Dear Swansfield Community,
I hope this newsletter finds you well. We had an interesting week of school with an early closing one day and a delay on a separate day. The students adjusted well to the change of schedule and learning was taking place in each classroom.
I’d like to thank all our second-grade families that attended our Title I Family night on Thursday. The team put together an engaging evening focused on literacy. A special thank you to our 5th grade parents that chaperoned the UMBC field trip.
We ask that families pay attention to the forecast on Tuesday. It looks like we could get our first snowfall of the school year. Any delays or cancellations of school will be sent via HCPSS, but SES will send a follow-up text as well.
Please enjoy the three-day weekend and we encourage families to find time to reflect on the impact Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had on our country.
Have a wonderful weekend! ~ Anthony J Esposito, Principal
Important Dates
- January 15th - Off
- January 15th-24th - PTA Read-a-Thon
- January 17th - 3 Hour Early Dismissal / Professional & Wellness Day
- January 18th - Winter Concert at WLHS @6:30pm
- January 22nd - No School for Students
- January 25th - Grade 3 Title I Family Night
- January 26th - Perseverance Day
- January 30th - Q2 Awards K: 9:00 & Grade 5: 2:15
- January 31st - Q2 Awards Grade 1: 9:00 & Grade 4: 2:15
- February 1st - Q2 Awards Grade 2: 9:00 & Grade 3: 2:15
- February 2nd - Spelling Bee *Date change*
New Information
BSAP
Parents/Guardians there will be no BSAP after school for next week, January 15th to January 19th. Please be sure to make other arrangements for your students. BSAP will resume Tuesday, January 23 during their regular time afterschool.
Wilde Lake HS Performing Arts
On January 24th and 25th the WL Musical Theatre Ensemble class are performing their student-produced production of Once On This Island, Jr.
The performance is in our mini theater at WLHS and although we are charging $5 cash for adults, it is FREE for students and kids. Seating is limited, our doors open at 5pm and curtain is at 5:30. Since this is a junior version, the run time is just a little over an hour. See flier for more details. Wilde Lake HS Musical Theatre Company Presents.pdf
African American Read In
We hope you can join us to read to students at Swansfield in honor of Black History Month! We are looking for readers for Tuesday, February 6th . We hope to have at least one reader for each classroom. Books will be provided.
Sign up here: http://tinyurl.com/mryrreys Questions? Contact Tamekah Wilkins (tamekah_wilkins@hcpss.org).
Grade 3 Title I Night
The 3rd grade teachers have planned a great family night for you, coming up in two weeks on Thursday Jan. 25th @ 5:30-7:30 PM. Learn about how to support your child in citing relevant text evidence, and in practicing multiplication facts at home through game play. To allow parent and 3rd grade child to engage in the learning activities, there will be separate supervised play activities for siblings. Please see our invitation for the agenda for the evening. Be sure to RSVP by Monday, Jan. 22. This helps to ensure we have the right amount of food and take-home materials for all to enjoy. We can't wait to see our 3rd grade students and their families!
Lost and Found
Parents/Guardians there are several personal items that your students have left behind. You are welcome to stop by the main office anytime to look in the cafe’ during school hours. Items from the lost and found will also be in the main lobby during Parent Teacher Conferences on February 7th until 3:00pm. All clothes that are not retrieved by February 9th will be donated to our Clothing Recycle Bin.
Quarter 2 Awards
PTA News
UPCOMING PTA EVENTS
The 2024 Read-a-Thon starts Monday!
We are excited for students to participate in the 2024 Swansfield Read-a-Thon! We hope that the Read-a-Thon will inspire Swans to spend extra time reading outside of school and track their reading minutes each day.
Students can participate in the Read-a-Thon in 5 easy steps:
- Sign up for a Read-a-Thon page to track your reading minutes. The process is quick and easy! https://app.99pledges.com/fund/2024readat/addme. Make sure to include your email address since this is required to track your minutes.
- Ask friends and family to sponsor your reading goals (optional). All donations will go towards supporting Swansfield PTA activities and school support initiatives! Sponsors should select a simple, one-time donation, since per-minute donations are often larger or smaller than expected. Donations can be made anytime between now and Sunday, February 4th.
- Record how many minutes you read every day outside of school between Monday, January 15th and Sunday, January 28th.
- Set your goal and take small steps each day! For younger readers, reading with a grownup counts too! Swans meeting their goals will receive a book as a prize!
- Preschool - 1st Grade goal: 200 minutes total, about 15 minutes a day
- 2nd - 3rd Grade goal: 275 minutes or about 20 minutes a day
- 4th - 5th Grade goal: 350 minutes, or 25 minutes a day
- Enter your daily minutes on your personal read-a-thon page, which you will receive via email after signing up. You can also track your minutes on the paper reading log sent home in your Friday folder and enter them at the end of the Read-a-Thon.
Check out our school Read-a-Thon page to see who is participating: https://app.99pledges.com/fund/2024readat/
Prizes: All participants will receive a special prize. Students who meet their total reading goal (200 minutes for Pre-K-1st, 275 minutes for 2nd-3rd, 350 minutes for 4th-5th) will get a book!
In addition, the 10 students with the most minutes and homerooms with more than half the students participating will receive special Swansfield recognition! The top 10 readers will get to choose from an individual lunch bunch with a teacher of choice, checking out an extra media book, a special picture with LaSwan James, sitting in the special/ rocking chair for the day, reading a book with a staff member outside, or being a guest reader in another class! Homerooms will get to choose from pajama day, no homework day, pick your seat for a day, class lunch bunch, guest reader, or outside buddy reading.
Questions? Contact Read-a-Thon chair, Michelle Li at Readathon@Swansfieldpta.org
Restaurant Night: Tuesday, February 6th at Neo Pizza
Plan on having Neo Pizza on Tuesday February 6th to support the Swansfield PTA! Neo Pizza will donate 20% of all proceeds from sales to the PTA. Stay tuned for more details, and keep an eye out for a flyer to present when ordering!
Sign up for the 2024 Swansfield Elementary Science Fair!
The Swansfield Science Fair will take place in-person on Thursday, February 15, 6:30 - 8pm.
This year's science fair will include the opportunity for students to present their science fair project on a trifold board (provided by the PTA for students that sign up). Projects will be judged during the fair with awards issued and prizes for all participating students awarded after the fair.
For more information on participating check out:
- Science Fair Student Packet - includes written step-by-step directions on how to formulate a science fair project and lay out your trifold board
- Science Fair workshop video - includes recorded information on how to come up with a good question, hypothesis and way to test your hypothesis (only 14 minutes long!)
- Science Fair consult (optional) - if your student is feeling unsure about their project, they can opt to participate in a 15-minute consult with a science-loving adult (virtual and in-person options available) to discuss their project and get feedback. Please indicate your student’s interest in this option when signing them up for the science fair on the science fair interest form.
If your child is interested in participating, you must fill out the Science Fair Interest Form. If you have more than one student, please fill out a separate entry for each student participating.
If you want to volunteer, we will need parent judges for the night of the fair and science-loving adults for the student project consults! We also welcome any members to join the science fair committee. Please let us know if you can help as a volunteer on the volunteer sign up form.
Questions? Contact your Science Fair Co-Chairs: Teryn Thomas and Jeanie Prescott at sciencefair@swansfieldpta.org
PTA NEWS & UPDATES
Please Share Photos For Our SES Yearbook
We need your help to make the 2023-24 Swansfield yearbook a great one! Please use this link to access the community photos feature and upload your student’s photos: https://community.lifetouch.com/invite?code=SWANSFIELDPICS-24
YEARBOOK INVITE CODE (enter if prompted): SWANSFIELDPICS-24
You will be prompted to login to a Shutterfly account or use your Facebook credentials. You can either use your pre-existing account or use the generic PTA account below to add your photos to the Yearbook. To use the PTA account, enter the following login information:
Username: yearbookphotos@swansfieldpta.org
Password: Yearbookphotos2023
After logging in, select photos from your phone or computer. For each photo select one or more tags that can be attributed to your photo. Click on Begin Upload. We would love to get your first day of school photos and back to school picnic photos!
If you need assistance, email yearbook@swansfieldpta.org or membership@swansfieldpta.org.
January PTA Meeting Minutes
If you weren’t able to attend this month’s PTA meeting, minutes are available on our website here: 2023-24 PTA Meetings – Swansfield Elementary School PTA (swansfieldpta.org)
