Hot Breakfast Menu

Mon - Breakfast Pizza

Tues - Biscuit & Gravy

Wed - Granola Topping

Yogurt Parfait

Thurs - Breakfast Stick

Fri - Cinnamon Roll

Cold Breakfast Menu

All Days - Choice of

Cereal & Toast

Dates to Remember:

Valentine

Classroom Parties

Feb

14

Parent/Teacher

Conferences

Mar

6-9

NO SCHOOL Mar

10

Spring Break Mar

13-17

Iowa Assessments Mar

27-31

VISION Ballard empowers all learners. MISSION The Ballard Community School District will educate the whole child, providing the essential knowledge and skills necessary to be a successful and responsible citizen in the 21st Century.

Parent Newsletter

Ballard Community

School District

February 2017

Volume 4, Issue 7

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As winter is slowing (but surely) fading away to spring, we are gearing up for

several happenings here at East Elementary.

Conferences: During the week of March 6th will be parent/teacher confer-

ences. If you have forgotten or need to change your time, please contact

your child’s teacher for specific details. Please note the following time

changes during that week. On Wednesday, March 8th, we will have a 12:30

dismissal; Thursday, March 9th will be a regular full day of school; and on Friday, March 10th will be NO school.

Spring Break: There will be no school March 13 - 17 for spring break. Classes will resume on Monday, March

20th. Enjoy the time off!

Learning Luau: As in year’s past, planning has begun for the Learning Luau here at East Elementary. Save the date

of Thursday, March 30th. You will be getting further information in the coming weeks so watch your child’s folder.

It’s always a great event!

Cold Weather Guidelines: While spring is just around the corner, we are still having some very cold days.

Please make sure your child is coming to school with a coat, boots, hat, and gloves everyday. Winter coats are

required for outdoor recess until the temperature is above 55 degrees. On the flip side, when the temperature

and/or wind chill is at 0 degrees or below, students will not go outside for recess. These are maximum wind chill

guidelines. If at any time the recess supervisor(s) believes it is too cold, they will bring students inside regardless of

time or temperature.

Mike Manock

Ballard East Elementary

Principal

Above & Beyond - Certificate of Achievement Each month select students are awarded with an Above & Beyond certificate.

Teachers choose these students based on the student’s outstanding performance in the classroom and their

effort to exceed teacher expectations. The following students received this award in January.

3rd Grade

January:

Kaleb Dee

Cara Grimard

Brady Hillebrand

Amelia Hugaboom

Cole Johnson

Jayden Lowe

Eli Preston

Jayla Sullivan

4th Grade

January:

Wil Baltes

Claire Cleveland

Zoey Jewett

Jace Rhiner

Katelyn Scott

Reese Weatherman

Trent Williams

Kiir Wol

Anwen Wolfe

Kaitlyn Zugay

5th Grade January:

Amanda Anderson

Landan Carson

Ryan Cleverley

Adelaide Crisler

Ava Easter

Aubrey Estrem

Alex Evans

Amelia Gogerty

Rachel Huisinga

Stephen Lawler

Atheena Lowe

Lunch Menu

Mon 2-13 Roasted Hot

Dog OR Turkey Sub

Tri Tator

Tues 2-14 Walking Taco

with Lettuce & Tomato

OR Garden Vegetable

Salad - Pinto Beans

Wed 2-15 Chicken

Nuggets & Soft Pan Roll

OR Popeye Salad

Cheesy Mashed Potatoes

Thurs 2-16 Spaghetti with

Meat Sauce & Breadstick

OR Ham & Cheese Sub

Garden Green Beans

Fri 2-17 Pizza Parlor Pizza

OR Honey Mustard Ham

Wrap - Leafy Green Salad

Mon 2-20 French Toast

Sticks, & Sausage Patty

OR 7 Layer Salad

Breakfast Potato

Tues 2-21 Popcorn

Chicken Bites & Soft Pan

Roll Or Taco Salad

Peas & Mashed Potatoes

& Gravy

Wed 2-22 Chicken Patty

OR Chicken Caesar Salad

Creamy Coleslaw &

Brownie

Thurs 2-23 Cheesebread

Dunkers OR Deli Sub

Garden Salad

Fri 2-24 Beefy Nachos

with Cheese Sauce OR

Yogurt Pak - Pinto Beans

Mon 2-27 Meatballs &

Gravy over Rice, Roll OR

Turkey BLT Wrap

Glazed Carrots

Tues 2-28 Tasty Chicken

Tenders, French Bread

OR Chicken Salad Sand.

Mashed Potatoes & Gravy

Every February the students at Ballard East

participate in Jump Rope For Heart. Jump

Rope For Heart is an event that raises mon-

ey for the American Heart Association as

well as raise awareness about the im-

portance of having

a healthy

heart. Over the

last couple of

weeks, students

have been learning

and practicing dif-

ferent jump roping

skills during P.E.

class. Jump Rope For Heart is also a way that students learn to help other peo-

ple. You can help by talking as a family

about having a healthy heart, ways to be

more active as a family, and if your family

has been affected by heart problems.

Iowa Assessments will take place the week of

March 27th at East Elementary. These tests

help us evaluate our school programs and stu-

dents. We ask that you encourage your child to

do their very best and ensure that they get a

proper breakfast and plenty of sleep during this

testing period. We would also ask that you keep

outside-of-school appointments to a minimum

during this week. Make-up times will be sched-

uled, but testing goes much smoother when all

students are present for the entire testing ses-

sion. Thank you for your continued support as

we encourage our children to “Do their best,

when they test.”

Book Fair:

Spring Conferences

Tuesday, March 7

3:00 - 7:00p.m.

Wednesday, March 8

12:30 - 7:00p.m.

Shop

Online Too!

www.scholastic.com/fair

ELP NEWS at BALLARD EAST

Reading News: Third grade recently completed their Intervention group rotation, where they spent time reading FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER by E.L. Konigsberg. They liked the book a lot, and could connect to the main characters who were sister and brother. They had fun with the mystery of whether or not the “Angel” was really one of Michelangelo’s works of art.

Fourth graders read the book FREAK THE MIGHTY, as (mostly) a read aloud with some chapters being read independently and then discussed. They enjoyed the book, and had great discussions about it. They preferred having it read aloud to them! Next, our ELP Reading students and the entire fourth grade will have the opportunity to participate in a “Battle of the Books” contest similar to the one that our 5th graders will participate in at the Ames Public Library. This is a great oppor-tunity for students to read quality books and then compete to see how well they remember each of them.

Fifth grade Reading ELP students have been reading diligently in preparation for their “Battle of the Books” contest to be held on March 2. This is an activity that is open to all 5th graders at Ballard East. Books, t-shirts, and other incentives were purchased using a grant from the Ballard Educa-tional Foundation. When the 5th grade ELP students are finished with their own competition, they will be planning and conducting their in-school competition for our 4th grade students to have the opportunity to participate in.

Math News: Mrs. Wesselmann’s third grade math intervention group has been working on basic multiplication facts and improving their accuracy and speed. The students have made great strides in improving both! We have used our facts in solving two-digit x one-digit multiplication problems, then moved on to two digit x two digit problems. We also did problem solving using multiplication and other fun activities to promote our master of multiplication.

Fourth grade ELP math students finished up a collaborative math-based project called “GEOMETROCITY”. Their task involved several phases of developing a city. Each student was given a section of the city, and had to plan and build their part out of three-dimensional geometric shapes. They then had to fit their city sections together to be the most efficient and easy for peo-ple to live, work, and travel in. We found out that it took a lot more cooperation and helping each other than originally thought. Our next project will be building our Mindstorms robots; our 4th grad-ers are looking forward to this experience!

Fifth grade ELP math students recently finished a coding activity using the Scratch website, and working in the laptop lab. It was interesting to see what they created, and they were able to share some of their end products with each other using the classroom projector. We are currently working in partner groups working in Math/Science stations. Some of their activities include a K’Nex roller coaster, Solar-powered robotic car, coding activity called “Puzzlets”, and building a Mindstorm robot. Feel free to stop by our classroom in room 164 to see some of our projects!