The Principal’s Pen

February 2014

Volume 4, Issue 4

STEM at EC 1

March

Conferences 2

Movie Night 2

Grade 6 Infor-

mation Night 2

PTA News 2

Recess

Volunteers 2

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Mark Your

Calendars! Febraury 14th and

17th—School in Session– Snow Make-up Days

February 21st—ECPTA Pizza Bingo at 7PM

February 28th—EC Movie Night at 6PM

March 4th—ECPTA Meet-ing at 7PM

March 5th and 6th—Parent-Teacher Conferences

(Regular Days for students)

March 21st—ECPTA 5th and 6th Grade Social

(Check out the “Events and Activities”

tab on the EC website or click here

for a complete list of the year’s

East Coventry

Elementary

School The Principal’s Pen

Inspired Students. Inspired Excellence

Pag

of January 8th for the Family Science Night. Over 150 stu-

dents and parents attended. Several grade-levels demon-strated different science ex-periences that were meant to

enhance the children’s

knowledge. Grade 6 teach-er, Mrs. Beth Nyce organized the event. Experiences in-cluded exploring the 5 senses, making a new solution using corn starch and water, as-sembling an anemometer and balancing various objects just

to name a few.

STEM is Growing at EC

A ccording to the White House web-site, “President

Obama has made STEM education a key priority of his administration, with an ambitious agenda to move American students to the top of the pack internation-ally in science and math achievement over the next decade.” January saw sev-eral opportunities for stu-dents and parents to expe-rience the importance EC puts on the STEM fields. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering

and Mathematics.

EC was privileged to have the Pennsylvania Mobile Science Agriculture Lab visit the school for an en-tire week. All students were able to learn about the importance that agricul-ture plays in our everyday lives. In addition, students completed science experi-ments or learned the ori-gins of everyday food prod-ucts. This experience al-lowed students to apply their understanding of the scientific inquiry-based method to a relevant topic. A special “thank you” goes to the Chester County Ag-riculture Bureau for helping

to sponsor the visit.

Next, we opened our doors on the chilly evening

Last, on the evening of Janu-ary 15th, students in grade 4-6 had the chance to enter the science research com-petition. Under the leader-ship of Ms. Mary-Rita Bon-ner, over 150 projects were on display touching on many of the areas of science in-cluding chemistry, botany, behavioral sciences and en-gineering. In addition to displaying their projects, students were interviewed by an adult judge. Most judges were professionals who currently work in the

science field.

Representing EC at the county competition in

March, will be:

Fourth Grade: Izzie Geist, Zain Hamdani, Colin Horg-er, Sophia Winnick, Noah Cain & Matt Taylor Fifth Grade: Gavin Geist, Ayanna Kakar, Marcus Spivey, Colin Taylor, Zoe Z a b r e n s k i Sixth Grade: Andrew Fatula, Jackson Jenkins, Kalei Neel,

Kurt Sayers, Stacia Subick

At EC, we understand the importance of a STEM edu-cation. It is our hope to inspire many of our students to consider pursuing a

STEM career.

PSSA Dates

(REVISED)

March 24—April 4: Grades 3-

6 Reading/Math

April 7-11 Grade 5 Writing

April 29-2: Grade 4 Science

Parents are asked to refrain

from making appointments

during the testing windows.

THE PRINCIPAL’S PEN

Page 2

BINGO! Yes, it is that time again for

the ever-popular and always well at-tended PTA Pizza Bingo night. Friday,

February the 21st beginning at 7PM is when Bingo comes to EC. In addition

to the many games of bingo, raffle prizes and other exciting activities are

being planned. Who will be the guest callers this year? You will need to

come and see.

This year’s EC yearbook orders are now being taken. Visit the ECPTA

website at www.eastcoventrypta.com for order information. The all-color

book is only $20.00 using check. For an additional $1.00, there is an online

payment option as well using PayPal.

If you have been saving the Labels for

Education, now is the time to send them in. The deadline for submission

is February 19th.

All parents and Guardians of current

grade 6 students are encouraged to attend an information night at the mid-

dle school. Being held on February 13th at 7PM, parents will have the oppor-

tunity to learn about the course selec-tion process and the middle school pro-

grams. The event is being held at the middle school auditorium and will fea-

ture administrators, teachers and guid-ance staff. No reservations are needed.

For more information, contact the mid-

dle school at 610-469-5102.

Grade 6 Information Night PTA NEWS

GIANT A +

Rewards

If you have not yet registered your

Giant Bonus Card and designated

EC as one of the recipient schools,

please do so. The deadline to sub-

mit card numbers is March 22,

2014. So far this year, EC has

earned $1,100 have been raised so

far. CLICK HERE to register your

cards! Encourage your families and

neighbors to give you their card

numbers so you can register those

as well. Thank you to those of you

who already registered your cards.

Every penny counts.

March Parent-Teacher

Conferences

Parent-Teacher conferences will

be held on Wednesday and

Thursday, March 5th and 6th.

School will be in session for full

days on March 5 and 6. These

days were originally designated as

½ days with parent confer-

ences. Conferences will be

scheduled in the late afternoon

and evening hours. Unfortunate-

ly, there will be fewer available

appointments,. Conference

forms will be sent home in mid

February.

Recess Volunteer

Meeting

If you are in interested in volunteering

your time by assisting during recesses at East Coventry, please plan on at-

tending one of two orientation ses-sions. On February 26th at 9AM and

1:30 PM, we will review the play-ground rules and your responsibilities.

In order to volunteer, all clearances must be up-to-date and on file in the

EC office. Please call Mrs. Swavely at 610-469-5706 if you have questions

about your clearances. You must RSVP to attend one the orientation

session and you must attend a session in order to volunteer on the play-

ground. You can RSVP by calling 610-

469-5706.

Calling all movie fans! This is your

chance to bring the blankets and chairs for an even-

ing at the b i g screen. All f a m i l i e s

are en- couraged to attend this FREE

event in the EC All P u r p o s e R o o m .

D o o r s open at 6 : 0 0 P M and the

curtain will go up at 6:30 PM. FREE popcorn will be served and families

will have the option of pre-ordering pizzas. This year, we will be showing

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

It is Getting

Cloudy at EC!

On February 28th, all schools in the

OJR district will be dropping everything and reading. This event is connected

with the National Education Associa-tion’s Read Across America celebra-

tion. The event coincides with Dr. The-

odor Geisel aka Dr. Suess’s birthday.

Called, “America’s largest reading par-ty”, many classrooms will be finding

other interesting ways of celebrating like eating green eggs and ham, sharing

favorite Dr. Suess stories as well as

many guest readers.

EC Celebrates Read Across OJR

In honor of Read Across OJR event, many teachers are decorating their classroom

doors with a literature theme.