Phone Message Sent March 20th:
Hello, Cougar Leaders! This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
We are so excited to see all of our Cougar Leaders tomorrow, March 21st! We hope that students are refreshed and ready to finish the last level of the school year.
Our Spring Fundraiser will continue this week! All fundraising materials were sent home the week before spring break. Students will have until the end of the week to sell items (this date was extended). All items purchased will be sent directly to the shipping address. In addition, there are coupons for families to fill out when they register online and sell 2, 5, 10, or 15 items. They exchange those tickets for a "Goatz" prize. Mrs. Lobb (our PTO president) will be in the office lobby Wednesday and Friday to exchange tickets for Goatz from 8:00-8:40 am this next week. I can’t wait to see how much money we raise for our PTO!
We will have SAC and PTO meetings on Tuesday, March 21st in the KES media center. Please join us for SAC at 6 pm and PTO at 6:30 pm. SAC and PTO meetings are a great way to become involved in decision-making at our school. We hope to see you there!
Be on the lookout for the "green" Title 1 survey flyer with a QR code. The title one survey gives us GREAT information on how well we are communicating and also what areas we need to improve on for the betterment of our school. The survey is open from March 6th to the 31st. When your family completes the online survey, please cut the bottom of the flyer and return it to school for your students to earn 100 LIVESCHOOL points. In addition, the class in each grade level with the most surveys completed will win a popcorn party. All of this information is on the school website and social media accounts as well.
We are proud to announce that our FRE is hosting "Breeze into Spring" family activities! The next scheduled activity is this Wednesday, Monday, March 22nd from 7:30-8:30 in the media center. Families will be exploring the wind by creating wing chimes, pinwheels, and even kites. The kite activity was so much fun! I cannot wait to see what our Cougars create with the FRE!
Fifth grade is having a Spring Social on Friday, March 24th from 6 to 7:30 in the school cafeteria. This dance is a casual/dressy event for our 5th graders to enjoy a night of music, dancing, pizza, and drinks. There will also be additional snacks available to purchase.
Plenty of KES staff will be on hand to supervise and ensure that everyone has a fun and safe time. Students must sign up in advance along with your $10.00 donation by Friday, March 23, 2023.
Looking ahead we have Spring Picture Day on Monday, March 27th. Come dressed in your best with a beautiful smile!
The 4th Annual KES Glow Run is scheduled for April 21st. The glow run is another way that our school earns money by asking for Cougar Community Partners to sponsor the run for a cost of $75 and a mention on our Glow Run shirts. Cougar Leaders received flyers asking for sponsors. This flyer is on Remind, our school website, and our social media accounts and is due back by March 31st. This year we are celebrating that we proud to be a glow running, game changing Cougar Leader! So, save the date, for this fun family involvement event.
That’s all for now! See you tomorrow. Goodbye!
Phone Message Sent March 5th
Hello, Cougar Leaders! This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
Our Spring Fundraiser will be starting on Monday, March 6th! All fundraising materials were sent home on Friday. Students will have until March 20th to sell items. All items purchased will be sent directly to the shipping address. In addition, there are coupons for families to fill out when they register online and sell 2, 5, 10, or 15 items. They exchange those tickets for a "Goatz" prize. Mrs. Lobb (our PTO president) will be in the office lobby Wednesday and Friday to exchange tickets for Goatz from 8:00-8:40 am this next week and the week after break. I can’t wait to see how much money we raise for our PTO! We know our PTO puts every cent back into our school.
Be on the lookout for the "green" Title 1 survey flyer with a QR code. The title one survey gives us GREAT information on how well we are communicating and also what areas we need to improve on for the betterment of our school. The survey is open from March 6th to the 31st. When your family completes the online survey, please cut the bottom of the flyer and return it to school for your students to earn 100 LIVESCHOOL points. In addition, the class in each grade level with the most surveys completed will win a popcorn party. All of this information is on the school website and social media accounts as well.
Our fifth-grade students have been working super hard on the Science Fair! Please join us on March 9th from 5 pm to 6:30 pm to explore the projects and honor our winners and participants.
We are proud to announce that our FRE is hosting "Breeze into Spring" family activities starting Monday, March 10th from 7:30-8:30 in the media center. Mrs. Gartner will be sending out a flyer soon! Families will be exploring the wind by creating wing chimes, pinwheels, and even kites. I cannot wait to see our families learning again with the FRE!
Spring Break starts on Monday, March 13th, and ends on Friday, March 17th with students returning on Tuesday, March 21st.
Looking ahead, we will have SAC and PTO meetings on Tuesday, March 21st.
That’s all for now! See you tomorrow. Goodbye!
Phone Message Sent February 26th
Hello, Cougar Leaders! This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
Kingsway Elementary is excited to celebrate Read Across America. Our celebration week will begin this Monday on February 27th and will end on Friday, March 3rd. Students can join in the fun by wearing corresponding spirit clothing to the book of the day. Here are the celebration days:
- February 27th is Mismatched Sock Monday: Students are asked to wear mismatched socks for Fox in Socks!
- February 28th is Too Fun Tuesday: Students are to wear clothing with “too many” pockets for There’s a Wocket in My Pocket
- March 1st is Wacky Wednesday: Wear your clothes backwards, inside out, or mismatched for the book Wacky Wednesday.
- March 2nd is Thing 1 & 2 Thursday: Wear red or blue for the characters, Thing One and Thing Two, or stripes for the Cat in the Hat.
- March 3rd is Fall Asleep Friday: Wear your pajamas for the Sleep Book.
Finally, we’re going to end that celebration with a PTO Movie Night on the lawn on Friday, March 3rd! We will be featuring the movie Horton Hears a Who! Be on the lookout for the flyer explaining how you can pre-order pizza! More information will be sent on Remind, posted on social media, and featured on our school website.
Looking ahead, our Spring Fundraiser will be starting on March 6th! Be on the lookout for the flyer and catalog coming home soon.
That’s all for now! See you on Monday. Goodbye!
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Phone Message Sent February 19th
Hello, Cougar Leaders! This is Ms. Joiner with this week’s school connect call.
We do not have school tomorrow Monday, February 20th in celebration of Presidents’ Day.
Our next spirit night is on Tuesday, February 21st from 4 pm to 8 pm at Five Guys! Five guys is one of my Favorite Cougar Community Partners! I just love fries, burgers, and milkshakes! Please make sure you say I’m a Kingsway Cougar Leader when you order! Our PTO will get a percentage of sales back for all orders. Be on the lookout for the prize wheel when you arrive!
Looking ahead, Kingsway Elementary is excited to honor Dr. Seuss and celebrate Read Across America. Our Seuss celebration week will begin on Monday, February 27th and will end on Friday, March 3rd. Each day our school will highlight a Seuss book. Students can join in the fun by wearing corresponding spirit clothing. All of this fun will be communicated by a flyer sent home and posted on our school website and social media! I’ll be sure to include more information in next week’s school connect call. We are looking forward to showing our Kingsway spirit as we honor one of our favorite authors, Dr. Seuss.
Finally, we’re going to end that celebration with a PTO Movie Night on the lawn on Friday, March 3rd! We will be featuring the movie Horton Hears a Who! Be on the lookout for the flyer explaining how you can pre-order pizza! More information will be sent on Remind, posted on social media, and featured on our school website.
That’s all for now! See you on Tuesday. Goodbye!
Phone Message Sent February 12th
Hello, Cougar Leaders! This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
Please join us as we share our love for math and bring back a Cougar-valued tradition—Math Night! Math Night will be held on February 16th from 4:30-6:30 PM at the Winn-Dixie on Kings Highway and Rampart Blvd. Please note this is a date change from the 13th due to preparing the store after the Super Bowl. Our family-friendly evening will include grade-specific math scavenger hunts, exploring the lovely remodeled Winn-Dixie while finding items, and solving math puzzles. When done, you'll return your completed sheet to the Kingsway table for your math spirit stick and 50 LiveSchool Points. Please register if you plan on attending by scanning the QR code on our website or clicking the Learn More link. We have more information on our social media pages too!
Looking ahead, we do not have school on February 20th in celebration of Presidents’ Day
That's all for now! I'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent February 5th
Hello, Cougar Leaders! This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
The Literacy Action Team was proud to announce that our students crushed our January AR reading challenge by reading over 8,000,000 words! The students were so excited to earn those squishy snowflakes! Great job, Cougars!
Just a reminder that Cookie Grams are on sale until Tuesday, February 7th. Yummy! We have joined our Cougar Community partner, Chick-fil-A of Port Charlotte to bring cookie grams to our school. This partnership is giving 50% of the proceeds back to our school! Wowzers! I’m a huge fan of cookies from Chick-fil-A and I know others are too! So, share the love of cookies with ALL. See the flyer and order form that went home early last week for more details including the cookie ingredients. If you need more cookie gram order forms- stop by the office!
We are thrilled to have our Stomp, Chomp, and Read Book Fair THIS WEEK! This event is an opportunity for students of all ages to build their home libraries and further their love for reading. Each of our students will be able to "chomp" down and "stomp" away with a free book from the fair this week. The book fair is one of our beloved Kingsway-valued traditions! Our "dino-mite" book fair will officially open this Monday, February 6th. We are open Monday - Friday 7:30 - 8:30 AM and Monday -Thursday 4:00 - 5:30 PM for our families. In addition to in-school shopping with families, the book fair is open to online shopping. Also, students will have the opportunity to visit the book fair during their weekly scheduled media classes. There was a letter attached to the book fair offerings sent home this past week. Please see the letter for more information and the QR code for online shopping. I love the book fair and I can't wait to see all of you there too!
Finally, please join us as we share our love for math and bring back a Cougar-valued tradition—Math Night! Math Night will be held on February 16th from 4:30-6:30 PM at the Winn-Dixie on Kings Highway and Rampart Blvd. We have grade-specific math scavenger hunts. You will explore the lovely remodeled Winn-Dixie as a family while finding items and solving math puzzles. Return your completed sheet to the Kingsway table for your math spirit stick and 50 LiveSchool Points. Please register by scanning the QR code on our website or clicking the Learn More link if you plan to attend. We have more information on our social media pages too!
That's all for now! I sure do appreciate you all listening. Have a great evening. See you all on Monday! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent January 29th
Hello, Cougar Leaders! This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
First of all, thank you cougar families for joining us for Leadership Day. It was amazing to have our students shine in their student-led conferences. Our students loved playing games, making crafts, joining in Bingo, and sharing a small portion of their everyday lives at school with their families. In addition, we were so thankful you could help us model our Be Proud to LEAD expectations. A big shout out to our Literacy Action Team, PTO, media volunteers, and our media specialist, Ms. K, for their involvement in making this event a success.
We are getting close to the end of our January AR reading challenge of reading 8,000,000 words! Our students have been working super hard towards meeting this goal. We currently read over 7, 000, 000 words as a school. This means we are close, but we still need more words in order to earn those squishy snowflakes by Tuesday. I just know we can do it!
Cookie Grams go on sale this week! Yummy! We have joined our Cougar Community partner, Chick-fil-A of Port Charlotte to bring cookie grams to our school. This partnership is giving 50% of the proceeds back to our school! Wowzers. I’m a huge fan of cookies from Chick-fil-A and I know others are too! So, share the love of cookies with others. See the flyer and order form that will be going home early this week for more details including the cookie ingredients.
Report cards will be published on the Focus portal this Tuesday, January 31st! In addition, we will be sending a print copy home. Please make sure to check those backpacks or the Focus Portal for report cards and hug your children for giving their best effort. This was a challenging quarter and we have overcome so much together as a community. Please call the school to schedule a conference if you would like to talk to your child’s teacher about his/her progress.
The Girls on the Run Spring season has been announced! This physical activity running program is for girls in grades 3-5. Also, the program provides social and emotional skill development and critical thinking exercises. Most of all it is so much fun! Sign-up before February 10th. See more info on our school website and social media accounts.
Finally, please join us as we share our love for math and bring back a Cougar-valued tradition—Math Night! Math Night will be held on February 16th from 4:30-6:30 PM at the Winn-Dixie on Kings Highway and Rampart Blvd. Please note this date changed from the 13th due to preparing the store after the Super Bowl. We have grade-specific math scavenger hunts. You will explore the lovely remodeled Winn-Dixie as a family while finding items and solving math puzzles. Return your completed sheet to the Kingsway table for your math spirit stick and 50 LiveSchool Points. Please register if you plan on attending by scanning the QR code on our website or clicking the Learn More link. We have more information on our social media pages too!
Looking ahead, the FRE is closed until further notice. We will let you know when it is reopened.
I know that was a long message again this week and I sure do appreciate you all listening. Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow! Goodbye
Phone Message Sent January 22nd
Hello, Cougar Leaders! This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
The Literacy Action Team announced the January AR reading challenge of reading 8,000,000 words! Our students have been working super hard towards meeting this goal. We currently have read just over 5, 000, 000 words read as a school. This means we still need to read about 3,000,00 more to earn those squishy snowflakes. I just know we can do it! Especially with Celebrate Literacy Week!
That's right, this week is Celebrate Literacy Week! I love to celebrate literacy! I’m a true bookworm. Celebrate Literacy Week is an annual statewide initiative. The theme this year is "Take a Dive into Literacy: Splash into New Worlds." Doesn’t that sound exciting? Celebrate Literacy Week starts on Monday the 23rd and will end on Friday the 27th. Join us in celebrating each day with the following dress-up and activities:
On Crabby Monday students are asked to wear red and read crab books.
On Towel Tuesday our students are asked to bring a beach towel to lay out and read beach books.
Water, Waves, and Wednesday is a chance to wear blue and "dive" into fish books.
And don’t get scared, but on Shark Mark Thursday students are asked to wear gray, color a bookmark, and read shark books.
And finally, on Friday we have Flashlight Fish Frenzy Friday: Read fun fish books with finger flashlights.
It is going to be a week of fun ending with our Student Leadership Day! Hooray!
This leads me right to our next announcement. On Friday, January 27th we will be hosting our first Student Leadership Day in many years and we are just so excited. This event is for our cougar families to visit classrooms and enjoy a student-led conference! Students will review their leadership notebooks and tell of their accomplishments this school year. We have been working hard to track data toward our end-of-the-year goals. In addition to student-led conferences, we have some fun ocean activities planned for you to enjoy with your student. We will have games, crafts, and even Bingo, All of these ocean activities are thanks to our Literacy Action Team! Wahoo!
On January 24th, we will be hosting our SAC and PTO meetings in the KES media center. Please join us for SAC at 6 pm and PTO at 6:30 pm. SAC and PTO meetings are a great way to become involved in decision-making at our school. We hope to see you there!
The Girls on the Run Spring season has been announced! This physical activity running program is for girls in grades 3-5. Also, the program provides social and emotional skill development and critical thinking exercises. Most of all it is so much fun! Sign-up before February 10th. See more info on our school website and social media accounts.
Finally, please join us as we share our love for math and bring back a Cougar-valued tradition—Math Night! Math Night will be held on February 16th from 4:30-6:30 PM at the Winn-Dixie on Kings Highway and Rampart Blvd. Please note this date changed from the 13th due to preparing the store after the Super Bowl. We have grade-specific math scavenger hunts. You will explore the lovely remodeled Winn-Dixie as a family while finding items and solving math puzzles. Return your completed sheet to the Kingsway table for your math spirit stick and 50 LiveSchool Points. Please register if you plan on attending by scanning the QR code on our website or clicking the Learn More link. We have more information on our social media pages too!
I know that was a long message and I sure do appreciate you all listening. Have a great evening. See you all on Monday! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent January 15th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
Just a reminder that we do not have school tomorrow, Monday, January 16th to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Enjoy the extra day off with this beautiful weather.
The Literacy Action Team announced the January AR reading challenge of reading 8,000,000 words! Our students have been working super hard towards meeting this goal. If we reach this goal by Monday, January 30, the Literacy Action Team will provide squishy snowflakes for all of our students. How cool is that?! Updates to our January AR words read are announced on the news at school. Make sure you ask your students how close we are to earning our 8,000,000 words read!
Our next spirit night is this Wednesday, January 18th from 5 pm to 8 pm at Tijuana Flats! As you all know, Tijuana Flats is one of my Favorite Cougar Community Partners! I just love tacos, and queso, and even nachos! Please make sure you say I’m a Kingsway Cougar Leader when you order! Our PTO will get a percentage of sales back for all orders. Be on the lookout for the prize wheel when you arrive!
The Girls on the Run Spring season has been announced! This physical activity running program is for girls in grades 3-5. Also, provides social and emotional skill development and critical thinking exercises. Most of all it is so much fun! Sign-up before February 10th. See more info on our school website and social media accounts.
Just a reminder that with the chilly weather in January and February, many students will bring jackets and sweaters to school. Please make sure that all of those jackets and sweaters that will be worn to the school building are labeled with your child’s name! Also, ask your child to check the lost and found. We currently have many jackets hanging up and our area is filling up fast.
Looking ahead, we will be joining other schools across the state of Florida in Celebrate Literacy Week, starting January 23rd. We will have dress-up days and will be celebrating by reading LOTs of books. A flyer will be coming home this week with more information.
Next, on January 24th, we have PTO and SAC meetings. These meetings are great opportunities to have your voice heard and to assist in the planning of school events. You do not want to miss these meetings. Finally, we’ve partnered up with Winn Dixie on Kings Highway for a very cool math night in February. Check our school website and social media accounts for more information.
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all on Tuesday! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent January 8th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
First of all, Happy New Year, Cougars! Our hope is that 2023 is the best year yet not only for our school but all of our Cougar Families. We're starting off strong with our first AR challenge of the new year. The Literacy Action Team is "snow" excited to announce our January AR reading challenge to reach the schoolwide goal of reading 8,000,000 words. If we reach this goal, by Monday, January 30, the Literacy Action Team will provide squishy snowflakes for all of our students on Tuesday the 31st. How cool is that?! We are already off to a great start.
The Winter Palooza is this week on Friday, January 13 from 5pm to 7pm here at Kingsway! Wahoo! This is a valued tradition that you don’t want to miss. We will have crafts, games, music, and more! Make sure you preorder your pizza by Wednesday, January 11th. The PTO has requested volunteers to help with craft and game stations. If you’re interested in being a part of this valued tradition sign up now using the link found on Remind, Social Media, and our school website.
The Girls on the Run Spring season has been announced! This physical activity running program is for girls grades 3-5 and also, provides social and emotional skill development and critical thinking exercises. Most of all it is so much fun! Sign-up before February 10th. See more info (including the sign-up link) on our school website and social media accounts.
With the chilly weather in January and February, many students will bring jackets and sweaters to school. Please ensure that all jackets and sweaters worn inside the school building are labeled with your child’s name! Also, ask your child to check the lost and found in the cafeteria. We currently have many jackets and sweaters hanging up and our area is filling up fast.
Looking ahead, we have no school on Monday, January 16th to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent December 18th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
Our students have been working so hard to meet the goals for the December AR challenge titled, "Squeeze in Time to Read." I am so proud of the students that have completed the challenge. These students will earn little holiday squishy to squeeze. These squishies will be going home this week. Please pat your child on the back for working so hard.
As a reminder, tis the season to encourage your child to wash hands, stay in their own space, and speak up when not feeling well. We want to keep all of our cougars happy and healthy.
Oh, What Fun! Our Holiday dress-up days are this week. Join us in the fun and celebrate the season! Here are the themed dress-up days:
Monday, December 19th is Holiday From Head to Toe- Wear a Holiday Hat, Headband, Scarf, Jewelry, Shirt, Socks, and even Shoes!
Tuesday, December 20th is our day to go to Santa’s Workshop- Dress like an Elf, Reindeer, Santa, or even Mrs. Claus!
And to celebrate the last day before Winter break on Wednesday, December 21st we will have our Polar Express Pajama Day- Wear your favorite pajamas! Please make sure to have appropriate shoes for playing outside.
Did you hear the good news? Santa is coming to KES! Wahoo! The FRE is hosting a super special guest on Monday, December 19th from 6 pm to 7 pm. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be here in the cafeteria to celebrate the season with great family fun. We will play board games, write letters to Santa, color together, and enjoy yummy cookies and milk. This is a family fun event that you don’t want to miss!
Looking ahead, in January we will be hosting the Winter Palooza AND we need help! PTO has requested volunteers to help with craft and game stations. If you’re interested in being a part of this valued tradition sign up now using the link found on Remind, Social Media, and our school website.
As a final reminder, Students' last day before Winter break is December 21st. During Winter break, we hope all of our cougars spend time relaxing, resting, making lasting memories, and celebrating the conclusion of another year. We are looking forward to seeing everyone refreshed and ready to take on the second half of the school year with a game-changing attitude. Students will return from Winter Break on January 4, 2023.
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent December 11th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
Our students have been working hard to meet the goals for the December AR challenge titled, "Squeeze in Time to Read."
As a reminder here are the goals:
• K-2 students must take a minimum of two AR tests. We hope that it will motivate all of our primary students to take time to read and take those AR tests.
• All 3rd - 5th students will have a three-million-word goal collectively. However, we will not include students who do not have an AR test during December.
The Literacy Action team is looking to have 100% of student participation during the month of December. We know our elves will get busy and ensure they "squeeze" in time to read. At home, please be checking with your student to make sure they’re taking their AR quizzes!
Students that work hard and complete the challenge will earn little holiday squishies to squeeze. Keep reading and working hard to accomplish those goals.
Our next spirit night is on Tuesday, December 13th from 4 pm to 8 pm at the Tropical Smoothie Café on Peachland! As you all know, Tropical Smoothie Café is one of my Favorite Cougar Community Partners! I just love smoothies! Please make sure you say I’m a Kingsway Cougar Leader when you order! Our PTO will get a percentage of sales back for all orders. Be on the lookout for the prize wheel when you arrive!
Holiday candy grams are on sale until December 15th! Please fill out the form and send in money with your child. Candy Grams can be given to friends, family, teachers, and other staff members. Candy grams are $1 and all proceeds go to the 5th grade. Candy Grams will be delivered on December 16th.
Looking ahead, did you hear the good news? Santa is coming to KES! Wahoo! The FRE is hosting the super special guest on Monday, December 19th from 6 pm to 7 pm. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be here to celebrate the season with great family fun. We will play board games, write letters to Santa, color together, and enjoy yummy cookies and milk. This is a fun family event that you don’t want to miss!
We’re announcing Holiday dress-up days for the whole school! Oh, What Fun! Join in the fun and celebrate the season! See the flyer that was sent home with your student, posted on Facebook and our school website, and sent home on Remind. I can’t wait to see everyone in their best Holiday wear!
In January we will be hosting the Winter Palooza and we need help! PTO has requested volunteers to help with the craft and game stations. If you’re interested in being a part of this valued tradition sign up now using the link found on Remind, Social Media, and our school website.
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent December 4th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
Welcome to December! This is my favorite time of the year. I love the joy that comes with this festive month. We have many activities coming in the next few weeks. So, make sure you’re listening for announcements and checking Remind often.
Our literacy team announced a new AR challenge titled, "Squeeze in Time to Read." As a school, we have been focusing on setting goals and making action plans to accomplish those goals. To help support this effort the Literacy Committee has set goals for this reading challenge and is gifting students with little holiday squishies for squeezing in time to read and making their goals. Here are the goals that have been set:
• K-2 students must take a minimum of two AR tests. We know this is an attainable AR goal, and we hope that it will motivate all of our primary students to take those AR tests!
• 3rd - 5th students will have a three-million-word goal collectively and all students will need to take an AR test.
Students that do not take an AR test during December will not earn the prize. The Literacy Action team is looking to have 100% of student participation during the month of December. We know our little elves will get busy and ensure they "squeeze" in time to read. At home, please be checking with your student to make sure they’re taking their AR quizzes!
Holiday candy grams will be going on sale tomorrow, Monday, December 5th! Your child should have brought the candy gram form home this past week. If not, it will be home early this week. Please fill out the form and send in money with your child. Candy Grams can be given to friends, family, teachers, and other staff members. Each candy gram is $1 and all proceeds go to the 5th grade.
Fall Picture Retakes are on Tuesday. Please let your teacher know if your child needs to retake their fall pictures! This communication is important to make sure we get all retakes that are needed. Also, please contact me, Mrs. Hazeltine, if you have any questions about your fall picture proofs or packages.
Our KES Chorus is proud to perform the Winter Concert in the Kingsway Cafeteria on Thursday evening at 6 pm! They will have a few rounds of practice during the school day for all students and will be ready to give the show of their careers that evening to parents and family members.
Looking ahead, the Winter Palooza is coming quickly and we need help! PTO has requested volunteers to help with craft and game stations. If you’re interested in being a part of this valued tradition sign up now using the link found on Remind, Social Media, and our school website. Our PTO is always looking for volunteers. Reach out if you'd like to volunteer.
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent November 20th
Hello Cougar Leaders:
This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
Did you know that we are in a November schoolwide reading challenge? We've been reading so many words for the Literacy tradition of Turkey Tie Tuesday! If our students read 7,000,000 words by the end of Monday, November 21st, then on Tuesday, November 22nd we will celebrate by wearing fashionable “Turkey Ties.” The ties can be silly, funny, striped, polka-doted, homemade, tacky ties, or even bow ties! We will even provide paper ties so that students can decorate themselves! So far, our students have "gobbled" up over 6 million AR words. We need still need to “feast” on about 637,306 words by the end of Monday to have Turkey Tie Tuesday on the 22nd. I know we can do it! Let's get our "gobble" on Cougar Leaders!
Just a reminder that all cougars have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving break. Our hope that everyone will enjoy time with friends and family. Please celebrate by pausing and giving thanks during this season of gratefulness. Mrs. Kelch and I sure are thankful for all KES staff, families, and students. This year has been full of challenges, but our school community has done everything to stay positive, flexible, and super amazing. We are so proud to be Cougar Leaders.
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent November 13th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
To help encourage and support our students’ reading, we are in a November schoolwide reading challenge. This challenge is the literacy tradition of Turkey Tie Tuesday! If our students read 7,000,000 words by Monday, November 21st, then on Tuesday, November 22nd we will celebrate by wearing fashionable “Turkey Ties.” The ties can be silly, funny, striped, polka-doted, homemade, tacky ties, or even bow ties! We will provide paper ties so that students can decorate the ties themselves! So far, our students have "gobbled" up just over 4 million AR words so far this month. We still need to “feast” on 3,881,573 word by next Monday to have Turkey Tie Tuesday on the 22nd. I know we can do it! Let's get our "gobble" on Cougar Leaders!
KES is having a Thanksgiving Food Drive for families who are in need! This food drive started last week and will on November 18th. If your family is able to donate even one item to the food drive, it will be appreciated and valued by other Kingsway Families! Students have the opportunity to earn 10 LiveSchool points for donated items. Please contact Mrs. Daly if you are in need of a meal.
Please join us in celebrating our staff with Thankful Thursdays. On all Thursdays in November, we’ll deliver submitted notes that express appreciation to staff members for their dedication to our cougar students and their families. You can submit a note of appreciation on the Google Form that was sent out on Remind and posted on our school’s Facebook. This was one of the most treasured activities last year. You can submit the form multiple times to provide many staff members with notes. Thanks for your help!
Our Cougar Leaders are excited to participate in the Kids Heart Challenge through the American Heart Association. The Kids Heart Challenge helps support the physical and emotional well-being of all of our cougar leaders. To become a Heart Hero, students can register online and pick a personal health challenge. A personal health challenge can include Being Kind or Being Active. The goals of the Kids Heart Challenge are to raise funds to help kids with special hearts, earn PE equipment here at Kingsway, and make our community healthier. Be on the lookout for an email from Coach Hurley and flyers coming home with your student.
SAC and PTO meetings are on November 15th. If you liked the Fall Festival and would like to join in the planning of other future valued traditions OR create more parent-involved activities, join us for our monthly SAC and PTO meetings in the media center with SAC at 6 pm and PTO at 6:30 pm.
Our annual Yearbook Turkey Trot is coming up on November 18th! The Yearbook Turkey Trot is a super fun event that helps us raise money for our yearbook fund. All students participate in this trot at school during the school day. However, if your student wants to collect money for trotting, they can earn a dance party and even their own yearbook. All money raised needs to be collected and entered into Revtrak using the link provided on the flyer by Friday, November 18th. Please let your teacher know if you’d like to volunteer or join the event.
Also, November 18th is our rescheduled Donuts for Cool Dudes event! We have changed the time of the event because of its overwhelming popularity! The event will be from 7 am- to 8 am in FRE! Please see the flyer for more details and return the RSVP to Mrs. Gartner!
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent November 6th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
Thank you to the PTO for helping to organize the Fall Festival Trunk and Treat. It was so much fun! A huge shout-out to the decorated trunks, volunteers, and staff members that also helped make the event a success. We so enjoy the time relaxing, dancing, and having fun with our school community.
Reminder, there is no school on November 8th for a teacher work day.
November’s Community Spirit Night is this Tuesday! Join us at Five Guys on Kings Hwy. A portion of the sales will go to our KES PTO! Make sure you tell them that you’re a Kingway Cougar Leader when you order. Mrs. Kelch and I will see you there with the prize wheel from 4 pm to 5 pm.
Our KES Chorus will be performing at the School Board Meeting on Thursday, November 10th at 5 pm. This is a fun opportunity to show our district the talent we have here at KES! Join us for a performance you don’t want to miss and then an informative school board meeting.
KES is having a Thanksgiving Food Drive for families who are in need! This food drive will start this week and end on November 18th. If your family is able to donate even one item to the food drive, it will be appreciated and valued by other Kingsway Families! Students have the opportunity to earn 10 LiveSchool points for donated items. Please contact Mrs. Daly if you are in need of a meal.
Please join us in celebrating our staff with Thankful Thursdays. On all Thursdays in November, we’ll deliver submitted notes that express appreciation to staff members for their dedication to our cougar students and their families. You can submit a note of appreciation on the Google Form that was sent out on Remind and posted on our school’s Facebook. This was one of the most treasured activities last year. You can submit the form multiple times to provide many staff members with notes. Thanks for your help!
Our Cougar Leaders are excited to participate in the Kids Heart Challenge through the American Heart Association. The Kids Heart Challenge helps support the physical and emotional well-being of all of our cougar leaders. To become a Heart Hero, students can register online and pick a personal health challenge. A personal health challenge can include Being Kind or Being Active. The goals of the Kids Heart Challenge are to raise funds to help kids with special hearts, earn PE equipment here at Kingsway, and make our community healthier. Be on the lookout for an email from Coach Hurley and flyers coming home with your student.
Looking ahead, SAC and PTO meetings are on November 15th. If you like the Fall Festival and would like to join in the planning of other future valued traditions OR create more parent-involved activities, join us for our monthly SAC and PTO meetings!
Our annual Yearbook Turkey Trot is coming up on November 18th! The Yearbook Turkey Trot is a super fun event that helps us raise money for our yearbook fund. All students participate in this trot at school during the school day. However, if your student wants to collect money for trotting, they can earn a dance party and even their own yearbook. All money raised needs to be collected and entered into Revtrak using the link provided on the flyer by Friday, November 18th. Please let your teacher know if you’d like to volunteer or join the event.
Also, November 18th is our rescheduled Donuts for Cool Dudes event! We have changed the time of the event because of its overwhelming popularity! The event will be from 7 am- to 8 am in FRE! Please see the flyer for more details and return the RSVP to Mrs. Gartner!
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent October 30th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call!
We love the character pumpkins that have decorated our hallways. We have some amazingly talented families here at Kingsway. This valued tradition is one of our favorites during this time of year. We thank each of our Kingsway families for helping your student celebrate books and literacy! Classes will be taking walks around the building on Monday to admire the work done on this family project.
Tomorrow, Monday, October 31st marks the end of the first quarter. Report cards will be published in the Portal on November 14th for each student.
We encourage students to wear their best Fall attire tomorrow October 31st. Students are more than welcome to wear festive shirts, headbands, and/or socks. I know I'll be wearing my favorite candy corn earrings!
Fall picture day is this week on Wednesday, November 2nd. Make sure you practice your best smile! We use Fall pictures for the yearbook, so attendance is very important.
The Fall Festival Trunk and Treat is this Friday, November 4th from 5 pm to 7 pm. Please join us for an evening of Fall fun. This valued tradition will have our school decked out with trunks and treats, games, food, music and so much more! Students may wear costumes and enjoy a hot dog meal for a low price of $4. Please see the flyer that was sent home and sent on Remind. We are still looking for trunks to treat our students. We have only a few spots left! Please let us know if you’re interested.
With the month of November starting this week, please join us in celebrating our staff with Thankful Thursdays. On Thursdays in the month of November, we’ll deliver submitted notes that express appreciation to staff members for their dedication to our cougar students and their families. You can submit a note of appreciation on the Google Form that was sent out on Remind and posted on our school’s Facebook. This was one of our most treasured activities last year. You can submit the form multiple times to provide many staff members with notes. Thanks for your help!
Our Cougar Leaders are excited to participate in the Kids Heart Challenge through the American Heart Association. The Kids Heart Challenge helps support the physical and emotional well-being of all of our cougar leaders. To become a Heart Hero, students can register online and pick a personal health challenge. A personal health challenge can include Being Kind or Being Active. The goals of the Kids Heart Challenge are to raise funds to help kids with special hearts, earn PE equipment, and make our community healthier. Be on the lookout for an email from Coach Hurley and flyers coming home with your students. I know in my family, we have chosen to be kind and active! We’re going to work on speaking with kind words even we’re angry and being more active by going on family walks after dinner! Let me know what you and your family are focusing on during this Kids Heart Challenge.
Looking ahead, there is no school on November 8th for a teacher work day.
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you tomorrow! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent October 23rd
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call!
Our Literacy Action Team announced this past week the valued tradition of the October Book Character Pumpkins! This optional family involvement activity was developed to bring literacy fun to your home and celebrate books in a festive manner! We ask families to decorate a small to medium-sized pumpkin as a character from their favorite book! We are also sending home paper pumpkins. Your family can use a real pumpkin or pumpkin paper for this family project. Whatever is best for your family during this time. The flyer and paper pumpkins came home this past week. To decorate, families can use paper, felt, fabric, glitter, pipe cleaners, paint, and more to make their pumpkin characters come to life. If you need help getting supplies, let your teacher know. Get creative with this project! Character pumpkins are due on or by October 27th! Teachers will display book character pumpkins outside their classroom doors. On October 28th, classes will take hallway strolls to identify the book character pumpkins and admire your family’s creativity and efforts. Pumpkins will come back home on October 31st. We thank each of our Kingsway families for helping your child celebrate books and literacy! We cannot wait to see all the book-character pumpkins decorating our hallways!
Otis Cookie dough will be delivered to our school on October 28th! We need all families here to pick up orders. We do not have the space to store frozen items so it is super important to get all cookie dough out in one day. Our PTO will be here from 11 am to 5 pm for families to come and pick up the fundraiser items. Please make arrangements to be here on October 28th. If you know you cannot be here or have no means to get the cookie dough and deliver it, please contact your teacher.
October is National Bully Prevention month. Kingsway normally joins other schools across the country in STOMP Out Bullying™. STOMP Out Bullying encourages communities to work together to stop bullying and cyberbullying by increasing awareness of the impact that bullying has on children of all ages. Due to Hurricane Ian, our prevention month has been shortened. However, Bully prevention is such an important topic that we wanted to make sure we still completed some of the most impactful activities as we return to school. This week, we celebrate Red Ribbon Week to support the National Family Partnership’s mission to lead and support our nation’s families and communities in nurturing the full potential of healthy, drug-free youth. The theme this year is Celebrate Life. Live Drug-Free. We are combining Red Ribbon week with our bullying prevention. We believe we can stomp out drugs and bullying! This week we are focusing on being brave and STANDING UP for our friends. Bullies have been known to back off when others stand up for victims. If you don't feel safe get the help of an adult immediately. Be part of the solution - not the problem! Let’s stomp out bullying together!
Here are the Spirit days:
Monday: Wear Red- Joining us by wearing RED to kick off the week and to show that you’re choosing to “Celebrate Life by Living Drug-Free”!
Tuesday: Sock it to Drugs and Bullying- Wear crazy socks!
Wednesday: Team Up- Wear a shirt or jersey representing your favorite team and that you’re teaming up against drugs and bullying.
Thursday: Super Power- You have the power to say NO! Say no to drugs and bullying by wearing your superhero gear!
Friday: School Spirit- wear your Kingsway Spirit Shirt to join other students in showing that we are better together as a school community and we can Stomp Out Drugs and Bullying!
Looking ahead, fall picture day has been rescheduled to November 2nd. Be on the lookout for the LifeTouch flyers coming home this week with details and pricing. Make sure you start practicing your best smile!
The Fall Festival Trunk or Treat is on November 4th from 5 pm to 7 pm. Please join us for an evening of Fall fun. I think we all deserve some community time. This valued tradition will have our school decked out with trunks and treats, games, food, music and so much more! Students may wear costumes and enjoy a hot dog meal for a low price of $4. Please see the flyer that was sent home this week. We are looking for trunks to treat our students. We have only a few spots left! Please let us know if you’re interested. The flyer will have a trunk and volunteer sign-up cut and return as well.
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all on Tuesday! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent October 16th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call! I am so excited for our cougars to be returning to school this week. My achy heart is feeling better knowing that we will be together again.
First of all, here are some important dates for this week as we start back. Staff members are back on campus on October 17th with students returning on October 18th. Buses are back up and running. If you are displaced and living at a different address, please update your Focus Portal account and call the K.E.S. office to verify the address and get a new bus pass if needed. The bus will transport all students at bus stops in the morning. However, students will not board a bus without an approved bus pass in the afternoon. For this reason, you must call the school if you require a new bus route or bus stop. If your child dismissal has changed, please make sure your child's teacher is aware. All K.E.S. afterschool clubs will start back the week of October 24th. Quarter 1 will be extended and report cards will come at a later date. More information on the changes to the school calendar and dates to come soon.
Now to prepare for this week and the Month of October. Here are some events and activities that we are moving forward with because our students and their families deserve the valued traditions that we look forward to as a school community.
Our Literacy Action Team is happy to announce the return of the October Book Character Pumpkins! We ask families to decorate a small to medium-sized pumpkin as a character from their favorite book! We are also sending home paper pumpkins. Your family can use a real pumpkin or pumpkin paper for this family project. What ever is best for your family during this time. The flyer and paper pumpkins will be coming later this week. Families can use paper, felt, fabric, glitter, pipe cleaners, paint, and more to make their pumpkins come to life. If you need help getting supplies, let your teacher know. Get creative with this project! This optional family involvement activity was developed to bring literacy fun to your home and celebrate books in a festive manner! Character pumpkins are due on or by October 27th! Teachers will display book character pumpkins outside their classroom doors. On October 28th, classes will take hallway strolls to identify the book character pumpkins and admire your family’s creativity and efforts. Pumpkins will come back home on October 31st. We thank each of our Kingsway families for helping your child celebrate books and literacy! We can not wait to see all the book-character pumpkins decorating our hallways!
Otis Cookie dough will be delivered to our school on October 28th! We need all families here to pick up orders. We do not have the space to store frozen items so it is super important to get all cookie dough out in one day. Our PTO will be here from 11 am to 5 pm for families to come and pick up the fundraiser items. Please make arrangements to be here on October 28th. If you know you can not be here or have no means to get the cookie dough and deliver it, please contact your teacher.
October is National Bully Prevention month. Kingsway normally joins other schools across the country in STOMP Out Bullying™. STOMP Out Bullying encourages communities to work together to stop bullying and cyberbullying by increasing awareness of the impact that bullying has on children of all ages. Due to Hurricane Ian, our prevention month has been shortened. However, Bully prevention is such an important topic that we wanted to make sure we still completed some of the most impactful activities as we return to school. This week we are challenging others to be KIND. Our Cougar Leaders need to be aware that some families have lost a great deal due to Hurricane Ian. Our community is just at the beginning of rebuilding. Now more than ever, we as a community must come together and just be KIND to others. Be a leader by taking action and not letting anyone at school be in isolation. Reach out to your classmates and be kind to them. Start with a small act of kindness. This week we challenge friends and classmates to pay it forward with their acts of kindness. On October 20th, we wear orange as a school community to celebrate Unity Day. Unity day is important because it shows others that we are united for kindness, acceptance, and inclusion. The week of October 24th is Red Ribbon week. We will be doing a spirit dress up week. Be on the lookout for the flyer for more details.
Fall picture day has been rescheduled to November 2nd. Be on the lookout for the LifeTouch flyers coming home this week with details and pricing. Make sure you start practicing your best smile!
And finally, the Fall Festival Trunk or Treat has been rescheduled to November 4th from 5 pm to 7 pm. Please join us for an evening of Fall fun. I think we all deserve some community time. This valued tradition will have our school decked out with trunks and treats, games, food, music and so much more! Students may wear costumes and enjoy a hot dog meal for a low price of $4. Please see the flyer that will be sent home this week. We are looking for trunks to treat our students. We have only a few spots left! Please let us know if you’re interested. The flyer will have a trunk and volunteer sign-up cut and return as well.
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all on Tuesday! Goodbye.
Phone message sent October 13th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with an important message.
We know this has been a very difficult few weeks as we recover from Hurricane Ian. Our community took a mighty hit and our own school building and campus had some damage. However, we have always been a strong community that works together to rebuild and we will stand stronger than ever. We want to give a HUGE shout-out to all the people that came to our community to help us in our time of need. Especially our crew from North Carolina for coming to our recuse to get our building and campus ready for all of our cougar leaders. Mrs. Kelch and I have missed you all tremendously. We can not wait to see your smiling faces back at school on Tuesday, October 18th. Our teachers will be reaching out to all families on Monday, October 17th if they have not done so already. Please be transparent and let us know your needs. We can help or we can send resources to help. We are in this together. I will be sending our weekly school connect call on Sunday. This is an important call as it gives some updates and date changes for many of our October activities.
Again please reach out if you need anything. Talk to you soon, Goodbye.
No School Until Further Notice
We hope that you and your families are safe. Hurricane Ian caused a tremendous amount of damage in Charlotte County. We are assessing our schools now and will know soon the extent of the damage.
There will be no school until further notice.
Hurricane Ian Update
We hope all of our Cougar families are safe. We will get through this together.
There is no school on Friday, September 30th. Future updates will be posted as soon as we hear.
Phone Message Sent September 25th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
First and foremost, we know that the tropics have been very busy! Our district has been watching the developing storm and will update you with a phone call soon. We do have one large event this week and we are not sure yet if the storm will affect our Donuts with Cool Dudes. This event is on Wednesday morning. We are very excited about this national event that encourages fathers or father figures aka Cool Dudes to take their students to school and participate in a fun reading event. We hope to still host this event, however, more information will come this week as final decisions are made.
As I read through the rest of the announcements, continue to keep in mind that we could be affected by the storm later this week. We will continue communicating, as we know more. Again, listen for the superintendent’s call this afternoon and for the days to come.
This week is the last week of celebrating Attendance Awareness as a whole school community. We will continue focusing on attendance as it is vital for our school's success. This month brought great awareness and we've had a good time focusing on attendance. We have learned that attending school regularly is ESSENTIAL for students to gain the academic and social skills they need to be successful in the future. We’ve had three classes earn Bingo so far, and we are excited for more BINGOs in this last week. Posters for our poster contest are due by September 30th. Finally, this is our last week to get our attendance rate up! Remember that the school with the best attendance rate at the end of September will win the attendance TROPHY! Our attendance rate is still about 93%. I’d like to see that number increase this week. Let's work together and make sure KES has a great attendance rate!
Our Literacy Action Team has set a schoolwide AR goal to read 8 million words in the month of September! Guess what?! We rolled right passed our 8 million AR word goal. Wahoo!! We are not only over 8 million but are very close to 9 million words read. WOW! KES Readers are truly "bouncing" to new reading heights and rolling over our goals. I am so proud to be a cougar leader.
Did you feel the change in the air? Fall is here! I’m looking forward to cooler weather, more college football, pumpkin festivals, and candy corn! As we finish September, we will be welcoming the month of October as National Bully Prevention month. Kingsway will join other schools across the country in STOMP Out Bullying™. STOMP Out Bullying encourages communities to work together to stop bullying and cyberbullying by increasing awareness of the impact that bullying has on children of all ages. This month has our cougar leaders participating in weekly challenges! The first challenge will focus on solidarity. On October 3rd, students, schools, and communities all over the world will go BLUE together against bullying. We want KES to be decked out in the color BLUE! We encourage our whole school community to wear blue. By wearing blue, you’ll be using your voice and sending a message that this is the day that bullying prevention is heard around the world. We are changing the Culture! Go BLUE, KES!
Finally, when turning into the school during drop-off or pick-up times, please make sure you adhere to the signs in the front of our building. This includes the speed limit and turning into the school from the right side only.
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent September 18th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
Here at Kingsway Elementary, we celebrate Attendance Awareness as a whole school community. We have developed many fun activities to help our Cougar Leaders keep the focus on attendance and to bring awareness to something so important to our learning environment. We focus on attendance in September because research tells us that attending school regularly is ESSENTIAL for students to gain the academic and social skills they need to be successful in the future. With your help, our goal is to have all students in school on time and all day long! School activities that we have chosen include an attendance Bingo in every classroom and a school-wide poster contest! This past week we celebrated with a spirit week and it was epic! In addition to our school activities, the whole district is having a “Best Attendance Rate” contest! The school with the best attendance rate at the end of September will win the attendance TROPHY! We sure do love KES and we are competitive, so we’d like to make a great effort to win this trophy. We need everyone's help. Our attendance rate is about 93% with our 4th grade having the best attendance rate at 94%! Way to go, 4th grade! We know sometimes students get sick and need to stay home, but we do need our Cougars HERE on days they’re ready to learn! High attendance rates will help our students not only learn, but to meet our goals. Let's work together and make sure KES has the highest attendance rate in Charlotte County. Let's get that TROPHY, Cougar Leaders!
Our Literacy Action Team has set a schoolwide AR goal to read 8 million words in the month of September! Our cougar leaders have already read 5,997,243 words! Wahoo! The prize for reaching our 8-million-word goal is that each student will receive a bouncy ball. Wowzers! Then the top word reader for each classroom will also receive a light-up ball. That's a super wowzers! Keep up the reading! I know we can do it. I am so proud of all of you!
On Tuesday, September 20th we will be hosting SAC and PTO meetings in the KES media center. Please join us for SAC at 6 pm and PTO at 6:30 pm. SAC and PTO meetings are a great way to become involved in decision-making at our school. We hope to see you there!
Looking ahead, FRE is hosting Donuts with Cool Dudes on September 28th. See the flyer for more information.
Well, that's all for now. I hope everyone has a great evening. I can’t wait to see all of our cougars tomorrow ready to Be Proud to LEAD!
Water Safety Information
Learn more about water safety and how to keep your children safe.
Water safety letter and flyer
Phone Message Sent September 11th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
Here at Kingsway Elementary, we celebrate Attendance Awareness as a whole school community. We have developed many fun activities to help our Cougar Leaders keep the focus on attendance and to bring awareness to something so important to our learning environment. We focus on attendance in September because research tells us that attending school regularly is ESSENTIAL for students to gain the academic and social skills they need to be successful in the future. With your help, our goal is to have all students in school on time and all day long! School activities that we have chosen include an attendance Bingo in every classroom and a school-wide poster contest!
This week we are celebrating attendance with a SPIRIT WEEK!
Monday, September 12th is College Shirt Day: Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow!
Tuesday, September 13th is Tie-Dye Day: Great Attendance is "tie"d to Great Learning!
Wednesday, September 14th is Wacky Tacky Day (mismatched outfits): There's nothing wacky-tacky about being on time.
Thursday, September 15th is Neon, Bright Color Clothing Day: Good Attendance leads to bright futures!
Friday, September 16th is School Spirit Day: Wear School Spirit Clothing
In addition to our school activities, the whole district is having a “Best Attendance Rate” contest! The school with the best attendance rate at the end of September will win the attendance TROPHY! We sure do love KES and we are so competitive, so we’d like to make a great effort to win this trophy. We need everyone's help. We know sometimes students get sick and need to stay home, but we do need our Cougars HERE on days they’re ready to learn! High attendance rates will help our students not only learn, but to meet our goals. Let's work together and make sure KES has the highest attendance rate in Charlotte County. Let's get that TROPHY, Cougar Leaders!
Our Literacy Action Team has set a schoolwide AR goal to read 8 million words in the month of September! Our cougar leaders have already read 4,201,675! Wahoo! The prize for reaching our 8-million-word goal is that each student will receive a bouncy ball. Wowzers! Then the top word reader for each classroom will also receive a light-up ball. That's a super wowzers! Keep up the reading! I am so proud of all of you!
The Fall PTO fundraiser has ended! Our school reached $10,000 for our PTO. This is amazing news. Our PTO provides funding for many of the essential programs that we use here at Kingsway and this helps as we move into the school year!
We are excited and thrilled to have our Reading is "Sweet" Book Fair! This event is an opportunity for students of all ages to build their home libraries and further their love for reading. The book fair is one of our beloved Kingsway traditions! Our "sweet" book fair will officially open this Monday. We are open Monday - Friday 7:30 - 8:30 AM and Monday -Thursday 4:00 - 5:30 PM for our families. In addition to in-school shopping with families, the book fair is online for contactless shopping and students will have the opportunity to visit the book fair during their weekly schedule media classes.
Our next spirit night is on Tuesday, September 13th from 4 pm to 8 pm at the Culvers on Kings Hwy! I sure do love Culvers and believe that is one of my Favorite Cougar Community Partners! I just love cheese curds! Please make sure you say I’m a Kingsway Cougar Leader when you order! Our PTO will get a percentage of sales back for all orders. Be on the lookout for the prize wheel when you arrive!
Looking ahead, SAC and PTO are coming up on Tuesday, September 20th. Please mark your calendars.
That's all for now. Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent September 4th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
A reminder that we have no school tomorrow Monday, September 5th in celebration of Labor Day. Enjoy the day with your family and friends.
Welcome to September! Here at Kingsway Elementary, we celebrate Attendance Awareness as a whole school community. We have developed many fun activities to help our Cougar Leaders keep the focus on attendance and to bring awareness to something so important to our learning environment. We focus on attendance in September because research tells us that attending school regularly is ESSENTIAL for students to gain the academic and social skills they need to be successful in the future. With your help, our goal is to have all students in school on time and all day long! School activities that we have chosen include an attendance Bingo in every classroom and a school-wide poster contest! See the attendance flyer for more information. In addition to our school activities, the whole district is having a “Best Attendance Rate” contest! The school with the best attendance rate at the end of September will win the attendance TROPHY! We sure do love KES and we are so competitive, so we’d like to make a great effort to win this trophy. We need everyone's help. We know sometimes students get sick and need to stay home, but we do need our Cougars HERE on days they’re ready to learn! High attendance rates will help our students not only learn, but to meet our goals. Let's work together and make sure KES has the highest attendance rate in Charlotte County. Let's get that TROPHY, Cougar Leaders!
Get ready to READ! That's right, I’m announcing the first AR challenge of the school year! Wahoo! Our Literacy Action Team has set a schoolwide AR goal to read 8 million words in the month of September! Whoa, I know our cougar leaders can do it! The prize for reaching our 8-million-word goal is that each student will receive a bouncy ball. Wowzers! Then the top word reader for each classroom will also receive a light-up ball. That's a super wowzers! Get to reading cougar leaders! September has already started.
Starting Tuesday, our First graders will begin their first progress monitoring window for the FAST Star state assessment. This early literacy assessment will provide a baseline score for teachers to better prepare instruction based on our students' understanding of BEST state standards. On Wednesday our Second graders will also begin their first progress monitoring window for the FAST Star state assessments. For more information on these assessments, please see the FAST letter that was sent home. This letter provides a plethora of information about the new state assessment called Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST). Please make sure students are well rested and prepared to work hard to show what they know.
The Fall PTO fundraiser is going strong! Our school is at 52% of our fundraiser goal. This is HUGE! We have until September 8th to continue to sell items and to meet our goal to raise $10,000 for our PTO. Our PTO provides funding for many of the essential programs that we use here at Kingsway. Keep it up and push through this final week!
Looking ahead, I heard the book fair is coming soon! This is an amazing valued tradition at our school and I can’t wait to see all of our families shopping for books! More information will be announced this week.
That's all for now. See you on Tuesday! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent August 28th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
The Family Reading Experience (FRE)'s grand opening is tomorrow, Monday, August 29th. The FRE is open most Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays throughout the school year. The FRE is stocked with many books of varying reading levels. All students in grades PK-5 are welcome to attend with a parent. When you visit you can check out up to 3 books and select a free Keeper Book for your home library. Students can earn 10 Live School points each time they visit! FRE provides exciting weekly drawings, special guests, and workshops! Be on the lookout for more FRE events to be announced soon!
Starting Tuesday, our Kindergartners will begin the first progress monitoring window for the FAST Star state assessment. This early literacy assessment will provide a baseline score for teachers to better prepare instruction based on our students' understanding of BEST state standards. For more information please see the FAST letter that was sent home. This letter provides a plethora of information about the new state assessment called Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST). Please make sure students are well rested and prepared to work hard to show what they know.
Tuesday evening we invite you to join us for our first SAC and PTO meetings of the school year. We will be meeting in the KES media center. SAC starts at 6 pm and PTO at 6:30 pm. SAC and PTO meetings are a great way to become involved in decision-making at our school.
The Fall PTO fundraiser has started! Wahoo! Students have already received their fundraiser packets to start selling right away! We have until September 8th to sell items and to meet our goal to raise $10,000 for our PTO. Our PTO provides funding for many of the essential programs that we use here at Kingsway. This fundraiser will include the Magical Holidays Gift Catalog and the Otis Spunkmeyer Cookie Dough and More catalog! The fall fundraiser is always a success and we are excited to meet and maybe even exceed our goal!
Game Changer spirit shirts have been ordered! We will send them home as soon as they arrive on campus.
Attention Fourth and Fifth-grade students: Chorus sign-ups are still open! Sign-up links are out on Remind, our school website, and our school’s social media accounts.
Looking ahead: We do not have school on Monday, September 5th in celebration of Labor Day.
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow! Goodbye.
Message from Mr. Jordan about Chorus
The KINGSWAY CHORUS is a dedicated team of fourth and fifth grade singers who work hard to perform music at KES and in our community. Rehearsals have begun, but there is still time for your student to join us! Please complete the group contract with your student at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfey6wsSvEeClRTng6_PmscVt9ILhTHoiaRluvDMcFP1dJCkQ/viewform?usp=sf_link. Please contact Mr. Jordan with any questions via REMIND or at john.jordan@yourcharlotteschools.net
Phone Message Sent August 21st
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is Mrs. Hazeltine with this week’s school connect call.
Arrival is still going very well. We love seeing all of the happy faces of our cougar leaders as they arrive on campus. Students are welcomed on campus at 8 am and should be in their seats by 8:40 am. Please remember that if you want your child to be walked into the building during arrival you need to pull up to the Heart Zone (this includes our CD students as well). The heart zone is at the very front of our line at the pole with the large red heart. This helps provide a safe location for students to be helped out of the car and walked into school. We have provided extra staff members at this location just waiting to walk your student in. All parents, please remember that if you arrive after 8:40, you'll need to walk your own child into the office and get a tardy pass.
Please make sure you register and complete your child’s emergency forms on Focus. One of those forms is your child’s emergency card. The emergency card provides us with updated contact information including current numbers and emergency contacts that are allowed to pick up your child.
We will not release your child to anyone not on their emergency card. If you need help finding your child’s ID or PIN to set up the Focus Portal account, please call the office and ask for Mrs. Burdick. Thank you to those parents that have already completed this process. We are over 64% of families with Focus Portal accounts and we’d love to get to 100%!!! We so appreciate the effort from our parents.
Tomorrow we begin our first FAST progress monitoring window with grades 3-5. We start with ELA on Monday and Wednesday and Math on Thursday and Friday. Please see the FAST assessment flyer with assessment dates for PM1 that is posted on our website, social media accounts and was sent to you on Remind. A FAST letter was sent home as well. This letter provides a lot of information about the new state assessment called Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST). Please make sure students are well rested and prepared to work hard to show what they know.
The Fall PTO fundraiser starts this week! Wahoo! Students will receive their fundraiser packets to start selling right away! We have until September 5th to sell items. This fundraiser will include the Magical Holidays Gift Catalog and the Otis Spunkmeyer Cookie Dough and More catalog! The fall fundraiser is always a success. I know my relatives are already looking for their annual cookie dough! So share the fundraiser and help support our PTO!
Our next spirit night is on Tuesday, August 23rd at the Tropical Smoothie Café on Peachland from 4 to 8 pm. Tropical Smoothie Café is one of my Favorite Cougar Community Partners! I just love smoothies! Please make sure you say I’m a Kingsway Cougar Leader when you order! Our PTO will get a percentage of sales back for all orders. Be on the lookout for the prize wheel from 5-6 pm.
Have you ordered your new Game Changer T-shirts? They’re on sale now and are due by Wednesday! T-shirt order forms were sent home during the first week of school. Call the office if you need another form.
This past week you should have received a letter giving directions to sign up for LiveSchool. LiveSchool is a school-wide PBIS program we use to encourage attendance, reward positive behavior, reward students for following lead expectations, and we use to communicate with parents. Please sign up as soon as possible.
Another form of communication that our school uses is Remind. Remind is used for daily communication between teachers and parents. We also send out school-wide messages with important information and/or upcoming events. This platform is one of our most important ways to communicate. Please make sure you’re signed up with your teacher!
Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We use social media to update our families and to give a lot of important information about resources, current happenings, and upcoming events. Finally, make sure you bookmark our school’s website. This is the hub of information for our school.
As a reminder, Tuesday is a District Professional Development day for teachers and staff. Our students do not have school.
Looking ahead, Save the date for the Family Reading Experience(FRE)'s grand opening on Monday, August 29th.
And on August 30th, our SAC and PTO will meet for the first time this school year. Please join us!
I know this is a lot of information (and I went really fast). I appreciate you listening. A copy of this phone message will be available on our school website and social media accounts.
That’s all for now! Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow! Goodbye.
Phone Message Sent August 14th
Hello Cougar Leaders. This is your assistant principal, Mrs. Hazeltine, with this week’s school connect call. We had a fantastic first week of school with our Game Changers. Thank you all for helping to make the first week so great! A huge shout out to our Kingsway Cougar Staff members as they were amazing in welcoming our students to a safe learning environment that is student-centered and full of academic awesomeness. Students are still learning new procedures, but are quickly adapting to the expectations and routines of their new classrooms. The excitement of the building has been special. We were so excited to welcome all of our cougar leaders to the 22-23 school year.
This past week, students were introduced to our school-wide Always be Proud to LEAD expectations. These expectations provide the building blocks to a learning environment that supports positive behaviors. Please see the LEAD expectations in the Title One compact (within your child's planner), on our school’s website, and on our school's social media accounts. Please review these expectations with your student.
Arrival went very well this week. Seeing all of the happy faces as they arrived on campus was so good. Please keep in mind that we start welcoming students on campus at 8 am. Please do not release your student from cars before this time. The cafeteria opens for breakfast at 8 am and students can head to classrooms starting at 8:10 am. Students should be in their seats ready to learn by 8:40 am. Please do not drop students off outside our fenced area. This slows down traffic and is unsafe. Also, please do not drop students off in the winding road on our campus to walk through traffic to get inside the building. The only students getting out of the cars should be directly in front of the school where adults are assisting and monitoring the students.
Thank you for your patience during Parent Pick-Up (PPU) this past week. A dismissal letter was sent home. In addition, this letter was posted on our school website, on Remind, and on social media accounts. Please see this letter as it explains all of the important details of our KES dismissal! Here are a few reminders from that letter: The PPU card should be displayed on your rear-view mirror until your student gets in the car, when your child is in the car, please remove it. This signals to us that your car is all set! As you move through the line please pull close to the car in front of you, pay attention to your surroundings, and do not park on crosswalks. Please do not be on your cell phone as this is a huge distraction. The whole line will move as one. This means you shouldn’t pull out of the line to pass someone else, even if you have your student. This is to ensure that all students loading into cars are safe before traffic moves. We have PPU times down close to 3:40 pm and we will continue to get faster as we do our best to get students home in a safe and orderly manner. Please remember that the bus side PPU starts moving after the buses have left. This sometimes delays the start of the line. Again please be patient. Students that are walkers have two locations to be released. Please know which side your walker is released on and the correct location for pickup. Kindergarten and first-grade students will need a guardian present with a walker tag. If no guardian or no walker tag is present at the correct location, the student will be escorted back to the office and the guardian will be expected to show ID to pick up a child. We will not dismiss any walker to parked cars. If you want to pick up your child by car- please go through PPU. On rainy day dismissal, ALL walkers will go to the cafeteria and be dismissed through the front parent pick-up line. If you go to the bus side PPU, you’ll be asked to go to the front to get your child. Please make sure you have a PPU card! If not, you’ll be asked to go inside to pick up that card and your child. Thank you for following all of these procedures for the safety of our cougars.
Please make sure you register and complete your child’s emergency forms on Focus. Your child’s emergency card is vital for us to be able to get ahold of you during the school day. We want to make sure all the information is accurate. We will not be having paper emergency cards. If you need help finding your child’s ID or 4-digit PIN, please call the office and ask for Mrs. Burdick. Thank you to those parents that have already completed this process. We are over 60% of families with Focus Portal accounts and we’d love to get to 100%!!! We so appreciate the effort from our parents.
Have you ordered your new Game Changer T-shirts? They’re on sale now! T-shirt order forms were sent home. Call the office if you need another form.
Please make sure you have signed up on Remind with your child’s teacher. This is so important for the communication of our school. Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We use social media to update our families and to give a lot of important information about resources, current happenings, and upcoming events. Finally, make sure you bookmark our school’s website. This is the hub of information for our school.
Speaking of school information, have you signed up for SAC or PTO? Be on the lookout for flyers to join these amazing parent organizations for the betterment of our school!
I know this is a lot of information and appreciate your listening. A copy of this phone message will be available on our school website and social media accounts.
Thank you to all of our families for continuing to help make Kingsway a great place. Your support, patience, and assistance are so Positively vital. I am looking forward to seeing our proud to LEAD cougars tomorrow! That’s all for now! Have a great evening. Goodbye.
Champs Cafe
Welcome to the 2022/2023 school year! This is Terri Whitacre, director of food & nutrition services, sharing some important information from Champ’s Café.
I am glad to tell you that your child may have both a free breakfast and a free lunch for the entire school year, thanks to the USDA offering all free meals to all students. You can locate your child’s keypad number under the classified tab in their Focus account. To refresh our customers’ memories, would you please have your child practice their keypad number on a calculator a few times before the first day of school? It is the same keypad number as last year. Most children master the pattern of their number with just a few repetitions on a calculator, and you can verify they are practicing the correct keypad number on the calculator screen. We ask that our student customers state their last name, too, so please encourage your child to clearly state their last name to the cashier after entering their keypad number.
All free meals to all students means our food & nutrition services program provides a great opportunity for your child to enjoy the healthy breakfast and healthy lunch at no cost to families every school day at Champ’s Cafe. Breakfast is offered 30 minutes or more before school starts, and there are lots of choices at both breakfast and lunch. Even a child who prefers to bring his lunch from home can go through the serving line and select, for free, at least three food items, as long as one food item is a fruit or vegetable, or they may select up to the six food items included in a full school-prepared meal to supplement a packed lunch.
This free meals program means there is no need to complete an application for free meals for your student. All Charlotte County students, elementary through high school, are eligible for free meals this school year.
Feel free to send a payment of cash or check so your child can purchase some of the ala carte items we offer, from an extra milk or carton of juice to a healthy snack. You can track your child's purchases online through PayPAMS, put money on their account with a credit or debit card through PayPAMS, and see your child's account balance through both their Focus account and through PayPAMS. Please check our Champ’s webpage within the district’s website: yourcharlotteschools dot net, for a link to PayPAMS and other Champ’s Café information. I encourage you to download the Nutrislice app to your smartphone for our menus and nutrient facts.
Please feel free to call the Champ's Cafe office at 941-575-5400 or your school’s Champ’s Café manager with any questions you may have. Our goal is for your child to refuel for learning each day at Champ's Café!
Cougar Expo
Please join us for the Cougar Expo on August 8th!
Open House
Teacher Placements
KEEP Registration
