Nurses Corner
Nurse
Buhl has asked me to remind all parents and guardians to keep children
exhibiting flu-like symptoms, no matter how minor, at home. Children should not return until they have
been fever and symptom free for 24 hours.
Help us keep Signal Hill healthy!
Recycling
News
We are very
excited to announce that Signal Hill can now recycle drink pouches such as Caprisun, Koolaid, etc.
Each pouch collected earns $.02 for our school. Mrs. Burke’s class will
be placing a special bin in the cafeteria near the regular trash cans where
students dump their trash and will collect and empty this bin on a daily
basis. We are very excited to take on this project and help our
planet! Once the pouches are collected, Mrs. Burke will send them to be
"upcycled", meaning they will be made into
other products. We are calling this program "Pouches for
Pandas". Please feel free to bring in drink pouches from home to
place in our bin. Go Green Signal Hill! -
Ms. Burke’s Third Grade Class
Can you guess
our Mystery Staff Member?
?
This person … has been in a movie with Tom Hanks,
has played guitar for over 3,000 people and has lived in London?
The answer will be revealed in our next issue with even more information
about this fascinating person!
Carpool News
and Express Bus Stops
Reminder: Tired of the lines and the long wait in car
pool? Did you know that there is an Express Bus Stops at Yorkshire Elementary
and Parkside Ms?
We have enough transfer students from Yorkshire this year to qualify for the
additional bus. It is Bus # 414. It picks students up in the morning at Yorkshire at 8:43 and Parkside
MS at 8:51 and brings them right here.
In the afternoon the children are dropped off at Parkside
at 3:52 and Yorkshire at 4:02.
No lines or waiting and only a few students ride this bus.
Art Room
News
Here is a glimpse into what students
are currently working on in art class:
Kindergarten- ‘My Kindergarten Art Book’ Students are currently continuing to
create the pages for their art books. They have learned about the primary
colors and how the secondary colors can be made by mixing two primary colors
together.
First Grade- ‘Lines Like Mondrian’
After learning about the artist, Piet Mondrian, students used vertical and horizontal lines to
create an artwork inspired by him. They chose to color different sections of
their artwork with the primary colors.
Second Grade-‘Cubism Self-Portraits’ Students learned about the artist, Pablo
Picasso and his style of art, cubism. They created their own silly self
portrait drawn in the style of cubism.
Third Grade-‘Clay Symmetry Leaf Bowls’ After learning the concept of symmetry,
students used leaves and clay to create a symmetrical leaf bowl, which they added
color to with glaze. As soon as they have completed their second kiln firing
they will be sent home!
Fourth Grade- ‘Rainsticks’ Students have just begun
creating their own rain stick using a paper towel roll and toothpicks. The next
step in the process will be adding newspaper dipped in paper mache, then decorating with paint.
Fifth Grade- ‘Falling for Foreshortening’ After learning that foreshortening means to create the illusion of depth, students created a
drawing of themselves in which they appear to be falling forward. Students have
just completed these and they should be bringing them home within the week.
Original
Works Reminder. . .
Please
help us! If you have NOT returned the
Original Works Magnet or sent in a payment of $6.00 for the cost of the magnet
please do so as soon as possible! Our organization MUST return any magnets not purchased to Original Works.
Thank you!
Mrs. Shaw
Signal Hill Elementary School Counseling Department
Josephine Selepak, M.Ed. and Melanie Walck,
M.S.
TEACHING
YOUR CHILD ABOUT ONLINE SAFETY
More and more children are using the internet to keep in touch
with their friends through instant messaging, MySpace,
and blogs.
Often children do not realize that giving out personal information can
put them in danger of predators. Even
the smallest details that they post can be pieced together and used against
them. Children must not give out
personal information like their address, telephone number, parent information,
or the location of their school.
Children often think that only their friends can see what
they post online, but there is no guarantee that others won’t see the
information and use it against them. The
minute they press the “send” button, their information can end up
anywhere. Parents can encourage their
children to be safe online, and never send information that they would feel
uncomfortable about if other people were to see it. A good site to teach children about internet
safety is ThinkUKnow.
Parents must remind children never to give out their
password, even to a friend. Sometimes
these “friends” use the account to send out mean messages to others. Children must tell parents right away if
they see something online that makes them uncomfortable. They are never to agree to meet someone from
online, or send out their picture or anything else without checking with
parents first.
Parents
need to monitor a child’s online behavior, and keep an open dialog with them
about what is happening online. Children are often afraid to tell parents when
something scary happens online in case their computer privileges are taken
away. So, keep the computer in a public place in your home to monitor online
activity, create guidelines for using the computer, and check to make sure that
what children are posting on their profiles is appropriate. Establish consequences for not using the
computer appropriately.
Be
on the alert for cyber-bullying – bullying through e-mail, instant messaging,
in a chat room, on a website, or through digital messages sent to a cell
phone. If this happens, a child is not
to respond to the message, save the message for evidence, and report it to
parents immediately. Parents will then
determine what action needs to be taken to insure their child’s safety.
Some
good websites for teaching children about online safety are:
NetSmartzKids:
http://www.netsmartzkids.org
STOP cyberbullying: http://www.stopcyberbullying.org
Children and the Media: http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia
Woogi World:
www.woogiworld.com
YourSphere:
yoursphere.com
Operation Turkey
Starting on November 12th, students can bring in canned and boxed food items for the SERVE Charity Organization's Annual Operation Turkey Campaign. The Campaign will end on November 18th.
We are asking
for donations of any of the following:
Stuffing Cranberry sauce Bisquick
Canned fruit Yams/Sweet potatoes Rice
Gravy Cornbread/muffin
mix Boxed desserts
Coffee/tea/cocoa Canned pumpkin Potatoes
Canned Vegetables Pasta and sauces Applesauce
Peanut
butter/jelly Cream soups Sugar
All
donations will help bring a Happy Thanksgiving to our community’s families.
Thank you!
Library Notes:
It’s been a
tough season for the Redskins, but not in our school! REDSKINS READ! is a reading
incentive we’ve undertaken to encourage all students to read every night at
home from now ‘til January. Classes that
make their reading goals advance 10 yards!
Some classes have doubled their reading and moved ahead 20. That only happens when EVERYONE reads! Make sure your child is helping their class
move down the field to a touchdown!
We’ll also
be welcoming students from Osborne Park High School’s business leadership club to read
to our students here at school in November.
It’s a pleasure to welcome back some old students and get to know new
friends as these high schoolers visit our classes to
share their love of reading.
Does your
child need a good suggestion for a book to read? Why not read the 10 Virginia Readers’ Choice books that are nominated
for this year’s award? The “primary”
list for grades K-2, and the “elementary” list for
grades 3-5 are both found online at http://www.vsra.org/VRCindex.html. All of these titles are readily available in
our school library. Don’t miss them!
Mrs. Flench
Library
Media Specialist
French News
Nous aspirons à
l’excellence! (We aim high!)
Bonjour fellow Pandas and Bonjour l’automne
(Hello fall)!
All classes
in first through fifth grade have gone over les règles (rules), as well as the expectations for quality French student and
quality French teacher! I had never done the posters to go along with the
quality teacher and student before!
Since I now have my very own classroom, I figured it would be an
important lesson to focus on. Mrs. Shaw
was kind enough to draw my teacher and student for me because I am challenged
when it comes to drawing, although I do have a very high appreciation of
art! I then summarized all of the
qualities the students came up with to fairly represent each grade level! I was amazed at the kinds of qualities the
students were looking for, both in themselves and in me! I am going to take this one step further with
my 5th graders when we learn all different kinds of adjectives to
describe ourselves.
First graders have been learning how to introduce
themselves. They have been
practicing: Je m’appelle -----------. Comment t’appelles-tu?
(My name is ------------. What is
your name?)
Second graders have been learning how to greet
someone using ‘tu’
(you). You see, in French, we have two
words for ‘you’: ‘tu’ (more familiar) and ‘vous’ (more
formal). Not only are they learning how
to do this verbally, but they are also writing le dialogue! I am also
incorporating la ponctuation
(punctuation) with this lesson! The
favorite one is: point d’exclamation (exclamation point)
because we look like we are conducting an orchestra!
Third graders have been learning/reviewing
greetings using ‘tu’
as well! In 3rd grade,
they begin making their own version of a French textbook. The spiral/composition notebook they have
been using, should last them all the way through 5th grade, as long
as they don’t throw it out at the end of the school year! Using the same notebook from 3rd
through 5th grade saves the students time, finger energy and many
trees!
Fourth and fifth graders have also been practicing and
writing greetings using ‘tu’! They also
made a mood box (graphic organizer that looks like a lunch box) to keep track
of the different answers to: ‘Comment ça va?’ (‘How are you?’) Former students are doing a terrific job of
teaching the new students to Signal Hill!
Magnifique! (Wonderful!)
By the way,
I organize an annual breast cancer fundraiser for the teachers and staff at
Signal Hill, but I also got the students to participate by wearing PINK on
certain spirit days in October! I have
told the students they may continue to support this worthy cause by collecting
the pink ribbon yogurt lids from Yoplait.
Each lid is worth 10 cents and I will be sending the lids (clean and dry
please) to Yoplait in mid-December! All
of this money then goes to research! Merci beaucoup (thank you very much) in
advance!
A bientôt! (See you soon!)
Madame Ballvé J
.
Physical
Education News
We have
been working on group/team activities so far this year with all grade
levels. The following activities are
planned in the upcoming months:
K& 1-
Fitness, Action Based Learning Lab (K), Spatial Awareness activities, large
group activities, Dance Dance Revolution
2 & 3-
Fitness, Group/Team activities, Aerobics, Dance Dance
Revolution
4 & 5-
Fitness Assessments, Aerobics, Group/Team activities, Dance Dance
Revolution
REMINDER:
Your child
will have P.E. twice a week, the same days of the week this year.
Please note the days your child will have class. Appropriate P.E. shoes are sneakers or tennis
shoes. The following shoes are not appropriate for P.E. class: Heelys, Crocks, flip-flops, sandals, boots, dress
shoes, etc. Preparedness and
participation are requirements for the class.
You child’s grade does reflect
this as well as behavior in the class.
The
following is the P.E. schedule for
the 2009 – 2010 school year.
Monday – Surber, Alford, Palmer, Norberg, Verner, Gable, Simpson, Futrell, Burke, Cerasale, Sozio
Tuesday – Spray, Brenner, Dyson, Stecker, Peterson, Matty, Carmack, Shaw, Smith, Byrne
Wednesday – Kellstrom,
Alford, Tayler, Hegarty, Norberg, Bunce, Burke, Mordas, Sozio, Spencer, Gable
Thursday – Surber,
Palmer, Dyson, Verner, Peterson, Simpson, Carmack, Futrell, Smith, Cerasale, Byrne
Friday – Spray, Kellstrom,
Brenner, Tayler, Stecker,
Spencer, Matty, Hegarty,
Shaw, Bunce, Mordas
Mr. Chase
Ms. Lengsfeld
