Park Community Charter School News: October 2017

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

November 2017

Thankful in November!

Recently the State of Wisconsin released the results of last year's Forward Exam to the public. This was a moment that the teachers and I have been waiting for since the last student hit the submit button on their exams last spring. We have been working so hard over the past few years to improve our core instruction in reading and math and we were confident that our score would improve. In addition Park Community staff have stepped up to the challenge of creating integrated units of study that teach state learning targets across all subject areas utilizing the unique resources of our community partners Kaukauna Utilities, 1000 Islands Environmental Center and the Historic Grignon Mansion.

Well the results are in and I am happy to say that our students performed well above the state average in both reading and math. In several areas we were also the highest performing school in the Kaukauna Area School District!

Wisconsin Forward Exam 16-17

Grade Level Test	Park Community	State Average
3- ELA (Reading)	67.4	43
3- Math	69.8	49.7
4- ELA (Reading)	56.5	47.8
4- Math	69.6	45.2
4- Social Studies	63.1	53
4- Science	58.7	52

Teaching definitely takes a team to help all students reach their potential. In addition to your child's homeroom teacher we have exceptional staff in Special Education, Music, Physical Education, Art and Library who weave literacy and mathematical skills into their work each day. Our educational assistants also play a key role in keeping our students composed and safe so that they are ready to learn.

Parents also play a significant role in our success as a school. Your efforts to support your child with homework are important. Your communication with staff about how their night went or what may be bothering them that morning is very helpful and appreciated. Children notice when parents are present at school events and your presence shows that you care about their growth. We look forward to seeing you at Fall Conferences November 14th or 16th (4:00-7:30) and November 17th (12:30-8:00).

Check Out this Field Study to Kaukauna Utilities

Are you a Twitter Person?

Follow our school on Twitter @ParkSchoolFam

Lambeau Update

Our Lambeau booth continues to be a great fundraiser! We are well on our way to our goal of $10,000.00 for the year from this new opportunity. The hope is that with Lambeau, our golf outing and the Kaukauna Strong Challenge running well we will not need to do the multitude of smaller fundraisers we have done in past years.

By working one shift at Lambeau our school receives on average $130.00 for your time. We are not asking you to buy anything, we just need your time to be successful. In December our school will be welcoming an instructor from Conscious Discipline to our school for two days of training with staff. She will be demonstrating the latest techniques with students on the first day and will spend the second day working directly with staff. This training costs our charter over $7,000.00 and is not supported with district funds.

Here are the remaining games on the Packer schedule for this year. We need at least 12 people for our booth to run smoothly which is a much more enjoyable experience for all workers. You do not have to be connected to our school in any way to help out. You just need to be 18 or over.

Monday November 6th 7:30 pm Kickoff

Sunday November 19th Noon Kickoff

Sunday December 3rd Noon Kickoff

Saturday December 23rd 7:30 pm Kickoff

Click Here to sign up to help our school.

If you have any questions you can contact Vicki Kerry at kerryv@kaukaunasd.org. She is our booth coordinator and has been at every event this season. If you have a question Vicki has the answer.

News from the We Care Center
and Mrs. Sundelius

A child needs many tools to succeed in school. Good vision is one of these important tools. Some tasks at school that require good vision include; reading, writing, chalkboard work, and using computers. A child's eyes are constantly in use in the classroom and at play. When his or her vision is not functioning properly, education can suffer.

According to Prevent Blindness Wisconsin vision problems affect one in 20 preschoolers and one in four school age children. Without early detection and treatment, vision problems can lead to:

permanent vision loss

learning difficulties

Only an eye doctor can diagnose and treat a vision problem, but screenings help find children who need a full eye exam.

In the month of October the Kaukauna Lioness Club has been in the Kaukauna schools doing vision screening for preschool, kindergarten, grade 2 and grade 4 students. The Lioness ladies use the Spot Vision Screener. This is a handheld, portable device designed to help users quickly and easily detect vision issues on children. Spot screens both eyes at once from a nonthreatening 3-foot distance.

Parent contact will be made for any of the children in these grades who did not pass this screening. If you do not received a letter regarding a vision concern, please be assured that your child did pass this screening. As always if you have any questions please contact the nurse at your child’s school.

School Counseling News with Mr. Zamost

November Classroom Lesson

During the month of November, I will be visiting all of the K-4th grade classrooms and talking with students about Conflict Resolution and how to responsibly solve conflicts with each other! In each grade level we will discuss a problem solving model that uses 9 common ways to solve everyday problems (see below). As another conflict solving tool, we utilize our 4th graders who are trained in peer mediation. All classes will be developing their interpersonal skills to show good character! As always, feel free to call me at 766-6134 Ext. 3164 with any questions or concerns.

9 Strategies

Go to another game
Talk it out
Share and take turns
Ignore it
Walk away
Tell them to stop
Apologize
Make a deal
Wait and cool off

Always get help for a BIG PROBLEM!

K-Kids Update!

On Thursday, November 9th we will be having our first K-Kids meeting of the year! A change this year for K-Kids is that this is for 3rd and 4th grade students here at Park Community Charter School. During this first meeting we will be going over what K-Kids is all about and set up what service projects we want to accomplish this year.

Artistic News from Mr. Theder

Kindergarten Artists worked on their fall hand tree. They got to learn about coloring in between lines and adding details. Kindergarten also got to make their own monster after reading “Where the Wild Things Are.”

Reagan Baughman - K - Roehrig

First Grade Artists worked on their fall landscape. They got to look and talk about landscapes, background, middleground, and foreground. First grade also got a chance to look at and talk about the landscape art made by Gustav Klimt.

Claire Diedrick 1 - Cunniff

Second Grade Artists got to draw and color in their pumpkin. They learned how to blend and overlap colors to establish shading in their art.

Ava Stoffel 2 - Gardner

Third Grade Artists worked on their value Ice Cream. They got to look and talk about tints, shades, and hues. They painted the background using patterns and complimentary colors Third grade also got a chance to look at and talk about the landscape art made by Gustav Klimt. They are currently working on their own landscape using background, middleground, and foreground.

Blake VandeLoo 3-Nicholson

Fourth Grade artists also got a chance to look at and talk about the landscape art made by Gustav Klimt. They are currently working on their own landscape using tape for their trees background, middleground, and foreground. We talked about the horizon line, and adding dark and light colors to push and pull areas of a painting closer or away from the viewer

News From the Library with Mrs. Lemke

Happy Thanksgiving,

This month the classes are learning how the Nonfiction section in the library is organized by numbers. This was created by Melville Dewey. It’s called the Dewey Decimal System.

Kindergarten will learn about Dewey himself, the number system used, and how the library is organized.

1st Grade will discover about Melville Dewey, how Nonfiction is organized, and how bookshelves are organized.

2nd Grade will explore Dewey by playing a candy corn game to learn how to find a book in the nonfiction section. Then, they will continue by doing an interactive activity and organize books by call numbers

3rd Grade will review the dewey decimal system and used some Halloween call numbers to see what the subject area. Following that, they will play a gain using call numbers and begin organizing books in call number order to the decimal point.

4th Grade will review the Dewey decimal system with a Halloween subject area call number activity. After that, they will start organizing book by call number, and begin placing book in call number order past the decimal point. This will prepare them for 5th grade by creating independent book searches by call numbers.

Music Notes with Mrs. Nimmer

Each month, we celebrate the birthday of a famous composer. We learn facts about the composer's life, and we listen to music written by that composer. For the month of October, our birthday composer was Charles Ives. We learned about his life and music. Did you know that he owned his own insurance company, and just did composing on the side? We listened to one of his most famous pieces, called "Variations on America." It was based on the tune "America" (My Country 'tis of Thee). We learned how to sing the song, and then listened to the many ways that Ives changed the song in his variations. We learned about a pipe organ, which Ives wrote the piece to be performed on. We even got to see a clip of a person playing the piece on the pipe organ. Did you know people play a keyboard (pedals) with their feet when they play the organ?

In kindergarten we played several autumn singing games to focus on steady beat and pitch-matching. We played the “Apple Tree” game as well as the “Trick-or-Treat” game to work on these skills. We practiced the difference between our speaking and singing voices with 2 rhythmical speech pieces this month: “Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Round and Fat” and “Five Little Pumpkins.” We read a book called The Night Before Halloween (we heard lots of rhyming words!) and connected this to a new song called “What Will You Be On Halloween?”

We had fun using gross motor movements as we moved around the room to the song “We Are Scary Skeletons.”

In 1st grade we practiced piano and forte with the song “Skin and Bones.” We centered many of our activities around the theme of “soup” this month: The Alphabet Soup singing game (working on individual pitch-matching skills), Pumpkin Stew (working on reading music notes in our music books), and Stone Soup (hearing a musical book and story). We had fun learning an old folk song called “I Bought Me a Cat,” which is an example of an add-on song. We read the book called Night Song, and learned how bats “sing” to “see” in the night. We connected this to our song “Bat Dance.” We also listened to a piece of music called “The Funeral March of the Marionette” by Gounod (commonly recognized as the theme to the Alfred Hitchcock show). We followed a Halloween listening map to hear the different sections of the music.

In 2nd grade we learned the song "Aiken Drum." We also began listening to the Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens. We love to see which animal "appears" in the carnival each time we come to music! The 2nd graders learned the words: woodwind, brass, percussion, and string (4 instrument families). We read both a fiction and an informational text about spiders, and connected this to our new Halloween song "Eight Legs." We got to hear a pipe organ in this piece, and talked about a "refrain" of a song, which keeps coming back. We practiced piano/forte in the song "Skin and Bones." We also got to work on our pitch-matching skills with a new game called "Here We Sit." It is a fun guessing game where we try to identify "secret" voices from our class! We practiced basic rhythmic patterns and identified them in particular songs we have heard.

In 3rd grade we learned about a string quartet, in preparation for our Artistic Adventures field trip to the Trout Museum. We learned 2 new folk songs: "Rocky Mountain" and "This Land is Your Land." We practiced verse and refrain in each of these pieces. We learned "Bones Boogie" and "Halloween Night" for Halloween, and some students volunteered to sing some solo verses on "Halloween Night." We practiced piano and forte with the folk song "The Ghost of John," and learned a fun game called "The Conductor Game" to review the 4 instrument families. We took a pre-test on our "Third Grade Power Words" that we will be learning this year (music vocabulary). We can't wait to take the test at the end of the year year to show how much our music vocabulary has grown! One of our favorite listening pieces this month was "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Peer Gynt Suite by Grieg. We loved to hear the pizzicato strings in the beginning, and how the dynamics and tempo changed during the piece to help tell the story of Peer Gynt and the trolls!

In 4th grade we began our study of the brass instruments. We got to hear and see a trumpet, and got to listen to how different mutes can change the sound of the trumpet. We also heard a French Horn demonstration. We continued to work on memorizing our National Anthem. We learned a spiritual called "Dry Bones," and discussed how these spirituals are the basis of all popular music that we listen to today. For Halloween, we sang "The Sounds of the Night" while practicing some rhythmic patterns in the middle section of the piece. We played an instrument recognition game called "Clip It" to preview all of the instruments we will learn about this year, and we continued to review our note-reading skills as we prepare to begin playing the recorder in November!

Gym Time with Mr. Rykal

During the month of November all of the Physical Education classes will be working on their basketball skills. The classes will work on basics of dribbling, passing and shooting. We will be incorporating fun games into the classes to reinforce the basic skills. My hopes are that every student learns the basic fundamentals of basketball.

Also, I have been having all my students perform push ups every day in gym during our warm-ups. I have been reinforcing that they perform the push-ups by bending their arms and getting as close to the ground as possible. Trying to keep a level back without sinking or arching their hips. I believe that all students should be strong enough to perform a minimum of 10 push-ups and I feel that if we do these every day we could possible get to that point. Keep encouraging your children to get better. Modifications off of the knees are encouraged if a regular push-up is too difficult.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have at rykalk@kaukaunasd.org.

From the Reading Specialist - Mrs. Keehan

Park Community Charter School Literacy Progress and Plan for Growth

Park Community believes reading to be the cornerstone of learning and the key to school success. We are committed to the goal of all students reading at or above grade level by the end of each grade. We have created a literacy plan to reach this high goal.

Our goal is as follows:

Park Community’s students will be reading at grade level by the end of each year. Reading proficiency is being able to read grade level material fluently with high levels of comprehension.

The success of the above goal will be measured by pre and post test data as measured by TLA and MAP testing. Our school beginning of the year 2016 proficiencies are as follows:

TLA/Guided Reading levels:

K= 71% at grade level (starting point for growth)
1= 38% at grade level (up 36% compared to last year)

MAP:

2= 57% at grade level (up 26% compared to last year)
3= 60% at grade level (same as last year)
4= 76% at grade level (up 24% compared to last year)

ParCommunity’s literacy program uses a balanced literacy model (Partnership in Comprehensive Literacy) that includes instruction in phonics, fluency, vocabulary, word study, and comprehension. What makes our charter special is that our reading and writing instruction integrates our science and social studies curriculum from our place-based learning platforms into our informational text units of study. This helps our students to see a real world application of all that they are learning at school.

Other News

Veteran's Day Celebration

Park Community Charter School has been a proud participant in the Kaukauna Veterans Day celebration for many years. However, when the celebration falls on Saturday, as it does this year, our school does not participate in the ceremony. I do encourage you to talk to your child about this important day and what the service of so many means to all of us. We will be talking about our veterans during that week in class and on our video announcements leading up to the date.

Important Links

In the upper left corner of this blog you will find several links to sites you may want to check out.

Community Calendar Events - This is where you will find info from Kaukauna Rec and other local organizations.
Park Community Facebook Page
Park Community Twitter Page
Park Community School Webpage

The Turkey Chase is Coming

The 4th Annual Turkey Chase will be help on Saturday November 11th from 10:00 - 11:00 AM on the school property. This is NOT a fundraiser this year! Just a FREE family event! As promised we are limiting our fundraisers to Lambeau, the Golf Outing and the Kaukauna Strong Challenge.

New this year - Families will be encouraged to walk a route on our playground for 30 minutes. At the end of that time we will move to the gym for some hot beverages and snacks. The event will end at 11:00. Come and Join the Fun! If you are interested in helping out with this event please contact Kelly Kelderman at kellykelderman1@gmail.com

Finding Specialists During Fall Conferences

Some of our staff at PCCS service more than one school or have other scheduling conflicts. In order for you to plan more effectively, the following staff will be available at PCCS during the following conference day/times:

Mary Sundelius, Nurse: By parent request only
Melinda Lemke: Tues. Nov. 14th and Thurs. Nov. 16th: 4-30-6:00
Brandon Theder, Art, Nov.17th; 12:20-4:00
Becky Nimmer, Music: Nov. 16th & 17th
Danny Zamost, Guidance Counselor: Tues. Nov. 14th & 16th; 4:30-6:00
Kevin Rykal:, Phy. Ed/ Friday Nov. 17th 12:30-4:00 If any concerns, e-mail at: rykalk@kaukaunasd.org
Nicole Shefchik /Speech: Tuesday, Nov. 14th/4-6:00 pm and Thursday, Nov. 16th/4-7:30 pm
Reba VandeLoo: SLD; Nov. 14th and 17th
Emily Haffley/Social Worker: by appt. only
Melody Krouse: SLD: Nov. 14th and 17th
Shawn Cleveland/Autism: Please go to: http://clevelands.youcanbookme/ to set up an apt.
Sara Hockers/Psychologist: Tuesday, Nov. 14th; 4:30-6:30
Nicole Claffey: please e-mail at: claffeyn@kaukaunasd.org

If they are not available while you are here, please contact the office and we will get a message to the staff member to contact you.

Old Christmas Tree Lights

Tis the season for trimming, decorating and getting rid of lights that so not work. Park Community Charter School will once again be collecting lights in our lobby. They will be recycled and any funds received will be donated to our friends at the Grignon Mansion.

Attendance Letters

Letters will be sent out monitoring attendance concerns. Please understand that family vacations, surgeries or a longer illness may have very legitimate impacts on your child’s attendance. However, the letters are sent out as part of our regular communication to families for any student who has 5 or more absences for the quarter.

Behavior Letters

Behavior letters are sent home weekly on Monday or Tuesday. If you child had a behavior incident the week prior this letter is documentation of the event. If you have any questions feel free to contact Mr. Kortens.

Picking Up Students Prior to Dismissal

Just a reminder when picking up a child early from school (for an appointment or other reasons), please send a note or email to your child’s teacher or call the office in the morning. Once you arrive, the office will call the classroom and have your child sent to the office. This eliminates children from waiting in the office in case you are delayed and allows them to participate in the classroom instruction until you arrive. Thanks for your cooperation and understanding.

Weather Watch!

This is an unpredictable time of year weather-wise. Please be sure to send your child prepared for the worst Mother Nature has to offer. It is very important that the children go outside to play at recess; however, they need to be dressed for the weather. We do want to keep your child healthy. When the snow falls ALL students must have boots, in addition to snow pants if they play in the snow. If you have difficulty providing winter wear, please contact the office as we have donated items to share. It is also recommended that students keep a dry pair of socks and pants in their backpack in case clothing gets wet.

Please Sign up for Parent Portal in Infinite Campus

It is very important that your contact information in Infinite Campus is up to date. If you have questions regarding your contact information please call our school secretary Mrs. Tennessen to check. Click Here for Directions

Sunday, October 15, 2017

October Newsletter

Principal Thoughts

Hello Everyone!

Yes this is the really LATE version of the October Newsletter. I apologize for the delay but as they say "Better late than never."

Our school year is off and running and we are approaching conferences in a few weeks. The staff here at Park Community have done a great job of building a new school family in their classrooms and routines are well established already in classes. We are so happy to have our new Kindergarten students with us and we are all learning their names and celebrating their personalities each day.

Please take the time to look through this newsletter to see many new things that we are working on in school this year. If you have questions please let me know by email at kortensk@kaukaunasd.org or by phone at 766-6129. It is an honor to work with your children and I look forward to another great year at Park Community Charter School.

Wishing You Well!
Ken Kortens
Principal

Fundraisers, Why Do We Need Them?

I am often asked that question by parents and even other educators in Kaukauna. As a public school that is part of the Kaukauna Area School District we do recieve funds from the district each year. Our staff salaries, building maintenance and utilities are all paid for by KASD. We also recieve a per pupil allotment of funds for curriculum rescources and technology. Without these funds we could not afford to opperate on our own and would need to close our doors.

However, anything that we choose to do that is different than the other elementary schools in KASD or if we choose to spend above and beyond the allotment from the district we need to fundraiser for. Here are some key examples from this school year:

Conscious Discipline - Park Community is the only school in our district doing this behavior program and one of only a few schools in Wisconsin doing it school wide. This year we will be bringing in a trainer from Conscious Discipline to work with students and staff on December 11th and 12th. The cost of doing this training is over $7,000 and is not financially supported by the district as it is different from PBIS which is done in other Kaukauna schools.
BenQ Interactive Technology - This past summer the governance board of Park Community authorized the purchase of 11 BenQ Interactive Boards. These boards are in every homeroom in our school and in our special education and library classrooms. We were able to use district funds to pay for some of the $33,000.00 price tag but covered the majority out of money raised at various fundraisers during the year. Park Community is the ONLY school in Kaukauna to have this technology in every homeroom this year and we would not have been able to do this without fundraiser money.
Chromebooks in Every Classroom 1-4 - Park Community has had sets of 8 Chromebooks in each classroom grades 1-4 for the past two years. Other schools in Kaukauna have been working through a roll out plan starting in 1st grade. Our governance board supported the purchase of 90 Chromebooks to make this happen ahead of schedule.
Mentor Texts Linking to our Community Partners - Through fundraiser money we have been purchasing books that link to Science and Social Studies standards. We have been working on this for the past two years while other elementary schools are only now beginning the process of addressing new science and social studies standards through quality literature.

Our Governance Board has made a commitment to limiting the number of fundraisers and focusing on three large ones moving forward. The Golf Outing, our Lambeau Field Booth and The Kaukauna Strong Challenge in spring. Here is an update on each of these important events.

The 4th Annual Park Community Golf Outing

Our outing was held October 7th and was a success. We raised just over $3,200.00 which was slightly more than the amount we raised in 2016. This amount will pay for half of our upcoming The outing was a success because of the hard work of my planning partners Jon Gillis, Jesse Mikalski and Andy Benson. We also had a nice group of staff and parents who helped with the event on the 7th.

This event takes place each fall and we are always looking for new golfers and sponsors. Plan now to play in our outing next fall we plan to hold our event the weekend prior or after October Fest in Appleton.

Lambeau Field Booth

Our booth has been up and running since the Billy Joel concert June 17th. Our booth needs 12 workers each time to function at it's most efficient level. Vicki Kerry has done an amazing job of organizing the booth, coordinating the volunteers and working every event along with Travis Schaefer who organizes the cooking area. I have worked my first game recently and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We were super busy but the time flew by. The booth has the potential to be a HUGE fundraiser for our school but will only be successful if we have adults to staff each game. If each family did one game we would have plenty of people to keep our booth fully staffed.

We don't need your money at all for this event just your time. We still need workers for upcoming games. HERE is the link to the sign up genius to help us out.

The Kaukauna Strong Challenge

Each Spring we sponsor the Kaukauna Strong Challenge. This healthy family event will be held on Sunday May 6th. This event raised just under $3,000 dollars last year and we are looking to see continued growth. The event includes three separate activities, a 5K family walk, a 5K run and a 20 mile bike ride. Stay tuned for this event as it approaches.

Video Anouncements with Mr. Kortens

This year we started doing daily announcements recoreded and played during classroom Brain Smart Starts in each classroom over the BenQ interactive boards. Two students from each class voluteer to give up their recess each day to record announcements with Mr. Kortens. Each group serves for a 6 days and we record each day to be played the next day.

If you would like to watch the daily announcements please follow these steps:

You will need to sign in as a student and connect your email accounts to the class in SeeSaw by typing in this code one time: EINZ BZYJ

For security, this code is valid until October 17, 2017.

After 7 days, you can get a new code by emailing kortensk@kaukaunasd.org

Open the Seesaw app or website at app.seesaw.me
Choose "I'm a Student"
Choose Email/Google Account
Create a new account, or sign in to an existing account
Type in the code above

Here is an example of what you will see each day.

Counselor Corner with Mr. Zamost

October Classroom Lesson

During the month of October, I will be visiting all of the K-4 classrooms and talking with students about Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Awareness (ATODA)! In each grade level we will discuss Red Ribbon Week and celebrate living a healthy and drug free life. First and second grade students will brainstorm healthy habits and learn that drugs and alcohol can have harmful effects. They will also learn medicine safety. Third and fourth grade students will learn about the different types of drugs and alcohol and discuss peer pressure refusal skills along with the negative effects that addictions can have on people’s lives. All classes will be focusing on the benefits of living a healthy and drug free life! As always, feel free to call me at 766-6100 ext. 3164 with any questions or concerns.

Red Ribbon Week

During the week of October 23rd to October 25th, we will celebrate RED RIBBON WEEK…a week dedicated to celebrating a healthy and drug free life!

All Kaukauna schools will be participating in various activities that promote drug free living. Students will participate in several dress-up days to raise awareness of the importance of living a drug free life! The elementary dress-up days are as follows:

Monday, October 23rd

“Teaming Up Against Drugs is NO SWEAT!”

Wear your favorite Sweats and/or Team Apparel!

Tuesday, October 24th

“My Future is BRIGHT DRUG FREE!”

Wear BRIGHT or NEON colors!

Wednesday, October 25th

“Red Day!” “Be United Against Drugs!”

Deck yourself out in Red apparel!

Elementary students will also be invited to participate in a Piggly Wiggly grocery bag decorating or poster making activity promoting a healthy and drug free life!

Small Group Opportunities

Throughout October we will be starting a variety of small group counseling experiences. Some of the group offerings include: Fun with Friends (Social Skills), Fun with Feelings (Feelings Management), Family Change, Kids for Character, etc. Students can be self referred, teacher referred or parent referred. If your child is invited to participate, they will bring home a letter describing the group and the details of the lessons. For questions, concerns or referrals call 766-6100 ext. 3164 or email zamostd@kaukaunasd.org

Library News with Mrs. Lemke

The library welcomed students with some fun changes to the library. With the renovations and a new librarian, the library has some fun book letters, decorations, and new book characters to our beautiful room. September was a month filled with review on proper book care and library rules. See below for your child’s activities.

Kindergarten discovered where to find books that are just right for them. Then, we reviewed rules and book care with some of our favorite book characters, like Pigeon.

First grade became book care ninja’s and reviewed how to take care of our books and be good ninja’s while using the library. They remembered library rules really well from last year.

Second grade learned the ABC’s of the library. The Shelf Elf explained our library Golden Rules and book instructions. He explained that he’ll be in the library until Christmas to remind us about proper behavior.

Third grade went on a scavenger hunt to remind them how the library is setup and what the guidelines are. They also practiced logging in and accessing the library card catalog to find books they want to read. Don’t be afraid to ask your child the steps to find a book starting at the KASD website!

Fourth grade hunted for clues that reminded them about library processes and guidelines. They also practiced logging in to Chromebooks and accessing the library card catalog to find books to read using all the different search topics. Please ask your child the steps to the card catalog starting at KASD main website!

Note: Please watch for this parent resource coming home. October topics include Internet Safety and Cyberbullying, along with some steps and passwords for resources students love to use at school.

Art Corner with Mr. Theder

Kindergarten - Artists worked on their shape person, and then created an accurate representation of Mondrian's Composition II. They learned how to cut safely with a scissors, glue, and their primary colors.

First Grade - Artists worked on their shape person, and finished it up with fine details. They got to look and talk about abstraction and Kandinsky circles. They reviewed their primary colors and learned their secondary colors.

Second Grade - Artists started the year making a sketch book. They learned their five basic lines, and their warm/cool colors by making a sun and moon drawing. They also learned about the famous artist Leonardo Da Vinci and his cool creations. The second graders are currently working on their own Da Vinci Robots.

Third Grade - Artists started the year making a sketch book. They reviewed their warm/cool colors and learned their neutral colors by drawing a sea turtle. They were challenged to draw complex shapes like hexagons within the shell of their turtle. Then got to blend oil pastel for the turtle's shell, arms, and head. Third grade then finished it up by using water colors for the background.

Fourth Grade - Artists started the year by making a sketch book also. We reviewed most of the color families. They learned two new color families by drawing an optical illusion. They learned and got to experiment with complementary and tertiary colors.

Music Notes from Mrs. Nimmer

Each month, the 1st-4th graders celebrate the birthday of a famous composer. We learn facts about the composer's life, and we listen to music written by that composer. For the month of September, our birthday composer was George Gershwin. We learned about his life, and how he often partnered with his brother Ira to compose songs. George would write the music, and Ira would write the lyrics. We learned to sing the song I Got Rhythm written by George and Ira Gershwin. We also listened to and compared several different recordings of the song, including recordings by Judy Garland, Sara Vaughn, and even a Barbershop Quartet!

Kindergarten - In kindergarten we spend time in the beginning of the year working on “finding” our singing voices. We talk about the difference between a singing voice and a speaking voice. We learned several speaking pieces this month, including Going on a Bear Hunt, The Apple Poem, and Herman the Worm. We also talked about the difference between soft and loud, and learned to play the Grizzly Bear game to practice soft and loud. We sang several songs that we use as our gathering songs when we begin music class, including Hello There and Going Over the Sea. One of our favorite singing books this month was The Animal Boogie.

1st Grade - In 1st grade we learned the song The Corner Grocery Store. We added rhythm sticks to the song and also composed a few of our own rhyming verses. We reviewed quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests and practiced patterns using those 3 notes. We practiced pitch-matching with two new games this month, My Elephant Pat and Alphabet Soup. We had fun clapping and singing with our friends in the circle game Bow Wow Wow.

2nd Grade - In 2nd grade we learned about piano and forte, and used these concepts to play a circle game called "Rig a Jig." We also learned how to play the piano/forte hiding game. We learned how to read verses in written music in our song Bill Grogan's Goat, and compared the song's story to the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. The students learned Shake My Sillies Out, Everybody's Got to Grow, and Joy of Music to work on our pitch-matching skills. We had fun playing the "Red Shirt" game to practice our quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests.

3rd Grade - In 3rd grade, we learned to sing Jambo. We get to sing in Swahili, Spanish, and Japanese! Jambo means "hello" in Swahili. We also listened to a piece from Africa called Kwaheri, which means "goodbye" in Swahili. We added drums, maracas, and tambourines to the piece, following a rhythmic read-along chart using quarter notes, eighth notes, and eighth rests. We learned two folk songs this month. The first, Old Joe Clark, tells a funny story! We learned about the guitar, and got to sing with the guitar for this piece. We also reviewed the concepts of verse/refrain in this song. Playing a circle partner game to the song John Kanakanaka was a class favorite! We will be studying the string family this year, and the students watched an overview video of the String Family of instruments to preview some of the orchestral and non-orchestral string instruments we will be learning about this year. We will be partnering with the Fox Valley Symphony and our 3rd grade classroom teachers to participate in the Artistic Adventures program this year, which will include a trip to the Trout Museum this fall to hear a string quartet, as well as a trip to the PAC in spring to hear the Fox Valley Youth Symphony. We are very excited for this great opportunity and partnership for our students!

4th Grade - In 4th grade, we learned a piece in a jazz style called Dancing on the Rooftop. We even got to try out some of our own jazz dance moves while singing the piece, and got to try some scat-singing. We watched a video demonstration of jazz singing and scat-singing. We learned our state song in September, On Wisconsin. We then segued into the National Anthem. We learned about the War of 1812, and how Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics for The Star Spangled Banner after witnessing one of the battles. We discussed the meaning of several of the words, including dawn, twilight, gallantly, ramparts, and o'er. Understanding the words we are singing is so important when singing our country's song! We have been reviewing music staff vocabulary this month, in preparation for learning to play the recorder later this fall. We can't wait to put our music-reading skills to good use! The 4th graders will be studying brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments this year. We will be starting with the brass family. We watched an overview video about brass instruments and how they produce sound. The students will get to see live demonstrations of many of the instruments they can choose to play at Riverview next year!

Reading Time with Mrs. Keehan

Park Community Charter School Staff believe reading to be the cornerstone of learning and the key to school success. We are committed to the goal of all students reading at or above grade level by the end of each grade. We have created a literacy plan to reach this high goal.

Our goal is as follows:

Park Community students will be reading at grade level by the end of each year. Reading proficiency is being able to read grade level material fluently with high levels of comprehension.

The success of the above goal will be measured by pre and post test data as measured by MAP testing. Our school beginning of the year 2017 proficiency levels are as follows:

MAP:

2= 45% at grade level (down 11% compared to last year)

3= 64% at grade level (up 4% compared to last year)

4= 76% at grade level (same as last year)

Park Community’s literacy program uses a balanced literacy model (Partnership in Comprehensive Literacy) that includes instruction in phonics, fluency, vocabulary, word study, and comprehension. What makes our charter special is that our reading and writing instruction integrates our science and social studies curriculum from our place-based learning platforms into our informational text units of study. This helps our students to see a real world application of all that they are learning at school.

News from the We Care Center with Mrs. Sundelius

Is my child too sick to go to school? Often parents have a hard time deciding if their child is well enough to go to school. Ask yourself the following question - Is my child feeling up to participating in regular school activities; including recess? Having a sore throat, cough, or mild congestion does not necessarily mean a child can't be active and participate in school activities, however if they are lethargic, clingy, complaining of pain or just not acting like themselves perhaps a sick day is in order.

Of course, never send a child to school who has a fever (even when their temperature is normal with fever reducing medication), is nauseated, vomiting, or has diarrhea. If your child is experiencing any one of these symptoms they need to stay home for 24 hours after the symptoms subside.

If you do bring your child into the doctor, remember to get a doctor’s excuse for school so your child’s attendance can be coded as a medical excuse. Thank you in advance for helping all students and staff stay healthy.

District Office Update - Click Here for info on these topics

Boys Hoops Club - Grades 2 - 4
The Great Pumpkin Train Grades 4K - 4
Girl Scout Flyer - Grades K - 4
Chartwell's October Calendar and Information
Kaukauna Dance Team Clinic Grades 4K - 4
Kaukauna Dance Team Registration

In Other News!

PAC Still Needs You!

After a successful first meeting in September our PAC is again struggling with membership. Our meetings are the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 5:30. We do our best to keep the meetings to an hour in length and we also offer the opportunity to participate through social media by joining our Google PAC Live found HERE.

This year PAC is refocusing on activities for families and students and we need your help to volunteer to lead an event. You do NOT need to be a regular PAC parent just someone committed to seeing an event through from start to finish. There are PAC members current and former who will help you with details around each event.

Here are the events that we need help with:

Turkey Chase - Kelly Kelderman, Kari Pagel
Birthday Books - Stacy Sniegowski, Tanya Pahl
Social Events - Book the date, promote (school will print), be at event.

Skate City
Pizza Hut Night
McDonald’s Night

Movie Night - Gym or Outdoor - Pick the date, promote (school will print), be at event.
Spirit Days - Plan the days (school office has final approval), promote (school will print)
Conference Meals for Staff - Crystal Janousek
Teacher Appreciation Week - Plan daily theme, coordinate activities, set up if needed each day
Spirit Wear - Coordinate with printing company orders for students, staff and families.
Penny War - Coordinate event dates with school admin, count money each day at school.

Click HERE to learn more about each event and sign up to coordinate or help.