DOUGLAS DRAGONEER

Upcoming Events

Oct. 28 Picture day

Oct. 29 End of Dragon Fire
Oct. 30 Teacher Workday ~ No

School
Nov. 10 PTA Mtg & Art's Night ~

                  6:00pm
Nov. 11       No School
Nov. 22       Wake PTA 5k Run
Nov. 25-27 No School

Attention Parents:

Because Douglas Elementary is a Title I School, I am required to keep you informed of the Highly Qualified status of our teachers and assistants and to let you know you have the right to request this status at any time. For teachers and assistants to be Highly Qualified, they must meet the educational criteria set by the federal government. All teachers and assistants at Douglas must meet these criteria and are Highly Qualified. Questions, please contact me. Thank you, Dr. Spivey

DRAGONFIRE Campaign – Please Contribute

Two years ago, Dr. Spivey KISSED A PIG! Last year, she was on the ROOF! What will she do this year? A hint…it has to do with CHICKEN…..hmmmmm…….

Only TEN days left to reach our goal for the DragonFire campaign. These funds are used to support our teachers and staff with additional funds and supplies to supplement the curriculum at school. We’re at 65% right now and the kids are excited to find out what crazy antics Mr. D and Dr. Spivey are up to. Remember, all donations are important, whether it’s $5 or $100. This fundraiser is crucial to our school and ensures that important programs will take place this year.

Each grade is competing for the most donations. Who’s winning? Kindergarten, but not by much! The grade that wins gets a party in the lunchroom….thanks for helping us make Douglas the best it can be for our kids!

Are you being well informed?

One of the benefits of being a Douglas PTA member is receiving a weekly newsletter through your email. This newsletter keeps you up to date on all the things happening at Douglas and important information that pertains to the PTA. However, we have noticed over that last month only about half of the newsletter emails are being opened. The Board is interested in finding out if this is because we don’t have correct email addresses and need to check with our members that we are sending the newsletter to the proper email account or if it is because some of our members do not find this a beneficial form of communication. We only want to spend time on projects and tasks that members are interested in and find helpful. If this weekly newsletter is not reaching your inbox each week, please let us know and we will check your address. If you feel this form of communication is no longer needed or could be improved upon, we also want to hear from you! Please send me an email at sbaggett@nc.rr.com.

DOUGLAS SPIRIT WEEK: October 26-29th. Be sure to show your spirit EVERY DAY!!!
Monday: Backwards Day: wear everything backwards or inside out (or as much as you can!)
Tuesday: Hat Day
Wednesday: Pajama Day: try to stay awake! (Picture day…so wear nice clothes and pj’s to change into if you’d like)
Thursday: Wacky/Tacky Day: wear your craziest outfit!!

THANK YOU ALL!

The PTA wants to say a great BIG thank you for helping make our program, Dinner and A Good Book, a huge success. A great number of Douglas families attended the Book Fair, along with the Spaghetti Dinner and Reading Program on October 13. It would not have been successful without all of our wonderful volunteers - parents, teachers and staff. We truly appreciate your time and commitment to your Douglas community. We look forward to more exciting programs throughout this school year!

Jenny Sturm and Garnett Webb

ANNOUNCING: A NEW DOUGLAS CLUB!!

Douglas welcomes the Explorers’ Club! This is a new club for 1stand 2nd graders offered by parent, Sue Barnett. Because we all have different interests, we are going to do lots of different stuff. We may have a pirate’s treasure hunt, enjoy a tea party, try our hands at sewing, create fairy and elf houses, play math games or try some baking. We might even explore composting if we are worm friendly. As we get to know each other, we will figure out what we are going to explore next. The Explorer's Club will meet on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday mornings through winter break (10/27, 11/10, 11/24 and 12/8) from 8-8:45am. To join, please fill out a permission form which can be found in the office. Membership is limited to ten so sign up soon!

Healthy Snacks

Please remember that all snacks sent and brought in for the children should be “Healthy Choices”, such as fruits, cheeses, and pretzels. Healthy choices should also be used for special school and personal celebrations during the school day. Providing healthy choices is in support of our commitment to children’s wellness and healthy living and is in alignment with our WCPSS Policies #5120. Your child’s teacher will be happy to work with you on options for personal celebrations. Example: donating a book in your child’s name. Thank you for your support.

Student Directories
Our Douglas student directories have been printed and will hopefully be going out w/in the next week. We appreciate your patience with this. Unfortunately due to an error by the printer, the directories do not look as professional as we would have liked them to be. As 650 directories have been printed with over 20 pages each, I hesitate asking them to reprint them and waste all of that paper. I hope you understand this decision. A huge thank you goes out to Alesia Core and Crista McKenzie for their hard work at producing this directory. Thanks again!

Mandy Houghton, PTA President

RESPECT AND RESPONSIBIITY IN THE

LIBRARY
Studies show the more students check out books, the more they read and the better their achievements in school? To support student reading and achievement, the Media Center has changed its circulation limits for students. Students in grades 1-5 are now allowed to check out as many books as they can be responsible for. This is a different number for each student. Each class has met, or will be meeting, with Mrs. Bussell for a discussion about being responsible for a reasonable number of library books. They discussed what a "reasonable" number would be for each class and student, as well as the importance of selecting at least one book that is "just right" for their reading level. Students signed the "We are RESPONSIBLE for all of our books" banner in the Media Center, indicating the number of books for which they are going to be responsible.

Library books may be checked out for one week. After one week, they are overdue and should be returned or renewed. Students with 0-1 book overdue may continue to check out. Students with 2 or more overdue books will not be able to check out until they have brought some of their books back. This overdue limit is our effort to help students be responsible.

Some students have chosen to be responsible for the number of books they have been used to, and others have chosen to be responsible for additional books. Students will have an opportunity to increase their number of books in a few months after they have had time to practice being responsible for the additional books they are now getting. Our students are excited and so are we!

Questions? Comments? See Mrs. Bussell in the Media Center or email her at ebussell@wcpss.net

Week of October 26 – November 6