Parent Teacher Conferences

Dear Parents, One of the most important events in our school year is coming up and I want to take advantage of this opportunity to ask you to be part of it. Parent teacher conferences afford both teachers and parents the chance to sit down and talk about how our stu-dents are doing in school. Highlights of your child’s report card will be shared along with work samples and MAP assessment scores from this previous quarter. Likewise, planning will take place and ideas will be shared in regards to how you can help make sure your child has a successful second quarter. In years past I’ve always set a goal of having 100 percent of our students represented at parent teacher conferences. I can’t think of a better tradition to carry on at Madison Place. After all, having 100 percent of our parents at the conferences would mean that every Madison Place child has someone that cares enough about him or her that they take the time to invest 30 minutes to bettering their chances of success. Please know this is about much more than a number to me. While I do believe in goal setting and am proud of having reached this goal before, what this goal represents is more im-portant to me. You see, every child here at Madison Place is deserving of the benefits that come from having a mom or dad, or even a grandma or grandpa, sit with his or her teacher and talk about what needs to be done in order for the child to succeed. Every child deserves that. And so, achieving that goal means that Madison Place is a school filled with teachers and parents who care about their children and will do what-ever it takes to make sure they are doing all they can to help them get a strong educa-tion. I know it is sometimes inconvenient to find a time that will work in your schedule to come to school to see the teacher. Your days are busy and you have all kinds of things taking your time. Additionally, you might be afraid of what you are going to hear. You can be assured that your child’s teacher wants the same thing as you. He or she wants your child to succeed. And while there may be areas in which your child is struggling, there are things that can be done to help change that. It will take all of us working together to make sure that happens. Be there on October 19

th or 20

th and be

part of the plan that is put into place to see your child be successful! Respectfully,

Gary Stevenson

Security Procedures

As part of our ongoing efforts to ensure student safety, Madison Place front office staff would like to remind you of a few security procedures. We need your help and coop-eration for our system to work effectively.

Everyone will be asked to show identification before being allowed access to the building. Even if you are well recognized by a staff mem-ber, you will be asked to show your identification so please have it ready.

In addition, please do not hold the door for someone behind you. Our staff needs to confirm the identification of each and every visitor that comes into the building.

All visitors must check in with the front office. Students who are dropped off after the school day has started must check in with the front office. Please do not walk your child on to the playground to join their class if you happen to see them at recess.

Your involvement continues to be critical to our school’s effectiveness, security and safety. We are counting on your cooperation. Thank you!

Thank You PTO! A big thank you goes to our PTO for the Movie Night event sponsored by our parent organization on September 29

th. So

many of our families attended this event and a great time was had by everyone. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Costume Guidelines at Madison Place How Well Do You Know

the Madison Place

Staff?

Think you know a lot about

the Madison Place teachers

and staff? Take this quiz to

find out!

1. This staff member loves to pull kiddos wiggly teeth.

2. This staff member has been snorkeling in the Ba-hamas and explored around a sunken ship.

3. This staff member used to own a landscape company called O’Kelly Green Plants.

4. This staff member married her high school sweet-heart, who she met work-ing at Zarda’s BBQ.

5. This staff member’s first teaching job was in Cali-fornia.

6. This staff member and her husband are both left handed but their kids are right handed.

7. This staff member can speak fluently in movie quotes and song lyrics.

8. This staff member has a dog named Titus who is loved like a child.

Do you think you know?

Check below for the answers.

On October 31st, students will have the

opportunity to participate in a costume parade and class party.

In order to make our school activity ap-propriate for the school setting, and to ensure a fun, safe, and healthy activity, please note the following policy and guidelines in place at Madison Place. Children, their safety, and education are top priority at this school. Unfortunately violence and safety are very real and legitimate concerns in all schools today. Because of these concerns, the guide-lines listed here should be used as you select the costume your child will wear. · No blood, guts, weapons or gore—supporting our stand against violence

· No face/body paint should be brought to school eliminating the potential risk of spills and stains. (Costume make-up used to create such details as freckles or whiskers can be worn to school as long as it is not so obvious as to cause

disruptions resulting in distracting stu-dents from instruction.)

· No costumes are to be worn to school. Please send the costume in a sack. Children will be given time to change into their outfit just before the party be-gins.

In adopting this policy, please know the above guidelines for costumes are not meant to take the fun from this time of year, but are meant to provide bounda-ries that will allow students to participate in a safe, nonviolent, positive way. Also, our goal and focus at Madison Place is to educate children. While dressing up for the Fall Party may be fun for chil-dren, it is not our focus. Finally, please know we will not be able to allow cos-tumes that fall outside of the above guidelines to be worn.

The Costume Parade will be held on Oct 31

st. The parade will begin at 2:15

and the class party will begin at 2:30.

I know it’s only October, but I feel that we have already learned so much. Here are few highlights: 5

th graders are busy writing their own

compositions. They are composing osti-natos and layering them together to form quite the awesome percussion pieces. 4

th graders are diligently rehearsing for

their upcoming performance of “Pirates, the Musical.” They will be presenting this musical on Thursday, October 27

th.

Look for more information on this to be coming home this month. 3

rd graders are learning the notes of the

treble staff. They just have to remember that “Elvis’s Guitar Broke Down Friday.” And if they look hard enough, they can find their “FACE” on the staff. 2

nd grade has been learning to notate &

perform music rhythms. We are feeling quite comfortable with our quarter and eighth notes. Rock on 2nd graders! 1

st Grade & Kindergarten students have

been experimenting with all of the cool

things that they can do with their voices.

We’re also having a good time learning

how to keep the steady beat in the mu-

sic classroom.

Notes from the Music Staff By Maurica Bruning

1. Mrs. Miller 2. Ms. Millhuff 3. Mrs. Craven 4. Mrs. Coplen 5. Mrs. Griffin 6. Mrs. Hutton 7. Ms. Wegman 8. Ms. Stigall

4th Grade Presents "Pirates, the Musical"

Thursday, October 27th, 6:30PM

P.E. Shorts By Tara Griffin

During Physical Education class, students will begin working

on striking activities. Third, fourth and fifth grade students

will be learning and practic-

ing volleyball (striking) skills.

The annual 5th Grade vs MD

Staff Volleyball Game will be

on Friday, October 28th at

2:00pm. Parents are wel-

come to come watch the ac-

tion!

Students in kindergarten,

first and second grade will

practice striking with a variety of equipment: beach ball, noo-

dles, paddle and ball.

Students in fifth grade will have

the opportunity to join the Fuel Up

To Play 60 club starting in Novem-

ber. This club works to provide

healthy eating and physical activi-

ty opportunities for all students at

Madison Place. Information will

be distributed during Physical Ed-

ucation class at the end of Octo-

ber.

From the Counselor By Jeff Stone Holiday Luncheons

It’s time to start thinking about our school holiday lunches here at Madison Place. This year, in order to better accom-modate the challenge of seating our guests, we are asking that parents and guests of our Kindergarten, 2nd and 4th grade students come to the November 16th holiday meal. Parents and guests of our 1st, 3rd and 5th grade students will be invited to attend the holiday luncheon on December 14th. We are happy to have meals prepared for any parents, grandparents or family friends who would like to join us on either of these days. Due to the planning that must be done for these meals, the deadline to reserve a spot for our No-vember 16th meal is Monday, October 24th. The cost for this meal is $3.55 for all guests, including guests that are chil-dren. Any parent or guest of a Kindergarten, 2nd or 4th grade student who would like to join us for lunch on November 16th must return the RSVP form sent home by Monday, October 24th. We’re sorry but we will be unable to accommodate those guests who do not re-serve a spot.

October is a busy time at Madison Place! We will be having conferences soon and October includes Bullying Prevention week and Red Ribbon week. Every other week your student sees me in the classroom and we ex-plore a classroom counseling lesson. This month we will be covering a unit on getting along with others and our first bullying prevention lessons. Our school district has purchased new bul-

lying prevention materials called “Second Step” and I am excit-ed to introduce this to our students. We define bullying as un-wanted, hurtful behavior that is repeated over time and in-cludes a real or perceived power imbalance. I take bullying re-ports extremely seriously and make it a priority to work through any bullying issues that come to my attention. Please contact me if you have any questions and watch for bullying prevention articles and information coming to the Olathe Schools website soon! We recently finished our unit on healthy expression of feelings and learned many feeling words and strategies to express our thoughts and emotions in appropriate ways. If you are interest-ed in knowing what we covered, please ask your student to teach you what they learned by checking out one of these books: Kindergarten: “The Grouchies” 1

st and 2

nd grade: “Andrew’s Angry Words”

3rd

– 5th grade: “Yesterday I Had the Blues”

I see great kindness and potential from the kids at Madison Place and enjoy interacting with such awesome representa-tives of our future. Your students are amazing, and all of us at Madison Place are very excited to work with them every day!

Recess fun at Madison Place

November 2016

PTO News Box Tops, Box Tops, Box Tops! Continue to clip those Box Tops for Madison Place and start sending them in with your student! We will do a fun challenge to see which class turns in the most Box Tops and that winning class will get a special surprise. Please send in all Box Tops by Wednesday, Oct 26th for the first Challenge. Remember to put your student's grade and teacher's name on the baggy so that their class will get the credit! Also, if you shop at HyVee, save those receipts and send those to school with your student. Madison Place participates in the HyVee Dollar$ for $cholar$ program. They will send us a percentage back for the total amount of those receipts we turn in.

As Always, Thank you for being great parents and supporting the students and staff of Madison Place.

November 4: Spirit Day - School Colors November 11: Veterans Day November 18: Spirit Day - Hat Day

October 2016 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1

2 3 4 5 Grill Day

6 7 8

9 10 11 12 PTO Fun Run

13 Spirit Day

Royals Blue

14 Staff Professional Day - No School

15

16 17 18 Skating Party

Skate City Scholastic Book Fair

19 No EC Classes

Parent Teacher Conferences

20 Parent Teacher

Conferences

21 No School

22

23 24 25 26 Fall Picture Retake Day

27 Fourth Grade

Musical 6:30PM

28 Spirit Day

KC Chiefs Red Fifth Grade vs. Staff

Volleyball Game

29

30 31 Fall Parties