News from the Principal

It is difficult to believe that it is already May. Even though the school year is winding down, the pace of teaching and learning certainly is not. Fifth grade students are preparing for the fifth grade promotion ceremony, but they still have a solid month of learning left. Our fifth grade students will be truly missed. Most of our students will be attending Merrill Middle School, but we have students who will be going to Brody, Callanan, McCombs, Goodrell, St. Teresa's, and Weeks. We know they are leaving Hanawalt well prepared to start the next phase of their journey. We are very proud of them!


I would also like to thank the parents and grandparents who support Hanawalt through their volunteerism or through their financial support, or both. Many people have made donations, which are matched by their employers; others have mailed checks directly to school. Your financial support has allowed us to purchase three document cameras and three infocus projectors. This technology will allow us to consume substantially less paper. By the end of the year, we hope to have purchased three more sets of this particular technology. In addition, we have purchased equipment to support the literacy listening centers in the kindergarten classrooms. We have also been able to purchase sets of advanced level reading books for all of our grade levels.


We have had tremendous support from parents volunteering in the classroom this year. We truly appreciate the difference you have made. The Literacy Army this year has been lead by Nadine Patch and Sue Hetherington. More than 30 volunteers have worked one on one with children this year. Not only are children becoming stronger readers, they are developing good relationships with members of our community. If you were able to chaperone a field trip, you know how much the students learn when they leave the school campus and venture to explore Living History Farms, experience a performance at the Playhouse or the Civic Center, or perhaps learn team building skills at Greenwood Park and get to dabble in the pond and mud, or visit the Art Center to see works they have studied! These are just a few of the learning opportunities that our students have participated in within the Des Moines area. Parents make this possible not only by supporting the PTA, but also by attending the events ensuring student safety.


Thank you very much for making the 2008-2009 school year such a great one!

Thank You, Principal Burton

Dear Ms. Burton,

Congratulations on your first school year as Hanawalt Principal! Thank you for all that you did to make it an outstanding year. It was fun continuing Hanawalt traditions, and starting some new ones. We appreciate everything that you do and the care that you give our school. Here’s to a great first year, and many more to come!

~~ A thousand “thank you’s” ~~



From Hanawalt Teachers & Families

Many Thanks for a Terrific Year

Hello, Hanawalt Families –

What a year it has been! It is hard to believe we only have one month of school to go. My sincere thanks to Hanawalt parents, teachers, and our school-wide community for all of your contributions. It has been an honor and a rewarding experience to serve as your PTA President for 2008-2009. On behalf of PTA, I hope that this has been a positive school year for you and your family. From Fall Walk, to Fun Night and everything in between, you made it happen. Thank you for your support—helping in classrooms, encouraging your kids, making donations, and being a part of our school in countless ways.

“Hanawalt Elementary is an excellent school because of YOU!”

While this school year has been great for PTA, I know that next year will be even better with Cheryl Thompson serving as our new president. Our PTA Board and Principal Burton are planning a few more events before the end of the year, and finalizing classroom technology purchases. We are already looking ahead to next year!
With many thanks, and wishes for a fantastic end-of-the-year and summer break! - Kay Smith - 2008-2009 PTA President

Fun Night - A Success!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this year’s Fun Night a huge success! A special thanks to our Principal, Julia Burton, and “retiring” Fun Night Chairperson, Jennifer Hall! Our gratitude also goes out to Hanawalt parents, teachers, and outstanding volunteers. Whether you played a game, brought a cake, or simply enjoyed an evening with your family, you helped make this year’s event special.


In all, Hanawalt PTA took in over $4,000 on Friday night. This will add up to additional classroom technology and educational programming to benefit our students. We would also like to recognize our donors who made generous contributions to the silent auction:

All Play Des Moines	Honey Creek Park & Resort
Bistro Montage	Iowa Cubs
Susie Bormann	Mary Martinez
Julie Brandt	Mary Muller
Bunny Bruning Tennis	Shakti Yoga Shop
Julia Burton	Angie Sly, Silpada
Civic Center of Greater Des Moines	Star Bar
Des Moines Playhouse	Tandem Brick
Gateway Market & Café	Cheryl Thompson
Grand Slam Indoor Batting	Wakonda Club
Great Harvest Bread	Yon Family
Jennifer Hall	Nicole O'Neal - Salon Za Za
Laura Higgins

Once again, thank you for supporting Hanawalt PTA!

Hanawalt Teachers are the BEST

Don’t forget to show your appreciation during Teacher Appreciation Week, May 4-8! Julie Brightman and the teacher appreciation committee have planned special surprises during the week, and we invite you to show your gratitude also. Special cards and notes are a great way to say “thank you” for all of the time and caring our teachers give to Hanawalt students every day of the school year. Many thanks to Julie Brightman for planning thoughtful little surprises…


Most of all, thank you to our teachers for all that you do!

May 8 - "Muffins With Mom or Special Guest"

NEW THIS YEAR: NO EGG STRATA & NO LINES!

Enjoy breakfast including: assorted muffins, bagels, juice and coffee. The cost is $5 per family at the door for Moms/special guest, and kids. Please see Ms. Burton so that we may help with payment, if needed.


In order to make this a relaxing event for moms and special guests, we are CALLING ALL DADS & VOLUNTEERS to help collect money at the door and serve muffins and bagels. We will need volunteers to help anytime between 6:45 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. If you are willing to help, please email Beth Steffensen, our VP of Volunteers at BethSteffensen@dwx.com

Thank you, we hope to see you there! - Hanawalt PTA

Book Fair - May 21 and 22

This year’s Spring Scholastic Book Fair is more important than ever. Due to DMPS District budget cuts, Hanawalt (and many other schools) received $0 FUNDING for new library books during this school year. In order to add new books for fall, we hope you will continue to support our Spring Book Fair.

PART OF EVERY DOLLAR YOU SPEND AT THE BOOK FAIR GOES DIRECTLY TO HANAWALT LIBRARY BOOKS!

Thanks to the generous support of Hanawalt families we have been able to keep growing our book collection for all of us to enjoy. The book fair will be open on May 21st and May 22nd with Fun Days & Relays. New this year, the fair will also be open during DOUGHNUTS WITH DAD—or your special guest—on Friday morning, May 22nd. Please stop by and support our library! If you would like to help with the fair, please contact the Scholastic Book Fair chairs.

Dianna Thompson Dithompson5702@hotmail.com
Elizabeth Mansfield ehmwardrobes@aol.com
Chuck Ginder charles.ginder@gmail.com

Des Moines City PTA Family of the Year!

Congratulations to Cheryl & Travis Thompson, and their sons, Jake, (4th grade), and Josh, (2nd grade)! The Thompsons were chosen by the Des Moines City PTA Council as the 2008-2009 PTA FAMILY OF THE YEAR! They have worked behind the scenes all year making PTA events happen. While Cheryl served as this year’s president-elect, her husband, Travis, programmed our school directory and launched our newsletter website. The whole family also helped from start-to-finish on each of our PTA events. Des Moines City-wide PTA selected the Thompsons for volunteering as a family. Hanawalt is proud—and lucky!—to have not only Cheryl, but Travis, Josh and Jake involved with PTA.

Yearbooks...

If your child(ren) would like to a keepsake yearbook for their elementary year 2008-09, please returned the Yearbook envelope and your payment to the PTA mailbox.

If you do not have a Yearbook envelope, stop by the office to pick up one OR, just send a check payable to PTA for $11 with your child's name, teacher's name and word YEARBOOK in the memo section. Thanks!

Yearbook questions contact: BethSteffensen@dwx.com

REMINDER - FEVER FREE 24 HOURS

Reminder: Sick children need to stay home. A child must be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school.

Please monitor the district website for information on the N1H1 virus. www.dmps.k12.ia.us.

A Day in the Arts - Huge Success

A Day in the Arts 2009 was a huge success! In the morning our students experienced lots of different arts experiences from fish printing to African dance to creating a collage to drawing cartoons to playing the harmonica to learning about photography to dance choreography to musical theater just to name a few. Over 18 artists shared their talents during the workshops. Then in the afternoon Opera Iowa conducted workshops for the 5th Grade class and then performed The Story of George Washington Carver to the entire school. It was a full but exciting day!

A special thank you to Principal Mrs. Burton, our teachers and staff. A huge thanks to all our parent volunteers and parent artists. A Day in the Arts would not be possible without everyone's support - it helps make Hanawalt a very special place!

Thank you again!

Kay Creger - Parent Co- Chair
Alissa McKinney - Parent Co-Chair
Sally McKenzie, Art Educator
Carol Looney, Music Education

Pictures from a Day in the Arts are available here:

Day in the Arts 2009

Music Notes

ALL CITY HONOR CHORUS

Congratulations to 10 Hanawalt chorus members who were chosen to be in the All City Honor Chorus. They are;. Jonathan Hays, Will Hedderich, David Ewing, Casey Anderson, Lauren Malcomson, Elaine Greiner, Maria O’Brien, Nina Vo, Vivian Le, Jordan Starkey, These students were all members of the Hanawalt Chorus this past fall. They took part in the festival with other students from all over Des Moines on Saturday, April 25th at Hoover High School, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Families and friends attended a concert from 3:30-4:00. Rebbeca Gruber was our guest clinician and conductor.

HANAWALT 5TH GRADE BAND

We have 3 special activities left this year for the Band. The first is the Band Concert on Tuesday, May 19th, at 6:00 in Wietz Commons (aka the cafeteria). This concert is full of great music. Each section will share a special song that they have chosen. The program will last about 1/2 hour. Then the Band will play for the whole school on Tuesday, May 26th. And finally we will have the Band pizza lunch, also on Tuesday, May 26th.

May 19th -Band Concert – nice clothing, meet at 5:45, in the music room, to tune.
May 26th – All School Band Concert – 2:10 in the Gym
May 26th - Pizza Lunch – bring something to drink and $1.50 for each slice of pizza. (limit of 2) Meet and eat in the music room.

PIANO RECTIALS

The end of the year is almost here and it is time for a celebration of the progress the piano students have made. Piano Recitals will be held in the Music Room on four different days. They are scheduled for:

Tuesday - May 26
Wednesday – May 27
Thursday – May 28
Friday – May 29

Recitals will begin at 3:15 and end by about 4:15.

Each student will be assigned one of these dates. Please check with your student for their special day! We will try to schedule as close as possible to the last lesson. If there is a conflict, please call me at 279-0709 or 289-6053 and we’ll adjust.

Summer lessons are available in June if you’re interested. Please plan to come and be amazed at all the talent and dedication. - Mary Bierma

P.E. News

Fifth Graders to Val-Lanes Friday April 17th


All fifth graders walked to Val-Lanes in wonderful 70 degree weather. This is the first year we took our trip in the spring instead of the winter much nicer indeed. A big thank you to our fifth grade instructors Mrs. Hesse, Mrs. Genzen, Mr. Gillaspey and Ms. Kadoun student teacher with Mrs. Hesse. High game score honors go to Paige Mckibben and Freddie Smith both finishing with a 93 and high team score honors go to Baxter Newkirk, A J Rose, Luke Foritano, and David Patch with a total of 284. Congratulations everyone for a successful afternoon.


Kidstriders to the Drake Relays

Hanawalt participated in its fifth year of having the kidstrider program. All students in grades Kindergarten through fifth participated for an eighteen week period with the goal of walking/jogging a distance of a twenty-six mile marathon. Each time a student covered a distance of five miles they were given a shoe token. This year twelve students successfully completed a marathon and were rewarded with a T-shirt and running a victory lap at this year’s Drake Relays. Congratulations to the following students who demonstrated a commitment to go the distance. Rowen Abbas, Ben Russel, Joshua Thompson, Erik Ingebretsen, Samuel Knoshaug, Nicholas Schnack Eli Steffensen, Aydin Bashich, Steven Verdi, Jack Romp, Jacob Thompson, and Erik Collet. Thank you once again Kathy Schnack for Coordinating our Striders program it wouldn’t be successful without your dedicated involvement and the rest of our wonderful volunteers.


Elementary Shuttle Relay Team Competes at the Drake Relays

Congratulations to this year’s team who competed in section one of the 240 yd. shuttle relay at Drake. This year we finished fourth out of twenty five teams in heat one. Team members include the following in the order they ran, leading off Parker Morse to Emma Davis to Mailee Hall and Jacob Lindeberg anchored to the finish line. David Patch and Jakob Sheridan participated as alternates and helped inspire their teammates to such a high finish.


Bloomcamp Relays and Fun Days

The Relays and Fun Days are scheduled for Thursday May 21 and Fun Day for Friday May 22. Rain dates are setup for the following Thursday and Friday if we run into inclement weather. If you haven’t filled out your volunteer slip and returned it to Hanawalt please do so and thanks to those who have. Kathy Schnack is coordinating the volunteers for both days so let her know how you can help us make the two days a huge success. She can be reached at kjschnack@gmail.com or home phone 274-0906.

News from the Art Studio

May is always a busy time in the art studio but such an exciting time, too! I always enjoy this time of year, when, with a sense of amazement, students realize that all they have learned does “come together”!

• Thank you for your support of the fine arts in your child’s education. It is such an important part of learning. I cannot imagine education and childhood without the arts. Each of your children is an artist looking at the world with a sense of wonder and possibility. What magic that is!
• Thank you for continually recycling materials by bringing them to the art studio. I appreciate your efforts throughout the year, and so do the children!
• Thank you for sharing your child with me this past year. I consider myself fortunate to be a part of your child’s educational experience at Hanawalt. It’s amazing to see the growth in each and every child from year to year, and I must admit, it is always hard for me to say farewell to students moving on the Middle School.

I hope you find some quiet moments this summer. Invite your child to share a walk with you, and simply enjoy the natural world. Ask your child what he or she thinks and sees, then draw a picture. Look at the world through the eyes of an artist. See the usual in new and unusual ways. Young children’s minds are always turning, thinking looking around, and making connections. They see the world in not only what it is, but what it can be.


I hope you all have a wonderful summer break, and I will see you in August! Sincerely, Sally McKenzie, Art Educator



10 Artful Things to Do This Summer!

1. Paint with water on the sidewalk.
2. Lie down in the grass and draw what you would see if you were an ant.
3. Play in the sprinkler and look for a rainbow.
4. Ask a friend to draw around your shadow with chalk then fill it in with things you like.
5. Take a closer look at a flower.
6. Arrange stones in an interesting pattern.
7. Look for animals and shapes in the clouds.
8. Plant a rainbow garden.
9. Place paper on the sidewalk and color with crayons to make an interesting texture.
10. Go for a walk and draw what you see

Kindergarten News

Kindergarten has started a fun new science unit investigating wood and paper. Not only do the students learn about the properties and the way wood and paper can change, but they will be making their own wood and paper to bring home. They have also finished writing their non-fiction how-to and all about books. Next they will start writing creative poetry. We have also been practicing fun day activities with Mr. Baker and can’t wait to show parents all the interesting ways we can move. We have grown so much this year as thinkers (reader, writers, mathematicians, scientists and more). The kindergarten teachers want to give a big thanks to the parents for their support and kindness.

Thank You Landscape Volunteers!

A huge THANK YOU to all of the parents, staff and students who helped clean up the grounds at Hanawalt on April 11th. Jerry Carpenter (3rd grade teacher Kelly's husband and owner of "Mr. Mow It All") did the difficult job of cutting back the large, tall grasses. Mr. Baker, William and Jonathan Hays and Regan Copple did an amazing job of cleaning up the back playground area. Cleaning the front and side yards and spreading mulch were Cheryl Thompson, Kristy Barzen, Julie & Liz Hahn, Rob & Lauren Malcomson, Olivia Griffin, Tate MacKrell, Principal Burton and Sally McKenzie. Thank you all for your time and effort to beautify the grounds on such a gorgeous morning!

Sue Boesen Copple - Beautification Chair

Plant Sale Pick Up Information

Plant Sale pick-up Monday May 11th. 2:30-4:30. Please plan to pick up your flowers at this time. If you cannot be there at this time please contact Lisa Kenworthy @ 277-9442 or 710-9377 for an alternate pick up time. Transporting the flowers will be difficult so please try to pick up during the pickup hours. Thank you for your order

Double A's, Triple J's and M

An amazing group of fourth grade readers, known as “The Double A’s, Triple Js and M” have been reading 40 books and meeting weekly to discuss the books since October. The Des Moines Public School program is Battle of the Books, or BOB as it is affectionately called. A team of six students read a set list of 40 books and then competed with other schools by answering questions about each book and the books’ authors names. Our fourth grade team consisting of: Alexandra Brown-Law, Miranda Gruber, Jack Heston, Anna Owenson, Jack Romp and Jacob Thompson competed last year as third graders. They came back together this year to represent Hanawalt in the west-side schools' competition on March 27th at Central Campus. They won third place. Great job BOB team!

And they couldn't have done it without the patience and support of their team mentor, Tilda Swanson-Brown. Tilda has coached the team for the last two years and is looking forward to turning the page on next year as well. Thanks Tilda for your continued support of BOB.

5th Grade Celebration News

WII LOVE HANAWALT! That’s the theme for this year’s 5th grade promotion celebration! Even though Wii do love Hanawalt, it’s almost time for our 5th graders to say their final farewell to their beloved elementary school!


The Hanawalt class of 2009 will celebrate the end of their elementary journey through Hanawalt with a special promotion ceremony and celebration reception on Wednesday, June 3rd from 9:30 a.m. until Noon in the Weitz Commons. Parents, grandparents and other family of all 5th graders are invited to attend this special ceremony. Following the ceremony, there will be a special ice cream social reception from 11:00-Noon on the Hanawalt playground. All Fifth graders and their families are all invited to attend this as well!


EVENTS

Wednesday, May 6

Wii Think Green (Clean up Day)	1:30pm - 2:30pm	School Grounds
Thursday, May 28	Wii Love to Play Wii	6:00pm - 7:00pm	Merrill Middle School
Wednesday, June 3	Promotion Ceremony & Celebration	9:30 - Noon	Weitz Commons
	Ice Cream Social	11:00 - Noon	Playground

As our 5th graders complete their journey through Hanawalt, we want to thank ALL of our wonderful teachers and staff for helping provide an incredible foundation for our children over the past six years!! Many of us remember our kindergarten years at Mannawalt….who could forget those days of putting our children on buses to go clear across town to school? Well, you quickly put us at ease as some of us reluctantly dropped off our little ones for their long bus ride to the south side. We knew they were in good hands with you!! Thank you for all of the great memories and for being the wonderful educators that you are! Your enthusiasm, kindness, creativity patience and love for our children will never be forgotten!


Wii also want to thank our AWESOME 5th Grade Celebration Committee Members who have been hard at work behind the scenes, attending meetings or have signed up to help on a committee!! And certainly last but not least!! A huge thank you to our 5th grade teachers and staff for their guidance and support in making this years celebration a wonderful experience!

• Mrs. McKenzie and Pam Dennis – 5TH Grade art project: “Hanawalt Family Tree” – Wii Love our FAMILY TREE!!!
• Mrs. Looney- sharing her love of music
• Mr. Baker- for allowing us to use his equipment and playground
• Mr. Gillaspey, Mrs. Genzen and Mrs. Hesse: for ALL of your tremendous support and guidance in planning our promotion!!!
• Mrs. Burton: For your leadership, new ideas and guidance as we planned our events.

Fondly, Lisa Turner and Sherie Barnett - 5th Grade Celebration Co-chairs