Sunset News

Volume 58, Issue 7 March 2012

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March 2012 Do you watch “The Balancing Act” on

Lifetime TV? It is a fabulous,

informative program for parents. On

Dish Network it is on at 5 a.m. Find out

when it is on your TV, you will want to

know.

What is that first paragraph about? Why

would I ask you to check it out? What is

going on?

Okay, here it is. Lifetime Television is

coming to Sunset Elementary School.

They will be here in March to film; the

segment will air on “The Balancing Act” in

April.

The reason? Lifetime is seeking Dream

Schools for the 21st Century and asked

Virco Furniture to provide them with

three American schools affecting

education in a positive manner. The

number one school on the list is yours

truly, Sunset.

Virco Furniture will speak to their desire

to enrich learning environments. They are

not just a furniture company, but a

company concerned about education. Our

segment will focus on healthy movement

(featuring the rocker chairs). Virco

executives touring Sunset last year

continue to tell the world about Sunset’s

culture and care for children. What an

honor this is, even if is only a short

moment in time.

Thanks to all our staff who, every day

seek to meet every student’s heart and

educational needs. Thanks to a school

district and community who support

education. Thanks to parents who

support learning and teaching at Sunset.

Thanks to the wonderful students walking

through the doors each morning.

Mrs. Farmer, Principal

Tues. March 6 & Weds.

March 7 — Parent Teacher

Conferences

Fri. March 9—No School

Mon. March 12 –Young

Authors Celebration at

CMS

Tues. March 13—PTA

meeting @ 6:30 pm

Tues. March 13—

StarGATE meeting @ 6:30

pm

Tues. March 20 —Family

Fun & Food Nite at

Wendy’s

Tues. March 2 —School

Board Meeting

Weds. March 28—

deadline for Newsletter

submissions

Thurs. March 29—

Mystery Family Reading

Night

No School

Newsletter

deadline

PT

Conference &

Staff Dinner

PTA

meeting

StarGATE

Young

Authors

Celebration

PT

Conference

Mystery

Reading

Night

Young Author Celebration

This is an invitation to all Young Authors and their parents

and relatives. There will be a district-wide celebration on

Monday, March 12 at the Cody Middle School Commons at

6:00pm. Students will get their books that evening, unless

they win at the district level. In that case their book will be going to the

state competition to be judged with others in their grade level

and genre.

The guest author for the evening will be Rahim Khan, who wrote

So You Want To Buy a Dog. Refreshments will be served after

awards.

BBHC Raptor

Assembly was very

thrilling for all our

students. Many

have also had

opportunities to

visit the museum thanks to PTA

support! See more pictures on our

Facebook page –Sunset Elementary School PTA

New Staff at Sunset

Melissa Cunningham—SPED Para-

Educator

Woody Searles—SPED Para-

Educator

Kelly Christiansen—SPED Nurse

Windy Smith - School Nurse

If you see them in the hall, please

welcome them!

Our next Parent-Teacher Association

meeting will be held on Tues. March

13th at 630 pm in the Art/Science

room.

All parents and staff

are invited and

encouraged to attend.

Sunset Elementary School PTA

Sunset School Parent-Teacher Association

President—Lisa McDonald, 250-4633

sunsetpta@nazdorovya.com

Vice President—Becca Manchester

Secretary—Bobbi Moss

Treasurer—Ashley McCarten

@SunsetPTA

Parent/Teacher Conferences will be

March 6 and 7; 3:15pm to 6:45pm. Feed

the Teacher nite will be Tuesday March

6th where PTA members and interested

parents provide dinner for the staff

that nite. A sign up sheet is on our PTA

bulletin board by the Staff Lounge or

email PTA if you can bring something.

Our Spring Book Fair will also be over

these days. The Fall book fair earned

$2500 in classroom supplies from

Scholastic.

Thank you for your support!

From the Handbook

Students need to be healthy to attend

school. Please do not send your child to

school when he/she is ill. We feel that

a child who is too ill to go outside

during recess is too ill to

be in school. Please do not

send notes to school

requesting that your child

be allowed to stay inside

for recess.

Page 4 Sunset News

Mrs. Olson

We are “MARCHing” into some new areas of

learning this month. We finished our penguin

unit with a fun celebration and are now into

standard units of measurement (inches/

centimeter/etc.). We’ll also be working with

shapes and learning what attributes they have.

We will continue to work on addition and

subtraction and move into doubles, neighbors and

strategies for addition, including using story

problems and patterns in numbers, to apply these

skills.

We will continue to study Mercer Mayer as a

mentor author, to help us in our writing. Be

watching for 2 new travel books coming home in

March. You will see the difference in our writing!

Our air and weather unit is starting. We will

study tools used by meteorologists, track

patterns and learn about clouds and air.

We are excited to tell you about our 1st Grade

Reading Challenge, starting in March. We will

need all of you to participate in keeping track of

reading minutes with your 1st grader each day, as

we add them together with other classes to meet

the Big Minutes goal. Look for more information

coming home in the Monday folders soon.

Mrs. Hill’s third grade class is moving into a

unit in geometry! This includes 2 and 3

dimensional shapes, congruency and

symmetry. Students will enjoy the discussion

and inquiry on these subjects. In writing, our

class is moving into literary essays: writing

about reading. Students will build on their

favorite "stories" by collecting possible writing

ideas and focusing on their favorite characters

from books. We will continue to give 100% and

work hard in the 3rd Trimester!

Kindergarten will continue to learn sight

words, working on learning how to retell

stories, and our reading and writing

skills. Our Parent Teacher conferences

will be March 6 and 7th, we look forward

to seeing each of you! We will visit the

museum on 3/6 & 3/7, 3/20 & 3/21. We

have been learning about our Presidents –

Washington, Lincoln, and also Buffalo Bill

Cody with all their birthday celebrations

in February! We will also celebrate Dr.

Seuss’ birthday, by

reading his stories and

d o i n g o t h e r f u n

activities. We will be

learning a lot about frogs

and toads. Have a great

month!

Cole, Barnhart & Ellsbury

February flew right by! All three classes

enjoyed their Valentine’s parties. This

month was also filled with many exciting

learning opportunities for our Sunset

Second graders. We finished up our Math

Unit on Geometry! We are working on Time,

Money, Graphing, and Calculator Skills for

the rest of the year. We work on a

different skill each day. The kids are

enjoying the variety!

We completed our 2nd trimester writing

assessments. They had to write a story

about a time that they lost a tooth. We are

proud of their effort on these!

Mrs. Cole also announced that she is

expecting a baby in early September.

Page 5 Sunset News

Miss Pinney

The month of March will focus on looking into

the lives of composers and their influence on

music. We will also continue to grow in

reading, writing, and performing music

through a variety of music activities. The

Kindergarten and 1st grade classes are now

preparing for our next musical

performance. The musical “Bugz” will be

performed on April 3rd at the High School

Wynona Thompson Auditorium at 6:30 p.m.

Remember to mark your calendar.

Fourth and Fifth Grade TOWN was on the 24th

of February. Students read books and posted

reports and blogged about them on our websites

in order to participate. Students will have the

same number of blogs and posts for the final

trimester, as well.

PAWS Testing will be in March. Fourth graders

will take the Reading, Math, and Science

tests. Fifth graders will test in Reading and

Math, and will complete the writing portion in

May. Be sure to have students well-rested, fed,

and healthy for the tests, as they are difficult

to make up.

Parent Conferences will be on March 6 & 7, and

we will be working to accommodate the many

parents who wish to meet with ALL

students. We had overwhelming response to our

questionnaire and will be meeting with as many

parents as possible during those days.

Fifth graders are finishing Thin Wood Walls, a

book about Japanese Internment, with other 5th

graders in Cody. The book discussion on March 1

will be held at the Public Library at 6:00 p.m.

Mrs. Baumstarck

Third, Fourth, and the Fifth Grades have all been

enjoying the culminating activity for the Second

Step Program. We have been playing Jeopardy. I

have used the vocabulary from the Second Step

Program to review Unit 3; which was Anger

Management.

In the Kindergarten, First Grade and Second

Grade classrooms, we have continued to learn

what is means to be a caring

person. We have watched

movies showing kind/caring

acts, listened to stories, and

colored pictures of kind and

caring people.

PAWS Testing PAWS testing March 5—30th for Grades 3—5: A

primary purpose of the Proficiency Assessments

for Wyoming Students (PAWS) is to foster

program improvement at the school, district, and

state levels in support of the teaching and

learning that takes place in Wyoming public

classrooms and meets all of the attendant

requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of

2001.

By state law all students are required to take

the assessment. If they miss school it has to be

made up at a different time, which may pull a

child out of regular classroom instruction.

Ways parent’s can help:

Please try not to schedule appointments

during this time.

Students need a healthy breakfast so that

their minds can focus on the assessment

instead of on grumbly tummies (remember

Sunset serves breakfast, with advance

notice, for the same price as lunch).

Good sleep habits—children aged 5—12 are

recommended to get 10-11 hours of sleep a

nite.

You can contact Mrs. Skoric for more

information.

Family Food & Fun Nite #2

April Newsletter Deadline

Weds. March. 28th

Please send your

submissions to

sunsetpta@nazdorovya.com

Join us on Tues. March 20th from 5–8 pm at Wendy’s for a fun evening.

Wendy’s is donating the proceeds from the night to the PTA fund

earmarked for the new Kids Fitness Course on the

Westside of the school. Come say hi to our Sunset

Mascot, get a Tattoo and every family receives a

raffle ticket to win great prizes! Plus some of the

Staff and Student Council members will be serving

your food tonight, you won’t want to miss that! Tell

your friends and neighbors and especially Sunset

Alumni to join us!

Our Family Food and Fun Nite #1 at Arby’s was a

huge success. Mrs. Manchester says “We can’t thank

ALL of you enough for your participation tonight at

Arby’s! It was a success and we saw a huge number

of Sunset families participate. We brought in 120

orders from 5-7 alone! Thanks so much for coming

out on such a dreary, busy night and showing the

community and our kids how much WE LOVE

SUNSET!“

Our Dr. Seuss Kids Nite Out was so much

fun! Thank you to all who helped and

participated! Mrs. Farmer says, “Another

fabulous Kids Night Out!!!!! I cannot say

how much I appreciate you all, I hope you

know the great love and appreciation I

have for you all. It is so good to have

events in the school that are not school

for the kiddos to enjoy the building and

not see it as the place to HAVE to go

to. The smiles on the faces of the

children are worth a million. The laughter

and joy and the interaction between

parents, kids, and teachers is priceless.

Thanks again for caring for the wonderful

Sunset children.”

Point B 4-H Community Club is

having a meeting Monday, March

5th at 3:30 in the Barling Room

in the Lower Level of the Court

House. Everyone is welcome. It is

a General Community Club so all

projects are addressed. For more information,

contact Pepper Werner, 587-2732 or

finallywy@yahoo.com .

If someone would like to organize the

Sunset Students to participate in the

parade please let the PTA know.