Kindergarten Registration Need to Happen

If you were not able to join us for Kindergarten Registraiton last week at Brookside Education Center, stop into the office at Hawthorne anytime and we'll be happy to get your child registered for next year's class.  If you know of anyone who needs to get their child registered, please pass this information onto them.

Kindergarten Registration

Kindergarten registration is underway.  We will be hosting registration at Brookside on March 1st from 9-11am and also Thursday evening from 5-7pm.  We look forward to the new year and seeing your student in our school.  When you come to register, you will want to be sure you have an updated copy of your child's immunization records and birth certificate.  In addition, you will be asked to register in the school attendance area that you currently reside.  If there are changes, that information will be communicated sometime in May.

Hawthorne Sixth Grader is Alternate to Southeast MN Final Spelling Competition

Hawthorne sixth grader, Katie Boettcher, took first place in our school spelling competition. She then moved on to take first place in the district spelling competition against fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth graders.  She then went on to compete against students throughout southern Minnesota on February 15 in Rochester.  Against 31 other students, Katie came in seventh place which placed her as the alternate to move on to the Southeast Minnesota Final. Katie will step in if one of the other six finalist is not able to compete for any reason.

Katie has represented herself, her family, the district and Hawthorne School extremely well.  We are so proud of her.  CONGRATULATIONS, KATIE!!!!!

I just wanted to add a huge Thank You to our awesome Hawthorne PTO.  It was our PTO organization that made it possible for Gary Dulabaum to be an artist in residence at Hawthorne Elementary for I Love to Read Month.  Thank you to all our students for their efforts in fundraising and to our parents for the assistance in the fund raising efforts.  This was one of the experiences that was presented to the Hawthorne students as a result of your fundraising efforts.  Thanks you so much, everyone!!!

Hawthorne Students are Reading Rock Stars

It's been an exciting week at Hawthorne with author and artist, Gary Dulabaum.  He has worked with our K-6 students to celebrate songs, poetry and the joy of reading and writing. As an educational consultant, author and performing artist, Gary has visited several thousand schools across the nation and beyond as well as being a keynote and presenting at many local, state, regional and national conferences. 

Students worked with Mr. Dulabaum to create a song for each grade level.  His songs have a message for children always focusing on the theme of a love of reading. We will enjoy a school wide assembly at 1:50 on Thursday, February 25, when all students and staff will celebrate our 3 days with Mr. Dulabaum.

I'd like to extend a special "THANK YOU" to Mrs. Maurna Rome for all of her efforts to coordinate our "Be a Reading Rockstar" theme for the month.  Mrs. Rome made all the necessary connections and contact  so Mr. Dulabaum could impact and influence the lives of our Hawthorne students during I Love to Read Month.

The weather continues to present struggles for school.  Conferences that were schedule for Monday, January 31st will move to Monday, February 7, 2011.  We hope the weather will cooperate with us and the conferences scheduled for the end of the week can be held as scheduled. 

I Love to Read Month
As we transition into the month of February we begin the celebration of I Love to Read Month. Hawthorne's theme this year is "READING ROCKS-Be a Reading Rockstar!  Your child has received bookmarks to complete for minutes read.  He/She can enter the completed bookmarks into a drawing.  There will be a READING ROCKSTAR chosen from every classroom.  The winning "ROCKSTARS" will win a special prize bag with lots of cool rockstar stuff, eat lunch with our guest author/musician, Gary Dulabaum, and be featured in the all school concert with Gary on Thursday, Feb 24th.  The more a child reads, the more chances he/she has to be a READING ROCKSTAR!  The goal is for each student to read at least 300 minutes AT HOME from February 1st-21st. 

Who is Gary Dulabaum?
We are excited to bring guest author/musician, Gary Dulabaum to Hawthorne on February 22-24 from Sourth Burlington, Vermont.   According to Gary's website, Gary wears many hats: author, songwriter, educator, poet, recording artist and musician.  Gary knows that music in the classroom can help children improve their writing skills, he also knows the power of creation and language development and that music, reading and writing have a direct link based on rhythmic patterns.

We are already midway through our school year. Students in grade K-6 are all completing their AIMSweb winter benchmarks.  Students in grade 2-6 are also taking their NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (Or MAP test) in both reading and math.  This is an opportunity for your child;s teacher the check yearly progress.  As parents you will received the results of these assessments/benchmarks duirng your upcoing schedule conferences.   As we gather and compile this winter data, the Hawthorne teaching staff works with an outside consultant as part of our AYP plan.  She assists the teachers in analyzing the student data to best plan for each of the students.