Author: Wiekhorst, Sabrina

APRIL 2015

Mark your calendars

April 3: NO SCHOOL– Spring Break
April 6: NO SCHOOL– Spring Break
April 9: Title I night @ 6:00 p.m.
April 11: Opening Day Fundraiser for Legion Baseball at the Legion from 5:00-9:00 p.m.
April 17: Clown & Gum Day
PTSA Carnival from 6:00-8:30 p.m.
April 22: 2nd Grade Field Trip to Lincoln
April 29: Book It Swim Party
2-4 from 12:45-1:45 p.m.
K & 1 from 1:45-2:45 p.m.
April 30: Elementary Spring Concert @ 6:30 p.m.

Falcon news

FROM THE OFFICE:
Families who seek early admission of their child (who will turn 5 years of age between August 1 and October 15) into kindergarten must obtain an Early Entrance to Kindergarten Request Application from the School District. The assessment request application must be completed and returned the District no later than May 25th of the spring before the fall enrollment to allow summer assessment to be completed.

YEARBOOKS ON SALE
The PTSA is selling elementary yearbooks once again: here’s how to order.
Step 1: http://www.memorybook.com/parentpay
Step 2: Enter your pay code 76991 and click next.
Step 3: Buy a yearbook for $17.00
Order forms will also be coming home in your child’s backpack soon. Order form payment is $16.00. Don’t miss out, yearbooks are only on sale until April 30th.

DC WEST
Elementary

Mr. Duane Krusemark
Principal
Mrs. Larissa Travis
Secretary

Anxiety and Fear: Helping Kids Who Have It
From Parenting with Love and Logic
Seven-year-old Ethan was afraid to leave home. The school bus was terrifying, other kids were scary. Ethan was even fearful of the wind!
Children learn most of life’s big and important lessons in three ways… the “Three E’s of Love and Logic: Emotional Cues, Experience, and Empathy.”
Emotional Cues: Kids take their emotional cues from the adults around them. Ethan’s mom discovered that her anxiety about his anxiety was part of the problem. All of her reassuring words were actually suggesting to Ethan that his fears were legitimate. Therefore, she replaced her frantic attempts to calm him with consistently modeled confidence and a business-like attitude.
Experience:
Ethan needed to face his fears and experience the fact that he was strong enough to cope. Rather than allowing him to stay inside when it was breezy, dad took him to the park and drank hot chocolate together in the wind. Instead of allowing him to avoid other kids and the school bus, they taught him how to share his comic books with other children on the bus.
Empathy: We all learn best when we’re around patient people who demonstrate love and high expectations. Unlike sympathy…which communicates pity…empathy communicates an “I-believe-in-you!” attitude. When Ethan became fearful and tried to avoid things by saying, “I’m scared!” or “I can’t do it!” his parents calmly replied, “Aren’t you glad that we don’t believe that?”
In the book, I've Got What It Takes, Jim Fay has practical ideas for helping your kids develop an I can do it, I've got what it takes attitude.

DRESS CODE REMINDERS:
As nicer weather approaches, students want to wear shorts and lighter clothing. Remember that students must be dressed appropriately to go outside for recess and PE and the weather can still be very unpredictable. It’s a good idea to always have a light jacket, sweatshirt, or sweater available for going outside. Students also need to wear shoes that are safe to run and play in and for Walking Club. Tennis shoes work the best.

Box Tops
Congratulations to everyone that collected Box Tops! The total for 3rd quarter was 6,918. The class that collected the most and won a pizza party from the PTSA was Miss Parolek’s 4th grade class with 866 box tops. Thank you to those that remembered to cut them before turning them in. Keep up the good work everyone!

Parenting Pointers

Phone: 402.359.2151
Fax: 402.359.5421

www.dcwest.org
follow us on twitter @dcwestfalcons

Step Right Up!!!
The school carnival is coming soon and the PTSA needs your help. We are in need of Volunteers, Donations, and Snacks for our snack walk!
We're using VolunteerSpot (the leading online signup and reminder tool) to organize our upcoming activity. Please sign up for School Carnival! Here's how it works in 3 easy steps: 1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/Tibgwi 2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on VolunteerSpot) 3. Sign up! Choose your spots - VolunteerSpot will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy! Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.

YOUNG AUTHORS CONTEST
Recently, students at DC West were busy writing stories for the Young Author Contest. Two winners per class were chosen and a writing celebration was capped off with a presentation from local author, James Solheim. James came to us from Omaha, Nebraska, and is the author of several books, including “It’s Disgusting and We Ate It!” and “The Only Alex Addleston in these Mountains.” Mr. Solheim spoke to the students about his love for writing and how he began writing stories as early as 8 years old. He showed us samples of his early stories and how he used his own real life experiences from his childhood and mixed in imagination to create his stories. He encouraged students to write all the time, keep a diary and save their writing samples. After Mr. Solheim presented to the students, he enjoyed lunch with the Young Author Contest winners and listened to their winning stories. The winners of the contest were: Hudson Harlow, Prachi Patel, Ella Broz, Sara Edwards, Hayden Gottsch, Ava Mace, Harper Roche, Casey Dembinski, Beckham Reimer, Cade Listenberger, Madison Walker, Caiden Hoops, Jasmine West, Georgia Goff, Abby Kennec, Bryar Jensen, Trent Davidson, Jaeda Bakken, Payton Haase, Briley Saunders-Loewenstein, Jaylee Negley, Lily Wright, Gage Grattop, Raya Sattem, Ashton Scott, Ethan Griffith, Colton Steffen, Morgan Morrison, Neava Hayner, Sophie Reimer, Lu Rehberg and McKenna Pojar.

Congratulations to the following students who got “caught caring” during the month of February: Kyler Jorgensen, Ian Gleason, Remington White, Ryder Songer, Brody Wiese, Blaise Howell, Bryar Jensen, Valeria Robles, Kyler Rippe, Grant Mayer, Jack Woodward, Nora Crnkovich, Noah Bechtel, Bryce Feldhacker, Matthew Adair and Jaelyn Uehling. These students were treated with a pizza lunch from Casey’s with Mr. Krusemark. Mrs. Hays, Mrs. Hare, and Mrs. Travis were also recognized for their work with students and being supportive of fellow staff members. Good job and keep up the good work everyone!

Caught Caring Winners: