Teacher Appreciation

Click here for a printable copy of the flyer

Important Information on H1N1

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has released the following guidelines for dealing with the H1N1 Flu Strain this season. Rather than try and list all their recommendations here, the following link will load a PDF file of the CDC recommendations.

CDC Flier for H1N1

If you have further questions after reading the flier please contact the CDC at www.flu.gov or 1-800-CDC-INFO.

For a resource closer to home you can always ask Nurse Sandy for her recommendations as well.

Updates from the PTA President

As we all prepare for the long winter months-making plans to travel for family gatherings and celebrate the fall and the slowdown of the winter months ahead, there is still a lot going on at Hanawalt.

The PTA speaker for the month of November is Dr. Barbara Adams, Math Curriculum Supervisor for K-5 for Des Moines Public Schools. Join us on November 12th at 6:30 pm, in Mrs. Carpenter's room, for information on the new math program that all our children are currently experiencing in the classroom. Do you have questions that have come up as you've helped your child with their homework? She will have handouts and lots of good information for all of us.

We have several programs that are getting off the ground and will run through the winter. Kidstriders, Jr. Great Books, Battle of the Books and Literacy Army just to name a few, will all be starting this first part of November. We've had some people ask about having a movie night again this year and we are planning that for the doldrums of winter-look for a movie night in January.

Don't forget the Winter Drop Off Rules go into effect Monday November 9th. See the article and flier published in October (down a little ways in the blog postings) for more information.

So as fall fully descends-I hope you enjoy family time, have safe travels and have healthy happy holidays!!

Please feel free to give me a call at 252-1787 or drop me an email at Cheryl@tasty-treats.com if there is anything you need.

November Dates to Remember

11 120-minute early dismissal
12 PTA Meeting - 6:30 p.m.
25 Celebrate! Character Counts - Performances begin at 1:15 p.m.
26/27 No school

Don't forget about the online calendar, the link is on the side bar to the left.

A COUPLE OF CHANGES TO ANNOUNCE

Celebrate! November 25, 2009
We would like to invite parents, grandparents, or special guests to join us on Wednesday, November 25, 2009. This is the day before Thanksgiving. This year, all of our musical performances will be held in the afternoon. This is NOT an early dismissal day. This year's performance directly connects to our work with the six pillars of character: trustworthiness; respect; responsibility; fairness, caring, and citizenship. Character Counts has been an important aspect of Hanawalt's everyday life for a number of years. The students in Kindergarten through Third Grade invite you to join them in their classrooms approximately 30 minutes prior to the musical performance in the Weitz Commons. We understand that people with children in various grades will be challenged to do both sessions, so we encourage you to attend the music performance as the priority. Classroom activities will reflect Character Counts and the everyday learning that is taking place at Hanawalt. Not all families will be able to attend due to work commitments. We understand this. This will be a regular day of school with some special performances added to our normal school schedule.

Seating will begin at 1:00. Please do not come in earlier as we will be setting up and cleaning after lunch.

Parking is a perpetual challenge, so we will hope for great weather so people can walk!

We hope that you will be able to help us Celebrate Character Counts!

Performances in the Weitz Commons:
1:10-1:35 p.m. Grades K-1
1:50-2:15 p.m. Grades 2-3
2:30-2:55 p.m. Grades 4-5

In Class demonstrations:
12:40-1:00 p.m. Grades K-1
1:20-1:40 p.m. Grades 2-3
Due to space limitations, grades 4-5 will not doing in-class demonstrations.

SCHOOL START TIME ...

The second change has to do with students who are tardy. Our school day begins at 8:15 a.m. Students should be seated and getting organized for the day. Students who come in late miss initial instructions and delay the learning for other students as teachers have to review what has already been said. In order to encourage students to spend less time being social at their lockers, students will give up a minute of noon recess for every minute they are late. Obviously this does not apply to students with appointments. Students should be inside the front doors no later than 8:10 a.m. This gives them time to get to their lockers and to their classroom. We are already seeing a big difference in the number of kids who are getting to class on time. It is our goal that every child is in school and ready to learn by 8:15 a.m.

Sally Foster Sales Raise $3,000

A huge "thank you" to everyone who participated in our Sally Foster Fundraiser! With your terrific efforts, Hanawalt raised $3,000 for PTA (with nearly $6,000 in total sales). This will help to fund events such as field trips, educational programming, and supplies to benefit our entire school. Hats off to our top sellers school-wide:

Lauren Carpenter - Kyler Schuster - Katie Baumert - Anna Owenson - Austin Carstens!

Our top-selling classrooms were:

1) Mrs. Yeager's class
2) Ms. Langel's class
3) Mrs. Esch's class.

We greatly appreciate everyone's hard work! It makes a big difference. Way to go, team! A special thank you also goes out to our Sally Foster committee: Sheryl Grimm, Susie Bormann, Cheryl Thompson, and Kay Smith for heading this up.

Second Grade News

The second grade students have started a new unit in reading. It is called Nature Walk. We are reading many stories about nature and the things you find in it.

We have taken a nice walk around our playground to collect samples of leaves and other items found outside. We tried to walk as silently as we could to hear the natural sounds of animals, plants in the wind, and crunching leaves.

Along with the nature stories in our anthology, we have been learning about spiders, bats, and other creatures in the wild. We compare the fiction and non-fiction characters. We have also been talking about the difference between fact and opinion.

Try taking a nature walk of your own. It's easy to do in a park, on a trail, or in your own backyard!

Fifth Grade News

Fifth grade students are very busy with a wide variety of activities happening in the classroom. On Friday, October 30th the fifth graders toured the three branches of the Iowa Government. Our tour started with the Supreme Court which is in the Judicial Building. Students learned about Iowa History and the early stands on the Civil Rights. Our tours then led us to the Iowa State Capitol to tour the Legislative and Executive Branches of government, with a final tour of the dome.

Back in the classrooms students are rotating between the three fifth grade classrooms to study Social Studies, Language Arts and Science. In Social Studies the students chose a topic from the colonial times to research and present. The presentations students created could be in the form of a poster, diorama, play or exhibit. In Language Arts each of the three classes are participating in pen pal activities. The three classes have pen pals from: 5A Germany, 5B Italy, and 5C Russia and Bulgaria. Technology is being used to communicate using Skype, web cam, video and power point. Students just wrote letters explaining about our culture and holidays; students then sent them in the form of a Halloween card. Science class has focused on Food and Nutrition. Students are doing hands on experiments with food to look at sugars, acids, and fats in food. We continue to stretch the level of education while making school fun.

Notes from the Music Room

Music classes have been hard at work preparing for our first All-School concert, “Celebrate”. The theme is “On Pitch with Character” and centers on the six pillars of character. CHARACTER COUNTS! helps students make good choices in their day to day life. This special day is the day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday, November 25th and was formerly known as VIP Day. Please see information on page 2 under “News from the Principal” for more information.

The Hanawalt 4th & 5th Grade Chorus have been rehearsing every Friday after lunch. The chorus has 3 special activities coming up. The first is a concert on Thursday, December 10th at 6:00 P.M. in the Weitz Commons, the second is a tour on Wednesday, December 16th and third, performing for the whole school (date – to be determined).

Hanawalt Art Work on Display

If you go to the Metro Arts Expo this weekend you will see a work of art designed and painted by Hanawalt student artists! There are ten wooden boxes that will be up for auction. A group of Hanawalt artists had the opportunity to add their creative touch to one of the boxes! You will certainly enjoy their creativity, as they have done a fabulous job!

Metro Arts Expo
November 7-8
10AM-6PM Saturday
10AM-4PM Sunday
HyVee Hall-Iowa Events Center