September

2017

Harding Grade School Parent Newsletter

“You're off to Great Places! Today is

your day! Your mountain is waiting,

So... get on your way!”

- Dr. Seuss

September

Events

“You have brains in your head. You have

feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”

- Dr. Seuss

Welcome Back!

We have had a FANTASTIC kick off to the school year! I would like to thank all of

our students, parents, and staff members for making the start of this school year a

huge success! It is great to see how many happy and energetic students we have here

at HGS each day!

As your child may have shared with you, this year we are incorporating a new

student reward program! Students can earn “Eagle Bucks” throughout the school

day for showing respectful behavior and following their school-wide expectations.

At the end of each week, the students can use their “Eagle Bucks” to purchase items

in the “Eagle Bucks Store”. So far, we have had a fantastic response from our

students with this new program! If you get a chance, you should ask your child how

many “Eagle Bucks” they have earned!

Also, I encourage everyone to sign up for the school-wide and class text messaging

groups. Attached at the end of the newsletter, you will find information for signing

up for the specific text messaging groups. This is a very quick and easy way for the

school office and the teachers to communicate with parents! Our goal is to make

communicating easier and more efficient for parents. In addition, you will notice

that the school office is now texting parents directly and parents can text us back!

As the school year continues, I encourage you to reach out to me if you have any

questions or concerns! I am always ready and willing to work together to help

support our wonderful students!

- Mr. Landers

A Message From Mr. Landers...

4th – No School - Labor Day

6th – Early Dismissal – 2:05 pm – Staff

Development

7th – PTO Meeting @ 7:00 pm – HGS

Library

17th – HGS PTO Car Cruise @ 1:30 pm

to 4:00 pm

18th – 22nd – SHS Homecoming Spirit

Week

20th – Kindergarten Jonomac Apple

Orchard Field Trip

28th – First Grade Honey Hill Apple

Orchard Field Trip

* Schedule Subject to Change

* Subjec

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2

Why It’s Important to

Read to Your Kids!

One of the most important things parents can

do, beyond keeping kids healthy and safe, is to read with them. That means starting when they

are newborns and not even able to talk, and continuing well beyond the years that they can

read by themselves. Study after study shows that

early reading with children helps them learn to speak, interact, bond with parents and read early

themselves, and reading with kids who already know how to read helps them feel close to

caretakers, understand the world around them

and be empathetic citizens of the world.

Read aloud early — and keep it going! The good news, according to the new Kids & Family

Reading Report by Scholastic, is that more than

three out of four parents who have children ages 5 and younger start reading aloud before their

child reaches his first birthday. This practice increased to 40 percent in 2016 from 30 percent

in 2014 among parents who read aloud before their baby is 3 months old. The research also

showed that more parents of 3 to 5-year-olds are reading aloud frequently, with 62 percent of these parents reading aloud five to seven days a

week, compared with 55 percent in 2014.

Be a resource to your kids for book ideas —

even if they don’t ask — especially for

infrequent readers. Scholastic’s research shows that parents underestimate that kids need help

finding books. Only 29 percent of parents agree, “my child has trouble finding books he/she

likes,” whereas 41 percent of kids say finding books they like is a challenge. This number increases to 57 percent among infrequent

readers.

Don’t forget adding books in your home

library that showcase diverse story lines and

characters. When looking for children’s books to read for fun, both kids (37 percent) and

parents (42 percent) mostly agree they “just want a good story” and a similar percentage want

books that make kids laugh. One in 10 kids ages 12 to 17 say they specifically look for books that

have “culturally or ethnically diverse story lines,

settings or characters.”

If you are stumped for great books for kids to choose, the top books that parents reported

reading aloud over and over again for little ones include Dr. Seuss books such as The Cat in the

Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, Good Night Moon by

Margaret Wise Brown and The Very Hungry

Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

For all kids, parents with children up to age 17

recommend that the books that every child should read are Harry Potter, Dr. Seuss, Diary of a

Wimpy Kid, The Magic Tree House and The

Chronicles of Narnia. Book series are a great way

to get kids

hooked on story lines and

characters. Reference: Why it’s important to read aloud with

your kids, and how to make it count.

(2017). Washington Post.

“The more you read the more places you will go, the

more places you go, the more things you will learn.”

- Dr. Seuss

3

HGS & SHS Team Up for Spirit

Week! The week of September 18th, Serena High School will be celebrating

Homecoming! To help support the Huskers, Harding Grade School

will be having themed days throughout the week to show our school

spirit! We encourage all of our students to join in the fun throughout

the week!

In addition, Serena High School will be holding their annual

Homecoming soccer game at 12: 30 pm on Saturday, September 23rd!

We hope to see you there to show your school spirit!

MONDAY: Pajama Day, TUESDAY: Blue & Gold Day - Let’s Go

Eagles!, WEDNESDAY: Western Day, THURSDAY: Crazy Day,

FRIDAY: Purple & Gold Day – Let’s Go Huskers!

2017 HGS PTO Car Cruise Sunday, September 17th

The Annual HGS PTO Car Cruise will

be held on Sunday, September 17th from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm at Harding Grade

School! We hope to see everyone come out to support this awesome event! There

will be tons of great cars to check out, a

live DJ, food, and great raffle giveaways! The PTO will also have 50/50 raffle

tickets for sale!

Also, a HUGE thanks to all of the local businesses that donated items for the

raffle and t-shirts!

Harding Grade School Parent-Teacher Organization A great way for parents to stay involved with the school is through the

Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)! This group helps the students of

Harding Grade School in a vast variety of ways from helping provide

academic programs to hosting community events. This organization

is truly one of the greatest assets to our school. Please feel free to take

the opportunity to join the group and help make Harding Grade

School a better place for each and every student!

Meetings will be held on the following dates this school year:

September 11th, October 2nd, November 6th, December 4th,

February 5th, March 5th, April 9th, and May 7th.

Please feel free to contact any of the PTO officers with questions!

(President – Pam Twait, Vice-President – Carrie Niles, Secretary –

Jeni Sterchi, and Treasurer – Carly Cantlin )

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