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Visit our Dodge PTA Website- www.dodgepta.com Page 1 of 11
January 2019
Dodge Elementary PTA
Important: OPEN ENROLLMENT
Open Enrollment is available at the elementary level for
Dodge and Forest Elementary. The deadline date for
grades 1-4 is June 1, 2019 for the 2019-20 school year and
July 1, 2019 for entering Kindergarten students for the 2019-
2020 school year. Please contact Student Services at
District Office at 716-626-8007 if you have any questions.
A note from Mr. Smilinich-
Dear Dodge Families:
As you are well aware Dodge Elementary School is a Title 1
school and Federal Regulations require that parents in
certain schools receiving federal education aid have the
right to know about the qualifications of teachers and
para-professionals employed in that school.
All teachers and para-professionals employed at Dodge
Elementary School are highly qualified under those federal
guidelines.
If, in the future your child is taught for four or more
consecutive weeks by a teacher or a para-professional
who is not highly qualified, you will be personally notified.
Questions about this notice can be directed to the office
of the principal or to the district Human Resources office
at:
[email protected] or telephone: 716-626-8051.
Have a great day
Important Dates
January 28-February 1st
SOUPerbowl Food Drive
January 31st- 7:00
4th grade concert
February 5th
Unity Day- Wear Orange
6pm- Variety Show Dress
Rehearsal
February 7th- 7:00
Variety Show
February 12th- 7:00
Variety Show Snow Date
February 18-22
No School
February 27th
Wonderful Wednesday-
Wear Disney clothes
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A note from the front office- Reminder about Morning Drop Off
The earliest students may enter the building is 7:45 am. At this time,
we have someone to supervise students until they are allowed
into classrooms at 8:05. If you arrive at school before 7:45, please
have your child wait with you in your car.
Dodge Fun Run
The Dodge Fun Run will be
held on Friday, May 17th,
during each grade level’s
regular CE time. This will
be a fun day that all
kids get to participate in.
Students will raise money to fund our
PTA activities such as field trips, assembly performers, and PARP. It
is our hope that, if successful, this will be our only fundraiser for the
upcoming school year. Fully funding our PTA budget will mean no
more cookie sales, magazine sales, or coupon books.
We are currently looking for businesses to sponsor our Fun Run.
Sponsors will have logos printed on the Fun Run Shirts. An exciting
part of this fundraiser is that all students and staff at Dodge will
receive a shirt with your logo on it!
If you are interested in sponsoring the run or helping with the
planning, please contact Ellen Schaab [email protected]
Scrips Thank You
By: Lynn Homish
Thank you to all who participated in the Scrip gift card
fundraiser. While you marked some shopping off your list, the
school PTA was able to benefit. The fundraiser earned $717.63
for school activities.
PARP continues to make reading
fun and be rewarding. In
December, the prize cart was
shuffled around to 234 students.
Students also received a
certificate to bring home. The
next prize patrol will be in the
beginning of February. All book
reports received by the end of
January will be eligible for a prize.
PARP is again teaming up with
Daren Lake with their Reading to
Ride Program. Information came
home in student's take home
folders. In short, students are
asked to log seven hours of
reading during the program
period (January and
February). All forms are due to
teachers by February
22nd. Students who successfully
complete the program will be
awarded the ride voucher at the
end of the year. Ride vouchers
will be valid for use during the
summer. Any question contact Mr.
Morrissey
Parents are invited to stop by and
see our first round of Wall of
Famers in the hallway outside the
library and check out our display
case (across from the auditorium)
that spotlights our teacher
nominated readers.
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Kindergarten News!
By: Mrs. Bellacose, Mrs. Borth, Mrs. Ciocca, Mrs. Groat , Mrs. Heary,
Mrs. Loewer, and Mrs. Weber
January has been a busy month! We started the month off with
some New Year’s resolutions and setting new goals for
ourselves! The month continued with learning about Martin
Luther King Jr., and our youngest learners talked about making
the world a better place. In science, we are wrapping up a unit
on weather. We have enjoyed discussing different types of
weather and acting like scientist doing weather experiments!
We will end the month with career day. We look forward to
learning about different careers from our parent volunteers!
FIRST GRADE!
By: Mrs. DeMartinis, Miss Grimsley, Mrs. Majchrowicz, Mrs. Pautler, and
Mrs. Stegner
First Grade has started 2019 by
setting new learning goals and
resolutions for the New Year. We
are delving into non-fiction
reading and writing units of study.
Our workshop time is spent
reading to become smarter and
writing to teach others. We focus
on good reading habits and enjoy
partner work. In math, we are in
Module 2 and extending our work
with addition and subtraction to
the numbers 1-20. We will continue
to practice finding partners for any given number, how to
make ten and solving word problems. In addition, we will be
learning many new strategies along the way! Fact fluency is
essential to 1st Graders at this point in the year. We are so
proud of our students! Please continue to read, enjoy and
discuss books with your child every night!
2019 Dodge Variety Show
February 7th @ 7 pm
Come see our very
talented
Comedians, Dancers,
Singers, Jugglers, Magicians,
Instrumentalists, etc.
Hope to see you at the show!
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Second Grade
By: Mrs. Curry, Mrs. Ferguson, Mrs. Mango,
Mrs. Perna, Mrs. Schaab and Mrs. Pavlovich
Our second grade experts have been
very busy writing nonfiction stories that
teach about their areas of expertise.
We had writers publish stories about
pets, sports, Roblox, birthday parties,
and so many more. The writers thought
about who the audience would be for their writing so they
could make sure they taught what they would need to know.
They thought about how to hook the reader with an interesting
lead and how to help them picture
the important information. Once
the book was ready to publish,
each class published their work in
different ways, including using Book
Creator and recording audio
books on Seesaw.
During reader’s workshop, our writers studied other nonfiction
authors to see how the professional authors taught their
audience, looking at text features and how books are
organized. Our readers learned a lot about the topics they
chose to study, reading multiple books on the topic and
noticing what information was the same and what information
was new. We’re looking forward to our new reading and
writing work on fiction and characters and writing letters about opinions.
This week the second graders became cartographers and
studied important parts of maps. They rotated through the 5
stations to practice using their map skills in different ways.
Students used latitude and longitude to find state capitals. They
identified different types of maps and their
uses. The cartographers created a map of
their bedroom using scale. They used what
they know about coding to teach Ozobots how to move around a
map. It was fun learning from all the different second grade
teachers.
Treasurer’s Notes
Thank you for your support of
fundraisers to support all
children at Dodge!
As a direct result of your
support, the PTA was able to
fund the following field trips
and programs in December
and January:
4th 4th grade
shirts and
activities
All grades Chris
Johnson No
Bully Zone
Assembly
PARP
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Grade Three:
By: Mrs. Calhoun, Mrs. Montante, Mrs. Myers, Mrs. Szatkowski, Mrs. Wheeler and Mrs. Hawker
What a wonderful start we’ve had to the New Year! Our third graders are working hard
and making terrific progress!
In Reader’s Workshop we have just completed our nonfiction unit. We
have learned a great number of strategies to help us become better
readers of informational text. We focused on expository text and narrative
nonfiction. The students enjoyed learning about the lives of many people
during our study of biographies. During our next unit will be about character studies. We
will be using Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, so be sure to ask your child about it!
We have completed our science unit about weather and patterns and are ready
to begin learning about Brazil and the Amazon Rainforest. Our topics will include
geography, culture, government, family life, food, music, sports, and the
rainforest. This is always a favorite of our Dodgers, so please discuss it with your
child!
We have concluded our math module about area. The students did a
wonderful job mastering these concepts and are now ready to begin our
graphing unit. We will begin by analyzing pictographs and bar graphs and
will then move on to creating our own graphs. Please continue to practice
facts at home, as children will soon be expected to have mastered
multiplication facts.
For our next ELA unit we will be using the chapter book Peter Pan, which is
another favorite of ours. Throughout the unit we will practice answering short
answer and extended response text-dependent questions related to the book. This
will also tie in nicely with our Readers Workshop character studies.
We are excited about our Valentine’s Day party, which will be help on
February 14 at 12:00. All parents are welcome and encouraged to join us
for this celebration. We hope to see you there!
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4th Grade News By: Mrs. Colucci, Mrs. D’Angelo, Mrs. Gaesser, Mrs. Licht and Mrs. Meyer
Happy New Year! Our Dodge 4th graders came back from the long winter break, rested
and ready to work.
It was awesome to see so many students at our 4th Grade
Activity Night! Everyone had a great time playing in the gym,
singing their favorite karaoke songs, dancing, taking silly pictures
in the photo booth, getting their faces painted, creating their own
pins, playing board games, and just spending time together.
Many wonderful Dodge memories were made that night! Thank
you to our Dodge PTA for organizing such a fun event! Also, many
thanks to Mr. Morrisey and Mr. Knab for
helping the students create such
amazing buttons and to Mr. Venditti for
playing “Guard the Pin” with the students!
We are looking forward to our first 4th grade concert on
January 31st. The students have been working very hard to
prepare for the concert with Mrs. Accurso, Mrs. Gengo, and Mrs. Reed. They can’t wait to
show off their musical skills!
We are also looking forward to our next Fusion Show. This month’s “Big Idea” is self-
control. The students will be learning the importance of taking a step back to choose how
to act, in order to avoid saying and doing things that they might regret.
As January winds down, we look forward to a fun-filled February! We have many
special events planned for our 4th graders.
Band, Orchestra, and Chorus News
Our 4th Grade students are very excited to perform their first concert of the
year!!! On Thursday January 31st, our band, orchestra, and chorus will perform for our entire school
and for family and friends that same evening! We wish them all the best of luck – we are so proud
of the hard work they have been doing. BRAVO!!!
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News from Mr. Knab’s Art Room:
By: Mr. Knab
Happy New Year to the Dodge Community! As always we are busy in the Art Room. The
kindergarten students have just completed a Winter’s Night Village
artwork. We first looked at the painting entitled Rainy Night by Charles
Burchfield. We looked for clues to show us why he titled it this and also
how the
effect of space was created by using
overlap. Students used the cool colors to create their
houses, trees, and buildings and then overlapped
them to create the effect of space (near/far, in
front/behind). Details were added with marker and
they used pastel to add the wintery background.
Grade 1 is learning about collage and also watched a video about the
collage artist Romare Bearden. They are creating a collage inspired by
his Pittsburgh Memories artwork where he let us view into his
grandparents’ home. Students started their collage by making a wall
with a large window. Next, they are developing what they see in or out
of that window. They are using old magazines, picture calendars and
scrap construction paper.
Grade 2 is learning how to draw a more realistic face in order to create a
self-portrait. We are discussing facial proportions and correct placements.
Sometimes we have to retrain our brains in order to do things better and
that is the same in art. I also tell them “The Cookie Story” as a way to help
with the initial placements of the eyes, nose, and mouth. (Artwork is by 4th
grader Bella Mackie from when she was in 2nd grade and used as a student example for
the 2nd grade students.)
Students in grade 3 are completing weavings. They were
introduced to the vocabulary of loom, warp and weft. They had to
add the warp to their own looms and weave in ribbon for the weft.
They chose a color scheme for their work and had to also develop
symmetrical balance. One of the final steps requires them to tie
By Amiah
Wheeler
By Paisley Chi
By Miranda
Proctor
Teacher
Example
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the loom strings about 26 times…so if they didn’t know how to tie
before the weaving project, well they do now!
Grade 4 just finished Art Detective. This activity requires them to solve a case using clues.
They are also asked to use resources such as dictionaries, atlases, a code cipher, and more.
They also must collaborate with a partner. The answer to their case is one of 22 artworks
posted in the Art Room. They seemed to have fun with this activity. It also required them to
look closely at the artworks to find clues. They have just begun reviewing the realistic set-up
of the human face so they can create “Funky Portraits”. More about those in next month’s
newsletter.
Upcoming important dates:
District Art Show
Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village
3755 Tonawanda Creek Road, Amherst, NY
Elementary Reception: March 4, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Museum hours: March 6, 8 & 9 10:00 AM- 5:00 PM,
March 7 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Parents: Don’t forget to give permission on Artsonia for your child’s
artwork to be viewed. It’s a great way to share work with relatives and
friends who live far away. I also use it to create digital portfolios for all
Dodge students.
Let’s hope the Ground Hog does not see his shadow!
Yearbook
Please continue to send school event and class party photos to [email protected].
Thank you!
Recycling
Remember Dodge participates in the Converse/Nike “Reuse a
Shoe” Program and recycles markers through the Crayola
Colorcycle Program. A clear plastic drop-off box can be found in
the school’s entryway for you and your child(ren) to deposit the markers and a red trash can with
a swing lid will be there for the shoes. These programs run throughout the year so feel free to bring
in your recyclables at any time!
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Thank you to our generous sponsors
Platinum Donors $100
The Minnuto Family
The Spano Family
Gold Donors $50
The Breeden Family
The Lane Family
The Schaab Family
The Smilinich Family
The Winnert Family
Tjhe Silver Donors $25
The Bannister Family
The Kausner Family
The Kim Family
The Kusmierski Family
Mrs. Montante
The Thierman Family
Tjhe
Bronze Donors $10
The Nandhakumar Family
The Schell Family
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PTA Executive Board 2018-2019
Please feel free to contact any of the officers below with questions, ideas, or suggestions. We are
here to represent you and would love to hear from you!
Nicole Giambrone Co-President 725-3872 [email protected]
Dana Hensley Co-President 984-0691 [email protected]
Christy McCarthy Vice President 417-4807 [email protected]
Liz Cercone Vice President 989-7550 [email protected]
Jackie DiNunzio VP of Technology 688-3508 [email protected]
Suzanne Wagner Treasurer 909-2976 [email protected]
Ellen Schaab Corresponding Secretary 204-8108 [email protected]
Danielle Mommertz Recording Secretary 908-2366 [email protected]
