Lynnwood Elementary School Newsletter
January/February 2017
http://www.guilderlandschools.org/lynnwood/index.cfm
Dear Lynnwood FamiliesI hope everyone is staying warm as the long winter
months are truly upon us. We are certainly feeling
the effects of not being able to get our student outdoors as often as we would like here at school.
This is the time of year we find ourselves spending
lots of time reminding our students about expectations for good student behavior at school.
Recently, we held our Peaceful School Bus afternoon session where bus groups worked with their
teacher leaders to create rhymes that would remind them of respectful and safe bus behavior.
We have been working at school to help students
understand the importance of being safe on the
bus so our drivers can focus on the road. It can
be challenging for elementary school students to
stay regulated on a long bus ride with only the
driver as supervision. You can help by talking with
your child about the bus and asking about how
they are safe and respectful on the bus. You may
even ask them to act out for you what it looks like
to be safe and respectful on the bus. When students hear a common message from school, home
and their drivers about good bus behavior they
understand that all the adults in their life care
enough to have the same expectations.
Each morning on the public address system, our
student announcers remind our students to “Follow
the Lynnwood Way” and “A - Act Respectfully and
Responsibly, B - Be Ready to Learn, C - Care for
yourself and others. “
At school we work to label these behaviors when
we see them so students know just what we mean.
You can look for opportunities to do that as well at
home.
“I see you are acting responsibly by putting your instrument by the door so you
don’t forget it.”
“I noticed you were acting respectfully
when you waited your turn at soccer.”
“Washing your hands is really showing
me you are caring for yourself.”
At Lynnwood we look for opportunities to point out
to our students exactly what they are doing right.
At times we also see students making poor choices. Our first response is to take a teaching approach so we can use the incident as a teachable
moment. We try to give strategies that would be
more effective next time and ask students to reflect on what went wrong. With young students we
work hard to praise positive behavior and teach
good student behaviors if a student makes a poor
choice. Sometimes we see behavior that may require a more intense intervention. At these times
we may respond by assigning a consequence that
could range from a warning to a parent meeting or
a loss of a privilege. The goal is always to understand the reason for the behavior so we can encourage positive ones and extinguish less desirable ones.
If you have any questions about expectations for
behavior the Code of Conduct is available on the
district website in the parent handbook.
Although during the winter months we cannot get
outside as often as we like, we have many other
events to look forward to including our Author’s
Day and February Share and Celebrate. We
hope to see you soon at school!
- Fondly,
Alicia Rizzo
January 2017 Events
***(NO SHARE & CELEBRATE IN JANUARY)***
January 3—Classes Resume
January 6—PTA Family Bingo Night—6:00 PM
January 11—Peaceful School Bus—1:30 PM
January 16—Martin Luther King, Jr. Day—NO SCHOOL
January 18—PTA Meeting—8:30 AM in the Faculty Room
January 19—Kindergarten Info. Night-6:30 PM in the LES
Library (Snow date for Kindergarten Info Nite—January 23rd)
January 26—5th Grade Field trip to SUNY Albany
February 2017 Events
February 1 & 2—Kindergarten 2017-18 Registration
February 3—PTA Dad’s Spaghetti Dinner—5:30 PM
February 7—Preschool Students w/special needs presentation at
FMS—6:30 PM
February 8—PTA Meeting—7 PM
February 14—Carnation Sale—During lunchtime
February 16—5th to 6th Gr. Students w/special needs
presentation at FMS—6:30 PM
February 17—Share & Celebrate—1:10 PM
February 20—24—President’s Week Recess
February 27—Winter STEM Classes begin—3:00-4:30 PM
LES 5th Grade Ski Club Dates:
January 04
January 11
January 18
January 25
February 01
February 8
(Transported after school to Maple Ski
Ridge and returned to LES at 6:15 PM)
Create healthy breakfast habits in your children.
Here are some tips for parents on incorporating breakfast into their children's before-school routines:
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Prepare for school the night before by preparing the next day's
clothes, lunch and backpack, instruments, bus notes, lunch money, etc.
Set the alarm for 15 minutes earlier to allow more time for breakfast.
Say no to TV, video games and computers in the morning.
Choose foods that require little preparation such as fresh and
canned fruits, milk, yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, hard-boiled eggs,
whole grain cereals or instant oatmeal.
If you have to eat on the run, try celery stuffed with peanut butter or
cream cheese, dried fruits, string cheese, juice boxes, milk cartons, or
breakfast bars.
For those with little hunger in the morning, offer
juice, milk or a fruit smoothie made with skim or almond milk and fruit.
For those who dislike breakfast foods, offer
something non-traditional like cold pizza or leftover
chicken.
IS IT TOO LATE TO GET A FLU SHOT?
Flu season runs from October to May. With most
cases happening from late December to early March.
Even though it's best to get vaccinated as soon as the
flu vaccine is available in early Fall, getting the vaccine during Winter can still be helpful. Even as late
as January, there are still a few months left in the flu season, so it's
still a good idea to get protected.
On Thursday, January 26, 2017 our
Physical Education
Department will be
taking the 5th
Grade class to SUNY
Albany for their annual NCAA Commitment to Education
Day.
Our 5th
graders
will get a
tour of
the athletic facilities,
have various educational sessions focusing on Physical Education, nutrition and
the meaning of a
“student athlete.”
While on this visit,
our fifth graders will
meet many athletes
from various teams.
We will then get a
chance to watch a
real Women’s College
Basketball game.
The cost for each
student is free and
permission slips will
Nursing NotesA friendly reminder—for all 3rd and
5th grade students, if the nurse hasn’t
received their most recent physical,
Nurse Laura Rutkowski will be doing
hearing, vision and scoliosis (for 5th
graders only) screening on them in the
near future.
VISITING AUTHOR FOR GRADES 3-5 JANUARY 25, 2017
Lincoln Pierce, author of the “Big Nate” books will be visiting
Lynnwood on January 25th to spend time with our 3rd, 4th and
5th graders. We have the Big Nate books for borrowing in the Library—and families can also order his books (order forms have
been sent home with 3-5 students). Thank you to Mrs. Amber
Marino for connecting us with Lincoln Peirce. We are excited to
meet and chat with him!
Page 4
Volume 1, Issue 1
Reading in a Digital World
Mrs. Ball, Intermediate Literacy Coach
Our students arrive at school having always
known a world with smartphones, iPads, computers
and the Internet. Today’s elementary school
students are often referred to as digital
natives. According to Google, a digital native is a
person born or brought up during the age of digital
technology and therefore familiar with computers
and the Internet from an early age. Many of our
students are skilled at
texting, logging onto
computers, navigating
sites to play online
games, and finding
entertaining YouTube
videos to
watch. However, as
students do more and more of their reading and
writing digitally, there are many skills they still need
to learn to fully understand what they are reading,
watching, playing or listening to.
Online or digital texts are dynamic and
unbounded information systems that change daily
in structure, form and content. (Coiro and Moore,
2012). Digital reading can be linear, like when
reading an ebook or a PDF, but digital texts are
also dynamic. Students are now encountering
nonlinear texts with hyperlinks, texts with integrated
media, and texts with response options. Because
of the dynamic nature of online reading, it would be
impossible to teach students how to read every
format and medium available. Instead we want to
teach students how to transfer skills like monitoring
comprehension, activating background knowledge,
connecting with the text, asking questions, inferring
and visualizing, determining what ideas are most
important, and summarizing and synthesizing to get
the bigger picture about a text or topic.
The goal in working with students is to not
only teach them how to navigate digital mediums,
but to continue to teach students good literacy skills
and strategies to deeply understand what they are
reading, listening to and/or viewing. We want our
students to have the ability to transfer strong
comprehension and critical thinking skills to
whatever new forms of texts are introduced,
regardless of the medium.
A few ways to support your child at home:
 Continue to support your child’s nightly
reading at home. Talk about the books
(print or digital) they are reading.
 Continue to read with your child.
 Just like when your child is reading a
book, engage your child in
conversations about his /her digital
activities. Talk about:
...the games they are playing.
Have them describe the goal
of the game. Have them
teach you how to play the
game. Talk about what
makes the game fun or
engaging.
... the videos they are watching. What do
they like about the video and why? Have
them describe the best
part. Discuss if they are
watching the video for
entertainment or to learn
something. Talk about what they
learned. Have them teach you.
...the websites they go to. Have them show
you and explain how the website is
organized and how they
navigate the site. Discuss
the purpose for visiting the
site - entertainment,
information, homework
assignment, etc. Is the
way they read the site different based on
the purpose? Talk about what they learned
or found interesting from the
website. Discuss how they avoid
distractions like advertisements or
hyperlinks that take them away from the
page they are reading.
Resources for parents about digital
citizenship and online safety:
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/
https://www.edutopia.org/digital-literacytechnology-parent-resources
Digital Literacy
in the Primary Grades
Mrs. Barker, Primary Literacy Coach
“The most technologically efficient machine that
man has ever invented is the book.”
-Northrop Frye
There are many ways you can use technology to help
support your youngest readers. Students can now
read books on kindles, iPads, and computers. There
are websites and apps that read aloud books to your
child, help your child with sight words, word study,
handwriting and much more. Sometimes adding
technology helps motivate your child, gives them
more practice or gives them some time to be
independent.
But like everything in life, it is important that we use
technology in moderation. When it comes to our
youngest readers, there is nothing that can replace a
child sitting in his parents
lap listening to a book read
aloud and the genuine
conversation that happens
after the book is
over. During this lap
reading time, children are
not only learning about books, language, and how
words work, but they are also learning that reading is
social. It is important for our students to know that
reading is thinking. When children are engaged in
conversations about books that they read with
someone else, they begin to form and shape new
ways of thinking about the book and their world.
We want to make sure that we are sending the
message to our students that reading is
thinking. When children come to
an unknown word in text, we want
them to be thinking “what would
make sense here?” Sometimes
there can be websites and apps
that focus heavily on “sounding
out words”. Phonics is a part of reading, but we read
to make meaning.
Using technology as an extra motivation for reading is
fine, but please make sure that you continue to have
your student read aloud to you the books they bring
home from school. These books have been carefully
selected by the teacher to meet your child’s specific
needs as a reader. Also, don’t forget to still read
aloud picture books to your child. Children and
parents love to snuggle and read a book together. No
child is too old to enjoy a book read aloud.
Library Corner
Mrs. Healy, Librarian
Did you know your
child can access
their library
account online?
Here’s how:
Access directly at
guilderland.follettdestiny.com
OR
Access the library catalog through our
district home page:
www.guilderlandschools.org
(click “Lynnwood” tab, then choose
“library” on the left, then “library catalog”
on the left)
THEN
Click the login button in the top right
*User name is 5-digit Student ID (most
older students know this, it is also
accessible when you login to SchoolTool)
*Password is the last two digits of the
Student ID *UNLESS YOUR CHILD
REQUESTED IT CHANGED*
See what books are out by clicking on the
“My Info” tab. Search the library catalog by
clicking “Catalog” tab.
Students in 4th & 5th grade have already
been trained on how to use their accounts!
Please contact Mrs. Healy with questions!