Sep 1, 2017 - âYou're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain .... should read are Harry Potter, Dr. Seu
September
2017
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Harding Grade School Parent Newsletter “You're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So... get on your way!” - Dr. Seuss
Welcome Back!
September Events
A Message From Mr. Landers...
We have had a FANTASTIC kick off to the school year! I would like to thank all of our students, parents, and staff members for making the start of this school year a huge success! It is great to see how many happy and energetic students we have here at HGS each day!
As your child may have shared with you, this year we are incorporating a new student reward program! Students can earn “Eagle Bucks” throughout the school day for showing respectful behavior and following their school-wide expectations. At the end of each week, the students can use their “Eagle Bucks” to purchase items in the “Eagle Bucks Store”. So far, we have had a fantastic response from our students with this new program! If you get a chance, you should ask your child how many “Eagle Bucks” they have earned! Also, I encourage everyone to sign up for the school-wide and class text messaging groups. Attached at the end of the newsletter, you will find information for signing up for the specific text messaging groups. This is a very quick and easy way for the school office and the teachers to communicate with parents! Our goal is to make communicating easier and more efficient for parents. In addition, you will notice that the school office is now texting parents directly and parents can text us back! As the school year continues, I encourage you to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns! I am always ready and willing to work together to help support our wonderful students!
4th – No School - Labor Day 6th – Early Dismissal – 2:05 pm – Staff Development 7th – PTO Meeting @ 7:00 pm – HGS Library 17th – HGS PTO Car Cruise @ 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm 18th – 22nd – SHS Homecoming Spirit Week 20th – Kindergarten Jonomac Apple Orchard Field Trip 28th – First Grade Honey Hill Apple Orchard Field Trip * Schedule Subject to Change
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- Mr. Landers
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” - Dr. Seuss
Why It’s Important to Read to Your Kids! One of the most important things parents can do, beyond keeping kids healthy and safe, is to read with them. That means starting when they are newborns and not even able to talk, and continuing well beyond the years that they can read by themselves. Study after study shows that early reading with children helps them learn to speak, interact, bond with parents and read early themselves, and reading with kids who already know how to read helps them feel close to caretakers, understand the world around them and be empathetic citizens of the world.
“The more you read the more places you will go, the more places you go, the more things you will learn.” - Dr. Seuss characters. When looking for children’s books to read for fun, both kids (37 percent) and parents (42 percent) mostly agree they “just want a good story” and a similar percentage want books that make kids laugh. One in 10 kids ages 12 to 17 say they specifically look for books that have “culturally or ethnically diverse story lines, settings or characters.”
Read aloud early — and keep it going! The good news, according to the new Kids & Family Reading Report by Scholastic, is that more than three out of four parents who have children ages 5 and younger start reading aloud before their child reaches his first birthday. This practice increased to 40 percent in 2016 from 30 percent in 2014 among parents who read aloud before their baby is 3 months old. The research also showed that more parents of 3 to 5-year-olds are reading aloud frequently, with 62 percent of these parents reading aloud five to seven days a week, compared with 55 percent in 2014.
If you are stumped for great books for kids to choose, the top books that parents reported reading aloud over and over again for little ones include Dr. Seuss books such as The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. For all kids, parents with children up to age 17 recommend that the books that every child should read are Harry Potter, Dr. Seuss, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Magic Tree House and The Chronicles of Narnia. Book series are a great way to get kids hooked on story lines and characters.
Be a resource to your kids for book ideas — even if they don’t ask — especially for infrequent readers. Scholastic’s research shows that parents underestimate that kids need help finding books. Only 29 percent of parents agree, “my child has trouble finding books he/she likes,” whereas 41 percent of kids say finding books they like is a challenge. This number increases to 57 percent among infrequent readers.
Reference: Why it’s important to read aloud with your kids, and how to make it count. (2017). Washington Post.
Don’t forget adding books in your home library that showcase diverse story lines and 2
HGS & SHS Team Up for Spirit Week! The week of September 18th, Serena High School will be celebrating Homecoming! To help support the Huskers, Harding Grade School will be having themed days throughout the week to show our school spirit! We encourage all of our students to join in the fun throughout the week! In addition, Serena High School will be holding their annual Homecoming soccer game at 12: 30 pm on Saturday, September 23rd! We hope to see you there to show your school spirit! MONDAY: Pajama Day, TUESDAY: Blue & Gold Day - Let’s Go Eagles!, WEDNESDAY: Western Day, THURSDAY: Crazy Day, FRIDAY: Purple & Gold Day – Let’s Go Huskers!
2017 HGS PTO Car Cruise Sunday, September 17th The Annual HGS PTO Car Cruise will be held on Sunday, September 17th from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm at Harding Grade School! We hope to see everyone come out to support this awesome event! There will be tons of great cars to check out, a live DJ, food, and great raffle giveaways! The PTO will also have 50/50 raffle tickets for sale! Also, a HUGE thanks to all of the local businesses that donated items for the raffle and t-shirts!
Harding Grade School Parent-Teacher Organization A great way for parents to stay involved with the school is through the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)! This group helps the students of Harding Grade School in a vast variety of ways from helping provide academic programs to hosting community events. This organization is truly one of the greatest assets to our school. Please feel free to take the opportunity to join the group and help make Harding Grade School a better place for each and every student! Meetings will be held on the following dates this school year: September 11th, October 2nd, November 6th, December 4th, February 5th, March 5th, April 9th, and May 7th. Please feel free to contact any of the PTO officers with questions! (President – Pam Twait, Vice-President – Carrie Niles, Secretary – Jeni Sterchi, and Treasurer – Carly Cantlin )
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Here are some great ways to stay connected with Harding Grade School! You can sign up for text message updates for the entire school and individual grade levels! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the school office at (815) 792-8216!
Text Message Group Text the message below to the number 81010 HGS School Wide @hardinggs Kindergarten @kinderhgs 1st Grade @firsthgs 2nd Grade @secondhgs 3rd Grade @thirdhgs 4th Grade @fourthhgs
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