January 12, 2016
In This Issue
Principal's Post
Attendance
PBIS & Leader in Me
Reading and Writing at Home
Counselor's Corner
Specials Classes
PTO Plans
Improvement Plan Information
Nurse Mandie's News
Upcoming Dates

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Sweeny Families,

We are so excited to be back at Sweeny with our school family! We are very busy learning and leading in our classrooms.

Please read the information in the newsletter so that you can stay up-to-date on the latest Sweeny happenings!

Principal's Post
Updates from Dr. Engelhart and Mr. Lockmiller
 

 

 

 

Although we have only been back in school one week, we are celebrating the success in our classrooms over the course of the last month. Sweeny students and teachers are committed to reaching their highest potential!

 

  • Spirit Winner: Mr. Crouch's Class with 66% participation
  • Teachers of the Month: Mrs. J. Brown & Miss Hufford
  • Support Staff Member of the Month: Miss Wallace
  • Golden Crane (Art) Awards: Mrs. Basta and Mrs. Steven's Class
  • Top Attendance Class: Mrs. Marcum's Class 98.87%
  • Sweeny's Year to Date attendance is 96.73% which is .73 over our building goal! Way to go Tigers!
  • Fifth grade students high the highest attendance for the month with 97.43%
  • Over fifty students were able to participate in the field trip to Gold Medal Gym for perfect attendance for the semester.
We are so proud of our staff and our learners for each success this last month. We could not do what we do each day without your partnership with us. Thank you Sweeny Families for always being such a great support to us here at school!

 
Attendance
Below is a breakdown of our grade level attendance for the month of December:
 
Kindergarten:  95.18%
First Grade:  94.93%
Second Grade:  95.66%
Third Grade:  95.73%
Fourth Grade:  96.80%
Fifth Grade 97.43%
Building Total: 95.98%
 
Our January Great 98 Party will be movie and popcorn! Thank you for ensuring that your learners are here bell to bell. 


PBIS & Leader in Me

Sweeny is proud to be incorporating the Seven Habits of the Leader in Me into our daily work. Have you ever heard of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey? The Leader in Me is the process of taking those habits and integrating them into the school culture to support the students in becoming confident, responsible, self-disciplined people. We invite families to learn about and incorporate the Habits at home as well, so we can all speak the same language and successfully incorporate these great concepts!  
Our hope is by creating a common language and expectation both at school and home, each child will have greater understanding of what these habits are and how they apply to their lives. Additionally, we hope families will enjoy utilizing this powerful tool. These concepts are proven and successful for adults throughout the world and we want to support your family in finding the value in the Habits as well. 
A great place for resources that parents and families can utilize is the  Leader in Me website. (click here)


               

Ideas for Reading and Writing at Home
With so many cold days, it's a perfect time to have your child work on their reading and writing at home.

Writing
It's a great time to have your students make thank you or greeting cards. Have them design the outside and write a message on the inside. 

Reading
Help your child gain interest with nonfiction books by finding book about interesting people, a favorite place, or their favorite subject.

Click HERE to read more detailed ideas about reading and writing at home from our amazing Reading Specialist Mrs. Hamilton and Mrs. Green.
  

Counselor's Corner
Presented by Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Gerwel

The counseling department would like to wish all of our Sweeny Families a Happy New Year! We are exciting for what 2016 brings! This month, Ms. Scott is working with the K-2 students on Acuity so we can see how much those learners have grown since the beginning of the school year. Ms. Gerwel will focus her lessons on the characteristics and strategies to be successful in school. In the next few weeks, lunch bunches and small group counseling will resume for all the Sweeny students. Please remember that if you have any questions or concerns regarding your learner, do not hesitate to contact your child's counselor.
 

Special Teachers' News
Physical Education: 
This month in Physical Education we have been working on demonstrating independence and good use of time while participating in physical activity.  Students participated in an obstacle course and were encouraged to go at their own pace and be creative throughout to promote independence while exercising.  Students discussed and came up with ways to continue to exercise over the break at home on  their own.  We have also been discussing the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle throughout their lifetime.   


Art:  
This is a busy time in art all grade are working on different techniques and lessons.
*Kindergarten will be doing a few painting projects based in a winter theme snowflake and snow globe.
*First grade are also doing winter theme  snowman and penguins the concept is based on perspective.
*Second grade is doing an Egyptian study on Cartouches and creating their own all while learning hieroglyphs.
*Third grade are looking at graffiti as an art form and not vandalism as well as looking at a few graffiti artist and creating their own graffiti inspired name.
*Fourth grade has been studying George Seurat and his pointillism technique they are creating their own landscape in pointillism.  They are also going to be doing a pre and post test on a unit of instruction leading to a mandala project.
*Fifth grade is finishing up a two point perspective project with watercolor and then move to a unit on drawing from the right side of your brain.
  
  
Music: 
January Music Note
Hello and welcome back!  I'm so happy to see all of my musicians back from break and ready to learn!  All music classes are continuing with the Republic Music Curriculum "Scope and Sequence" in Unit 3.  We are right on track to continue some amazing music and new ideas!

Our focus for the month of January is using correct music terminology.  For examples, the kindergartners are switching from "high sound" to "high pitch" and the 5th graders are switching our focus from rhythm sounds ("ta" for a quarter note, "ti" for an eighth note) to counting using the correct number of beats for the measure ("1 and  2 and 3 and 4 and.")  It's an exciting time to be a Sweeny Musician!

Events for 2nd Semester:
3-5 Grades: We will begin recorders this s emester! My goal is to have students start in February, so start finding those recorders! Please watch for news coming home!

5th Grade:  All 5th grade students in the district have the opportunity to sign up for band in 6th grade!  The band directors at the middle schools will be over soon to show the instruments to the students, and they students get the try them out!  Please watch for more communication coming home in the coming weeks about this exciting time of year!  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

K-2: It's time for a concert!  Later this spring, the K-2 students will have an exciting concert for all of our families!  Please watch for more information on dates and where to find our AMAZING music!


Library: 
We started the month with the Show Me Nominee Spelling Bee Before Recess  by Deborah Lee Rose. This is story introduced students to new words and we practiced using the dictionary to find word meanings and definitions. Our second story of December was a Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin  by Jen Bryant. This is a biography about the life of an artist and the struggles he had to endure to overcome poverty and a disability. Students worked with the on-line encyclopedia and researched an artist. We ended December with a Makerspace/Genius hour activity. Students were engaged with computer programming, Little Bits electronic components, working with knots, and other ELA activities. Students were very excited to explore and discover how things worked.
PTO Plans
What's happening with the Sweeny PTO?

Sweeny PTO will be hosting a movie night for all Sweeny Families. It will be held on January 29th from 5:30 pm-7:30 pm. We would love for you to help deploy this exciting event. If you are interested, contact our PTO at the address below. We hope you are ALL able to join us for some family fun!

 If you have questions, please contact [email protected]. 

You can stay up to date on PTO information and events by liking our PTO Facebook page found HERE.


Improvement Plan Information
How is Sweeny working to improve student achievement?

At Sweeny, we have been focusing on celebrating data at the classroom level. Here are some of our celebrations this month:
  • 76.5% of Mrs. Embretson's students scored proficient or advaced on the MOY Fountas and Pinnell benchmark.
  • Mrs. Hunziker's class showed 75% growth from the pre-test to the post-test.
  • 100% of Mrs. Steffen's students showed growth from BOY to MOY on the Fountas and Pinnell benchmark.
  • Mrs. Phillips' class grew from 20% being met and advanced on BIG Idea 2, Unit 4 pretest to 100% being met or advanced on the post test.
  • Mrs. Gilliland's class grew from 10% in Range 4 on the ELA Acuity pre-test to 76% in Range 4 on the ELA Acuity post-test.
  • Mrs. Nelson's class grew from 0% to 100% of met or advanced students from pretest to posttest for Unit 4, Big Idea 2.
  • 100% of Mrs. Basta's class is proficient or advanced in comparing 2 digit numbers. 
  • 81% of the students scored 80% and/or above on the Unit 4 post-test in Mrs. Wilcox's class.
  • Mrs. Marcum's class grew from 0% proficient or advanced on Chapter 7 pre-test to 73% proficient or advanced on the post-test.
Please join us in celebration our learners at the classroom level!


Welcome Nurse Sarah!

Please join us in welcoming our new Sweeny nurse Sarah Hanley. Nurse Sarah comes to us as an RN with a wealth of knowledge and a huge heart for children! Next time you are in the building stop by and meet Nurse Sarah!

Please remember to send coats, hats, and gloves to school with your child. Getting students up and moving in the fresh air can increase concentration and focus in the classroom, so if the windchill is 30 degrees or above, we will be going outside for recess.

Upcoming Dates

 

  • January 13- Sweeny Papa John's Night-use code "Sweeny"
  • January 18- Martin Luther King Day-No School/Snow  Make Up Day (if needed)
  • January 27-9:15 a.m Project Sweeny (please join us)
  • January 29-PTO Movie Night
  • February 1-5:30 pm PTO Meeting (library)

 
Thank you for sharing your child with us each day. Please contact us should you have any questions or concerns.
  
All for the Children,
  

Beth Engelhart, Ed.D                    Chris Lockmiller, MS          
Sweeny Elementary Principal         Sweeny Assistant Principal