RIDGECREST ROAR November 12, 2023
Good evening Ridgecrest families,
What a wonderful time we had at Ridgecrest last week. We had great fun and excitement as students voted for their favorite food, hotdogs or hamburgers, while supporting our families with donations. We also celebrated our veterans with a community effort. We heard from service members, families of service members, learned about our military and service opportunities, and highlighted the musical talents of our own teachers and choir. Thank you to our PTA and their work to make this all happen. It was a great week to be a Ridgecrest Tiger.
School Information
DLI – Lottery Applications Due 11/21. Ridgecrest has a fantastic Chinese Dual Language program, as many of you know. We take applications during October and November for entrance into this program for students who will be in first grade next school year. Please help us to spread the word. The application deadline is quickly approaching. To apply for the lottery, click this link. I have also attached a flier with more information attached.
Million Minutes Reading Challenge – We are under way with our reading challenge! Please remember the goal of this challenge is to increase the time every student spends reading because it makes a tremendous difference for the long term success of children. One thing to clarify is that although the challenge is called the Million Minute Reading Challenge we are not asking everyone to count every minute spent reading. If your child has read 20 minutes or more in a day, note that on their calendar. We will be tracking how many students have met the goal of 20 minutes or more, not the actual minutes spent reading. If every student is reading for 20 minutes 5 days a week, we will surpass the “Million Minute” mark in 5 months. We want this to be simple and fun for everyone. To help, we will be sharing resources and suggestions regularly. Below are some reading sites you could consider if your child needs a book recommendation:
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Spaghetti Book Club A site designed by kids for kids where kids recommend books they have read
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Kids Book Shelf/ Recommendations for books by leading publishers; kid-friendly and very interactive
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Read Kiddo Read! James Patterson started this site to encourage the love of reading in children. Find book recommendations, reading guides, fun quizzes, and more.
Drop off and pick up – Updates Let’s celebrate! I regularly time how long it takes us to get all students picked up at the end of the day. It hasn’t taken longer than 12 minutes so far this year and is often closer to 10. This is a credit to the patience and care of drivers and their willingness to adhere to our drop off procedures. I know this can be a frustrating time of day and I hope it helps to know that we get it done pretty quickly. Thank you for planning that 10 – 12 minutes into your schedule so that we can keep all our children safe.
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We still need to have all cars moving forward as far as possible before having children get in and out quickly. Please do not stop to let your child out near their particular door. This slows down the entire line of cars. Your child will be lining up outside so walking for an extra minute to get to their area does not make a difference for them. However, making sure they have appropriate layers to keep them warm will. Thank you!
Food Drive Request – We had a very successful food drive this past week. Thank you for helping to teach your children the importance of sharing what we can with others. We are now working to get these donations to families who will benefit from them. If your family would like to receive one of our care packages, please reach out to our front office at (801) 826-9250 and we would be happy to arrange that with you.
Lost Coats – We have many nice new coats that are in our lost and found. If your child is missing their coat, will you please come to collect it and help us by writing your child’s name on the coat so we can help to return it to you if it becomes lost again.
STEAM Squad – We are so excited to announce that STEAM Squad is starting at our school for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students! The purpose of our STEAM Squad is to provide a fun, engaging environment for students to learn computer science, coding, and other technology skills. It will run for two 8-week sessions in the mornings 8:10-8:40 AM on either Tuesday or Thursday. Anyone who wants to participate will need to fill out the online application found here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdIpfdUl0KAs0YSO-8eHRLL0bGgo_w-nciFQntFLYRyQxm35w/viewform?usp=sf_link Applications are due November 17th.
The facilitator is our STEM teacher, Mrs. Alicia Freeman. Please contact her with any questions, alicia.freeman@canyonsdistrict.org
From the PTA:
Thank you for all the support with our food drive this last week. We had a competition between hamburgers and hot dogs. I thought the hot dogs would win, but hamburgers pulled ahead. This food will go to help those in our school community. We are so grateful for all that was brought in.
Our Veterans Day assembly was awesome! The choir did an amazing job with their songs. A big thanks to all the veterans that came to be a part of it and for their service. Also thanks to Mrs. White and Mrs. Longhurst for singing the National Anthem.
Community Night- We have a community night planned this Wednesday with Tokyo Teriyaki. Come grab dinner and support our school and a local business!
Our next PTA meeting will be tomorrow, Monday November 13th at noon in the library conference room. We would love for anyone that wants to come and join in.
Thanks!
Suzy Doom
PTA President
DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR:
November
13 PTA Meeting
15 Community Night – Tokyo Teriyaki
21 Day of Play
22-24 Thanksgiving Break
-Sara
Sara Allen
Principal, Ridgecrest Elementary School
(801) 826-9250
Sara.Allen@canyonsdistrict.org
