Audubon Traditional Elementary School Newsletter

Transcription

1 December 15, 2014 Audubon Traditional Elementary School Newsletter Audubon Traditional Elementary School Newsletter Principal: Tiffany Marshall Vice-Principal: Faneshia McPherson Audubon Pledge I will take pride in myself, my class, and my school. I will be prepared, respectful, intelligent, disciplined, and engaged. Today I will take pride in myself so others will be proud of me. Principal s News We have gotten off to a great start this year. This school year is flying by and your children have been working hard to meet the high expectations of our school. My goals for this year are to increase student achievement and provide effective communication to all parents and staff. Our school vision for school year includes: Audubon s math instruction is standards based, data driven, technology integrated with problem solving components based on student s need. During the month of November, Audubon hosted a district professional learning community meeting. Professional learning communities are collaborative meetings between teachers to discuss instructional practices, assessments, and ways to support student learning. This is the first year that Audubon has professional learning communities. We are excited to implement and collaborate on new instructional strategies that will benefit our students. School Programs Audubon is a busy place that provides many extracurricular activities to support students with extracurricular activities. This year we have an Archery team for fourth and fifth grade students that is sponsored by Mr. Gravatte. Mr. Gittings is in the process of starting an Audubon running club for students in 1 st through 5 th grade. A parent meeting will be set-up in the near future and Mr. Gittings will need parent volunteers to support the program. We have a great team of quick recall and future problem solving students that are ready for a successful year. Our Young Rembrandts art program will begin in January/ February for students that are interested in drawing. Additional information will be sent home as the date gets closer. I m proud of the programs that we are implementing this school year and I look forward to continuing new activities to build our extracurricular program. The Holidays As we end 2014 and leave for holiday celebrations with family and friends, I want to wish you and your families the happiest of holidays. You are a wonderful group of students, parents, staff members, and teachers that collaborate to make Audubon Traditional Elementary a special place for learning. I thank my lucky stars to work with you each and every day. I m looking forward to 2015 and know great things are in store for Audubon Traditional Elementary. Happy Holidays!

2 Reading and Math Goals To support our school-wide vision of math our school has been using a math technology program to support student learning. Every grading period students have the opportunity to attend celebrations for meeting their IXL or Accelerated Reader goal. IXL is a comprehensive math review site with an unlimited number of practice questions in hundreds of skills all of which are aligned to state standards. One of the best things about IXL is that your child can access it from home, so you have a chance to see your child s progress! The purpose of these programs are to celebrate and recognize students that are practicing their math and reading skills. I want to congratulate the following classes and students who have exceeded their goals: Ms. Bellingham s class has answered the most math problems for this grading period. The students in Ms. Bellingham s class have answered 30,000 math problems. Way to go 3 rd graders!!!! Ms. Conkling s and Ms. Bowman s class has spent 100 hours practicing math and have answered 15,000 math problems. Impressive, 4 th graders!!! Lauren Clark, in Ms. Conkling s class is the top performer for IXL this grading period. Lauren has spent 13 hours and 38 minutes answering math problems correctly. Great job Lauren!!! You are a high performing, high soaring Audubon Eagle. I want to challenge all of my students to continue working on your reading and math skills. I m going to continue recognizing and celebrating students and classes that are meeting or exceeding their goals on the announcements and with special prizes. Parents I appreciate your support; which makes Audubon a successful school. 3 rd, 4 th, 5 th Grade Teachers: It is almost time for Audubon s annual Spelling Bee! Each class is asked to conduct a Spelling Bee and submit their class winner and runner-up to Mrs. Kirchgessner no later than Tuesday, December 16, Forms will be sent to each teacher whose class is participating. We will also need 2-3 more volunteers to help with the Spelling Bee. The Audubon Spelling Bee will be held in the auditorium on January 7, The 15 th District Spelling Bee will be held at Male on February 11 at 4:30, which only the winner of Audubon s Spelling Bee will attend. Contact: Jennifer Miller, PTA ([email protected]) PTA Membership Update Current Total: 681 Check out the Audubon Eagle Football Field near the Teacher's Lounge the next time you come into school to see how close your child's class is to scoring a touchdown. Students can earn individual rewards like a dress down day pass & a homework pass. Classroom incentives include extra recess and a movie party. Mrs. Harris' and Ms. McBride's classes have received a special treat for crossing the 50 yard line!

3 Math Challenge This school year all students at Audubon Traditional will participate in the Math Challenge. Every student will take a grade-level challenge as outlined below. Students will be eligible to earn individual recognition and the progress of each homeroom and grade-level will also be recognized. Don t forget the IXL website is available for your child to practice. We believe that every student at Audubon Traditional can meet the Math Challenge! We look forward to celebrating their accomplishments! Bus Reminders We ask for your cooperation in helping to ensure that your child complies with the following regulations. Obey the driver s instructions. The driver of a school bus is in complete charge of the passengers while they are aboard. If you have a complaint, inform the principal or assistant principal. Remember that the driver has the authority to assign seats. Be seated immediately, and remain seated while the bus is in motion. Do not extend arms, legs or head out of the bus. Do not horseplay on the bus or create any loud disturbances. Do not wave or shout to pedestrians or occupants of other vehicles, and do not throw objects from the bus window. Remember eating and drinking are not permitted on the school bus. Keep the bus clean. Do not throw trash on the floor. Remember use of electronic/telecommunication devices is not permitted on the school bus.

4 Welcome to Ms. Divine s Counselor s Corner! In an effort to keep parents more informed about what s happening in my Counseling Program I have created a new link on the Audubon Webpage that will feature upcoming events, exciting news, helpful resources, information about guidance lessons and more! The link for the webpage is In addition, I have created a new Facebook page: Audubon Traditional Counselor s Corner. The link for this page is You can also follow me on Twitter! Check it THANK YOU CAREER WEEK VOLUNTEERS! I would like to extend a special thank you to all the parents and volunteers that participated in the November Career Week. I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedules to help educate our students on the importance of higher education and becoming college and career ready! Our next Career Weeks dates are January 12-16, 2015 and March 23-27, Please contact out PTA representative Wendy Bancroft at or her at [email protected] if you are able to help! Congratulations Student Council Officers! President: Ashtyn Harris Vice President: Brayden Final Secretary: Ella Nichter Public Relations Officer: Noah Grout Congratulations Audubon Student Council Members! Please see the next page for a list of the student representatives. Keeping children first, Robin Divine, Counselor

5 Box Top Information Thanks to all those who have been sending in box tops. We have had a great start to the school year with all of your help. We are on our way to meeting our school's goal. We have raised a total of $1, for the months of September and October. Keep clipping those box tops and sending them in at the designated dates. You will be notified with a letter home and an when it is time to send them in. Our next collection date is Thursday, December 11th. You may send the box tops in an envelope, ziploc bag or tape, glue them on the back of the letter sent home (a box top sheet). You may make as many copies as needed of this form. Please make sure you note your child's name and teacher with the box tops. Again, thank you all for supporting your child's school and collecting box tops!

6 Fall Festival The Fall Festival came and went and was a wonderful success again this year. Although the Festival itself only last for 3 hours, the planning takes months and countless hours of preparation. This event would not be possible without the numerous volunteers and the support of our school. We would like to thank each of the teachers who allowed us to use their rooms for games and crafts. And a special thank you to Ms. Best for allowing us to completely transform the library into a Haunted House! Thank you also to the custodial and kitchen staff for their help in not only preparing the school for the Festival, but especially cleaning up afterward. Thank you to the parents and students who donated your time by volunteering to decorate, set up, prepare food, run games, or clean up. The help was very much needed and appreciated. An event this large cannot run successfully without lots of help! And lastly, a special thank you to the following businesses who donated items for us to use: McDonald s on Hess Lane, Wendy s on Poplar Level, Kroger, Papa John s and Hwang s. Please patronize these businesses to thank them! We hope that you will join us again next year! Laura Gross & Jennifer Peace (Fall Festival Chairpersons) CAP (Clothing Assistance Program) The Used Uniform Sale at Meet Your Teacher Day was a huge success. Thank you to all the many volunteers that helped set up, make sales, calculate, organize clothing and clean up. The unsold clothing donations were impressive. We were able to re-stock our Audubon CAP Closet and take the excess to the 15th District PTA CAP Closet. Thank you to the dedicated volunteers and participants that bought, sold and donated their clothing. Our 1st volunteer date to help at the District CAP Closet was in September. We had four volunteers that were able to donate their time to hang and sort clothing to distribute to JCPS students and their families. Thank you to the volunteers from our September date. Our next date is Jan. 15th from 10-1pm. Please consider helping on our 2nd date, the District CAP truly appreciates its volunteers. The generosity of our students and families is always abundantly clear in their donations to the Coats for Kids Drive and the Mitten Tree. Your child can decorate the Mitten Tree with new gloves, mittens, scarves and hats during the month of December. Items donated will first be distributed to Audubon children in need. Excess will go to the 15th District PTA Clothing Assistance Program for children from other JCPS schools. Uniform donations are always accepted. Please clean and return any borrowed uniforms from school. Borrowed and donated uniforms can be dropped off in Audubon's office. In the Spring, following Spring Break, we will have a Clothing Drive for the 15th District PTA CAP. Thanks again, to our generous Audubon families. CAP Coordinator - Tera Allen