September/October 2018 Issue 1

Important Dates

9/3 No School ~ Labor Day

9/4 PTO/SAC Meeting @ 6 PM

9/12 Early Out at 1:45

9/19 Otis Spunkmeyer

Fundraiser Starts

9/20 SN @ Pomegranate

9/28 Box Top Collection

9/28 School Spirit Day

Sports Teams

10/2 PTO/SAC Meeting @ 6 PM

10/3 Otis Spunkmeyer

Fundraiser Ends

10/4 Fall Picture Day

10/11 Spirit Night @ Ferraro’s

10/12 Early Out at 1:00 PM

10/15 No School ~ Record Day

10/18 Conference Night

10/19 Early Out at 1:00 PM

10/26 Trunk or Treat @ 6-8PM

10/28 Box Top Collection

10/31 School Spirit Day

Vocabulary Word

From the Principal’s Desk

THE HOWLER Annie Lucy Williams

Elementary School

3404 Fort Hamer Rd.

Parrish, FL 34219

941-776-4040

We are off to a great start in the Den. Thank you for your patience and flexibility while we all got back into the routine of school. How we begin the school year can determine how well the rest of the year will go and as we settle in to our routines and procedures for learning, here’s how you, at home, can help us maintain this great start: Review school safety. Talk to your child about the importance of following school rules. Our school-wide rules are:

• Be Honest Be Responsible

• Be Kind Be Safe

• Be Respectful Get to know your child’s teacher. When parents and teachers are on the same team, kids do better in school. Report Card Conference Week is October 15th – 19th, with Conference Night scheduled for Thursday, October 18th from 3:30pm – 6:30pm. If you have questions about your child’s progress, please do not wait until Conference Week. Please contact your child’s teacher as soon as possible. Set goals. Students who do best in school have both short-term and long-term goals. Research shows that goal setting with students yields a high effect-size (.56) on student achievement. (Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. London: Routledge.) Perhaps it is an A on this week’s Reading test or a long-term goal such as perfect attendance for the school year. Remember to celebrate when your child’s goals are achieved! Insist that your child gives his/her best efforts at school. If your child knows that school is important to you, it will be important to him/her. Volunteer at school. Many of you have already asked how you can be of help to us! First, thank you for offering! It does take a village. We’d ask that you please consider becoming active by attending our PTO/SAC meetings on the first Tuesday of every month. As a result of these meetings, many opportunities arise where assistance is needed. As a result of the Jessica Lunsford Act, (Senate Bill 988) all volunteers need to complete a volunteer packet AND complete a volunteer training. This training is held several times a year. Please see Mrs. Cooper in the front office for this packet. Thank you for your time, treasures, and talents!

Thank you in advance for supporting our school and our children. I am confident that together we will continue to build on the tradition of excellence that Williams Elementary has already achieved.

Mrs. Connie Dixon, M.Ed. Principal

Prizes to Include:

BMX Bike Show

Money Machine

Video Game

Trailer Limo Ride and Lunch

at Hungry Howie’s

Look for more information coming home soon in your child’s backpack!!!

Happenings Around the School…..

4th Grade News

Fourth Grade is off to an amazing start this year! We are loving our new Promethean Boards. Teachers are having fun learning how to use them with our students. Coming up in September, from the 24th to the 28th, we will be doing our community outreach called Socktember. We will be collecting new socks of all sizes to deliver to our local homeless coalition, Turning Points. This is a great organization that services our homeless community in Manatee County. If you would like more information about them, their website is www.TPManatee.org. We would love to have you participate by dropping off socks during the last week of September.

News from PE

In Physical Education (PE), the students will play games, learn sportsmanship, and learn the proper ways to stay safe during exercise. The students will need athletic clothing, and athletic shoes to safely participate in PE. The optional equipment is a water bottle, a hat and sunglasses if we are playing a field game. In PE we have based our

program on 4 pillars which are integrity, respect, participation, and safety. To reward outstanding performance in PE we award a Coach's Superstar which goes to the student who separated themselves by performing at an excellent level as well as demonstrating tremendous sportsmanship during the class. We look forward to working with the Kindergarten through 5th grade students this 2018-2019 school year.

If you have not registered your child on the PikMyKid app, please do so as soon as possible. ALL children attending the school need to be registered for the app, not just car riders. If you need assistance with the app please contact PikMyKid directly at (813) 649-8028.

5th Grade News

Fifth graders are already having fun with cooperative learning. They learn how to take turns, speak kindly to each other and work with others on academics. We are building classroom communities!

Counselor Corner

It is such a privilege to be back in the Den after a great summer! In addition to myself, Williams is excited to welcome Mrs. Courtney Larson as our second School Counselor. Mrs. Larson is coming from Moody Elementary and will be the grades 3-5 School Counselor, the Gifted Contact, ESOL Contact, 504 Case Manager for grade 3-5 504 plans, and Patrol Sponsor. Ms. Lane (that’s me!!!!) will be the School Counselor for Prek-2nd grades, the Intensive Support Team (IST) Chairperson, 504 School Coordinator and Case Manager for K-2 504 plans. Please don’t hesitate to contact Mrs. Larson at x2028 or myself at x2010. I also invite you to visit my website for information on various topics that pertain to students such as ADHD, Anxiety, Divorce and Separation, Grief and Loss, and talking to your kids about traumatic events. https://bekitabonita.wixsite.com/schoolcounselor In other news…. Parents please be aware that the Media is inundated with content and images that are not appropriate for elementary school students’ level of development and understanding. Please be sure you are monitoring your students computer, tv, video games, phones, etc. to ensure they have not stumbled into something that they “can’t unsee”. Just recently, the movie “Slender Man” was released to movie theaters, “13 Reasons Why” is easily assessable on Netflix, and “Five Nights at Freddy’s” is a very popular internet video and game, just to name a few of the more popular ones. While some students will have no problems processing the images and content of these media examples, they can be very disturbing and traumatic to others. This can affect your students sleep patterns, eating, and increase levels of fear and anxiety that can impact their ability to learn. You know your kids best and what is okay for them, but just remember, once they have seen it, it can’t be erased from their memory. Stay informed and observant. We love your kiddos and when your students are at school, they are our #1 priority! Thank you for your continuous support!! Williams families are truly the best!!

Rebekah Lane School Counselor

Are you interested becoming a Volunteer or Business Partner

To become a volunteer on campus……

You must complete a volunteer training and packet at Williams. The training only needs to be completed once and takes about 10 minutes! The next training will be on September 4th, at 5:30 in the Media Center.

To be become a business partner…..

Go online to:

epie.manateeschools.net/business-partnership If you would like additional information on how to get a banner of your business on our fence, contact Alison Cooper at ext. 2003.

Williams loves our Volunteers and Business Partners!

PTO News

• Please join us on September 4th and October 2nd at 6 PM for our first two PTO meetings of the new school year! The winner of our “Guess the Boxtops” contest from Back to School Night will be announced on September 4th at the meeting.

• Our very first Bingo Night of the year will be on September 14th. Always a fun, family event! It's not too early to be thinking about Halloween costumes, as our Trunk or Treat will take place on October 26th this year.