Volume 2 Issue 4

February 2015

Towanda Elementary Bulldogs

Principal Message

Dear Bulldog Families,

Our vision is centered around the most important and precious part of our school community—our stu-dents and families. We are driven by the opportunities that allow us to make a difference in the lives of our Bulldogs. I strongly believe in a team concept that helps to meet the needs of ALL learners, your children. When we work together, academics, social and emotional, and physical growth have a tendency to grow at the great-est rate.

I am very excited and pleased to see the develop-ment of our students making strides toward not only academic success but social and emotional success as well. A large part of this growth that we are seeing has to do with your support at home and through your vol-unteering efforts here at school. There is no greater partnership than the one that helps your child(ren) grow during their elementary years. If you are involved and showing that you care, students will show that they care about themselves. This in turn will have a major impact on who each Bulldog will become as a person in this society.

Building relationships. It’s what we do here at Towanda. We believe getting to know each learner will help us reach every student to the fullest potential. Pos-itive Relationships. Positive Outcomes!

Mr. Vogel

Subway

Student of the Week!

Every other Friday we will be selecting two students from each class to be the Subway student of the week. Stu-dents are chosen based on the Character Trait we are focusing on for the month.

February 2015

2/2: PTO 6pm 2/7: Skating Party 4-6: Skate N Place

2/11: Late Start

2/13: Valentine’s Day Parties 2:30

2/14: PTO Basket Raffle and Pancake Sausage Breakfast 8-2pm

2/16: No School

2:17: No School: School Improvement Day

2/23: Monical’s Dine to Donate

Inside this issue:

Principal Message 1

Calendar of Events 1

Art Note 2

PTO 2

Late Start 3

P.E. News 3

Room Parties 3

PBIS 4

Bulldog Blurbs 4

Coach’s Corner 5

BULLDOG BLAST

Towanda’s Vision Statement:

To be a family-centered safe environment school that builds ongoing relationships with each student, while creating educational oppor-tunities that foster independent self-motivated individuals who take ownership of their learning and personal character.

Towanda

Elementary School

304 South East Street

PO Box 260

Towanda, IL 61776

Phone: (309) 557-4426

Attendance Line: 557-4475

www.unit5.org/towanda

Bulldogs NEED Specific Books!

New or Gently Used,

Please drop off in office.

We would like to request

books in the following series:

Boxcar Children

Jigsaw Jones Mysteries

Magic Tree House

Junie B. Jones

Art Note: Ms. Meredith

PTO BLAST

them in the future.

So while I am advocating for the

arts, and rightfully so, as a parent

you just see the end result of your

child’s learning and creating, but

so much learning has gone into

that work of art. At any time, if

you would like to discuss art-

related careers, our district’s art

curriculum and program, you can

email me at

merediml@unit5.org, or call the

school, 557-4426, to set up a

time for a discussion.

Thanks for choosing the Arts!

Did you know that an Architect,

Art Educator, Culinary Artist,

Fashion Designer, Engineer,

Graphic Designer, Illustrators,

Interior Designers, Photographers,

are just a few of the lucrative

200+ art careers your child could

possibly choose for their success-

ful career path?

Our district’s elementary art

curriculum teaches children many

aspects of the arts, as well as in

combination with other curricular

areas, and for several reasons.

Whole brain development, espe-

cially at the elementary level, is

critical for future success of stu-

dents. The arts have proven to

help with children being able to

problem solve in many ways,

thus, when faced with a difficult

task, whether it be in an art –

related area or not, the individual

is more able to think out of the

box and rise to the top. One of

the top reasons the arts are im-

portant to a child’s education is the ability to access both brain

hemispheres when problem-

solving, and that both reasoning

and understanding are needed to

make educated decisions. These

are the skills used during art class

when students are learning and

creating art that will also benefit

like and cut and fill

out each ticket with

the proper infor-

mation. Please return

the tickets with cash

or check – Made Pay-

able to Towanda PTO

– inside an envelope

to the school office by

no later than 8 AM on

Friday, February

13th. Drawing will be

held on Saturday at

2pm. You do not need

to be present to win.

Good luck!

Dallas Lueschen, PTO

President

On February 14 the

Towanda PTO will

once again be hosting

its annual Basket Raf-

fle during the Boy

Scouts Pancake & Sau-

sage Supper. This

year we are raffling off

five different bas-

kets. Basket #1 is a

full size IPAD AIR.

Basket #2 is a 32” LG

LED TV. Basket #3 is

the new 2015 Ameri-

can Girl Doll of the

Year – Grace Thomas.

Basket #4 is a Mine-

craft Basket containing

a complete collection

of Minecraft books, a

minecraft sword, and

an activity kit to build

a Minecraft

world. Basket #5 is a

Gift Card basket that

includes gift cards to

Target, Lowe’s, Best

Buy, iTunes, Cold

Stone, Panera, and

Smash Burger.

Ticket prices are $1.00

each. Tickets will be on

sale from 8 am until

2pm on Saturday, Feb-

ruary 14th. If you are

unable to attend that

day please visit the

school’s website where

you will find a link to

the raffle flyer and tick-

ets. Please print how

many tickets you would

Page 2 BULLDOG BLAST

LATE STARTS

News from Mrs. Houseworth (P.E.)

Late Start Dates:

Feb. 11th & 25th

Mar. 11th

April 15th

May 6th

Again this year, Unit 5 will

implement 14 Late Start

Wednesdays, which will have

all students arriving one hour

later than regular school start

times. Elementary schools will

start at 9:45 a.m. on these

days. Transportation pick up

times will run one hour later

on these days than on regular days. The purpose of Late

Starts is to allow Unit 5 staff

members to meet for 90

minutes of professional learn-

ing and collaboration, which

will improve classroom in-

struction, enhancing the learn-

ing opportunity for students,

despite the state’s financial

crisis. Research supports ongo-

ing, sustained, results oriented

collaboration.

This common meeting time

will allow teachers to: develop

student achievement goals

driven by data, collaborate in

the development of instruc-

tional strategies, develop com-

mon course assessments,

analyze assessment data to

guide instruction, collaborate

on differentiating instruction

for students through the Pro-

fessional Learning Community

model (PLC).

Hope everyone will be able to join us for our annual skating party

at Skate-N-Place on Saturday, February 7 from 4-6. The

skating party is also set up as a fundraiser for our PE program, as

well as an opportunity for you to see how the students have im-

proved on their skating skills. Also looking forward to some “March

Madness” towards the end of the month as we have fun playing

basketball. Keep those bodies moving!!

This year’s Valentine’s room

parties will be on Friday, Feb.

13 beginning at 2:30 p.m.

Please contact your child’s

teacher to arrange set up time.

Late Starts allow for time to work together to enhance the instruction that helps educate each Bulldog!

Page 3 February 2015

Valentine’s Parties

February is National Dental Health

Month!

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentists and the

American Dental Association promotes tooth brush-

ing for two minutes twice daily with a fluoride tooth-

paste and drinking fluoridated water as two of the

most effective methods to reduce tooth decay in chil-

dren.

February is National Children's Dental Health Month

and a good time to remind parents of school age chil-

dren that dental examinations are required for chil-

dren entering kindergarten, second and sixth grade in

Illinois.

Straight from the jaws of the DOGS—What does CARING mean to a Bulldog?

- Thinking about oth-ers and doing nice things for them.

Liam 4C

- If someone says something mean to a friend, I would say, “Hey, that’s not nice.”

Amelia 3H

- Never give up and focus to try your best to figure it out.

Kaitlyn 5B

- Helping others and keeping people safe.

Ava 2B

- If someone falls down you just don’t leave them there and pick them up.

Maggy 4C

PBIS Bulldog Style

We have a team of staff members and parents that meet monthly to decide the monthly focus and activities that go along with our focus. Our goal as a PBIS team is to make our school environ-ment a safe and respectful place where kids want to learn.

February Focus: CARING This month’s character trait focus is caring. We will be having a guest speaker from the Red Cross come and talk with our students on Feb. 6 during our morning assembly. The Red Cross guest will be focusing on what they do as an organization to show that they care about people in need. They will also focus on how people can help the Red Cross deliver the services to our community and communities across the world. What types of ways does your family show how you care about people in your community?

- Giving people your love and show that you admire them.

Ava 4C

- If someone is having a fight, like one of your friends, you can come and help them out so they don’t get in trouble.

Kirstin 3H

Bulldogs

Page 4

It’s A Great Day to be A BULLDOG!!

If a Bulldog is down, please call the attendance line and let us know.

Attendance Line: 557-4475

It’s not who you are but what you do that matters! BULLDOG BEHAVIOR!

We’re on the WEB!

http://www.unit5.org/to

wanda

Home of the Bulldogs!

Ever wonder what your Bulldog is thinking?

Coach’s Corner by Mrs. Spencer

What Does Workshop Look & Sound Like?

This month let’s take a close look at sharing time in reading and writing workshop,

which comes at the very end of the workshop block. It is a time for students to share

their thoughts about books they read or what they wrote that day during writing work-

shop. This sharing is done with a partner, small group, or the whole class.

Page 5

Sharing Time Looks Like Sharing Time Sounds Like

Teachers

-grouping students to share their reading or

writing

-focusing the students on sharing something

that connects to the day’s mini lesson

-praising students

-asking questions to deepen students’ under-

standing

-asking for classmates to give the reader or

writer feedback

-celebrating readers and writers

Students

-telling a partner about the book they read

that day

-applying the Keys to Reading Comprehension

to their text

-reading their reader’s notebook response

-demonstrating how they applied the day’s

mini lesson

-recommending a book to classmates

-complementing classmates

-applauding what has been shared

-reading parts of the genre they have written

-asking for suggestions from classmates about

how to improve their piece of writing

-giving feedback to classmates about a written piece