FOXY TALESFOXY TALES DOROTHY FOX ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2016

I N S I D E T H I S N E W S L E T T E R

BOOK SUGGESTIONS FROM THE FOX LIBRARY

COUNSELING PROGRAM + STUDENT SURVEY

LOOKING FOR SCIENCE FAIR JUDGES 2016

JANUARY 4 We had a snow day! Make-Up on Feb. 12

JANUARY 8 FOXY SPIRIT DAY—Wear Red!

JANUARY 18 Martin Luther King Holiday —NO SCHOOL

JANUARY 19 MLK Observance Assembly

JANUARY 21 General PTA Membership Mtg: 7pm Library

JANUARY 20 FOXY SPIRIT DAY—Crazy Hair!

JANUARY 25 Camas Schools “Grading Day” —NO SCHOOL

FEBRUARY 9 Ballots Due for School District Bond Measure

Dorothy Fox is a ballot collection site.

FEBRUARY 12 This is a school day. Please plan to attend.

FEBURARY 17 FOXY SPIRIT DAY—Pajamas!

FEBRUARY 18 General PTA Membership Mtg: 9am Cafeteria

FEBRUARY 19 Annual Fox Family Dance (Info to come)

FEBRUARY 27 CEF Auction @ Portland Airport Sheraton

UPCOMING DATES: (Can go to Fox School Website for Calendar Information) http://schools.camas.wednet.edu)

D o n ’ t F o r g e t t o T u r n i n Y o u r P T AD o n ’ t F o r g e t t o T u r n i n Y o u r P T A

M o n t h l y F o x y R e a d i n g C a l e n d a rM o n t h l y F o x y R e a d i n g C a l e n d a r

All Fox students should be reading at home. Families

should record daily minutes read. Students earn points

to spend at the Foxy Depot at the end of the trimester.

Happy New Year from Mrs. Duley and Mrs. Ruse in the Office!

We trust you all enjoyed your time with family as much as we did over our holiday

break! We are excited to see all the smiling faces back to school! Between the two

of us, we answer a lot of questions from parents. To start the New Year, we thought

we’d pass on the answers to a few of the most asked:

What time is lunch? Kindergarten-12:00 pm, First-12:25, Second-12:40,

Third-11:30, Fourth-11:45, Fifth-12:15

If we let the teacher know our child(ren) is sick, do we still need to call the office? YES please. We monitor

the student population as a whole. If you need to leave a message, please include what they are sick with

(cold, flu, stomach ache, fever, etc.).

Can I change my child(ren)’s exit plan for the day at any time during the day? Here’s the scoop….We are

able to write notes and have them delivered to the classroom up until 2:00 p.m. After that time, we have to

disrupt instruction time by calling to the classroom overhead and verbally let them know the change. Any

changes past 2:00 are strongly discouraged. We appreciate that emergencies occur and will do our best to

communicate the change in plans.

Can I just let my child(ren) know to go home a different way? NO. We actually know the exit plan for all

464 students and simply can’t let them leave differently without hearing it directly from you via a note or

call. We are responsible for all the kids until they make it to their destination. We trust you understand

and appreciate that we take their safety very seriously.

MESSAGE FROM DR. SORK, PRINCIPAL

I want to take this opportunity to wish all of our Dorothy Fox families a happy and healthy new year.

I hope your time away was relaxing and filled with memories to cherish with family and friends. A

special thank you to all who supported the annual Wishing Tree this last December. This year, the

heartfelt generosity of our Fox Families supported students in need at our school as well as

neighboring Liberty Middle School students who needed our help. The giving of our community is so inspiring.

Please join the staff at Dorothy Fox in saying thank you and

recognizing the vital contributions made by our fantastic Camas

School Board. January 2016 is School Board Recognition Month in

our state. Our school board is dedicated to ensuring that all Camas

children have the educational opportunities to help them reach

their fullest potential. Our current board members include: Mary

Tipton, Casey O’Dell, Doug Quinn, Julie Rotz, and Connie

Hennessey. (See left photo of them on the Fox play yard)

We are gearing up for our Annual STEAM Night on March 2nd, which includes student science fair projects for

grades 4-5. Students in grades K-3 are invited to participate with individual science fair projects if they would like.

Please SAVE-THE-DATE for this exciting night of STEAM Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math.

Thank you for your home support and volunteerism that makes a daily difference in the lives of our kids,

Dorothy Fox is the #1! ~ Dr. Sork Sork, Principal

Thank you for helping the Camas and Washougal

School Districts to collectively bring in over

55,000lbs of donated food for our local area food

bank during the Stuff-the-Bus event. What a

difference that will make to many! Fox had the

greatest number of boxes we have ever collected.

Subscribe to the weekly PTA Newsflash emails:

Visit Http://teacherweb/com/wa/dorothyfoxelementary/pta/newsflash.stm

Click on the bottom of the screen to subscribe.

You will receive an email every Friday describing upcoming events and opportunities for kids.

WAYS FOR FOX PARENTS TO STAY

We are looking for a volunteer to help first and second graders with handwriting on Mondays from 10:20-11:20 beginning right away.

Orientation and training will be provided.

If you can help, contact Dr. Sork (833-5700 or cathy.sork@camas.wednet.edu).

If you have questions, contact Lani Gordon, volunteer (833-8388 or

The Dorothy Fox Library has been a whirlwind of activity these past few months! Students have been busy becoming independent library users and reading. To learn what we do each week in library, you can visit the blog on our library website, http://bit.ly/FoxLibrary. You can also like the Dorothy Fox Elementary Facebook page to be updated when I post a new blog entry.

Students worked hard to meet their November-December reading goals. This has been a learning process for everyone! In January, we set new “readolutions” for January-April. Each class will decide if they want to set a goal number of books OR a goal number of points (based on book length and difficulty) to work toward both individually and as a class. My focus will continue to be on reading chapter books, because it is important for students to build stamina in their reading and to practice recalling details from increasingly longer reading selections.

Looking for book suggestions? Here are some favorites for different age groups:

K-3 Read-alouds: The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak. Parents be warned—your children will break into fits of laughter over this book. Be prepared to be silly with this outstanding read-aloud “picture” book.

K-1 Beginning Readers: Anything Star Wars! I can’t keep these popular books on the shelves right now. Look for levels 1-2 for beginning readers, level 3 for an emerging independent reader, and level 4 for stronger independent readers.

1-3 Transitional Chapter Books: For kiddos who are ready to move beyond beginning readers into chapter books, but who aren’t quite ready for Harry Potter, there are lots of good choices. Two series I suggest are The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale and The Notebook of Doom by Troy Cummings.

3-5 Independent Chapter Books: Is your child interested in The Hunger Games but not quite ready for the violent content? Try Suzanne Collins’ middle-grade series, Gregor the Overlander. It’s full of adventure and action, but more appropriate for the upper-elementary crowd.

Great Graphic Novels: There are LOTS of great comics for kids. Some of my current favorites are El Deafo, by Cece Bell, and The Chronicles of Claudette series by Jorge Aguitre and Rafael Rosado. Graphic novels are a great way to lure reluctant readers into reading (and usually they have excellent vocabulary).

Fabulous Factual Reads: If you’re looking for nonfiction, I suggest Electrical Wizard: How Nikola Tesla Lit Up the World, by Elizabeth Rusch, or Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by Patricia Newman. Kids may also enjoy Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle by Cheryl Bardoe.

Notes from the Fox Library with Mrs. Logan:

The following is news from the Fox Gym with Coach Dunn: The following is news from the Fox Gym with Coach Dunn:

Dorothy Fox Health Room News

We have a health room staffed primarily by health assistants

to be used for emergencies/urgent situations. We do

recognize that children may become ill while at school; in

that case, you would be notified to pick up your child. (See “Guidelines for

Keeping Ill Children Home from School” on the district website). If changes

occur in emergency contact information, please notify Dorothy Fox ASAP.

Ill Children: Keep sick children at home until they are 24 hours fever free without the use of medications (with a

fever of 100° or above), 24 hours symptom free with vomiting or diarrhea. Please make sure and update the office

with any new contact information or health conditions or concerns. Adults must check in all medications to the

health room, please do not send medications to school with your child. All medications, including over the counter

medications including cough drops or Tylenol, require a medication authorization form completed by your child’s

health care provider to be on file in the health room, and must have a prescription label attached to the medication.

Wet/Cold Weather: Please keep the ever changing winter weather in mind when preparing your child for

school. Although we encourage our students to make good choices on the playground, accidents do happen, and

unfortunately we are not always able to provide students with additional dry clothing. Please consider sending extra

clothing (socks and pants) with your child during the wet winter months.

Head Lice: School is in full session and it is time for parents to start checking their child’s head every day for head

lice and/or nits. If you discover that your child has lice you will need to take steps to ensure proper treatment. You

may refer to the Camas School District’s web page under Parent Corner/Health Services or contact the health room

for a complete list of factual information on head lice and proper treatment, as well as our head lice policy.

We do not routinely check for head lice at school. It may be helpful to discuss some proactive steps for

avoiding head lice with your child at home, they are:

Avoid sharing personal items such as hats, combs, brushes, coats, hair accessories, and pillows.

Consider keeping long hair pulled back in a braid or a pony tail.

The following is news from the gym: During the month of January all grades will be participating in a variety of basketball skills, drills, and games. Lower grades will be focusing more on dribbling and ball handling skills while upper grades will be working on shooting games. Kindergarten students will focus on a variety of games and skills using a parachute and continue fitness activities with our hops program. Thanks!

Troy Dunn

Fox PE

troy.dunn@camas.wednet.edu

Greetings from the Music Room!

December was a fantastic month for music! At the annual Hometown Holidays in downtown, we were graced with some of the best weather we could have asked for. The Fox Pack Swingin' Ukes were up to the task of delivering a fine performance that featured some electric ukulele jams from the Level II students. The kids sounded great and we all had a blast performing for you!

In the classroom we are moving ahead with our regular curriculum as well as taking a day out to sample some scenes from Tchaikovsky's classic Nutcracker ballet.

In January we'll be working on music for our Martin Luther King Jr. observance as well as discussing African-American spirituals.

The students are still buzzing from their recent work with the Taiko drumming workshops, and the skills they learned are transferring over into the music classroom. Thank you so much for supporting the arts here at Dorothy Fox!

Warmly,

Dustin Hunley, Music Specialist Dorothy Fox Elementary School

Counseling Report

W H AT M A K E S S U C C E S S ?

When it comes to the Dorothy Fox Counseling Program, success is measured with each stu-dent learning, being socially successful, and able to seek help when in need. In the fall, skills are taught in classroom lessons weekly. In the winter, some classroom lessons contin-ue but skill building groups are added. Individ-ual support for life changes like divorce, death, or other crisis happens when it is needed. Like last year, in the younger grades I will work with teachers and parents to identify students who need skill building support for Social Skills/Friendship, Anger Management, and Life Changes. In the 4-5th grades I will check in with teachers, but I also give a needs assess-ment survey so each student can share what is going well and what is difficult for them. This survey asks students about friendship, test tak-ing worries, organization, conflict/bullying, and skills for seeking help academically and social-ly. The information is kept private and is used to build classes that support kids with whatev-er needs they have. As always ,parents are welcome to e-mail, call or schedule a time to visit about their child or a concern they would like to problem solve. This is my 19th year at Fox and I love to sup-port each kid, each class-room, and each family through the Fox Counseling Program. Keep in touch, Chris Baxter M.A. School Counselor