr. Hildebrand is not a trained yoga instructor, so everyone will be learning together!
Excited to have these two new offerings for our students this year!
Elm Street, Thank you for giving!
Champion 4th Grade Jump Rope for Heart River Jumpers!
Food Finder App now available
Don't forget that a Thanksgiving meal is being offered to those in need. The service is offered at Newnan High School and Arnco-Sargent Elementary School. Details in the flyer below. Free clothing is available at both locations as well. Please help spread the word to anyone that might benefit from these community services.
Student Attendance Awards - Monthly Winners
This year, we've chosen to spotlight a monthly attendance winner at each grade level. The winning group earns an extra time of recess to celebrate their health and wellness and all they have learned at school by being here more than their classmates. Students and staff do not know which groupings of students is going to be compared each month, so it important for all students to encourage each other's healthy attendance each day. So far this year, students have been recognized based on highest homeroom attendance percentages, boys versus girls, and alphabet competitions (A-M versus N-Z). We'll continue to choose one of these groups or another to spotlight for highest attendance each month at each grade level. Parents, please help us prove that healthy attendance is key!
August - Homeroom Highest Attendance Winners
K - Meadows
1 - Hightower
2 - Wilson
3 - Winstead
4 - Allen
5 - Rance
September - Boys versus Girls Attendance Winners
K - Boys
1 - Boys
2 - Girls
3 - Boys
4 - Girls
5 - Boys
October - Alphabetic Competition Attendance Winners
K - Last Names N-Z
1 - Last Names A-M
2 - Last Names A-M
3 - Last Names A-M
4 - Last Names A-M
5 - Last Names A-M
Can't wait to see who competes and wins November and remaining months of the year! Encourage your classmates to be here - healthy attendance is key!
Family Enrichment, Reading Focus, held November 14
On Monday, November 14, Elm Street hosted two Family Enrichment sessions, one at 8:00 a.m. and one at 6:00 p.m. The focus of these sessions was Reading Strategies to help Parents Support their Children. Two Elm Street teachers, Mrs. Springfield, 1st Grade and Mrs. Sambdman, 3rd Grade presented. Topics covered were letter sounds, sight words, and decoding word skills as the building blocks of early literacy. Advanced literacy skills were also discussed, which included fluency and comprehension strategies. Thank you to Mrs. Springfield and Mrs. Sambdman for sharing helpful reading suggestions with parents along with fun ways to enjoy reading together at home! This session was planned since our school's reading data was not as strong last year as it has been in previous years, and we wanted to help strengthen our school's capacity to support strong reading practices both at home and at school. If you missed the sessions, you might like to know that both teachers recommended some reading resources your child can use at home including readingrockets.org, readwritethink.org, starfall.com, along with Bob Books app and EPIC Books app (if your child does not know how to log into EPIC, email his or her teacher for info about logging in at no cost). Our students also have access to MobyMax, Reading A-Z and RAZ Kids, IXL Language (2nd-5th) along with PebbleGo and Galileo. These also serve as great reading support resources. We were happy to help serve those who attended one of the sessions, and thank you again to our presenting teachers! Feel free to contact your child's teachers or one of our school administrators if you'd like some additional support in helping your child with reading at home. We're always happy to lend a hand!
Think Tank is going strong!
If not, ask your child to tell you about it! I think you'll be impressed!
Here are some tidbits from Ms. Pigott to help you learn about Think Tank and just what takes place during this class!
5th Grade- currently working on building the exact box that Henry "Box" Brown shipped himself to freedom in on the Underground Railroad
4th Grade- making Universe in a Box and learning about why we can only see certain constellations during certain seasons, celebrated the day after Halloween by experimenting with mixing different liquids and solids to make a “witches brew” chemical reaction
3rd Grade- Thurgood Marshall lost his mallet! Students made a noise maker or replica gavel for him to use to get order in his court. Projects were evaluated based on loudness, creativity, and teamwork.
2nd Grade - created a Thanksgiving meal for our family of 6 with a budget of $50 using grocery store ads, built a scarecrow out of various materials and wrote a procedural writing about how they created it
1st Grade - created a football field goal game from their mystery bag of supplies, conducted research followed by brochure creation for tall tale heroes
Kindergarten - practicing using describing words to create and write about friendly monsters, graphing our favorite Thanksgiving foods and creating mixed up scarecrows
Shout out to Ms. Pigott for some great thinking (and fun) in Think Tank!
Second grade program honors Veterans, celebrates Thanksgiving
Our students also performed great pieces related to Thanksgiving! The read, spoke, sang, (and even danced) some serious reasons to be thankful as well as some good ol' turkey fun!
Below are some video clips to enjoy in case you missed the live show!
CCSS is still seeking qualified bus drivers. Encourage applicants!
CCSS is still seeking qualified bus drivers.
Please encourage any and all qualified candidates to apply!
Top TEN (Traits Eagles Need)
November Trait, part of our Top TEN (Traits Eagles Need)
Loyalty - Being true to your friends, family, and school
Eagles of the Month for Loyalty will be celebrated on tomorrow's ESN broadcast!
December Trait
Compassion - Caring enough to do something about someone else's need
We'll be on the lookout for Eagles of the Month displaying compassion this December...
Thank you, PTO and all Fall Festival volunteers!
Grandparents Week and Book Fair were huge success!
Special thanks to those who supported our media center through book fair purchases too! Your purchase not only supported the literacy of your own student, but will also help keep our media center stocked with great books!
Thank you, Ms. Ewing, for your effort in setting up the book fair. Thank you, Cafeteria Team, for welcoming our special guests and preparing extra meals each day. Once again, thank you to our special guests as well! It was a pleasure to have you visit!
Congrats to Ms. Ewing for winning 7 iPhones for Google virtual field trips
Ms. Ewing just earned 7 donated phone devices for our school to use with Google Cardboard for virtual field trips! Excited about the possibilities!
Click the link below to see her video application:
https://animoto.com/play/1mbcB02ZH4VzTWDKYmjVIwOh, the places we'll "go" as soon as our google cardboard arrives!
Not on twitter yet? You're missing out!
Elm Street has a few great twitter feeds to follow:
@ElmStreetELM - school twitter feed
@ElmStMedia - media center twitter feed
@ElmSt5th - fifth grade twitter feed
The QR code to the right will take you to @ElmStreetELM so you can keep up with our school tweets!
Never miss an important reminder from school! Sign up for Remind!
Want to receive the informational text reminders from Elm Street about school events?Be sure you have signed up for our Elm Street Eagles Remind group (formerly Remind 101). If you are one of the 242 current subscribers, thanks for taking action to stay well-informed of school activities and updates.
About Elm Street
Email: christi.hildebrand@cowetaschools.org
Website: cowetaschools.org/eses
Location: 46 Elm Street, Newnan, GA, United States
Phone: 770-254-2865
Twitter: @ElmStreetELM