Wednesday Word
January 29, 2020
From the Principal
I would like to send a huge shout out to Marci Leuschen and her students from Free State High School and Lawrence High School for an amazing science fair last night! We had an incredible turn out and our students and families were highly engaged in the interactive tables led by the high school students. It was a fun learning experience for everyone! We also want to congratulate all the scholars that entered a project!
Once again, we want to thank everyone for the patience and participation in our new car line dismissal process. Now that we are two weeks in, we have figured out what is working and what could use some tweaking. Below are some things we are putting in place to insure this process is seamless. We appreciate your attention to these items during dismissal.
1. We will not be taking dismissal changes after 3:00pm. Please make sure you call with any dismissal changes prior to 3:00pm.
2. We will not be calling into the car room from the office until the entire car line is done. This will eliminate radio traffic from the office so it does not interfere with calling students out to the car line. That means if your child goes to the gym to be a car rider there will be a wait if you are not using the car line and pick them up from the office.
3. Once the car line is done, we take all the students from the gym into the office. If you arrive after the car line is done, please plan on picking your child up from the office.
4. Please pull up as close to the orange cones as possible. Our plan is to load 7 cars at a time. Once your car is loaded, you can pull out of the car line.
Thank you for your continued partnership in making this process as safe and seamless as possible.
As always it is an honor to serve as the principal of Sunflower Elementary.
Melissa Blevins
From The Office
Congratulations to Mr.Gipson as he received a grant from Lawrence Schools Foundation! The grant will provide funds to purchase guitars for student use in class & the 5th grade modern band program!
Parent/Teacher Conferences:
Conference forms are being sent home this week with your child. Please select a preferred time frame for your conference and return to school no later than Monday February 3rd.
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.
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.
Checkers & Hy-Vee Receipts:
Remember to save your receipts as the Superbowl is right around the corner!
- Participating Hy-vee stores -Clinton Parkway
- Participating Checkers store is located at - 2300 Louisiana Street
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
National School Counselor Week!
From PTO
Ice Cream Social:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c49adac2ba4fb6-icecream6
Upcoming Events
January Calendar
- 30 - K & 2nd to Lied Center
- 30 - 4th Day at the Farm
February Calendar
- 4 - Site Council Meeting 6:00 pm
- 4 - PTO Meeting at 7:00 pm
- 4 - Food Pantry 3:15 - 4:45 pm
- 6 - ESL Women's Group from 4:15 - 5:15 pm
- 6 - 4th Music Program at 6:00 pm
- 6 - 5th Music Program at 7:15 pm
- 11 - Friendly Smiles Dental Clinic
- 12 - Bank Day
- 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
- 28 - 5th to KU School of Economics