Happy Thanksgiving

The Symmes Elementary staff wishes all of our families a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We are so thankful for all
of you!

Reporting Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying Incidences

Reporting Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying Incidences

In an ongoing effort to provide a safe learning environment, Sycamore is requesting parents, students, and staff to inform administration (or whoever) of any perceived incidences of harassment, intimidation, or bullying.

Per the Sycamore Board of Education policy JFCF, harassment, intimidation, and bullying are defined as any provoked and intentional written, verbal, electronic or physical act that a student has exhibited toward another particular student more than once and the behavior both:

1. causes mental or physical harm to the other student; and
2. is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for the other student.

To view the complete policy, visit www.sycamoreschools.org, under the Board of Education tab, scroll down to “Policies”, search for policy “JFCF”.

Sycamore will do everything possible to address any complaints of harassment, intimidation, and bullying.  We encourage students, staff, parents, and community members to report this type of behavior to the district if help is needed to solve a problem.

To report an incident of harassment, intimidation, and bullying,

1. Go to the website, www.sycamoreschools.org
2. Under the tab “Forms”, scroll down until you see the Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying Incident Reporting Form for the individual schools.
3. Fill the form on-line and submit it electronically.
4. Hard copies of this form are available in each of the schools.

Complete the hard copy of the report form and turn it into the building principal.

The building principal or designee will promptly investigate all reported incidences.

It is difficult to investigate reported incidences that are anonymously submitted.  However, every effort will be made to maintain the confidentiality of the reporter.  Deliberate false reporting of harassment, intimidation, and bullying is prohibited.

Cook's Night Off!

Print off this flyer and take it with you to Jet's!!  Out PTO will get 30% of the profit!

Sycamore GEAR

Sycamore GEAR

Coffee and Conversation

 
Join us as our District Media Specialists share about the great resources available in our school Media Centers across the District. 

We are also having a book exchange,  If you have children or teen books to exchange, please bring them along.

The event will be held at the UC Wing at Blue Ash Elementary School on Friday, Nov. 20 at 9:30 a.m.

Sponsored by Gifted Education, Advocacy and Resources

www.facebook.com/SycamoreGEAR              www.SycamoreGEAR.org

Montgomery Woman's Club Creative Writing Contest

It's time again for the Montgomery Woman's Club Creative Writing Contest! Every year Symmes Elementary has winners in the contest!  We hope to see many entries again this year.  The guidelines for the contest are as follows:

Short Stories:  Limited to 2000 words

Poetry:  Minimum 8 lines
              Maximum 50 lines

We will collect the entries in the office and deliver them to Montgomery Woman's Club.

Headings must be on the upper right corner of the front page and have the following:

Name, Address, Phone Number, School, Grade & Teacher

The deadline for entry is December 18, 2015 by 2:00 p.m.

This year parents must sign a waiver.  If your child enters the contest, please ask your child's teacher for the waiver.  

COSI comes to Symmes!

A special thanks to Megan Boni and all the volunteer helpers, moms, dads, grandparents and all the Sycamore High School students, who came to Symmes Elementary on Tuesday to help with COSI.



                                                     The children learned about ecology.

Eagles use their talons to survive.

Students like to explore!

Each class had time to explore each station.

Our volunteers were trained to explain the ecology concepts to the kids.

NOVEMBER PTO MEETING

Don't forget to attend our next PTO meeting, this Thursday, November 12, 2015!  We will have a special guest speaker, Michael Miller, Direction of Transportation!  If you have any questions or concerns about our school buses, please come to hear Mr. Miller.  As always, babysitting is provided. The meeting starts at 9:30 in our Multi-Purpose Room.

BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION

November Box Tops Collection

CHALLENGE

                                          

The class with the most box top label submissions will win a DANCE  Party during recess!

                                                                       

Send in all Box Tops labels to your classroom teacher by November  30^th in order to be eligible.

Congratulations to Mrs. Wuebbolt’s room for winning the September/October challenge.  Her class enjoyed a frozen sweet treat for bringing in the most Box Tops during our first challenge.

                                                                         

COOKIE DOUGH DISTRIBUTION

Cough Dough distribution day is only a week away!  Won’t you please consider volunteering an hour of your time?

When:  Friday, November 13th between 1:30-6:30pm.

Where:  Symmes Cafeteria

Your kids are welcome to join you.  : )

We could really use your help, especially from 3:30pm-6:30pm.  If you’ve already signed up —> THANK YOU SO MUCH!  Your support to Symmes PTO is very much appreciated.

Sign up for a spot on SignUpGenius:  http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0b44aaad2baa8-cookie1

Questions?  Contact Jackie at jakey_07@yahoo.com or call (513) 288.3636

ANNOUNCEMENT OF CogAT TESTING

All 2nd graders will take the Cognitive Ability Test (CogAT) the week of December 7, 2015, during the school day. For those students in the other grades, you may request that your child participate in this round of testing. This is in accordance with HB 282, which requires that school districts provide two opportunities for testing to identify students as gifted. PLEASE NOTE THAT SCORES ON KINDERGARTEN and FIRST GRADE TESTS WILL NOT BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION FOR PULL-OUT GIFTED SERVICES.

Parents of 2nd graders do NOT need to request testing since it is an automatic process. However, if your child is not in 2nd grade and you would like to have your child participate in the December administration of the CogAT, use the below link to request testing. In order to decrease disruption to your child's instruction, this testing opportunity will take place on Saturday, December 5, at Maple Dale Elementary from 9:00 until 11:30.  Please note that it is the parents' responsibility to provide transportation to and from Maple Dale.

Click here to request CogAT Testing for December 2015

SYCAMORE JUNIOR HIGH PERFORMANCE SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK LIVE! JR.

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCKLIVE! Jr. A pop culture phenomenon comes to the musical stage! The Emmy Award-winning 1970s Saturday morning cartoon series that taught history, grammar, math, science and politics through clever, tuneful songs is not only making a small-screen comeback, instructing a whole new generation with tunes like "Conjunction Junction" and "Just a Bill", it’s lighting up stages everywhere, including our own SYCAMORE JUNIOR HIGH!  When:  Thursday and Friday, November 12 & 13 @  7:00 pm  (approx 60 min run time) Where:  Sycamore Junior High School Auditorium, 5757 Cooper Rd.;  513-686-1760 Tickets:  $10 each.  Purchase at lunch at SJH Nov 10-13 or at the door the nights of the performances beginning at 6pm.  General Admission.   Doors open at 6:30 pm.

Symmes gets a Tower Garden!

This month, Symmes Elementary students welcomed the Tower Garden into their school.  It may not look like your traditional garden… because it ISN’T a traditional garden!  Developed by Tim Blank, a former Chief Horticulterist with Disney’s “The Land” exhibit at Epcot, the Tower Garden is an aeroponic (meaning “air” and “water”) system.  You won’t find any weeds in the Tower Garden because there isn’t any dirt.  And those bright lights you see surrounding the Tower Garden are special bulbs that act like the sun’s rays, providing nourishment to the plants that will grow inside the school all winter long.  Right now, Mrs. Paterson and the Wellness Committee are working with students to grow tomatoes, lettuce, kale, chive, cilantro, green and red peppers, and basil.

Students will get the chance to grow (and taste) plants like lettuce, kale, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, celery, and herbs.  In addition, students will learn about plants, their growth cycles, their root systems, and so much more!  The critters in Mrs. Paterson’s room are already enjoying some fresh kale in their diets.  While we all get used to how to best grow our plants on the Tower Garden, let’s all remember to use gentle hands as we check out what’s growing.

The Tower Garden is located right outside the 3rd grade hallway, so stop by to see it the next time you visit Symmes Elementary.

Thanks to the Symmes PTO for their generous support of the Tower Garden at Symmes!