SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Southwestern Elementary School

600 Hunt Road WE Jamestown, NY 14701

Phone: 664-1881 FAX: 487-3170

Kristy K. Carlson-Principal kcarlson@swcsk12.org Amy McCloskey-HS/ES Assistant Principal

amccloskey@swcsk12.org

March April 2017

Web page: http://www.swcsk12.org

Upcoming Events MARCH 1 Parent/Teacher Conferences – 12:10 Dismissal 8 Family Literacy Night – 5:30-7:30pm 13 PARP Ends 14 BOE Regular Meeting – MS Board Room 7:00pm 16 End of 2nd Trimester 17 Superintendent’s Conference Day – No student attendance 21 PTO Meeting – 7:00pm 23 UPK & Kindergarten Report Cards Distributed Grade 5 Spring Chorus Concert – ES Cafeteria 7:00pm 28 BOE Work Session – MS Board

Room 7:00pm 28-30 Grades 3-8 ELA Tests

APRIL

7 UPK Application Deadline 10-17 Spring Recess 18 ES PTO Meeting – 7:00pm BOE Regular Meeting – MS Board Room – 7:00pm 25 Audubon Visit to Kindergarten BOE Work Session – MS Board Room – 7:00pm 27 ES School Pictures

From the Desk of Principal Kristy Carlson At SWES We

Are Respectful, Responsible, and Safe

Dear SWES Families,

It is with great joy that I include highlights from this year’s Literacy Night which took place on Wednesday, March 8. As the principal and as a parent, I had a great time visiting the many stations (especially the photo booth fun)

throughout our school. I am very appreciative to our library staff, Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Stuart and our PTO, especially Mrs. Hockinberry and Mrs. Marshall,

for all of their hard work to create this event. Our many teacher volunteers, student volunteers, and parent volunteers helped to make this event a huge

success and I thank you.

As state testing begins with grades 3-8 ELA March 28-30, I encourage everyone to get a good night’s sleep and eat a well balanced breakfast the morning of their assessment. Test taking is a skill that is developed over time. As a child grows and learns how to take an assessment they are better prepared for the high stakes

testing that they will face in 9th grade with Regents Exams. If you have any questions regarding state testing please do not hesitate to contact my office. I

wish every student great success on their assessments this school year.

Yours in Education,

Kristy K. Carlson

NURSE’S CORNER By Cassie Brown

Just a couple of reminders as we continue through this school year:

If your child has received a physical in the past couple of months or will be receiving a physical from their primary care physician, please fax it or have your child drop off a copy to the health office.

If there have been any changes in your child’s health since the beginning of the school year, please let me know.

Gym excuses from a parent can only constitute for 1 gym day. After that a doctor’s excuse to keep them out of gym is required.

Medications cannot be transported by children; they must be brought in by a parent/guardian.

If your child has been diagnosed with Influenza A or B please let me know. I like to keep a tally of how many cases we have had in the school and in what classrooms.

As always if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

SWES Literacy Night

The halls of Southwestern Elementary School were full of excitement on Wednesday, March 8th as approximately 200 students and their families

participated in a Super Hero Themed Literacy Fair. The Literacy Fair was held in conjunction with the “Parents as Reading Partners” (PARP) program at

the elementary school as well as including the yearly Book Fair Sale. Special guest reading appearances by Batman and Flash highlighted the even-

ing, along with a visit from the Jamestown Police Department K-9 officers and their dog Mitchell.

Along with the Elementary School PTO, parents, teachers, and high school volunteers manned the various stations throughout the school. In addition

to the reading appearances and the K-9 presentations, students participated in several different activities including: a photo booth, origami, create your

own comic strip, finger painting, duct tape creations, book bingo, castle building, as well as coloring and drawing tables. A campfire themed reading

area as well as a Dr. Seuss reading corner were popular rest areas for fami-lies needing to take a load off their feet and enjoy a story or two! Everyone had a great time and no one left the school empty handed as every child was

able to take home at least one book to add to their collection.

A big thank you goes out to all of the parents, teachers, and high school vol-unteers; without their generous donation of time, these events would not be

able to take place.

Submitted by: Tami McKotch, Administrative Intern

**See enclosure for additional photos

LIBRARY—In The News

One of the wonderful things about working in the library at the elementary school is the length of time we get to know students. We have the pleasure of working with the same students for

nearly half their public school career while they are in Kindergarten through fifth grade!

In the spirit of witnessing growth over the years, we decided to ask students in K-5 the same question about the library in the form of a short question/answer interview. The answers varied from

student to student, but here is a cross section of responses from our student body.

The question we asked all students was…. “What do you learn in library class and why is it important?”

“We learn how to find where to get books and get to websites that you can trust infor-mation on. We learn more about everything!” said fourth grade student, Phoebe Rut-

ter from Mr. Moore’s class.

“I have learned many different things in library such as how to use the Dewey Decimal System and how to be Internet Safe. I definitely think these things

help us in everyday life. I mean, what would happen if I couldn’t find a book I needed for a big project? I am so grateful for having a wonderful librarian who teaches me these things and an awesome library to learn more about my favor-ite topics. After all, learning is both helpful and fun!” said fifth grade student

Addison Brassard, from Mrs. Waite’s room.

First grade student Delaney White from Mrs. Manno’s class said, “Books are good for you to read and you can learn a lot here!”

“This is what I’ve learned in library… How to find different websites to do re-search. That is important because if we need to do research we might not know

where to do the research,” said Stella Hren, from Mrs. Johnson’s third grade class.

“Library class makes you smarter at reading. If you were a grown up like 21 years old or something and you couldn’t read - it would be a big problem for you because college is a

place where you go and learn hard stuff. If you couldn’t read it wouldn’t work out for you,” said Robert Peck from Mrs. Moss’ second grade class.

Kindergarten student Jack Irons from Mr. Case’s class added, “You learn about so much because books can be about anything, so you can learn about a lot of stuff!”

LITERACY NIGHT HIGHLIGHTS

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