WHIPPLE HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER - MARCH, 2013 330-478-6177

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3 4 5 6 7 8 9 3rd Gr. Math Bookmobile 4th Gr. Math WHPTO Achieve Quest Achieve. Family 3:40-5:00 Drama Club Quest Carnival 4:15 K&1 3:40-5:00 4:00-6:00 4:45 3 & 4 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Daylight 3rd Gr. Math Drama Club 4thGr.Math End of 3rd Savings time Achieve Quest 4:15 K&1 Achieve Quest Nine Weeks begins 3:40-5:00 4:45 3 & 4 3:40-5:00 Behavior WHPTO Bd. Kidmobile goal #6 ends Mtg 7:00 p.m. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Bookfair Bookfair Bookfair Bookfair Report cards St Patrick’s Family Nite go home Day 6:00-8:00 Market Day 4thGr.Math 6:30 – café. Achieve Quest 3rd Gr. Math 3:40-5:00 Achieve Quest 3:40-5:00

24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Spring break Spring break Spring break Spring break Spring break begins

31 Friends Have An Impact on School Success

Researchers are beginning to understand that there are academic, as well as social, consequences when children don’t make friends. Researcher, Willard Hartrup, studied the impact that friends have on children’s school successes. He discovered that friends provide an emotional resource that encourages children to take risks. For example, friends may give a student the courage to work a problem on the board, or raise their hand to answer a question in class.

Children with friends actually help each other learn. They encourage and help each other with their work. In fact, students who work with friends, master new concepts more readily than students who work with classmates who are not their friends.

Since it is important to have friends, both at school and at home, here are some tips for parents on how to help your children make friends.

1. Monitor your child when they are playing with friends. Remind them that they should share and take turns with their friends. 2. Teach your child to “go with the flow” of the group. Do what they are doing, don’t make them play what they want to play. 3. Have them ask questions that show interest in what other children are doing. This helps to show that they care about other people, not just themselves. 4. Encourage them to find classmates with common interests and play with them. We tend to be friends with people who like the same things we like. 5. Remind your child that they must be willing to share their friends with other people – they should never tell their friends that they can’t be their friend if they play with someone else. 6. Encourage your child to ask classmates over to your house to play or do special activities such as bowling, swimming or going to the movies. Friends are more easily made one on one. 7. Remind your child to only say nice things to classmates, don’t make fun of anyone. 8. Encourage them to be respectful of everyone. It is impossible for everyone to be your friend; but it is not impossible to show respect toward everyone.

Making and keeping friends are an important part of our children’s lives. Remind your children that the most popular students are the ones that show kindness and respect toward everyone. Other people treat us how we treat them, so let’s all work on treating others with kindness and respect and then people will want to be our friend.

Your friend in education, Mr. Guertal

ACHIEVEMENT TESTS ARE COMING The 3rd and 4th grade achievement tests, for this year, will take place the end of April and beginning of May. It is important that you do not schedule any vacations or morning appointments during the Achievement Tests. The Achievement Test Schedule for this year is as follows: Grade 3 Grade 4 Tues., April 24 (Reading) Thurs., April 25 (Reading) Tues., April 30 (Math) Thurs., May 2 (Math) KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION ON APRIL 18, 2013 (must be 5 on or before Aug. 1, 2013) Registration of kindergarten students in Perry Local Schools has been set for Thursday, April 18 from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at their district elementary school. Parents who do not know what school their child will attend should call the board of education office at 330-477-8121. Kindergarten students must be five years of age on or before August 1, 2013 to be eligible. State regulations require that children attend a kindergarten program before entering first grade. AN OFFICIAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE, SOCIAL SECURITY CARD, IMMUNIZATION RECORDS, CUSTODY PAPERS (if applicable), AND PROOF OF RESIDENCEY such as an insurance premium that has your home address on it, a tax return, or a rental or purchase agreement, MUST BE PRESENTED AT THE TIME OF REGISTRATION. Enrollment papers are available online on the Perry Home page and each elementary school home page.

KDG STUDENTS’ LAST DAY: This year’s Kindergarten students WILL NOT go to school May 22, 23, 24 due to screening of next year’s kindergarten students. Mark your calendars for May 21 to be the last day of school for kindergarten.

WHIPPLE’S “BEST OF THE BEST” The following students were selected to represent Whipple’s “Best of the Best” for January 14-February 15. In order to be eligible for this award, a student must: 1. Not move their behavior clip on the behavior wheel 2. Have all assignments, including homework, completed and turned in on time 3. Display outstanding citizenship at all times.

Students selected this time include: Delaney Falvo, Dylan Hiller, Frankie Silla, Jocelyn Frantz, Lilian Fick, Joey Ni, Marley Ward, Alyssa Roberts, Nicholas Presutti, Kaylee Gidcumb, Abby Hartzler, Noah Emerick, Brooke Snyder, Joey Newsome, Emily Altimore, Jonathan Kessler, Alexis Dean, Mabel Beebe, Alexis Eubanks, Owen Tanzilli, Sam Matasich, Samantha Filliez, Claire Horner, Grace Nelligan, Alex Roberts, Ben Haas, Sydney Morris, Nathan Long, Jordan Kovalchin, and William Hughes.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN YOUR CHILD FOR LUNCH? You may join your child for lunch in our cafeteria at any time throughout the year. All you need to do is send a note, or call the cafeteria line, extension 9300, and let us know you will be coming and please be sure that you include which lunch you will be having, Choice #1 or Choice #2. Any reservations after 9:30 cannot be honored. Please do not bring any fast food lunches, or pop for lunch, as this is not permitted in our cafeteria. Adult lunches are $2.80.

FROM THE CAFETERIA: CHANGES IN CAFETERIA POLICY: In order to “substitute” water for milk, your child MUST have a note from his/her doctor. Without a note, your child may get a water for $.50. There will be no exceptions to this rule. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

BE A VOICE FOR OUR STUDENTS If you are interested in holding a PTO Board position or would like to nominate someone, please contact a Board Member, send a nomination to [email protected] or come to the March 12th meeting (all nominations need to be in by this date). If there are 2 or more people nominated, we will send home a ballot for you to vote for the best candidate. To be eligible to run for PTO office, candidates must have attended at least two meetings during the current school year and be an active participant in a PTO committee. Eligibility of an individual running for office will be verified by the Nominating Committee. Current Board member cannot be nominated for the same position. Positions that are open to nomination are: PRESIDENT: current – Michele Wood VICE-PRESIDENT: current – Jen George SECRETARY: current – Patty Conrad TREASURER: current – Becki Crookston NOMINATIONS: current – Jen Watt If you have any questions about a Board member position or would like to nominate someone, again, please contact one of us, email [email protected] or attend the March 12th PTO meeting, 7:00pm, in the Library. Thank you Michele Wood, President THANK YOU! A BIG thank you to all of our students who brought food/hygiene items in to donate to Perry-Helping-Perry! We collected over 848 items!!! Each student received a color-coded link to be added to our Helping Chain; and the grade with the most chain links was our Fourth Grade!! Way to go fourth graders!!!

ATTENDANCE: Just a reminder: your child must be in their classroom when the tardy bell rings at 9:00, or they will be counted as tardy. Also, when your child is absent, please be sure to send a written excuse when they return, even if you have called them off. The new attendance line on our new phone systems seems to be working very well. It would be very helpful if, when you call the student off, you make sure to state their teacher’ Thank you for using this phone line as it really helps to relieve some of the chaos in the morning. As always, we appreciate your help.

STUDENT OF THE WEEK Every student in our school is important and deserves special recognition at least once a year. In order to give this special recognition to all of our students, each week every teacher selects a student of the week. These students are then given special recognition and privileges that go along with this honor. The students of the week for the month of February are: Mikayla Ousley, Robbie Greenwalt, Zack Liebler, Alyssa Mayle, Brandon Scott, Sierra Gardner, Nathan Pomesky, Que McCrae, Jordan Kovalchin, Logan Roe, Owen McKenzie, Hope Miller, Calista McIntyre, Aidan Mark, Dakota Dunaway, Claire Horner, Bryant Marshall, Ashley Cosgrave, Frankie Silla, Natalie Grisak, Ian Morales, Abby Hartzler, Jessica Walls, Grace Nelligan, Sophia Hough, Mason Snyder, Mikayla Mutko, Noah Emerick, Shawn Graber and Chloe Ferguson.

SQUARE 1 ART UNDERWAY!!! Our young artists have been hard at work preparing this year's cherished art work. Be on the lookout for YOUR CHILD'S ART to come home in mid-March. The kids absolutely love seeing their artwork on display and there are some great gift-giving ideas for the entire family.

Feel free to call Becki Crookston with any questions @ 330-936-2002

BOX TOPS AND LABELS FOR EDUCATION

Thank you to everyone who has sent in Box Tops, Campbell’s, Tyson and Our Family Labels. It is amazing how something so small can make such a BIG difference to our school. The winning classroom for February was Mrs. Janowicz’s class with 1,221 Box Tops and labels. The school total for February was 3,234. GREAT JOB! Thanks to Kim Baxter, Patty Conrad, Becki Crookston, Kristine Dragos, Laura Haas and Betsy Ward for all of their help clipping and counting. Special thanks to Betsy Ward for providing the treats for the winning classrooms. Keep sending in those Box Tops and Labels and your class could be the next winner!

Jen Watt Collections Chairperson 330-806-7063 (call/text) [email protected]

HOOPS FOR HEART 184 Whipple staff & students, grades K – 4 participated in this year’s Hoops-For-Heart event on February 13-15 raising $7190.84 for the American Heart Association. Way to go!!!

The top fundraisers were Tracie Jo Crookston $410, Katelyn Thomas $390, Kaitlyn Belknap $277. Congratulations to Gavin Baxter for winning the H-F-H Raffle Basket.

Our school will receive physical education equipment and many students will receive individual thank you gifts. Thank you to everyone for supporting this worthwhile event, and remember a healthy heart is the key to a healthy life!

Mrs. Thomas, Phys Ed.

TALENT SHOW The Whipple Heights "Vegas Baby" Variety Show was a huge success! Thank you to all the participated we sure do have some really talented students! We had everything from a tiny firefighter to a group of ninjas, a couple super talented piano players and a heartfelt pledge given by a boy scout, a lot of beautiful singers including one in Japanese and wonderful dancer and a couple fantastic gymnasts, we even had a taekwondo performance and a fun filled pogo jumper, and we all literally laughed out loud with the comedian! The Whipple drama club had a great performance as well with their high energy songs and dances! A tremendous THANK YOU to all that helped we have some great parents here too! Thanks again for an amazing night!!! Can't wait until next year! Kristen Lee, Variety Show Chairman MARKET DAY Market Day pick up is Tuesday, March 19th. Be sure to have your order form to school by March 11th., or you can order online until noon on March 14th. Please call with any questions or to place your order. Pam Nizialek – 330-830-1493 Thanks for your support!

FROM THE GUIDANCE DEPT. March’s Guidance topic is Tolerance. All students in grades K-5 will have a lesson on accepting individual differences. Kindergarten will read and discuss the book, “I Accept You As You Are”. First grade will read and discuss the book, “It’s Okay to be Different”. Second grade will view and discuss the video, “The Unforgettable Pen Pal.” Third grade will view “Putting Yourself in Someone Else’s Shoes”. Fourth grade will view and discuss the video, “Planting the Seeds of Peace”

Also during the month of March, the Kindergarten students will learn about gun safety with “Eddie Eagle.” Officer Ben Barrett from the Perry Township Police Department will be visiting each Kindergarten classroom to show a video and discuss the dangers of guns and other weapons.

NEWS FROM THE PRESIDENT I hope you are all surviving the winter! Can you believe we are quickly approaching the last grading period?! There are still many fun PTO events coming up that need your help. Big Top Carnival March 9th, contact Michele Wood – 330.232.0007 Story Laboratory Book Fair – March 18th – 21rd, contact Patty Conrad – 330.832.8545

A special thanks to Kristen Lee and her wonderful volunteers for making the Whipple Talent Show a huge success! It was an amazing evening that show-cased our Whipple students and their many UNIQUE talents!

The PTO is holding a special meeting on Tuesday, March 5th at 7pm in the library. At this short meeting, a proposed change of by-laws will be discussed. If you are unable to attend but have questions, please feel free to contact myself or any other PTO officer. Also, nominations are being taken for next year’s PTO Board Members. If you are interested or would like to nominate someone, please contact a current Board Member or attend the March 12th board meeting. All nominations need to be in by this date! With Perry Pride, Michele Wood 330.232.0007 [email protected]

SLIDE SHOW We are excited to start collecting photos for the Slide Show, which is scheduled for April 16th. If you would like to contribute pictures, you may do one of the following: 1. Email photos with “Whipple Slide Show” in the subject line to [email protected] 2. Place photos on a CD or memory stick and send to the PTO mailbox. Be sure to place your name and your child’s name & teacher on them so we can return your belongings!

CARNIVAL: Mark your calendars! The Whipple PTO “Big Top” Carnival is quickly approaching! Sat., March 9 th, from 4-6 pm. Any successful event requires MANY helping hands! We are still looking for any Whipple parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles (or any other special adults) to help with this event! There will be many exciting games to play, a bouncy house, cotton candy & popcorn, an amazing prize tent & food too! There are so many opportunities to serve and our Whipple families will benefit from you donating your time!

We will also have our raffle baskets on display! Tickets may be purchased the day of the event but you need not be present to win! Each grade has been given a theme for a basket. KINDERGARTEN: Springtime Fun; 1ST GRADE: Arts & Crafts; 2ND GRADE: Family Game Night; 3RD GRADE: Cozy Home; 4TH GRADE: Perry Pride. A letter has gone home seeking donations for these baskets. If you would like to contribute to ANY of these baskets, please send in your donation (items or monetary) to school marked "Raffle Basket". All the proceeds from this raffle will go to the Whipple PTO to help us continue planning great school events!

Ticket Pre-Sale has started! A form has gone home with details on how to order. We will be selling tickets from 2/20-3/7 at a reduced price of .20 cents or 5/$1. Tickets will be .25 cents during the Carnival, so it's a great way to save some money! We will be entering every student's name that pre-orders tickets into a drawing. The winner will receive a grand prize to be enjoyed during the Carnival! We look forward to seeing you there!

Questions? Michele Wood (Carnival Chair) - 330-232-0007; Laura Scheck (Ticket Sales) - 330-834-0862; Patty Conrad (Raffle Baskets) - 330- 832-8545

“BE A STAR WITH SCHOOL BREAKFAST” Perry Schools will be celebrating National School Breakfast Week March 4-8, 2013. National School Breakfast Week is a weeklong celebration aimed at increasing awareness of the School Breakfast Program among students and parents. To encourage students and increase participation in school breakfast program, those elementary students who join us for breakfast this week will be given a special “treat”. Studies indicate that students who eat school breakfast increase their math and reading scores and improve their cognitive speed and memory. Every school day, Perry Local School’s breakfast program offers students the healthy foods they need to get set for a busy school day. Each school breakfast served meets federal nutrition standards limiting fat and portion size. Healthy school breakfast can be a lifesaver for busy parents too. It’s a race for any family to get their kids ready, fed and out the door in time for school. Knowing that your children can eat a healthy breakfast at school can be a huge relief for parents. Students that qualify for free/reduced lunch also qualify for free/reduced breakfast. Cost for breakfast is $1.25 and $.30 for reduced. 2 1 5 1 6