Sumner Elementary
"Learning takes your places!"
November 2019 Family Newsletter
Message from the Principal
During this season of Thanksgiving, I am always reflective of what I have to be thankful for. At the top of this list is your student and the teachers and staff of Sumner Elementary School. It is so hard to believe that we have already completed the first quarter of instruction! During the first nine weeks, your student has been pushed academically and teachers will continue to do so. Thank you for all you are doing to support them at home.
Parent Conferences
If you want to meet with your child's teacher, please call the front office or email your child's teacher directly to schedule an appointment. Teachers cannot be interrupted during the instructional day as this disrupts teaching and learning. Please do not walk students to class in the morning to speak with teachers unless you have an appointment. If your child is arriving to school late, please come inside the main office and sign them in. Students are unable to sign themselves in.
Morning Carrider Procedures
As a reminder, the morning car rider line ends promptly at 7:45 am. At this time, students are considered tardy and you will need to park and sign your child in. Please help us keep all our students safe by not dropping your child off in the parking lot. This is becoming a major safety concern, as we have a lot of traffic in the parking lot in the morning. Dropping your child off in the parking lot is dangerous and it’s unsafe. Staff are not available to supervise students being dropped off in the parking lot. Please utilize the car line or park your vehicle and bring your child inside the building when they are tardy. Please help us keep our students safe by following our parking lot procedures. The cones are placed to separate entering and exiting and they create one lane one each side for entering and exiting. Please do not try to pass the cars that are in line and please do not back down the exit side to park in a space. This is dangerous and unsafe for students and staff.
Parents, a big thank you for supporting our drop off and pick up procedures in the morning and afternoon. This has been a real team effort!
Afternoon Transportation Changes
Parents, dismissal is one of the most important moments of our day. We work hard to ensure that our students get to where they need to be.
As a reminder, for safety reasons, we cannot a change in last minute changes to bus or car rider transportation. Once students have boarded the bus or entered the car rider pick up location, we cannot make changes to their transportation.
Early Dismissal
As a reminder, the office requires seeing identification with early checkouts so we can confirm that your child is going home only with people you've identified. Please be prepared to present your identification to the front office when checking students our early or visiting classrooms. Thank you for your help in making this happen!
Classroom Visits
To ensure the safety and security of our students and staff and the orderly operation of our school, all visitors during the school day are required to follow the check in at the main office and sign in on the computer. Please do not go directly to the classroom. As a GCS policy, visitors will not be allowed to distract the teacher from instruction or interrupt the instructional process. Please communicate with your child’s teacher if you are planning on visiting.
Read to Soar Stories
Parents, every Monday night we post a new book read aloud by a Sumner Seahawk. Please encourage your child to listen and respond to the discussion prompt at the end of the story. Students who participate are entered to win a book. Research indicates that students who were given a book as a reward were more motivated to engage in subsequent reading than other students. At Sumner, we read to soar!
Please Read: Important Announcements
Here are a few important school announcements:
- There is no school on Monday, November 11th in observance of Veteran’s Day
- Our character education word of the month is Kindness. Kindness looks like helping others because you want to, not because you have to.
- Parents, the students are excited, and we need your support! In an effort to increase student attendance here at Sumner Elementary, we’ve challenged ALL students to “Be here to get there” by attending school each day. The class with 100% daily attendance is recognized each day during afternoon announcements and at the end of each week, the class that has 100% daily attendance will receive a blue ribbon placed outside their door. The class that has 100% daily attendance will earn the rights to display the monthly attendance trophy in their room until a new winner is announced the next month. We had 3 class earn 100% perfect attendance last week.
- Check out our Facebook page for a new Read to Soar story and discussion question each Monday.
- Fall Picture Makeup is on November 25th
- Kona Ice Day is on Thursday, November 14th. Current prices are on our website.
Looking Ahead
December TBA- Science Fair
December 10- 2nd Quarter Interim Report
December 20-Winter Musical
December 21-Last day before winter break
Dec. 22-Jan. 2- Winter Break
Please check out our monthly student newsletter on our school website under the "Parent" link for a calendar of these important dates, additional announcements. You can find all school news located on our school calendar. Please review this information each week to stay updated on all the activities at Sumner!
Attendance
We need all students to "be here to get there" because learning takes you places! Good school attendance often starts with smaller steps, such as arriving and leaving on time. The school day begins at 7:40 a.m. and ends at 2:25 p.m. One of the most valuable life skills a student can learn is taking the responsibility of arriving and eding at school every day on time. This skill can easily be accomplished and will transfer as an asset for the future. Please help support your children in learning habits that will help them be successful at school and throughout life. At Sumner, important learning opportunities for our students occur all throughout the instructional day.
Chronic absence is issing 10% or 18 days of the school year. These 18 days also include when students are late to school or leave early and can have dramatic results on the future education of a student. These students are missing valuable instructional time. This not affects teaching and learning for your child but the entire class. We hope to see everyone at school all day, every day!
Positive Behavior Support
We review our positive behavior expectations and character attributes everyday with students. Please review our SOAR acronym with your child at home to help support our program. Our character education word of the month is respect. Respect means:
Caring for ourselves, community, family and school
Sumner Seahawks SOAR! They:
Show a positive attitude.
Own it and take responsibility.
Always do their best.
Respect themselves and others.
Character Counts!
As a national school of character, we work to implement and embed into our school culture an intentional focus on teaching students the importance of having and maintaining a positive character. Teaching character traits are important to teaching the "whole" child at Sumner. Every adult on campus regularly reinforces and models our character motto of “by SOARING together we can be the best we can be!”
One way we teach character traits is through our “character attribute of the month” morning announcements. During morning announcements, the school principal, staff and students in all grades K-5, engage in what each character “trait looks like, sounds like, acts like and feels like” for the month, every day. Students are taught what it means to have respect, responsibility, kindness, courage, gratitude, integrity, self-discipline, and perseverance.
Throughout the day students are provided with opportunities to engage in meaningful reflective actions, challenging academic curriculum, establishing a respect for all diversity and developing their character. This creates a caring community, grows student character and ensures for a healthy transition into our global world.
Each month this year, we will recognize two students per class at our monthly awards breakfast for demonstrating these traits at school. Help us to congratulate our Character Award recipients! We invite and encourage our families and the community to participate in these celebrations as we are all partners in this initiative. Help us encourage our students to have great character today and every day! By SOARING together, we can be the best we can be!
Curriculum Corner
Kindergartners are learning about farms, the different animals that live there, and how they impact our community. They are learning different shapes and how to identify them.
First Graders are learning about ancient civilizations and the traditions that come from them. They are continuing to learn addition as it relates to subtraction.
Second Graders are continuing to learn about ancient Greece and the different myths that come from that time period. They are also using place value charts to identify tens and groups of tens.
Third Graders are learning about bugs. They are also learning how to use text features and how those text features better help them understand their reading. They are continuing to work on two step word problems in Math.
Fourth Graders are continuing to work during their reading time to monitor their reading as well as their goals. These goals, called Power Goals, change as students grow. They are continuing to work on using different strategies to solve, and explain, their Math assignments.
Fifth Graders are learning about ecosystems with a focus on explicitly using their text. They are also working on using different strategies to solve, and explain, their Math assignments.
Third through Fifth Graders will continue to analyze their personal interim data and will be working on growing in areas identified as difficulties.
Counselor’s Corner
All of Sumner’s classes are seen twice monthly for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) lessons with our school counselors. To date, we have learned about social isolation and how to help (Start With Hello) as well as bullying and the importance of being an upstander. In December and January we will be discussing the importance of kindness, culminating in nationally celebrated Random Acts of Kindness week starting February 11th.
Teachers in Action
Title I Information
Guilford Parent Academy News
How to Help Your Child Improve Reading Skills
This workshop is geared toward supporting parents with resources and activities to extend a love of reading into the home. Participants will leave with activities, resources and ideas for making reading a family event.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 6 - 7 p.m.
Eastern Middle School, 435 Peeden Dr., Gibsonville, NC 27249
GPA Family Engagement On the Go: STEM Night at Erwin Montessori
Families will have the opportunity to learn about Guilford Parent Academy’s resources during the STEM Night event at Erwin Montessori.
Thursday, November 14, 2019, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Erwin Montessori at Alamance Elementary School, 3600 Williams Dairy Rd., Greensboro, NC 27406
FREE Business Seminars
Tuesday, November 12, 2019, 12 – 1 p.m.
How to Write a Business Plan
Facilitated by Chisa Pennix-Brown, Lady Bizness, Inc.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Spending Traps
Facilitated by Allegacy Palladium Financial Center, 3015 E. River Way, High Point, NC 27265
FREE Reading Classes for the Family
Tuesday, November 12, 2019 & Thursday, November 14, 2019, 5 – 8 p.m.
Rankin Elementary School, 1501 Spry St., Greensboro, NC 27405
Facilitated by Reading Connections & Guilford Partnership for Children
Free adult and student classes with a free book and dinner
Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 5 – 8 p.m.
Falkener Elementary School, 3931 Naco Rd., Greensboro, NC 27401
Facilitated by Reading Connections & Guilford Partnership for Children
FREE Class for Parents
Tuesday, November 12, 2019, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Incredible Years Parenting Series (Families of students age 6-12)
Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 1301 Alamance Church Rd., Greensboro, NC 27406
Facilitated by Family Services of the Piedmont
FREE transportation, meal, and childcare provided
Call 336.882.3955 to register before attending.
To learn more about GPA, sign up for monthly updates or register for free classes, click here, email parentacademy@gcsnc.com or call 336-279-4924.
Dr. Kimberly Jones Goods
Principal
Sumner Elementary
By SOARING together we can be the best we can be!
Connect with us!
Website: https://www.gcsnc.com/Sumner_Elementary
Location: 1915 Harris Drive, Greensboro, NC, USA
Phone: 336-316-5888
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sumner-Elementary-470691953730692/
Twitter: @sumnerseahawks