Ottawa News

Hello Ottawa Families!

It is hard to believe it is November! We had an amazing October full of learning and all things fall, including Harvest Festival and Halloween. As we continue throughout the school year, I look forward to each month and all of the amazing traditions that are a part of Ottawa Elementary.

A Few Reminders:

1) Arrival Procedures: Parents, please remember to remain in your car. Students should be dropped off and parents should remain in their car to ensure the arrival line continues to move after students have gotten out of the car. If you would like to help your child out of the car, you will need to park and walk them to the entrance.

2) Dismissal is moving a long, but we are still having difficulty at the 4 way stop. Please remember to use Genesis Church parking lot if the line is too long. We continue to communicate with Public Safety of Petoskey and they are monitoring traffic. As a reminder, if anyone is blocking traffic, they will give citations.

3) If you want to volunteer at school, you must complete the volunteer application and background check. Volunteering opportunities include; pre-arranged times with teachers, celebrations in the classroom, PTO support, etc. If your child is late for school, caregivers will need to sign them into the office and students will independently walk to their classrooms. Please feel free to call the front office if you have any questions.

Kindly,
Jodi Schreiber

In October it is fire prevention week. The Petoskey Fire Safety Department came and interactively shared safety information with our K-2. students. A few fire safety tips that our students learned were: Never play with fire, have your parents check their smoke alarms and ensure that it is working properly, there should be a working smoke alarm in every bedroom, stay low and away from smoke (crawl), and have a meeting spot outside and away from the fire.

The Ottawa Student Council Team is a collaborative group of 2-5th grade students. We are off to a great start working within our community on school based service projects. Most recently, the Student Council team promoted a school wide can drive. The can drive efforts support the upcoming family craft night in November. We are proud to say, with the support of our amazing Ottawa families that we collected $506.00! With eagerness, we look forward to supporting our local Humane Society and collecting coins during Penny Wars. Be on the lookout for our future events coming soon.

Hello Ottawa families!

I am Ms. Martha or Ms.Jansen your student’s P.E. teacher. We are off to a great start in P.E. We have already covered playground games, finished our soccer unit and we are into a fitness and bowling unit.. Grades 2nd through 5th completed their first class run challenge! The class that runs the most laps in five minutes earns a traveling trophy. Congratulations to: Mrs. Adam’s, Mrs. Ledig, Ms. Shafers, and Mrs. Leppien’s classes for winning the first round of the competition. The challenge between grades was very close so keep on running everyone!

If your student has come home with a rock given to them in P.E., it means they Rocked P.E. To rock P.E. your student has shown good sportsmanship and effort. Sportsmanship encompasses a lot of characteristics: kindness, patience, effort, attitude, empathy, respect and many more. My goal is to teach students to try to be the best for their team, not necessarily the best on their team.

This month we had a special guest soccer coach come teach a lesson. He is Coach Tommy and is working with PYSA. He is from Ireland and did a great job delivering an excellent soccer lesson. We also had Unity Day on October 19th. We learned a fun line dance in P.E. and on the 19th the whole school came together to dance in the gym. Unity Day is a day to recognize we are all different, and that it is wonderful. It is a time we used to address bullying and how to handle it if it happens to a student or they see it. The students were reminded of the Full Value Agreement and how important it is in our school.

We will have a fun day on Halloween and we are kicking off November with No Soda November. A flier with a calendar will be in Thursday folders. If your student goes the whole month of November without drinking soda or extra sugary drinks, and they bring in their signed calendar they will get a small prize.

As the weather gets colder and boots are worn to school please remember PE shoes. I have a very limited supply of loaner shoes and students need PE shoes to safely participate.

I am loving getting to know all of your students and watching them grow. I truly have the best job in the school. Thank you and good luck with the November challenge! Ms. Martha

November 9: PTO Meeting @ Ottawa

November 16: Ottawa Craft Night (5PM - 6PM)

November 23 - 25: Fall Break No School for Students & Staff

December 14 - 21: Ottawa Holiday Shop

Our November PTO meetings is next week. We will continue to have monthly meetings to discuss upcoming events and our support to the students and staff at Ottawa. We would love to invite you to attend the meetings. During our November meeting we will be getting ready for Ottawa Craft Night and planning for our December Holiday House. Our meetings are held at Ottawa from 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM.

November 9: PTO Meeting - Topics of discussion will include Craft Night and Holiday Shop for December.

December 14: PTO Meeting - Topics coming soon