Towne Acres Times

The month of November is always full of events, and this year was no different. The week before Thanksgiving always proves to be one of the most exciting weeks of the year for our school family and reminds me of how thankful I am to be a part of this school. As we prepared for each event, I was able to see the work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure each event goes smoothly for our students and families.

The Book Fair was a tremendous success once again this year, and I would like to say a big thank you to Ms. Patterson, our Scholastic workers, and all of the parents who volunteered their time to help in the Book Fair throughout the week. We held our annual Towne Acres night at Freddy’s and had an amazing turnout. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who was able to make it and for your patience with the long lines to order both inside and in the drive-thru.

The week continued with our Pastries with Parents morning and afternoon events. This is always one of my favorite days of the school year. We often get so busy with life in general that we are not able to slow down and enjoy some of the simple things in life. Being able to watch so many of you come in to enjoy a pastry with your child(ren) brought a tremendous amount of joy to my heart, and I know your children loved having you there. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped with setup, cleanup, and serving during the morning and afternoon sessions.

The week’s events wrapped up with our Grandparent’s Lunch. Once again, this took a lot of help from so many people. Our cafeteria staff did a wonderful job of making sure we had enough food for our large crowds. Our custodians worked hard to setup extra tables for the event, then had the space ready for Educare by the end of each day. We also had many parent volunteers who helped setup for the event and helped our guests as they arrived.

In addition to all of the events already mentioned, we also had our annual food drive during the week. Our Student Council did a wonderful job of introducing the food drive at our November PTA meeting and also created signs to put around school. Our students filled all five of the bins that were brought to us by Second Harvest Food Bank! Thank you for instilling kindness and generosity in your children! I hope everyone has a wonderful end to 2019 and a great start to 2020!

Dear TA families,

I can’t believe how quickly November has come and gone. We’ve worked hard but have also done our share of playing hard this past month!

We enjoyed a special morning and afternoon at Pastries with Parents! Thanks so much to Kelley Lewis and Tracie Walker for planning and organizing such an amazing event! And thanks to all of those who volunteered at this event including Dr. Simmons who arranged for students from Milligan College and teachers to help with serving the pastries so that us parents were able to relax and enjoy breakfast with our kiddos.

Later that same week the school hosted the Grandparents’ Lunches. What an amazing turn out we had! I hope all the grandparents and families enjoyed their special lunch together! The PTA had a fun time welcoming all our wonderful grandparents into our school. Thanks so much to all the PTA volunteers who helped coordinate, direct, set up and clean up from the event! I hope everyone had a chance to visit the book fair and find some fun, new stories to read!

Our third grade presented an amazing performance for the school. It was so fun to see the children’s personalities shine through during the performance! Thanks also to all the families who attended the Digital Families Presentation. It was great to be able to talk about keeping our families safe on the internet. For more information, please go to the digital families Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=digital%20families&epa=SEARCH_BOX

During this month, the PTA has collected the amazing and creative entries your children have made for our annual Reflections, citizenship essay, and safety poster competitions. I’m amazed at all the budding artists we have at TA! I can’t wait to announce the award winners! Thanks so much to Tamica Winfrey for organizing and collecting the entries and thanks to both Tamica and Jenn Hollinger for setting up judging at the hospital for the entries!

As much fun as all that was, I was thankful to have a short break in the action to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. I hope you and your family were able to enjoy some time together and to reflect on what the season means to you.

What’s even harder to believe is that we are halfway through the school year! December and January bring with it a flurry of activity but also a chance to rest and enjoy the holiday season as we pause at the halfway mark. We still have so much to look forward to over these next couple of months- -winter parties, sing-alongs, third grade performances, special school presentations, etc. I look forward to all these activities and celebrating the holiday season!

Thank you to Ashley Baker who has been hard at work submitting BoxTops. Thank you, parents, for sending them in, and thank you Ashley for your hard work! Thank you also to Amanda Haywood, Kathryn Comerford, Jessica Sutterlin, Jenn Hollinger, Jenn Belanger, Beth Simpson, Rebecca Jenkins, Tracie Walker, Lucy Martin, Amber Bumgarner, Jessica Bedard, Tamica Winfrey, Sunny Sandos, Tatsiana Yavas, Anisa Gluzberg, Claire Harlock Garber, Candice Wilkings, Ashley Rutledge, Kelley Lewis, Tracie Walker, Ashley Hill, Shannon Thomsen, and Missy Reece for your ongoing efforts and quality work throughout the year, and Melissa Larzo, Jessica Sutterlin, and Jennifer Bradford for your willingness to help with just about anything at any time. Kate Delaune, thank you so much for the faculty and staff t-shirts! You are amazing!

Happy Holidays,

Jennie Fowler
PTA President

Dear Towne Acres Families,

Tracie and I would like to send out a big THANK YOU to all you parents/loved ones who came out and participated in "Pastries with Parents." We hope you enjoyed your breakfast/afternoon snack and spent some quality time with your child/children. We definitely couldn't have made it possible without the help of so many individuals including Jen Bradford, Jen Fowler, Teresa Boggs, Lucy Martin, Daphne Roberts and Vanessa Hawley who volunteered their time to set up, serve and clean up. Another big thank you to the Milligan students who served that morning and allowed us parents time to eat with our child. We also can't forget to thank our corporate sponsors who made this all possible including Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts and Wheeler's Bagels. And lastly, a HUGE thank you to Dr. Simmons for all the extra hours he sacrificed to help pull off this wonderful event. THANK YOU!

Kelley Lewis

Mark your calendars! The next general PTA meeting will be held on Thursday, January 23rd at 6:30PM in the Little Theatre. The 2nd grade will be performing!

Our 4th graders dressed up as their favorite idioms on Halloween. Can you guess what all of these students represent? Check the bottom of the newsletter to see how you did!

Way to go Super Readers! We had over 280 students participate, and more than 155,000 minutes were logged for reading!

Don't forget to submit your child's reading minutes for the month of November at https://tinyurl.com/TAReadingLog . As this is due every month, you could set a monthly reminder on your phone. Please submit your child's information by December 5th.

Remember, your child must record at least 400 minutes each month in order to receive the incentive. For your personal use, you may keep track of daily reading each month by downloading or printing the following form: https://tinyurl.com/ TAReadingLogForm.

Remember to take a few good books along as you travel over winter break or snuggle up with a good one while you are home! A reminder will be sent out about Towne Criers when your child returns from winter break, and the deadline for submitting will be extended a few days.

Keep Reading!

Lucy Martin

Reading Chair

lucymartin11@hotmail.com

This second grade year has been oceans of fun! The second grade is “sea”-zing each day, adding new skills to our science, math, reading, and writing toolboxes, and we are "shell”-ebrating successes along the way!

Diving deep into science, we explored how wind and water change the surface of the Earth. We traveled to Bristol Caverns to see the effects of water up close. We saw first-hand how the underground river carved out the caverns. We were amazed by the small drops of water that created large stalactites and stalagmites over many years. It was awesome to see how powerful water can be.

We are learning some turtle-y awesome math strategies to become even better problem solvers and mathematicians. We started the year by refining our place value knowledge and learning the different ways to use, write, and look at numbers. Then we jumped into addition and subtraction, learning new skills every day. We have learned how to use a variety of strategies to solve problems, which has helped us become more confident in our answers and explain our thinking.

There are several reading sea-STARS in second grade learning how to surf through fiction and navigate nonfiction. We started the year examining key details in fiction and nonfiction texts. We have learned about text features to help us understand nonfiction, and we studied rhythm and rhyme in poetry. We are also improving our decoding and comprehension skills by learning to use context clues and pictures. We are developing a love of reading that will last a lifetime!

We are producing fin-tastic stories and poems using great texts and our imaginations. Writing is a skill that we will use to communicate for the rest of our lives! We have learned how to write stories about ourselves, using a book as a guide, and using our imaginations. Soon, we will learn how to give information and share our opinions through writing. Writing is helping us become better readers because we are learning to respond to texts in our own words. We have also enjoyed writing just for fun!

Most importantly, we are learning that everyone is whale-come in second grade! We are a community of friends. By helping each other, we can all learn and be successful!

The Camp Fair is coming up on March 13th! We will start reaching out to camps in January, so if anyone knows of a camp that they would like to see at camp fair, please contact me with the camp’s contact info.

Thank you!!

Shannon Thomsen, VP of Programs

shannthomsen@gmail.com

Mrs. Bunch's 3rd grade class had the most families to visit Freddie's on Towne Acres fundraiser night! Their prize was an ice cream sandwich party!

Have any cute photos from school events that you would love to see in the yearbook? Submit your photos to Kathryn Comerford at towneacresyearbook@gmail.com.

Don't forget these!

• Pastries with Parents
• Grandparents' Day
• PTA General Meeting Performances
• Classroom parties/craft days

Yearbook order forms will be sent home soon!

We are in need of cafeteria volunteers this year! Helping involves passing out straws/napkins and opening food packages. Cafeteria help times are from 10:45-11:45 am. This is a great opportunity for parents and grandparents to get involved at our school. No special training is needed.

All of our open time slots are listed online at Signup. com. You do not need to commit to volunteering on a regular basis – even helping once is appreciated! Click this link to see our SignUp on SignUp.com: https://signup.com/go/PeJCdjM. Review the options listed and choose the spot(s) you like. Sign up! It’s Easy - you will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on SignUp.com. They also do not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.

Jennifer Tucker

Cafeteria Coordinator

seitztucker@gmail.com

August 1 Open House, 6-7pm

August 5 First Day of school (11:30am dismissal)

August 15 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)

August 22 Family Engagement Night, 6:30-7:30pm (Little Theater)

August 30 Class T-shirt orders due

September 2 No School- Labor Day

September 6 Midterm Progress Reports Issued

September 9-27 Parent Teacher Conferences (After school hours)

September 10 Fall Individual School Pictures (Grades K-1)

September 11 Fall Individual School Pictures (Grades 2-4)

September 12 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)

September 13 ETSU Spirit Day

September 23-27 Spirit Week

September 27 Fall Carnival, 4:30-8:00pm

October 4 End of 1st Nine Weeks

October 7-11 Fall Break

October 16 Report Cards Issued

October 17 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)

October 24 PTA General Meeting, 6:30pm (Little Theater), 4th Grade

November 1 Fall Party

November 5 No School- Election Day- Parent/Teacher Conferences

November 7 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)

November 14 PTA General Meeting, 6:30pm (Little Theater), 3rd Grade

November 15 Midterm Progress Reports Issued

November 18-22 Book Fair (Library)

November 19 Pastries for Parents

November 21 Grandparent’s Lunch, Grades K-1

November 22 Grandparent’s Lunch, Grades 2-4

November 26 Team Shirt Day

November 27-29 No School- Thanksgiving Break

December 12 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)

December 20 Sing Along and Winter Party, 11:30am Dismissal

December 20 End of 2nd Nine Weeks

January 7 Students return from Winter Break

January 8 Report Cards Issued

January 16 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)

January 20 No School- Martin Luther King Jr Day

January 23 PTA General Meeting, 6:30pm (Little Theater), 2nd Grade

February 7 Midterm Progress Reports Issued

February 13 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)

February 14 Valentine’s Parties

February 17 No School- Snow Day

February 20 PTA General Meeting, 6:30pm (Little Theater), 1st Grade

March 5 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)

March 5 Family Engagement Night- Art Show, 6:30pm

March 13 Camp Fair/ Cultural Arts Presentation

March 13 End of 3rd Nine Weeks

March 16-20 Spring Break- No School

March 25 Report Cards Issued

April 9 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)

April 10 No School- Good Friday

April 13 No School- Snow Day

April 14-May 1 TN Ready Testing Window

April 16 PTA General Meeting- Kindergarten Performance (Little Theater)

April 24 Midterm Progress Reports Issued

April TBD STEM Day

May 1 Pep Rally

May 7 PTA Board Meeting, 8:30am (Little Theater)

May 8 Field Day

May 13 Reading Awards

May 14 PTA General Meeting- Reflections Awards and New Officers

May12 Variety Show

May 15 Senior Tea

May 21 K-3 Awards

May 22 Last Day of School- ½ Day- 4th Grade Promotion

May 22 Report Cards Issued

Photo 1: icing on the cake; 2 peas in a pod; mixed emotions; feeling blue

Photo 2: front row - when life gives you lemons; best thing since sliced bread; back row - cute as a button; spilled the beans; blessing in disguise

Photo 3: head in the clouds; chip on my shoulder; all eyes on me; barking up the wrong tree; negative Nancy

Photo 4: blessing in disguise; heart on my sleeve; teacher's pet; all eyes on me; under the weather​