WATTLES EXPRESS Wattles Elementary School

2014 National Blue Ribbon School, Michigan Blue Ribbon School 2013 and 2014 State of Michigan Rewards School

DECEMBER 16, 2015 VOLUME 2, NUMBER 3

MRS. JOYCE BRASINGTON – PRINCIPAL MRS. SHARON KREZA - SECRETARY MRS. DEBBIE HAZEN - SECRETARY

Mrs. Joyce Brasington

Principal

Main Office

248.823.3400

Attendance Office

248.823.3401 FAX: 248.823.3413

Our mission statement

is an acronym for

WATTLES.

Working

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Success

From the Principal

Dear Wattles Parents and Students:

The Census Bureau projects that by the year 2100, the U.S. minority population will become the majority with non-Hispanic whites making

up only 40% of the U.S. population. No doubt students will need to learn how to interact in a diverse environment.

Our students are fortunate to experience cultural diversity at our school. Over 20% of our students come from homes where English

is not the primary language spoken at home. Our staff celebrates the diversity of our students through special

events. However, it is more important that these events are not a one-shot deal at our school but built into our fabric at Wattles. Even

our youngest learners have the opportunity to talk and show their classmates how they celebrate this time of year at home with their families.

With the month of December upon us, there are so many

overarching similarities between winter holiday traditions: candles, lights, sweets, gifts, and spending times with loved ones is something we all celebrate. Emphasizing these similarities while also

highlighting the differences can help students appreciate the diversity that our global cultures bring to Wattles, especially this

time of the year while students are bubbling with excitement about the upcoming winter break and their family’s holiday preparations.

On behalf of the entire Wattles staff, we wish you a wonderful winter break and a joyous 2016!

Joyce Brasington, Principal

No School - Winter Recess

All Troy Schools Will Be Closed

Monday, December 21 through

Friday, January 1 for Winter Recess

Classes resume Monday, January 4, 2016

Lost and Found Overflowing If your child is missing a clothing item, please make sure they stop by our Lost and Found. We have numerous items that have been

left. All items that have not been claimed will be donated to charity. Please make sure your child’s name is written on hats, gloves and

coats.

Holiday Festivities Our classrooms are having holiday parties. Below is the schedule by

grade level:

Grade Level Date Time

Kindergarten 12/16 12:15-1:00

First Grade 12/17 12:30-1:30

Second Grade 12/18 2:15-3:15

Third Grade 12/17 2:00-3:00

Fourth Grade 12/18 2:15-3:00

Fifth Grade 12/18 2:30-3:15

We are also having our Holiday Sing-Along on December 17 at 8:50.

Parents are invited to join us.

All Parents Welcome All parents are always welcome to attend a PTO meeting. Our next meeting will be on Thursday, January 12 at 6:30 p.m. Daycare will

be provided.

Thank You For Supporting The Book Fair Our book fair raised nearly $2,000 for the media center. Thank you

for supporting reading at home and for supporting the school media center.

Wattles Wolves

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Clinic Volunteers Needed Our noon time clinic is in need of a few more volunteers to help care

for injured or ill students during the lunch hour. No experience necessary, just the desire to give a little TLC (tender loving care) from 11:30-1:00. You pick the day that will work for you. If you are

interested, please contact Mrs. Kreza at 248-823-3400.

Severe Weather and School Closings During the winter months, extremely bad weather conditions may

make it necessary to close school. Troy School District policy is that school will not close unless weather and road conditions are such that the possible hazards to the children’s safety outweigh the

educational value of being in school that day.

When conditions are too dangerous for buses to be on the roads, school will be closed.

If a decision is made to close schools, that information will be communicated to you through the School Messenger program.

Mark Your Calendars

You can access important information about the events listed below

on the Wattles website. I am encouraging all parents to go the Wattles and TSD websites for all information this year.

12/16- Kindergarten Holiday Party – 12:15 pm -1:00 pm

12/17- Holiday Sing Along – 8:50 am and

Grade 1 Holiday Party – 12:30 pm-1:30 pm and

Grade 3 Holiday Party – 2:00 pm -3:00 pm

12/18- Last Full Day Before Winter Recess Begins

Grade 2 Holiday Party – 2:15 pm -3:15 pm

Grade 4 Holiday Party – 2:15 pm -3:00 pm

Grade 5 Holiday Party – 2:30 pm -3:15 pm

1/4- School Resumes

1/12- PTO Meeting – 6:30 pm

1/18- No School – Martin Luther King

1/21 - Half Day of School – School Dismissed at 12:17 pm

1/22- Half Day of School - School Dismissed at 12:17 pm

1/25- Wattles Wildcat Singers Perform at Festival of Song at

7:00 pm at Athens Auditorium; call time at 6:30 pm

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Twitter Account Please follow our school happenings through Twitter. @OneWattles

Social Media

Organization on Facebook: Wattles Elementary PTO (public group) Follow Wattles on Twitter: @OneWattles, Troy School District

@troyschools

Find many of our teachers on Twitter. Use the hashtags #onewattles #onetroy #tsdthinkers

Watch D.O.G.S. The staff and students at Wattles have been able to welcome several

Watch D.O.G.S. to our building. D.O.G.S. stand for “Dads of Great Students.” We invite dads, grandfathers, uncles, and other significant males to volunteer in our school for the day.

We still have days in January thru June available for D.O.G.S. to sign

up. Please click on the link below and follow these steps: http://www.signupgenius.com/index.cfm?go=c.SignUpSearch&eid=01C2CBD8FCCA

&cs=09C2BADD8FBF8B6D7B7C6476

1. Select your preferred date and click on the sign up button. 2. Click on submit and sign up button at the bottom of the page.

3. Type your child’s name in the “my comment” section. 4. Complete the parent contact information so you will receive a

reminder email.

Wattles in School Life

An article about Coding Week at Wattles has been posted on the School Life Troy website. Thanks to Ruba Alexander and Erica Simcina for providing it:

http://www.schoollifetroy.com/2015/12/15/wattles-hour-of-code

Another article from our 4th grade Wax Museum is also on the School Life

Troy website.

http://www.schoollifetroy.com/2015/12/08/wattles-wax-museum

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On Your Mark Fitness

On Your Mark Fitness has added more dates and times through the winter. If you are interested in participating, please check out our

additional class times and register online!

Christina DePassio

Physical Education Teacher Wattles & Morse Elementary

248.823.3400 x3433

Follow me on Twitter... Miss D @WattlesPE

C.A.T. Awards – Caught Acting Terrific The following students were recognized for caught acting terrific.

Kindergarten: Jonah Lapado, Christopher Velasquez, , Annabelle

Eichenlaub, Dominic Bert, Myah Johnson, Praseeda Chellemella, Mabintou Toure, Everett Lowrie, Gabriel Bishay, Vanesa Malushi, Leo Kostreba, Emily Gill, Yuyang Duan, Atharv Rao

First Grade: Daniel Williamson, Brendon Malushi, William Goetz, Rhea de Souza, Darius Mitchell, Jovy Ma, Jadyn Fischer-Jackson, Sam Caleel, Autumn Swoszowski, Nivedita Madhavan, Gabriel

LaPado, Marco Chu, Ryilee Moore, Nathen Sidelko

2nd Grade: Prachi Agnihotri, Nolan Croci, Thinh Giang, Girish Ramesh, , Ioanna Partali, Madison Collins-Newson, Malik Kotifani, Briana Dalziel, Mia Dominguez, Eva Chandrakapure, Advik Korupol,

Diego Laredo, Ariel Ma, Navika Sangamreddy, Joseph Young

3rd Grade: Neha Vutukuri, Gabriella Johnson, Casey Muci, Andrew Lake, Teresa Tran, Jack Townsend, Rolando Garay-Estupinian, Joseph Mathews, Jordan Jakupi, Leonard Jones, Brody Gibb, Abdullah

Chaudhry, Alex Land, Vandya Nedle, Kalyani Velayudham

4th Grade: Niveditha Chandrakanth, Eugenia Sanchez Martinez, Lauren McBeth, Shreyana Keeta, Marc Litt, Cassidy Horton, Leslie Vega, Sree Selva Krishna Kumar, Faith Thomas, Jacob Styes, Sophia

Cox, Danielle Abbiss, Ian Babcock, Avery Gole, Tuba Malik, Medhana Kethamreddy, Sarah Malik

5th Grade: Lucian Davis, Sunny Miller, Audrey Haller, Mikele Dalziel, Akshitha Sahu, Manushree Ganta, Marianna Zaiat, Ava

Sadowski, Fiona Wingbla, Sophia Stachurski, Jacob Young, Rebeca Ianos, Sabreen Sais, Fida Rahman

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Ease Your Family’s ‘Rush Hour’ with These Morning Routines In many families, “rush hour” begins before anyone even walks out

the door. Your child doesn’t have time for breakfast. He may race out the door while leaving homework and school supplies behind. And even then, he may miss the bus. If this sounds familiar, it’s time

for you to develop a new morning “traffic pattern.” Here’s how you can create some morning routines to tame the chaos:

Prepare for the day the night before. Help your child make his

lunch and pick out his school clothes. Have him make sure his

backpack and other items are ready to go and by the door.

Help your child figure out how much time he really needs in the morning to get ready. Tell him it is his responsibility to set his alarm clock—and get up when it goes off.

Use charts and checklists. Post a laminated list of all the steps

your child must take to get ready in the morning: brush teeth, brush hair, get dressed, make the bed. Post another checklist of things that need to go to school. If it’s Tuesday, where’s the

library book? If it’s Wednesday, does your child have his shoes for gym?

Make it a game. Try playing Beat the Clock. If it took 20

minutes for your child to get downstairs for breakfast

yesterday, can he do it in 18 minutes today? Let’s be honest. Some kids are late because they dawdle.

Create fun breakfast themes— Waffle Wednesday, Fruity

Friday, etc. Having a schedule takes the guesswork out of breakfast and may motivate your child to actually sit down and eat!

Reprinted with permission from the November 2015 issue of Parents make the difference!® (Elementary School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2015 The Parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc

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The rest of this document includes information on the

following topics:

Kindergarten Round-Up for 2016

Troy Special Services Parent Advisory Committee

Future Chefs Cooking Competition with Recipe Entry Form

February Incredible Kid Month Nomination Form

January Lunch Menu

January Breakfast Menu

January Calendar

On Your Mark Youth Fitness Registration Information

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Troy School District Recipe Entry Form

~Healthy Breakfast Recipe~ Open to Elementary School Students in Grades 3-5!

My Name:

My School:

My Grade:

My Teacher’s Name:

Return to your cafeteria or the office by Friday, January 29th.

Teachers: please send to the main office if received.

My recipe is called:____________________________ *See next page for tips on how to be a finalist in this year’s competition and for a list of bonus ingredients!

List all ingredients and exact amounts of the ingredients here:

List the “method” or exactly how to make this dish. If you need more room,

attach (and staple) another piece of paper to this form.

Tips to be a Finalist in this Year’s Culinary Competition Have your eye on the prize? Here are some tips that may help!

1. Be original - You don’t have to be like everyone else. Consider putting a new twist on your

favorite breakfast recipe.

2. Be creative - A student once submitted a recipe for “dill cookies!” Sounds terrible, but

they were actually great! Don’t TRY to be too weird, but we love to see recipes that are

different!

3. Don’t do recipes that are too easy or too complicated.

4. This doesn’t have to be your own, original recipe. You can get them off the Internet or

anywhere, but try to alter it slightly to make it your own!

5. SORRY, only ONE person can make each recipe at the competition.

6. We are looking for healthy breakfast recipes, so try to avoid recipes with a lot of sugar

or fat in them.

7. At the main competition, judges will consider the following 6 criteria:

Taste

Originality

Ease of Preparation

Healthy Attributes

Kid Appeal

Plate Presentation

The use of one or more of the following ingredients will earn bonus points at the judging:

Bagels, low-fat cheese, eggs, low sodium ham, mushrooms, oatmeal, pineapple, tortillas,

turkey sausage, whole grain cereals & yogurt.

GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!!!!