TUKWILA ELEMENTARY NEWSLETTER

Tukwila Elementary is a Title I School-Wide SchoolSteve Salisbury, Principal - 206.901.7505 Carla Carrizosa, Assistant Principal - 206.901.7530

Charlotte Bartley, Office Manager - 206.901.7503 Robin Allsopp - Elementary Secretary 206.901.7502

April 2018Principal’s Message: Dear Families,

Students please remind your parents that it is so important that you ALWAYS get to school on time.  We can't lose any learning time and need to maximize the learning time we have.  

Boys and Girls make sure you tell the adults in your house that you need to read every day for at least 20 minutes and practice your math every day for 20 minutes. Tukwila wants you to be the smartest person you can be.  Read with your parents, read to your parents, practice math with everyone in the house.  

Remember you can also use technology at home to practice your reading and math.  

The weather is still cool in the morning and most days remember to wear your warm coat to school.  

Have a wonderful April. 

Steve Tukwila PTA Notes:

4/20 Special Persons Day 11:15 – 1:004/27 Latino Night

4/30 Yearbook Orders Due

Early Dismissal & No School Days for AprilSpring Break 4/2 – 4/6 Classes resume Monday, 4/9

4/18 – Early Dismissal – students released at 12:45

Upcoming events and other important dates:4/17 Report Cards Sent Home

4/27 Kindergarten visits Woodland Park Zoo4/27 First Grade visits Woodland Park Zoo 9:15 – 2:00

4/27 Second Grade visits City Hall 10:00 – 12:50To insure the safety of all of our students, hallway doors are to remain closed and locked at all

times.If you wish to pick your child up, you must first sign them out in the office.

NO STUDENTS ARE TO BE RELEASED BEFORE DISMISSAL TIME WITHOUT FIRST BEING SIGNED OUT AND RELEASED THROUGH THE OFFICE.

If you wish to visit the classroom, as always, you are welcome to do so, please remember, ALL visitors must sign-in with the office first. Please know that if you are in the hallways of

Tukwila Elementary without a visitor sticker you will be asked to report to the office to sign-in and wear a visitor sticker.

THANK YOU FOR KEEPING THE SAFETY OF ALL STUDENTS A PRIORITY.

Tukwila Elementary has our very own staff and student greeter. Each day as students arrive Mr. Preyer, parent of Jaylen, from Miss. Rouner’s Kindergarten class, arrives before the school day begins and is here before school dismisses for the day, to greet students, staff and other parents with the most delightful smile and wonderful wishes for a great day. I have heard Mr. Preyer greet students, welcoming them to school each day and telling each of them that we are all very proud of them. Thank you Mr. Preyer for starting every day on a positive note!

Did you know… You can call in an absence for your student 206.901.7502 at any time, 24 hours a day. Please,

include the name of your student, the reason for the absence and a phone number where you can be reached if there are any questions.

For the safety of our students and staff, please enter our school only by the main entry door. Visitors must sign in/out in the office and wear a visitor pass.

Students should arrive at school no earlier than 8:30am and depart no later than 3:30pm unless they are enrolled in a supervised school activity before/after school.

You are encouraged to leave last-minute messages for your student no later than 2:30 PM so there is plenty of time for the messages to be delivered. Messages received after 2:30 PM, delivery cannot be guaranteed. Thank you!

If you wish to volunteer, either at the school or on field trips, you must complete a volunteer packet at least three weeks prior to the activity. Once cleared, the background check is good for two years.

Check out our website at www.tukwilaschools.org Applications for low-cost student school insurance are available in the school office. Our lost and found is located at the rear of the main lobby. Please check often for missing items as

this collection piles up quickly. Our school collects Box Tops for Education. Please deposit Box Tops in the marked container in the

main office.It’s not too late to connect to your child’s school!

When parents and schools work together, the results can be incredible, including increased academic achievement and better student attitudes and behavior.

In today’s busy world, however, the idea of getting involvement can e overwhelming. “What do I have to do?” you may wonder. “I’m already short on time!” Don’t worry. Involvement doesn’t need to be complicated or time consuming.

Even though the end of the school year is right around the corner, it isn’t too late to get involved. Starting right now, you can:

Attend school events. While at school make an effort to talk to staff and other families. Pay Attention to school information sent home and posted online. Keep track of important

dates, such as end-of-the-year tests and celebrations. Volunteer. Ask your child’s teacher if there is anything you can do to help out. Perhaps

you could prepare items at home for a craft, organize a class party, read to students or help in another way.

Join the parent-teacher group. If you can’t make it to meetings, take time to read the minutes from each meeting.

Ask the teacher questions. “How can I help my child succeed?” “What are the most important school tasks for us to accomplish each day at home?”

Keep talking to your child about school. Let her know her education is important to you.

Use homework to teach your child how to be conscientious…When your child starts reading, he will probably ask you to listen to him. How you do this can affect his motivation to read – and his progress.Are you doing all you can to boost your child’s reading confidence? Answer yes or no to each question below to find out._____1.) Do you have the right books? Try books with pictures, predictable stories and repetitive words and phrases._____2.) Are you a good listener? Don’t interrupt your child to correct him or to use teaching techniques such as sounding out words. Just have fun, laugh and enjoy the story._____3.) Do you encourage your child to use picture clues and his memory to tell the story?_____4.) Do you give lots of praise and encouragement when your child reads?_____5.) Do you avoid criticizing? If your child gets discouraged, he can lose his confidence and desire to read. How well are you doing? Each yes means you are boosting your child’s confidence. For no answers, try those ideas.

‘Quick writes’ make writing fun for elementary schoolers…Writing can be hard work. But a quick write is a fun and easy wayto encourage your child to get his ideas down on paper.Quick writes are just what they sound like – writing that people do in short periods of time. Usually, a quick write is based on a question or an idea. You ask a challenging a question and set a timer for 5 minutes. Then both you and your child write down everything you can before the timer beeps.Once the quick is finished, compare what each of you has written. The next time, let your child choose the quick-write topic.

Here are some quick-write ideas: Would it be a good or bad idea is dogs could talk? Why? The best birthday I can imagine would be… If I were invisible, I would… It was a stormy day, so I decided to… Zebras have stripes because… I invented the most amazing machine, it can… When I woke up this morning, I was a different person. I was…

Even students who usually stare into space when it’s time for a writing assignment may like a quick write. They are surprised to discover just how much they know or have to say about a particular subject. Your child will gain confidence when he sees how much he can write in just a few minutes.

Thank you Councilman Quinn, parent of Kellen in Mrs. Watson’s fourth grade class, for a fun afternoon of reading with our students!

Classroom News:

News from Music Class:

Everyone has been learning about opera, as we just had the opportunity to watch Hansel and Gretel, presented by the NOISE Opera Company in March!

4th and 5th graders will soon be learning to play the recorder. Clean recorders will be assigned to 4th and 5th graders to borrow at school, but if they would like to practice at home, recorders are typically under $10 and available at music stores or in the toy departments of stores like Target or Fred Meyer. Dollar Store recorders do not typically work.

5th graders will also be learning camp songs while 4th graders learn about the music of Johann Strauss. 3rd graders have been learning about the music of Geocaching Rossini. 2nd and 3rd graders will be learning to read notes on bell kits as well as singing, doing movement and playing other percussion instruments. 2nd graders are also learning about J. S. Bach through story, movement, and song. K and 1st graders have been singing a lot. We sing along with big books to support their reading, we read and dictate rhythms, we do movement, instrument play, and singing to learn about classical pieces of music and we have a lot of fun!

News from the Library:

We are done reading our Washington Children Choice Picture Book Award nominees and K-3 graders will be voting this week.  Stay tuned for your child to let you know who won the award.

4th and 5th graders are doing projects on influential women in history in honor of Women's History Month.

  Happy Reading!

News from 4th Grade:After spring break the fourth grade team will be starting unit 6 of the Math Expression. The main goals of this unit are understanding the meaning of fractions, comparing unit fractions, adding and subtraction fractions and mixed numbers with like denominators. In addition students will also multiply fraction by whole numbers and use fraction strips and fraction bars to gain visual and conceptual understanding of fractions.For science students will be studying different ecosystems. Students will observe and maintain protists, plants, and animals in the classroom. Students will also study and record the characteristic in their science notebooks.During this break an onwards the fourth grade team would like you to encourage all your scholars to read 25 minutes each night.News from Kindergarten:

We have some big things blooming in kindergarten for the month of April! We are expanding our knowledge of sight words and applying them in both reading and writing. Our Kinder classes are continuing to read our “just right” books both inside and outside of the classroom. Parents, please make sure that you are fitting reading into your daily routine. Reading to or with your child for 5-10 minutes before bed is a great way to incorporate this in your household. In math we are working on using a 10-group to help us count and show numbers, along with talking about the different ways to

make 10 (ex: 5 + 5, 3 + 7). At this time of the year, we are also introducing math stories. You may notice that your child is telling and solving their own story problems.On Friday, April 27th we will be making a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo! If you are a parent and would like to volunteer, please make sure that you have all of your paperwork turned in to the front office, fingerprints can take up to 6 weeks to process. The growth that we are seeing in these kiddos is extraordinary and we are all so thankful for everything that you are doing at home to continue the learning process. Thanks for all that you do!

News from 2nd Grade:

In math 2nd graders will continue working on addition and subtraction in the hundreds with regrouping.    

In literacy we will be making connections, identifying lessons in stories, and analyzing poetry.

In writing we will continue to work on different genres of writing like opinion, informative, and narrative.

2nd graders will be going on a walking field trip to City Hall to participate in a mock trial. Be on the lookout for paperwork with more information.

Also, we will be going to the beach sometime in May or June, dates to be decided soon.

News from LRC1:

The LRC1 classroom has been a busy place lately. One of the reading groups has been studying communities, with a focus on ant communities. We have been patiently waiting for over a month for our ants to arrive in the mail and they finally arrived on Friday. The students are fascinated watching them work as a team in their little ant farm habitat.

Math groups are working on telling time on an analog clock, adding coin combinations and solving word problems.

Writing groups are beginning a class book called, “What Does Our Principal Do All Day?” where they will use various steps of the writing process. I’m sure this will be a fun book to read!

Activity Calendar 2018Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

2

SPRING BREAK

3

SPRING BREAK

4

SPRING BREAK

5

SPRING BREAK

6

SPRING BREAK

9Girls on the Run

10 11Girls on the Run

12Mexican Dancing

13Mexican Dancing

16Girls on the Run

17 18Early DismissalNO AFTER SCHOOLACTIVITIES

19Mexican Dancing

20Mexican Dancing

23Girls on the Run

24 25Girls on the Run

26Mexican Dancing

27Mexican Dancing

30Girls on the Run

The Tukwila School District No. 406 complies with all federal rules and regulations and does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, disability, and the use of a trained dog guide or service animal. District programs shall be free from sexual and malicious harassment, and the district provides equal access to the Boy Scouts of America and other designated youth groups..

Inquiries regarding compliance or complaint procedures may be directed to the School District’s Title IX/Section 504/RCW 28A.640 Compliance Officer or to the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights.

Title IX/Section 504/RCW 28A.640 Compliance Officer:Dr. T.C. Wallace Jr., Executive Director of Human Resources

Tukwila School District No. 4064640 S. 144th St.

Tukwila, WA 98168Phone: 206.901.8005

E-mail: wallacet@tukwila.wednet.edu

Section 504 Compliance Officer:JoAnne Fabian, Director of Special Education

Tukwila School District No. 4064640 S. 144th St.

Tukwila, WA 98168Phone: 206.901.8005

E-mail: fabianj@tukwila.wednet.edu