1324 Walnut St 419-436-4145 Fax 419-436-4158

Riley Elementary School

From the Desk of Mrs. Bernal, Principal

Dear Families, I want to take this time to wish all of you a wonderful and safe holiday in the upcoming weeks. Remember to take the time to just sit back, relax and enjoy the time spent with your families. Life has become so busy, it is easy to lose sight of what is important.

Fostoria City Schools

Volume 1 Issue 4 December, 2013

Community Thanksgiving Dinner We had a wonderful turnout for the Community Thanksgiving Dinner on Wednesday, November 27th serving over 500 people! I hope everyone had a great time and left with a full tummy.

I would like to congratulate Megan Braden from Mrs. Davolis class for being our top seller for the PTO candle sale. She sold 68 candles! Great job, Megan!

Important Dates:
December 19th-Theme Day -December 19th-Riley Caf December19th-Sing-along. December 19th-Cookies with Santa December 20-January 6th. Winter Break

Inside this issue:

School Information 2 2 3 3 4

School Information
Box tops for Education
Keep sending in your box tops and labels. The class with the most box tops and labels will earn an ice cream party! We will collect until 12/13.
Dressing for the Weather Now that it is starting to get colder out, please remember to send your child to school with a coat, gloves, a hat and socks on their feet!

Title I Information Title I Information

Book-It
Does your child want to earn a free personal pan pizza? All they must do is read! Please check with your teacher to see the number of books your child must read to earn the Book-It coupon.
Music/Phys-ed/Art School Guidance Information

More School Information

PLEASE REMEMBER TO READ AND SIGN YOUR CHILDS PLANNER EVERYDAY.

Please remember to call the school before 2:30 if there are any changes in transportation home. 419-436-4145

Thanks to everyone who brought in canned goods for the High Street Methodist Church.

Updating Contact Information Please remember if you moved or your phone number has changed to come to the office to complete the appropriate paper work. We want to make sure to have all the correct information on file incase we need to get in touch

December Activities Winter Theme Day for students will be December 19th. A note will be coming home asking for donations for milk and cookies. Riley Caf will be December 19th Winter Break begins Friday, December 20th and school will resume Monday, January 6 th
Mrs. Mummert and all the 2nd grade classes worked really hard preparing for the holiday program! Below are some pictures of them practicing for all of the staff and students at Riley. They did such a great job!

Title I Information
Oral Reading Can Be Fun!
Oral reading can be an enjoyable experience. I often ask students to describe their most memorable moments in learning to read. They often state they loved when they were read to by a parent, grandparent, teacher or other adult. Timothy V. Rasinski, a professor of literacy education at Kent State University stated, That some have fond memories of being read to, not only in elementary school but also in middle schools and high schools. The benefits of reading aloud to a child include: *Reading is emotionally powerful. By reading aloud parents can model their own delight in books. *Students are motivated to read more. A parent reading to his child can instill in children a love of reading. *By reading aloud with expression parents model for their children meaningful, fluent reading.
Reading to your child is a powerful thing! Continue this wonderful time together into the future even into 5 th and 6th grade; or as long as your child wants you to do it.

Page 2

Riley Elementary School

Title I Information Continued

Right to Know
1. Whether the teacher has met the Ohio 4. Whether your child is provided serteacher licensing criteria for the grade level vices by instructional paraprofessionals Notice of Right to Know Teacher Qualifica- and subject areas in which the teacher and, if so, their qualifications. provides your child instruction. tions Parents should contact the school offices for this information. Parents/Guardians have the right to know 2. Whether the teacher is teaching under emergency or temporary status that waives about the teaching qualifications of their childs classroom teacher in a school receiv- state licensing requirements. ing Title I funds. Longfellow Elementary, Riley Elementary, and Fostoria Intermediate Ele- 3. The undergraduate degree major of the mentary receive Title I funds. The federal No teacher and any other graduate degree or Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires that certification (such as National Board Certifiany local school district receiving Title I funds cation) held by the teacher and the field of must notify parents that they may ask about discipline of certification or degree the professional qualifications of their childs classroom teacher. These qualifications include:

Artists Corner
If you missed our sale of tiles with your child's artwork on it, you're not too late! We will re-run tile sales in February. Your child can leave their artwork and legacy at Riley forever. Tiles are $12 and will be permanently affixed to the wall in the building. Please look for information coming home early February for this sale. Please note we will not be selling keepsake items in this sale, only tiles. selling keepsake items in this sale, only tiles. I would also like to thank everyone who participated in the sale by purchasing artwork keepsake items. The profits from these sales with help to purchase supplies for our tile wall. Riley staff and students appreciate your support! Creatively Yours, Mrs. Bauman

Getting Fit with Mr. Haupert

A Note from Mrs. Mummert

At the end of December we are having a Winter Theme Day titled "Christmas Around The World". To end our study of the different cultures, we will have a Holiday Sing-along and all the students will gather in the gym to sing Holiday songs and Christmas carols together.

This year in Physical Education weve been working on; loco-motor movements, throwing and catching, eye-hand coordination, as well as spatial awareness. Moving forward into the second half of the year our students will continue to build their skills in those areas. But, will start to build their skill and knowledge in; eye-foot coordination, body awareness, as well as their overall fitness levels.

Volume 1 Issue 4

Page 3

Kory Shaver, Makenna Clouse, Xander Cessna, Vanessa Holguin, Kirk Jordan, Lily Aufdencamp, Jordyn Wedge, Darius Edwards, Imaneleza Navarro, Seth Tatum, Aaron Miller, Abigail Niemi Not Pictured: DrewAnn Miller and Kyleigh Maynard

For the month of November, we learned about the Character word CITIZENSHIP and what it means to be a good citizen. We learned how to be a GOOD CITIZEN by * Doing your share to make your school, your community, and the world a better place * Taking responsibility for what goes on around you * Participating in community service by volunteering * Helping take care of the environment * Being a good neighbor * Treating other people with respect and dignity * Following the rules of your family, your school, and your society

We primarily focused on how we can be helpful and do our share to make our school, community, and world a better place. We viewed a short episode of Franklin Helps Out to give us ideas of how we can be helpful in our community. Franklin and his friends illustrate to us how important it is to be helpful to others and how good it makes everyone feel all around. To reinforce the lesson, each student was given a cut out hand and asked to think of ways to be helpful by writing or drawing his/her ideas. We then combined all the first grade students hands and created a beautiful fall tree to remind us to continue being a good citizen and helping others out.

In the second grade classrooms, we discussed traits that make a good citizen and traits that are not a good citizen. We also discussed the relation between being a PAX leader and being a good citizen. Students were given an activity to cut and sort various character traits, some were good citizen traits and other were not good citizen traits. They were then challenged to sort them into the correct column to make up the best citizen possible. All of them did a really good job reading the words and sorting them. For December, the character word we will be working on is COOPERATION. You can help by beginning to talk to your child about ways to get along with others and strategies to solve problems when he/she does have a conflict with someone.

Hope everyone enjoyed some nice family time over Thanksgiving!