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360-833-5730 phone 360-833-5731 fax

1601 NW Tidland St Camas, WA 98607

Prune Hill Penguin News March 11, 2015

Dear Penguin Families, Student safety is a primary focus of any school, and Prune Hill is no excep-tion. Fire, earthquake, lockdown, or shelter-in-place drills occur monthly to teach kids safe routines in case of an emergency. We create systems to safely allow buses and cars, pedestrians and bicyclists to enter and leave campus dai-ly. We communicate with bus drivers, parents, and teachers to verify where students are going on a daily basis. We have cameras installed in our school. We require any adult on campus to sign-in and we are a closed campus to the public during school hours. We meet internally to look for ways to improve our safety procedures and routines. One area that is prevalent in the media and is at the forefront of our educator world is bullying. Tragically, there are reports of teenagers locally that take their own lives due in part to bullying (cyber or person-to-person). This creates a fear in all of us as keepers of children and their welfare to do what we can as adults to educate students beginning in Kinder-garten. Bullying is not a new phenomena in schools. Students come to school with a wide variety of backgrounds and expe-riences and methods of solving problems that are not necessarily appropriate. Our charge is to equip children with the skills necessary to navigate through life with self-direction, self-respect and confi-dence. Here at Prune Hill, we take measures in prevention as well as disciplinary measures in response to reported bully-ing behavior. Mr. Durfey, our counselor, spends time in every classroom teaching lessons that define bullying, appropriate responses, reporting procedures and available support. This includes an 8

week course teaching the 3 ‘R’s (Recognizing, Refusing, and Reporting unsafe behavior). Bullying is: unfairunfairunfairunfair, oneoneoneone----sidedsidedsidedsided, intentionalintentionalintentionalintentional, and/or repeated over repeated over repeated over repeated over timetimetimetime. Assertion skills take time to devel-op…(learning to raise a hand for help in a classroom is difficult for many students for awhile too). Discerning between tat-tling and reporting also takes time and practice. Once we receive a report from a student, we immediately investigate. This includes interviewing the student(s) involved and problem solving a solution when appro-priate. Student reporting and discipline is confidential, and may include one or more of the following: ~student/parent conference ~referrals to school counselor ~verbal or written apology ~loss of privileges ~In-School Suspension ~Short or long term suspension ~Expulsion The biggest challenge we have as parents is knowing what to do when our kids come home upset, sad, or frustrated and share their emotions and day with us. When do we call school? When do we intervene? We recommend that you begin by listening and empathizing with your child and asking a few questions: How did that make you feel? Did you feel unsafe? Did you report it to the nearest adult? If you didn’t report it to an adult at school, would you like to tomor-row? Sometimes our kids just want to be listened to and supported with a hug. Other times, students need help learning how to assert themselves and to see an-other perspective to gain understanding. The biggest challenge we have at school is unreported incidents and then trying to respond long after the fact.

Ultimately, we want our kids equipped with the tools necessary to handle all kinds of people and situations. Together, we can help support them in that process as they practice these skills. Please feel free to contact your child’s teacher, Mr. Durfey, or myself for sup-port so that we can continue building a safe, positive learning environment here at school. Don’t hesitate to call with any questions you may have or for more in-formation. Sincerely,

Julie Swan More information can be found at the following links: Our district adopted curriculum, Steps to Respect and Second Step: http://www.cfchildren.org/programs/ssp/overview/ http://www.cfchildren.org/programs/str/overview/ Camas School District policy: 3207- Pro-hibition of Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying Another resource link here: StopBully-ing.gov

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March 2015 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 Choir Rehearsal

8:00-8:45

3 Recorder Rehearsal

8:00-8:45

Jungle Week in PE

Classes Feb. 3-10

4 AM K

5 4th Grade visits Rock

& Mineral Museum

9:00-2:00

6 Yearbook Orders

Due

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8 9 Choir Rehearsal

8:00-8:45

Camas School Board

meeting 5:30

10 Recorder Rehearsal

8:00-8:45

Last day of Jungle

Week in PE

11 PM K

5th grade to PYP

and formal lunch

8:30-12:30

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13 Last day 2nd

Trimester

PTA Birthday

Table

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15 16 Choir Rehearsal

8:00-8:45

17 Recorder Rehearsal

8:00-8:45

18 AM K

19 PTA Online General

Membership Mtg.

Voting/Elections

Open for 1 week

20

Spirit Day/Super

Hero Day

21

22 23 Choir Rehearsal

8:00-8:45

5th Grade visits

Steigerwald 9:00-1:00

Driver & Stewart

Camas School Board

meeting 5:30

24 Recorder Rehearsal

8:00-8:45

25 PM K

5th Grade Water

Quality Monitoring

9:15-12:15

26 Report Cards Go

Home Today

Music in Our

Schools Concert at

Skyridge 6:30-7:45

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5th Grade visits

Steigerwald 9:00-1:00

Holscher & Miller

28

29 30 Choir Rehearsal

8:00-8:45

31 Recorder Rehearsal

8:00-8:45

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April 2015 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 AM K 2 3

4

5 6 7 8

9

10

11

12

13

Camas School Board

meeting 5:30

14

15 PM K

5th Grade to OCT

School House Rock

8:45-11:30

16

17 Bullying Assembly

9:15-10:15

PTA Birthday

Table

18

19 20

21

22 AM K 5th Grade Water

Quality Monitoring

9:15-12:15

23

24

Spirit Day/

Crazy Hat Day

25

26 27

Camas School Board

meeting 5:30

28

Kindergarten to

Fish Hatchery

AM 9:15-11:45

PM 12:45-3:15

29 PM K 30

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Upcoming Spirit Days!!

Join the fun…

Friday, March 20th is Super Hero Day -

Dress up as your favorite super hero.

Friday, April 24th is Hat Day -

Wear your favorite hat. Yes, you can

wear a hat today!

Friday, May 29th is Hawaiian Day -

Dress up in something tropical!

Friday, June 12th is Penguin Attire

Day - Wear black and white or any-

thing with penguins on it.

Upcoming Prune Hill Choir Performances

The Annual “Music In Our Schools Month” District Elementary Concert will be at Skyridge Middle School on Thursday, March 26 at 6:30 pm. Students will arrive for a warm-up rehearsal at 6 pm. Doors open for family and friends at 6:20 pm. The PHE Vocal Choir and Recorder Choir will be performing. Students should wear their red PHE Music t-shirts and jeans. It’s going to be a fun night! The Lower Columbia River Music Educators Association (LCRMEA) is proud to be providing the 9th Annual Regional Elementary Honor Choir. The honor choir will be held on Saturday, March 28th, 2015 at the Washburn Performing Arts Auditorium at Washougal High School. Prune Hill Elementary has 6 students in the honor choir this year. Those students are: Lily Boyer, Katelyn Daniels, Noah Fearrington, Luke Gillespie, Madeline Henion and Nicholas Leetham. Registration will begin at 9:30 AM with rehearsals until 4:00 PM. Participating students will be involved in an all-day workshop and concert for parents, teachers and the community at 4:00 PM. Thank you! ~Kim Ray

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PTA –March and April News! Staff Appreciation Week Donations We have some very exciting things planned to honor our Prune Hill Staff this year. Please show your support

through a direct donation. For more details and to donate: http://www.gofundme.com/pheptasaw

Interested in PTA Leadership and Committees We have a number of Board, Chair and Committee positions coming available for the 2015-2016 school year. If you are interested in a position or would just like to help sign up or nominate yourself or an individual go to www.SignUpGenius.com/go/60B0E4FA5A62AAA8-ptabod1 or contact Alex Ryan for more information: prunehillpta2@gmail.com. Spring Carnival – We need raffle donations! Spring Carnival, our largest event of the year, is just around the corner. The Carnival Committee is busy

gathering product and service donations that are kid centric. If you or someone you know has a kid-centric

product or service that would make a good raffle prize, please contact Robin Sanz: robinsanz@yahoo.com.

Sign-up genius to volunteer at the event will be distributed in the next few weeks.

We Need Pictures for the Yearbook! Do you have pictures of Prune Hill in action at events or field trips, send them in to be included in the 2014-

2015 Yearbook. Please send them to Kathleen Cluen at: kathleencluen@icloud.com. Please include the

names of any children in the photo, the event (if applicable) and their grade level.

Yearbook Orders Yearbook orders were due Friday, March 6th. It is not too late to get your orders in. Please send in your or-

ders as soon as possible, prices go up April 1st!

Spring Box Tops are being counted….results coming soon! Box Tops, Campbell’s soup labels and ink cartridges are a great way to earn money for school. The spring collection ended on February 27th and are being counted. Stay tuned for class winners to be announced in the coming weeks. UPCOMING DATES:

March 11: 5th Grade Formal Lunch

March 13: March Birthday Lunch Table

March 19: Online General Membership Meeting – Nominations/Open Chair Positions

March 30-April 3: Staff Appreciation Week

April 6-10: Spring Break

April 17: Bully Assembly – Taproot 9:15 am

April 17: April Birthday Lunch Table

Visit us on Facebook or at www.freewebs.com/phepta Email us at prunehillpta2@gmail.com

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Camtown Youth Festival Poster Contest

POSTER CONTEST RULES: *All youth are eligible to participate. *Poster design must be drawn on white, 8.5" x 11" paper. *Any art medium may be used. Please include some of the "festival elements" in your poster design. Elements of the festival are listed below. Judges will vote for their favorite finalist posters the week of April 6. Winning artists will be announced the week of April 20. Students must write their name, school, grade, and phone number on the back of the design. Poster de-signs will not be returned unless requested. Designs can be dropped off at the Lacamas Lake Lodge at 227 NE Lake Rd. or can be mailed to: 616 NE 4th Ave., Camas, WA 98607, Attn: CYF Poster Contest. Contest ends Friday, March 28th, 2015

Call Krista at Camas Parks and Recreation at 834-5307, if you have questions, or go to h�p://www.ci.camas.wa.us/index.php/96-parkscat/parks-a-recrea�on-news/366-

camtownyouthfes�valpostercontest:

*Festival elements: inflatable games (slides, obstacle course, bounce rooms), carnival games, dunk tank, petting zoo, art show, crafts activities, school bands, dancers, clowns, balloon tying, face painting, food vendors, infor-mation vendors (i.e. girl scouts, Clark PUD, pre-school groups, etc.) ** Please do not design posters showing event date, time or place. These items will be added during final in-house design.

SPRING BREAK

April 6-10

CLASSES RESUME

APRIL 13

Have a safe and relaxing

break!

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