Volume 1, Issue 23 January 9, 2009

When is a Child Ready to Stay “Home Alone”?

Staying “home alone” is a rite of passage for all children. Unfortunately, no obvious signpost on the road to adulthood indicates when a child is ready to assume this responsibility. Unlike reaching a certain age or size confers a readiness to enter a grade at school or go on a specific carnival ride, being ready to stay home without adult supervision

safely

is trickier to pinpoint.

Estimates indicate more than 40 percent of children are left home at some time. While it is not possible to make a general statement about when readines for self care should occur, it is possible to keep the folloiwng factors in mind when making the decision. Does the child want to stay alone? Some children are bold and self-confident, and want to meet the challenges of self-care. Others are shy and fearful, and exhibit apprehension at the prospect of being alone.

How does the child handle responsibilities in other areas of her or his life? Does he get to school on time, complete tasks with minimal supervision, tell the truth? Does she show problem-solving skills when faced with difficulties? Do strangers intimidate him? Is she comfortable asking other adults for help? Can he be trusted not to go on the Internet to inappropriate sites or to give out personal information?

Will the child be literally home alone, or will younger siblings be there, too? It usually is too much to expect a child who is just learning to handle solo self-care to take on the additional responsibility of looking after younger children. It also is advisable to limit the child to one or no friends In the house while the parent is gone. Children may do unwise things as part of a group that they would never do alone. How secure is the area or neighborhood in which the child will be staying? Are responsible adults nearby should the child need help? Is your home safe from hazzards? Could the child have access to guns, drugs or other potentially lethal things? Safety always must be your number one concer.

Once you determine that the child can put her toe in the water of independence, begin gradually. Let him stay alone for one hour the first time, not for several hours. Leave the child during the daylight hours before graduating to after dark. As your child gains confidence, gradually lengthen the amount of time, as you both feel comfortabale.

No matter when your child is at home alone, make certain he or she know where you are going, about how long you will be gone and, if possible, where and how you can be contacted. Maybe you will want to set a specific time when you will call and check in...just ot make certain everything is going okay. That way, you both may gain some peace of mind.

Source: At Home Alone

This article was in the newsletter a couple of years ago, but it still just as applicable today. I hope you and your family had a great holiday season and are looking forward to a wonderful new year.

Bill James 1

Mrs. Erickson - Kindergarten

Kindergarten would like to wish everyone a “Happy New Year”. Looking back, we all have many accomplishments, but we still have many more to go before the end of the school year.

We are ready to move forward in our reading readiness program. We will begin working on our list of tricky words…doing 4 words each week. Tricky words are words that we often can’t sound out. Our brains just need to have them stored away for us to use. Each week we will also be bringing home sentences that need to be read at home. We are trying to move to sounding out words as we read, not just guessing. There will also be scrambled sentences that we need to unscramble and read. Each of us is going to try to write several words by ourselves when we draw a picture or talk about a story.

Math has us working on building number sentences with manipulatives – both addition and subtraction. We will also try our hand at several glyphs and see how well we can interpret them. It is getting very close to 100 days of school and we are trying to individually count to 100!!! There will be 100 days activities going on for several weeks.

Science finds us learning about animal habits and habitats in the winter. We will also be conducting several experiments with snow and water. We will also be reading a thermometer and recording/charting the temperature each day. We will also be making bird feeders for hang in a tree at our homes.

Social Studies will revolve around many famous Americans. We will be learning about Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington. Our class will be taking a field trip to the David Davis Mansion in Bloomington for Abraham Lincoln’s 200 th birthday!!!

There are so many skills and activities that we will be working on during the second half of our kindergarten year. Some of the skills will require practice/help from our parents each night. There are lots of plans being made for the rest of our year.

Mrs. Hinz – 1

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/2

nd

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I’m sure you have all been very busy because I know I have! First grade will begin their fourth reading unit. The stories in this unit will become much more challenging. We will be learning new vowel sounds, practicing our reading fluency, and continuing to enhance our vocabulary. Furthermore, as each story gets longer it is going to help build a reader’s endurance. In Language Arts, we are going to begin a new unit on adjectives and how to use them in our writing. Second graders are also beginning their fourth reading unit. This semester we will be focusing more on the comprehension and fluency part of reading. We will also continue our work with vowel sounds and vocabulary. Second graders will also be beginning our discussion of adjectives. We will plan characters, setting, problems and a resolution for each individual story. For the rest of the year, the first and second graders will be learning the same math subject material. The first unit we are going to discuss is about plane and solid shapes. We will also be learning new math vocabulary, such as, vertex, angle, face, and sides. Moreover, we will practice using specific shapes to build other shapes and pulling smaller shapes from one large shape.

In the upcoming month, first and second graders will be beginning a new unit in science. In this unit, we will be 2 discussing matter. Students will need to know the three states of matter and give examples of each. This is a tricky unit, so we will be taking our time and working really hard!

Ms. Rients – 3

rd

/4

th

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s. It’s amazing that we are already half way through the school year and into 2009! It goes so fast, and there is still a lot to learn!

Reading, Language, Writing

In reading we will discuss theme, steps in a process, summarizing, and generalizing as we read our stories. In language arts, we will continuing learning about prepositions and how they affect our writing. In writing, we will begin writing expository papers where we explain a topic. We will write some together before beginning our own. Expository writing will be the type of writing the 3 rd graders will do on the ISAT test in March, so I want them to be well prepared.

Math

The 3rd graders will begin 2009 by studying geometry. We are starting with the geometric figures: line segments, angles, types of lines, plane figures, types of triangles, and quadrilaterals. There is a lot of tricky vocabulary with this unit, but I know they will do great! The 4th graders will continue studying geometry too. We will be identifying the differences in various polygons, classifying triangles and quadrilaterals, and identifying parts of circles. Then we will look at how figures change after translations, reflections, and rotations.

Science/Social Studies

We finished our study of the Southeast, and the students did a great job on their Southeast projects. I know they worked hard and learned a lot. Now we will turn our focus back to science. We will study physical science by looking at forces and motion. Several of our topics include speed, friction, stored energy, and kinetic energy. There will be experiments that go with this unit to enhance the concepts, which will help students grasp these tricky topics.

Ms. Wilson – 5

th

– 8

th

5 th /6 th Reading: In the month of January we will be practicing compare/contrast, main idea, predicting, plot, and drawing conclusions while reading our weekly stories.

7 th /8 th Reading: We are going to review Chapter 4 concepts character development, first-person narrator, unreliable narrator, irony, drawing conclusions, and making judgments. Soon, we are going to switch gears from our reading textbook to a novel unit. This will be quite a change for some students so please check with them regularly to ensure they are staying up with daily reading assignment. 5th-8th – Language Arts: 5/6 are starting their chapter on pronouns and antecedents...7/8 will begin their chapter on prepositional phrases. ISATs are just around the corner so we will be dedicating time to writing as well.

7 th/8th Social Studies: The students had a ball learning about Latin America, now we are moving our focus solely on Mexico. We will be emphasizing the Mexican government, economy, and culture. Throughout the last couple of chapters I have found several ways to incorporate technology with social studies learning which the kids are thoroughly enjoying. 3

Accelerated Reader

:

Reminder

, you can log on to the AR website https://hosted105.renlearn.com/391791/default.htm

to check your child’s AR progress. Congratulations to Kylee Bier, Madison Jeziorski, Abby Legner, Abby Jacobs, and Lindsay Rich for meeting your 2 nd quarter goal!!!

Mrs. Hott – 5

th

5/6 Social Studies

–

– 8

th

We have learned much about ancient Greece and will soon be learning about ancient Rome. We hope to build our own museum before the year is through to share what we have learned.

5-6 Science

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5 th and 6 th grade are finishing up their second section about matter. Compounds, mixtures, solutions and pH values are some of what we will be discussing. We will then learn about the chemical changes of matter.

7-8 Science

–

We have learned a lot about volcanoes and are anxiously awaiting the models built by the students. Since these are supposed to erupt in a manner that corresponds to the type of volcano modeled, we should have some interesting experiences. While waiting on our volcano projects to be due, we have started our next unit – Matter. We are currently going through some chapters that are hopefully mostly review, then will be focusing quite a bit on the periodic table.

Math

5

– We are working on factor trees and how to use them to find the Greatest Common Factor and the Least Common Multiple. We will also use them to help simplify fractions. Knowing how to make and use factor trees is a major foundation for much of what we do in the next 3 grades.

Math 6

- We are finishing up area and volume including surface area and volume of 3-dimensional objects. Next we will be studying Integers, Algebra and Probability Math 7 – We are currently studying integers, with equations, inequalities and functions up next.

Math 8

- We just finished talking about scientific notation and will be moving on to rational number operations including working with fractions, mixed numbers and decimals.

Ms. Ores – 5

th

-8

th

Health and K-8

th

PE

The 5 th and 6 th grade health classes are now studying the topic of personal care. Specifically, students are learning about ways to keep skin, hair, nails, gums, teeth, eyes and ears healthy. This chapter will help your child be more responsible about personal care and hopefully become more comfortable with his or her appearance.

The 7 th and 8 th graders are now studying the topics of avoiding and preventing violence and abuse. We will discuss the influences that contribute to the fact that violence among teens is on the rise. We will also discuss ways to avoid and prevent violence-everything from harassment to homicide- in the home, at school, and in the community. We will complete this chapter by discussing abuse- the physical, emotional, or mental mistreatment of another person- and its effects. We will identify ways to get help for abuse, also. All PE classes have started dancing. So far, the kindergarten has been having fun with the “Chicken Dance”, “Hokie Pokie”, and “Bunny Hop”. The other classes have all been line dancing. We have worked on “Boot Scoot’n Boogie” and “Electric Slide”. Towards the end of the dance unit, the students will also get to learn “Thriller”. I am very impressed with the students’ abilities to stay to the beat of the music. They are very talented. Starting the week of the 20 th Pontiac Pool. The 5 th -8 th of January, the 1 st -4 th grades will be swimming in the afternoon at the grades will then follow the week of the 26 th . Please be sure to bring a towel and suit in a plastic bag. 4

Mrs. Sullan - ART

Kindergarten - 4th grades will be learning how to mix all of their colors using just the primary colors of red, yellow, blue, plus the two neutrals, black and white. It is so fun for me to see the excitement when they discover that yellow and blue make green. We will then be studying Impressionism and painting outdoor scenes which reflect a lot of light.

5th - 8th grade will be making a timeline mobile starting in prehistoric and ending in the newly celebrated year of 2009. Depending on the grade, they will be concentrating on Egyptian, Greek, Renaissance, Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and Pop Art movements. I explain that they only have to memorize 3 - 8 art dates as compared to the total of 50 art movements/ eras that exist.

Honor/High Honor Roll 1st Quarter

Honor Roll – Staci Dixon, Abby Jacobs, Caleb Bray, Stevie Carroll, Abby Follmer, Lindsay Rich, Cynthia Ribota, Claralee Schwarz, Ashley Rudolph, Kevin Shaughnessy High Honors – Kylee Bier, Abby Legner, Emma Rich, Shane Burns, Madison Jeziorski, Justin Rich

• • • •

Special Dates to Remember

Jan 15 – Student Council Mtg. 3:15 Jan 19 – No School Jan 20-23 – 1

st

-4

th

Jan 26-30 – 5

th

-8

th

swimming

5

swimming