

December Newsletter
Donnelly Elementary
Principal's Message:
Happy December! It’s hard to believe we have already finished our first trimester of the 2023-2024 school year! I hope you all were able to spend some time with family and friends over the Thanksgiving break and are ready to close out 2023!
We kick off December with parent/teacher conferences. These are being offered in person, via Zoom or by phone. Please choose a format that works best for you and schedule with your child’s teacher. It’s not too late if you haven’t done so yet.
Our December character education word of the month is ‘KINDNESS’. It’s a great time of year to spend helping friends and family, encouraging random acts of kindness and showing our students the importance of helping one another. Ask your child what we are doing in school to promote and celebrate kindness and compassion.
Wishing you all a happy December, joyful holidays and a pleasant winter break!
Jill Rich
Reminders:
It is important that your child(ren) attend school daily and on time. Every minute counts towards providing the best educational experience for your child. We’d like to work with you to ensure our students are attending daily. If you need assistance, please contact us here at school. For more information on school attendance, visit:
Dates to Remember:
Thurs., Dec. 7 – PTA Meeting at 4:00 p.m. via Zoom
Fri., Dec. 1 - Report Cards Issued
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Noon Dismissal
Fri., Dec. 8 – Parent/Teacher Conferences
Noon Dismissal
Tues., Dec. 12 – Winter Concert
Fri., Dec. 15 – PTA Winter Event
Wed., Dec. 20 – Board of Education Meeting
Dec. 22 – Jan. 2 - Winter Recess - No School
Character Education Word and Manner of the Month:
“KINDNESS”
Kindness Matters!
Practice Random Acts of Kindness!
Say Please and Thank You!
MANNER: “Treat others the way you want
to be treated.”
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around!”
- L.F. Buca
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” - Aesop
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” - Lao Tzu
Another exciting part of December is Parent-Teacher Conferences. Conferences are a great opportunity to receive important information regarding your child’s educational journey. As an active partner in your child’s education, you can enhance the collaborative conversation by coming prepared with questions and comments. This is your chance to ask questions, provide insights and express your hopes and dreams for your child.
Talk to your child before the conference. Find out if they have any questions or concerns they might want you to bring up at the conference.
Make a list for the meeting. You might include questions, such as:
· How can you, the teacher, and the school work together to help your child?
· What can I do to help my child with subjects he/she finds difficult?
· What types of tests do you give? How often?
· How often do you assign homework? What types of homework assignments can I expect
to see?
· What is my child’s favorite subject and/or least favorite subject? How do you know?
· What can I be doing at home to reinforce what was taught in class?
Together, as a team, we create successful learning opportunities! Enjoy your conference!!
Congratulations to our Saber Star Award Recipients for the Month of October:
The Saber Cub Star awards were given to the following students who demonstrated the word and manner of the month for October. The word of the month was Courage and the manner of the month was “Table Manners”. Congratulations! We are very proud of your efforts.
Pre-Kindergarten – Easton Brokcak, Harper Leonard, Melody Chapman, ALiReza Husseini
Kindergarten – Stella Mutz, Easton Standish, Reagan Cook, McKennah Kostun
First Grade – Shealyn Finch, Paige Rogers, Paige Lowe, Lisa Murray
Second Grade – Alison Rossi, Jackson Strnatka, Kaiden Cox, Brooke Powell
Third Grade – Nathan Fisher, Owen Reynolds, Bay Canfield, Shawn Palmer
Fourth Grade – Irelyn Hammond, Jace Hildreth, Mah’Niah Foster-McCray, Tanner Franklin
Fifth Grade – Lucas Caforio, Lillianna Rivera, Jaysin Decker, Abigail Harendza
November’s Word of the Month is “Gratitude”.
The Manner of the Month is “Please and Thank You.”
A Very Special Thank You!
Thank you to the following local businesses, community members, local church congregations, SV staff, parents and students for helping assist families this year with extra food and gift cards to make Thanksgiving special. Giving thanks and helping others is the SV way. Thank you everyone for your help this year – it is truly appreciated.
The Dave and Jean Lindsay Family
Mr. and Mrs. Graham
ADEC Solutions
Broadview Federal Credit Union
Trivium Packaging
Cornell Cooperative Extension
Conklin Presbyterian Church Congregation
Kirkwood Methodist Church Congregation
Mrs. Mary Nolan and Friends at Universal Instruments Company
Donnelly Elementary Teachers and Staff
Donnelly Elementary Parents and Students
Donnelly Elementary PTA
Jenn Edwards and Brookside Elementary PTA
PARP Reading Is Pawesome!
This year’s PARP theme is “READING IS PAWSOME.” It will run in conjunction with our new program, “Gizmo’s Pawesome Guide to Mental Health.” This program provides school-aged children with the tools they need to manage their mental health.
Students have already received a reading log and calendar for the month of November. Please encourage your child to read for 15 - 20 minutes every day. They can read with a partner, with a pet or even with a stuffed animal. PARP stands for “Pick a Reading Partner” so any partner will work. The important thing is to just keep reading! Have your child place a sticker on each circle for every 15 minutes of reading. Then, have your child return the log by the date specified. When students turn in their reading logs they will get a small reward. It’s that simple. Be on the lookout for the monthly reading logs and the PARP calendar for fun events that will be happening each month.
Thank you for encouraging your child to read at home. It is a healthy habit to have!
Happy Reading!
Your PARP Committee
PASTA PALOOZA!!
Thank you to the following individuals and local businesses who helped to make our annual Pasta Palooza dinner a huge success!
Cortese Restaurant
Nirchi’s Pizza - Conklin
Jane’s Diner
Little Oak Restaurant
Coughlin and Gerhart
Wegmans
Donnelly Kitchen Crew
Donnelly Staff
Fifth Grade Servers
Mrs. Stafford
Adam Crocker
High School Volunteers - Reilly Miller, Sam Miller, Courtney Decker
Math Corner:
With the holidays approaching, why not consider gifts that will enrich your child’s educational journey? Think about a deck of attractive new flash cards. How about a game that uses dice or numbers? There are also many entertaining math books available. Try any of the titles by Greg Tang, such as The Grapes of Math or Math for all Seasons. There are also books that use candy to practice math concepts. What a fun way to learn!
Cold Weather Is On Its Way...
With winter rapidly approaching, it is important to remember to dress your child according to the anticipated weather. Please see that he/she wears boots when the ground is wet or covered with snow, as well as a hat, mittens and heavy coat.
Recess will take place outside during reasonable weather. Students may have the opportunity to go sledding on some days. Students need to wear snow pants if they plan to sled. Students are not allowed off the blacktop without wearing boots. It is important that everyone comes dressed so that the class may enjoy outdoor play. Please be sure to label everything.
Music Corner:
Holiday Cheer has begun in the General Music Classrooms at Donnelly Elementary School! In PreK General Music, students are learning about the speed of the beat or Tempo. They are also learning nursery rhymes which happen to have a great beat! Kindergarten students are working on matching pitch and clapping four beat rhythm patterns. We are also wrapping up our Thanksgiving songs and will be playing on classroom instruments. In first grade, students are learning about how pitches can be high, middle or low. Second graders have been working on learning musical symbols such as the whole note, half note and quarter note to help them prepare to read music. Our Donnelly third graders have been learning about the names of the notes and rests and how many beats are in each. In fourth grade General Music, students are able to identify the letter names of the notes on the musical staff. They have also begun to learn how to play the ukulele. Fifth grade can also identify the notes on a musical staff and now they are working on reviewing note and rest values.
Our Fourth Grade Orchestra and Bands are off to a great start. Please encourage your child to practice regularly. Ask your child to play for you! Encouragement goes a long way.
Fifth Grade Band, Fifth Grade Orchestra and the 4th and 5th Grade Chorus will be performing on Tuesday, December 12th at 6pm on the Donnelly stage. Please check to make sure your child has concert attire (black pants, shoes and shirt) for the performance. If you need to borrow concert clothing, please contact Mrs. Stafford as soon as possible at wstaffor@svsabers.org. Please encourage your child to practice the concert music on a regular basis in order to be ready for the concert.
Best wishes to all this holiday season!
Mrs. Stafford and Mr. Johnson
Fall Into Art~
PreK
Artists learned how to draw a tree using brown paint. We talked about vertical and diagonal lines, to create our tree. Students were then given red and yellow paint to add our leaves. Something magical happens when we use those colors together. THEY MAKE ORANGE!!! GREAT JOB KIDDOS!
Kindergarten
We are creating a nighttime landscape in art class. Students traced a circle and added a horizon line. Kiddos learned that the primary colors are RED, YELLOW AND BLUE. Students mixed red and yellow together for the pumpkin. What two colors did we use for the grass? Blue and yellow!! Great job kiddos… keep it up!!!
1st Grade
We are also creating a pumpkin nighttime landscape, but we are using painted paper. Step one is to paint our paper with a light color and create marks on top with a darker color. Next class, we will cut out our pumpkin shapes and work on our black paper. Stay tuned!!
2nd Grade
Kiddos learned how to draw a realistic pumpkin by using curved lines verses straight lines. Try it!!! Students were instructed to draw the biggest pumpkin they could!! Looking at the artist Yayoi Kusama, she is known for her artist dots. Students added a variety of sized dots to their pumpkin. Great job artists!!
3rd Grade
We learned about positive and negative space when creating our pumpkin cut outs. In this artwork, the artist can show the pumpkin in the positive space (the black) or the background (negative). We practiced our cutting skills. Great job kids!!
4th and 5th Grade
Using lines and shapes, we learned how to draw a three dimensional piece of pumpkin pie. We learned how to create different views. Both grades will create a table and details in the background. However, two different mediums will be used. Stay tuned to see!!
A few of my fourth and fifth graders have started to build our paper mache sculptures from our paper towel tubes. Newspaper was added as our first step. Keep up the good work. :)
News From Physical Education:
Season’s Greetings from PE! Ms. Shea and Mr. Ligeikis would just like to wish everyone a safe and joyous start to winter!
The past month Donnelly PE finished up our parachute unit (all grades) and basketball unit (Grades 2-5). In December, the younger students will be working on manipulative skills with balloons and volleyballs. The older students will be doing cooperative games and activities. All grades will finish the month out with the 2nd Annual Winter Wonderland Obstacle Course!
We would also like to recognize December 6th as “National Tie Your Shoes Day.” In light of this day, Ms. Shea and Mr. Ligeikis are asking that family members take a few minutes per week to help their kiddos learn to tie their sneakers or shoes. It’s an important lifetime skill that us PE teachers want the kiddos to learn!
Finally, as always, any family that can spare a box of tissues to donate to the gym we would greatly appreciate it! Have a happy holiday!
Classroom News:
PreK
Greetings UPK Families. During the month of November we discussed Native Americans, Pilgrims, Thanksgiving and what it means to be thankful. We hope you enjoyed the placemats they created. We especially loved our Show and Share with Tom Turkey. These disguises surely will keep Turkey safe this Thanksgiving Day. The month of December is a fun one for PreK. Students will learn about animals in winter and explore other cultures and holidays around the world as well as learn the importance of kindness. We are so proud of all the hard work your child is doing at school and are excited to share this with you on your child’s first report card. As always, please reach out to us with any questions you may have as we continue to build a strong foundation for your child.
Kindergarten
Wow! It’s hard to believe that it is December already! We have been working hard on learning letter names and sounds. Kindergartners are practicing writing their names with only the first letter uppercase and the rest lowercase. We are beginning to work with CVC words through blending and segmenting. In math, we worked on comparing numbers and using math vocabulary such as less, more and same with math games and manipulatives. We continue to practice proper number formation, correcting number reversals. In writing, we will be working on writing simple sentences. Students will be stretching out the words by listening to sounds they hear. We are also working on using an uppercase letter at the beginning of a sentence, spaces between words and using punctuation at the end. As always, please encourage your child to practice these newly learned skills at home! Happy Holidays from Kindergarten!
1st Grade
We hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break! We can't believe that it is already December! Time is going so fast and we are working really hard in first grade. In December, we will be talking about different ways people celebrate and the three world religions. We will continue to build our reading and writing skills. In math we will start learning about place value. Please remember as the weather gets colder that students need proper clothes to be able to go outside for recess. We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.
2nd Grade
November was a very busy month in second grade. We continue learning concepts of addition including addition with regrouping. Next, we will move on to subtraction concepts, including subtraction with regrouping. Students should be practicing basic facts at home as these are building blocks for more difficult concepts. PARP also started this month with the theme being, “Reading is Pawesome.” It will run in conjunction with our new program, “Gizmo’s Pawesome Guide to Mental Health.” This program provides school-aged children with the tools they need to manage their mental health. Show your child how enjoyable reading can be by reading together at home. Students have participated in some fun Thanksgiving activities to wind down the month and they have shown what they are thankful for in their own lives. We can say, we are thankful for the opportunity to teach your children every day!
3rd Grade
We’re bringing the Dairy farm to third grade!
As a part of our science and social studies curriculum we are participating in the “Adopt a Cow Program” through Discover Dairy. The goal of the program is to teach students about the dairy industry, show where milk comes from and how dairy farmers contribute to our world. Mrs. Selby’s class adopted Autumn, and Mrs. Hatton’s class adopted Rosie. During the program we receive updates on our calves’ growth, virtual tours of the farm, teaching resources and more. The kids are looking forward to our next update!
Friday, November 17th was National Butter Day. Students in both classes learned about milk and made their own butter from cream. They enjoyed the tasty treat with crackers.
Meet Rosie!
Born September 16, 2023
Stargo Dairy Farm LLC Malone, NY
Meet Autumn!
Born September 18, 2023
Stargo Dairy Farm LLC Malone, NY
4th Grade
Is it really December already?! We have been very busy in 4th grade! In ELA, we have been working hard on strategies to find evidence in both fiction and non-fiction texts. We have been practicing fluency and becoming more comfortable reading in front of others. We have been working hard on our writing skills. We wrote a persuasive essay trying to convince humans not to eat us (a turkey) for Thanksgiving dinner! The students learned about writing topic sentences to “hook” the reader. They gave reasons and evidence to support their claim. They also worked on conclusion sentences to “wrap up” their thoughts and re-state their ideas in a new way. In Social Studies, we continue to learn about the Haudensosaunee tribe. We completed our New York Geography lapbooks and started one on Native Americans. Visiting the Haudenosaunee exhibit at Roberson gave the students a great “hands on” experience and a deeper understanding of their way of life. In Math, we’ve been working on adding and subtracting numbers with regrouping up to the hundred thousands place, identifying vocabulary that tells us when to add and subtract, the use of variables to represent an unknown in a problem and writing both equations and expressions. We continue multi-step problem solving using the RDW process. We also continue practicing facts for multiplication and division. Again, this will be ongoing - please keep practicing facts at home! In Science, we’ve continued to learn about internal and external structures of plants and animals and how organisms are similar and different based upon these structures and their functions. In November, our 4th graders also had the opportunity to work with engineers from Lockheed Martin to build and program their own robots out of Legos.
5th Grade
In ELA, we are continuing with Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan. Students really enjoy reading this book and having discussions about character traits and motives. They will continue to work on answering questions using a structured format. They are learning how to restate a question, answer it, provide a citation from the text to support the answer given, and explain how the quote applies to the answer. It is an involved process, but they are doing well. In Social Studies, we are finishing our unit on the Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs. We will begin looking at Spanish Explorers. In Math, we will continue working with multi-digit whole number and decimal fraction operations. We are continuing our IXL 500 challenge. For every 500 questions the students answer on IXL, they move up a tier and receive a reward. In Science, we will be starting our unit on Space Systems.
Message from the Nurse
From the CDC:
How You Get Strep Throat
Strep throat is an infection in the throat and tonsils caused by group A Streptococcus bacteria (called "group A strep"). Group A strep bacteria can also live in a person's nose and throat without causing illness. The bacteria are spread through contact with droplets after an infected person coughs or sneezes. It is also possible to get strep throat from contact with sores from group A strep skin infections.
The most common symptoms of strep throat include:
· Sore throat, usually starts quickly and can cause severe pain when swallowing
· A fever (101°F or above)
· Red and swollen tonsils, sometimes with white patches or streaks of pus
· Tiny, red spots (petechiae) on the roof of the mouth (the soft or hard palate)
· Headache, nausea, or vomiting
· Swollen lymph nodes in the front of the neck
· Sandpaper-like rash
Antibiotics Get You Well Fast
The strep test results will help your healthcare professional decide if you need antibiotics, which can:
· Decrease the length of time you're sick
· Reduce your symptoms
· Help prevent the spread of infection to friends and family members
· Prevent more serious complications, such as tonsil and sinus infections, and acute rheumatic fever
· (a rare inflammatory disease that can affect the heart, joints, skin, and brain)
You should start feeling better in just a day or two after starting antibiotics. Call your healthcare professional if you don't feel better after taking antibiotics for 48 hours. People with strep throat should stay home from work, school, or daycare until they have taken antibiotics for at least 24 hours so they don't spread the infection to others.
Be sure to finish the entire prescription, even when you start feeling better, unless your healthcare professional tells you to stop taking the medicine.
More Prevention Tips: Wash Those Hands
The best way to keep from getting strep throat is to wash your hands often and avoid sharing eating utensils, like forks or cups. It is especially important for anyone with a sore throat to wash their hands often and cover their mouth when coughing and sneezing. There is no vaccine to prevent strep throat.
Your School Nurse,
Mrs. Rebecca L. Flanders, RN
December PTA News
Please join us for our December PTA Meeting
When: December 7 @ 4:00 pm
Where: Zoom
Meeting ID 498 001 3029
Passcode: PTA
We will be wrapping books on
Monday, December 11th @ 5:30 pm
in the Donnelly Cafeteria.
Please join to help!
Super Saber Spirit Week(s)!!
Please join all of Saberland as we count down to Winter break!