Wildcat ROAR 11-4-24

Hello RRO Families,

Our recent fifth grade concert is a perfect of example of how fun, yet child-like, even our oldest students can be at times. These students worked hard and had so much fun preparing for and presenting their concert to our students and families. Thank you to all who were able to attend and enjoy this fun Halloween concert ,and a huge shout out to Mrs. Long for engaging the students in this special activity.

Halloween is behind us and that means Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Speaking of Thanksgiving...we will be focusing our Social-Emotional Lessons on GRATITDE and COMMUNICATION (tone of voice) for the month of November. Please join us in talking to your child about what it means to have gratitude, and how the tone in what we say can make a big difference. It isn't always what you say, but how you say it.

I look forward to seeing you around school.

Best,

Sandie

Imagine the end of the school day in any elementary school's office. It is extremely busy. The phones are ringing, people are ringing the doorbell, staff are winding up the school day, and so much more!

Now imagine you call to change the transportation arrangements for your child, which is going to happen in the next 10 minutes. This is a disaster waiting to happen!

There is too much of a risk that a mistake could be made and a child could not receive the correct information or the information given quickly could be confusing and the child ends up on the bus, instead of waiting to be picked up, or waits to be picked up when the child should have ridden the bus.

The last thing we want is for any of our students to be in a situation where they do not feel safe or they do not understand what is happening. We also do not want an avoidable mistake to jeopardize the safety of any one of our students.

On any given day we have an average of 30 phone calls from parents/guardians requesting a change in their child's transportation arrangement. That information then has to be relayed to the teacher. All of this takes time.

Because of this, effective Monday, November 11, similar to last year, we will only accept a change in transportation arrangements for the same day prior to 3:00 p.m. In the event of a true emergency, our office staff will certainly honor your request. During the week of November 4, our secretaries will remind those calling after 3:00 p.m. that we will not take a transportation change after 3:00 p.m. starting on November 11.

Thank you for supporting our staff and students in making sure all of our students are safe throughout the day, as well as for the trip back home.

In technology we have been working on many skills. Students have been learning how to be safe online. We use the digital citizenship lesson found on commonsensemedia.org. Students 1st-5th grade have been learning how to stay safe online by keeping private information private. We have talked about how to keep passwords and important information safe while online.

We have also begun our unit on coding. The 1st and 2nd graders have been working on Scratch Jr. on their iPads and learning basic coding vocabulary like sequence, programing, system bugs, testing and running a program. Students have started creating their own stories by “snapping together” programming blocks to make characters move, jump and dance. We have also just started using our small robots called Bee-Bots. Students had a lot of fun coding the bot to move through a maze they created. We will continue coding over the next few weeks.

Students in grades 3-5 we have also been working on coding. We began with a program called Kodable where we learned simple, basic coding skills and vocabulary like sequencing, conditions and loops. As students master coding concepts as they play, they can then apply their knowledge with creative projects and create their own games. We have also just started work using small robots called Ozobot. These robots are coded by color patterns and are so much fun to use!

Please check out the video link to learn more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqGx0fFL-jc

Week of November 4

5 - PTO Mtg, 6:00 PM, RRO CAT Lab

6 - Early Release, 2:55 PM

8 - Pickles & Popcorn

Week of November 11

11 - MAPS Bd of Ed Mtg, 6:00 PM, MHS CAT Lab

13 - Early Release, 2:55 PM

14 - KickStart to Career - Fall Deposit Day

The Wildcat ROAR will be sent out to RRO families every two weeks. Watch for it in your e-mail on Sunday night/Monday morning. It will also be posted on the RRO Elementary website page.

The next newsletter will be sent out November 17/18.

E-mail: lundquists@mapsk12.org

Websites: https://www.mapsk12.org/rroelementary/

Locations: R.R. Oehrli Elementary School, 4859 Knudsen Street, Montague, MI 49437

Phones: (231) 894-9018