The Rewards of Reading You know how important it is to read to your children. Like most families, you want to read with your children, but somehow days can go by without you sitting down with them and opening a book. The key is to make it a priority. Here are a few suggestions to help your children improve their reading skills.
- But first…Kids make time for a lot of extras in their day. So do parents. TV shows, computer games, and going online can eat up surprising amounts of time. Read first–before the computer goes on or their favorite TV show comes on.
- There’s something special about owning a book. Libraries and garage sales offer “well loved” books for sale, often for as little as 25 cents. Keep spare change on hand so you can pick up some great reads for your children when you see a sale. When birthdays or holidays come around, make sure there’s always a good book wrapped up and waiting.
Yes, you’re busy. Yes, your children are too. But reading with your children really needs to be part of your day, every day. Fifteen minutes a day is a small investment that will generate enormous rewards.
Lost and Found is getting full and overflowing once again. We will set out the stuff right before conferences on tables in the hall. We will donate anything that is left after conference time. Please feel free to check out the lost and found before conferences. It is located in the southeast entry on Kenneth outside Mrs. Long’s room.
08-09 Enrollment Update It has come to our attention that there may be families considering leaving Horace Mann due to the potential large class sizes and increased enrollment next year. Although we are projected to have more students next year, our building is currently under capacity. So we have room to grow. We can actually get to our building projections with only a small increase on our current class size at some grade levels and we have room. We have a clear plan to accommodate additional students for next year whether it is adding additional teaching staff and opening a new room or adding additional teaching assistants.
Most important to me is maintaining our high standards for student achievement and our welcoming neighborhood feel. I would hate to have families depart because of rumors or uncertainty. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Change the End of Year Class Pictures to a Yearbook? Lifetouch has a new product similar to a yearbook at a similar price to our current class picture. The PTA and Site Council were in favor. The benefits are color pictures of all students in the school bound in a nice booklet. The cost of the book is $10. An additional $1.45 adds a color insert of popular culture and news items from the year. If you would like to see the book, please stop by the office. If you have strong feelings about this change, please let me know before the end of March.
Best Buy Teach Award Many thanks to our wonderful Grants Committee. As you may know, we recently applied for a Best Buy Teach Award. These awards recognize and reward schools that have found creative ways to engage students in the curriculum by using technology hands-on. This year, thousands of schools applied for only 1,300 awards. I am proud to tell you that our application was selected. Horace Mann School received a $2000 Best Buy Teach Award! We will use our Best Buy Teach award to purchase new digital cameras so we can continue to make learning exciting and fun for our students. The program that won the award was the 5th/6th grade Eco-Education Service Learning Project. All the students will benefit during their technology class. We are committed to delivering a high-quality, high-tech education to our students so they are successful in the 21st century. With the involvement of parents, commitment of teachers, and support from community partners like Best Buy, we know our students will continue to learn and grow.
