Onondaga Road - Welcome Back from Winter Recess

A few quick reminders as February comes to an end:

Please send in all of your Box Tops for Education by Friday.  We appreciate your support with this endeavor, as it helps us to acquire points and presents for our school.  We need to submit all box tops by March 1st, so any that you have at home will help!

Parents of grade 5 students, please join us Wednesday evening at 7:15 if you are interested in helping to plan the 5th grade end-of-year celebration.

Thursday, March 3, 6:00-8:00 p.m. is our annual Science Fair for grades 3, 4, 5.  Even if your child chose not to participate this year, you are all encouraged and welcome to attend the event and see the science displays.

If you or anyone you know has a child who will be attending Kindergarten in the fall, please remember to register.  All registration will take place at the District Office.  Feel free to call our school if you have any questions about how to register for Kindergarten!

Onondaga Road February update

Kindergarten Registration

If you or someone you know has a child who will be starting Kindergarten in the fall, it is time to get registered for school!  Registration will be a little different this year, as all families will register at the West Genesee District Office.  You can register your child any time, but preferably between February 1 and March 4, 2016.  The process starts by making an appointment.  You can visit this website or call this number to make an appointment:

    

 https://wgkregistration.youcanbook.me/  

    or call 487-4683

PTA News

Thanks go out to our PTA for coordinating another successful Enrichment Day for our students.  Fun was had by all!  We look forward to many more programs and activities, but we cannot do it without your help.  Please consider attending a PTA meeting, or getting involved as a volunteer in another way.  Our next PTA meeting will be on Wednesday, February 24 at 6:30 PM in our library.  In March, we have a new meeting date added to the calendar, Wednesday, March 9 at 6:30.  Please join us to learn how you can participate in a variety of ways!

New Science Fair Coordinator Needed

Thanks to Greg Couture for coordinating our past three Fairs, but as his children move on, we will be looking for other parents to step up and take over.  If you are interested in getting involved, moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, we need you!  Maybe you’d like to work with a partner or two, or maybe you have some ideas to share, or maybe you’d like to come shadow our current coordinator to see what it entails.  Please send a note with your child, or call the main office if you have any interest in helping out.  We will get you all the information you need!  This year’s Science Fair will be on Thursday, March 3 at 6:00 PM.

Grade 5 News

It’s time to start planning our year-end activities!  If you are a grade 5 parent and would like to join in the festivities, please plan to attend a meeting immediately following our PTA meeting on Wednesday, February 24 at 7:15 in the library.

Construction Update

If you have been to school lately, then you have surely have seen some changes!  We have eliminated some trees in the courtyard to make room for our new library.  We have also moved some classrooms and teachers to make way for the next phase of construction.  We witnessed the back-hoe digging out some tree stumps and roots yesterday and leveling some land in the courtyard which will become the library floor.  Very exciting stuff! 

Dates to Remember

• Friday, 2/12/16 – Valentine’s Day classroom parties
• Monday, 2/15 through Friday, 2/19 – School closed for Winter Recess
• Monday, 2/22 – Back to school for all!
• Wednesday, 2/24 – PTA meeting at 6:30 PM
• Wednesday, 2/24 – Grade 5 Parent meeting at 7:15 PM

Have a great week with your family and friends.  We’ll see you soon.

Jeannette Clark

Onondaga Road Enrichment Day Recap

Enrichment Day at Onondaga Road was a huge success this past Saturday. Thanks to all our volunteers who made the day possible. Students were able to participate in activities like Irish dancing, martial arts, coin and baseball card collecting to name a few. The collage below shows some of the fun the students experienced.

Onondaga Road February Blog

Renovation Update

We’re on the move!  As I had previously announced, we are still scheduled to break ground in March for the new library in the courtyard.  Thanks, so far, goes out to Mother Nature for having the weather be so cooperative!  March is coming soon, so there are some necessary room moves happening within the building.  Without disrupting instruction, we have already moved several small-group instructional teachers into different rooms.  This allowed us to free up a classroom that will now become a kindergarten room. Because the construction will be directly outside Mrs. Vitale’s/Mrs. Severson’s kindergarten room, we will be moving that classroom directly next door, one room over, to minimize distraction. 

Keep an eye out for that driveway that will be constructed stretching from the front of the building to the courtyard!  It will be exciting for the children to see the stages and phases of construction.  Most of the work will be done while students are not here during the summer, but they will witness some of the movement!

Dates to Remember

• OR Enrichment Day is this Saturday, February 6 at 9:30-11:30 a.m.
• Open library research night for all students in grades 3-5 participating in the Science Fair is Wednesday, February 10 at 4:00-6:30 p.m. Parents must attend with their children.  You may come any time and do not need to stay the entire time.  Use the time as needed in the library!
• Classroom Valentine celebrations will be on Friday, February 12. Times vary by classroom.
• Winter break runs from Monday, February 15 through Friday, February 19.
• The next PTA meeting will be held Wednesday, February 24.
• The NYS English/Language Arts assessments for grades 3-5 will be April 5-7 and the Mathematics assessments, also for grades 3-5, will be held April 13-15. Please try to avoid scheduling appointments on these days if at all possible. There have been some changes to the testing, including a different vendor, greater involvement of teachers in the test development process, fewer numbers of passages and test questions, and a shift to untimed testing.