Reading Elementary Rockets Report: PRINCIPAL'S BLOG

Dear Reading Elementary "Rockets" Parents & Community Members,

We had a successful mini-week for our first week "Back to School!"

Big thanks to the PTO for sponsoring the "1st Day Back" Breakfast for the school community! Several parents came the night before to do prep. and came in early to get it on the table!

Vermont State Police Officer French stopped by Reading Elementary School on Friday to introduce himself. We toured the school and he had lots of great conversations with our students!

I'm enclosing an important survey in this week's e-mail to each family. Please print it out and send in with your child on Tuesday if you can. Otherwise, we will send them home in your child's family folders.

Other Items of Interest:

Pre-School - We are happy to announce that the Pre-School times have changed to better meet the needs of working parents while staying within our budget requirements. Thank you for your understanding and patience while we investigated our options!

****Starting Tues., Sept. 6, Pre-School will start at 7:45 AM, and students should be picked up between 11:30 and no later than 11:45 AM. **

Morning Meetings - We will be having our weekly "big" morning meeting THIS Wednesday at 7:45 AM and we hope you can join us for that.

2016-17 Student-Parent Handbook - This will be published on the website soon and the new website link will be sent home in this blog. In order to promote "sustainability" and save trees, we are not providing copies for each family. If you would like a hard copy of the handbook, please call and request one. Otherwise, they will be on-line as a reference as soon as possible.

Safety Drills - Practice make perfect - for safety's sake! This Wed., we will practice our first fire drill so all Pre-K students can practice. The second full Wed. we will be having a Lockdown Drill. If there is ever a serious concern, we will send you a BLACKBOARD message on your phone and your e-mail. If you arrive to the school during a drill, please allow us to complete it.

Emergency Forms - 60% of Reading families have turned their forms in already! Thank you! Please get these in as soon as possible as it is truly for safety sake!

Afterschool - We are attaching a survey to this blog. Please print, complete, and send in as we gather data to find out who needs before/after childcare and what our options are. We will keep you informed!

Lunch Program - We've had three incredible school lunches, snacks and breakfasts! We are so very blessed to have Ms. Heather Evans as our Food Service Director.

Food prices have continued to rise, but there has not been a lunch price increase in many years. This year breakfast will be $1.50; and lunch will be $2.75. We will offer a pre-paid option - if your student lunch account is pre-paid in advance by a month, then the rate will continue at $2.50 per lunch. There are 22 possible days to purchase lunch between now and the end of September, for a total of $60.50. IF you pre-pay, you will only pay $55. If your child chooses not to eat every day, then the remaining lunch balance will simply "roll-over" to the next month. The State will reimburse us at the higher rate for those students who are eligible for free and reduced meals. Therefore, we are receiving MORE from the State. This was discussed and approved at the Board meeting.

Milk will be .50 at snack time or at lunch if a student is not eating school lunch.

PLEASE fill out the free/reduced lunch applications and return them to school. It is vital that every family fill this out as we as a school can qualify for extra funding if we have enough qualified families.

School Arrival Times -

Bussers ONLY arrive at 7:15 AM and will go the Cafeteria.
Breakfast served - 7:30 - 7:45 AM
All other students should arrive at 7:45 AM, UNLESS you are purchasing breakfast.
Class Starts - 7:45 AM

PLEASE do not arrive before 7:45 AM if your child is not eating school breakfast. IF this creates a dilemma for your family because of your work hours, please contact Mrs. Knight so we can work on solving it together.

School Dismissal - Learning goes on until the last possible minute. Consistency in the classroom's end-of-day routine is very important to students and staff.

2:35 PM - Walkers/students being picked up are dismissed by teachers .
2:40 PM - Bussers dismissed.
2:45 PM - Bus departs RES

MESSAGES FROM OUR TEACHERS -

From Mrs. Faulkner - I am very pleased to be the new pre-k teacher at RES. I have over twenty years’ experience teaching young children and find them fascinating and incredibly fun to be with. I thank you very much for trusting in me to guide your child through their first school years. Please don't hesitate to contact me at kfaulkner@wcsu.net.

From Mrs. Drinker (Gr. 1/2) - The Trailblazers are off to a great start this fall. Our beginning theme is “Me in Time and Space”. We are learning about the special places we hold in our family, school, and town as well as marking important dates and times in our lives. One of the places I hope will become important to your child is their “sit spot” in the woods behind our school. At the end of this week we will have our first “Forest Friday” during which we will head out to those woods to find our own individual sit spots. Throughout the year, we will return to these special places to inspire our work in writing, drawing, and science.

“I took a walk in the woods, and I came out taller than the trees.”—Henry David Thoreau

From Mrs. Morton - ♪ Happy New Year from the Music Department ♪

How exciting it is to announce that we will be offering instrumental lessons again this year. Please stay tuned…

Thanks you,

Christine Morton

Music Teacher

From Mrs. Collins (Gr. 5/6) - As the Explorers set goals, share, play, work, and dream: possibilities unfold. We engage daily in an act of creation. As we begin our journey together the Explorers will set out to analyze the foundation of our nation, and the positive and negative effects of conflict on society. We will engineer, build, and destruct bridges; visit the Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park to investigate the Web of Life; master concepts of number theory; and memorize many pieces of poetry. Throughout it all students will reflect on how individuals have the ability to effect change. We begin our journey together one step at a time honoring the skills, knowledge and ability that each person brings to the community.

MORE FROM THE OTHER TEACHERS NEXT WEEK!

OTHER WAYS TO HELP READING SCHOOL -

PTO - AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices, and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com. The difference is that when customers shop on AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com), the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organizations selected by customers. If you'd like to help, please go to smile.amazon.com and choose "Reading Parent Teacher Organization Reading P T O" from the list of organizations. Every little bit helps our students!

SUBSTITUTES - Occasionally teachers have to be out to take care of their families or themselves, and sometimes they have to go to professional development. When this happens, we need substitutes who really love students and learning, and are willing to follow the teacher's sub plans to the letter. READING School district pays $90. per day for a 7.5 hr. day! You can sub in any school in our district at other rates, but we are looking for some local folks willing to spend time at Reading. Please go to Schoolspring.com and apply to be a substitute for our district or contact Rayna Bishop at the supervisory union to apply. THANKS!

LUNCH MENU FOR THIS WEEK: Have you pre-paid your lunch account yet? If not, please send in your check for $55. to save $5.50 on your lunch account AND help keep our food costs down.

Tues., Sept. 6 - Chicken & Broccoli, Whole Grain Rice, Pineapple

Wed., Sept. 7 - Vegetable Frittata, Whole Grain English Muffin, Melon, Carrots, Green Beans, Potato Wedges

Thurs., Sept. 8 - Turkey Reuben Melts on Whole Grain Pitas, Apples, Rainbow Pepeprs, Cherry Tomatoes, Coleslaw

Fri., Sept. 9 - Whole Grain Pasta w/Broccoli & Sausage, Stone Fruits, Cucumbers

Happening this Week: