December 23, 2015 Vaolume 1Volume 20

LOOKING AHEAD A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL Dec 24-Jan 3 NO SCHOOL - Winter Holiday Break

Jan 3 PTA Movie Day – 2:00 PM

Jan 4 Classes resume

Jan 4 2:30 PM Dismissal

Jan 4 PD Focus: Math

Jan 5 PTA Meeting – 6:30 PM in the library

Jan 7 Rollerama 6:00-8:00 PM

Jan 12 End of 1st Semester

Jan 13 NO SCHOOL – Teacher work day

Jan 14 2nd Semester begins

Jan 14 Parent/Daughter Potluck 6-7:30 PM

Jan 15 Bryant Spirit Day – remember to wear your Bryant shirt

Jan 18 2:30 PM Dismissal

Jan 18 PD Focus: PBIS

Jan 21 Parent/Son Potluck 6-7:30 PM

Jan 22 Bryant Spirit Day – remember to wear your Bryant shirt

Jan 25 2:30 PM Dismissal

Jan 25 PD Focus: Reading

Jan 29 Bryant Spirit Day – remember to wear your Bryant shirt

Feb 1 2:30 PM Dismissal

Feb 1 PD Focus: Reading

Feb 2 PTA Meeting – 6:30 PM in the library

Feb 5 Bryant Spirit Day – remember to wear your Bryant shirt

This is the fifth edition of the “Beartales” for the 2015-16 school year. The newsletter is sent home on the last Thursday of the month during the school year. The newsletter contains information about upcoming events, news and other information.

Your Principal, Mrs. Kollars

BRYANT

BEARTALES

Volume 5

Vaolume 1Volume 20

The mission of Bryant Elementary School is to provide all students with an exemplary education which will meet

the diverse needs of individual students in a positive and safe environment while preparing them for academic

success, productive citizenship, and lifelong learning.

The PTA is hard at work organizing our next activities: the Parent/Daughter and Parent/Son potlucks! The Parent/Daughter potluck is on January 14th; the Parent/Son potluck is on January 21st. They will be held in our gym from 6:00 to 7:30 PM. Come and eat yummy food, mingle with fellow Bryant Bears families, and enjoy some entertainment. The PTA provides pizza, drinks, dinnerware, and napkins. Families bring either a side dish or a dessert. (More information will be coming home soon!) We still need volunteers to help set up, serve food, and help tear down. If you are available to help, please contact the office at 712-279-6819. Hope to see you there!

News

1890-2015

125 years of education 821 30th Street, Sioux City, Iowa 51104

Phone: 712-279-6819

www.siouxcityschools.org

BRYANT GIVING TREE Thank you to everyone who donated items for the Bryant Giving Tree. The food items will be donated to the Siouxland Food Bank and the hats and mittens will remain in our building

to help keep our students warm.

Kindergarten Gingerbread Houses On December 17th our kindergartners decorated gingerbread houses. Pictures of the event are posted on the Bryant website. To access the website go to: www.siouxcityschools.org. Select the Schools tab and then select Bryant. The newsletter is located under the parents tab.

It is hard to believe that we are already approaching our holiday break. There are several upcoming events to note on your calendar in the New Year:

The Bryant PTA will be hosting Pot Luck dinners. See article included in this edition of the Beartales for further details.

Sioux City Community School District Preschool applications are due in December. The Sioux City Schools have a limited number of preschool openings for 4-year old children for the 2016-17 school year. Children must be four years old by September 15, 2016. Please contact Gina Bohan at 293-0426 with questions.

Information on the transition plan for Bryant students to go to Crescent Park Elementary school during the 2016-2017 school year will be shared in January & February.

Elementary School Parent Teacher Conferences will take place on February 22nd and 23rd, 2016.

Bryant Kindergarten Registration is scheduled for March 30th and 31st, 2016.

I would like to take the opportunity on behalf of the Bryant Staff to wish you peace and joy during this holiday season. Happy New Year!

Page 2

Look What's Happening at Bryant School

3rd Grade Teachers are excited for another awesome year of teaching and learning. This year at Bryant, there are only three 3rd grade teachers. The teachers are Mrs. Linafelter, Mrs. Tillo, and Ms. Horton. Ms. Horton will become Mrs. Olorundami on New Year’s Eve this year. We are all excited for her wedding. We are in our fourth year of using Go Math. The students are showing great progress and have become accustomed to the format and practices it entails. We are currently just finishing the chapter on multiplication. The students love learning to multiply. It would be so very helpful if you practiced multiplying with flash cards, home-made or purchased, each night at home for even just 15 minutes. Once the students have mastered their multiplication facts, they will progress much easier through the rest of the chapters. This is the second year Bryant will be using the reading program titled Reading Street. This program has been very well received by both teachers and students. The stories are interesting and engaging for the students, and there are a huge variety of leveled readers to use with the students individually and in the small group setting. We are again using the spelling program that goes along with the Reading Street series. It’s very important that your child read each night at home. The better reader a child is, the more successful he/she will be in all subject areas. Science and social studies are much like they have been in the past. We just completed the Foss kit on organisms and will soon be studying measurement. In social studies, we tested over federal, state, and local government, which tied in nicely to the election this fall. We will continue practicing map skills. Our next unit of study will be over cultures, holidays, and character traits. We are in year three of the PBIS behavior system. Students are taught explicitly and practice the expected behavior several times throughout the year. The reward system is in place, and we have found great success with the consistency and the follow through by teachers and students. It’s hard to believe we are well into the swing of the holiday season. The 3rd grade teachers wish all of our Bryant families a very happy holiday season.

SCHOOL CLOSURE INFORMATION The winter in Iowa provides us with some days that make it a challenge to hold classes at the regular time, and sometimes we must close our schools early, late, or close school for the entire day. As you know, our weather is not only challenging at times, it is constantly changing. Please remember that parents and guardians have the right to make the decision to keep their child home on any day that they feel it is unsafe for their student to be in school because of weather conditions. If you believe the weather provides a sincere reason why you may have to keep your students at home, or take your student home when classes are scheduled to continue, you as a parent or guardian will simply need to contact your child’s school to let them know.

Parents and guardians notification

Blackboard Phone Message: In the case of late start or school cancellation, a call is sent between 6 - 6:15 AM. If school is dismissed early during the day, a call is sent to all phone numbers listed with your child.

Iowa School Alerts: You may subscribe to this free service by clicking on the “Weather Related School Dismissals” button on the right-hand side of the district web site’s front page at www.siouxcityschools.org. Iowa School Alerts sends out email notifications to all subscribers.

Social Media: A post is made on the district’s Facebook and Twitter social media pages.

Mobile App: An alert notification is sent to all those who have downloaded the district’s mobile app (available for iPhones and androids.)

If the schools are dismissed early or if school is called off entirely, there will be NO EVENING ACTIVITIES. If you have before and after school care, please check with your provider about their procedures.

Please avoid calling the school about delays, cancellations, or dismissals. Unless you see an

announcement or receive a phone call, assume school is running as usual.

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HEALTH NEWS By Julie Johnson, RN

Be Food Safe: Protect Yourself from

Food Poisoning

Most people do not think about food safety until

they or someone they know gets sick from eating

contaminated food. Harmful bacteria are the most

common cause of food poisoning. Follow these rules of

food safety to keep yourself safe from harmful bacteria.

CLEAN

Wash hands, utensils, cutting boards, and counter

tops often with soap and water

Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables well under

running water even if you plan to peel the fruits and

vegetables

Don’t wash raw meat, chicken, turkey or fish

because their juices can splash onto your sink and

counter tops and contaminate those surfaces

SEPARATE

Use different cutting boards and plates for fruits,

vegetables, meat, and eggs

Use different plates for raw meats and cooked

meats

COOK

Use a food thermometer

Cook whole pieces of meat to inside temperature of

145°F

Cook ground meats, chicken, and turkey to

temperature of 160°F

CHILL

Germs can grow in many foods within 2 hours so

refrigerate right away

During the summer, refrigerate foods within 1 hour

Freeze or dispose of food within 2-4 days

www.foodsafety.gov

Page 3

Family Winter

Outdoor Activities:

Create creatures in the snow

Blow bubbles and watch them freeze

Ice Skating

Snowshoeing

Sledding

Snowboarding

Skiing

Have a snowball making contest. See who can roll the biggest snowball.

Snowball battles

Snowball throwing contest - create a target to throw snowballs at

Build a snowman

Run a race in deep snow

Build a snow fort

See how far you can jump in the snow

Have a snowball fight

Ice skating tag

Shovel the driveway and sidewalks

Create snow art by adding food coloring to water. Put the colored water into spray or squirt bottles and make pictures in the snow.

Tic Tac Snow - use sticks, rocks, pinecones

Play freeze tag

Create an obstacle course in the snow

For more fun ideas please visit: www.livehealthyiowakids.org!

Nondiscrimination Statement The Sioux City Community School District is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. It is an unfair or discriminatory practice for any educational institution to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, age (for employment), disability, socioeconomic status (for programs), marital status (for programs), or veteran status in its educational programs and its employment practices. Inquiries or grievances may be directed to Jen Gomez, Director of Student Services & Equity Education at 627 4th Street, Sioux City, IA 51101, (712) 279-6075, gomezj2@live.siouxcityschools.com.

El Distrito Escolar de la Comunidad de Sioux City es una institución de empleo con oportunidad equitativa y acción afirmativa. Es una práctica injusta o discriminatoria de cualquier institución educativa de discriminar basado en raza, credo, color, sexo, orientación sexual, identidad de género, origen nacional, religión, edad (para empleo), discapacidad, condición socioeconómica (para programas), estado civil (para programas), o estatus de veterano en cualquier programa educacional o práctica de empleo. Las preguntas o quejas pueden ser dirigidas a Jen Gomez, Directora de Actividades Estudiantiles y Educación de Igualdad al 627 4th Street, Sioux City, IA 51101 (712) 279-6075, gomezj2@live.siouxcityschools.com

Học Khu Trường Học Cộng Đồng Sioux City là một nơi có cơ hội bình đẳng/ hành động chắc chắn trong việc làm. Đó là không có sự công bằng hay có sự kỳ thị thực hành trong bất cứ các cơ sở giáo dục về phân biệt căn cứ theo chủng tộc, tín ngưỡng, màu da, phái tính, khuynh hướng phái tính,

nhận định phái tính, nguồn gốc quốc gia, tôn giáo, tuổi tác (cho việc làm), khuyết tật, tình trạng kinh tế xã hội (cho những chương trình), tình trạng hôn nhân (cho những chương trình), hoặc tình trạng cựu chiến binh trong bất cứ những chương trình giáo dục hay thực hành trong việc làm . Ai muốn thắc mắc hoặc khiếu nại có thể tiếp xúc trực tiếp với bà Jen Gomez, Giám Đốc Dịch Vụ Học Sinh và Bình Đẳng (Director of Student Services & Equity Education) tại 627 4th Street, Sioux City, IA 51101, (712) 279-6075, gomezj2@live.siouxcityschools.com Education) tại 627 4th Street, Sioux City, IA 51101, (712) 279-6075, gomezj2@live.siouxcityschools.com

Page 4

Easy-Going Kids Need Love and

Logic Too The great thing about strong-willed, stubborn kids is that they give us quick feedback on our parenting prowess…or lack of it! Yep! As soon as our skills begin to slip, things get ugly. Easy-going kids are another story. Unfortunately, they let us get away with far too many threats, lectures, reminders, warnings, unenforceable limits, etc. Because they're so sweet, it often takes far too long to realize when our parental behavior heads south. Easy-going kids need Love and Logic, too. They need to make plenty of choices within limits. They need to make plenty of small mistakes. They need to own and solve their problems. They need to experience our empathy as they cope with consequences. They need all of these things…and much, much more…so that they have what it takes to survive in today's complex, oftentimes dangerous world. The greatest danger for easy-going kids is that they won’t make enough mistakes when they are young...and the consequences of such mistakes are still small. We lose far too many sweet kids because their parents were tricked into using poor skills because of their sweet behavior. (Love & Logic, 2015) Thanks for reading, Your friend and counselor, Pam Hansen