January 2012 • Issue #4

Frederick Leighton Elementary School 1 Buccaneer Blvd., Oswego, New York 13126 Phone: 315-341-2700 Fax: 315-341-2970

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http://www.oswego.org/schools/fls.htm

Principal’s Message

  Happy New Year! I would like to extend well wishes to all for a happy and healthy new year.   Just a reminder that as the snow starts to fly in Oswego, the children need to be dressed appropriately to come to school. Coats, hats, mittens/gloves and boots are a must, especially on those cold and blustery days. Physical education classes do have many outdoor winter activities that would require weather appropriate apparel. Some classrooms will still be utilizing outside for recess, activities and projects. It would be very unfortunate to not have your child participate because they were not dressed for the cold weather.   Also remember to tune into your local television and radio stations, and the oswego.org web site for up-to-the minute school closings and delays. When school is delayed, parents should not drop their children off prior to the delayed time for arrival which is 10:45 A.M. Remember, there is no breakfast served on a delay. On regular school days please do not bring or send your child to school before 8:35 A.M. if they are receiving breakfast and 8:45 A.M. if they are not. The reason for this is there is no supervision provided when children are dropped off early.   January is a month of reflections and new beginnings. Celebrate learning, reflect on the growth and begin to imagine how far we can go when we set our expectations high and plan a path to reach them. The FLS community would like to wish everyone health and happiness in the New Year.

School Hours

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Breakfast........................................... 8:35 - 8:55 A.M. 8:45 A.M.........................................................................First Bell 9:00 A.M.........................................................Late Bell 3:30 P.M.................................... Walker Dismissal Bell 3:35 P.M......................................... Bus Dismissal Bell

Important January Dates

5 ��������������������Home and School Meeting, Library 6: 00 P.M. 16 �����������������Student/Staff Holiday 19 �����������������Understanding Wildlife Rainforest Show – Gym 5:30 P.M. & 7:30 P.M. 26 �����������������Winter Concert: Concert Band-FLS APR Room - 6:30 P.M. 27 �����������������10 Week Marking Period Ends 31-Feb. 10 ����Gertrude Hawk Candy Sale

February Dates 2 �����������������Home and School Meeting – Library 6:00 P.M. 10 ���������������Gertrude Hawk Candy Sale ends 13-17 ����������Healthy Heart Week 16 ���������������Home & School -Get Movin’ Night 6:00 P.M. 17 ���������������PBIS Celebration 20-24 ����������Mid Winter Recess

Important Reminders and Requests   On occasion a parent may request that their child be released early for an appointment. In this event, the following procedure is followed: 1. The child brings in a note from the parent; the note is to be sent to the office in the morning, before 10:00 A.M. so the office staff is aware of the arrangement and that the parent is expected. Phone Numbers for FLS 2. The parent reports to the office, before 3:00 P.M. and five minutes before the child needs to be Main Office................................................. 341-2700 Psychologist................................................341-2740 released, and signs the early release log which includes the type of appointment and reason for Library..........................................................341-2741 Nurse...........................................................341-2742 the requested earlier dismissal. 3. The office calls the classroom for the child and the child reports to the office for pick-up. Chil- Cafeteria......................................................341-2744 Social Worker..............................................341-2745 dren will not be released to walk somewhere or meet their parents in the parking lot. Students Fax...............................................................341-2970 will not be called to the office for a specific pick up time and wait in the office. This causes missed instructional time. Generally, “walk-in” requests to have a child released early, between 3:00 - 3:25 P.M. will not be honored for two very important reasons. First, learning is still occurring as many teachers are still teaching, summarizing learning, reviewing homework and organizing students for the next day. Parents that routinely pull their child from school early, based on personal convenience, cause their child to miss significant amounts of instructional time and disrupt the learning of other students. Second, the Main Office is very busy during this time with end of the day tasks, and following their procedures to safely release students that have properly provided a note. Too many “last minute” requests for early release of students due to the convenience of the parent create a situation which compromises student safety. Real “emergencies”, although infrequent will continue to be honored.   Remember, keep your Student Information Verification forms up to date with new phone numbers or contact changes for pick up purposes. If your address changes, you will need to contact the Education Center ASAP so that any bussing changes can occur. Please note: you will remain at this school for the remainder of the year if you still reside within the Oswego City School District. Any changes or additions to student information are crucial for the safety and comfort of your child. No student may be released from school to anyone other than a parent, guardian, or child protective service personnel and to local enforcement officers pursuant to law, without a note, even if they are listed on the Student Information Verification forms. For added measure, please tell your child the emergency contact’s full name and remember your passwords!   Additionally, if your child is absent from school please be sure to send in a note and indicate if your child is absent due to sickness, weather or family emergency.

AIS Math

  Remember, our school day promptly begins at 9:00 A.M. We need your help in order to decrease tardiness as we have had a number of students arriving just after the bell and are marked tardy. The slight differences in clocks from home to school may be a contributing factor. Starting at 8:45 A.M. students are able to come in and go to their classrooms. The 15 minutes can help to create a smoother transition to school each morning without the rush. For those students who come in to enjoy a breakfast the café doors are open at 8:35 A.M. to allow plenty of time for their morning meal.

Mrs. Cahill

  Happy New Year! We have been very busy in AIS Math. The students have been working hard. Please remember to do some work on basic math facts every day at home too. Our goal is to have students know their basic facts (for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing) as quickly as they know their own name. Our district website (http://resources.oswego.org/games/ ) offers many fun opportunities to practice these, as well as concepts they are doing in math class. Students can access Fastt Math from home. Please look for instructions on how to log into Fastt Math in this newsletter and have this be their New Year’s resolution to do a session at home EVERY day.   If you should have any concerns, please feel free to contact me, jcahill@oswego./org .   I wish all of you the best of good health & happiness for 2012!!!!!!

Julie C. Burger, Principal

Kindergarten Mrs. Astoria, Mrs. Lisk, Mrs. Mills

  Kindergarten has had a busy December! We had a visit from Santa courtesy of OHS Honor Society and his elves. We wrote letters to Santa and his busy elves replied; members of the Youth Court came and read them to us! We also learned about needs and wants and our 5 senses this month.

Concert Band Mr. Bartholomew

  The Concert Band will be presenting their Winter Concert on Thursday, January 26th in the All-Purpose Room of Leighton School. The performance will start at 6:30 P.M. and the students are asked to be at the school NO LATER THAN 6:00 P.M.

Third Grade

Nurse’s Corner

Mrs. Henry

  Not many people can say that they know someone who is 100 years old. Mrs. Henry’s third graders had a special guest last month. His name is Fern Jettie. He is Kyle Familo’s friend and yes, he is 100 years old! Kyle invited Fern to come to our school and meet his classmates and tell us about his life and what it was like growing up a century ago. Fern was born in 1911 and took us on a trip back into history through stories about his life growing up in New England. The students asked many questions about what school was like back then. They were quite surprised that school was “all work and no play”, and that there was more respect, responsibility, and motivation to work many years ago. Every family member contributed something. There were many other social and academic comparisons that we learned from Fern. He caused us to ponder the advantages and disadvantages of living 100 years ago. We’d like to thank Kyle, Uncle Steve, and especially Fern for the wonderful opportunity to share a friend.

Mrs. Hackett

Medication at School   Any medication given at school must have a written doctor’s order with the child’s name, birth date, name of medication, dosage, frequency, and length of time the child is to receive it as well as written permission from the parent that the children take it at school. Medication that is a prescription form from a doctor must be in a labeled bottle from the pharmacy. If the medication is an over the counter, such as Tylenol, it still needs to be prescribed by the doctor and it must be in an unopened package. The child is not allowed to bring the medication to school either on the bus or even as a walker. The parent must bring in all medications and must pick up any unused portion. There are forms in the health office that can be filled out by both the doctor and the parent requesting that a child receive medication at school. If you have any questions, please call the Leighton School Health Office at 341-2742.

4th Grade

Mrs. Fear and Mrs. VanBrocklin

  As students continue to learn about the history of New York State, they also had fun creating turtle clan necklaces. The turtle clan is just one of several Iroquois groups in our state. It was a great way for student’s to learn about culture.

Physical Education Mr. Beers & Mrs. Lavner

  Box Tops for Physical Education: The Physical Education department would like to say thank you to all the students, parents and teachers who have been sending in box tops. We earn cash for physical education equipment with these box tops.

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Individual students who brought in the most box tops this session earned extra time in the gym in December. The winners of the first session are the following students: Isaiah Wise-

man, Julia Porter, Sam Griffin, Sophia DeLorenzo, Ryan Bartlett, Andrew Mosbo, Gretchen Dowd, Evan Tesoriero, Abby Faul, Lauren Garafolo, Zachary Metott, Jillian Knopp, Wyatt Fetterley, Nathan Allen, Ryan Bailey, Ashley Finch, Jenna Garcia, Liliana Springston, Mia Marsallo, Olivia Tobin, Charlotte Pettit, Aarti Kumar, and Elijah Penfield.   We started a new session as of December 9th. Box tops collected between now and February 10th will be counted toward our second session of earning extra time in the gym. Please keep those box tops coming in. The class with the most box tops as of January 13th will also earn an extra PE class.   When your child brings in the box tops, please have them in a baggie or envelope with his or her name and classroom teacher’s name on it, so they get credit for it. Please give them to Mrs. Lavner or put them in the box outside the library or gymnasium.

programs we sponsor throughout the year at Leighton. I would personally like to thank the volunteers who helped me during the week. It was very challenging and I appreciate each and every one of you. Also, thank you to the faculty and staff for participating in our fund raiser.   A special thank you to the ladies in the office for all they do to accommodate home and school.   We also had our annual Holiday Gift Giving workshop on December 3rd. As always it was a success. We had several volunteers for this project , thank you. We just could not do the things we do without the support of volunteers.   To round up the thank you’s for the month, we have an extra special thank you to our custodial staff at Leighton. Between the holiday shop and holiday gift giving they had a lot of extra duties to be responsible for and we thank them! COMING IN JANUARY: On January 19th the rainforest is coming to Leighton! There will be two shows at 5:30 P.M. and 7:30 P.M. The cost will be $5 a person. There will be more information on this sent home. We hope everyone will be able to make a show.

Happy New Year from Leighton Home & School!! Mrs. Dowd & Mrs. Griffin

  We would like to invite you to join us for our first meeting of the New Year. It will be held Thursday, January 5th in the library at Leighton beginning at 6:00 P.M. Child care will be provided. We love to see our regular attendees and we would love to see some new faces, so come start the New Year off by attending a home and school meeting.   In late November early December Leighton Home and School sponsored a holiday gift shop opened to students, parents & faculty. The sale was a success, with a percent of the total sales going directly to all the

  As always, if you have any questions or concerns please contact us. Pamela Dowd, Co-President - [email protected] Kelly Griffin, Co-President – [email protected] Check out our website at https://sites.google.com/site/leightonhomeandschool/

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Have your New Year’s Resolution of using Fastt Math at home start early! Start using it EVERY day at home during our holiday break!

Follow these steps: • Go to www.oswego.org • Click intranet • Under “Student Links” Click Scholastic-Student Access • Click FASTT Math • Username: your student ID number • Password: Oswego

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