Vance at a Glance Phone: (860) 225-8731 Fax: (860) 225-1019 January 2016 VAG Volume 2, Issue 5

183 Vance St. New Britain, CT 06052 Vance at a Glance Phone: (860) 225-8731 Fax: (860) 225-1019 January 2016 VAG Volume 2, Issue 5

Student of the Month Office Notes

 Call the office when a student is out.

November  Make sure to send a written note if student is to go Anayeleys home on a different bus or is Richards being picked up.

 Inform the office with new phone numbers and address. REMINDER

Due to morning supervision, the double doors on the blacktop do not open until 8:35am.

Please make sure December your child is dressed appropriately for the very cold weather outside. Nayarit

Sanchez-Ventura Be on Time for School Every Day! 9:00-3:40

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Message From the Principal

Happy New Year! May the New Year bring joy, peace and happiness to you and your family.

A new calendar year is a chance for a fresh start. I am sure everyone is excited to start 2016! All of the staff are energized after the break. They continue to provide stimulating and meaningful lessons for our students. When we enter classrooms, we continue to observe joy from learning in the eyes of our children at Vance Village School. We have already accomplished so much during the first four months of school. Our students continue to demonstrate hard work focusing on advancing their learning. We are proud of the great citizenship our children demonstrate by walking quietly in the hallways, leading by example, helping others throughout the school day, and by displaying kindness and respect for others. We look forward to continued success in 2016! Special Thanks and appreciation to all of our students, staff, families, and community members for their support during our Dress Up Days, food drives, and mittens, gloves, and hat drive! We were impressed with the strong response from all of you! It is wonderful the way that all of you find ways to support our efforts with helping others. The Vance Village school community extends themselves to others which is a powerful example for our students to follow. We continue to emphasize our strong Vance Village values of caring, respect, responsibility, fairness, and trustworthy actions. We recently celebrated Junior Achievement Day at Vance Village School. Forty JA volunteers from General Electric in Plainville spent Dec. 11, 2015 in all of our classrooms. It was a wonderful way for us to reinforce the importance of college and career readiness. All grade levels were engaged in hands on activities and were excited to learn! The G.E. volunteers were ex- tremely impressed with our students! We will continue to build this relationship with G.E. It was fantastic to see so many Kindergarten parents present at our “Gingerbread Rock” performance! The kindergarten students did an amazing job! During the month of January, our students will take a look at the goals that they set for themselves at the beginning of the school year. Students will review their hopes and dreams in their classrooms. Students will check in to see where they are with reaching their goals. Our students will also take the NWEA Reading, Math, and Language assessments on the computer. After testing we will receive the results and review our individual, class, grade level and school progress so far. Please continue to support your child with their homework. Reminders to read, go back to the text to find the answer, and retell events are great ways to check for understanding. Math facts review is also a great way to build math skills at home. We appreciate your strong support. 2016 is going to be an exciting year! Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. Wishing you and your family a healthy, prosperous, terrific new year!

Educationally Yours, Sarah Harris Principal

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Vance Village Book Club PTO

The 5th grade book club recently The PTO would like to thank all of the completed their first book of the year. volunteers that assisted with the Vance Village All members enjoyed reading Al Ca- Holiday Gift Shop. We would also like to thank pone Shines My Shoes. Members of all of the students and families that shopped at the Gift Shop. We were able to raise money the book club along with Mrs. Amal- for the school, while providing a thoughtful, fa’s students also held a candy cane valuable experience for our students. Thank sale on 12/18/2015 and raised $300 You!

The PTO would also like to thank all of the families that attended the Breakfast with Santa. In addition, thank you to all of the staff members and families that assisted with the event. The event was a success! Thank you!

The next PTO meeting is Thursday, Janu- ary 14, at 6:00. We will meet in the media center. Please consider attending.

Upcoming event: Popcorn Ball Fundraiser - Flyers will be distributed later in the month. December’s Bus Compliment Competition Winner Attention Parents and Guardians,

Bus 100 & 209 Does your child have health insurance? Connecticut has a health insurance program for children called HUSKY. The This bus had the most compliments for HUSKY Health program pays for doctor visits, prescriptions, emergency care, their behavior on the bus during the mental health care, dental care, and month of December. Students on Bus more. Husky Health is for children under 100 & 209 received a goodie bag of the age of 19. It is available to families with limited incomes and families with activities. higher incomes. You can apply for HUSKY Health for your child at any time during the year.

For more information about this Chil- dren’s health insurance program or to apply go to HuskyHealth.com or call 855-805-4325.

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Attendance Stars for December Attendance Raffle Winner Reminisce Rosado (109) Devin Campbell (110) Raymond Juarez (204) Markel Cooper (111) Jadiel Hernandez (112) Alyssa Filipowski (107)

Best Attendance Class December Mrs. Hansley’s Class

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Kindergarten We are ringing in the New Year! Thank you First grade for your donations of mittens and scarves to Happy New Year! We would like to get our Giving Tree. Some lucky child will be the year started on the right foot. A few feeling your warmth and kindness this winter. reminders Kindergarten classes will have a visit from ● Attendance is very important and Hungerford Nature Center to discuss how there is a monthly contest for the different animals hibernate, migrate or stay classroom with best attendance. active this season. It is hard to believe that ● There is nightly homework. Practicing we are in 2016... time really flies. Just about sight words, math facts, and reading with a half of our school year is over and with first SIGNED reading log. Please make sure to grade right around the corner we need your return books and logs promptly. Please academic support at home. It is critical to make sure your child is responsible for read with your child every night to build returning their materials. vocabulary, background knowledge and ● Reinforce appropriate school etiquette comprehension skills. Reviewing alphabet as we are preparing students for second (letter and sounds), sight words, and grade. numbers (recognition 1-30 and counting) is ● Raz•Kids and Xtra Math are wonderful essential to your child's success. We will be online ways to support your child at assessing your child's progress this month in home. We get weekly emails with all of these areas. Looking forward to many progress updates. Many children are not more Kindergarten adventures this year!

Second grade Welcome Back Second Grade Families! Welcome back to a new year!! We will be revisiting our hopes and dreams as well as creating New Year’s Resolutions. Please remind your child to get back into the routine of reading daily for at least 20 minutes and practicing their math facts. We’ll be preparing for the NWEA Math and Reading tests at the end of the month. Our classes are looking forward to a visit from Hungerford Youth Museum on January 14th & 15th. This will reinforce our learning about animal habitats in science. Finally, continue to send in appropriate winter attire. We look forward to a great beginning of 2016!!

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Fourth Grade Third Grade January 28 Field Trip to The New Hello 2016! Third graders will continue Britain Museum of American Art learning about bar graphs and then move on Reading: Lessons 14, 15 to measurement and time. All students Topics: Sequence of Events, Signal should continue to read each night at home Words, Text and Graphic Features, and practice their multiplication facts. This Main Idea and Details month NWEA testing is coming up, so be Math: Unit 3 Division sure that students are well rested. And Division with remainders, dividing 2 finally, please check and replenish your child's digit and 4 digit quotients. Division, school supplies, such as folders, pencils, and Rounding and Estimation, Solving crayons. Happy New year, The Third Grade word problems with mixed operations Team Writing: Drafting Fiction Stories, Partner Conferences and bringing them to the publishing stage using editing techniques.

Fifth Grade Here's what's happening this month... Media Math, students will practice While it hasn't snowed outside yet, the Multiplication with Whole Numbers and Library Media Center is a flurry of activity. Decimals. Please make certain students Research about arctic animals, Icons of are regularly practicing Math Facts in Connecticut, Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut, order to prepare for Unit 4. parts of a story, how to pick a "good fit" Language Arts, students will explore book, genres of fiction and life cycles are Historical Fiction, Narrative Nonfiction, just a few projects students are working and Biographies. We ask that students on. remember to read independently for 30 minutes daily to ensure fluency. Also, review agenda to check that nightly Art homework is being completed. Lastly, be In this year we continue with the on the alert that the second marking Color and Value Art Curriculum Unit. period ends January 27th. All students are exploring various art techniques and medium as learn about these two of the seven elements of art.

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OFFICE NEWS FOR SAFETY Closing of Schools on The door to the Main Office will be locked every day at 3:00 and reopens after “Last Call Stormy Weather for Busses” is announced at 3:40. If your child needs to be picked up early, you need to be here before 3:00 PM. No In the event of school closing dismissal changes will be done over the for the entire day or part of the school day, phone (i.e. different bus, change from announcements concerning school busser to walker, etc.) Any changes need emergencies will be made over: to have a written note.

In Case of An Emergency during dismissal time Radio Stations: when the office Main doors are closed: Please WDRC-AM 1360 contact a staff member with a walkie on the WTIC-AM 1080 blacktop or in the bus dismissal area. WRCH-FM 100.5 WPRX

Thanks for your cooperation. Television Stations: Vance Village Administration Channel 3 Channel 8 Students need to come to school Channel 30 every day wearing their uniforms.

 White and Light Blue COLLARED tops WE ARE KEEPING  Navy Blue bottoms WATCH  NO JEANS To better protect our students, visitors and staff, our campus screens for registered sex offenders. DISTRICT WEB SITE Please visit our district web site. You will find A valid State issued ID is required to enter our information about the school and the district. campus. Please report to the main office to check One good site to check out is: Quick Links > in. Thank you for your cooperation. Families Quick Links: www.csdnb.org Para proteger mejor a nuestros estudiantes, visitantes y empleados, nuestro local hace comprobaciones en el registro sobre delinquentes Connect-Ed sexuales. If you do not receive a connect-ed phone call, please call the office at Para entrar en este local se require una licencia o (860) 225-8731to verify your phone identificacion valida del estado. Favor de registrarse number. Thank you. en la officina. Gracias por su cooperacion.

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Please Help Us Earn Money For Our School: All of the points add up to help our school. We can receive points that add up to dollars for our school.

We are on the web! Visit us at:: www.csdnb.org/schools/vance

Please don’t forget to participate in the ……

Stop & Shop A+ School Rewards Program

Log on to www.stopandshop.com/aplus to

Enroll your ShopRite Price Plus card and help our school earn FREE educational equipment

every time you shop.

Log on to:

Www.shopriteforeducation.com Turn your Box Tops for Education to your Our 5 digit school code is homeroom Teacher. 52173

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January 2016

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 No School 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 No School No School No School

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Half Day PTO mtg Dismissal at 6:00 p.m. 1 :20pm Media 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 No School Martin Luther King 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 End 2nd Pajama Day QTR $1.00