The Second Quarter has arrived at Columbia Elementary!

10-26-14

Good evening!

Time flies by when we are working with our students.  It is hard to believe that we are going into the second nine weeks of the school year.  Grade cards went out on Friday with all students.  Be sure to check with your son/daughter, if you have not seen his/her grade card yet.  We are exceptionally proud of all of their efforts, and we are looking forward to a second quarter that is even more successful!

As we are blessed to have an outstanding PTO, Mrs. Melissa Davidson and the PTO lead a successful Fall Book Fair this past week, which sold a record amount of books for our school.  Ironically, this Book Fair was on the same week that I had a healthy conservation with one of our parents about the importance of all of us (school and community) working together to strengthen the reading skills of our students.  Yes, the school is educating our students on how to read, but it is vital to their success to practice their reading skills at home and at school as much as possible.  Just like a sport or an X-Box game, reading is not easy the first time a round, but the more one does it the better you get.  I would encourage all parents to work with us to encourage our students, your children, to read at and above their comfort level.  All students have a certain reading level at school.  Be sure to inquire through the student's teacher about where this reading level is as it can and will change over time.  Together and only together can we achieve the great successes that we have planned for our students. The student's math skills are equally as important...

The Columbia Elementary Team would like to thank all parents and students that attended our Trick or Read Night this past Wednesday! The students, teachers, and I had a blast with our students and seeing all of them dressed up for the Halloween Season.  I also truly appreciated how our teachers also carried on these festivities with their great costumes! These festivities will continue this Friday when we will be having our annual Halloween Classroom Parties from 2:30pm -3:30pm.  I am hearing that we are going to have a special guest in the building on that day...

As you well know, we have the best and the brightest students! This coming Friday, we are going to be recognizing their great accomplishments from the first nine weeks during our awards assemblies (Kindergartner-2nd Grade: 9:15-9:45am; Third-Fifth Graders: 9:45-10:15am.  Parents are more than welcome to attend).  These assemblies will be a grand display of our great students!

In the past few weeks, I have created a short video clip for our community to see a glimpse of the great things that are happening in our school.  Some of you might have already seen this video clip on Facebook or at The October Board of Education Meeting.  I would like to ask each of you to share the following video link with five of your closest friends and/or family members in our community: http://youtu.be/XUnrsv5rdIQ to spread the great word. I want people to know that The Mount Vernon City School District is producing great students at Columbia Elementary.  With the ongoing support of our community, we will achieve excellence together.

Go Tigers!
Matt

Be sure to have a Happy and Safe Halloween!!