Wednesday, August 29, 2012

WELCOME BACK!

A new school year and a fresh start!  So many opportunities and endless possiblities for our students to grow, learn, and develop!

I'm very excited about several new developments this year!  One of my favorite endeavors that I've accomplished, with the help of my friend who so graciously volunteered, is the total weeding and re-vamping of our library.  Please come in and look at our library now!  Every book that is an Accelerated Reader book is clearly delineated with the appropriate AR grade level stickers so that every child is now able to select a book at their reading level.  This makes our library very 'user-friendly' for all the students.  Weeding the library was a long and arduous task but one that needed done in order for us to have room for the new books coming in this fall.  I removed books that have not been checked out in 5 to 20 years or had outdated or incorrect information.  These books were then put in my room and the classes were all allowed to come in and pick books to take home for their personal libraries.  These books have had the pockets and cards removed.  They DO NOT come back to the library as these books now belong to your students.

We will be going to purchase new books from Barnes & Noble in October.  Also coming up in October will be the first of two Barnes & Noble fundraisers.  It will be on Saturday, Oct. 27th, from 11 a.m. till 3 p.m. and will have many great activities, contests, and prizes.  These fundraisers are integral in allowing us to provide your students with new, exciting, and much anticipated new books!  Please plan on joining us that day with your family!

I'm excited to meet and introduce two new teachers to our staff.  Ms. Wilson is the new 5th and 6th grade teacher and is not only incredibly enthusiastic and excited to be here, but also very knowledgeable and dedicated to her students!  Welcome Ms. Wilson!
We also are fortunate to have Ms. Bettridge as our new GT, PE, and 1st/5th grade math teacher.  She too is very happy and enthusiastic about joining the staff and community of Pioneer School!  She brings dedication and experience as well to our students!  Welcome Ms. Bettridge!

I hope to update my blog more frequently this year however, if you notice that I 'forgotten' to get around to it, stop by and remind me!  We can come up with some great updates/changes together!

Mrs. Russell

Friday, April 13, 2012

Events, Events, and more Events

The AR store in January was wonderful incentive to many of our readers to pick up the pace and start packing away the points for our end of the year May blowout at the store!  Remember, everything will be half-price and save those points!
We have had so many great things happen since my last post (I really need to remember to post more often) and I want to comment on them.  I absolutely loved our February Barnes & Noble fundraiser!  Our Color NOOK raffle was 'uber-successful' and Nick Kiekover was our surprised and very excited winner!  Way to go Nick!
The annual Pancake Breakfast was once again a heavily attended event!  We had nearly 100% turn-out for this event!  That is a lot of pancakes!  Thank you PTA for providing all the ingredients for the two 'chefs'!  Thank your Mr. Russell and Mr. Seavy for 'flipping' pancakes!
The Chili Cook-off in March was also well attended and enjoyed by everyone.  I had several of the dads stop by and ask if we would host this event again next year, so I guess we will have a new annual event!
The school carnival is widely anticipated and will be held on April 20th this year!  I hope to see you all there!
I will be having an Open House on Wednesday, April 25th to showcase the Summer Skills summer 'bridge to learning' workbooks and other helpful resources to maintain or improve your student's academic skills.  Let's start the 2012-2013 year with improved skills and our motors already running!
The end of the year AR store will be May 18th.  Read, read, read and then test, test, test in order to bank all your points for this fantastic event!
The end of the year 'Box Social-Talent Show' event will be coming in May as well.  At this time the date will probably be May 18th but possibly May 19th.  Watch for the flyers!