RI Center for Math & Science
Center Connection Newsletter
January 10, 2012

Welcome back to the rest of the year! We are looking forward to the second semester!

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Hoops for Heart—Deadline for your Hoops for Heart sheets is this Friday, January 13th. On Thursday, Miss V. would like all students to wear their favorite basketball jersey to support their favorite team.
• Early Out is this Friday @ 11:45 a.m.
• Monday—January 16th—NO SCHOOL in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

Spelling Bee
Remember to sign the permission form and return it ASAP to receive your Spelling Bee Student List.
Practice for the spelling bee will be held from 3:00—4:00 p.m. on January 17, 18, 19 and the School Spelling Bee will be held on Friday, January 20th at 1:00 p.m. District Bee—February 3rd @ RICMS.

S.T.E.M. Festival—January 24th
There will be a Community STEM festival from 5:00—7:00 p.m. sponsored by Illinois Math and Science Academy. Activities included that night will be: riding an energy bike, creating ecological art, investigating wind power and exploring robotics. Admission is free!

ANNUAL TRIVIA NIGHT—February 3rd—7:00—10:00 p.m. @ Plumbers & Steamfitter’s Hall.
Teams of 8—$10.00 per person ($80 a team). There is a 40 table limit.
This is a major fundraiser for our school’s technology program. Contact Tom Brokaw or Brandon Pannell to reserve your table. Brokaw.tom@rigov.org or pannell03@sbcglobal.net.

KINDERGARTEN SIGN UP FOR 2012—2013
If you have a sibling who will be starting kindergarten this August—PLEASE make sure you put your child on the waiting list. You have until February 1st to get them on the list. If they are not on the list—we may not have a spot available for them. If you are not sure if they are on the list—give Carol a call at 793-5995.

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The holidays are in full swing, and we all know how busy it is during the next few weeks. I hope that your family has been able to set aside some time to enjoy each other. Here is a little quiz from our website:

Do you celebrate the winter holidays in ways that are educational? Take this quiz to find out. Answer “True” or “False” to the following statements:
When it comes to celebrating the holidays with my child, I:

___1. Find ways to emphasize reading, whether it’s by sharing stories or by giving special books as gifts.
___2. Encouraging to make—not buy—presents for others. This allows my child to use artistic skills.
___3. Play enriching music throughout the day.
___4. Try to go to at least one live performance.
___5. Visit the library so we can learn more about the origin of the holidays we’re celebrating.

How did you do?

If you answered mostly “True,” you really find creative ways to enrich your child during the holidays. Mostly “False”? Try some ideas from the quiz.

Toys for Tots
The Student Council is collecting unwrapped new toys for the Toys for Tots this year. Your donation can be left in the box in the lobby.

Used Toys and Books
The Girl Scouts are collecting gently used toys and books for children who may not have any holiday presents. The collection box is in the Community Room.

Giving Tree
The PTCC (Reach’m) have put up a Giving Tree in the front lobby. Please stop and see if there is something you might purchase for one of our teachers this holiday season.

Holiday Program
Mr. Martin has been working with our children to produce another wonderful holiday program. Our program will be held at the Centennial Hall at Augustana beginning at 6:30 p.m. Front Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. Please use only these doors! Side doors are NOT to be used! No one is allowed in the auditorium until 6:00 p.m. Please respect the Augustana College rules!

Early Outs
We will have early outs at 2:10 on December 20, 21 and 22. Our last day this semester is December 22nd. School will resume on January 5, 2011.

Calendar Updates
Be sure to visit our website and view our calendar. We make every attempt to keep our calendar current. If you have not signed up for the hotline, please go to our website and click on the School Links button, drop down to the Email hotline and follow the directions.

REMINDERS

• When you leave the parking lot you are to turn right down the hill to 20th St.We will drop off and pick up at the front door during inclement weather.
• Cell phone should NEVER be used in a school speed zone. The new Illinois Driving Law States: “A person, regardless of age, may not use a wireless telephone at anytime while operating a motor vehicle on a roadway in a school speed zone.”

Yours in education,

RuthAnn Tobey-Brown, Ed.D.

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to September! We are already to midterms, can you believe it? We have some great things coming up this month both during the school day and evening.

Labor Day Parade
Thank you to all who helped build the great float, supplied candy or walked in the parade. The weather was an issue yesterday morning, but it all worked out and we had a nice turn out and lots of fun representing our school.

Author! Author!
Thanks to our PTCC, on Wednesday, September 8th we will have the honor of hosting an author in our school all day. Julia Cook will be presenting to our 3-6 graders in the morning followed by questions and answers, the K-2 will have her visit with them in the afternoon. Julia’s books will be for sale during her visit. Julia will also have an evening presentation for families on Thursday, September 9th from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in our cafeteria. We hope that you can come!

PTCC Annual Meeting
The Parent Teacher Community Connection (PTCC) will have its annual meeting on Tuesday, September 14th at 7:00 in our school cafeteria. Child care will be available.

Report Cards
This year our school district is introducing a new report card. We will be having a parent meeting following the PTCC annual meeting at 7:00. This will be an opportunity to see what the new report card contains prior to parent teacher conferences. The presentation will be followed by question and answer time.

Walk-a-thon
PTCC is organizing a Walk-a-thon for September 24th, this is their first fund raiser for the year. The funds will go toward general fund and outdoor learning. If you would like to help out please contact Marji Boeye mboeye@mchsi.com or Hope McAtee hopemcatee@gmail.com.

Landscape Committee
The landscape committee has done a beautiful job at our street entrance. Thanks for their hard work and all of you who were able to donate plants. It looks absolutely wonderful!

Parent Teacher Conferences
This year the conferences will be student led. We will offer crafts during that time for siblings so that each child can direct their own conference and set goals for next quarter. A reminder: if you can’t make your conference let us know so we can reschedule.

Your partner in education,

Dr. Ruth Ann Tobey-Brown,
Principal

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to a great school year! We look forward to working with you this year. We have a great team at Rock Island Center for Math and Science who have worked hard this summer to be ready for the school year. Your child’s teacher will be sending home a communication folder home each Monday. In this folder there are important messages from the teacher and the office. We will strive to send most communication on Monday, so please take time to look over the contents of that folder.

Calendar

At the beginning of the month we will send home a calendar for your refrigerator. We will be putting in our early out days, ½ day in-service days and upcoming events. This will be a valuable tool for you and your family. We will also send a calendar update in the middle of the month.

Back to School Night

On Tuesday, August 10th, we will have our back to school night. At 5:00 we will dedicate Robinson Woods in our new amphitheater followed by our back to school night.

Teachers will have three presentations one at 5:30, one at 6:00 and the last one at 6:30, that way if you have a child in 3rd grade and 1st grade you can make it to both presentations. Mr. K and I will be going over our handbook in the cafeteria; we will follow the same schedule as the teachers. At Back to School Night the teachers will be reviewing expectations with you, 3-6 grade students may want to attend. We are going to have child care in the cafeteria for our K-2 students. We hope that you can make this important night.

Early Out Days

On Wednesdays we will have early outs so that teachers can have educational meetings. The students will be dismissed at 2:10.

Four times this year we have ½ day in-service training and students will be dismissed at 11:45. Lunch is served to bus students only. Our first ½ day in-service is August 27.

Family Night

Our first family night will be coming up on August 24th from 5:30-7:00. At 5:30 we will serve a free supper to all attendees then the Bettendorf Family Museum will be presenting Flight Night. We hope you can come for this fun night!

PTCC

Our parent board meets once a month to discuss ways to make our school better for our kids. Many committees are formed in order to implement many activities throughout the year. Their will be a sign up for committees at the Back to School night. We hope that you will be able to help out this year.

Book Fair

The book fair will be held the week of August 23. This is an important fund raiser for our library and activities. In the past we have purchased books for the library, shelving and our “reading rug”.

E-Mail

If you have access to the internet please sign up for the parent hotline. Go to our website and click on School Links, drop down to E-mail hotline and sign up for RICMS. It is a great way to get communication from the school and the district.

Don’t hesitate to contact the school if you have any questions or concerns.  The school phone number is 793-5995.

Many exciting activities are coming up at the Rock Island Center for Math & Science:

Book Fair at Audubon
Begins Monday, May 3 through Thursday, May 6th.  Tuesday the book fair will be open until 6:00 p.m.

Carnival
The carnival committee has been working hard this year to plan a fun and exciting night. This year the name of the carnival is “World of Fun” which was named by Tariq Skinner. The festivities will be held at the Horace Mann Campus May 7 beginning at 5:30 p.m. There will be a number of baskets and items up for raffle. A great carnival with wonderful food is planned for all!

Registration for 1st through 6th grade
Tuesday, May 11 @ Martin Luther King Center, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 12 @ Horace Mann Campus, 2:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Please plan to attend on one of these nights – these dates will be the only times to register for next year.

Book Brigade May 24
Have you heard of a bucket brigade? RICMS will be having a book brigade from the Audubon Campus to the new school! But we will need you help and any community members who would like to join us.  We will begin lining the streets from door to door with all our students and families at 9:30 (we will bus the Horace Mann campus students over to the new building) and we will pass some of our books from our old library to the new.  This will be a beautiful ceremony which will begin some of the other activities at our new building. Rain date will be May 25^th. We will be sending home reminders before the time.

Lunch on the Lawn
On May 27^th we will have lunch for on the lawn (K-6) on the Horace Mann Campus.  We will be grilling for the students, but parents can bring lunches and join their children for lunch on the lawn and enjoy the music of the Edison Jazz Band.  There will be no classes at  the Audubon site, all of the students will be transported to the Horace Mann campus. If you drop your children off at school, we will ask that all children be dropped off at the Horace Mann site.  Breakfast will be served for all at the Horace Mann site.  We will be starting at 8:20 that day and dismissing at 2:10. We will be sending out more information on arrival and departure in the next few weeks.  We hope you will be able to attend this great day.

Ribbon Cutting and Building Dedication
A ribbon cutting and building dedication for the new Center for Math & Science building will be held on May 27^th at 3:30.  We hope that you will be able to attend the lunch on the lawn and then go to the ribbon cutting.

Sixth Grade Exiting
We will have our 6^th grade exiting at the new building this year.  The festivities will begin at 6:00 p.m. on June 1.