September 2016 Page 1

DATELINE

Monday September 1 LABOR DAY - SCHOOL CLOSED

Thursday September 4 Scholastic Book Orders due!

Fri.ay September 5 School Gathering 8:30 a.m.

First Grade Field Trip to Kid City

Monday September 8 Kindergarten Field Trip - Albertsons

Thursday September 11 “Patriot’s Day” Wear red, white, and blue

Monday September 15 Parent Gathering: 8:30 AM

Wednesday September 25 Elementary Open House 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Friday September 27 No School for Students - Professional Day

Monday September 30 Kindergarten Field Trip: Tarpon Springs

Performing

Arts

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Special Dates To Remember Friday October 11 Individual School Pictures Tuesday October 15 End of first marking period Friday October 18 Professional Education Day -No School! Tuesday October 22 Report Cards Friday October 25 Harvest Festival

DATELINE Monday September 5 Labor Day - School Closed

Monday September 12 Patriots Day - wear red/white/blue

Non– Uniform Day! Blue jeans okay!

Thursday September 15 K/1 Skating & K-5 Pizza

Friday September 16 Multi-age Field Trip to Fox 13

Friday September 23 K/1 Field Trip to Safety Town

Thursday September 29 Non-Uniform Day - something that

supports your favorite Football Team,

professional or college!

Mark you calendars - Elementary Program planned for Wednesday, Dec. 14th!

Your child should come to school prepared each day!

Fitness - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

(sneakers and Fitness shirt)

Gardening - Tuesday & Thursday

Spanish - Tuesday & Thursday

Music- Wednesday (bring recorder and music folder)

Library - Friday - wear your green polo and bring your library bag

Elementary News

September 2016 Page 2

Boost Your

Child’s

Brainpower Dr. Phil McGraw presents with a

nine-point plan to make

kids brighter and happier.

When it comes to your children,

you want them to realize all of

their potential and be the very best

that they can be. When it comes to

your child’s intellectual function-

ing, are there things you can do as

a parent to actually increase their

mental ability?

To help your children boost their

intellectual abilities, Dr. Phil has

come up with the activities listed

below. Take care not to let your

children be intimidated by them.

Make them fun - lots of fun. At the

same time, avoid unrealistic

expectations about what your chil-

dren can accomplish. Pushing

them into situations they can’t

handle will only frustrate them.

Point #1 - THINK POSITIVELY

Even very young children have a

running dialogue with themselves.

These private thoughts can be

made up of positive or negative

messages, including judging,

assessing, praise, criticism, paint-

ing a rosy picture or sending mes-

sages of doom and gloom. Unfor-

tunately, negative messages involv-

ing fears, doubts, worry and pessi-

mism are all too common. A

negative internal dialogue

promotes failure: If kids think

they’ll do poorly on a test, they

probably will.

If you suspect your child may be

sabotaging himself in this way, you

can work together to create a

more accurate and positive dia-

logue.

Point #2 -PLAY BRAIN GAMES

Playing games that stimulate the

mind, particularly those that in-

volve strategy and aren’t based on

chance, will build verbal skills,

concentration, perception and

reasoning. Chess, checkers,

crossword puzzles, word jumbles

and Scrabble are some brain-

building games you can do as a

family.

Point #3 - TALK ABOUT

EVERYTHING

Engaging your kids in conversa-

tion helps build their vocabulary

and language skills. No matter

what your children’s ages, you

should discuss with them topics

such as school, friends, their

interests and activities, projects

they create, trips you’ve taken

together and current events. What

eventually emerges from these

conversations are children who

feel valued and will be smarter,

better adjusted and more

intelligent.

Point #4 - KEEP ON READING

It’s no news flash that reading to

your kids helps nurture a love of

language, which optimizes

intellectual potential. The latest

word, however, is that repeated

exposure to a beloved book helps a

toddler enhance his or her mem-

ory, improve attention span and

builds vocabulary. Even if you’re

tired of that same old books, read

with your kids as often as possible.

Point #5 - CREATE A

STIMULATING

ENVIRONMENT

There are many ways parents can

provide a rich environment that

will stimulate their children men-

tally. Singing lullabies to your in-

fant stimulates the development of

brain connections, particularly

during the first three years of life.

Wordplay games in the form of

rhymes or songs that you make up

with your child encourage lan-

guage development. So does using

complex, multi-clause sentences,

such as “I’m going to the grocery

store because we need cereal for

breakfast,” as opposed to the sim-

ple, single-clause declaration

“drink your milk.”

At least once a week, take your

children to the library to read on

their own or attend a storytelling

group. Go as a family to

appropriate cultural events, such

as plays and concerts. Travel to

new places, including local muse-

ums. While on vacation, take them

on tours of interesting sights even

if they don’t expect to like going.

At home, limit their time on the

computer - unless they’re doing

schoolwork - and limit television

to 60 minutes a day for

preschoolers and older kids.

Point #6 - INTRODUCE

MUSIC AND RHYME

Children should be given

opportunities for the

constructive pursuit of things

they show an interest in. If

music is one of these, encourage

it. Instruction in music also

helps children develop in other

areas, such as math and

complex reasoning.

Point #7 - NOURISH YOUNG

MINDS

The importance of giving your

children a nutritionally

balanced diet cannot be over-

stated when it comes to

supporting their mental

capabilities. When you fail to

feed your kids wholesome

foods, instead serving overly

processed foods high in sugar

and fat, it can potentially affect

IQ.

September 2016

You can guard against nutrition-

ally sabotaging your children by

serving foods that can enhance

their brainpower and mental

energy, including citrus fruits,

eggs, fish, green, orange, yellow

and purple fruits and vegetables,

lean beef and poultry, and

whole-grain and iron-fortified

cereals.

Point #8 - STAY ACTIVE,

STAY SMART

Physical activity, including playing

sports, boosted blood to all parts

of the body, including the brain.

When the brain is supplied with

freshly oxygenated blood,

concentration, thinking speed and

complex reasoning are all

enhanced. Children who are

physically active as a matter of

habit perform better in school.

One of the most effective ways to

motivate your children is to be

active yourself. Children rely on

role models in their lives - and

that’s you. Be someone who sets

the right example.

Point #9 - LOVE MATTERS

There’s one more piece to all of

this that cannot be measured,

scored or counted, yet it must be

taken very seriously by every

parent: the love and nurturing you

bring to everything offered here.

Children who grow up in a secure

and loving relationship with their

parents tend to be smarter and

more resilient. You can play all

the word games you want, spend

money on music lessons, but none

of it means much unless it happens

with the right spirit, the spirit that

says you love and value your

children and believe in them.

When children feel this, they

flourish.

Ladies’ Home Journal, September

2005

Kindergarten/First Grade

Explorers

by Mrs. Amy Slutz

The K/1 students are off

to a great start this year. Al-

ready back into the swing of

things, the students have

their morning routine down

and are diligently working to

add more tasks to their daily

schedule.

In language we are prac-

ticing the letter sounds daily

through songs and class ac-

tivities. The kindergarteners

are working with word fami-

lies in spelling while the first

graders are beginning their

weekly word lists from the

Spectrum Spelling series.

The kindergarteners are

learning the three ways to

read. By telling stories they

already know, looking at

pictures and retelling a story,

and reading the words using

picture clues and rhyming

words.

As beginning readers,

the first graders are learning

how to choose “just right”

books. Asking themselves

these important questions

when selecting books for

nightly reading. Does the

book feel comfortable? Are

there less than five challeng-

ing words on a page that I

don’t know? Am I interested

in the book? Do I understand

what I am reading?

Beginning sight word as-

sessments have begun and

those students needing prac-

tice will be bringing home

their green mini-folders con-

taining sight words to learn.

They should not only be able

to recognize the words, but

be able to use them in sen-

tences.

In math, we’ve begun

patterning, estimating,

counting and number identi-

fication. Building number

concepts is extremely impor-

tant and sets the foundation

for all math skills to come.

Please help your child by

practicing with the 0-120

chart sent home with the first

homework packet. Don’t

hesitate to ask for more sug-

gestions on how to use this

handy chart.

Thanks to all parents for

having your children to

school on time!

Multi-Age

Experimenters

by Mrs. Maggie New

The multi age class has

begun using our tablets on a

daily bases. The school has

acquired Think Central: Fu-

sion Science and Harcourt

Social Studies eBooks’. To-

gether with RazKids Read-

ing and IXL Math and Lan-

guage our tablets get quite a

work out. Please make sure

the tablets are charged and

the screens are cleaned

nightly. This should be part

of your child’s nightly re-

sponsibilities to prepared for

the coming school day.

In addition to caring for

their tablet each student

should be helping to pack a

healthy lunch each day. Stu-

dents should have a protein,

carbohydrate, and a fruit or

vegetable and a small

healthy snack daily. Every

student needs his or her own

water bottle as well.

Reading at least 15 min-

utes each day is an essential

part of your child’s home-

work. This can be a Raz

Kids assignment, library

book or a class assignment

which ever they choose it

must be at their reading

level. Try picking a book

and reading it together so

you can discuss it at the din-

ner table or in the car. Tak-

ing part in conversations

with others is an important

skill needed to increase your

child’s communication

skills.

On September 16th we

will be visiting Fox TV in

Tampa this will begin our

unit on the elections and

how we use media to stay

informed. We will also ex-

plore other media sources

such as newspapers, books

and the internet and how

they help us to learn what is

happening around us.

During September we will

be studying the works of

Judy Blume which include

an oral comparison of our

two book reports; Freckle

Juice and the Tale of the

Fourth Grade Nothing.

Place values and rounding

are being reviewed at all

grade levels. Please remem-

ber to review math facts

nightly, students are quizzed

on a weekly bases. Students

are able to bring home their

math books upon request for

parent help with homework.

They are a little heavy!

Remember learning

takes place everyday so your

child’s presence is required!

September 2016 Page 3

Meet our Teacher Assistants

They can be found in the class-

rooms assisting students and

teachers where needed.

Miss Tori Fraelich

Ms. Christine Cullen

Students of the Month

K/1– Jacob Buckmaster

Multi-age - Rayne Vilmanis

Spanish

Students of the Month

K/1 - Aaden Sinclair

Multi-age - Robert Noguez

Music

Students of the Month

K /1- Chayce Vilmanis

Multi-age - Robbie Jordan Erickson

Fitness

Students of the Month

K/1 - Inara Ryan

Multi-age - Tommy Smith