Sawnee Elementary School News

October 2016

Sawnee Elementary School Newsletter

In This Issue

From the Principal

Sawnee Teacher of the Year

Yearbook Ordering

Veterans Day Program

Cafe News

Flu Shot Clinic

Text or Treat

Picture Day

Important Reminders

PTA News

Sawnee's New Faces

BYOT iRun

Sawnee Smiles :)

Dates to Know:

Oct. 3rd - Reflections entries due, Custodian Appreciation Day; Girls on the Run, 3:15-4:30pm; Sawnee Singers 3:00-3:50pm

Oct. 5th - Mentor Training, 1:00-2:30pm;

Girls on the Run, 3:15-4:30pm

Oct. 8th - BYOT iRun, 8:00am

October 10th - S awnee Singers 3:00-3:50pm; Girls on the Run, 3:15-4:30pm

Oct. 10th-14th - National School Lunch Week

Oct. 12th - Girls on the Run, 3:15-4:30pm

Oct. 14th - Show Your Spirit Day (See Cafe article)

Oct. 13th & 14th - Kindergarten field trip to Kinsey Family Farm

Oct. 17th - S awnee Singers 3:00-3:50pm; Girls on the Run, 3:15-4:30pm

Oct. 17th -21st - National School Bus Safety Week & Bus Driver Appreciation

Oct. 18th - Reflections Gallery Night

Oct. 19th & 20th - Fall Conferences & early release

Oct. 19th - Girls on the Run, meets at dismissal; Flu Shot Clinic, 2:00-6:00pm, Sawnee Cafe 1

Oct. 21st - Student & Staff Holiday

Oct. 24th - S awnee Singers 3:00-3:50pm; Girls on the Run, 3:15-4:30pm

Oct. 24th - Nov. 3rd - Book Fair

Oct. 26th - Girls on the Run, 3:15-4:30pm

Oct. 27th - Text and Treat for Relay for Life, 5:30-8:00pm, Building 1

Oct. 31st - S awnee Singers 3:00-3:50pm; Girls on the Run, 3:15-4:30pm

Nov. 2nd - Girls on the Run, 3:15-4:30pm

Nov. 4th - Veterans Day Program (see article)

Nov. 8th - Picture retake day, 8:30am-11:00am

Quick Links:

2016-2017 Forsyth Co. Schools Calendar (English)

2016-2017 Forsyth Co. Schools Calendar (Spanish)

FCS Attendance Policy

Fall Lunch Menu

Staying in Touch at Sawnee ES

Sawnee Elementary Website

Sawnee PTA Website

Remind messages for parents:

Text: @sawneef to 81010 to sign up

Parent Portal

itslearning

Sawnee thanks our Partners in Education

Letter from Dr. Nix

Dear Sawnee Families,

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Fall Break, and the fall feeling in the air is so refreshing. It was great to see all the students this week. Thank you again for your support of the Splatter Dash; it was a Huge success and great fun! I loved having my beige shirt turn to a tye-dye shirt in a matter of minutes. Please join us next for Text-n-Treat on October 27th. This is a fun, family event that you won't want to miss! We appreciate everyone working together to make Sawnee a great place for kids.

Dr. Nix

2016-2017 Teacher of the Year

Our 2016-2017 Teacher of the Year is Mrs. Jennifer Fagan!!

We are so excited for Mrs. Fagan who attributes her classroom success to the team that she works with. Here she is with her Paraprofessionals, Mrs. Jenn Dech and Mrs. Dana Mann

Congratulations to our Teacher of the Year Finalists:

Mrs. Peggy Trampel, Kindergarten

Mrs. Jennifer Fagan, Autism

Mrs. Jessica Plouff, Kindergarten

Yearbook Ordering

This year the 2017 Sawnee yearbook can be ordered only online. To order your child's yearbook today, simply go to www.balfour.com and type in Sawnee to place your order. The ordering window is October 1, 2016 - March 31, 2017. Don't delay, the yearbook does sell out every year! For more information click here to read the full yearbook letter.

Sawnee Honors our Veterans

The Veterans Day program will on Friday, November 4 ^th . Grades 3-5 at 8:30 and K-2 9:45. Breakfast will be served in Media Center 1 for our Veterans.

The program is one week ea rly due to our guest speaker not being available on Veterans Day.

Cafe News

National School Lunch Week -

Is next week October 10th-14th.

On October 14th the cafeteria is having a "Show Your Spirit" day and all the food will be in the shape of balls. They would like all the students to dress in their favorite team sport clothing to show their spirit!!!

Lunch Visitors Reminders -We are always excited to have parents join their child for lunch, please sign in at the fr o nt desk using the visitor sign in system and wait outside the cafeteria for your child's class, so you can enter the cafeteria with your child. Please eat at the designated parent tables with your child if seating is available. Upon completion of lunch, please sign out using the visitor sign in/out system, so teachers can return to the classroom and continue with instruction. R emember no outside fast food is allowed to be brought in. Thank you for adhering to our lunch room policies.

Students and parents our Cafes are serving up delicious and nutritious breakfasts and lunches. Remember the chocolate muffins are served every Monday and Thursday morning! Click here to access our cafe web page for more information on menus and MyPaymentsPlus.

Flu Shot Clinic

Parents a "No Cost" flu clinic will be held on Wednesday, October 19th from 2:00-6:00pm at Sawnee Elementary School in Cafeteria 1. This is for children ages 4-18. Please bring your medical insurance or Medicaid card with you. Click here for more information on this great service offered by The Forsyth County Health Department and Forsyth County Schools.

Text or Treat

Our Annual Relay for Life fundraiser, Text-n-Treat is almost here!

Text-n-Treat will be held Thursday, October 27 th from 5:30-8:00. All the fun will be in building 1 this year! Wear your favorite costume and trick-or-treat through our book themed hallways. What will your teacher be dressed like? Join us for a hotdog dinner at 5:30 in Café 1 before trick-or-treating at 6:00. Dinner proceeds will benefit our Leader in Me program and admission to trick-or-treat benefits Relay for Life. Admission $5 (family cap of $20).

Picture Day Update

Cady Studios home office is in Florida and due to the impending weather our fall pictures may not arrive until late next week. If you didn't pre-order a package your student will receive a proof page. You can keep this page and use it to place an order at www.cadykids.com , click on fall pictures and enter Sawnee in the school name space and order away!

If your student missed picture day, don't worry retakes will be the morning of November 8th. Mark your calendars now!

Important Reminders

Classroom Volunteers: Sawnee Elementary encourages parents/guardians to share their time, knowledge, and abilities with our student body. Volunteers enrich our school's educational programs, strengthen our home/school connection, and helps up to build relationships with outside business and public agencies.

All volunteers must schedule visits prior to visiting the classroom. Volunteers will work outside of the classroom as much as possible and will limit the amount of classroom time to no more than 1 hour to avoid disruptions and eliminate confidentiality concerns. Volunteers must sign in and out at the front desk using the visitor sign in system. A visitor's sticker must be worn at all times while in the building. Volunteers may not bring younger siblings to the school while volunteering in the classroom. Teachers, staff, students, and families all benefit from volunteers being present in the school. Thank you again for your cooperation and time.

Transportation Changes - Parents if you need to make a change to your child's transportation, you must send in a note with your child or drop one off before 1:30pm. We can't accept emails, faxes or phone calls as these can be missed during the busy, instruction day. This policy is for the safety of all our students.

Check-Outs - As was the policy last year, the latest time you can check out your student is 2:30pm. On early release days the latest check out is 12:00pm. Thank you for adhering to this policy.

Attendance - When your student is tardy, absent or checked out early you have five school days in which to send in an excuse note. If your child's attendance event is due to a doctor appointment, please send in the doctor note to be excused. For a list of acceptable excused absences, visit this weblink http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=688. For questions please contact Sharon Hamilton (K-2) shamilton@forsyth.k12.ga.us or Sonia Fedke (3-5) sfedke@forsyth.k12.ga.us.

Parent Portal - Just a reminder if you need to update phone numbers, email addresses or people authorized to check out your child you have to do this through your Parent Portal account. If don't have an account or are locked out of your account, bring your picture ID to the receptionist in either building and your request can be quickly submitted.

PTA News

Stay Informed: The PTA will be sending out updates via email this year. These emails will include important news and event information.

Please register online to receive the updates. Simply use the "Subscribe to Sawnee PTA's news & updates" widget found in the left column of our website. Our website is http://www.sawneepta.org/.

Box Tops - The first Box Tops competition ends October 14th

so keep clipping and sending them in. Every Box Top helps our school and your child's class in the competition!

Splatter Dash Results:

A HUGE "Thank You" to all who volunteered and supported Splatter Dash this year! We exceeded our goal, raising $44,636!!! Click here to see a list of all the grade level winners. Congrats to Mrs. Densmore's 2nd grade and Mrs. Knapp's 5th grade classes as they were our campus wide winners!

Meet Sawnee's New Faces

Lea Abraham - Ms. Abraham graduated from the University of West Georgia and has been teaching for 8 years. She moved to Forsyth County from Kennesaw over the summer. She has taught in 3^rd grade for 5 years and 4^th grade for the last two years. This is her second year as a kindergarten paraprofessional. Ms. Abraham completed her science endorsement over the summer and as a STEM coach helped the school she was at last year towards their STEM certification. She has a love for teaching especially science and math and tutors students in the afternoons. She is truly devoted to teaching and is dedicated to providing a rich and challenging educational experience for her students.

Sonia Fedke - Sonia Fedke studied Topography at

Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas in Bogota, Colombia. She moved to United States and started a career in banking and finance, where she worked for 16 years. Sonia changed careers to be able to spend more time with her three wonderful children. She is very thrilled about working at the same school her kids attend. She is eager to use her Spanish to help the Spanish speaking community in the school.

Roxana Fleneury - Mrs. Fleneury graduated from

Florida International University in 2003 with a B.S in Special Education. After starting her journey as a special education teacher she also obtained a Specialized Endorsement in Autism, also at Florida International University in 2006. She has taught for 12 years in the states of Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. For the last 3 years she was at Cobb County teaching students with Severe Intellectual Disabilities and students with Moderate Intellectual Disabilities. Her most unique position was as a special education teacher at the Maryland Juvenile Detention Facility. She currently loves her position at Sawnee and feels extremely happy to be a part of the Sawnee Family.

Jaclyn Howell - Mrs. Howell is in her fifth year of

teaching. She graduated from Kennesaw State University with her degree in Early Childhood Education. She has since spent two years teaching second grade in Cobb County, two years in third grade in Oconee County, and starting her fifth year teaching third grade at Sawnee Elementary. Jaclyn attended North Forsyth High School and is excited to be living in Forsyth County again!

Samantha Strang -

Mrs. Strang graduated from the

University of South Florida in Tampa, FL where she was born and raised. Mrs. Strang taught 1 ^st and 2 ^nd grade in Tampa for three years before moving to Georgia in 2013 with her husband John. She taught 1 st and 2 nd grade for three years in Fulton County and joined her husband, who also teaches in Forsyth County, this year. Mrs. Strang loves to teach reading and writing. She also loves learning about and using technology in her classroom. She is looking forward to a great first year at Sawnee Elementary.

Morgan Wade -

Ms. Wade graduated from the University of North

Georgia with a Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood and Special Education. She also has a reading endorsement. This is Ms. Wade's first year teaching and she is loving her third grade class! Ms. Wade grew up in Forsyth County, so she is thrilled to now be teaching in this community. Ms. Wade loves sports and all things outside. She is thrilled to be teaching at Sawnee this year and is enjoying watching her third graders thrive!

Forsyth County BYOT iRun

The annual BYOT iRun to beneift Forsyth County Schools technology initiatives will take place on Saturday, October 8th at 8:00am at Shiloh Point Elementary School. Go to http://www.forsythbyotbenefit.org/irun-for-byot.html to register for this 5K run and support our students' technology needs.

Sawnee Smiles :)

Here are just a few pictures of what the Sawnee students have been doing this year!

At Sawnee we are so thankful for all our custodians do to make our school "sparkle and shine". The Office Staff celebrated them with a homemade lunch. We thank all the staff and students for making them feel special this week!