AGPS Elementary Newsletter
November 2023
Dear Ashland-Greenwood Elementary Families,
Spring has finally arrived! There are many fourth quarter classroom activities planned for students. Be sure to mark your calendars with special activities that apply to your child.
Please help us in congratulating Mrs. Roxanne Kingston and Mrs. Diane Starns in their retirement at the end of the 2023-2024 school year! We are grateful for their dedication to our Ashland-Greenwood Students over their career, and we wish them the best in their new adventures!
The last day of school will be May 22 as previously indicated on the 2023-2024 school calendar.
Megan Poell and Amanda Moon
Upcoming Events
April 30 - Kindergarten Field Trip to Lincoln Children's Museum
May 1 - Last day of Quest
May 3 - No School for CURRENT KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS due to Kindergarten Round-up being held this day!
May 6 - K-1 Track & Field @ 1:10
May 8 - 4th Grade Field Trip to Camp Creek-Pioneer Festival
May 9 - First Grade Field Trip
May 9 - DARE Graduation at 1:45 - Date Change, updated information will be sent home.
May 10 - 2nd and 3rd Grade Track & Field @ 12:45
May 17 - K-2 Students visit Ashland Public Library to learn about the Summer Reading Program
May 14 - AM Elementary Unified Event and 4th and 5th Grade Track & Field @ 11:45
May 21 - Class Picnics
May 22 - AAIP Assembly
May 22 - Last Day of school
Track and Field Days
Track and field days are a favorite event each year. The dates are provided below (weather permitting). All track and field days will take place at the high school track. Parents are welcome to attend! If it is a sunny day, you may want to consider sending your child with sunscreen.
Grades K and 1st: May 6th; 1:10-2:25
Grades 2nd and 3rd: May 10th; 12:45-2:25
Grades 4th and 5th: May 14th 11:45-2:25
**Students in 2nd-5th grade will spend one PE class at the high school track in preparation for Track and Field Days. Intermediate students will be bused to and from the high school.
Attendance and Academic Incentive Program (AAIP)
PTO members visited classrooms in March to help sutdents enter their 3rd quarter tickets into the Attendance and Academic Incentive Program containers. Near the end of the school year, members of our PTO will be in attendance to help with raffle drawings and student recognition. If you are interested in supporting this incentive program, please contact the ptoashlandgreenwood@gmail.com
2024-2025 AGPS School Calendar
Calling all Kindergarten students for 2024-2025 school year!
We are currently beginning the enrollment process for the 2024-2025 school year. Any child turning five years of age on or before July 31, 2024 is eligible for entrance to kindergarten. Please contact kendall.washburn@agps.org to enroll!
Beanery Favorite Teacher Gift Card Giveaway
We will be giving $100 gift cards to one teacher from every school district near our stores (Gretna, Papillion Lavista, Ashland Greenwood and Millard)
To qualify- the teacher would need to be a current K-12 teacher in any of the above districts or at a school located in any of those areas (ie a local private school).
Teachers will need to be nominated on our website to be considered. Link to the nomination form here > Favorite Teacher Noms
April 15-30- We will open nominations on our website (they will not be accessible on our site before then)
May 1-3- From the nominations on our website, we will identify the top 3 nominations from each district for people to vote on their favorite on our social media pages.
May 8-10- From the polling responses on our social media, people will vote on the top 2
Winners for each district will be announced on the last day of school for their district's
Gretna- May 22
Ashland Greenwood- May 22
Papillion Lavista- May 21
Millard- May 23
Beanery Spirit Week Fun-raiser May 13-17, 2024
The Beanery will have daily specials in our stores this week, and will also have a 'Spirit Week Fundraising Tumbler' or, "Fun-Cup" for $15 (includes the tumbler and the drink). $5 of every Fun-Cup will be donated to a local school to do something 'fun' for their teachers and students.
Schools being donated to this year are:
Gretna- Gretna Elementary
Ashland Greenwood- Ashland Greenwood Middle School
Papillion LaVista- Patriot Elementary
Millard Public- Ackerman Elementary
Welcome New AG Staff for the 2024-2025 School Year
AGPS Spirit Squad Sponsorships
Captured Moments, Celebrations, and Recognitions
This year, REACH students are participating in Special Ops lessons through our area Educational Service Unit (ESU). One of these Special Ops was to create a mascot for the Ogallala Aquifer, in partnership with AdvoKatie and the UNMC College of Public Health, to raise awareness of healthy and clean water in Nebraska. Students spent an afternoon learning all about aquifers with local NRD resource teachers, as well as learning about mascots and logos and what it takes to create an effective logo and mascot. Subsequently, students were able to create their own mascot based on all the knowledge they gained from the workshop, develop a backstory for their mascot, and enter their mascots into the contest. We are very excited to share that AG Intermediate 4th grader, Kooper Payne, was selected as the 1st place winner! WAY TO GO! Kooper's family and 4th graders gathered yesterday afternoon to watch her receive this award. We are very proud of you Kooper!
Golden Sower Party
This year, students have had the opportunity to read books nominated for the Golden Sower Award. Students who read four or more books on the nomination list participated in a Golden Sower Party hosted by the Ashland Public Library. At the party, they were able to vote for their favorite book, make buttons, and participate in a few games. The results are in and the winner at the AG Intermediate Voting Party was: Six Feet Below Zero by Ena Jones.
Congratulations to the following students in Mrs. Gude-Rung's classroom for meeting their March reading goal: Arabella Adel, Brooks Anderson, Brooklyn Bryant, Christian Claus, Quentin Duncan, Rayna Hanlin, Liam Hansen, Colton Mack, Abbi Malousek, Easton McFerrin, Myles Merrill, Thomas Myers, Jacob Richardson, Allie Varilek, Delanie Vrbka, Grayson Wolf, and Natalia Wood. Terrific job!
The following students in Mrs. Gude-Rung's class met their reading goals each month from October through March and are Reading Rock Stars: Arabella Adel, Brooks Anderson, Brooklyn Bryant, Christian Claus, Quentin Duncan, Rayna Hanlin, Liam Hansen, Abbi Malousek, Easton McFerrin, Thomas Myers, Jacob Richardson, Allie Varilek, Delanie Vrbka, Grayson Wolf, and Natalia Wood.
5th Grade Mobiles in Art Class
3rd Grade Print Making in Art Class
Students creating in Art Class at the Primary
April Reading Rockstars at the Primary!
All students in Mrs. Murphy's class met their reading goal for every month of our Reading Rockstar program. Students are: Addy Anderson, Elizabeth Bloch, Jace Carlson, Landree DeJong, Katherine Dekarske, Raegan Finnigan, Ansel Huetson, James Hyatt, Nate Jacobs, Rex Karl, Hunter Kuhl, Reese Loges, Sophia Miner, Lincoln Novotny, Lennyn Rech, Emersyn Rossell, Jacob Slocum, Ryker Stobbe, Lauren Sullivan, Cade Welch, Winnie Welch, & Waylon Dunn.
Every student in Mrs. Lambert's class increased their MAP Growth Test Scores in math and reading! We celebrated with snacks, lots of bluejay tickets and a dance party!
All of Miss Hansen’s class scores proficient or advanced on their math inventory tests! They also rocked all of their end of year assessments so far. I am so proud of them!
Mrs. Starns' kindergarten invited Adam Sutton from the Lower Platte South NRD to present "The Tree Factory." The students learned about the functions of a tree, and they even got to act out the different functions! Each student received a Ponderosa Pine tree to plant in their yard!
All of Mrs. Holz's 22 kindergarteners met their reading goal every single month this year! YAY! In addition, they loved spending time learning about farms this month!
The First Grade visits the Ashland Post Office!
4th Grade Lincoln Field Trip
Community Happenings
Community activities are not sponsored by the school. If you are interested in including information in a newsletter, you may call 402-944-7083.
Friday, May 10, 2024: Provider Appreciation Day
The local C4K Communities for Kids group would like to remind everyone about an important recognition. Always falling on the Friday before Mother's day is Provider Appreciation Day. Don't forget to celebrate the childcare provider who makes a difference in the lives of your child on May 10, 2024!
AG Youth Camp Flyers
2024 Bluejay Volleyball Camp
The University of Nebraska State Museum at Morrill Hall is excited to provide a variety of summer learning opportunities for campers ages K-8th grade. The museum’s day camp program was recently rebranded to develop and expand programs for a wider audience of learners and topics and is now known as: Discovery Day Camp. Summer camp programs begin the week of June 3rd until the last week of July for nine weeks of discovery, learning, and fun! We know that summer schedules get hectic, that is why we offer a variety of options for times and dates with our Discovery Day Camp program. Options include two-day camps, half-day camps (9:00am -12:00 am), and one five-day week of camp called “Exhibition Mashup" where each day explores a different topic. Even though Morrill Hall is well known for Elephant Hall and our other paleontology exhibits, Discovery Day Camp is hosting a wide variety of topics that highlight all the museum’s research and collection specialties. Some themes include “Art in Science”, “What’s Bugging you”, “Astronomical Adventures”, and a new and exciting program for 6th-8th grade campers titled “Anthropology- First Peoples of the Plains”.
The mission of Discovery Day Camp is to provide a safe, inclusive, and enriching environment for all campers and promote the discovery of our natural world through exploration, inquiry, and play. This is done through the leadership of our experienced education team and partnership with expert collection managers and researchers in the field. Not only do campers get a behind the scenes look at specimens from our museum collections, but they also get opportunities to meet actual scientists in a variety of fields. The museum houses over a million specimens of vertebrate fossils and extensive collections in other areas of natural history including paleontology, zoology, geology, parasitology, and more.
Registration costs are as follows:
Two–Day Camp $110 per camp - Members | $130 per camp – Nonmembers
Half–Day Camp (5 days) $135 per camp - Members | $155 per camp – Nonmembers*
Five–Day Camp (5 days) $260 per camp - Members | $280 per camp – Nonmembers
*three-day camps that run July 1- July 3 are the same price point as half-day camps
Registration is live for all our Summer Discovery Day Camp programs. We look forward to having mammoth amounts of fun with your campers this summer! Registration and more details at: https://museum.unl.edu/programs-events/discovery-day-camp.html
Community Resources
A variety of resources are available for families and can be found below:
Resources for Food:
Food Pantry - American Lutheran Church - Jean Stewart - 402-789-2490 - By appointment
Ashland Mobile Food Pantry Every 4th Monday of the month from 3:00-4:00 at the American Lutheran Church
Children's Food Backpack Program - American Lutheran Church - 944-3535
Ashland Ministerial Association - Contact any area church for assistance.
- American Lutheran Church 944-3535
- First Christian Church 944-7070
- Methodist Church 944-7135
- Riverview Community Church 944-6134
- St. Mary's Catholic Church 944-3554
- Word of Hope Lutheran Church 402-521-0046
- Other churches may be found in the phone directory
Resources for Clothing:
The Closet at the American Lutheran Church provides free clothing. Contact Nicole Chudomelka at 944-3535 for more information.
Other Resources:
School Supply Backpack Program. Contact ashlandbackpackprogram@gmail.com or call Karen at 944-2794