VINLAND

ELEMENTARY

SCHOOL The Vinland Voice

Dates to Remember: 3/1 Early Release Day 3/2 Kindergarten Dual Lan-guage Information Meeting 6:00—7:00 PM 3/4 Vinland PTSA Auction (see attached page for more information) 3/6—3/10 Kindergarten Registration Week 3/7 Kindergarten Open House and Evening Regis-tration 5:00—7:00 PM 3/10 Breakfast Book Club 8:30—9:10 AM 3/15 Early Release Day 3/16 Family Reading Night “Puppets” 6:00—7:00 PM 3/22 Early Release Day 3/28 Free Dress Day! 4th & 5th Grade Music Program 3/29—3/31 No School for Elementary Schools K-5 Conferences 4/3—4/ 7 Spring Break No School

Volume 23, Issue 7 February 23, 2017

Principally Speaking

cmccabe@nkschools.org

Vinland Auction

The Vinland Voyage is ready to launch! The auction is Sat-

urday, March 4th and is our major fund-raising event of the year. If you have

never attended a school auction, you’re in for a treat. Where else do you get to

gather with all the other parents supporting your children, your school and your

community? It’s fun, inspiring, and a unique opportunity to gather for a common

purpose. We have something for everybody at our live and silent auctions, in-

cluding beautiful class projects, travel packages, and much, much more. The Vin-

land Voyage will allow us to continue to support our students with technology, assemblies, special classroom and grade level projects. I hope to see you there!

You can go to www.auctria/auction/vinland.com to view all the auction items.

This is your chance to bid on 1 of 2 prime parking spots for a year at Vinland. If

you win the bid, you will get a personalized reserved sign with your name on it

Kindergarten Registration

The official start of Kindergarten registration is the week of March 6th. Please

register on-line at www.nkschools.org. In order to complete your registration, you will need to upload or bring in the following documents:

1. WA State Certificate of Immunization

2. Welcome to Kindergarten Questionnaire

3. Health Emergency form

4. Verification of Birthdate

5. Proof of Address

To be considered for the Dual-Language lottery, please check the Dual Language

lottery box in the New Student Questionnaire while registering on-line. We will

be hosting a Dual Language Parent Information Night on Thursday,

March 2nd, from 6-7pm. If you do not have access to a computer both

Vinland Elementary and the District Office have computer registration kiosks for

you to use.

Kindergarten Open House

Kindergarten open house is Tuesday, March 7th from 5:00—7:00 pm. This

is a wonderful opportunity to visit the classrooms. Kindergarten teachers will be

available that night to meet and greet.

Mrs. Saavedra's class had great fun making a Seahawks themed mosaic table for the PTSA auction. We couldn't have done it without the help of Mrs. Chmielewski who worked patiently with two or three students at a time, smashing tile (with protective eyewear, of course), cutting tile, nipping tile, placing tile, and adhering tile.

Here’s a sneak peak of just a few of the items to be auctioned off.

2017-2018 School Calendar is availa-

ble now. Please check our website.

School starts Wednesday, September 6

Kindergarten starts Monday, September 11

Winter Break is December 18 - January 1

Spring Break is April 2-6

Last Day of School is June 21

The LaPorte Report

In Physical Education

The month of February was short,

but full of fun! We focused on what

good sportsmanship looks like and

sounds like. We also practiced team

building exercises which required co-

operation and creative thinking. In

addition, students were provided

many choices to showcase their skills

during our week of rotating stations

which included our climbing wall.

Students also had a blast during our

parachute games! Over the past three months, I have

truly enjoyed getting to know your

student(s) and working with them at

Vinland. Thank you for all the smiles

and knowledge you’ve given me!

Next month, we will be welcoming

back Mrs. LaPorte and March Mad-

ness basketball is up ahead. We will

be working on students’ dribbling,

passing, shooting and locomotor

skills. If you are interested in helping Mrs.

LaPorte plan and run field day, please

email her (jlaporte@nkschools.edu).

The first planning meeting will be

held on a March conference day.

Dear Vinland Families,

I am pleased to announce that our

school has been selected to participate in the National Assessment of Educa-tional Progress, also known as NAEP.

You may have heard of NAEP. The results are called The Nation’s Report Card because it

measures student achievement across the country. It is important because the results help the Presi-

dent, Congress, and all of our educators make de-cisions about how to improve our education sys-tem. Not every student will be asked to take part

in the assessment, so for those of you who are cho-sen to participate, we encourage you to take it seri-

ously and do your best. You will represent other students like yourselves, and you have a chance to

have an impact o the future education policy deci-sions in the United States. Every student that is selected to participate makes a difference. We will

be providing more information for students and teachers in the upcoming weeks.

Thank you,

Nick Heckard

Technology Teacher/Testing Coordinator

Attendance

Notes: Parents, if your stu-

dent is out for a doc-

tor or dentist appointment, please send a

note from the doctor/dentist’s office the fol-

lowing school day.

Meet our most recent

Dolphin Award Winning

Students!

Congratulations to the following students who

were chosen by their teachers to receive a

“Dolphin Award” for making good choices and

following our school expectations.

- Be ready to Learn, Be Kind, Be Responsible, and Be Respectful -

Fisher Godfrey Hendrick Krasowski Lewlis Lemagie

Samantha R. Arabelle M. Tatrina D. Layla F. Lucian S. Jordan D.

Mike M. Dawsyn A. Josephine D. Jesi L.

Carmela N.

Mason R.

Lynch Meyers Nelson Park Paul Radley

Ana A. Zaafir A. Aislinn R. Steven M. Brayden F. Ana A.

Jack J. Sydney E. Ellie M. Jake B.

Payton S.

Eva D.

Ethan P.

William B.

Rinks Saavedra Showalter-Johnson Smith

Linkin B. Kaitlynn B. Rylee O. Camila R.

Chuy M. Natalia N. Valeria M.

Estela C. Aria S. Audina M.

Hailey B. Chael K. Bronwyn S.

Elody R. Carter T.

Vinland

Yearbook

Presale

$10.00 each

Price goes up to $15.00 after March 10th and

availability cannot be guaranteed.

Cash or Checks made payable to Vinland PTSA. **NOTE: Yearbook forms are going out to all Vinland students. If

you have already received an email confirmation, please disregard the

order form, we have your yearbook order. If you need to verify if an

order was placed at the beginning of the school year, please email

Richele Strong at randastrong@gmail.com

Get your pictures in the yearbook! The yearbook staff invites stu-

dents, staff, and parents to submit photos for the yearbook. If you

have great photos of school events, we’d like to see them. Our pho-

tographers can’t be everywhere. Help us get as many photos as possi-

ble to create a terrific book everyone will want to have.

Here is how you can submit photos online:

Download the FREE Replayit App from Jostens on your Android or

iPhone, log into the Vinland Elementary dedicated and secure photo-

sharing site and start uploading photos.

Hello Vinland families! I just wanted to update you all about what I’ve been doing during specialist time

with kindergarten, first and second graders. In the fall, I worked with our fabu-

lous counselor, Carolyn Mosiman, to teach each class about bullying and Kelso’s

choices. I am currently working with each class on a variety of social-emotional skills. Some days, we practice belly breathing to help calm down. You might have

heard about the day I brought in some stuffed animals to help us practice this

skill! We also use various physical poses to stretch our bodies in different ways and use belly breathing at

the end as a way to calm and connect. We also use movement games that require team work and coopera-

tion. We also work on recognizing emotions using facial expressions and talk about helpful ways to deal with

big feelings. I hope that students can use these skills in various situations throughout the day, both at home

and school. I am also using parts of Second Step social skills curriculum. These may look like fun games, but

they are scientifically based brain builders designed to help kids learn memory skills! Shhh! Don’t tell your

kids! I enjoy each one of your kids and hope that you can encourage these skills at home as well.

Mrs. Nichols, K-2 Specialist

MUSIC NOTES Dear parents and community, Your students have been busy in Music since Winter Break. The following outlines

what each grade level has been working on. Grade 5 students have been busy preparing for their field trip to the Seattle

Symphony on Thursday, March 9. We will be performing with the symphony as

well has listening to pieces performed by this fine orchestra. Our performing

will be singing, playing recorders, and moving- doing choreography.

Grade 4 students have been working hard on playing the recorder. Included in

these lessons are reading notes on the treble staff, recorder playing techniques,

and rhythm review. Although Vinland School provides a recorder for all students to play, your grade 4

student will benefit from having a recorder at home to practice. A good plastic recorder can be pur-

chased from a music store for about $10.

In 3rd grade students have discovered and practiced dotted half notes, they are studying crescendo and

decrescendo, they are beginning to study reading melody on the treble staff, and continue to sing har-

mony by singing in rounds.

In grade 2, students are studying half notes by singing and reading them. Also, we have been playing ac-

companiments and a melody that use half notes on xylophones.

1st graders have also been studying rhythm: quarter notes (“tah” in rhythm language) and two paired

eighth notes (“titi” in rhythm language).

In Kindergarten, we have been studying fast and slow in music and phrasing in question-answer format.

Songs, games, and listening selections are all experiences students have to learn these concepts.

I hope to see many of you at our

classroom performances coming

later on this year.

Musically yours,

Larry Orando

Mark your

calendars, Spring

Photo Day is

coming up!

April 28th

Spring pictures are optional.

It is also a free dress day.

They will only take photos

of kids with an order form

and not everyone.