CumruKidbits

More Cumru News Online at: www.governormifflinsd.org

PTO OfficersCo-Presidents

Jennifer riChardsstePhanie Warner

Vice-Presidentheather Melley

secretary/Membership Chairpersonandrea detterline

treasurerViCtoria PurCell

Kidbits editorlisa sMith

all Cumru Pto meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Cumru faculty room. We always welcome new people and new ideas. the Pto is your connection between home and school. Please join us at the upcoming meetings listed below!

december 11, 2019January 8, 2019

february 12, 2019

full-color versions of Cumru Kidbits are available on the Cumru page of the district web site:

www.governormifflinsd.org

The Governor Mifflin School District is an equal opportunity education institution and will not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, national origin, sex, or handicap in its activities, programs, or employment practices as required by title Vi, title iX, section 504 and the age discrimination act of 1975. for information regarding civil rights, handicap requirements, or grievance procedures, contact contact eric l. Wolf, assistant superintendent, 10 s. Waverly street, shillington, Pa 19607, 610-775-1461.

PTO Meetings

Kidbits in Color!

A Newsletter of the Cumru Elementary School PTO Winter 2019

“Monarch Whisperers” Come to Cumruthis year, Mrs. McKay’s GeP students from Cumru are participating in the Philadelphia Zoo’s “ unless” contest. the objective of this student-driven, project-based learning experience is to “empower K-12 students to take action for endangered wildlife.” Cumru’s team selected the Monarch Butterfly. As part of the project, this group of students, now called the “Monarch Whisperers,” developed a plan to help Monarchs in our local area. over the past two months the Monarch Whisperers planted hundreds of milkweed seeds in the Governor Mifflin riparian buffer area. The students also spoke at the shillington Borough Council meeting on november 14. the “Monarch Whisperers” urged the shillington Council (picture below) to plant milkweed in the shillington Park to support the monarch butterfly population, which is in decline. They also donated hundreds of seeds to the borough manager. the students explained to the council that milkweed is the host plant of the

monarch butterfly. It is their main food supply, and the female monarch lays her eggs on the milkweed leaves. When the GeP students launched their Philadelphia Zoo PBl by planting milkweed seeds in the buffer zone near the rabbit run stream, they discovered two alarming problems. While completing a biotic index, they found that there was a lot of trash in the stream and there were also piles of grass clippings in the area.

the group’s driving question for this PBl project became…Why should we care about the health of the rabbit run stream? the “Monarch Whisperers” invited Mrs. stinson’s Governor Mifflin High School AP Biology class to help them with a huGe stream clean up. (Pictures to the right) together they removed ten large bags of trash. at the end of november the Monarch Whisperers kicked off a leave no trace campaign at Cumru elementary school. everyone at Cumru is being asked to leave no trace wherever they go. Currently, the Monarch Whisperers are researching why grass clippings are bad for the water quality of the rabbit run stream. they are excited about this project and look forward to improving the health quality of the rabbit run stream. Please follow the Monarch Whisperers on facebook to learn more about their project.

Above: Cumru’s “Monarch Whisperer” team visits the Philadelphia Zoo as part of the“unless” challenge.

Life Around Cumru

(above): 2nd graders sing the air force song as part of a medley featuring the five branches of the armed forces. (Below) Kindergartener, Kate scheetz, salutes our visiting Veterans, and 4th Grader, Jeremy fortune marches with his sister, Chanel robbs, in the Veterans day parade. she serves in the u.s. air force.

(above) fourth grade students narrate Cumru’s annual Veterans day Program. We were happy to welcome more than 80 Veterans to our

school to thank them for their service to our country.

(left) holten detterline, a 2nd grader from Mrs. Croft’s class, reads his Veterans day reflections to Parker flory and Camden reaser from Mrs. Gerhard’s Pre-K class.

(Above) Mrs. Hoelscher’s class had a great time on their field trip to the reading Museum. 1st grade students visited four exhibits: arthur, arms and armor, animals and ancient Civilizations.

(Right) Mrs. Swiderski’s 1st grade students wave their flags to welcome our visiting Veterans to Cumru on Veterans day.\(Below) Mrs. Keiffer-Blatt’s 1st grade class marches in Cumru’s annual halloween Parade which was held on october 31st.

News from the Cumru PTO

in november, the reading symphony orchestra brought their “Music in our schools” program to Cumru. this year’s program featured string instruments, and as a surprise, Cumru 3rd grader, ayah elbably, joined the group playing 2 violin duets.

(above): Mrs. Jablonski’s Kindergarten students display the hats they made for fire Prevention day.

(left to right) Brianna seitzinger (4-l), Marilyn Garcia (K-a), and adrian urbina-Perez (4-hy) display their 2019 halloween

costumes.

happy holidays, Cumru families!

We can’t believe it’s already december. What a great start to the school year! We would like to thank all of the parents who donated items for the teacher dinner during conference week. We received a lot of feedback from the teachers raving about how delicious everything tasted. We will have our annual dessert bar for teachers coming up on december 18th. Please be on the lookout for a sign-up Genius to sign up for a dessert to donate to the dessert bar. We would love to spoil our teachers with some goodies for the holidays. We would also like to say congratulations to our first parent volunteer winner, Megan Kreider. Megan received a $50.00 gift card to the Works. you can be entered into our next drawing for the second trimester by attending a Pto meeting, volunteering at one of our events, or donating items we need. We will be giving out another $50 gift card to one lucky volunteer! the more you help, the more chances you have to win! thank you to all of the parents who have already signed up to help in so many ways! We couldn’t offer these events without your support!

Please follow us on facebook at Cumru elementary Pto to receive updates about activities, meetings, etc

thank you for your support. -Cumru Pto Board Members

DECEMBER:11 Cumru Pto Meeting 6:30-7:30p.m.16 Board of school directors Voting Meeting 7:00 p.m.23 inservice day -no school for students24-31 holiday - no school for students

JANUARY:

1 holiday - no school for students2 school resumes6 Board of school directors Work Meeting 7:00 p.m.8 Cumru Pto Meeting 6:30-7:30 p.m.20 in-service day no school for students Board fo school directors Meeting 7:00 p.m. at education Center 27 the state of the district Presentation 7:00 p.m.high school auditorium31 student half- day elementary dismissal 11:45am

February:

7 PTO KISS Dance 12 Cumru Pto Meeting 6:30-7:30 p.m.14 student half day elementary dismissal 11:45am17 holiday/ snow Make-up day Board of school directors Meeting 7:00p.m. at ed. Center21 night of Jazz - GMhs auditorium

Calendar of Events

Kids Corner: Writing Across The Curriculum

one day my pappy came over to my house! Pappy is my grandfather. i played with him for a while. then, we ate dinner. My sister, abby, and i got done first. Then my brother, Camden got done. i like it when Pappy comes over because we don’t get to see him a lot. he lives like 30 minutes away. so all three of us begged Pappy to come out and jump on the trampoline with us. He said, “Once I finish my dinner, I’ll go out.” “okay,” we all said together. “We’ll go out a while.” i said. so we went out and got on the trampoline. in a few minutes Pappy came out. he climbed into the trampoline. We threw the ball out of the trampoline and started jumping around. then my sister, abby, said, “avery, let’s jump on our backs!” “okay,” i said nervously. i was nervous because i only had done it like five times. But, I started doing it anyway. then, it happened! i felt like i was going to break my neck, so i put my arm behind me and CraCK! i broke my arm! But.....i didn’t feel, see or hear

it. so, i started to stand up. then, i sat back down because abby and Pappy were staring at me. i said, “What are you staring at me for?” “your arm,” said abby. i looked at my arm. it had a dent in it. i screamed, “ahhhhhh!” i looked at abby then my arm, then abby, then my arm. then, i looked at Pappy. he said, “abby, go get Josh and samantha.” Josh is my dad, and samantha is my mom. one minute later, Mommy and daddy came running out. Well, daddy was running. Mommy had the baby. then Camden started to cry because he was worried about me. in a minute, we got in the car. “it hurts!” I cried, my pain flashing through me like static shock. “We’ll be there in a few seconds.” mom said. so in a few seconds, we were there. the doctor asked me, “ on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your pain?” of course, i said, “10!” the doctor put a temporary cast on my arm and said to come back tomorrow. in a few weeks, i had my cast off, and i was happy again.

An Experience I Will Never ForgetBy avery reaser (3-fream)

Non-Fiction Writing By Mrs. Keiffer-Blatt’s 1st Grade Class

autumn is a girl. autumn has trumpets have three keys.blond hair. autumn is 7. autumn trumpets have a big hole.loves cupcakes. trumpets have a hole where you By autumn schubert put your thumb. By Cooper davisBats have the power to see in the dark. Vampire bats suck My dad likes twizzlers.blood from only farm animals. My dad likes to sleep.owls are enemies to bats. Bats My dad likes ice cream.are nocturnal. Bats are cool. My dad likes to watch t.V. By lucas Kaufman By troian rodriguez

avery reaser is a 3rd grade student at Cumru elementary school. she is 8 years old and lives in shillington with her mom, dad, 2 brothers, 1 sister and 2 cats. she likes to read and play with her brothers.