T HERESA O’B RIEN , P RINCIPAL
D AVE W AREING A SSISTANT P RINCIPAL
N EWSLETTER D ATE : D ECEMBER 2014
S CHOOL
WEBSITE : WWW . WATERVLIETCITYSCHOOLS . ORG
D ECEMBER D ATES
Sunday
TO REMEMBER :
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
5
Saturday
1
2
3
4
6 Breakfast
with Santa
7
8
9 PTA Meeting
6:30pm
10
11 Winter Con- 12
cert at WHS 7pm
14
15
16
17
18
19 School Concert
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
13
NO SCHOOL FOR HOLIDAY RECESS!!!!!!!!
28
29
30
31
NO SCHOOL FOR HOLIDAY RECESS!!!!!!!!
I MPORTANT I NFORMATION

DRESS WARM!: As the cold weather sets in, please be
sure to dress your children in warm coats with hats & mittens. WES students go outside everyday
and we want to ensure that each student keeps warm. Be sure to label the inside of your student’s
belongings in the event that something goes missing. If you are in need of these items, please see
Mrs. Vogel in the health office.

The Giving Tree: Each year, we run a giving tree to help support families in need at the holiday
time. Gift tags are hung on the tree with items that can be purchased and sent back to school
wrapped for delivery! If you would like to take a few tags and purchase the gifts, call us
at 629-3402.
Lunch Menu December 2014
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1 Cheeseburger with corn,
french fries,
and peaches
2 Sloppy Joe
with cooked
carrots, hash
brown and
fruit
3 French toast
sticks with
turkey sausage, green
beans and
apple sauce
4 Loaded nachos with
black bean
salsa and
pears
5 Cheese piz- 6
za, caesar salad and orange
wedges
7
8 Chicken patty with broccoli and cheese,
apple sauce
and potato
pancakes
9 Steak umm
with baked
beans and
peaches
10 Chicken
quesadilla,
celery sticks
with dip, hash
brown and
pears
11 Loaded
nachos, tomato salsa and
apple sauce
12 Mozzarella 13
cheese sticks
with sauce,
caesar salad
and honeydew
melon
14
15 Turkey hot
dog, vegetarian beans,
french fries
and peaches
16 Tacos with 17 Spaghetti
corn and
with meat
mixed fruit
sauce, toss
salad and apple sauce
18 Turkey club
wrap with
steamed broccoli, hash
brown and
pears
19 Mac &
Cheese,
cooked carrots and
peaches
20
21
22 Chicken
nuggets with
spanish rice,
green beans
and apple
sauce
23 Toasted
24 NO
cheese with
SCHOOL
tomato soup,
carrot sticks,
potato rounds
and pears
25 NO
SCHOOL
26 NO
SCHOOL
27 NO
SCHOOL
28
29 NO
SCHOOL
30 NO
SCHOOL
31 NO
SCHOOL
C AFERTERIA M ANAGER:
M R. D ARRYL W HITED
629-3261
B REAKFAST C OST: $ 1 . 5 0
L UNCH COST: $ 2 .25
P AGE 3
Visit our website: www.watervlietcityschools.or
A Message from the Music Room!
Music class has been very exciting for our third grade students. We have been looking into the Iroquois
traditions of storytelling and song and dance. Children listened to performances and stories from Joseph Bruchac. He is an Abenaki Native American who is well known in the Adirondacks and NYS . We
have accessed his stories and songs through videos on the computer. Students have learned an Iroquois
Lullaby and will be playing our buffalo drums to accompany the song. We will also create a dance together to express the beat and movement of the lullaby.
Concert news : December 11 th , 7:00 at the WJSHS auditorium. Fifth grade students have been hard
at work rehearsing for the evening performance. Please have your 5 th grade child at the high school
cafeteria by 6:45 on that evening. Students should wear appropriate concert attire. Please call the
school if there are any questions.
A Message from the PTA
*The PTA would like to wish everyone, Happy Holidays.
*Book For Bingo: Thank you to all the families and Watervliet staff who came out on November 14th
to support the PTA. It was a great time with lots of prizes. We would like to send a special thank you
to all the local businesses who donated the raffled prizes that were given out throughout the night and
our guest callers who kept everyone engaged and having fun.
*Breakfast with Santa: Is scheduled for December 6th. Volunteers are still needed to setup the night
before, cook in the kitchen that morning, and assist on the floor that day. Volunteers are essential to
the success of the event. Please email the PTA at [email protected] if you are interested in helping.
*PTA Meeting: December 9th at 6:30 in the cafeteria
*Please continue to check the PTA website for updated information! Our email address is:
[email protected]
2014 WES Food Drive!
THANK YOU! We would like
to say thank you to all who
participated in donating to
the local food drive at WES.
We exceeded our goal of
1,000 items to give to our
local food pantry. Thank you
for your support!
T HERESA O’B RIEN , P RINCIPAL
A Message from the Nurse
All students in grades K, 2, 4 as well as new entrants must have a physical done.
If you have any questions, please contact the school nurse at 629-3402. If your
child requires medication during the school day please note the following regulations put in place by NYS:
1.
No medication can be given in school without a MD order
That order can be faxed to the school at 629-3250 attention Mrs. Vogel
RN
2.
An adult must bring in the medication in a pharmacy labelled container. That includes any inhalers and boxes for nebulizer treatments. Children are not allowed to carry their own medication to school.
3.
A signed note from the parent to allow the school to administer the
medication.
4.
No medication will be kept over the summer. Any medication not
picked up at the end of the year will be discarded.
F ROM THE ART ROOM
The art room is in full production! The hallways and art website are filling
up with artwork. Please check out mrsprestonk6.weebly.org for a sampling of the work!
Student’s Who Miss The Bus
Every so often, we have students that miss their afternoon bus home. When
a student misses a bus, we will follow a couple simple guidelines to assist the
student and the family to the best of our ability. First, the student will return
to the main office and indicate to Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Gleason that they
missed their bus. Someone from the main office will place a call home and
issue a pass to the child to ride Bus 1, 2 , or 3 (School owned/operated),
which leave 10 minutes later than the other buses. The parent and the school
representative that calls home will agree on the safest location for the student
to be dropped off. The choice will be between being dropped off at the student's regular bus stop or at the student's home address. If the school fails to
reach a parent/guardian or emergency contact person, the student will be
held after school in the main office until someone is available to pick the
child up and take them home safely. Our goal is to always offer your child
the safest option available while assisting the families to the best of our ability.
P AGE 4
From Attendance
If your child is
absent from school
please be sure to
send a note. If your
child attends an appointment, please
get a note from the
doctor or dentist
office.
Thank you!
NO SCHOOL
DECEMBER 24TH
through
JANUARY 2ND
_____________
SCHOOL WILL
RE-OPEN ON
MONDAY
JANUARY 5TH
Holiday Giving
Tree
Contact Mrs. Vogel,
the school nurse if
your
family would like to
take gift tags from our
Holiday Giving Tree.
Call her @ 629-3402.
Physical Education
The following students achieved top scores in the Shuttle Run in Physical Education Class in grades 3 –
6th. Congratulations to all students, everyone gave a great effort!
3Rd Grade
Dominick Walker
Adrianna Rojas
Matthew Wistuk
Averill Porter
Kevin Brammer
Thomas Salvo
Nino Kilpatrick
Ayden Vaughn
Jaeden Wellman
4th Grade
Emma Grimmick
Donovan Walker
Jonnie Jones
Malik Simms
Sierra Plunkett
Jordan Harvey
Xavier Lewis
Jason Chaplin
Peyton Peterson
5th Grade
Bella Stanley
Marquis Hamby
Alexis Kelley
Anthony Pompey
Lilli DelSignore
Adonis Cyrus
India Singh
Mike Moore
Elexis Strack
Elijah Mallory
6th Grade
Anisa Parsons
Leemya Garcia
Dan Reedy
Ke’Shawn Ward
Sophia Shark
Jeffrey Deralus
Damya Walker
Felix Lind
Isaiah Smith
Challenge Test
for December
will be The
Standing Long
Jump!!
Sounds in Motion in UPK, Kindergarten and Grade 1!
Sounds In Motion is a program that teaches the development of phonemic (sound) awareness, early literacy, listening, and articulation skills. At WES, the speech-language pathologists are using this program in the 1st grade classrooms
and working with the teachers to help develop early reading and writing skills. This program pairs hand and body motions with sounds. It also addresses improvement of speech and language skills and helps children develop the ability to
become actively involved in the task of listening. Currently, our 1st graders know 12-16 hand and body movements
that go along with the sounds. Each week, students will learn more hand motions for the different sounds. The students have been practicing blending the sounds together to make words and listening for beginning, middle, and end
sounds. Here is a list of activities that can be done at home:








Help your child think of words that begin or end with the 12-16 sounds (p, b, k, g, w, m, t, d, v, n, l, r, and short
vowels a, i, o, u)
Ask your child to show you the motion for each sound while he/she says the sound
Have your child listen and make the motion as you say each sound
Practice making words (real/nonsense) with the sounds that your child has learned so far
Make flashcards with practice words and have your child do the motions as he/she sounds out the word
Have your child practice writing words as you say them
Write down a word and ask your child to change one sound in the word to create a new word. Once they create a
new word, ask if they can change another sound to make a new word. See how many words they can come up
with
Here is a list of practice words: tab, fab, if, nick, fog, fab, if, ov, ik, pom, dom, tag, bag, dig, hand, kim, vap,
kick, gig, gag, cap, big, wick, hack, gop, back, pack, map, cab, rat, lick, lock, lip, lap, rock, rip, run
UPK
The UPK students learn a new letter each week and incorporate the sound and movement. Students practice making
the sounds when identifying the letter to help strengthen their letter/sound connections. We also practice the listening activities to help us with following 1 and 2 step directions!
KINDERGARTEN
The program has 15 weekly sessions. Every session will include: a review of body movement for 2 phonemes and
practice combining these sounds and movements with those previously learned to create syllables and words; a specific listening activity; and a language activity in the form of a rebus story or rhyme.
Sounds In Motion is a supplemental program designed to pair kinesthetic gross motor movements with phonemes and
helps children develop the ability to become actively involved in the task of listening. Sounds in Motion teaches development of phonetic awareness, early literacy, audition and articulation skills. Brain body listening, is a key component, which focuses on how we listen and becoming a better listener.