Ottawa Newsletter

Dear Ottawa Families,

Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed the winter break! The first week back with students was great. We started off with a PBiS (Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports) Kick-off to help student remember school-wide expectations. They did a great job showing examples of expectations and were excited to get back to school.

As we continue through the month of January, students will be completing winter (mid-year) testing. Testing will begin January 16th and will continue through February 3rd. Please remember to get to bed early, eat breakfast, and to get to school on time. Testing is a time for teachers to gather information as they continue to plan lessons focused on grade level State Standards.

Looking forward to a great 2023!

Kindly,

Jodi Schreiber

Today Students participated in the Kids Heart Challenge Assembly! See below to sign up your child(ren) to start the challenge!

Kids Heart Challenge™ has officially kicked off at SCHOOL , and it’s time to Be The Torch and ignite your families fire for heart health by raising awareness and donations on behalf of the American Heart Association!

Get Started NOW by registering your student at http://www2.heart.org/goto/OttawaPetoskey and begin your journey to complete Finn’s Mission! All students who complete Finn’s Mission will earn their very own Finn’s Lifesaver Keychain.

The classroom with the most students who sign up could win an Amazon gift card!

Thanks so much for your help and joining this life-saving cause!

Reminders:

• Please keep the four way intersection clear. Parking at Genesis Church helps with dismissal and traffic.
• Dismissal begins at 3:05PM. Please arrive for dismissal no earlier than 2:55PM. We will begin dismissing Kindergarten and First Grade around 3:03PM.
• If you arrive for dismissal early, please park at Genesis Church. We must keep the car line clear for early pick up.
• Please keep the EMERGENCY LANE clear at all times.

END OF THE DAY NOTES: If you need to make a change to your child's after school plan, please call the office at 231-348-2130 before 2:30 PM. We can not guarantee the delivery of messages after 2:30 PM.

Hello Ottawa families!

The library will be starting a reading challenge on January 3rd! When students finish a book, they can either retell the story to you, or write a short summary about the book and bring it to the library to earn points that can be cashed in for prizes. If a student chooses to retell the story to you, they will pick up a form from the library that you sign to confirm they read the book. Students may summarize books they check out from the library, or they may summarize books they read at home.

Some of our fabulous teachers already have their students write a summary when they finish a book, so those students don’t have to write an additional summary.

Points are earned as followed:

25 pages or less: 1 point

26-50 pages: 2 points

51-75 pages: 3 points

76-100 pages: 5 points

100+ pages: the pattern will continue with more points.

Students can either save their points for larger prizes, or they can be used right away once they have enough for the first prize.

This challenge will last for the rest of the school year to keep our students reading awesome books! Happy reading Ottawa!

Megan Sysko

Media Aide, Ottawa Elementary School

During the month of December, our first graders have been learning about authors. As they continue to building on their writing skills, they are also becoming authors. Their teachers have been sharing different author collections, one of them by Jon Klassen. Look at our 1st graders go! Keep up the great work!

They have also been working on fact families in Math. Learning through games helps students make connections and practice their skills. This month they used dominoes to help them with their math facts.

Our next PTO meeting is January 19, 2023 at 3:30 PM in the tech lab. We will be finalizing details for the Winter Carnival on February 3, 2023. We hope to see you there!

PTO Meetings:

• January 19 , 2023
• February 16, 2023
• March 9, 2023
• April 20, 2023
• May 18, 2023

• January 16 - February 3: Winter Testing Window
• January 19: PTO Meeting in the Tech Lab
• January 19: School Board Meeting
• January 20: 1/2 Day for Students
• February 3: Ottawa Winter Carnival (5PM to 7PM)
• February 16: Ottawa PTO Meeting
• February 17: No School for Students
• February 20: No School (Mid-Winter Break)