Central Primary School
January Newsletter
A Note from the Office...
We would like to welcome Illinois State University student teachers to CPS! Elizabeth Cerullo is with Kate Norburg in first grade, Jenna Evett is with Kate Lang in kindergarten and Reilly Orpen is with Deb Couri in first grade.
We understand that absences are necessary at times and flu season is upon us. If your student is absent or needs to be checked out due to a Dr. appointment, please be sure to turn in any Dr. notes you may have for your student to the office.
Important January dates to remember:
- School Board meeting: Thursday, Jan. 16th 7:00pm
- Early Dismissal: Friday, Jan. 17th 11:30 am
- No School, Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Monday, Jan. 20th
- PTO Trivia Night: Friday, Jan. 24th 6:00-10:00 pm (Trivia starts at 7:00 pm) @ Countryside Banquet Facility
PTO Updates from Mrs. Redlingshafer
Leader in Me- Habit 4
Notes from the Nurses- Carrie Bright, RN Central Primary School & Kim Martin, RN Central Intermediate School
Central Nurses wish everyone a happy, safe, and healthy New Year in 2020!
Trending in the Nursing Offices now:
Strep Throat: Fever, headache, sore throat, stomach ache, vomiting
Upper Respiratory Illnesses: Running nose, cough, sore throat, fatigue
Pneumonia: Cough with (low-grade) fever, fatigue- Please see a doctor immediately!
Pink eye: Red, itchy/ burning/ painful eyes (one or both) with thick yellow/ green drainage
Influenza: Sudden onset of sore throat, fever, headache, muscle aches and soreness, congestion, and cough. *It’s not too late to get a flu shot!*
Stomach flu: Stomach ache, vomiting, diarrhea, fever
Don’t say the “L” Word: Yes, lice… are you itching yet?! While Central 51 Schools DO NOT have a current outbreak, we do on occasion have a few cases throughout the year. We encourage ALL families to check their students at home weekly.
If your student is found to have lice:
Per Central 51 policy, your student will be sent home from school if LIVE lice are found. He/She may return once they have been treated and all live lice are gone. While we do encourage nits be removed, they are NOT an excluding factor.
If you discovered the infestation at home, PLEASE NOTIFY THEIR TEACHER OR THE NURSE so that we can implement interventions to prevent spreading it to others. Great care will be taken to keep it confidential to protect your student and family’s privacy.
Call your doctor for recommendations for appropriate treatments. Ask about treatments that are effective against “Super lice” and that will kill live lice AND nits. (Tip: Call your pharmacy 1st to ask if any treatments are covered under your health care plan)
For more information:
Social Emotional Learning Corner- Mrs. Ashley Neal
It’s the start of 2020 and I hope you and your family are off to a good start! As we start this new year, it is helpful to reflect and reset. Starting this conversation with little ones, however, can often be challenging. Fear not though, I have the activity for you! This Hands-On Activity may be just what you are looking for on that cold, snowy weekend afternoon.
I encourage you to work with your child/children on this activity. For each strength domain/area, pick a color and encourage your child to color the statements in which he/she feel are strengths. Next, your child can cut out these strips of paper. Finally, his/her stack of strengths can be made into a paper chain, which can be proudly hung up in your home! Remember to save the strips that were not yet colored or added to the paper chain. These strips can serve as short and long term goals that your family can work towards, helping your child eventually turn them into STRENGTHS! Have fun talking about your child’s strengths and how each year, we can strive to improve!
Social Emotional Learning Corner- Mrs. Arms and Mrs. Freeman
Hoping and Dreaming for Our Brand New Year
The start of the year ushers in a fresh opportunity to focus on what’s most important in our lives, to examine our hopes and dreams and figure out how they might come true through our day-to-day actions and steps toward our goals. Though we may consider our exercise routine or healthy eating habits (which are incredibly important!), we may not stop and think about our most important role as parents. Yet we know that we derive great meaning in our lives and a sense of purpose through our family relationships and our roles as caregivers. So why not take a pause and consider what we value, how we are challenged and specifically what hopes we are trying to bring to life for our children? Readers of this site include parents, educators, grandparents, youth service providers and so many others who love children. Whatever your role, these questions can apply to you!
For some, considering your greatest strengths might be a place to begin and build from. If this resonates with you, you might ask yourself:
What are the strengths of my parenting?
How are those strengths impacting my children?
What are my hopes and dreams for my child (think of each child individually)?
How can I build from my strengths to move toward those hopes?
Are there small, simple actions I can take that will add up over time to nurture those hopes?
If I don’t know exactly what those actions could be, how can I set a goal and become focused on learning new ways to further build those strengths?
For others, considering your greatest challenges might be the place you want to start. You might begin to ask:
What are the greatest challenges I face as a parent?
What are my hopes and dreams for my child (consider each child individually)?
What are the skills and values I want to teach my child?
How are those skills and values playing out in my reactions to those challenging moments? What am I currently teaching by my reactions?
What small, simple ways could I change my reactions in those most challenging moments to better align with skill building and my core values?
If I don’t know exactly what those actions could be, how can I set a goal and become focused on learning new ways to react in those moments?
Others may be more concerned with their child’s strengths or challenges and better focus their attention on their child. In this case, you might consider:
What are the strengths I see in my child (consider individually for each child)?
What are my hopes for my child?
In what ways could I build upon my child’s strengths to reach toward my hopes for him/her?
What modeling or teaching goal(s) might I set for myself to reinforce and build upon those strengths this year?
What resources can help me learn more to achieve my goal?
And yet others still might be more concerned with their child’s challenges. In fact, you may worry about those areas in which your child struggles. You may consider:
What are the challenges my child struggles with (consider each child individually)?
What are my hopes for my child?
How can I best influence my child’s growth and development in this challenging area?
What skills do I need to focus on building?
What small actions can I take to help model and support that skill development to reach toward my hopes?
What reasonable goal can I set to become intentional about building skills and creating teachable moments for this coming year?
What resources can help me learn more to achieve my goal?
Parents deal with such a wide range of issues from toddlers who need to become potty-trained before entering preschool to third graders who are being marginalized by friends to seventh graders who are feeling anxiety from peers to measure up in sports to teens who are being pressured by peers to try out new adult-sized risks. Yet we can take comfort as parents in the notion that all of these challenges are a necessary part of our child’s development. And our best support efforts for them build social and emotional skills so that they can navigate these challenges with competence. They can learn to articulate and accept their feelings. They can grow in their empathy for others. They can assert their needs to
others. They can become their own best relationship problem-solvers.
Each time we, as parents, reflect on our priorities and set our own learning agendas for continually growing and improving in our parenting, we take one step closer to achieving our hopes and dreams.
From The School Community Journal. “Parenting for Competence and Parenting with Competence; Essential Connections Between Parenting and Social and Emotional Learning”. Authors: JS Miller, S Wanless, R Weissberg.
Intervention- Mrs. Mertens, Mrs. Guse and Mrs. Holmes
Our 2nd round of STAR Benchmark testing was completed prior to Winter break. Data results were all sent home. We have been impressed with the overall growth of the students at CPS.
Math Activity for Fun
Build it Big or Build it Small-Place Value activity:
Kids each need a dice and some scratch paper or a whiteboard. Tell the kids whether they are trying to make a larger or a smaller number. I usually start big but after 5 minutes, switch it to small for variety. Kids make dashes on their paper/whiteboard to indicate the place value of the number.
So,if your child is in Kindergarten I would work with 2-lines for the tens and ones. 1st grade could work on tens and ones and work their way up to hundreds. 2nd grade can work with 3 lines to represent ones, tens, and hundreds. Finally, 3rd graders cans work with 4-digit numbers.
Kids take turns rolling dice the same number of times as the dashes. Each time a person rolls, he/she must think logically to place the number shown on the dice, on the dashes.
For example, if you are working on a large number and roll a six, it would go on the largest place value space but if you were working on making a small number, it would go on the smallest place value space. Once kids have placed a number, it can not be moved. The person with the highest (or lowest, depending upon the game's goal) wins a point.
Reading Tips
What should I ask my student when he or she is reading?
One of the most common questions I have been asked by parents is what kinds of questions to ask their child after they read. There are all kinds of questions that you can ask, but here is a list of some possibilities:
What was your favorite part of the story and why?
What do you think would happen if the story kept going?
Why do you think the character chose to do that?
How did that make the character feel?
What happened in the story?
Who was your favorite character and why?
What was the problem in the story? How did the problem get solved?
What did you learn about ___________? (This is a great question for nonfiction text!)
Any way that you can get your child talking about the story is great!
A Little Note from Music Class
Kindergarten has started a new unit in music. We will continue to reinforce the music fundamentals (pulse, fast/slow, high/low and phrasing) through songs and rhythmic activities that focus on snow.
First grade will focus this month on labeling the solfege pitches sol and mi in our songs and reading rhythms barred eighth notes, quarter notes and rests.
Second grade had a wonderful winter concert last month! They really did a great job and I was really proud of all they accomplished. This month we will focus on reading more music symbols while reinforcing rhythmic training.
Third grade has been learning to play the recorder. They are learning notes B-A-G, and have learned a few songs like Hot Cross Buns and Mary had a Little Lamb. Please have your child keep their recorder in their backpack or locker. The 3rd Grade is also preparing for their upcoming Winter Concert on February 12, 2020 in the CPS gymnasium. Please mark your calendars.
5:30 pm Concert- Mrs. Burke, Mrs. Fritz, Ms. Turner, Mrs. Walsh
7:00 pm Concert- Mrs. Hillegonds, Mrs. Kastl, Mrs. Seckler, Mrs. Standish
PE Notes- Mr. Dalberg
Art Corner- Miss Gleason
About Us
Email: ejohnson@central51.net
Website: www.central51.net
Location: 1400 Newcastle Road, Washington, IL, USA
Phone: 309-444-3580