Wednesday Word
Februrary 12th, 2020
From the Principal
We are looking forward to seeing everyone next week during parent/teacher conferences. Notes have been sent home regarding confirmation of your day and time. Just a reminder we do not have school this Friday so teachers can prepare report cards and next Thursday and Friday due to parent/teacher conferences.
It is hard to believe we are getting ready to start our third and final trimester of the school year! This trimester we are really starting to focus on attendance. We will be doing some fun incentives to bring awareness of the importance of being at school on time each day and staying all day! We will be tracking classrooms who have perfect attendance as a class (100% of students were at school all day) and they will earn a letter. When their class has spelled the word PERFECT the class will receive a class reward. In addition, we are going to recognize those scholars individually who have perfect attendance for a specified period of time. More to come about this. I know right now we have a lot of illness going around and kids have to be fever free 24 hours before returning to school and we appreciate you honoring this so we can keep everyone healthy!
Currently we have about 10% of our student body missing 10% or more of the school year. This is considered chronic absenteeism and has significant impacts on student learning. That breaks down to missing 2 days of school a month. In an effort to bring awareness to the importance of good attendance I will start publishing our attendance rates by grade level. Below you will find our year to date attendance data, this is the average daily attendance rate by grade level. After this week I will track the previous week's data for you. Our goal is for all students to be in attendance at least 95% of the time.
K-94.07%
1-94.78%
2-95.98%
3-95.92%
4-95.06%
5-93.61%
Total=95.26%
We appreciate all your efforts to insure our scholars have a solid foundation in their elementary years!
As always it is an honor to be the principal of Sunflower Elementary!
Melissa Blevins
From The Office
Teacher Conferences will be held next Wednesday night and all day/evening on Thursday. If you have forgotten your time to meet with your child’s teacher, feel free to call the office to inquire about your time. These conferences are very important for you to attend to hear about the good progress and areas of improvement that your child can make. Progress reports will be given to you to share with your child. Thanks for continuing your partnership with your child’s teacher and Sunflower!
Valentines Day:
Valentine's Day parties are scheduled for Thursday, February 13th. If you do not wish for your child to participate in the party, please notify Nancy Lett at nlett@usd497.org so we will know how many children to plan for alternate activities. As always, you also have the option of picking your child up prior to the 3:00 start of the party. Should you wish to do this, simply come to the office to sign them out.
-If you are unsure on how many children are in your students class for Valentine's, please click the attached link below!
Yearbook:
For the first time we are accepting online orders for the yearbook! Yearbooks are on sale online at https://bit.ly/2njoZn7 until April 30th. Yearbooks are $15.00. After April 30th all sales will take place at Sunflower’s office. All yearbooks will be distributed the last day of school before the signing party.
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If you have great photos of our students at school events/clubs, we would love to have them for the yearbook! The more photos we get, the better the yearbook will be!
The yearbook staff will review all photos and determine the final yearbook content. We cannot guarantee that all submissions will be used in the book. Pictures will be accepted until March 1st. Please tag them so we know what grade level each photo is.
There are 3 ways to submit pictures for the yearbook -
1. Email Nancy at nlett@usd497.org.
2. Upload your photos from your mobile device:
- Search for Balfour Image Share in your app marketplace.
- Download the app and create an account.
- Enter your name, email and our project number 010701.
- Check your email for confirmation code. Enter it, select a username and password to complete your registration.
3. Upload photos from your web browser at images.balfour.com.
There is no school this Friday, February 14th, Thursday, February 20th and Friday, February 21st . Boys and Girls Club is not in session.
From The Counselor
Positive Action Lessons (Social Curriculum) for the Months of January & February:
Classroom teachers and the counselor will be teaching the Unit about Getting Along with Others Using Social/Emotional Positive Actions. Everyone wants to be liked. Positive Action gives students a way to think about social acceptance. The simple key for them is to treat people the way they would like to be treated. When students learn to treat people positively - as they like to be treated - they feel the positive behaviors bouncing back to them. Students will learn specific positive ways of dealing with others, which include the following main topics...
Friendship: caring between people who choose to be together.
Love: a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection.
Empathy: to think how others feel.
Respect: to show special care for people.
Kindness & Fairness: to care for others and take thoughtful actions while treating them with justice.
Cooperation: to work with others for a common purpose.
In addition to the Positive Action lessons, Sunflower Elementary will be celebrating GREAT KINDNESS CHALLENGE WEEK (Jan 27th-31st). PLUS, during our KINDNESS-GIVING WEEK (Feb 17th-19th), all students will engage in a giving project to show our compassion for our Lawrence community! More specific information will be coming your way soon!
Please contact Julie Heatwole (school counselor), if you have any questions or concerns at #785-330-4860 or jheatwol@usd497.org
Giving February!
Sunflower Elementary will be collecting donations for the Lawrence Humane Society and Lawrence Memorial Hospital pediatric patients during the rest of February. This is a great way to teach our children how to be compassionate and giving to others. Donations may be placed in labeled donation boxes that will be located in the rotunda. Here are the items needed:
Lawrence Humane Society:
a. Used towels, sheets, blankets
b. Cleaning supplies
c. Office supplies
d. Dog/Cat treats and/or toys
Lawrence Memorial Hospital:
a. Stuffed animals (new)
b. Children’s books and coloring books
c. Crayons/markers
d. Play packs (found in the party section at Wal-Mart)
e. Magazines
f. Puzzles and/or word searches
g. Non-toxic stress balls
The Great Kindness Challenge
All kids deserve to learn in a safe, supportive, and caring environment. The Great Kindness Challenge provides a powerful tool that actively engages scholars, teachers, administrators, families, and communities in creating a culture of compassion, acceptance, unity, and respect. Sunflower Elementary is dedicating the rest of February to encouraging our scholars to engage in RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS by using the provided kindness checklist/s. The Great Kindness Challenge is a proactive and positive bullying prevention initiative that improves school climate and increases scholar engagement. Please enjoy engaging in Random Acts of Kindness with your children. At the end of February, please return the checklist/s to Julie Heatwole, school counselor. I will tally ALL our Random Acts of Kindness to see just how many wonderful acts of kindness everyone engaged in! Let's see how many we can do!! Any questions or concerns, please contact Julie Heatwole, school counselor at #785-330-4860 or jheatwol@usd497.org
From PTO
Hello Sunflower Room Parents-
Just a reminder that the Valentine's day party at Sunflower is scheduled for Thursday, February 13 @ 3pm. If you haven't already, now would be a good time to reach out to your Valentine party volunteers and give them a reminder of what they signed up to bring. It's a good idea to send them another quick reminder 2 days before the party as well.
Please double check with your classroom teacher to get a current class count and to check on any allergies you may have in your classroom and communicate this to your volunteers.
If you are having trouble getting a hold of volunteers or finding volunteers, check with your classroom teacher. This time of year they have a good idea on what parents/families like to help out. And, as always, if we can be of help, let us know!
Thank you for all your hard work and help with the classroom parties this year.
Hilary Nauholz- PTO President
614-264-7265
Heather Flachsbarth- PTO Vice President
913-908-1280
Kristi Knox- PTO Secretary
785-917-9206
Courtney Freet- PTO Treasurer
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Parent/Teacher conferences will be held February 19th and 20th.
If you would like to help bring food on the conference days for our teachers, please use the link to sign up! Wednesday evening, we will be hosting Brinner (breakfast for dinner) and easy grab-and-go items. Drop off for Wednesday is before 2:30PM. On Thursday, we will be hosting a taco bar. Drop off for Thursday is before 10:30AM.
The teachers truly enjoy having yummy treats to eat during these two days! If you have any questions, please contact Emily Garven at emmers121500@hotmail.com or Beth Gill at maypeaches@yahoo.com
Join us Friday, Feburary 28th, 6:30 pm in the cafeteria
The feature presentation will be FROZEN 2
Bring blankets & pillows to sit on along with drinks with lids to enjoy while watching the movie!
Free Admission and Popcorn
Parent or guardian must accompany their students.
Box Tops
Upcoming Events
February Calendar
- 13 - Valentine's Parties at 3:00
- 14 - No School
- 18 - Food Pantry 3:15 - 4:45 pm
- 19 - Parent Teacher Conferences from 4:00 - 7:00 pm
- 20 - No School Parent Teacher Conferences from 8:00 am - 7:00 pm
- 21 - No School
- 24 - 5th Grade Farm to School field trip
- 28 - 5th to KU School of Economics
March Calendar
- 3 - Food Pantry 3:15 - 4:45 pm
- 3 - Site Council 6:00 pm
- 3 - PTO Meeting at 7:00 pm
- 5 - ESL Women's Group 4:15- 5:15 pm
- 9-13 - Spring Break
- 16- School Resumes
- 17- Food Pantry 3:15 - 4:45 pm
- 20- PTO Carnival 6:00 - 8:00 pm
- 26- No School
- 27- No School