S P E N C E E L E M E N TA R Y S C H O O LPARENT NEWSLETTER • FEBRUARY 2021

The Place to Succeed! Every Student ~ Every Day

FEBRUARY3 – School Picture Day

mylifetouch.comPicture Day ID: EVTVZZ43T

12 – NO SCHOOL15 – NO SCHOOL

If you have a teacher request for the 2021/22 school year, please write a short letter of request, including your rationale. Return it to the Spence

office, addressed to Mrs. Huth. Do NOT send via email, as these are often misdirected to a SPAM folder. Deadline for requests is April 2, 2021. All

requests will be considered, but not guaranteed, as we work hard to create balanced classrooms.

Dear Spence Elementary Families,

Greetings! Face to face instruction with our 4K-Grade 5 is going wonderfully! Our students and staff are doing an amazing job following the strategies to mitigate risk. Thank you all for your support. As I write this note, I am looking out my window to a winter wonderland of snow flurries that continue to accumulate on the ground. I am hopeful that Punxsutawney Phil will not see his shadow on Groundhog Day, and that we will have warm spring weather sooner, rather than later.

It is really hard to believe that we have started into the second half of the year! Second quarter report cards have been sent home for our face to face Spence Students. CRVA students had their report cards posted in Skyward.

I would like to remind you that students may not be dropped off before 7:45 AM. Staff members will continue to be stationed at the entrance assigned to the specific grade levels until 8:00am. If you student arrives at school after 8:00am, please have them enter through the main office doors. 4K, K, Grade 1 &5 enter the school from the front of the school. Grades 2, 3 & 4 enter from the north side of the school by the upper playground. Parents of Grade 2, 3, & 4. If you are parking on the north side of the street, please walk your student across the street safely. If you park on the south side of the street by the parking lot/bus drop off, please have your child get out quickly. We have at least three staff supporting students getting of busses and students dropped off on the North side of the building. If you have questions, please contact our Spence office.

Sincerely,Mrs. K. Huth

BUSSING & STUDENT PICK UPOur staff has been supporting bussing and family drop off/pick up daily since January 20th when our students started coming back face to face. There are some areas that we need to improve for student, staff and family safety. Please remember that we need to be safe, quick and efficient when dropping and picking up. If you plan to walk your child to the door or pick them up in person at a door, please park on the opposite side of the street, side street or park on 22nd Street and walk your student. If you are picking up or dropping off, please stay in the car, and have your student get safely out on the school side of the street. Cars should not be running while unattended. Cars should not create a double line to drop off. We are working with our District Buildings & Grounds Department, as well as Go Riteway, to create some changes for safety purposes. Please be aware that we will continue to make changes for the sake of student, staff and family safety. Let the Spence office know if you have further questions.

President – Britney ZeimentzVice President – Emily Vien

Treasurer – Nicole RuppSecretary – Tricia George

spencepto@gmail.com

SPOTLIGHT ON LMCI’m so happy that we are back in person! You should have noticed that your child brought library books home. If your child is in grades kindergarten, first or second grade, his/her books came home in a bag with his/her name. PLEASE DO NOT throw that bag. Please keep the books in that bag when they are not being read and return the books in the bag when it is time to return them. These bags will help to protect your child’s books from water damage. For students in grades third, fourth and fifth, please remind your student to keep his/her library books separate from water bottles and outdoor wet clothing. If they need a bag for their books, they can let their teacher know, and I will get one to them.

Happy Reading! -Mrs. Dunn

Spence PTO sponsors many events throughout a traditional school year including field trips, enrichment activities, and educational materials. Teachers are encouraged to request funds for activities or materials that they want to implement in their classroom. This month PTO is funding additional classroom needs that have arisen during in-person learning. Your support during PTO fundraisers allows this possibility.

PTO are parents and guardians, teachers and staff organizing for the benefit of our school. We support the success of every student through volunteering and fundraising. Please consider attending one or all PTO meetings so you can learn more about what is happening at Spence.

Upcoming Meetings:•Tuesday, March 2nd, 5:30 – 6:30pm•Tuesday, April 6th, 5:30 – 6:30pm•Tuesday, May 4th, 5:30 – 6:30pmVirtual Meeting Link: meet.google.com/wfc-bfjh-wnn

Don't forget to keep those Box Tops coming! We still accept clipped Box Tops in the bins under the PTO bulletin board in the foyer. Please consider downloading the Box Tops app and set Spence as your school. Each time you scan your receipt, it will let you know if you purchased items that benefit our school. The Box Tops app also lets you know about Box Tops specials and double Box Tops! Encourage other family members to download the app and set Spence as their school for additional support!

4K

K 1ST Literacy- We have been working on beginning and ending sounds, sight word recognition, syllables and rhyming.

Math- The students have been working on adding. We also learned about teen numbers and have done a variety of activities to practice the numbers.

Writing- We are continuing our personal narrative writing unit.

Science/Social Studies- Upcoming themes for February include: Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, 100th Day of School, President’s Day and friendship.

We are continuing to learn and practice school expectations. Also, the students are working on our classroom routine and procedures.

U P D AT E S B Y G R A D E

We are excited to be back and adjusting to the "new norm"--wearing masks, social distancing, and eating meals in

the room. We are beginning to pick up where we left off during virtual with learning sneaky silent e and how it changes vowels to their long sound. In Math we are reviewing tens and ones and introducing comparing numbers using the greater than, less than, and equal to signs. We are happy to be starting our Science units! Ms. A and Mrs. Blakstad are learning about air and weather and Mrs. Buxton's class is learning about sound and light. Reminder: Please send your child with all of their winter gear!

Our 4K students are acting like they've gone to school for years! Mrs. Powell is so proud of how well they have done for being in school for the very first time. We are working on procedures and routines for the classroom while practicing our new

school rules. We have enjoyed time learning and playing at our class ice rink, completing snowy projects, and filling the halls with artwork...FINALLY! This month we will really celebrate friendship with a Valentine's Day celebration, learn the letter I with a special focus on the themes of ice and the Inuit culture. We also look forward to reaching our 100th day of school! What a fantastic milestone this year!! Keep up the great work preschoolers! We are very proud of you!

Welcome back to Spence second graders! The kids are adjusting well to the current face to face

requirements. The second graders completed the Unit 2 math assessment, as well as our district math benchmark assessment. Our reading focus continues to be on spelling patterns, prefixes and suffixes. We have been exploring story elements, as well as text features in nonfiction texts. In math we are moving into subtraction with larger numbers. Practicing how to write complete sentences and use accurate grammar have been learning targets for writing. The students will be transitioning into informative writing as they learn how to research and collect information from a variety of resources. Keep up the good work Mustangs! Reminder to send your child’s winter gear including hat, mittens, boots, snow pants, and coat every day. It’s much more fun playing with friends in the snow versus staying on the blacktop. Thank you for your support!

3RD2ND

4TH

5TH It's hard to believe that it's the end of January already. We took time for family over break and have been working hard since our return. For reading, 5th grade has been enjoying more episodes in our 6 Minute Podcast. We've also been learning about Martin Luther

King Jr. and his legacy. In writing, we continue to work on our informative writing pieces while refining our skills with research and citing sources. Place value along with addition, subtraction, comparison, and rounding of decimal numbers has been our focus in math. Science experiments have focused on solutions and how to determine their level of concentration.

We love being with the kids face to face! Everyone is making adjustments and doing a great job following expectations! We are starting to use our assignment notebooks daily. Please look at these each night and have an adult sign them as well. Reading will be a homework

assignment daily, occasionally math or other subjects as well.

It is important that students do their homework daily. We have noticed that students who did not complete homework while online are struggling more now that we are back in the classroom (reading 20 minutes, Reflex Math, etc.) Math facts are a huge part of our math curriculum and many are struggling with this.

We are starting our electricity unit this week. Please talk to your student about the things they are learning.

Thank you to the families who have been completing the Qualtrics daily. This is a great help to the teachers! If you haven’t been doing this before school, please start doing so.

Hello 3rd grade families! We are thrilled to have the students back in our classrooms for F2F

instruction. They are responding well to the new routines and expectations. It is a new learning process for all of us.

In math, we will investigate geometry and identify different polygons and angles. Kids should continue to practice multiplication facts daily as this is a year long goal! We also encourage students to obtain their green light within the Reflex app. In writing students are finishing their first round of the informative unit. Once completed, we will introduce the next unit on opinion writing. In social studies, we are finalizing the maps and globes unit which will be followed by a science unit.

As always, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

3rd grade team, Mr. Bina and Mr. Xiong

S P E N C E E L E M E N TA R Y S C H O O L

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Now that all of the Mustangs are back in the building, we are spending our first few weeks reviewing our school-wide expectations of being Safe, Respectful, and Responsible. When we do these things, we show MUSTANG PRIDE! Each week for the next four weeks, students will work to earn a letter from the word CAMP to show that they have learned our school-wide expectations. Once students have earned all the letters, take a photo and send it to Miss Kelsey at kwilliam@lacrossesd.org, and she will display them in the school! Some teachers may keep these in classrooms until all four have been earned, while others will send them home. Keep your eye out for a note explaining this in more detail!

We also kicked off our face-to-face learning with a school wide assembly where we were able to welcome everyone back via Zoom. We talked about not only our school-wide expectations, but new expectations for safety purposes, as well as our winter expectations. Students should have snow pants, boots, a coat, hat, mittens and a mask EVERY DAY! We also keep snow and ice on the ground and stay off the ice to keep ourselves safe.

Students have also begun earning Mustang Prides, and we will begin our weekly drawing at the beginning of February. Watch your mail to see if your child earned a monthly Mustang certificate for January!

-Spence PBIS Team

PBIS School-to-Home Connection

Positive BehaviorInterventions & Support

Congratulations to all Mustang Pride JANUARY Recipients! Thank you to all these January club members for showing Mustang Pride while learning at home, transitioning to face-to-face instruction at school, and in all the things that you do. You represent the

Spence Mustangs, not just while you are in class or with your fellow Spence students, but in everything that you do.

We are so proud of you!

S p e n c e E l e m e n t a r y

M u s t a n g P r i d e C l u b

A w a r d e d f o r e x c e l l e n c e i n s h o w i n g M U S T A N G P R I D E !

COUNSELOR’S CORNER

Contact Information Katie Jeseritz

School Counselor (608) 789-8890

KJeserit@lacrossesd.org

February 2021

FEBRUARY

carrots

HARVEST OF THE MONTHNEWSLETTER 02/2021

Honey Glazed Carrots

f o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n v is i t w w w . la xf 2 s . o r g

FUN FACTS▪ Carrots were originally grown as medicine and not food.

▪ Despite what you see in cartoons, hares, also known as wild rabbits, do not eat carrots.

▪ Carrot varieties grown in the US are usually orange, but can also be yellow, white, red, and purple.

Ingredients:▪ 1-pound carrots, sliced coins or baby carrots▪ 1 Tbsp. butter▪ 2 Tbsp. honey

Directions:Place about 3 inches of water in a saucepan. Bring to boil and cook carrots until tender. Drain water. Cover carrots with butter and honey, toss until well coated and serve.

Serves 5

Coulee Region Farm to School is a partnership between La Crosse CountyHealth Department, Mayo Clinic Health System – Franciscan Healthcare,Gundersen Health System, and the School Districts of Bangor, Holmen,La Crescent-Hokah, La Crosse, Onalaska, and West Salem.

NUTRITION INFOOne cup of carrots has 52 calories.Carrots provide vitamins A & C and fiber.

PICKChoose firm, bright carrots without cracks that look slightly moist. Large carrots with the greens attached will have the sweetest flavor.

STORERemove the greens from carrots and discard (or cook them as you do your favorite greens). Store carrots tightly sealed in a plastic bag in refrigerator.

PREPAREThe peel of the carrot is edible; gently scrub and rinse carrots prior to eating or peel if desired. Enjoy carrots raw or cooked by microwaving, steaming, sautéing, roasting or baking.

USECarrots are a great addition to stir-fry's, cakes, soups, coleslaws, casseroles, and side salads. Add shredded carrots to your raw beef or turkey before making burgers.

Per Serving: 80 calories, 2.5g fat, 1.5g saturated fat, 1g protein, 14g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, 90mg sodium

February Spence Menu

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Feb 1BreakfastChoice 1 - WG Muffin

100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1-Chicken Patty Choice 2- Yogurt Meal

Carrot Coins

Feb 2BreakfastChoice 1 - Maple Waffles

100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1- Mac N' cheese

Choice 2- Yogurt meal Cookie

fresh veggie

Feb 3BreakfastChoice 1 - WWSnackbread

100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1-Orange Chicken with

Brown RiceChoice 2- Yogurt meal

Roasted Veggies

Feb 4BreakfastChoice 1 - Mini Cinnis

100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1- Cheese pizza Choice 2- Yogurt meal

Green Beans

Feb 5BreakfastChoice 1 - Frudel Pastry

100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1- Mini corndogs Choice 2- Yogurt meal

Smiley fries

Feb 8Breakfast Choice 1 - Breakfast Bread

100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1-Chicken Tenders

Choice 2- Yogurt meal

Seasoned breadstick Honey Glazed Carrots

Breakfast Feb 9 Choice 1- Appleway Bar

&Cheese Stick 100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1-BBQ Pork Sandwich Choice 2- Yogurt meal Green

Peas

Feb 10BreakfastChoice 1 - WW

Snackbread 100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1- Walking Taco Choice 2- Yogurt Meal

Tostitos Scoops Seasoned refried beans

Feb 11BreakfastChoice 1-Mini Bagel w/

Cream Cheese 100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1- Sausage Pizza

Choice 2- Yogurt meal

Steamed Broccoli

Feb 12

No School

Feb 15

No School

Feb 16BreakfastChoice 1-Maple Waffles

100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1-Beef Taco

Choice 2- Yogurt Meal Fiesta Black beans

Feb 17BreakfastChoice 1-WW Snackbread

100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1- Omelet & Mini

pancakesChoice 2-Yogurt Meal

Potato Babycakes

Feb 18BreakfastChoice 1-Mini Cinnis

100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1-Pepperoni Pizza

Choice 2- Yogurt Meal Baked Beans

Mini Rice Krispies Treat

Feb 19BreakfastChoice 1-Frudel Pastry

100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1- Chicken Fajita Melt

Choice 2- Yogurt Meal

Carrot CoinsFeb 22Breakfast

Choice 1-Breakfast Bread 100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1-Chicken Nuggets

Choice 2- Yogurt Meal

Fresh VeggiesWG cookie

Feb 23BreakfastChoice 1-Appleway Bar &

Cheese Stick 100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1- Hot Dog

Choice 2- yogurt meal Green Beans

Feb 24BreakfastChoice 1 - WW Snackbread

100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1- Beef Nachos Choice 2- Yogurt Meal

WG tortilla chips Cowboy corn salsa

Feb 25BreakfastChoice 1-Mini Bagel w/

Cream Cheese 100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1- Cheese Pizza Choice 2- Yogurt Meal

Green Peas

Feb 26Breakfast Choice 1-Mini Panckaes

100% Juice Cup

LunchChoice 1- Cheeseburger Choice 2- Yogurt meal

Oven Fries

*Menu subject to change.*Breakfast choice #2 is always cereal (variety).*White milk & chocolate milk offered for lunch. White milk served with breakfast.*Yogurt meal comes with yogurt, snack cracker, & cheese stick.*Fruit choice comes with lunch and breakfast every day.