Friday, November 21, 2014

CYCLONE CHATTER 11/13/14
Wednesday, November 26th - 2:00 Dismissal! Happy Thanksgiving! The next Cyclone Chatter will come out Dec 5th.

Student Spotlight
Cecelia


Student Spotlight
Logan



This week the Preschoolers began their Fall/Harvest theme. They learned all about what the farmers in our area have been doing the last month or so. They examined an entire cornstalk plant, on Tuesday. On Thursday, they sorted M&Ms by color and matched them to a tractor of the same color, then they graphed the results. The preschoolers also had an awesome time at 'Donuts with Dad!' What a great event! Next week the preschoolers will continue their Fall/Harvest theme. Tuesday, the Preschoolers are going to do an activity with the Kindergarteners! They will also be talking about Thanksgiving, and sharing things that they are thankful for! Mrs. Shrader will be gone next week to attend a family funeral in San Antonio, but Mrs. Michaelson and Mrs. Patras will have everything under control! :)

Only 4 More Fridays until Christmas!!!

The Kindergarten was busy this week learning about the letter Gg. They made goldfish hand prints and ate yummy goldfish bowls. They learned to compare numbers through 10! We are getting ready for Thanksgiving by writing about what we are thankful for and made fun sponge paint turkeys. We thought that Donuts with Dad was a blast and it was great that our dads came to visit! Learning to write Thanksgiving words is easy when we get to find them around the room to write them. Reading sentences is becoming very easy for us as we become better readers every day!

First graders celebrated winning the Box Top collection for October by eating lunch with Mr.Sanne on Thursday. Everyone enjoyed the meal and they are ready to bring in more Box Tops. In Math, 1st graders are learning about shapes, building different shapes, counting sides and corners. They are studying spelling words for the big test on Tuesday. In Science, they are learning more about the Earth's Natural Resources.

We welcomed two new students into second grade this week! The second graders were very excited and were very welcoming to these two boys!! In social studies we looked at different goods around the classroom and discovered many of them came from other nations. We discussed that several goods in the United States come from other nations because the United States trades goods with other nations. Did you know that we trade soybeans with China in return for car parts? In language arts we practiced using the skill of visualizing when we read. When we visualize we use our five senses to create pictures in our mind. We read the story Balloons by Shel Silverstein and students drew what they saw!! A birthday shout out goes to Preston Home on November 20th!!

The most exciting news this week which has our room as happy as clams, is they got to welcome a new student. Now we have 8 boys and 8 girls in our class. We are excited to have him in our class! The Third Graders were busy working in groups to make brochures for a region of the United States. They included the climate, landforms, landmarks, natural resources and bodies of water. Leenda Thiele came in and volunteered to help out in the planning stages. It was great to have an extra person to help out. It was very much appreciated by everyone. They are putting the finishing touches on them, and then the projects will be displayed in the hallways. In language, they learned how to write a business letter. They are also busy writing detailed sentence using adjectives and adverbs. Also, make sure to check out the paper to see what they would serve if they had guests for Thanksgiving. Timed tests are the new thrill in math. They have 100 multiplication problems which they need to complete within eight minutes with at least a 95% accuracy! One more reason why they practice their facts so much! They are doing an awesome job, and even though they don't always get it the first time, they are really improving. They are enjoying the apps on the ipads to help them practice. Happy Thanksgiving from the Third Graders!

November 24th-26th has been set aside to promote being drug free. The Elementary Student Council has planned different things during the week to help remind everyone to "COUNT OUR BLESSINGS- BEING DRUG FREE". Wednesday will be a dress up day with the theme, "Sock it to Drugs". Everyone is encouraged to be creative and wear the craziest socks they can for the day.

If you noticed some sweaty, smiling 4th graders traveling back to Clearwater in some vans last Friday, then you saw a happy group of students that were just returning home from their fun outing to celebrate the fact that they ALL passed math and reading NeSA tests last spring.The 4th graders were excited to enjoy a lunch at Pizza Hut in Neligh, followed by a trip to Verdigre to enjoy inflatables and other activities in the gym. There was a bounce house inflatable, an obstacle course race inflatable, Wii activities, and basketball fun. They also enjoyed cookies and Gatorades before they headed home. It was a fun afternoon, and the 4th graders are looking forward to doing well on their NeSA tests again THIS year!!








*Kellen celebrated his birthday this week. So now we have TWO students that are a decade old! *In Nebraska history, the 4th graders are gearing up for a test on explorers, traders, and missionaries, which will be next Tuesday. There are a LOT of people to remember in this chapter, so it will take a little extra studying! In this chapter, Madison's Nebraska portrait was voted to be put on our Wall of Fame for her portrait on Petalesharo, a Pawnee chief, that saved a captive girl from being killed by his own tribe as part of a ceremony.
Madison's Nebraska portrait about Petalasharo was voted on to be put on our Wall of Fame in the 4th grade classroom.

We FINALLY finished our Earth unit in science. 12 students earned an A or a B on the test!! It was a long unit, but the students enjoyed learning so much about our Earth. *The 4th graders have also been doing practice... practice...and MORE practice of their long division skills. Mrs. Metschke is anxious to check their tests from today to see how much they have grown in their division skills. *In language arts, they have been really working on recognizing and using all the parts of speech in making the word choice in sentences more interesting. Adverbs are the newest part of speech that they have learned and started using. *There has been a lot of sports talk in the 4th grade room this week since they are reading about Jackie Robinson. The 4th graders were surprised to hear that Jackie was a great athlete in football, basketball, and track as well. In fact, baseball was actually his worst sport in college. Yet, he became famous because of his playing baseball in the Major Leagues as the first African American player.

Donuts With Dads was a Huge Success!! We had over 100 attend! Here are some pictures-













Congrats to the 1st Graders for having the most Box Tops!! How cools is that – eating lunch with Mr. Sanne!! Whoop Whoop!

3/4th and 5/6th Grade Boys Youth BB Practice Dates for November!!
November
Saturday – 22nd -@ Orchard 9:00-10:30
Monday – 24th- @ Orchard 6:30-8:00
December-
Tuesday - 2nd @ Orchard 6:30-8:00
Saturday- 6th @ Clearwater 9:00-10:30
Monday- 8th @ Clearwater 6:00-7:30
Saturday – 13th @ Orchard 9:00-10:30 3/4th and 5/6th Grade Girls Youth BB Practice Dates for November!!
November
Saturday – 22nd @ Orchard 10:30-12:00
Tuesday – 25th @ Clearwater 6:00-7:30
December
Tuesday – 2nd @ Clearwater 6:00-7:30
Saturday – 6th @ Clearwater 10:30-12:00
Thursday – 11th @ Orchard 6:30-8:00
Saturday – 13th @ Orchard 10:30-12:00
Game Dates Are:
Dec 7th – O’Neill (boys) Atkinson (girls)
Dec 14th – Neligh (boys) Clearwater (girls)
Jan 11th – O’Neill (girls) Atkinson (boys)
Jan 18th – Neligh (girls) Clearwater (boys)

"Dear Parent: About THAT kid..." by Amy Murray Dear Parent: I know. You’re worried. Every day, your child comes home with a story about THAT kid. The one who is always hitting shoving pinching scratching maybe even biting other children. The one who always has to hold my hand in the hallway. The one who has a special spot at the carpet, and sometimes sits on a chair rather than the floor. The one who had to leave the block centre because blocks are not for throwing. The one who climbed over the playground fence right exactly as I was telling her to stop. The one who poured his neighbour’s milk onto the floor in a fit of anger. On purpose. While I was watching. And then, when I asked him to clean it up, emptied the ENTIRE paper towel dispenser. On purpose. While I was watching. The one who dropped the REAL ACTUAL F-word in gym class. You’re worried that THAT child is detracting from your child’s learning experience. You’re worried that he takes up too much of my time and energy, and that your child won’t get his fair share. You’re worried that she is really going to hurt someone some day. You’re worried that “someone” might be your child. You’re worried that your child is going to start using aggression to get what she wants. You’re worried your child is going to fall behind academically because I might not notice that he is struggling to hold a pencil. I know. Your child, this year, in this classroom, at this age, is not THAT child. Your child is not perfect, but she generally follows rules. He is able to share toys peaceably. She does not throw furniture. He raises his hand to speak. She works when it is time to work, and plays when it is time to play. He can be trusted to go straight to the bathroom and straight back again with no shenanigans. She thinks that the S-word is “stupid” and the C-word is “crap.” I know. I know, and I am worried, too. You see, I worry all the time. About ALL of them. I worry about your child’s pencil grip, and another child’s letter sounds, and that little tiny one’s shyness, and that other one’s chronically empty lunchbox. I worry that Gavin’s coat is not warm enough, and that Talitha’s dad yells at her for printing the letter B backwards. Most of my car rides and showers are consumed with the worrying.
But I know, you want to talk about THAT child. Because Talitha’s backward Bs are not going to give your child a black eye. I want to talk about THAT child, too, but there are so many things I can’t tell you. I can’t tell you that she was adopted from an orphanage at 18 months. I can’t tell you that he is on an elimination diet for possible food allergies, and that he is therefore hungry ALL. THE. TIME. I can’t tell you that her parents are in the middle of a horrendous divorce, and she has been staying with her grandma. I can’t tell you that I’m starting to worry that grandma drinks… I can’t tell you that his asthma medication makes him agitated. I can’t tell you that her mom is a single parent, and so she (the child) is at school from the moment before-care opens, until the moment after-care closes, and then the drive between home and school takes 40 minutes, and so she (the child) is getting less sleep than most adults. I can’t tell you that he has been a witness to domestic violence. That’s okay, you say. You understand I can’t share personal or family information. You just want to know what I am DOING about That Child’s behaviour. I would love to tell you. But I can’t. I can’t tell you that she receives speech-language services, that an assessment showed a severe language delay, and that the therapist feels the aggression is linked to frustration about being unable to communicate. I can’t tell you that I meet with his parents EVERY week, and that both of them usually cry at those meetings. I can’t tell you that the child and I have a secret hand signal to tell me when she needs to sit by herself for a while.
I can’t tell you that he spends rest time curled in my lap because “it makes me feel better to hear your heart, Teacher.” I can’t tell you that I have been meticulously tracking her aggressive incidents for 3 months, and that she has dropped from 5 incidents a day, to 5 incidents a week. I can’t tell you that the school secretary has agreed that I can send him to the office to “help” when I can tell he needs a change of scenery. I can’t tell you that I have stood up in a staff meeting and, with tears in my eyes, BEGGED my colleagues to keep an extra close eye on her, to be kind to her even when they are frustrated that she just punched someone AGAIN, and this time, RIGHT IN FRONT OF A TEACHER. The thing is, there are SO MANY THINGS I can’t tell you about That Child. I can’t even tell you the good stuff. I can’t tell you that his classroom job is to water the plants, and that he cried with heartbreak when one of the plants died over winter break. I can’t tell you that she kisses her baby sister goodbye every morning, and whispers “You are my sunshine” before mom pushes the stroller away. I can’t tell you that he knows more about thunderstorms than most meteorologists. I can’t tell you that she often asks to help sharpen the pencils during playtime. I can’t tell you that she strokes her best friend’s hair at rest time. I can’t tell you that when a classmate is crying, he rushes over with his favourite stuffy from the story corner.
The thing is, dear parent, that I can only talk to you about YOUR child. So, what I can tell you is this: If ever, at any point, YOUR child, or any of your children, becomes THAT child… I will not share your personal family business with other parents in the classroom. I will communicate with you frequently, clearly, and kindly. I will make sure there are tissues nearby at all our meetings, and if you let me, I will hold your hand when you cry. I will advocate for your child and family to receive the highest quality of specialist services, and I will cooperate with those professionals to the fullest possible extent. I will make sure your child gets extra love and affection when she needs it most. I will be a voice for your child in our school community. I will, no matter what happens, continue to look for, and to find, the good, amazing, special, and wonderful things about your child. I will remind him and YOU of those good amazing special wonderful things, over and over again. And when another parent comes to me, with concerns about YOUR child… I will tell them all of this, all over again. With so much love; Teacher.

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