Thursday, October 13, 2011 N/Warren Town and County News Page Nine
Building With Bags
Challenge at Lakewood
Lakewood School is participating in the Building
With Bags Challenge sponsored by the Metro Waste
Association. The goal is to be the school with the most
credits towards recycling plastic bags. Credits can be
earned by bringing clean plastic bags to Lakewood. If
you have a reusable bag and a special tag, these can be
scanned to giye Lakewood credits. Students have been
given a flyer with a tag attached for your family. The
challenge will run from now until Friday, Nov. 4.
Monica Hegland's fifth grade class researched the
negative effects of not recycling plastic bags. Students
used facts from the research to create slogans and post-
ers.
..... : :
Photos submitted.
SUBSCRIBE TODAY!
Send $18 check or money order
for a one year subscription to
PO Box 325, Norwalk, IA 50211
OVIATT ELEMENTARY
By Dr. Laura Sivadge, Principal
and
Rodney Martinez, Dean of Students
School Attendance
Students need to be in school every day to stay on
track. Teachers' lesson plans are carefully constructed
to introduce new concepts, reinforce them with learn-
ing activities, and then move on to new skills and ideas.
When children are not in school, they fall behind. More-
over, the more days they miss, the harder it is to catch
up. That is where you come in.
Report In. Schools are required to track attendance
of every child in every classroom every day. It is essen-
tial that you always contact the school if your child is
going to be late for class, will need an early dismissal,
or will be absent.
Get the Work. When you know ahead of time your
child will be missing class, give the teachers plenty of
notice so they can provide your child with makeup work
to do. Be sure that your child follows through--you
will need to be his or her "teacher" on those days, so be
available to explain concepts or monitor the work. If
your child is out unexpectedly, "due to illness or other
reasons, in addition to contacting the school attendance
office, make arrangements with your child's teachers to
pick up a packet of work/readings from the school. If
the absence will be lengthy (e.g., for surgery), alert the
teachers as soon as you know and get updated assign-
ments and work packets as the days go on.
Religious Absences. It is inevitable that some fami-
lies' important religious observances will fall on school
days. Let your children's teachers know early in the
year precisely which days your children will not be at-
tending or will need to leave early.
How Sick Is Too Sick? It is impossible to say cat-
egorically when a child should go to school or stay home.
However, one typical guideline is that a child is usually
fine to attend school if his or her fever is under 100 ° and
there is no rash, "pink eye", nausea, or diarrhea. The
decision to keep a child home from school is best made
i
between you and your child's health care provider. If
the doctor or nurse recommends that your child stay
home, find out exactly how long and on what condi-
tions he or she can return to class (e.g., after 24 hours of
antibiotics).
Faking It? If your child is complaining of a fever, but
you are suspicious, make sure to stay in the room the
entire time the child's temperature is being taken. A child
complaining of nausea will probably be paler in color
and slightly sweaty and will usually need to vomit more
than once. Send your child to school if you do not see a
real symptom, knowing that the school nurse will con-
tact you if things change. Also, be alert if your child
seems to be "sick" on school days but always rebounds
for the weekend.
Vacation Plans. It is tempting to pull your kids from
school for a family trip, but it is a bad idea. Why? First,
it gives your children the impression that their school-
ing is not your top priority. In addition, when they miss
class work, even if you ask for make-up work to be sent
home ahead of time, they can fall behind because they
are missing many hours of instructional time each day.
Instead of thinking of how you can miss the crowds by
taking trips during the school year, think about what it
could be costing your child in the long run.
Check Those Appointments. Schedule your kids'
doctor and dental appointments for after-school or
weekend hours unless there is an emergency. Schedule
your children's twice-yearly dental appointment dur-
ing winter and summer breaks, and schedule school
physicals, immunizations and other routine care for
school holidays or summer break.
Finally, remember to show and tell your children that
attendance is important--whether it is as a child in
school or as an adult on the job. You will be helping
them succeed, both in school and in life.
00Mon errand
unl00nt
1514 North Lincoln, Suite C ° Knoxville, IA
641-828-7172
(Knoxville Insurance Building)
Custom Memorials of granite and Bronze
visit us at bertrandmonument.com
and online monument design
Marion County's only locally owned Monument Shop
