CARNATION CARES: HOLIDAY GIVING TREE!

We have been amazed at the overwhelming response from our wonderful Carnation community to our first community holiday giving tree. With over 140 tags available to start with, only 5 remain. All gifts will go to children and families in need right here in our own school and community (include the Stepping Stone Preschool).

The holiday time can be very stressful for many families who are struggling to make ends meet, but with your support these kids will not be disappointed with their holiday gifts. With your generous donations each child in the family (living at home) will receive one nice new clothing outfit (including pants, shirt, shoes, socks & undergarments) and a requested toy. In addition, each family will receive a gift card for food or other needs. Cash donations and Safeway or QFC giftcards are welcome donations too (please make checks payable to the Carnation Elementary Sunshine Fund).

If you are participating please remember to get your unwrapped gifts delivered to the school office by Friday, December 14th - so we can wrap them and get them delivered by the winter break.

Thanks Carnation for showing how much you care!

Mr. Poage

CONFERENCE TIME IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!

The days seem to be speeding past as we enter our third month of school. We are approaching the end of our first quarter of school already, which means it’s time for us to meet with families to share student progress, set social and academic learning goals and visit with you and your child about the good things that are going on in school.

Fall Conferences at the elementary schools, in the Riverview School District, are November 16th, 19th, 20th & 21st. School will be dismissed each day at 12:30pm and there is NO 1/2 day Kdg. on these dates. Lunches will be served each day that week.

Students who are pre-registered may attend the Carnation Extended Day Care Program from 12:30-6:30pm. Please contact Mary Jacobson @ 844-4529 to get your child registered today.
Please be sure to return the conference notes we have sent home and write your conference times on your calendar. If you are unable to attend your child’s conference or need to reschedule, please contact your child’s teacher directly. Please try to make other childcare arrangements for siblings so that you may direct your full attention on your child and his/her teacher.

Please help us reach our goal to have 100% conference attendance.

CARNATION COSTUME BALL - A BASH!

Students and staff alike dressed up for the 4th annual Carnation Elementary ASB Costume Ball, October 25th. With fun music to dance to and lots of snacks from the snack bar, young and old had a grand ole time dancing, doing the limbo, and checking out all the fun costumes.

Even Mr. & Mrs. Poage dressed up this year. Pictured above, they came as Edna & Tracy Turnbladt from the musical "Hairspray." Yes, that is Mr. Poage - John Travolta better look out!

CARNATION PJ BINGO - A BIG HIT!

PJ Bingo brought a full crowd out Thursday night (10/11) at the Carnation Elementary School MPR. There were lots of winners of toys, games, candy, a portable DVD player and even $100 gift certificate to Ticketmaster.com.

Many kids and parents alike dressed up in their PJ's to settle in to try their luck at BINGO. Missy Paulsen, Mr. Poage, and Mrs. Panesko were the "celebrity" callers that night. Carnation 5th graders sold pizza and cookies for camp. Special thanks to PTSA parents Missy Paulsen, Shelby Winston, Kristie Bergquist, and Marilyn Loftus for all their help that night.

All-in-all it was a great time!

The next exciting Carnation Family Event will be Thursday night, October 25th when we have our annual ASB Costume Ball. Find your favorite costume and join us in the gym at 7pm for lots of fun!

C-ya then!
Mr. Poage

DID YOU KNOW?

Carnation Elementary 4th graders have improved on the Writing WASL by 20 pts. over the past 2 years. Teachers have worked hard to improve instruction and increase opportunties for writing with students.

This year our staff has adopted a Writers Notebook Program and all students and staff write frequently in their notebook or journal. Teachers even use their notebooks at staff meetings and do reflective and dialogue writings together with Mr. Poage.

Our goal is to increase our writing scores even more this year. Please help your child develop their skills in writing by doing one of the following activities this week:

1. Write a family story after dinner. One person starts the story and writes what happens first. Then the next person takes over the writing and tells the next part of the story. This continues until everyone has had a chance and the final person has to write a conclusion to the story.

2. Write a note to your child and put it in their backpack or lunch box. Ask them to write you back.

3. Write a letter to a relative or family member.

4. Have your child explain how to do something using only writing and pictures. For example, How to make a PB&J sandwich. Then follow the directions exactly how they wrote it and see if it works? Have them make modifications to their writing if needed.

5. Visit these websites to learn more about writing:

http://www.creativewriting4kids.com/
http://www.kidsonthenet.com/create/index.cfm
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/creative.htm

Happy writing!
Mr. Poage

WHAT DO YOUR TEACHERS DO ON 1/2 DAYS?

Often, parents and kids wonder, "Why do we need to have 1/2 days?" or "What do the teachers do during those 1/2 days when the kids aren't there?"

The fact is, that the 1/2 day early release Fridays are extremely valuable to our staff and in turn have a great impact on what and how your children learn. As I'm sure you can imagine, a day in the life of an elementary classroom is very busy and there is little, if any time for the teachers to work together and collaborate in planning their curriculum or evaluating their instruction. During 1/2 days teachers can work together in grade level teams, curriculum teams, or staff committees.

Today, during our 1/2 day teachers worked in grade level teams to analyze reports from the state OSPI and WASL data related to Math. We looked at three different articles related to math instruction, "WASL Math Strengths & Weaknesses," "Lessons Learned from Scoring the Math WASL," and "What a Strong Math Classroom Looks Like." Teachers read and discussed these articles and then brainstormed ways that we can improve in the math areas that our students struggle with: measurement, geometry, and probability and statistics.

The good news is, because of this type of collaboration our math scores have greatly improved. Our 3rd grade Math WASL Scores were quite good this year and exceeded the district and the state. We had over 85% of our 3rd graders meet or exceed the standard in Math! Way to go 3rd graders (now 4th graders).

Please feel free to ask your child's teacher what they learned on the last 1/2 day and how this time helped them be a better instructor.

FIRST - CARNATION TIGER TABLE!

Today was our first Terrific Tiger Table for the 2007-2008 school year. We honored about 40 Carnation students who got to have lunch with me (Mr. Poage) and Mrs. Marvin (our counselor) on stage. In addition, students got a special certificate from their teacher, and a pencil, Juicy Juice, and special eraser from our school business partner, Nestle. It was a great day! Please check out the newsletter on Friday to see who got a Tiger Award this month!

(Right) is our new Tiger mascot, purchased by the CE-PTSA. He came to lunch with us too. Help us name our tiger by voting below!

Have a great week!

Mr. Poage

CLASSROOM VISITS!

I have had a great time these past couple of weeks getting to visit every single classroom in our school. During this time we visited about the job and responsibilities of a principal and decided that my biggest job is to keep everyone safe and to help people learn. Some classes even had time to do some acting when we acted out the different Respect Rules for our class to help us learn.

In addition, we talked about our 3 Carnation Respect Rules:
1. I will RESPECT myself and others.
2. I will show RESPECT for safety.
3. I will show RESPECT for school and personal property.

And, we practiced the Carnation RESPECT sign (the letter "R" in sign language) and how and when to use it.

Thanks so much for being such TERRIFIC TIGERS when I came to your classrooms! You were very RESPECTFUL and good listeners! Mrs. Marvin, our school counselor will be back soon to visit with you about good friendship skills and bullying.

Have a great week!
Mr. Poage, Principal

FLASHBACK!

Remember this? Last year we had a special treat having the "Hip Hop Handbook" Team come to Carnation Elementary. They taught us how "break-down" and create Hip Hop Style Music and Art. It was an awesome time for everyone!

Did You Know?

This summer 9 of our Carnation Elementary Staff members attended a wonderful Arts Camp at Seattle Art Museum? Teachers learned how to dance, act, and create beautiful artwork, all of which will be taught to our students at Carnation this year. Samples of our artwork are displayed in the Gold Hallway (outside the MPR) in our beautiful "Carnation's Featured Artists" display case purchased last year by our school partner, Nestle.

Look for more exciting Arts Activities this school year at Carnation. Including:

-Our "Me, Myself, & I" - Snapshots Displays - on display in September
-Costume Ball - October
-"Snapshots of our Community" -Theme - Fall
-Annual Veteran's Day Assembly - November
-Annual PTSA Reflections Arts Contest & Winter Band Performance - November 29th
-Kindergarten Music Program - December
-Missoula Children's Theater Production - "Jack in the Beanstalk" - January

Don't miss these fabulous opportunities to expose your children and family to the ARTS!

Carnation Curriculum Night - Success!

Thanks to all the Carnation parents and kids who made it out the school Thursday night (9/13) to learn more about our classrooms. We are so fortunate to have outstanding classrooms and teachers for everyone. We look forward to all that we have to learn this year.

We also had about 115 kids come to our PTSA Movie Night to watch "Cars" that night. There was popcorn and juice and water and lots of fun. Thanks to our childcare sitters (Elizabeth and Ryan) for all your help! Thanks also to Joyce & Missy for ALL your help that night.

By the way, Congratulations to Mr. Owen's 5th Grade Multiage Class for winning the PTSA Door Prize for having the most parents attend the PTSA Meeting! You get an extra $50 for your classroom grant.

Did You Know?

Did you know that 90% of Carnation's 3rd graders passed the Reading WASL this past spring? That was higher than the district and the state scores for 3rd grade! Way to go 3rd graders!

The Principal's Page

Hello Carnation Friends,

Thanks for visiting my new blog. This is something we've wanted to try at Carnation Elementary School to help enhance our webpage, our community communications, and to provide a wonderful opportunity to connect "virtually" in our school community. I hope you find this blog informative and helpful.

I've listed several resources for parents and kids of websites and books that I found particularly helpful. I hope you enjoy them as well. Please feel free to share your ideas or links for others to view of websites that you like and think are educational and helpful.

Here's to another great school year!
Mr. Poage :-)