We are so excited to have everyone back at school with us! What an incredible start to the school year filled with so much learning and community building.

Entrance conferences started us off well with an opportunity to meet our students and make a connection with all of our families before we begin the rewarding path of learning. We have implemented a new reading incentive program this year called "Read to Achieve". Students will be encouraged to set at home reading goals and work towards great rewards! We hope you will encourage your child to read each night and celebrate their success!

Communication is central to our work and your suggestions lead us to solutions for greater learning. Please continue to connect with us as questions or concerns arise and help us celebrate by letting us know the great examples your child shares with you at home.

I am excited to welcome the following new staff to our building this year: Jennifer Schmidt, school counselor, Pam Loitz, school psychologist, Jenny Goff, social worker, DeeAnn Wacker, office support, Kelli Hollerich, reading paraprofessional, Tiffany McCabe, DCD para and Hannah Baum, para. We also want to welcome three student teachers to our building: Bridgette Altmann (5th grade), Morgan Clark (1st grade) and Erin Krenik (Speech).

We have a great team ready to meet the needs of our students and families!

UPCOMING EVENTS & IMPORTANT DATES:

¨ Sept. 17 School Board Meeting

¨ Sept. 18 Two Hour Late Start

¨ Oct. 1 School Board Meeting

¨ Oct. 10 Walk & Bike to School Day

¨ Oct. 8 Eagle FUNd Run Donations Due

¨ Oct. 8 PTO meeting 7p.m. - Media Center - ALL PARENTS WELCOME!!

¨ Oct. 9 Two Hour Late Start

¨ Oct. 10 4th Grade Trip to History Fest

¨ Oct. 12 Eagle Lake FUNd RUN!! (1pm)

¨ Oct. 15 School Board meeting

¨ Oct. 18 No school - MEA Break

¨ Oct. 19 No school - MEA Break

A special, hello, to you and our teachers, students and families!! We are excited about our role as a PTO! All Eagle Lake parents are part of our PTO. We have high hopes of your involvement to help us accomplish our goal of supporting the education of children at Eagle Lake Elementary by fostering relationships among the school, parents, and teachers. Below are the meeting dates, event dates, as well as a brief introduction of the PTO board members. Please feel free to contact any of us. Your thoughts and ideas are always welcome. We like to work as a team, so we look forward to your involvement! Please consider donating a few hours of your time this year. If you have other gifts or talents you would like to share, please join us at a meeting or contact us at ptoeaglelake@gmail.com

PTO Board Members

Kory Kath, School Principal

Teachers and School Staff

Trish Asher, President

Tasha Landwehr, Vice President

Amy Friedrichs, Treasurer

Amanda Sutherland and Shelly Walker, Secretary and Communications

PTO Meetings are 7-8pm in the Eagle Lake Media Center on the following Dates:

SEPTEMBER 10

OCTOBER 8

NOVEMBER 5

DECEMBER - No Meeting

JANUARY 7

FEBRUARY 19

MARCH 12

APRIL 8

MAY 13

PTO events include:

~FUNd RUN (our main fundraiser) Oct. 12 @ 1:00

~Fall Conferences & Book Fair

~Pizza Bingo- November 1

~Movie Night- March 21 @ 6:30

~Spring Conferences & Book Fair

~Teacher Appreciation Week- May 6-10

~Carnival- May 30 from 5-7

As teachers and parents, we know reading is a critical skill for success! We thank you in advance for all the effort you put into having your child read at home!

We are all fired up at Eagle Lake Elementary! We are making new tracks this year into a camping theme. This will be integrated into our classroom decor and reading incentive program. Our new incentive for the reading program will be based on student and teacher design.

How is it different than in the past? Students will be setting their own reading goals with their teacher in the classroom. The students can turn in their reading calendars when they choose to do so. This will depend on their incentive of choice. For example, if a student is excited about wearing a hat one day, they can turn in their minutes to show they read the required 800 minutes for that hat. In other words, they can work toward an incentive that goes beyond 200, 400, or 600 minutes that month! In this way, kids set their own intrinsic goals and work toward them on an individual basis. No more turning in a monthly calendar. Instead, students will turn in their reading calendar based on their own individual reading goals.

Just imagine a student’s delight when she or he can read enough minutes to have lunch with their teacher or with Mr. Kath! How awesome is that! The possibilities for the reading incentives are endless! Teachers will brainstorm ideas with students in their own classrooms and the results will include an element of surprise as teachers and students will know the list of incentives only as the ideas unfold in their classroom. Ideas from the monthly calendar can also be used to begin the process.

Students, get ready to brainstorm! Parents, the only requirement will be to add up the minutes at home and sign when your child is ready to return their calendar!

Here at Eagle Lake Elementary we are always excited to unlock potential and we believe our reading program is just one more way to do that! Join the tree-mendous fun!

Thank you for sending your children to school well rested and on time. We continue to promote SOARing behavior at school through our use of PBIS. It is evident that the students and teachers have spent time discussing classroom routines and school-wide procedures and they are living out our goal of soaring each day! We have a nest in our office filling up quickly with SOAR slips that recognize great behavior. Stop in and ask your child to show you. Way to SOAR high with Eagle Pride!

We will once again be hosting "Nest" Groups once a month! These are mixed groups of students that interact with one another in learning our values of the month. This is a great way for students to connect across grades and build relationships with another adult in our building.

We always like to communicate

important dates to families!

Leah Ries, our music teacher at Eagle Lake,

has shared music performance dates for the year!

Performance Dates: (Exact times will be coming)

Grades 1, 2, 3 - Spring Concert - Thursday, Mar. 7

Grades 4, 5 - Musical - Friday, May 3

Kindergarten Informances - Week of April 10 - 12 during Kindergarten music time.

Vision and hearing screening will be done on Oct. 24. Grades to be screened for vision are 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Hearing screening is done on grades 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th. If your child has a shunt or implant device please contact the school nurse at 507-257-3530.

Attendance Calls: Please call us if you know your child will be absent for any reason. Our attendance line is 507-257-3530

SOCKS: If your child is wearing sandals to school please consider sending a pair of socks for them to leave in their locker for when they have P.E.

We have been working on getting our bodies fit in Physical Education class. Grades K-5 do exercises daily in class. Exercise is a lifetime skill, which can only help our students gain health, strength and fitness. Practicing outside of class is recommended for all students. Practice makes permanent NOT perfect. This exercise routine will help students get fit, be a better learner and will help students do their best work when they are the exercise leader for their class.

We will be having our Physical Fitness Testing coming soon for Grades 3-5. Students should start practicing / training for the following test: mile run, push-ups, flex arm hang, curl ups, pull-ups, sit and reach, shoulder stretch, and trunk lift.

After seeing their results each student will be writing a fitness plan and following the plan for a month. During the first couple of class periods the students will learn different techniques to improve their test score. Most of this work will be done outside of class to promote physical activity outside of Physical Education class and living a healthy life style.

Physical fitness is a combination of several components:

-Cardiovascular endurance (mile run)

-Muscular strength and endurance (push ups, flex arm, pull ups)

-Flexibility (sit & reach, shoulder stretch)

-Flexibility and strength (trunk lift)

To make the Fitness Club students must achieve the Fitness gram Standard in all 5 fitness areas: (1) cardiovascular endurance (1) upper body strength (1) abdominal strength (1) flexibility/strength (1) flexibility.

To make the Fitness ELITE Club students must achieve the Fitness Gram Standard in all 8 fitness tests: (1) cardiovascular endurance (3) upper body strength (1) abdominal strength (1) flexibility/strength (2) flexibility.

Grades 1-2 will be introduced to the Physical Fitness Tests and continue working on Loco-motor and Non Loco-motor Skills.

Grade K will be working on: walking and running in a straight line, learning all Loco-motor and Non Loco-motor Skills, listening skills, space and boundaries, Apples, Oranges, Bananas, & Hawaiian Break, Copy Cat warm up exercises, alphabet letters, letters in our first and last names and new games.

S T R O N G E A G L E S

At the end of every month all students will have the opportunity to be a Strong Eagle. To earn this a student would have to accomplish the given number of minutes for continuous running, push ups and curl ups/sit ups.

A sample rubric is listed below.

Practicing to maintain or enhance these physical fitness areas will ensure students a healthier life style. Remember practice, practice, practice will build muscle memory making the exercise become easier for the student.

Practice + Practice + Practice + Practice + Practice + Practice

DO IT TOGETHER!

Help motivate others by joining in the exercises / activities!

Mrs. Jane Brunz

Physical Education Specialist

Email: kkath1@isd77.k12.mn.us
Website: www.ele.isd77.org
Location: 500 Le Sueur Avenue, Eagle Lake, MN, United States
Phone: 507-257-3530