The Growler

• Calendar Changes for This Year
• Winter Care Box Project Thank You!
• Growth Mindset
• Tips for Supporting your Reader at Home
• PTO Update
• Child Care Support Resource
• Ongoing need: Snacks
• Volunteering at School

Due to the budget shortfall, the school district has identified six furlough days when no staff will report to work. Three of those days were already identified as conference days where students would not have been attending school already. As a result, we will not be holding spring conferences, but students will only be missing three days of instruction rather than six. Report cards will be going out at the beginning of February, and you can reach out through email if you have any questions. On a limited basis, an afternoon meeting can be arranged if necessary. Please mark your calendars with the following dates as no school days:

• March 5, 6 and 7
• April 11 and 14
• June 2

Thank you to every family who sent in food and essential items, or signed up to bring in gifts for our Winter Care Box recipients! We were able to bring some holiday cheer to 23 families and 62 kids in our community. Your donations of food, gifts, and cash truly made a difference for these families. A huge thank you to the Presbyterian Church in Ashland for providing $50 gift cards to Shop n Kart for each family to purchase the food that is most helpful to them during this holiday season! A special thank you to Molly Shenandoah and Ellen Gayton for coordinating the project💙

1. Read Every Day

Find a time to read with your child every day. Even a brief dai­ly com­mit­ment can will improve read­ing skills and con­vey that read­ing is an impor­tant pri­or­i­ty for you.







2. Make a Space for Reading

Cre­ate a com­fort­able, con­sis­tent place in your home where you can read togeth­er, enjoy books and chat about them. You might even make it a place where food and drink are wel­come — these sig­nal that read­ing can be a social activity.







3. Make Read­ing Silly

Don’t be afraid to get sil­ly. Read­ing should be fun. Meet your child where he or she is, and don’t insist on ​“seri­ous” or ​“clas­sic” books. Sil­ly books, comics, ani­mé or oth­er art-dri­ven books are a good way to get many chil­dren inter­est­ed in read­ing. If pos­si­ble, act out or sing the words of sto­ries or find oth­er ways to enjoy books.




4. Vis­it Your Local Library

Plan trips to the library. Get­ting your child a library card can get them excit­ed about books. Don’t wor­ry about read­ing every book — library trips should be fun. At first, these vis­its may sim­ply con­sist of spend­ing time wan­der­ing the rows of books and meet­ing librarians.




5. Ask Librar­i­ans for Advice

Ask librar­i­ans which books are appro­pri­ate for your child and which books kids are excit­ed about. Below is a list of book rec­om­men­da­tions, grouped by read­ing lev­el, rec­om­mend­ed by the Elm­wood Park Pub­lic Library in Elm­wood Park, Illi­nois. Par­ents and care­givers can use book options like these to sup­port read­ing at home.




Book ideas for pre-readers:

1. Balls! by Melanie Davis Jones

2. Baby in the House by Davis F. Marx

3. BOB Books series by Bob­by Lynn Maslen

4. Bugs by Patri­cia and Fredrick McKissack

5. Sound Boxseries by Jane Belk Moncure

6. Flip-a-Word series by Har­ri­et Ziefert




Books ideas for kids who are begin­ning to read with assistance:

1. Clif­ford Is a Star by Nor­man Bridwell

2. Bis­cuit series by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

3. Otto series by David Milgrim

4. Pup­py Mudge by Cyn­thia Rylant

5. Ele­phant and Pig­gie by Mo Willems

6. Har­ry Takes a Bath by Har­ri­et Ziefert




Books ideas for begin­ning read­ers who are ready for a challenge:

1. Bones and the Cup­cake Mys­tery by David Adler

2. Fly Guy series by Tedd Arnold

3. Go, Dog. Go! by P.D Eastman

4. Elec­tion Day by Mar­garet McNamara

5. Fan­cy Nan­cy series by Jane O’Connor

6. Hen­ry and Mudge series by Cyn­thia Rylant




Book ideas for ear­ly inde­pen­dent readers.

1. Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel

2. Pony Scouts series by Cathy Hapka

3. Pinky and Rex series by James Howe

4. Fox on the Job by James Marshall

5. Amelia Bedelia series by Peg­gy Parish

6. Nate the Great series by Mar­jorie Wein­man Sharmat




Ear­ly chap­ter book and nov­els for inde­pen­dent readers:

1. Ivy + Bean series by Annie Barrows

2. Flat Stan­ley series by Jeff Brown

3. Amber Brown series by Paula Danziger

4. Zack Files series by Dan Greenburg

5. My Weird School series by Dan Gutman

6. Hor­ri­ble Har­ry series by Suzy Kline

7. Stink series by Megan McDonald

8. Rain­bow Mag­ic series by Daisy Meadows

9. Pup­py Place series by Ellen Miles

10. Mag­ic Tree House series by Mary Osborne

11. Junie B. Jones series by Bar­bara Park

12. A to Z Mys­ter­ies by Ron Roy




6. Seek Out Adaptations

Read books that are being adapt­ed into movies, and com­pare one type of media to the oth­er. Sup­port read­ing at home by using dif­fer­ent types of media to pro­vide your child with a unique perspective.




7. Encour­age Writing

Encour­age your child to write thank-you notes, let­ters, jour­nal entries and sto­ries about their dai­ly life and expe­ri­ences. If your child is uncom­fort­able writ­ing, sug­gest that he or she cre­ate a com­ic strip.




8. Build Lit­er­a­cy With Oth­er Activities

Enjoy puz­zles, mazes, cross­words and oth­er games, which enable your child to build lit­er­a­cy skills while hav­ing fun.




9. Part­ner With Teachers

If your child is strug­gling with read­ing and writ­ing, work with teach­ers to under­stand their approach to lit­er­a­cy and ask how you can help at home. Find ways to extend school lit­er­a­cy lessons when you’re home or out with your child.




10. Lead by Example

Show your child that you love books, read­ing and writ­ing — and that you par­take in these activ­i­ties every day.

Talent Show!

Deadline to submit application forms is Friday, January 10th. Forms can be submitted to classroom teachers (hardcopy or email) or emailed to bellviewtalentshow@gmail.com.

Application form (see attached PDF)

Track Project Update

We are about to reach out to construction/landscape companies to invite them to submit an estimate for Bellview's track upgrade. If there is a company you would like to see be invited, please feel free to download the Request for Proposal document and pass along the information to them.

PTO Meeting and Past Minutes

The next PTO (Parent-Teacher-Organization) meeting will be held on Thursday, April 3rd from 6:30pm - 7:30pm @ Bellview Library. Child care and pizza will be provided. All are welcome to attend.

Meeting minutes from the January 9th meeting are included in this newsletter.

Request for In-Kind Donations

The Kindness Club is looking for in-kind donations of arts and crafts kits/supplies. Types of supplies could be beads, beading thread, glitter glue, friendship bracelet supplies, however, they are open to anything and everything that is kid appropriate. If you have an arts and crafts kit at home that is no longer being used (or was barely used to begin with), please drop off your donations in the bin located near the front office.

Volunteers Call for OBOB

OBOB is looking for a couple of volunteers to help out every other Tuesday at lunch during their practice sessions. Please contact Annie Funk awright@gmail.com for the schedule and to sign up.

We make some basic snacks available to students that don't have one in the office. The demand for snacks has grown exponentially this year. If you are able to pack a snack or two in your child's bag each day, please do! We are very active here at school and our student's brains need fuel for all that learning. If you are able to purchase any extra snacks to donate to the school, that would help our budget and our students tremendously. Please consider donating some healthy snacks if you are able. Thank you for all that you do to support our students!

How To Become a Volunteer:

Step 1:
Complete the Volunteer Registration Form, which includes the Notice of Background Check form.

Once completed, please submit the forms and a copy of your driver’s license to the Office Manager of the school where the volunteer position is needed. Forms may also be mailed or faxed to the school office. If no school is specified, forms may be submitted to 885 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520.
Once you have passed your background check, you are cleared to apply to volunteer for any position throughout the school year. No additional background check is necessary, however, it is necessary to repeat this process each school year.

Step 2:
Mark your calendar with the agreed upon days and times. Please note that certain positions require training and a time commitment. Make sure you can fulfill the volunteer commitments before agreeing to the position.

Be prompt and dependable. Call ahead if you are ill or unable to keep your appointed times. When you commit to volunteering, people are depending on you.

She, Her

Email: christine.mccollom@ashland.k12.or.us
Website: https://www.ashland.k12.or.us/o/bes
Location: 1070 Tolman Creek Road, Ashland, OR, USA
Phone: 541-482-1310
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bellview-Elementary-School-104141858437771