Riddle Reporter February 2014

Riddle Elementary School

From the Principal’s desk . . .

Parent Survey

I want to take a moment to acknowledge employee groups whose work is some-times overlooked, but is critical to a highly successful school. Please look over the school and grounds carefully when you are here. You will see the windows are clean, counters are clean, restrooms are clean, miles of carpet are clean, side-walks are clean, and 12 acres of grounds are clean. The custodians keep this place looking sharp. The cooks serve an average of 275 breakfasts between 8:00 and 8:20 and 550 to 600 lunches between 11:00 and 12:30 - every day. Public Health Inspectors are strict and inflexible, just as they should be. Our kitchen gets written up for things like “one light bulb in the oven exhaust hood is out” and the “cleaning solu-tion used to wipe counters is too strong”. The problems are corrected, of course, but those are the kind of problems we have . . . You have all had contact with the secretaries. Their job duty list includes about forty different things and ends with “other duties as assigned”. They are precise, accurate, and timely with every project. Most importantly, they know their personal interactions with the public, parents, staff, and especially students are critical to the image and perception of our school. The fact is, their person-alities effect the way the school “feels”. We want Riddle to feel professional, very well organized, and friendly, caring and focused on helping our children and their families. These work groups are critical to the operation of the school and the “tone” of the school. I want to thank the custodians, cooks, and secretaries for their ex-cellent work. I also want to thank them for their attitude toward their work. There is never a complaint, never a hesitation. There is always “what can I do to help”. That is the “Riddle School Way”. Sincerely,

Bruce E. Barnard Bruce E. Barnard, Principal

Parent Feedback Survey results are attached to the newsletter. The results and comments will be reviewed by the staff and will be a key part of our annual School Improvement Plan. Our goal is to continuously improve to provide excellent service to every child and every family. Thank you very much for your time and help.

Inside this issue:

PE News 2

Gr 1 Miss Weber 2

Gr 3 Mrs. N. Smith 3

Gr 4 Mrs. Gibson 3

Riddle Honor Roll 4

Library Mrs. Muzzy 4

Young Authors Info 5

Library Mrs. Muzzy 5

Calendar Dates 6

Parent Feedback Survey Results

7

Virtues for February: Love (Feb 10) Excellence (Feb 24)

BUNDLE UP!

Lots-O-Fun in February Submitted by Mrs. Gross

Riddle P.E. has lots-o-fun activities and special days planned in the month of February. Our district P.E. curriculum for this month includes: endurance/rhythmic activities, agility/balance skills, flexibility (including fitness testing), and lessons in cooperation and teamwork. In addition, on February 4 our afternoon classes will welcome University of Illinois Extension Department presentations on the benefits of physical activity and healthy food choices.

Mark your family calendar the evening of February 27 from 6:00 pm-7:00 pm for special Family Fitness Fun Night here at Riddle Gymnasium with beach volleyball, the limbo, and hula hoops/Frisbee as well as special prizes

and snack. We have included a special spirit week that is motivated to “beat the winter blahs”. The entire building will be celebrating with a different theme each day: favorite team shirt day, crazy socks day, Mattoon Green Wave day, tropical shirt day, and finishing with school spirit Riddle shirt day. Let’s all join together for lots-o-fun!

First Graders in Miss Weber’s class have been very busy learning about our Earth’s natural resources. One of the natural resources we were eager to explore was air! We learned that air is all around us, even though we usually cannot see it, feel it, smell it, or taste it. We also discovered that air takes up space and takes the shape of its container. These properties of air were explored by doing some really neat, hands-on experiments! We were also able to explore rocks, soil, and water during this unit of study.

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Earth’s Natural Resources Submitted by Miss Weber

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If I Were a Snowflake Submitted by Mrs. N. Smith

Reading Buddies! Submitted by Mrs. Gibson

Mrs. Nancy Smith’s 3rd graders read the book Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin together in class and created their own unique snowflakes. The students then wrote a story of if they were snowflakes. The students wrote creative pieces of how they started, lived, and ended their unique journeys.

Students in Mrs. Gibson’s 4th grade class are enjoying working with Miss Weber’s 1st grade students this year. Students meet once a week and have worked on various reading skills together, made fun projects, and even celebrated Thanksgiving together with pumpkin pie! Most recently the students learned about Martin Luther King, Jr., and his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. The students in both classes are looking forward to more learning opportunities and fun to come!

Riddle 2nd Quarter Honor Roll GRADE 4: Alisson Brant, Taylie Bryant, Bailey Evans, Wesley Mefford, Devin Woods, Tehya Cloyd, Maya Cook, Timothy Crask, Alexa Dhom, Gannon Dow, Brandon Eveland, Ian Goodwin-Gage, Nicholas Hurt, Damion Knorr, Josiah Koons, Emma Plunkett, Chloe Pruitt, Jordon Richardson, Alyssa Triplett, Destinee Tuttle, Tejas Zala, Wyatt Arndt, Robert Bradbury, Katie Clatfelter, Samantha Copsy, Jayden Currie, Whitley Dearing, Ivie Edwards, Paige Farmer, Skyler Mansfield, Gabriel Parks, Mallory Ramage, Isabel Spear, Samantha Stephens, Kaiden Stivers, Konnor Webster, Josh Carter, Ashton Caughran, Carielle Glenn, Trevor Geyer, Trevor Long, Andrew Loy, Abby Mathias, Wyatt Mayhall, Emma Mingus, Madison Pauley, Allie Wells, Justyce Prather, Talaya Callahan, Corralyn Clark, Joleigh Cougill, Matthew Gordon, Jarrett Harris, Chloe Jobe, Chandler Melton, Ian Mitchell, Rylee Price, McKenzie Renfro, Halle Stanley, Hannah White, Jenaya Carter, Josh Croft, Caroline Davis, Kabria Earp, Willow Harris, Dakota Hensley, Nate Huddleston, Haylie Hutton, Braden Kelly, Mataya Larson, Jesse Mast, Courtney Platz, Carly Robison, Aidan Spurgeon, Keylee Stoneburner, Jackson Whalin GRADE 5: Jackeylnn Bolin, Marcus Curce, Dillon Ashe, Dallas Cunningham, Seven Allah, Gracie Croy, Gavin Gonzalez, Vivian Hardin, Amira Johnson, Anna Morton, Tharyn Price, Hannah Schrock, Nico Scott, Zachary Shick, Preston Smith, Taylor Warren, Destyne Arthur, Nicholas Doty, Christopher Drummond, Ginger Gardner, Paige Hopgood, Stepha-nie Hunt, Jacob Legg, Tinley Risinger, Maddie Thomason, Nathaniel Triplett, Logan Beals, Evelain Blake, Lily Carter, Drew Coffey, Alexis Donner, Xylia Greeson, Ryleigh Hawkins, Jody Herschberger, Jayde Hoshauer, Dallas Kearney, Aurora Kemp, Mackenzie Kirby, Allison Stapleton, Cyrus Steele, Bradon Thompson, Hayden Williams, Chloe Williamson, Jordan Pike, Frank Adams, Abigail Carter, Torrence Clark, Dallas Daniels, Caiden Decker, Pierce Farmer, Magnificent Fauke, Tyson Gass, Callan Haldorsen, Grace Helms, Berkley Howell, Chanel Inboden, Jacob Kettleson, Jessy King, Madison Miller, Gabrielle Smith, Kaitlyn Smith, DeAnna Tell, Haley Hubbart, Alika Antrim, Mollie Auer, Nivea Bryant, Malik Carter-Smith, Paiziah Chounard, Chloe Grasl, Pacie Hussong, Jonathan Mast, Madeline Sharp, Megan Thomas, Zoie Thomason, Maggie Uphoff, Zach Watkins, Xavier Worker

Bluestem Drawing Winners Submitted by Mrs. Muzzy

Fourth and fifth grade students have been reading Bluestem nominated books in order to get ready to vote mid-March. Each AR quiz passed on a Bluestem book gets a student’s name entered in a drawing to win a book from the Scholastic Book order. Here are the lucky winners from December.

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Luke, Halle, Kylee, and Jesse

2014 Young Authors The Mattoon School District will once again participate in the statewide Young Authors Program. Encourage your students to be authors by writing and illustrating their own original manuscripts. The Young Authors Program is an excellent program to encourage our students to write and celebrate their creativity. Please encourage your child(ren) to participate! These are the guidelines to follow: • Books/stories must have a cover. • Students’ names should not be written on the manuscripts. Identification codes should be developed to

keep student identities confidential. These may be obtained through your student’s teacher. • Stories may be typed or handwritten. • Stories may be dictated to a teacher or another adult. • Illustrations, photographs, computer generated pictures, and graphics are encouraged, but not required. One manuscript from each category will be selected to represent the district in the statewide conference. Each school will be represented. Books will be classified into 3 categories: • Primary (Grades K-2) • Intermediate (Grades 3-5) • Middle School (Grades 6-8) Each classroom teacher has identified specific due dates for Young Authors manuscripts to be submitted. Please contact the teacher regarding due dates. District judging and notification of district representatives will take place at Riddle Elementary School by March 7, 2014. Young Authors Statewide Conference is May 17, 2014 at ISU in Bloomington. If you have any further questions, please ask Mrs. Chris Bough, District Coordinator. Thank you for your continued support for this wonderful opportunity to encourage student writing.

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Battle of the Books Submitted by Mrs. Muzzy

Students in grades 4 and 5 have an opportunity to sign up to be on a Battle of the Books team. They have been reading books from the list all school year and teams will compete at the end of March in order to see whose team reigns supreme. The top two teams from each grade will compete against the top two Williams Elementary School teams. Teams are signed up and ready for some good competition!

Mattoon CUSD #2 Riddle Elementary School 4201 Western Avenue Mattoon IL 61938 217-238-3800 (p) 217 238-3805 (f)

Mr. Bruce E. Barnard, Principal Mrs. Chris Bough, Assistant Principal

Respect+Responsibility+Relationships=Results

www.mattoon.k12.il.us

Special Dates

February 3 Discovery Testing Week 3:15 Girls on the Run 4 3:15 PALS 5 3:15 Girls on the Run 6 Gr 1 Dental Health Lessons 3:15 PALS 7:00 Band @RES Gym 7 Midterm Ends 9:15 Gr 1 Field Trip 8 Kdg Vision Test 10 3:15 Brownie Troop 2251 3:15 Girls on the Run 11 Grs 1,3,4,5,SpecEd Vision Test 3:15 PALS 6:00 PTA 7:00 Band @Riddle 7:00 School Board 12 Grs 1,3,4,5,SpecEd Vision Test 3:15 Girls on the Run 13 Gr 3 Dental Health Lessons 3:15 PALS 7:00 Band @Riddle 14 Midterms go Home Classroom Valentine’s Day Parties (check w/tchr on times) 12:40 Student Dismissal 17 NO SCHOOL Presidents Day 18 10:00 Tornado Drill 3:15 PALS 19 3:15 Girls on the Run 20 3:15 PALS 7:00 Band @Riddle 21 Kdg Vision Retest 2:00 Grs 4&5 Storyteller Assembly 24 School Spirit Week Favorite Team Shirt Day 2:45 Grs 1-3 Birthday Assembly 3:15 Girls on the Run 3:15 Brownie Troop 2251 25 Crazy Socks Day Picture Day 2:45 Grs 4-5 Birthday Assembly 3:15 PALS 7:00 Band @Riddle 26 Green and Gold Day Grs 1,3,4,5,SpEd Vision Retest 27 Tropical Shirt Day Reading Club Field Trip (Mrs. Muzzy) 3:15 PALS 6-7:00 Family Fun Night 7:00 Band @Riddle 28 Riddle School Shirt Day

March 3 Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) Begins for Grs 3,4,5 4 3:15 PALS 5 3:15 Girls on the Run 6 3:15 PALS 7:00 Band @Williams 7 End 3rd Quarter Young Authors District Level Judging 10 3:15 Girls on the Run 3:15 Brownie Troop 2251 11 3:15 NO PALS (EIU Break) 13 Gr 5 Field Trip 7:00 Band @Williams 14 Report Cards go Home ISAT Test Ends 17 St. Jude’s Math-A-Thon Week 3:15 Girls on the Run 18 9:00 Tornado Drill 3:15 PALS 6:00 PTA 7:00 School Board 19 3:15 Girls on the Run 20 3:15 PALS 7:00 Band @Williams 21 12:40 Student Dismissal 24 Pre-School Screening Week Battle of the Books Week (Grs 4 & 5) 3:15 Girls on the Run 3:15 Brownie Troop 2251 25 2:45 Grs 1-3 Birthday Assembly 3:10-6:00 Curriculum Exposition and Book Fair NO PALS 26 2:45 Grs 4-5 Birthday Assembly 3:15 Girls on the Run 27 3:15 PALS 7:00 Band @Williams

Please dress your children appropriately for this cold weather. Do not drop off the children before 8:00 am be-cause our supervisors do not start until then and it is too cold for children to be outside unsupervised. Thank you.