Ninth News
October 4, 2019
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
This newsletter will also be linked to our school website and social media accounts. Those addresses are found at the bottom of this newsletter.
- Eddy Bushelman
PICTURE DAY IS OCTOBER 9
Dress to impress the morning of October 9 as it's school picture day!
NO SCHOOL OCTOBER 11 & 14
Covington Independent Schools will be closed on October 11 & 14 for Fall Break.
CONFERENCES ARE OCT. 30
Mark your calendars now to attend Parent/Teacher Conferences after school on October 30. More details coming at a later date.
MORE DATES
October:
- 4th = Student of the Month breakfast
- 9th = Picture Day
- 11th - 14th = No School! (fall break)
- 15th - 18th = NKY Health Department Dental Program
- 28th - November 1 = Book Fair!
- 30th = Parent / Teacher Conferences (details TBA). Book Fair open at night!!!!
- 31st = Book Character Parade for Halloween (details TBA)
November:
- 1st = Book Fair ends & student of the month breakfast
- 5th = No School! (election day)
- 22nd = Freestore Foodbank Produce Pop-up (12:45 - 1:45pm)
December:
- 2nd - 6th = Big Smiles Dental Program
- 6th = Student of the Month breakfast
- 20th = Last day before Christmas Break (holiday parties)
- 21st - January 5th = Christmas Break
ATHLETIC INFO
Cheerleading: Tryouts were held this week for 4th and 5th grade girls that were interested. Those who make the team today will receive a letter from Coach Zeis with more information. Hayley.Zeis@covington.kyschools.us
Girls Basketball: Tryouts for the upcoming season begin Monday, October 7 from 3:20 - 4:20pm. These will be closed tryouts, so please make sure you're ready to pick up your player at 4:20pm. Cuts will be necessary based on the number of players that try out. While we wish everyone could make the team, there's only so many spots available! Information will be sent home on Tuesday, October 8, for those who made the team. Please contact Coach Felts if you have questions. Chris.Felts@covington.kyschools.us
Boys Basketball: We are gearing up for the upcoming season! Tryouts took place this week, and those that made the team were given the news today, and a few things will be coming home with those players today. Those things include: an Athletics Permission Form that will need to be filled out, a sport physical form (if they do not play another sport), and directions on how to join the boy’s basketball team page on Remind. Coach Roberts will use Remind to communicate news and reminders to you. Forms need to be turned in ASAP. Tim.Roberts@covington.kyschools.us
USE IXL AT HOME!
As a Ninth District Elementary student, your child will now have free access to IXL. This is a website where each student has a personal account to work on Math and Reading skills both at school AND at home. With thousands of interactive practice problems, students have found IXL to be an engaging way to achieve mastery of the state standards by working at their own pace on their own level.
Because IXL is adaptive, it helps your child learn at his or her own pace. The site also saves all of your child’s data so you have access to monitor progress anytime by clicking on Reports at the top of the page. Teachers utilize reports as well to gather essential information that will allow them to better support individual student learning.
Your child will log in through Clever. As always, feel free to contact your child’s teacher with any specific questions you may have about using the program effectively. We encourage you to have your child practice IXL frequently at home -- the more practice our students do at home, the more likely it is that your child will see an increase in confidence and performance in school!
THE IMPORTANCE OF READING
There are dramatic positive impacts for students who read early and often. Check out the graphic below for how student achievement soars when a child reads more.
Tips for encouraging reading at home:
- Read a book about something a student likes, or has interest in.
- Help your child make a book.
- Build a book collection for your child, and then provide a special place for your child's own books.
- Model reading at home. When your child sees you reading, it sets a good example and reinforces it as a valuable activity.
- Pick up a free book in our school lobby!
- Talk with your child about what they're reading. Ask them questions. Even ask them to write you a summary of what they read.
- Use IXL!
ATTENDANCE
Good attendance has a direct relationship with student achievement. Not only does good attendance have the impacts mentioned in the pictures below, but good attendance is also a key employability school. Developing these strong habits now will lead to dependable employability skills when they are young adults!
TRAFFIC & PARKING
- The driveways of neighboring homes
- Any parts of the street
- Entrance to the school parking lot
- Striped area in front of the school where the buses park
- Handicap spots (only if you have the right identification on your car).
* And most importantly, never pass a school bus when it is stopped. This is a state law that must be adhered to.
R.E.S.P.E.C.T !!!
Ninth District will focus on specific character traits every month that will be taught and reinforced throughout various school activities. In the classrooms, teachers will lead lessons and activities related to the assigned trait for the month. The lessons will help nurture and promote the ethical, intellectual, social and emotional development of individuals. It is a continuous learning process that will enable students to become moral, caring, critical, responsible individuals.
The trait we are focused on this month is RESPECT!
VIKINGS FIRST LEGO LEAGUE
The Vikings Mindstorm First Lego League is well underway. We received our City Shaper Challenge and students are developing and building each of the Lego missions to prepare for the competition. Some of the components they have completed include a crane, a roadblock that has to be removed by the EV3 robot, buildings, a bridge that has flags to be raised and a wheelchair swing set. Building continues and they all hope to start programing the robot to complete the mission challenges in the upcoming weeks. Each Challenge has three parts: the Robot Game, the Innovation Project, and the Core Values. Teams of up to ten children, with at least two adult coaches, participate in the Challenge by programming an autonomous robot to score points on a themed playing field (Robot Game), developing a solution to a problem they have identified (Project), all guided by the FIRST Core Values.
As part of the Innovation Project, the students have to find a problem in their town and find a solution to fixing the problem. This year, the students have decided to stay close to home and look at the school playground. They have brainstormed issues that they see with the playground, done research on ideas to make the area more fun for all students at all grade levels and are creating a proposal for improvement. If they get approval for their idea, they will work on the process of getting a sponsor for the project to purchase materials and volunteers to build the proposed project.
The Vikings Lego League students have until December 14th to get their challenge completed before they go to regional competition in Edgewood to compete against many other schools in the region. The Lego Robotics program is being run through the Viking Zone after school program on Tuesdays and Thursdays with Mrs. Brownfield and Ms. Muehlenkamp as the coaches. It is limited to fourth and fifth grade students.
WE LOVE OUR VOLUNTEERS!
Anyone wishing to volunteer in our schools must fill out the volunteer application and pass a background check. Completed applications should be turned in to the school office, and they take a few weeks to process.
For questions, contact Marilynn.Arnold@covington.kyschools.us. We look forward to working with you in our school!!!
DONATIONS ALWAYS WELCOME!
- Glue sticks and Plastic bottle caps for a buddy bench (2nd grade)
- Old newspapers and magazines (3rd grade)
- Empty, clean soup cans (1st grade)
- Dry Erase markers (all teachers)
- Kleenex (all teachers)
- Composition Notebooks (all teachers)
- #2 pencils (all teachers)
CONTACT INFO
* For safety reasons, it's a requirement that we have updated contact information for you and others who have permission to pick up your child from school.
NINTH DISTRICT ELEMENTARY
School Hours = 8am - 3:05pm
- Assistant Principal = Kieli.Ferguson@covington.kyschools.us
- Counselor = Lucy.Fruchtenicht@covington.kyschools.us
- Instruction = Marlena.White@covington.kyschools.us
- School Nurse = Katie.Hirsch@covington.kyschools.us
- Secretary = Jessica.Hamilton@covington.kyschools.us
- Family Resource = Marilynn.Arnold@covington.kyschools.us
- Principal = Eddy.Bushelman@covington.kyschools.us
Email: eddy.bushelman@covington.kyschools.us
Website: https://www.covington.kyschools.us/7/home
Location: 2800 Indiana Avenue, Covington, KY, USA
Phone: (859) 292-5823
Twitter: @NinthDistrictES