the school SCOOP November 2016

YOUR MONTHLY GUIDE TO THE SCHOOL NEWS, INFORMATION AND EVENTS AT SUNDANCE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

A note from Mr. Hartwig... I think we have finally completed most of

the punch list items for the school, and

have recently opened the playground sod

area for students. The new school has

been a wonderful blessing for our stu-

dents, and the wonderful opportunities

that it provides them. The classrooms

provide a smaller student/teacher ratio,

which allows students to learn in a more

conducive learning environment. Having

the opportunity this year to release all

students at the same time has been a

successful transition. I would encourage

parents that are picking their students up

after school to remain in their vehicle if parked along the curb. If you want to get out of

your vehicle and wait for your child, please park in one of the designated parking areas.

This will allow traffic to continue to flow through that area without any issues. I want to

thank the parents, community, PIC, and everyone else that has contributed to making SES

a wonderful place to learn. We had a great turn-out for parent/teacher conferences last

week. If you did not have a chance to attend, I encourage you to find a time to visit with

your child’s teacher about your child’s academic learning. -Mr. Hartwig

The Scholastic Book Fair will be coming to the Sundance Elementary School Library November 14th-18th. The theme this year will be “Bookaneer Book Fair- Where books are the treasure!” The hours of the book fair will be Monday through Thursday from 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM, and Friday from 7:30 AM to 1:00 PM. We will be having dress up days the week of book fair. Monday will be “Take a Caulk” Day– pirate lingo for nap time so wear your favorite pajama’s. Tuesday is “Never, Never Land” Day– dress as a character from Peter Pan. Wednesday will be “Scoundrels and Scalawags” Day– dress and talk like a pirate today. Thursday will be “Dress Like Your Matey” Day– dress like a twin. Friday is “Bookaneer” Day– dress as your favorite book character. Profits from the Scholastic Book Fair come back to the Sundance Elementary library to be able to purchase new media for the students. Please support your school library and your child’s reading!

Inside this issue:

Classroom Happenings

PIC Information & Events

November Events

Notes from Nurse Whitney

Counselor’s Corner

Page 2

Hello from the PE department!!! We have just

finished up our Basketball unit and have

begun our Volleyball unit. The students are

excited about learning the skills it takes to

play this game correctly. After are Volleyball unit is

complete we will begin Jump Rope for Heart sponsored by

the American Heart Association. I will be sending out a

letter asking for donations that you can pledge for your

child's jump rope for heart challenge. Your student will

then compete in a jump rope challenge for a week, every

time he/she has PE. This is a good opportunity to give to

the American Heart Association, you never know who

might benefit from your kindness. Thank you for your

consideration. Sincerely– Coach Williamson

Mrs. Marchant's Kindergarten class has been busy exploring the changes of fall. The kids are working on their beginning and ending sounds, rhyming and writing letters in Language Arts. In Math they are working on counting to 100, number identification, object counting and patterns. In Science they have been exploring pumpkins and testing to see if they can float! In October the elementary had a presentation from our wonderful volunteer fire department. The Kindergarten class was thrilled to receive a glow in the dark fire hat from the firemen while learning about fire safety. The kids showed a ton of school spirit during homecoming by dressing up and cheering really loud at the pep rally!

“Crook County School District #1 will prepare and empower all students for successful, lifelong learning through effective teaching. ”

One highlight of our week in Ms. Courtney's first grade room is STEAM. We work together on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math during this time. We are able to discover and foster the true innovation that comes with combining our scientific mind or technological thinking, with our artist or engineering mind. This time helps us learn to work with others and collaborate toward our goals. On Halloween we are doing a class competition building towers out of cookies. This is a great time of fun and learning together.

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Mrs. Fremont's First Graders had their first Author Celebration for Ms. Courtney's class! The students wrote, illustrated, revised, and published personal narratives. We worked on writing "small moments", making our characters walk and talk, and adding feeling to our stories. The first graders worked very hard on this task. Our next book will be a teaching book...stay tuned!

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School Screenings

We have just completed our first round of Hearing and Vision

screenings. If your student failed, the vision portion of our screening I

will re-screen his/her vision in 1-2weeks. If they fail again I will send a letter home

referring them to be seen by an eye doctor. If your student failed, the hearing portion of the screening

I will re-screen his/her hearing in 4-6weeks. If they fail again I will send a letter home referring them

to the appropriate medical professional.

If you do not receive any information from me, it means they passed all of their screenings.

Disclaimer: Not every grade is screened with vision and hearing per the state screening protocol. If you have any questions or concerns,

please contact me at 283-1227. Whitney Cundy R.N. B.S.N

Mrs. Inghram’s 2nd grade Patriots worked hard in October. We completed our science lessons about air. We ended by making balloon rockets, which was great fun! We have all been working on place value during math. Some of us are working on numbers to 100 and others are focusing on numbers to 1000. By the end of the year, all students will be expected to read, write, and understand numbers to 1000. During reading workshop we have concentrated on “reading with purpose and understanding”. We continue to search for details to ask and answer questions. Mrs. Hunkins has also introduced us to close reading where we find and use text evidence to help us. Mrs. Inghram and Mrs. Hunkins enjoyed meeting with parents during conferences to share our learning progress. They thank you for your participation and involvement. We are excited about a November family project in 2nd grade. Please look for information to come home soon regarding this project.

After School Program The K-2

afterschool program has been an adventure

so far. We do lots of activities in the short

amount of time we have together. We focus

on reading skills Monday's

and Wednesday's and math

skills Tuesday's and Thursday's. We also

work on a different activity each night

with Monday being

cooking, Tuesday being build-

ing, Wednesday being crafts

and Thursday being choice day. During

these groups the students are either put

in groups or pair themselves up and find the way to complete

the task while working as a TEAM. There is also a designated

time for homework help each night. We are also excited to

have Miss Bonnie read to us twice a week. We teamed up

with the older kids this month to build the scarecrows

outside hanging on the fence. This was a enjoyable projects

to see the older kids be the leaders and help guide the

younger ones through the process. If you are still interested

it is not to late to sign up. All are welcome!!

2nd graders have been busy constructing Dia de los Muertos sugar skull masks in Art.

Mrs. Haas's second grade class hosted our first author celebration! We invited Mrs. Inghram's class over to listen to the narrative books that each student created. Then we enjoyed juice and oreos. In math, we have been working hard on mastering fluency facts within 20 and place value.

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“Preparing today for success tomorrow”

Get into gratitude! You can’t be in gratitude and feeling self-pity. You can’t be in gratitude and be complaining. Ask yourself, “How can I make a difference in someone’s life today?” “Bad days are, really, bad moments that you choose to nurse all day long!”…Marilyn

Sherman on storiesofgratitude.com

“If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than a million who will not survive the week. “If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of

this world. “If you have money in the bank, in your wallet and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. “If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can,

but most do not. “If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can offer comfort. “If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all.”

~ unknown…adapted

Fourth graders, in Miss Needham’s class, have been learning a lot about astronomy. The

students have explored various resources to gather facts about their solar system which

included textbooks, computer sites, PowerPoint presentations, and

movies. They then utilized their research to construct informative

posters about their assigned planet. Their posters were then present-

ed to their classmates. This unit was made even more special when

Ranger John, from Devil’s Tower, made a presentation to the class

and allowed them to look through his telescope. Finally, the unit real-

ly took flight when Sarah Fleenor conducted an airplane stem activity with the kids. In this activity,

students constructed planes out of plates and tried to design them so that their plane would fly the

farthest. They concluded that wing shape and how their planes were weighted greatly influenced how

far their planes would fly.

Mrs. Disney’s fourth grade class has been wrapping up several assignments. We have

completed our study on life science for this fall. Students continue to work with the

hydroponic tower as an ongoing project with our plants. We are also wrapping up some

research on landforms in Wyoming and presenting our fun facts about those landforms.

We are now venturing in to the human body as a transition from the other life science we

have been doing. Students will be learning about the skeletal system and how bones and joints work. The

reading groups are working with various stories and genres within their groups. Math groups are expanding

their understanding of addition and subtraction strategies. Ask your child to share their favorite mental

math strategy. Some of them are fairly quick with adding or subtracting in their heads.

Fourth grade

students have

been busy

constructing

masks in Art

Page 5

The 6th Grade is beginning their research on the ancient Gods and Goddesses of Greece. The students will be completing a research display board and type up an informative paper that will be orally presented to the class. The speech should last a minimum of 6 minutes complete with a student generated quiz for their classmates.

Over the last month Mr. Dobesh's 5th Grade has learned about the U.S. landforms, regions and all 50 states. We successfully beat our reading minutes goal and CRUSHED Mr. Olson's class by reading 33,465 minutes in 9 months!!! Most of the kids went above and beyond their own personal goals. We also learned about similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, and alliterations. We have also learned about friendship. Brought to you by Brad & Chloe.

Friendly Competition– Mr.

Dobesh’s 5th grade class

overpowered Mr. Olson’s by

reading over 33,000 minutes!

5th grade piñata art projects

Third graders in Mrs. Ludemann's class enjoyed shopping at our school store and spending the money they worked so hard to earn. A few favorites were Uggly's pets and Reese's cups. We have launched our election unit to help us get familiar with the voting process in preparation for "voting" in the general election on November 8th. Our publishing party was SO FUN and we invite you to come and enjoy our works. By Thanksgiving, we will be well into learning multiplication and in science, we are one step closer to programming our own dance video game!

fifth Grade Fear Factor Halloween Party

NOVEMBER 2016

Calendar of Events November 8– Election Day

November 8– 5th & 6th Grade Veteran’s Day

Program, 1:30 PM, SES Gym

November 14-18– Scholastic “Bookaneer” Book

Fair at SES Library

November 23-25– NO SCHOOL,

Thanksgiving Break

December 8– 1st & 2nd Grade Christmas

Program, 7 PM, SES Gym

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

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27 28 29 30 1123 Fairgrounds Loop Road, PO Box 870

Sundance, WY 82729

PH 307-283-1227

www.crook1.com/sundance-elementary

Sundance Elementary School

TOP: “Caught Ya” t-shirt recipients of September.

During the month of September Caleb, Dylan, Jordan

and Nevaeh were “caught” doing a good deed and

their name was put into a drawing for a t-shirt.

BOTTOM: September Little Bulldogs chosen for the

character trait citizenship by their teachers. Pictured

bottom row: Lily, Rose, Annie, Luke ,Cord, Mary, Kyten.

Pictured top row: Lexie, Aspen, Lauryn, Jadon, Jaylin,

Jake, Tessa.

PIC decided at their October 10th meeting that they will be

purchasing bricks for the new Sundance Athletic Complex on

behalf of the current classes in Sundance Elementary, classes

2023-2029. For the opportunity to purchase your own, please

call the high school at 307-283-1007. PIC is also looking at

purchasing more swings for the playground for the students of

Sundance Elementary with money left from the playground

fundraiser.

The winners of this years label race will have the opportunity to try to dunk Mr. Hartwig and the office staff in a dunk tank! Turn in your labels to your classroom teachers today!