From the Desk of Mrs. Bernal, Principal

May 2014

Volume I Issue 9

Riley Elementary School 1324 Walnut St · 419-436-4145 · Fax 419-436-4158

Fostoria City Schools

Important Dates:

May 1– 1st grade pro-gram 7:00 P.M. FJSH PAC

May 7– 1 hour delay.

May 6- ZOO DAY!

May 14– 1 hour delay

May 9– Fair Day at FIES

May 21– 1 hour delay

May 16– 2nd grade visit to FIES

May 20– Longfellow stu-dents visit Riley.

May 28- 1 hour delay

May 23– Family cook-out/Field Day.

From the Desk of Mrs. Bernal

It is amazing we are heading into the final stretch for the 2013-2014 school year! It seems as if we were just welcoming the students back and starting the school year. I am so impressed with how much the students have grown; thank you for all of your support! Below is a list of activities we still have going on during the month of May.

May 1- 1st grade Spring Concert, 7:00 pm at FJSH in the auditorium. Mrs. Mummert sent home information regarding the program. Hope to see you all there. The students have been working really hard!

May 6- The Toledo Zoo will be bringing The Zooper Challenge Game Show to Riley. Some stu-dents will even get the opportunity to participate in the show! The zoo will bring three live animals. Of the three animals, students will be able to touch two of them as they leave the gymnasium.

May 9- School Fair 5-9 at FIES. We are still looking for volunteers! Come out and support our PTO. All the money earned goes towards supporting different activities, educational needs and educational software for students.

May 12- In November, a letter was sent home explaining A.L.I.C.E., our lockdown procedure. Part of the training involves students practicing evacuation routes in the event of an emergency. We will be walking to Wagner’s on Monday, May 12th. A permission slip will be coming home in the near future. In case of inclement weather, the make-up day will be Monday, May 19th.

May 13- Second grade students will be taking the practice reading OAA.

May 16- Second grade students will be going to FIES so they are able to tour the building and meet the third grade teachers. More information will be sent home closer to the event.

May 23- Family Cookout(Riley Café)/Field Day. Riley will pay for the student and one parent. Any additional lunches will cost $2.50. A Riley Café form will be sent out asking for the number of peo-ple attending. The money must accompany the form prior to the Family Cookout/Riley Café.

May 28- Last day of school for students.

It has been a pleasure getting to know you and your students. I appreciate all of your participation and involvement this year. Have a great Summer!

SAVE THE DATE!! SCHOOL FAIR

Friday, May 9, 2014 at FIES

PROJECT SUCCESS NEWS

Last Day of program will be May 23rd.

Please remember to fill out your survey and re-turn it to school ASAP.

Family Cook-out

We will be hosting a family cook-out on May 23rd.

RSVP forms will be sent home soon.

Page 2 Riley Elementary School

ZOO VISIT!

Our building is lucky to have the Toledo Zoo visit and bring animals for our children

to see! Since the PTO paid for the COSI day, we are asking each child to contribute

$2.00 to help with the cost of the day. With the cost of fuel and bus service it will not be possible to have field trips to the zoo this year. Bringing them here is an af-fordable option. Children are to turn the money in by

May 2.

A Note From The Nurse:

Exercise. . .

It Does A Body Good!

Get a Lean Body

Reduce your risk of diabetes and high blood pressure

Build Stronger Bones

Strengthen Your Heart

Gain A Better Outlook On Life

Increase your self esteem and improve your self image

Be better able to handle stress with less anxiety and feelings of depression

Score Higher On Tests

Studies show that children who exercise have higher scores

on standardized tests.

All It Takes is 60 Minutes every day!!!

Get Out. . .Get Moving!!!!!!

Volume I Issue 9 Page 3

Music News

In music class this past month, 1st graders were perfecting the songs for their spring program. We added choreography, speaking parts, and props to their songs. 1st graders were assessed on reading, writing, and performing quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rest rhythms.

1st and 2nd graders learned and performed the song, “Earth Day Helper” for the Arbor Day celebration.

In music class this past month, 2nd graders sang and did activities with traditional and newer Easter songs. 2nd graders were assessed on reading, writing, and performing the pentatonic scale. 2nd graders also learned about the composer Stephen Foster and sang two of his fa-mous songs “O Susanna” and “Camptown Races.”

PE Corner

Continuing into May, we are going to keep building our knowledge of baseball. To this point, we have cov-ered; how to run the bases, throwing to a partner, where we want to hit the ball and what a good ready position looks like. We started off by simply playing bean bag baseball. The students gained knowledge and confidence with how to work as a team as well as throwing the bean bag to a partner. They weren't using a bat or a ball and were able to throw the bean bag where they wanted, instead of hitting. This past week we started playing scooter baseball. With scooter baseball we are adding the baseball bat and we will cover how to hold the bat. The students are also going to start playing with a ball instead of the bean bags. Having the students on a scooter allows the defense time to think about where they should throw the ball, as well as make up for mistakes, making the game enjoyable for students. During scooter baseball we will also be learning about the different positions involved with baseball/softball: pitcher, catcher, 1st base, 2nd base, short stop, 3rd base, left field, center field, and right field. Near the end of the year, we will take away the scooters and the tee and I will be pitching the ball to the students. This simple progression allows students at different levels to learn at the same pace as well as challenge them to learn new ideas and concepts in PE! **Field Day will be held on May 23rd**

May Title I News

Summer Vacation will be here before we know it. Time for having fun! Swimming at City Pool, playing baseball, YMCA activities, riding bikes, playing outside, playing board games, playing computer games, family vacations, reading books and going to Kaubisch Memorial Public Library. Why the library? If your child keeps reading this summer he/she will not be behind in reading when returning to school in Aug. Possibly he/she will be ahead in reading. Practice makes perfect is the old adage. The more one practices something the better one gets at it.

Once a child falls in love with reading , a child will read for fun for hours and hours. Kaubisch Library has many, many children’s books to choose from that a child should be able to find books that interest him/her and at his/her reading level.

We would hope that you would take your child to the library all year long. Every summer, Kaubisch offers a special reading program. This year’s theme will be a Science theme and their will be special events each Tues. The reading program is for chil-dren ages 3-12. The reading program will run from June 2nd – July 12. Sign up begins May 27. Fliers will be dropped off at Riley, Longfellow and FIES Elementary Schools in May by Kaubisch Library to be sent home with each child.

Please encourage your child to read every day! This will ensure a happy and successful future. For further information call Kaubisch Library at 419-435-2813.

Art Corner

ART SHOW 2014

RILEY ARTISTS

ROCK !

Mrs. Dunn &

It is hard to believe we have had Ginger our therapy dog in the schools for over a year now. Along the way she has made many friends and comforted hundreds of students. We couldn’t imagine our school without her now. She is a part of the students, the staff, and even the visitors who come to the buildings. In an effort to continue supporting Ginger in our school and to give back to ADAI (Assistance Dogs Achieving Independ-ence) who donated Ginger to our district, we will be hosting a JEANS day for staff and students on two occasions in May. Students will be allowed to wear jeans and their campus wear or Fostoria Redmen shirt on Friday, May 9th and Friday May 16th by paying $1 for each day. Half of the money raised will go toward Ginger’s daily care and needs and the other half will be donated to ADAI to continue supporting the program of placing therapy dogs in schools. Any questions, please contact Mrs. Dunn or Mrs. Bernal at 419-436-4145. Thank you for your SUPPORT! Jjjj

Students must pay $1.00 for each day he/she wears jeans. A parent/guardian will be contacted if a child does not pay $1.00 and attends school out of campus wear.

Friday, May 9th and Friday May 16th

Juaquin Garcia, Wayne Long, Ariel Weiker, Isiah Ulsh, Angelo Velazquez, Marissa Collins, Jocelin Jordan, Bryanna Fer-guson, Trent Miklovic, Joseph Knapp Jr., Ryland Lowe, Brennan Rose, Cyniah Yarbrough,

Not pictured, Kamarius Thompson

Mrs. Koerner, a school counseling intern for Fostoria City Schools facilitated a lesson on COURAGE using the storybook “Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns About Courage.” She focused her lesson on the dif-ference between Real Fears and Imagined Fears. By knowing which fears are real and which ones are im-agined can help one better cope and find the cour-age to face those fears. To reinforce the im-portance of facing ones fears, students were led in an activity to use encouraging words by making a megaphone and writing different motivational state-ments on it. They were encouraged to practice talk-ing to themselves when they encounter a situation that requires courage.

We first began our lesson on discussing the many rea-sons why we might need COURAGE . We learned that courage is needed for situations or things that make us feel scared, fearful, worried or nervous. Often times the situations seem frightening because it is new or out of the norm. We read the storybook, “Sometimes I’m Scared” to help us understand that everyone has fears, but they can overcome them in different ways. Stu-dents learned they can:

Understand their feelings Think encouraging thoughts Take deep breaths Think of fun things/places that makes

you feel good Pretend to be their fear Think of the situation in a different way

After discussing each of these coping mechanisms, stu-dents were given paper and encouraged to draw his/her fear on one side and a way they can overcome the fear on the other side. This was helpful for the students to see that everyone has fears and may have some in com-mon with others.

Mrs. Dunn and