Killingworth Elementary School

KES CORE VALUES
Killingworth Elementary
School
Dennis Reed
• Be Respectful • Be Responsible • Be Caring •
Principal
Regional School District #17 • Killingworth Elementary School • JANUARY NEWS
Important Dates
1
4
5
7
8
Happy New Year!
Welcome back!
BOE meeting
AM Band Rehearsals Begin
First Friday Family Read (K-2)
13
CAS Leadership Conference
13
14
15
18
19
19
20
22
26
29
Kindergarten Registration
Kindergarten Registration
Spirit Day—Favorite Sports Team
ML King, Jr. Day—No school
BOE meeting
Minimum day for students
Minimum day for students
Kind. Donut Day social
PTO meeting
Spirit Day—KES Wear/Red &
White Day/Blue & Gold
Safety Reminder
If KES ever needs to be evacuated
in case of an emergency, the
students will be transferred by bus to
the H-K Middle School. Their main
office phone number is
860-663-1241.
WWW.RSD17.ORG
As we anticipate a well-deserved
school vacation, I hope you are
enjoying a wonderful holiday
season and I wish you a happy
new year. I would like to
congratulate our Fourth Grade
Chorus, Beginning Band, and
Select Chorus for an outstanding
December concert. Mrs.
Rubalsky’s artful direction and
passion for music is an
inspiration to us all.
In the spirit of giving this
holiday season, we thank you for
all of your generous donations to
our very successful Holiday
Drive. In addition to our
Holiday Drive, one of our first
grade classes had the honor of
making a special presentation
during the annual HKTV
Telethon. Through the
generosity of our KES staff, we
were able to present a check for
over $200 to support the efforts
to raise money and awareness
for the Children’s Tumor
Foundation (CTF.org). These
are excellent examples of our
CORE Values in action.
January will be a busy month as
we look forward to our first PTO
meeting of the New Year on
Tuesday, January 26th at 7:00
pm. I encourage all who are
interested to attend. First Friday
Family Read will take place on
January 8th and we will have
Kindergarten Registration on
January 13th and 14th. The
registration hours are from 9 am to
7 pm on January 13th and 9 am to 3
pm on January 14th. The Martin
Luther King, Jr. holiday will be
followed by two minimum days for
students and professional
development for staff.
Our students and staff continue to
work extremely hard each and every
day. I am amazed at the growth and
the progress the students have
demonstrated as they have adjusted
to higher expectations. It is a
privilege to be a part of this
community. As a parent, you can
help your child continue to progress
by talking with them about what
they are learning. Ask open-ended
questions about what they learned
in school each day, read with them,
look through their homework, and
communicate with their teachers.
This spring our third and fourth
grade students will be participating
in the Smarter Balanced
Assessment. The Smarter Balanced
Assessment Consortium (SBAC)
has replaced the traditional
Connecticut Mastery Test. More
information on this will follow.
Have a great month.
Dennis J. Reed
Principal
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
JANUARY 2016
JANUARY 2016
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
From the Health Office
Welcome back to school after what I hope was a fun-filled holiday vacation.
Hopefully too, you all got some needed rest and are ready to head into 2016 in
good health.
We finished 2015 seeing a rise in absences due to illness. This is typical and fortunately
we have had no reports of diagnosed influenza. The timing of flu is unpredictable and varies
from season to season. Flu activity does most commonly peak between December and
February.
To protect yourself from flu, in addition to getting the flu vaccine, practicing everyday
preventative measures is necessary. These include WASHING hands often and effectively,
avoiding contact with people who are sick, getting plenty of sleep, maintaining good nutrition
and adequate hydration, being active, and spending as much time as possible outside.
If your children do become ill with flu or other ‘influenza-like’ illness, it is important
that they stay home from school. If your medical practitioner diagnoses influenza, that is
important information to share with me. I keep statistics that get shared with the Chatham
Public Health Department, so please let me know.
Have a great January, stay well and I will share more with you next month!
~ Nancy Chase, RN
We currently have 95 Stop & Shop cards
registered with KES as their
designation. Have you registered your
card? If not, please log into
www.stopandshop.com/aplus and
select Customer Registration.
Our ID number is 07499.
JANUARY 2016
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
First Grade Polar Express
Mrs. Sullivan’s Holiday Craft Activity
Mrs. Isleib’s Gingerbread House Activity
Mrs. Viens’ Gingerbread House Activity
Kindergarten PJ Day/Snowman Movie
JANUARY 2016
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Mrs. Brustman’s Senior Citizen Gathering
Second Grade Book Swap
Killingworth Elementary School
Second Grade Book Swap
First Grade Holiday Celebration
Fourth Grade Holiday Celebration
Third Grade Holiday Celebration
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
JANUARY 2016
Registration for students who will be entering kindergarten in RSD#17 schools in 2016 will
be held on Wednesday, January 13th from 9:00 am - 7:00 pm and Thursday, January 14th from
9:00 am - 3:00 pm. Children do not need to be present at the time of registration. Children
eligible to enter kindergarten in 2016 must reach their fifth birthday on or before January 1,
2017. Original birth certificates must be presented before students can start school. Proof of
residence is also required. Please bring them at the time of registration, if possible.
Acceptable forms of proof of residence include deed or current mortgage bill, homeowners
policy, rental agreement, bank statement, current paystub—we have a complete list in the
office. Parent orientation and school visitation dates will be provided at registration.
KES CARES
On Friday, December 11th, staff
and students wore their PJs to
school to support Patients at
Connecticut Children’s Medical
Center. Pictured at left is
Mrs. Ventres’ class. Bryce O’Linn
and his family organized this
fundraiser at both KES and at the
HK Middle School. Over $570
was raised at both schools.
Great job!!
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
JANUARY 2016
Happy New Year from Mrs. Kelsey! Most of the students have finished their
winter holiday projects. The new year brings excitement into the art room. We will
start concentrating mainly on projects that will be in this year’s art show, many of
which will be staying at school to be displayed in our annual art show in May. At
this time I would like to ask families to think about sending their recycling to the art room. I am
always collecting newspapers (with color inserts removed), butter, yogurt, and coffee-mate containers.
All plastic containers are also appreciated (washed out and dropped off at the main office). Towards
the end of the year I will be looking for volunteers to help out with mounting and preparing students’
work for our art show. I wish everyone a happy and healthy start to the new year.
~ Mrs. Kelsey
News from the KES Gym
Second through fourth grade will be playing noodle hockey this month. The
fourth grade students will participate in a tournament with the coveted prize
being the ceramic pink flamingo! This flamingo will be displayed in the winning fourth grade
classroom until the end of the year. Last year’s winner was Mrs. DiGregorio’s class … will they
continue their reign?????? Noodle hockey teaches dribbling, passing, scoring on goal and
defending…the best thing…they are noodles and they do not hurt if you get hit!!!!!
Kindergarten and first graders continue to work on creative thinking activities along with
teamwork and sportsmanship.
Finkelhopper has begun!!! Please remind your son/daughter that Finkelhopper is due back at school a
week from bringing him home.
On January 19th, Miss Mac will have the pleasure of having a student teacher from CCSU, also a
Killingworth native. She’ll be bringing new games and ideas to the students of KES!!!! We are
looking forward to it!
Wishing everyone a peaceful and restful Christmas holiday and break!
Happy January!!!!
~ Miss Mac & Mr. B.
Our winter concert was a huge success! All the hard work truly paid off and
all children should be very proud of themselves.
As of the first week in January, we are starting our regular band rehearsals.
Every Thursday ALL band members need to be to school by 7:55 am so we can begin band rehearsals
promptly at 8:00 am. If anyone would like to join Select Chorus, you can do so at our first rehearsal
on January 5th.
- Mrs. Rubalsky
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
JANUARY 2016
ALL students at KES have been learning how to write computer code.
That may sound crazy, but it is true! Our school participated in “Hour of
Code” this year and it was a tremendous experience. So, just what is
this? The “Hour of Code” is a nationwide initiative by CSEdWeek and
code.org to introduce computer programming to students and encourage
them to learn programming. Through “Hour of Code,” students problem solve, use
mathematical skills, and think critically as they write computer code. It has been amazing to
see the confidence our KES students have tackling challenging problems on their way to
learning about computer coding. Students can continue coding from home and they can
access their coding accounts by going to the library website (bhklibraries.weebly.com) and
going to the “Hour of Code” page. Here are some pictures of KES coding in action:
~ Mrs. Kohs and Mrs. Hosking
Happy New Year! Welcome back from what I hope was a relaxing vacation.
As we settle back in to our routines after a busy holiday season, I look
forward to seeing students in their classrooms again, at lunch bunch, and
during pull out support.
As a School Counselor, in addition to teaching developmental guidance lessons
to all students, I provide individual and small group support as needed. This
support can focus on social skills, emotional regulation, positive classroom behaviors, or anything else
which may help a student reach their potential academically and socially. Students can be referred
for counseling by both teachers and parents, so please let me know if you see something you feel I
can support your student with! As always, please visit my blog at www.elemcounseling.rsd17.org for
more information on my work in our schools!
~ Ms. Nash
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
JANUARY 2016
Kindergartners will start the new year off by learning
how to write informational texts. They will choose a
topic that interests them and write “All About Books” to
share what they already know, and any new information
they’ve acquired through “research” with others. During Reading Workshop,
kindergartners will add to their “super power” reading strategies to help
them with the work of “tackling” more challenging books. Our math work will
continue with the Unit 5 focus on counting and representing addition and
subtraction in many ways with numbers 9 and 10.
~ Mrs. Isleib, Mrs. Sullivan & Mrs. Viens
In Reader’s Workshop, we will begin our next unit which
focuses on getting to know the characters in the stories we
read. In this unit, the students will begin making inferences
and connections between characters across texts, between
characters and themselves. In Writer’s Workshop, we will start opinion writing by
writing reviews. Students will learn how to support their opinions with reasons and
details. In math, we will finish up our 2D and 3D shape unit and begin focusing on
addition and subtraction within 20. In social studies, we will learn about the important
contributions people made in our society, specifically Martin Luther King, Jr. We will
start our animal unit in science. Along with our animal unit, we will also be learning
about living and non-living things.
~ Mrs. Eames, Mrs. Lomazzo & Mrs. Roby
Second grade has been hard at work! We are finishing up our
current math unit on shapes and partitioning. In reading,
students continue to work on our Unit 3 Getting to Know
Characters. Our unit on solids and liquids is coming to an end. We will be moving on to
learning about soil. Second graders have been writing realistic fiction pieces to create
gripping stories. Students are creating stories across five pages while adding suspense, a
problem, and a solution. We are also focusing on adding more details about the setting
and character feelings into our writing.
~ Mrs. Boyce, Mrs. Esposito & Mrs. Honious
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
JANUARY 2016
Students have been busy reading biographies in small book clubs.
This is a continuation of their Informational Reading Unit, focusing
on Narrative Non-fiction. Students are reading about the lives of
many important people including famous athletes, presidents, inventors, artists and more.
They are forming ideas about the type of person they were, identifying traits and finding
evidence to support them. They are tracking the struggles these people faced and
ultimately what achievements they made and the lessons we can learn from them.
In math, we continue to work on multiplication and division concepts. We are
learning the different properties including the communicative, distributive and associative
properties. Students are solving word problems with multiple steps and with all operations.
They continue to learn strategies for fact families and are playing games to help them
become more fluent and automatic.
Mrs. Brustman’s class is participating in the Senior Pen Pal Program again this year.
They had their first meeting last week. Students are partnered with a pen pal in the
community and they exchange letters with them. They meet several times throughout the
year. The students are really enjoying this experience.
~ Mrs. Brustman, Mr. Cusson & Ms. Salzano
In January, the fourth grade students will begin their land
and erosion unit by studying the water cycle. Students will
also be participating in small groups to study additional
regions of the United States. The fourth grade is beginning their first unit on
fraction and decimal number concepts. In Reader’s Workshop, students will
continue to meet in Interpretive Book Clubs to discuss fictional texts.
Additionally, the fourth graders are extending their knowledge of fictional texts
and opinion essay structure through the creation of a literary essay.
~ Mrs. Basroon, Mrs. DiGregorio & Mrs. Ventres
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
JANUARY 2016
Fiona Judge of Mrs. Isleib’s Kindergarten class, along
with her classmates, decorated beautiful placemats for
the Clinton Ecumenical Soup Kitchen. These
placemats were used at the Soup Kitchen the day
before Thanksgiving at a meal hosted by the Jeptha
Lodge #95 Masons. Fiona and her family helped serve
the meals and would like to thank all the students and
teachers for the time and effort that went into this
project. The placemats were adored and appreciated
by all!
Pictured at right are KES student Caley
Napoletano (Mrs. Brustman’s class) and her
brother Cavin. Caley and Cavin participated
in a wrestling tournament in December.
Caley was in a five man bracket of all boys
and placed third, missing out on second
place by only two points. Great job Caley!
Killingworth, a Caring Community
A very heartfelt thank you to the PTO, KES staff & students, the
Killingworth community, Youth & Family Services, as well as many other
individuals/organizations for your extreme generosity during the
Holiday Drive. Over $4,600 in cash, checks and gift cards have been
collected so far.
JANUARY 2016
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
NEWS
We would like to thank Mrs. Bessoni for all her hard work and effort
in running the Square One Art fundraiser this year,
and to all of you for participating! KES had 50%
participation and earned the school $1,700! We hope that your
children's art puts a smile on someone's face this holiday season.
YOUR DOLLARS AT WORK
The children enjoyed a Cultural Arts assembly on December 3rd!
The Community Music School from Centerbrook, CT,
sent Nat Pawalek to perform “Oh, to Repire,” an offering
by the French horn teacher on the challenges of playing a wind
instrument that combines physical education with music making.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The PTO will be holding a “Smencil” sale in January,
date TBD. Smencils are scented pencils that are made
from 100% recycled newspapers. There are ten different
scents to choose from!
PTO MEETING
We encourage you to get involved with the PTO!
Please join us at our next meeting on Tuesday,
January 27th, at 7:00 p.m. in the library.
New faces, questions, suggestions and "volunteer hands"
are always welcomed!
Visit the PTO website at http://www.rsd17.org/kes/index.shtml
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
JANUARY 2016
SNOW CANCELLATION PROCEDURES
The decision to cancel/delay school is made
between 5-5:30 a.m.
1. Transportation gets the report from the State
Police and Public Works.
2. RSD #17 Superintendent consults with
Transportation, Director of Fiscal Operations, area town superintendents and
Director of Facilities.
3. Weather conditions are reviewed using local
and area media services.
4. A decision is made by the Superintendent
using all available information.
5. School Messenger alert system is initiated.
If school is delayed, the start time will be at
10:40.
If school is dismissed early, the dismissal time
will be at 1:05.
A decision to dismiss early will only be used
when the threat of weather is predictable and
probable. The logic here is as follows:
In some cases, we would be dismissing students
during the height of road crews completing the
treatment of the roads. It is always best to wait
until treatments are completed to a certain level.
In some cases, we would be sending students
home without anyone home and without
advance notice. We respect the fact that many
people work away from their homes.
Regional School District 17 is
seeking qualified individuals to
work as substitute teachers. We
offer regionally competitive pay for
substitutes. Qualifications for
substitute teachers include a
Bachelor’s Degree (required) and
experience working with children.
A teaching certificate is not
required, but definitely a plus.
Substitute teaching is a great way
to contribute to our schools for
those who enjoy working with kids.
Please visit the “Employment
Opportunities” page of our district
website (www.rsd17.org) for more
information and to initiate an
application. If you have any
questions, please contact
Larissa Johnson,
Administrative Assistant
to the Assistant Superintendent,
860-435-4534 x1110.
KILLINGWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Our Student Taste Ambassadors
tested turkey cheesesteak, spaghetti
squash pasta (with a side of sauce), a
berry tart and a purple daze smoothie.
Their favorites were the smoothie and
berry tart! Look for some of these items
on the school menu soon!
JANUARY 2016