Circle Towanda Elementary

Mrs. Terri Turner, Principal ~ tturner@usd375.org

Towanda Primary ~ Early Childhood - 2nd grade

316-536-2728

Towanda Intermediate ~ 3rd - 6th grade

316-536-2281

We just had our 100th day of school!! It was quite the celebration at the Primary School! The students brought in all kinds of items to demonstrate what 100 actually looks like. It’s pretty cool to see. The kids had a great time visiting the centers and learning about 100! Thanks for all the support from home with this day. The teachers really do appreciate all the help!

We have been focused a lot on cooperation this last month. I hope that you have heard from your children’s thoughts on the best ways to cooperate. The Primary students know that when you are with a group, you have to be willing to listen to everyone’s ideas. We can’t always be in charge. They also learned that following directions/expectations, even when an adult is not around, is part of cooperation. They are doing great at school with this, hopefully they are transferring some of this to the home as well.

We are once again having the sick bug come around. There are so many different illnesses going around right now. The flu is one of the biggest. Many of you may have experienced it yourselves. I know many of the staff have been “under the weather” as well. Our custodians are working diligently to keep the desks, doorknobs, chairs, handles, and tables disinfected nightly. We will continue to notify you, as parents, when we find out a student has something contagious. Please know that oftentimes a student comes to school feeling perfectly fine and during the day starts to feel ill. We cannot predict when that will happen. We just contact parents as soon as they have a fever. We do need help from all of you as well. Following school policy is the best way to combat the illnesses.

Please do NOT send your child to school if they have a fever or have had a fever in the past 24 hours. This has to be fever free without the aid of medicine. If your child is feeling particularly run down and sluggish, coughing a lot, it may be a good idea to keep them home for a day to see if their condition worsens. It is much better to err on the side of caution than to send a potentially ill child to school and spread germs to others. Thanks for your help with this. We want all our students healthy enough to learn in the classrooms. If your child is out for three or more days, we do need a doctor’s note to admit them back to school.

The students have taken on the challenge of reading outside of school. We are working each day to help them improve their confidence and appreciate any help we get from home. If you will make sure your child reads at least twenty minutes a night, they will improve. Listening to them read at home is an amazing help as well. Practicing their fluency, smoothness of reading, will have a huge impact on their scores at school. We have been doing the run-around at the Primary for when students meet their goal for reading at home. We do the run-around at the beginning of each nine-weeks and at The students get very excited to run. We are including the kindergarten and first grade too. Ask your child what they need to do to be invited.

Thanks for all you do to assist us at school. Your efforts are shown through your child’s work habits and effort at school. Please keep encouraging your child to do their best. We will be focusing on being courteous during the month of February. Let’s hope that Mother Nature is courteous enough to give us some warmer days! The children need to get outside and run!

One last note. We have been working toward being a digital citizen. This is when you use courtesy and kindness while online. We have also been talking to the students about being safe while online. One of the videos all the children have watched asked the question of what would they do if a stranger asked them personal information like, “where do you live, what is your address?” The children knew that was not appropriate. Unfortunately, several sites the students visit while online ask these types of questions and they sometimes answer. Attached to this newsletter is an updated dangerous website page. It has information about different apps that you all should be aware of. Please take the time to look it over. It was shared with us by a parent.

Now, back to some better information. We are in the month of February! This year is flying by. Take the time to catch a great memory of your child and tuck it away for a difficult day. You will appreciate it at that time. Have a great month! I know we will!!

2/3 ~ PTO/Site Council Meeting @4:15pm - CTP Library

2/7 ~ 1:00 pm Butler County Spelling Bee

2/10 ~ USD 375 Board Meeting @6:00 pm

2/10 - 2/13 ~ Gel Crayon Sales PTO Fundraiser ~ $1.00 each

2/11 ~ District Wide 6th grade band concert @CMS 7:00 pm

2/11 ~ Classroom Group Pictures/Casual Individual Portraits for CTE

2/13 ~ Elementary Classroom Valentines Parties @2:30pm

2/14 ~ NO SCHOOL - Staff Development

2/14 ~ EHS Winter Homecoming vs. El Dorado ~ Royalty Crowning @7:30pm

2/17 ~ NO SCHOOL - Presidents' Day

2/27 ~ CMS visits 6th grade students for pre-enrollment @2pm

Please do your best to attend your child's conference. There are proven studies that students with involved parents are more likely to have higher grades and test scores, attend school regularly, have better social skills, show improved behavior, and adapt well to school.

March Book Madness is coming! Once again, the Intermediate students are getting ready to participate in this annual competition that pits recently-published books against each other in an online, bracket-style tournament, just like the NCAA basketball tournament. In this book-version, though, winners are decided by kids voting from all over the country. The 'Bracket' will be announced February 3rd, and the first round of voting will begin the first week of March. Students will have a week in order to cast their votes for each round. After each round of voting, the bracket will be updated and the next round of voting will begin. The overall champions will be decided near the date of the NCAA Basketball finals. Third grade students are participating in the Picture Book bracket and students in grades fourth through sixth are participating in the MG (middle grades) Novel bracket. The picture books are currently being introduced to the third graders and the MG books were introduced before Christmas. The books are available at school for checkout and many have already been checked out by students. Here is a link to the list of the books in the two brackets.

Middle Grade Novel Bracket: http://marchbookmadness.weebly.com/mg-novel-bracket.html

Picture Book Bracket: http://marchbookmadness.weebly.com/picture-book-bracket.html

Let the competition begin!!

Coutts Museum

The Coutts Museum of Art in El Dorado is holding its annual Student Art Exhibit. Twenty students from each building will have their artwork on display beginning Feb. 8 - Mar. 4. If your child’s artwork is selected, an invitation will be sent home with your child the first week of February. This art exhibit encompasses art from various schools throughout Butler County.

February PTO Meeting ~ Monday, Feb. 3rd @ 4:15pm at the Primary Library

THANK YOU for eating at Spangles on our last Spangles Night! We earned $192.21! Thank you for supporting our GREAT school!

Keep sending in those BOXTOPS!! Send them in baggies with the total number written on the bag. Drawings will be held at the end of the 9 weeks; at the end of February. There will be one winner per each building; the Intermediate and the Primary. We received a check for the first half of the year for $378.10! BOXTOPS really DO pay off!

PTO will be selling Smelly Gel Crayons for $1 during the week of February 10th-13th. The sale will be BEFORE and AFTER school. There are 5 different scents! Check out the flyer attached to this newsletter!

Thank you for your support! Your support MAKES A DIFFERENCE!

January Student of the Month - Cooperation

Michael Bosley, Lawson Foxx, Charles Storm, Will Isbill, Ivan Gutierrez, Aubrey Hise, Taelynn Davenport, Leah Hurt, Brayceson Emond, Theo Frack, Knox Kessler, Jens Mattke, AJ Faulkner, Matthew Haney, Reece Vargo, Teagan Cunningham, Brianna Searcy, Gabe Landrum, Elizabeth LaRue, Aubrey Marley, Lauren Giebler, Elias Cole, Cayde Allen, Lane Bishop, Katie Johnson, Jordan Goode, Madison Nace, Chevy Skilling

The end of January we wrapped up our AIMSweb testing with students. They all worked really hard and did their best, which is all we ask. Student will be taking their reading and math NWEA tests at the end of the month. State Assessments for 3rd-6th grades will begin in March after Spring Break.

Lee LaMunyon ~ School Counselor llamunyon@usd375.org

The music was beautiful, and the narrators really made the story come alive! THANK YOU PTO for helping us take this fun trip!

Mark your calendars for: Tuesday February 11th--our 6th grade band will be joining with the other 6th grade bands across the district for an evening concert at CMS at 7pm.

We hope to see you there!

Thursday April 9th--our school-wide Spring Program Night! More details later.

Mrs. Wendy Goldsmith

wgoldsmith@usd375.org

Sleep

Sleep…. What a boring topic! Hopefully you don’t fall asleep while reading this, because it really is important. Sleep is especially important for children as it can affect their mental and physical development.

The National Sleep Foundation gives guidelines for the amount of sleep children need by age group:

Preschoolers (ages 3-5) need approximately 11-13 hours of sleep per day.

School-Aged Children (ages 6-13) need approximately 9-11 hours of sleep per day.

Sleep is not only important for development, it’s an important part of staying healthy. Though getting more sleep won’t prevent getting sick, a lack of sleep does make a difference in how effectively your body fights off infection.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, referring to school-aged kids, “There is an increasing demand on their time from school (e.g., homework), sports and other extracurricular and social activities. In addition, school-aged children become more interested in TV, computers, the media and Internet as well as caffeine products – all of which can lead to difficulty falling asleep, nightmares and disruptions to their sleep. In particular, watching TV close to bedtime has been associated with bedtime resistance, difficulty falling asleep, anxiety around sleep and sleeping fewer hours.”

Often times, the kids will come to the office with an upset stomach or headache, when the issue is really a lack of sleep. When that happens, we usually let them rest in the office for a while and sleep a bit if they need to, but they do miss out on valuable classroom time. Our lives can get hectic and super busy, so we understand it isn’t always easy to keep a routine or make sure your child gets the rest they need, but here are some tips:

• Maintain a sleep schedule as regular and as consistent as possible.

• Create a relaxing bedtime routine, such as a warm bath or massage, that ends in the room where the child sleeps.

• Provide a consistent sleeping environment every night, in a room that is cool, quiet and dark, and most importantly without a TV, computer, or smartphone.

• Avoid caffeine within a few hours of bedtime.

Hopefully by implementing some of these tips, your child can get the rest they need to keep them on track for learning at school. If there are changes at home that may be affecting your child’s sleep or behavior, it’s always helpful for us to know that as well. Sweet dreams!

Start collecting your loose change to help us #slaycancerwithdragons! On Wednesday, February 26th, CTE will be paying it forward by kicking off the "March Forth Change for Good" event. CTE will be collecting change from Tuesday, March 3rd - Friday, March 6th and the winning class at each school will receive a pizza party! All funds raised will benefit the Tyler Robinson Foundation and the event honors Tyler Robinson who gained his angel wings on March 4, 2013. Co-founded by the Imagine Dragons, the Tyler Robinson Foundation's mission is to strengthen families financially and emotionally as they cope with the tragedy of a pediatric cancer diagnosis by offsetting out-of-pocket life expenses. Visit trf.org for more information.