Trafalgar Gazette Trafalgar Elementary Principal's Pen
Volume 6, Issue 3 Thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of our Fall Festival especially our hard-working PTO Board! It was a great event which was well attended. Everyone loved the Hot Air Balloon, and said that our Haunted House was the scariest ever! The teacher booths were fun as always and the food was delicious! We had great support from our teachers, parents and community members. Next up on our busy schedule is the week of Parent/Teacher conferences. These will be held the week of Nov. 2-6. Please contact your child’s teacher if you have not already scheduled this important meeting to discuss your child’s academic progress. Report cards will be given out at the conference. Our first principal parties of the year will be held on Nov. 9 and 10, as a celebration for excellence in both work and behavior. K and 1 will play games outside and grades 2-5 will play BINGO for prizes. At the Pride and Patriotism event at Barbara Mann Hall honoring veterans, we are pleased to announce that Trafalgar had two of the six elementary winners for the visual arts category. Congratulations to Kayla McNeeley and Austin Lyons, both from Mrs. Feather’s fifth grade class and their art teacher, Helen Garcia-Valdez. Beginning November 2, we welcome back our music teacher, Janice Holycross who returns to us from teaching last quarter at Hector Cafferata. Mrs. Helen Garcia-Valdez will return at the start of third quarter. Unfortunately this school year, we have two quarters of art and two quarters of music. Fortunately, we are blessed with two of the finest professional educators in the fine arts who are doing a wonderful job in the limited time that they are here.
November 19th
is holiday dress up picture day. We hope you have a blessed
Thanksgiving holiday and thank you for your continued support. Wow! What a wonderful success the Fall Festival was! We would like to thank all of the parents and staff who participated and unselfishly volunteered their time to put together and staff this event. We couldn’t have pulled it off without you. Also we would like to extend our gratitude to the Trafalgar Middle School for jointly hosting our Festival. Last, but certainly not least, special thanks to all of our community sponsors for their donations.
Starbucks
Coffee Applebee’s Outback Steak house
Arby’s Foster’s Grill Bob Evan’s We are proud of the amount of sponsors from our business community who were so eager to help support our school especially in this economy. Our Fall Fundraiser was a great success raising nearly $9,000. Orders were sent home Friday the 23rd. If you are missing any items or have any broken items you can return them to school with the order form that was sent along. There were a few backorders and we should be getting those in soon. Wednesday November 18th will be our Play fest reward for all of our students who sold 5 items or more. For those who sold ten or more items remember to wear your crazy hats. Congratulations to Elijah McCoy who had the highest sales. You get to be Principal for half a day! Thanks again to everyone for their continued support. You are the reason we have such a great school! PBS Update As a PBS school it is important that parents are informed of our program’s goals and processes. We have been a model school for several years based on meeting the goals outlined in our school-wide action plan each year. For the school year 09/10 we have been focusing on more intrinsic rewards and have been relying less on “trinkets” and extrinsic rewards for good behavior. Our teachers teach the four behavioral expectations and all personnel in the school share in the role of reinforcing these expectations. Some of the rewards that are new this year are the “SMART” award, which took the place of the “PEACE” award from last year and a new bus award. We continue celebrations of our students in the form of principal’s picnic for the most improved student from each class each month, the principal’s party to honor all the students who have met the school-wide expectations for the quarter and the student of the week in each classroom. Additionally we orient the children in the fall and winter with discipline assemblies and share discipline data with teachers at faculty meetings. Next time you are on campus, look for the PBS bulletin board outside the Media Center and the PBS posters on display in every classroom and common area. In summary, as
a PBS and Kagan school, we work diligently to teach children the
social skills needed to get along with their peers and build the
will for them to work cooperatively together to enhance their
learning. 
Sunny D Book Spree Earn 20 Free Books for Your Classroom Each classroom can earn 20 free grade-appropriate books by collecting 20 UPC labels from Sunny D approved products. Go to www.sunnyd.com to view the approved product list, promotion rules and to download the entry form. All entries must be postmarked by November 14th, 2009.
Second Grade Performance
November 18th & 23rd The Turkeys Go On Strike, a hilarious play about the possible cancellation of Thanksgiving will be performed by second grade on November 18th and 23rd at 6:30PM. Come and enjoy the only show that features dancing cranberries, and learn about the true meaning of Thanksgiving. November 18th Showing: November 23rd Showing: Mrs. Castilla’s Class Mrs. Blanco’s Class Mrs. Grant’s Class Mrs. Hensley’s Class Ms. Keran’s Class Mrs. Mazon’s Class Mrs. Skidd’s Class Mrs. Rose’s Class 7th Annual Turkey Trot We are holding our 7th Annual Turkey Trot on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009. If you would like to volunteer for any of the following events, please email Ms. Corace at suzycc@leeschools.net. See below for times of events:
8:30AM - 1 mile road race for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders
The following is a list of novels that are
Sunshine Books
this year.
1. Brendan
Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It by
Sundee T. Frazier Students who read 8 or more of these great books and pass an AR test will be invited in April to attend a Sunshine Celebration in the media center. Students who read 3 or more of these books by March 31st will be eligible to officially vote through the State of Florida for their favorite book in the list. Also, the students that have read and AR tested on all 15 titles by March 31st will have a chance to be a part of Trafalgar’s 6 person BOOK BATTLE Team. This team attends a competition in May where they will be asked a series of questions about the books. The team will have a chance to decide on an answer together before submitting it. Trafalgar did quite well in the competition last year and we had a ton of fun! This year looks very promising. I encourage students to read these books. They are all wonderful and engaging. Submitted by Mrs. Bisbe, Trafalgar Elementary Media Specialist We would like to tank Re/Max of the Islands for providing the Re/Max Hot Air Balloon for the Fall Festival. Proceeds from the balloon were used to defray the cost of transportation to Seacamp (a fifth grade trip).Ms. Corace would like to thank all of you that donated items for the Seacamp Silent Auction.
Veterans Honored at TES!
First grade is planning a Veteran’s Day Program for Thursday, November 12th at 8:30 a.m. Families and veterans are encouraged to attend our celebration. Thank you for your support! No Child Left Behind Update: Information regarding the district’s performance status on the Comprehensive English Language Learning Assessment (CELLA) can viewed at http://intervention.leeschools.net/districtaccountability.html. To learn more about your child’s progress in English language acquisition or how you can become more involved at the school, contact your child’s principal. Spanish Noticia actualizadora sobre Ningún Niño Se Quedará Atrás: La información respecto al estado del rendimiento/ejecución del Distrito respecto al examen Comprensivo del Aprendizaje del Idioma Inglés (por sus siglas en inglés CELLA) se puede ver cibernéticamente en http://intervention.leeschools.net/districtaccountability.html. Para informarse más del progreso de su hijo/a en la adquisición del idioma inglés o cómo usted puede participar más en la escuela, comuníquese con el director de la escuela de su hijo/a. Creole Mizajou konsènan pwojè lalwa « Pa kite okenn timoun rete dèyè » (No Child Left Behind): Ou ka gade enfòmasyon konsènan pèfòmans distri a sou Evalyasyon konpreyansif pou konpetans an anglè (CELLA) nan sitwèb: http://intervention.leeschools.net/districtaccountability.html. Pou konnen plis konsènan pwogrè pitit ou nan aprann anglè oubyen konsènan kijan ou gendwa patisipe plis nan lekòl, tanpri kontakte dirèktè lekòl pitit ou. |
