Dear Little Pirate Families,

As the leaves begin to change 😝and the air turns crisp, we're excited to share our October newsletter with you. This month is full of learning opportunities and fun activities for our students!

Important Dates

• October11: Boosterthon Fundraiser and End of Grading Period
• October 14: Teacher Planning Day, No School for Students
• October 21: KG 9 Week Awards 8:15
  
• October 22: 1st Grade 9 Week Awards 8:15
• October 23: 2nd Grade 9 Week Awards 8:45
• October 25th: STEAM Night
• October 31: Book Character Parade for students

Book Character Parade

On October 31, we'll have our annual Book Character parade starting at 8:15. Students may wear their costumes to school and bring the matching book to share with their peers. Please ensure costumes are appropriate for school and do not include masks, weapons, or overly scary elements.

Reminders

• Please remember, as we come into sweater-wearing season, that students should have their names on the inside tags of their sweaters/ jackets.
• The late bell rings at 7:45. Help your student start their day off right by being in school on time everyday. Students that arrive at 7:15 are welcome to have breakfast in the cafeteria. Students that arrive at 7:25 are able to read books and take AR quizzes in their classrooms.
• Avoid scheduling appointments or checking your students out after 12:50. We run a bell-to-bell schedule at SES and every time a student gets picked up early, instructional time is paused to help your student pack up and leave. If that happens every day in a classroom, students could miss up to 30 minutes of instruction a week and up to100 minutes a month.

We're looking forward to a fantastic October filled with learning and growth. As always, please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

Warm regards,

Monica Weber Ed.D.

Principal Southside Elementary School

This month, our students will be focusing on:

• Kindergarten: Letter Identification and Sounds - A, N, M, I , S, F; Capital vs. Lower Case letters; Vowels vs. Consonants; Initial and Final Sounds, Coding CVC words with a breve.
• 1st Grade: First graders are phonics focused and working on blending words with three and four sounds during Saxon Phonics and during small group instruction. This skill will help ensure they can learn to read and spell single syllable words with accuracy.
• 2nd Grade: In ELA students have been hard at work digging deeper into their text. They have been using their text detective strategies to gain better understandings of plot structures as well as identifying characters' perspectives and literary themes. In math, students can be seen mastering their math facts! They are using their prior knowledge about place value to apply different mathematic strategies to problems. Way to go second graders!

Southside Elementary is proud to be a Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) School. Students at Southside Elementary will demonstrate Community Expectations throughout the school day by following the behavioral expectations.

Southside Elementary Behavioral Expectations:

Be Safe

Be Kind

Be Responsible

Be Respectful

These expectations will be taught and modeled throughout the campus. Throughout the week and year, there are many different ways students will be recognized for following school-wide rules and expectations.

This year, students caught following school wide rules and expectations can earn Bucky Bucks! At the end of the week, teachers will draw names from their Bucky Buckets. If a student's name is drawn, they will celebrate with other grade level friends by having lunch on the stage the following Monday.