Kindergartners & Respect

The Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine (Feb/March 2010) was sent home last week, and upon reading the magazine I found many wonderful articles that provided great ideas to ways to help our children, as well as needed help in areas of growth and development that our children are experiencing.

For the next few weeks, I thought it would be fun to highlight a different article from that magazine ~ you probably have already read these articles, however maybe they can serve as an extra reminder for things that we'd like to try.

Here is the first article, which was entitled 'It's a Two-Way Street' ~ Kindergartners learn respect from the way you treat them by Ellen Booth Church.

The author Ellen Church brought the concept of respect to an easy to understand level for our children's age and I wanted to highlight a few points from the article. If you'd like to read the entire article - click HERE.

Points from the article:

*We've heard the phrase, "respect your elders". To a 5 or 6 year old, what does that mean? It can be a vague concept. To begin to teach our children about respect, it helps to know that children at this stage often associate "respect" with "listening."

LISTEN and GROW

Respect works both ways. Children learn to respect by giving it, but also by receiving it.

5 and 6 year olds are mature enough to ask to be listened to and respected, just like us. This is a perfect time to teach respect by modeling it and offering it to our child(ren).

The art of LISTENING is probably one of the most important skills we can teach our child to help her/him grasp the concept of respect.

? ~ How do we feel when someone really listens to us?

Answer: We probably feel respected and appreciated!

Ideas & Tips:

* Model listening with your own child by making eye contact and listening without interruption.

* Give your child notice a few minutes before it's time to finish a game or project to let her know that her interests are important.

*On a walk, show respect for living things by carefully walking around small plants and bugs. Help your young one realize that trampling would harm them.

*Point out how good it makes people feel when she/he uses respectful phrases such as "please" and "thank-you".

Perhaps the best reason for showing respect has to do with caring. As we all know, we show someone respect because we care about them. Something important I gained from this article, is that Ellen Church stated, we will only gain true respect from children when they care about us and want to be respectful. Teaching our child(ren) how it feels to care, means that we have taken the first and most important step in teaching them about how to respect. It will be a natural outflow of their feelings.

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Look for next week's article on: 5 Easy Ways to Build a Reader!

BOX TOPS for Education

P.S./I.S. 217 is excited about a new way we are collecting 'BOX TOPS for Education' and raising funds for our students, teachers and school! Simply put when we collect more BOX TOPS, we raise more money for 217!

Our goal for Spring 2010 is to raise....$2,000 for our school!

To raise $2,000 we need 20,000 BOX TOPS! Is it possible? YES and it’s simple!! There are over 400 students at P.S. 217, if each student brings in 50 BOX TOPS by June 11th (only 10 BOX TOPS a month for the next 5 months!) – we will meet our goal. We can even exceed our goal – which allows extra funding for our teachers & school. Let's set our goals high, and realize TOGETHER WE CAN DO THIS!

IN SCHOOL COMPETITION

The students need to CLIP – BRING – and DEPOSIT their BOX TOPS in their class jar (each teacher has a new Box Top jar in each classroom). We hope students will ask friends, neighbors, family members and anyone else they know who will give their BOX TOPS to our school We want them to be creative and safe in asking - please remind them to only ask those people they know!

Classes will be divided into groups for a friendly and fun competition. A bulletin board will be up by end of Feb. to track the progress of each class in their group. The class in each group to earn the most BOX TOPS from Feb. 1^st – June 11^th wins a
CLASS ICE CREAM PARTY!

Month of February
OLYMPIC Competition for each student!

This first month of competition we are adding an extra incentive for students brining in their BOX TOPS! In celebrating the 2010 Winter Olympics, a personal tracking sheet ‘Countdown to Vancouver 2010’ was sent home. This month students can glue/tape BOX TOPS to each sheet (10 max. per sheet). Lower-grades will submit sheets to their Classroom Teacher. Middle School students should submit their sheets to Ms. Lauraine. BOX TOPS will count towards class & monthly totals! Please remember to fill in CHILD'S NAME and TEACHER. The top 3 students in each competing group, who turn in the most BOX TOPS on the 'Countdown to Vancouver' sheet, will win the GOLD, SILVER & BRONZE medals for bringing in the most BOX TOPS! You can pick up additional 'Countdown to Vancouver' Sheets from the Main Lobby ~ Parent Communication Center. ALL entries are DUE Friday, Feb. 26^th!

BOX TOPS SUCCESS!
One of the easiest ways you can make a difference is to sign up with the Box Tops website at boxtops4education.com. It’s easy, free and you’ll also be able to:
• Enter to win BONUS BOX TOPS (there is a daily drawing in February to win 1,000 BOX TOPS!) Check for other ideas/contests to win Bonus BOX TOPS!
• Track our school’s Box Tops earnings & sign up for email updates on our school’s progress!
• Print money-saving coupons for your favorite Box Tops brands.
• Enjoy new family-pleasing recipes.

I.S. 217 is THE Place To Be!

January's Student of the Month showcased Class 101 singing the new School Song during the assembly for the Grades Pre-K through 2nd grade. Click HERE to view the video on YouTube {thank you to Olga, parent of K003 for posting this!).

Thanks for a great performance! All students are enjoying learning the song, and we are thankful for Mr. Solow how rewrote the song to incorporate key words and phrases from P.S. 217's Mission Statement and goals for their students & school.

P.S. 217 IS the Place To Be!

Also, click HERE to view a clip from the performance of the Winter Concert!

FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT! THIS FRIDAY!! (Jan. 29th)

Family Movie Night Friday, January 29th @ 6:30

This Friday is our second family movie night open to grades K-5.

"Bolt" is our feature film ~ a kid and adult favorite!

It has many laugh out loud moments, that provide great entertainment for everyone in the family!

ALL CHILDREN must be accompanied & supervised by an adult.

Cost: $5 for each child - which includes admission and movie treats!

Parents, we are asked to bring a snack/baked good to share with other parents, and bring your desire for visiting and maybe a favorite game if you want to get a group going!

The PTA would love your help that evening! Please consider helping with the set-up, handing out movie treats for the children, clean-up....or all 3! We hope to have your help - please email Nikki Leopold at nikkipta@gmail.com on how you can help & to RSVP so that we can plan for the number of children/families attending.

See you at the movie!!

Gingerbread House reminders and help!

Hello parents!

Please remember to send in the little goodies tomorrow (Wednesday), which your child was asked to bring in for the Gingerbread House! With many families that are new to the school, and possibly the area....if you aren't familiar with a Gingerbread House....here are some images I captured from the Internet. Gingerbread Houses are a fun way to let the imagination and creativity run wild...and the children will definitely create their own masterpieces with this activity! :)

A letter was sent home from the Kindergarten Team (all K teachers) with a list of items they would like for the children to be able to decorate their Gingerbread Houses. The item your child was asked to bring in was highlighted. If you can't remember what item you were asked to send in, please double-check with Mrs. Z in the morning, or choose an item from the list and send it to class tomorrow. The teachers would like to prep the activity so that they are ready for Thursday as it will be fun - but a lot of work with so many little ones and all the decorating they will be doing with icing and food galore!!

Candies ~ Food suggestions:

*peppermint candies

*gumdrops (multi-color or green)

*m&m's (holiday or regular colored)

*marshmallows

*pretzels

*red hots (little red dot spicy candy)

*small crackers or small cereal

*red licorice bites

*ANY other little candy or food item that is little, and could be used in decorating a Gingerbread House.

Also, we would appreciate and need parent volunteers to help with the Gingerbread House making on Thursday at 1pm (in the Kindergarten room). At this time we have 3 volunteers - but we'd like to have at least another 3, so there will be a parent for each table of children. If you could come in (it would be for about 30-45 minutes), please let Summer or Mrs. Z know.

Thank you so much! Your help is appreciated with fun events for the class, as well as the help given within the classroom. The students have enjoyed the parents that have already come in to share traditions, and look forward to the others that will be coming in.

If you haven't signed up to share your families special culture or tradition - there is still time! Be sure to talk with Mrs. Z to schedule a time and set something up soon!

THANK YOU for a Successful Raffle! {Donations and more}

Sharing a letter from Kristi T. that oversaw the Raffle for the PTA Fundraiser for the Music & Arts Program.

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Dear parents,

I wanted to personally thank all of you who participated in raising funds for the Music & Arts program at our holiday concert. Whether you donated an item for a raffle basket, money for an item, bought raffle tickets, sold raffle tickets or gave a donation at the door, all of these helped to make this fundraiser a success.

Thanks to all of your efforts we were able to raise $1,077 for the Music & Arts program at our school. We are so grateful for your generosity and dedication to the school!

Thank you again.

Kristi T.

1st Vice President, PTA

Sign-up to share your Holiday Tradition!

*a note from Mrs. Z regarding the Holiday Traditions sharing opportunity!

Dear K-001 Parents,

The holidays are here! If you would like to share your holiday traditions in class we’d love to have you join us! If your holiday has passed, you are still welcome to share.

As an example, you might read a short book, talk about how you celebrate at home and do a fun activity that is linked to your holiday. The group share part of your visit (talking, reading, singing) should be 5-15 minutes, and the activity should be about 15/20 minutes or less. The more visuals you use, the better (books, pictures, artifacts). The focus should be on celebrations and traditions (we also have to avoid any religious information).

Please let me know if you’d like to join us. There is a sign-up sheet outside the door, or just let me know in person and we can talk about what you’d like to do and make a time for it. It should be fun for everyone!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Z