February 2016 Parent Teacher Conferences

It is time for Parent Teacher Conferences at McKinley Elementary.  They will be held Wednesday, February 17th and Thursday, February 18th.  Kindergarten will also have conferences on Friday, February 19th from 8 AM-3 PM.  There will be no school that day for KINDERGARTEN ONLY.

To schedule a time with your student's teacher, please click on the teacher's name below and it will take you to their Parent Teacher Conference webpage where you can sign up for a conference time.  It is very simple to use.  You just review the slot times and when you find one that works for you, push the "Sign Up" button next to the time slot you want and it puts a check mark in the box, then you push the "Submit and Sign Up" button at the bottom of the screen and follow the directions.  It should automatically come up with the "I do not have a sign up genius account" checked and leave it that way and fill in the information.  MAKE SURE TO PUT PARENT'S NAME IN THE SIGN UP WHERE IT ASKS FOR NAME AND EMAIL BUT PUT YOUR STUDENT'S NAME IN THE COMMENT BOX ON THE SIGN UP PAGE THAT IS AT THE TOP WHERE IT SHOWS THE CONFERENCE TIME YOU ARE SIGNING UP FOR.

If you have any questions, please notify us.

Thank you and we look forward to meeting with you.

Kindergarten
Mrs. Ayotte
Mrs. Scothern
Mrs. Theurer

1st Grade
Mrs. Bailey
Mrs. Johnson

Mrs. Kendrick
Mrs. Obray

2nd Grade
Mrs. Archibald
Mrs. Canfield
Mrs. Hannum

Mrs. Wise
3rd Grade
Mrs. Christensen
Mrs. Detwiler
Mrs. Reese
Mr. Richards

4th Grade
Mrs. Brandt 
Ms. Litchford
Mr. Murray
Mr. Norris

5th Grade
Mr. Bennett

Mrs. Brandt
Mr. Darrington
Mr. Esplin

National School Breakfast Week Poster Contest

Pastries with Parents

McKiney Family Math Fair

Who's The Man Activity

2015-16 Incoming Kindergartners

We will be having a Getting-To-Know-You activity in February for all those students who will be eligible to enroll in Kindergarten for the 2015-16 school.  Right now we are trying to collect information so we know who to invite to this activity as well as Kindergarten Round-Up that will be in March.  If you have an eligible student who will be coming to Kindergarten in 2015-16 with a birthday between September 2, 2010 and September 1, 2011, please call the school and let us know so we can gather some information from you to make sure you receive the invitations to upcoming activities.  If you have a friend or neighbor that you know has eligible students, please let them know to call the school as well.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

January Leader In Me Challenge

January 2016 Family Challenge

January is the perfect time for Habit #2, Begin With The End In Mind!!  This habit is where we literally see what it is we want to become, do, learn and gain.  Sometimes the end is something short term, sometimes the end we see is a long way off.  Dr. Covey challenges us to look forward to our 80^th birthday party and imagine what the people attending would say about us.  What is it that you would want your family, friends and loved ones to say about the life that you have lived?  This is the first step in making your personal mission statement.  This is the first family challenge of January, to make a family mission statement.  The process is simple, sit down as a family and decide what you would like to be known for, what you want your character to be.  Remember that character is different than reputation.  Character is who you really are, while reputation is how people see you.  Character is also completely in your own control, while reputation can be influenced by you. It is really controlled by other people’s perspective.  A good illustration of this is that of a prominent leader in a small town who was seen by someone who didn’t know him very well entering a very bad area late at night under what was perceived to be suspicious circumstances.  The person who saw this told quite a few people about it and they jumped to conclusions, such as him being a drug dealer, or that he must be buying drugs etc.  It turns out that this leader was responding to an urgent call from a family member who was struggling with an addiction and needed help.  The leader had unselfishly went to find his loved one and offer help, bring them to his house and find professional help for them.  His character remained intact, even when his reputation may have suffered because of the perception of another.

Your mission statement could be very short, Dr. Covey claims that his was only 3 words.  Make it something that you and your family can look to every day and strive for.  If you need some examples there are tons online if you Google “family mission statement examples” and look at the images.  Once you come up with your family mission statement, I challenge you to hang it up in a prominent place in your home and review it often with your children to keep if fresh and something that they think about. 

The 2^nd challenge option is to create some short term and long term goals for each member of the family.  Along with the sheet of paper is a puzzle that you can cut out and mix up all of the pieces (Click on the link below to open & print out the puzzle with the challenge.).  Once you have cut out all of the pieces, have your children try and guess what the completed puzzle is without seeing the original.  Puzzles are also very hard to put together unless we actually know what it is supposed to look like when it is finished.  This relates directly to life and Habit #2 in that if we know what we want to accomplish then we have a much greater chance of realizing that goal.  After putting the puzzle together discuss what goals each family member could make and how you can help make those goals happen.

Once you have finished either of the activities please fill out the form (Click on the link below to open & print out the challenge that has the form to fill out.) and turn it in to the office.  This will enter you into our drawing for a Kindle Fire or a family board game.  Remember that if you do both challenges, you get 2 tickets in the drawing!! The forms are due by Friday January 29^th. Good luck with this challenge and I would love to hear from you about your experiences with each of the habits.

Mr. Chournos

Click HERE to open and print out the challenge.

NEW CARPOOL INFORMATION

Parents,

We are excited to get our clubs going now that we are back from the Holiday break!!  One of those clubs is our Car Pool Club.  You will see several of our students out after school helping to direct traffic and keep our pick up moving along safely.  We have had a few close calls this year involving student/vehicle accidents and we will be more closely enforcing the pick up procedures that we put in place last year.  Here are a couple of reminders about what some of those will be:

--Students will not be allowed on the grass by the flagpole and marquee sign.  Students that are meeting siblings or other students to walk home will need to make sure their meeting place is not in that area.  A good area for a meeting place is on the east side of the school by the bike racks or on the north side of the school.  

-- Students will not be allowed to enter a vehicle until the vehicle is past the cones on the cement.  We realize that this may cause a bit of a delay but it is the only way we can monitor all of the students and their safety within the pick up lane.  Please pull forward as far a possible and let one of the students in the orange vest know who you are waiting for and they will call for that student.  Please leave enough room in front of your vehicle so that when you have your kids safely in the car you can leave the pick up lane and make room for other cars. We will also be closing off the South East parking lot 15 minutes prior to school letting out so please do not make arrangements to pick up students in that lot.  We will also close the entrance to the South West lot once the bell rings.  If you are in that lot you can pick up your students but will need to exit at the far west.

--Remember that it is illegal to cross the street other than in a crosswalk.  Also remember that it is illegal to travel east on the road directly south of the main school entrance until 4:00 PM.  This street is a 1 way street during the day and you run the risk of getting a ticket if you are see traveling east on that street after school.

-- You are welcome to pick up your students on the north side BEHIND the busses.  Please do not park so that your children have to cross the street to get in your vehicle.  You can also use the east sidewalk to pick up students.  Please realize that if you are using this access point that we do not have supervision on that side so please be extra careful.  Also if you are using the east side please do not park going north so that your child has to cross the street to get in your vehicle.  You will need to be traveling SOUTH to pick up your child there.  You will also not be able to make a U Turn on that street once you have picked up your child.  You will need to continue south to the stop sign and turn there.

We know that at first this process will take a little getting used to for both parents and students.  We will do our best to monitor the situation and make any changes that are necessary.  We are also asking the Police to be here several days of the week after school to help and to provide us feedback for any changes they think will help. Please be patient with us for the next few days and allow yourself a few extra minutes to get your children while we adjust to this procedure.  Hopefully you know that our main objective in implementing these procedures is to keep ALL of our students as safe as possible.  Please help us in this endeavor.  

If you have questions or concerns I am glad to talk to you about those.  Just give us a call here at the office at 257-2590.

Thank You!!

Mr. Chournos