Hello Swanson Squirrel Families,

What an unbelievable year it has been. Winter tried to stay with us so long that I can hardly believe that it is May, and we are rapidly winding down the school year. We have addressed many difficult challenges this year. Though we may have not always completely succeeded in our goals, we have learned, grown, and prepared ourselves to do better next time. That makes me proud of our students and staff.

We are in the process of completing our Spring Assessments. Early returns show great growth across the board. My guess would be that our stated goal for the school of achieving 85% of all students scoring proficient on the Aimsweb Composite will likely see us fall a little short. That being said, there are a great number of things that are still present to celebrate with individual students, classes, teachers, and whole grade levels that we want to make note of with recognition at the end of the year.

There are a great number of ways to be involved at the end of the year. There are concerts, field trips, field day, health and safety day, 2nd Cup, and our Ready, Set, Grow Event that is on May 2nd. All of these are great ways to be involved with and support your student in partnership with us in making sure that they receive the very best education.

We look forward to the conclusion of this wonderful school year and to another great one next Fall.

Educationally,

Joshua Rockey

Please take a moment sometime this week to say thank you to our wonderful teachers! Swanson has the best staff in the valley, let them know how much they are appreciated!

If you would like to send a card, note, or small thank you to any of the teachers, I am sure that they would appreciate the gesture. If your thank you is for one teacher, it can be delivered to the classroom. If you have a thank you for a team of teachers, we can place it in the lounge for all to see

Thank you in advance.

Kindergarten- Monday, May 6th

First Grade- Tuesday May 7th

Second Grade and Ukulele Club- Wednesday May 8th

All concerts start at 5:30pm.

• Kindergartners are learning songs about the farm
• First Grade will do a concert about camping in the mountains
• Second Grade will sing about friendship and kindness

The ukulele club will play a few songs at the beginning of the Second Grade concert.

There is no dress code requirement for the concert, just wear something nice. Students will be released to their classrooms at 5:15 to line up for the show.

See you there!

Paula Berg

Swanson Elementary

Music Teacher

Swanson Elementary, with the help from Chad Carpenter, author and illustrator of Tundra Comics, will be assisting our Swanson students in creating a mural that will represents Swanson's motto. Skip wants our students and staff to be "Safe, Kind, Involved and Positive".

Join us May 2nd at our Ready, Set, Grow Title 1 family engagement event to see what the students created!

Swanson's will be hosting the 4th annual Ready, Set, Grow family engagement Title 1 event. Teachers and staff will be on hand to share reading and math games and activities for students to do over the summer to help curb learning loss. There will be an opportunity bring a plant or two home, meet the teachers for the next grade level, jump rope with Mr. Omer, and much more. School tours will take place for incoming Kindergarten students as well as students moving to 3rd grade. Teachers from Sherrod will provide an opportunity to tour Sherrod and ask questions. This is the event that Chad Carpenter will unveil one of the few murals created by Swanson students.

Please use the link below to register for the event to receive a free Papa Murphy's cheese pizza.

https://forms.gle/HEF7KbUPy9mmb4Nx7

It's Book Fair Time!

Visit our school's homepage to get the latest Book Fair news, shop our Online Fair, and more!

www.scholastic.com

Please visit the lost and found tables to claim any lost items from the winter. The table will be set up by the office through the music concerts and Ready, Set, Grow Title 1 Family Engagement Event. Everything left at the end of the year will be donated to a local thrift store.

As the weather is getting warmer and the snow melts, puddles are appearing on the playground. If you have boys pants sizes 6-10, please consider donating them to Swanson's nurse. Hazel's inventory is running low and she could really use them for students who need a change of clothes.

Thank you for your generosity!

There are a number of events the last week of school. Some individual classes are going on field trips. However, there will be some things available to a large portion of the school.

Monday the 20th- We will have a bounce house available for students (opportunity for parent volunteers)

Tuesday the 21st- We will have a Health and Safety Fair for 1st and 2nd grade (Dr. Doug from Pediatric Dentistry will talk about oral hygiene, Officer Barkwood from Palmer Police will talk about gun safety, Dr. Semancik will talk about Swallowing hazards, a veterinarian will be here to talk about pet safety, and a member of the Department of Fish and Game will be here to talk about water/boating safety.)

Wednesday the 22nd- We will have field day activities (we would love to have parent volunteers to assist)

Thursday the 23rd- Last day of School. Whole school awards and recognition assembly at 10AM.

Swanson Families,

As weather gets nice and we have more extra events, we have more opportunities where parents want to volunteer or chaperone with events and field trips. I always provide information at the beginning of the year on volunteering at school, but also update towards the end as more opportunities are available.

For field trips, field day, and other similar events, we do need you to complete these steps.

We love parents and volunteers in the building, but we do need a couple of things to be completed beforehand. This is to insure student safety.

There are two steps:

1. Complete the Volunteer Application.
1. This can be turned into the school office
2. Get an "Interested Persons" Report from the Trooper Station
1. This is similar to courtview, but a little more official. It will cost $20 cash or check and can be obtained during business hours 8-4 at the Palmer Trooper Depot.
2. This can be turned into the school office and we will send it to the district office, or you can take it directly to the district office HR department

What this does is tell us that "this adult is ok to be alone with a group of kids without other staff members directly present," like to chaperone a group of students.

These steps take a couple of days to process, so you will want them completed and turned in earlier than the day of the trip or event where you are volunteering.

While there are a few scenarios that are exceptions, in general, everyone needs these steps completed. :-).

Here are the exceptions:

If you are popping down the hallway and dropping off something for your student, here as a special occasion, and offer to give a quick hand, or generally just "visiting," then you don't need to complete these steps.

You don't need to complete this to volunteer if you are a school district employee at Swanson or another building.

If you have completed similar paperwork for another building, we do not need you to get a second interested persons report.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me in the office at 907-861-5302.

Thank you for helping us put student safety first.

Educationally,

Joshua Rockey