McTeacher Night and other events in December

Come join us this Thursday, December 4th from 5-7pm at the McDonald's on Cornell Road for McTeacher Night.  It benefits Evendale Elementary plus you get to spend time with the Evendale staff outside of school!

Other events in the month of December:

Tuesday, December 9-     Home for the Holidays-Food and Clothing Drive begins

                                         Holiday Gift Shop begins

Thursday, December 18      Academic All Star Lunch

                                            Winter Parties PreK

Friday, December 19           Winter Parties- K-5

Monday, December 2- January 2    Winter Break

For my SFA class, your book project is due on Monday, December 15th.  I will be handing out brown grocery bags in the next week if you need one.  Parents, if you have any questions about the project, please contact me at 864-1216 or djoseph@princetonschools.net.  

Parents Night Out in Butler County

I receive this email from Jen Powers at Butler County Family & Children First Council.  I'm not involved with the event but I thought I would pass along the information if you're interested.  She attached a registration sheet to my email so if you'd like me to send it to you, contact me at djoseph@princetonschools.net.

Here is her contact information:

Jen Powers

Family Connections Coordinator

powersj@bcesc.org

Strong Families, Safe Communities

Butler County Family & Children First Council

400 N. Erie Blvd. Ste A, Hamilton, OH  45011

(513) 887-5506 (office), (513) 884-6474 (cell),

(513) 887-2709 (fax)

Here is information on the night out:

Help families SAVE THE DATE for October 23^rd PARENTS NIGHT OUT!

Don’t forget to refer families with children who have special needs within the ages of 5-12 for “PAUSE for parents, Play for kids” Parent’s Night Out at The Charleston Club from 5 pm-8 pm on October 23^rd!

Upcoming Events

It's officially fall! It certainly doesn't feel like it- I've worn a sweater to school this week one too many times and I regret it by 9:30!

School is busy and I'm sure you don't need to be reminded of the many things happening here (to accompany your full-to-the-brim home calendar) but I thought I'd give you an update.

On Tuesday, October 7th, the 3rd grade students will be taking the OAA.  This is an important test so please make sure your kids get a good night's rest and test worthy breakfast that morning.  This test will be paper pencil but in the spring when they take the PARCC assessment (The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers), they will be taking them on a computer.  You can visit the PARCC website for more information.  Please start now having your child work on the computer and visiting this website for PARCC games to teach your child how to manipulate the various tools available to them for the test.

Other Upcoming Events:
Conferences: October 9th from 4-8pm
The Scholastic Book Fair is in Room 204. It will be open October 6th, 8th, and 9th from 9-3:45pm.  It will also be open conference night on the 9th from 4-8pm.
PTA Meeting: Octobre 14th at 6:30pm in the Community Room
Harvest Parades and parties: Pre-K- October 30th from 10:45-11:30am, A.M. Kindergarten- October 31st from 10:45-11:30am and P.M. Kindergarten-5 from 2:30-3:30pm.

Holidays with Harry Potter

                                         

                                    

Barnes and Noble 9455 Civic Center Blvd. West Chester, OH 45069 (by RAVE movie theater) 513-755-6193

Join the Fun All Day Long: October 18th is Harry Potter Day at Barnes and Noble West Chester! Come and meet some of your favorite Harry Potter characters! There will be story times, snacks, scavenger hunts, crafts, trivia and costume contests, games, readings, and all sorts of magical fun. Come ready to dive into the world of Harry Potter! Date: October 18, 2014  Time:9am-10pm Harry Potter Events:12pm-8pm Remember to tell them you're with Evendale!

You can help by:           Buying a Book about ANY holiday and donating it to   Evendale library.                  or   Purchasing anything   at the West Chester Barnes and Noble on Oct. 18th, and telling the cashier you are supporting the Evendale Elementary School event. A percentage of each sale will go towards buying new books for our library.                                           You can           Shop online from  OCT 18-22 Using the bookfair code: 11455409.

Welcome back to the 2014-2015 School Year!

Can you believe summer is slowly coming to end, which cues up the start of school? I can't! I had a wonderful summer, traveling and relaxing. It went by a little too quickly for me!

It was wonderful to see everyone at the ice cream social on Monday. It's such a fun way to kick off the start of the school year and it's always exciting to hear about everyone's break. Curriculum night is coming up Tuesday, August 26th at 6:30 pm.  Please join the Evendale staff as we provide information about our school curriculum.  Also, we are off school Monday, September 1st for Labor Day. The first PTA meeting is on September 9th at 6:00 pm, so come and join us as we talk about what's happening for the upcoming school year!

I look forward to another amazing school year and please pass this link on to other Evendale families!

Last day of school!

It's here! The last day of school for the 2013-2014 school year has arrived. Summer is on our doorstep and I know the kiddos are excited! In my last post I linked several activities to do over the summer. I wanted to also provide you with information on various camps and workshops happening all over Cincinnati. 

Cincinnati Family Magazine's List of Camps

Cincinnati Museum Center Summer Programs

University of Cincinnati R.E.C. Summer Camp

The Cincinnati Zoo Summer Camps

These are a few that I found and I'm not being paid to endorse any of them! If you've had any experiences with any found on the list, good or bad, please feel free to share. 

I also shared in my last blog information on TenMarks, an online math program to keep your kiddos in the math mode over break.  Here is the summer access code: S14EES7907.  This information was also sent home in your child's summer work packet. 

Here are a couple tentative dates to remember for the fall. The ice cream social is scheduled for Monday, August 18th, time TBD.  Open house is scheduled for Tuesday, August 26th, time TBD. I hope to see everyone there! Enjoy the summer break!

It's that time of the year.....

It's almost the end of the 2013-2014 school year and I am not ready! While I'm not ready to let your children go for the summer, there is also too much to do before June 2nd! This school year has been filled with learning, fun, and inspiration to be the best student possible. Your children have worked hard and I wanted to give you some ideas for keeping that hard work going throughout the summer.  

1.  For math and reading practice, you are able to access Study Island to view videos and go through lessons with your child.  It should be up all summer and those rainy days or the ones where it's too hot to go outside are perfect opportunities to review last year's material.

2.  Lisa Carter, our academic coach, passed along this website to check out for math.  The website states all it takes is 3 times a week, for 20 minutes each time to strengthen your child's math skills. Check it out!

3.  Parents online magazine has a list of fun things to do outdoors with your family.  While learning from books and discussions are important, play is important as well.  Team building, children guided discovery, and physical exercise are all a part of a well rounded education. Here is another site with more summer activities for kids of all ages. Click on the link to take you to the directions for the specific activity.  Take advantage of the beautiful weather when you can!

4. Science experiments are a great way to conduct research, ask questions, make predictions and have fun at the same time! There are several sites out there to explore so you're welcome to look on your own.  Here are some great experiments I found to conduct with your child this summer:

M&M Candy experiment

Baking soda fun

overnight crystal garden

Which will freeze first?

Exploring the effects of hot and cold air

Which solids dissolve in water?

5.   I love cooking! Making things with kids can be fun and educational at the same time.  Kids use math without realizing it (it's like sneaking zucchini into their brownies!).  Ask them to double a recipe or cut it in half.  Use measuring cups and spoons and have them convert fractions when they can! 

Recipes:

smores pops

fish and sand cups

quick summer fruit salad

ice cream in a bag

watermelon rice krispies treats

brownie fruit pizza

I hope everyone has an enjoyable and restful summer! I will be checking my email over the break so email me if you have any questions!

Summarizing using a Story Map

Currently in SFA we are working on the skill of summarizing. We have moved out of clarifying (although we still do this on a daily basis) and the focus in on how to get the students to identify what is most important about what they've read. If you've ever asked your child what a movie was about, you probably get the extended version! They want to tell you every detail (because it all seems great!) but what they don't know is they're losing their audience. In SFA, we have 3 steps to summarizing. The first is to retell the important events or ideas. This includes using the main characters, the setting, story problem, important events, and the solution and ending. The second step is to leave out less-important information.  The third step is to keep it short.  I'm sending home today a couple story maps with each student in my SFA class for you to copy and use at home. If your child isn't in my class, feel free to ask his or her teacher for a story map. We all have them and teachers are happy to share! Use these story maps as your child reads a book. The events should always connect to the problem.  It's a great way to prepare to write a summary and of course, great preparation for the OAA! Here is a a couple links to similar story maps that we use in class:

Story Map

Story Map Organization  You will have to save this one to your computer before printing it

Happy Mapping!