Alpine Elementary News and Announcement Archive

Third graders from Mrs. Kimble's and Mrs. Hartley's class received small paperback personal dictionaries from the DICTIONARY PROJECT, a nonprofit organization, whose goal is to give dictionaries to elementary students throughout the United States. Pictured here is Shirley Anderson, the organization representative, helping Mrs. Kimble's class with their "dictionary explorations!" Everyone really enjoyed the activity! They couldn't wait to get their dictionaries home and start putting them to good use!! What a terrific way to help them expand their vocabularies!

Throughout March, students at Alpine Elementary have been collecting books to donate to the United Way Schools of Hope program. Students were able to donate a new or gently used book that will be used to help tutor struggling students in needy areas. Classrooms had collection boxes located outside of their classroom doors.

At the close of the collection, students had to gather, count and organize the books to be delivered. As a school, we collected almost 1,000 books! This event continues to be a wonderful service learning project for our students and another great way to celebrate reading month.

As we continue to prepare for the 2010-11 school year, we are looking at alternative schedules for next year. A survey will be conducted after spring break asking for feedback. Your feedback is important as we try to finalize our Fabulous Five and Kindergarten schedules for next year. The majority of students will be registered by spring break. Therefore, when we return from spring break we will send out a survey and collect results which will help us better serve the community.

The PTO (Parent/Teacher Organization) is looking for some new officers to begin the 2010/2011 school year. The positions that will be available are: President, Treasurer and Co-Volunteer Coordinator. Please notify Mr. Snyder if you are interested. We greatly appreciate anyone who is interested. There is no training necessary and there are many supports in place to make you feel comfortable taking on various responsibilities.

For the month of February, Mrs. Perry and Mrs. Papranec’s kindergarten classes demonstrated the LIFESKILL of caring while strengthening their writing skills. They wrote letters for two soldiers overseas by contributing a page to a classroom book. They hope to continue this correspondence throughout the remainder of the school year. Sheryl Carter, the wife of a Navy Reserve member and a mother of a Kenowa Hills High School student, came in and talked to the students about how things were when her husband was in Iraq for 16 months. She said that soldiers love getting letters and packages from home!

Due to the uncertainty of what the upcoming flu season may bring, we want to remind you of some important basic safety measures that we are following as recommended by the CDC to prevent all children from contracting common viruses or the H1NI (swine flu).  Reminding your children to take simple measures like washing hands, covering their mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, avoiding touching eyes, nose or mouth, and staying home when they are sick are all great ways to prevent unnecessary illness.  

On Friday February 5, students at Alpine Elementary made a donation of $1.00 to wear a hat during school to help support the relief effort in Haiti.

As a school, students raised over $200.00! A special thanks goes to Diane Papranec (Kindergarten teacher) for planning and organizing the event.

We are very proud of all of our caring students. Thank you to those who participated!

On January 19, students at Alpine Elementary participated in their very own Martin Luther King Jr. peace march. Throughout the day students learned about Martin Luther King Jr. and the important role he played in our country's history. Students learned how Martin Luther King Jr. taught people the true meaning of equality, diversity, justice, and common good (our Core Democratic Values). Students made posters and chanted as they marched to such things as “I have a dream!”, “Diversity makes our country stronger!”, and “Work and play with everyone!” It was a pleasure to see their smiles, sincerity, and enthusiasm.

On February 12, students at Alpine Elementary will be creating Valentine cards for various members of our community. Students will be making cards for DeVos Children's Hospital, Covenant Village Retirement Community, Home for Veterans, and current soldiers protecting our country. Various volunteers from Crowe Horwath and Remembrance Church will be assisting students in the card making process. On February 26, students will be presenting the cards to representatives to pass out at our school celebration assembly. The activity is a wonderful way for the students to show their caring hearts and the presentation is a great way for students to celebrate their accomplishment.

On January 14, Alpine Elementary had another monthly school celebration. In addition to recognizing students for using the lifeskill of problem solving, students were able to watch a magic show presented by Paul Rathburn. Mr. Rathburn did an excellent job engaging students and keeping them entertained. Throughout his show, he related all tricks to the importance of reading and math. He sent a clear message that learning to read and working hard are essential for student success. The assembly was a great way to celebrate the wonderful accomplishments of our students and to stressing ways to be successful learners.

First grade students at Alpine Elementary School are studying economic concepts. Needs, wants, buyers, sellers, goods, and services are some of these topics we have discussed. Parents and other community members have been invited into the classroom, where they have shared details related to their jobs. Here, parent Bob Ross describes his occupation.

KHPS now uses the Honeywell Instant Alert system as a primary way to communicate information to families. The instant alert system will notify families of school closings, event times, schedule changes, conferences, and much more. The system sends a single clear message to students’ parents or guardians by telephone, cell phone or email in any combination!

Instant Alert is internet based, allowing each family to maintain a secure, password protected online profile. The instant alert system offers families 5 different alert categories to choose from:

1. School Closings/Delays
2. High Importance (urgent messages)
3. Transportation (i.e. bus delays due to traffic or weather)
4. Building Events (i.e. teacher conferences, field trip reminders)
5. District Announcements (i.e. Community Events, Student Count Day and election reminders).

Each family must UPDATE THEIR PROFILE in order to receive accurate instant alerts. By creating a profile users will be able to select which type of information they would like to receive on each of contact device (i.e. email, cell phone, etc.). Currently, only staff or families with students enrolled in KHPS can create a profile. In mid-January instructions on how to access the system were mailed to families with students enrolled in KHPS. If you have a child enrolled in KHPS and did not receive instructions, please contact your child's school office.

Mrs. Guczwa and Mrs. Fussman's 4th grade class has been cruising through several genres of writing over the past 9 weeks including personal essays and narratives, poetry, and fictional story writing. They have been focusing on word choice to snazz-up traditional essays, as well as bring their poetry and stories alive in their readers' minds.

They have also discovered how voice can strengthen an ordinary essay or brighten a piece of fiction, all the while allowing for strong connections between author and reader. Lastly, they have focused on ideas using a variety of ways, including literature, music, nature, personal experiences, and art connections to come up with creative topics.

Alpine Elementary's annual food drive has come to end and we are excited to share the results! Our students were able to collect 971 pounds of food. That is almost a half ton of food that will be donated families in need in our community. The food was organized into 11 food baskets that will be delivered to families before Thanksgiving break. Each basket includes a gift card to purchase other necessary items that may be needed to have a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.

The morning of Tuesday, December 8th, all third graders at Alpine Elementary will be researching an important event/person in Michigan’s Marvelous History. Third grade teachers are asking parents and other community members to come and help our third grade students with their research!

Adult volunteers will be helping our students read informational text, discuss important ideas, and assist them with note-taking. Each student will have a research packet with questions designed for their topic. Volunteers would be working with students who are researching the same topic.