"Persevere with passion. Lead with kindness."
February 1, 2018

Dear Sweeny Families,

We are cruising right through second semester and it is absolutely amazing to see the growth of our leaders. We want to bring attention to your child's Leadership Binder. Each month your child brings home his/her leadership binder on Buddy Day/Leadership Day. There are five sections in our Leadership Binders. The section we want to highlight this month is the celebration section. This semester we are working as a team on celebrating our learners across the building. You will see a BLUE celebration page with white labels. Each month a new label will be added celebrating something your child has accomplished at Sweeny. We see wonderful things occuring with your children each day and want to ensure that we are sharing those with you too!

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding the celebrations or anything occurring at Sweeny, please contact us!

The Best Is Yet to Come~
Dr. Engelhart and Mr. Lockmiller
 
Sweeny's Facebook Page

Make Sweeny Elementary's Facebook page your "See First" option! This will ensure you are able to see all the learning, leading and celebrating occuring at Sweeny Elementary as soon as you open Facebook. The steps to make this happen are as follows:  
  1. Navigate to the Sweeny's Facebook page.
  2. Click on Following.
  3. Then click on See First.

 
Dr. Engelhart and Mr. Lockmiller Work on the Roof

Do you want to see Dr. Engelhart and Mr. Lockmiller spend an hour working on the roof? Then help People Helping People by bringing in canned goods for the Souper Bowl canned food drive. If Sweeny has the most pounds of food donated, then Dr. Engelhart and Mr. Lockmiller will be working on the roof! 

Here is what each grade level is collecting.
  • Kindergarten - canned fruit
  • 1st grade - canned beans
  • 2nd grade - canned vegetables
  • 3rd grade - canned soup
  • 4th grade - canned pasta
  • 5th grade - canned sauces
Donations Due Friday, February 2nd!



 
Watch Dog Hero Breakfast

We would like to invite you to our two upcoming Watch Dog Hero Breakfasts!  This is a great time to spend time with your child before they start their school day. The goal of the Watch Dog Heroes program is to increase the presence of positive male role models at Sweeny. 

In February we will be making a light up valentine by building a circuit.

In March we will be making slime! 

 
Tooth Truck

We are pleased to announce that the Tooth Truck will be visiting our  school the week of February 12th. The Tooth Truck provides  comprehensive treatment, from cleanings and x-rays, to repairing  cavities at no charge for qualifying families. 

Please contact the nurse's office at 732-3670 if you are interested in completing an application form. The Tooth  Truck staff will be sche duling students soon.


 
Seek  First to Understand, Then to be Understood
 

I n  January, students learned about Habit 5, Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. This habit refers to the idea of listening to another person and trying to understand their point of view before telling them your own. When another person speaks, we're usually "listening" at one of four levels:
  • Ignoring: not listening at all
  • Pretending: "Yes. Hmm. Right."
  • Selective listening: hearing only selective parts of the conversation
  • Attentive listening: paying attention and focusing energy on the words that are being said
Very few of us ever practice listening on the fifth level, the highest form of listening: the empathic listening  level. Empathic listening involves understanding where the other person is coming from, with the intent of true understanding. Seeing the world the way other people see it allows us to understand how they feel.

At home, try to practice the fourth and fifth type of listening. Model being an attentive and empathic listener. 

Yearbooks On Sale
Elementary  yearbooks (Early Childhood students will be pictured in all elementary yearbooks) are on sale until  March 19 . All books have sturdy soft covers and are full color. Orders can be made online at  ybpay.lifetouch.com  by inserting the code 13282318 for Sweeny's yearbook. The cost of the yearbook is $17. 

 Contact  Rhonda.Tomnitz@republicschools.org  with questions.
 
Quarterly Grade Level Newsletters
 
Important Links

 
You're Invited/Very Important Dates

You're Invited:
February 5th....PTO Meeting in Library 6-7 p.m.
February 9th....Class Friendship Parties (see above for schedule) 
February 14th..Watch Dog Hero Breakfast 7:30-8:10 a.m.
February 23rd..Buddy Day/Leadership Assembly 10-10:50 a.m.

Other Important Dates:
February 9th....Progress Reports Sent Home
February 16th...School Improvement Day (NO SCHOOL)
February 19th...Make Up Snow Day (School is in Session) 
February 27th...Author Judy Young Visiting  K-5 Students 
March 2nd........End of Third Quarter


*Click HERE to see all 2017-2018 events
"The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for greatness is there already." ~Buchanan