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                                                                                             

1. Go to another game                                                                                       
2. Talk it out
3. Share and take turns
4. Ignore it
5. Walk away
6. Tell them to stop
7. Apologize
8. Make a deal
9. 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

Infinite Campus has the ability to make emergency contacts with parents regarding school closing or other information during the school day.  If the superintendent would determine that district schools would be closing early for some reason parents will receive an automated message giving them details. 

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