Good Afternoon Yealey Families,

What a fun filled week of learning and celebrating learning we have had here!  Thank you to everyone who came out for our Evening With The Arts event.  The performances were awesome and the artwork was amazing.  Your children really out did themselves!  And so did our specials teachers!  Thank you to them  for all the work that went into helping our kids showcase their work.

We have completed our winter STAR benchmark this week.  So far my analysis of these scores looks really good.  I am very impressed with the progress the students have made.  I am excited to see how far they will go!  I have had new readers in my office this week proudly reading books to me and I love that!  What an exciting moment in their life when they realize they can read a book all by themselves.  We really do have the best, hardest working students and teachers here at Yealey!  I am a very lucky and grateful principal!

The PTA finished up their Santa Shop this week and I think you will have some very nice surprises under your tree.  I hope you enjoy them as much as the kids have enjoyed having their own special gifts to give.  The PTA appreciates your support.  We sent home as much of the fundraising items as we could with the students this week.  If you still have not picked yours up, please do so before the break.

I will probably not update the blog again until 2019. Next week we have school Monday - Wednesday and we come back to school on Thursday January 3rd.  I hope you all have a great break and can fill the days with quality together with family and friends. 

Happy Holidays!
Mrs. Turner
principal

Good Afternoon Yealey Families,
I hope everyone had a great week.  We have had lots of learning here at Yealey.  I had a great week listening to children read, watching them work on communication skills, and, my favorite, working on their math skills! 
We had a great Missoula Theater performance last Friday evening.  If you weren't able to come, the show is on our Youtube channel.  Check out our Facebook and Twitter feeds for links to the show.  It was really good!
The chorus took a field trip around Florence this week spreading holiday cheer.  They did a great job and represented Yealey well! Pictures from the trip are on our social media.
PTA had the fundraiser pick up this week.  If you did not pick up your items, please do so asap.
Next week is Santa shop, look for information from your child's teacher about shopping days and times. 
Tomorrow our Lego League jr team will compete in the Lego Competition.  Good luck to everyone involved!
Have a great weekend everyone!  See you next week!
Mrs. Turner
principal

Hello Yealey Families,
I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving break.  We came back to a very busy schedule here at Yealey.  Missoula Theater has been here all week after school for the students who signed up to participate in this program and they were here this afternoon to do a whole school assembly.  I am really looking forward to the play this evening and would encourage anyone who can to come and see it.  It begins at 8:00 and costs just $5 per family to attend.  Every play they have done here has just been amazing!
All students should have written their Wildly Important Goal by now either individually or as a class.  Ask your child what they hope to accomplish as a writer this year.  I am very excited to see the progress they will all make. 
We have lots of fun activities coming up over the next few weeks leading up to our Winter Break.  Be sure to check the calendar, watch for info from teachers, and check out our social media to stay up on all the happenings!
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
See you in December!
Mrs. Turner
principal

Hi Yealey Families,

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving already.  This school year is going so fast!  We have had a great week here at Yealey.  This week we had our first, Drop Everything and Write Time.  I surprised the school by getting on the announcements and asking every person in the school to stop what they were doing and write for 10 minutes telling me what their favorite dessert is.  We are going to do this several times this school year.  It seemed to go very well and I was excited to run into a student outside of school and have him excitedly come and tell me about what he wrote about that day!

I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend and Thanksgiving holiday!  I know in my family of big eaters, it's one of the favorite days of the year!

See you next week!
Mrs. Turner
principal

Good Afternoon Yealey Families,

I hope you've had a great week.  We have had lots of exciting things happening here at school.  Please check out this video for a look at this month's Boone County School's Break the Mold winner, Robin Mullins.  We are very happy that Mrs. Mullins was recognized for the great job that she does everyday! https://youtu.be/r9MGSorqN2A

Thank you to everyone who attended our Veteran's Day program today or who sent in candy for our troops.  It was a great event.  I was so proud of our students for leading the event and helping us honor our Veteran's. 

Over the next couple of weeks our students should be writing Wildly Important Goals for themselves around writing.  Be sure to ask you child what their goal is and more importantly how they plan to reach it. 

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend with family and friends. 

See you next week.
Mrs. Turner
principal

Hi Yealey Families,

What a fun week it's been here at Yealey!  Loved seeing all the kids come dressed in costumes showing their creativity and personalities on Wednesday.  Thanks to everyone who came up and cheered them on during the parade. 

Our 2nd grade is in need of some chapter books to restock our Bobcat Book Cafe. If you have any chapters books that are in good shape and that you would be willing to donate, please send them in to Mrs. Beasley.

Next week we have no school on Tuesday, November 6th for election day.  There was  a typo in the agenda book that listed the 9th as our day off but it is the 6th. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend with family and friends.  See you next week!

Mrs. Turner
principal

Good Afternoon Yealey Families,

I hope you've had a great week.  We have been very busy here.  Fifth grade attended the symphony and Kindergarten & Preschool visited the farm.  There were lots of cute pictures taken while we were out and about so be sure to check all those out on our social media.  The buttons in this blog are live links to our social media feeds if you're not already a follower.  Following us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are great ways to "see" your children in action while they are here. I have had a lot of fun this week working with students on math story problems.  I love to see their ideas and watch light-bulbs go on!  I've also been impressed this week with the amount of students who are approaching me and Mrs. Hiatt about ideas they have for our school.  We are really starting to develop leaders here!

Next week we will have our annual costume parade on October 31st.  The parade will begin at 9:15 and parents who would like to attend should line the sidewalks between the canopy and gym doors.  If the weather cooperates, there will be no need for parents to enter the building to view the parade.  Most years this has worked out perfectly!  But, last year, rain got in the way, so we paraded inside the building.  If we do move the parade inside, parents please arrive around 9:00 so you can sign in at the gym to view the parade from the bleachers.  We will parade through the school and across the stage.  We will only move the parade inside if the weather is too wet or cold to stay outside.  Right now the forecast says rain is likely so fingers crossed this changes!

Thank you to everyone who attended and volunteered to make our Fall Festival a success. And, to all the parents who attended conferences this week. It's great to have so much family and community support of our school!

I hope you all have a great weekend spending time with family and friends.  Good luck to our 5th graders who are participating in the PeeWee Super Bowl this weekend! See you next week!

Mrs. Turner
principal

Hi Yealey Families,

It has been a great, fast week here.  I have loved being in classrooms seeing kids learn to decode and read new words.  I also spent time with a class analyzing character traits and seeing how they searched for text evidence to support their thinking.  It's always fun to be a part of the learning process!

Thank you to all the families who came in for conferences on Thursday night.  Hopefully we will see everyone else this Wednesday for our next conference night.

On Tuesday, the teachers worked with our Leader In Me coach to learn how to write Wildly Important Goals with our students.  This is a very exciting process.  Over the next few weeks all of our students should be making a Wildly Important Goal (WIG) for the progress that they hope to make in writing.  We are going to be working with all the students on writing to demonstrate learning.  So, we will really be focusing on the ability to communicate their thinking and to justify their answers.  We believe all the students will make growth in this area and  we are excited to see how far they will go!

I hope everyone is able to attend the PTA Fall Festival tonight.  I'm sure it will be a lot of fun.  I'm especially excited by the chili cook-off.  Good luck to all the participants! 

Have a fun, safe weekend!

Mrs. Turner
principal

Hi Yealey Families,

I hope everyone had a great Fall Break over the long weekend.  That was a great opportunity for us to practice Habit 7 - Sharpen the Say.  I hope you all had the chance to spend time doing activities that make you feel renewed!

This week we had a chance to spend a day with our Leader In Me coach reflecting on the progress we've made so far in the implementation of this program.  This program takes 3 - 5 years to fully implement and we are in year 2.  It was a great reflection and showed us that we've made amazing progress.  We are so excited not only by the events and more tangible things that have come from the program But, even more by the way we are seeing the program effect how our students behave, interact with others, and take responsibility for their education.  That is sometimes harder to see at a quick glance but having the chance to sit down and reflect on what we are seeing from the students showed us that they are really starting to own the 7 Habits.  As a parent, you can use these habits at home also.  If your child is struggling with getting their homework done, remind them of Habit 1 - Be Proactive and Habit 3 - Put First Things First.  If you are dealing with sibling or friends arguing, then remind them of Habit 5 - Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood and Habit 4 - Think Win-Win.

Next week we are going to spend another day with our coach working on writing Wildly Important Goals. We are very excited to get this process started with our kids!

Be sure to check out the links on the side to see updates from the PTA, the FRC, and the Guidance Counselors.  Red Ribbon week info is there.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and spends time with family and friends!

Mrs. Turner
principal

Hi Yealey Families!

We have had an awesome week here at Yealey.  I've seen 4th graders exploring the concept of energy.  There have been experiments happening in the hallway and then students excitedly telling me what they've learned about on their way to the buses!  I've also had the privilege of working with some students on early math concepts.  Seeing them grapple with the problems and then to see that light-bulb go on has been the highlight of my week!

This week the K-Prep scores were released and made public from last year's state testing.  The state has implemented a new system for analyzing our data this year.  This means that the scores we received do not directly correlate to scores we've received in the past.  But, we have been able to get some good feedback from these scores.  This year there are three categories that schools can be titled: CSI, TSI, and Other.  Basically, CSI and TSI schools received scores that show a certain area or areas that should be focused on.  "Other" schools received scores that show there is no certain area that the state is requiring a focus area for.  The "Other" schools can look at their data and decide what they think they should continue to work on.  So, basically, our goal was to be categorized as "Other" because that means we met the cut scores required by the state.  And, Yealey did meet those scores!  We are categorized as an "Other" school.  I know this sounds a little crazy but I think you should be proud of your students and their hard work for making us an "Other" school.  Of course, we are analyzing the scores, looking for our weakest areas, and making a plan for those.  We will always continue to grow and strive to get better for your kids!

I hope you have a great weekend!  Fall is in the air - enjoy it!

Mrs. Turner
Principal

Hi Yealey Families,
I hope you've had a good week at home. It has been so nice to see so many important women here this week enjoying breakfast with our students. We had 547 total people between the two mornings. With only about 550 students enrolled here, that is a really great turnout. Thank you for taking time out of your day to make the morning a little extra special! I'm sure the men are anxious for their turn. We will see you next Wednesday and Thursday morning. We also tried something a little different to help with our parking at the event. Anyone who was willing to drive their SUV or truck into the playground, we can park you there and open up about 15 more spots in the lot. Our teachers park at Lincoln Woods and are shuttled over to school. So, we are definitely trying all the creative ways we can to get us all here!

Thank you also to everyone who donated canned goods. I do not have total yet but I really appreciate your support of Go Pantry. Go Pantry works with our FRC to help many of our families.

If you scroll to the bottom of the blog, you will see a calendar of events. We will work to keep it updated each week. There was one date that was a typo in our agenda book that I just caught this week. In November, we are off the 6th not the 9th. We are off on Tuesday for election day since most of the schools serve as polling places. We are NOT off on Friday of that week. I'm sorry if this has caused any confusion.
I hope you enjoy the weekend and the first official day of Fall. I'm still hopeful that we hold on to summer weather for a little longer but that's a battle I lose every year.

See you next week!

Mrs. Turner
Principal

Hi Yealey Families -

I hope you've had an awesome week at home like we have here!  This week we held our first Bobcat Huddle.  We are going to gather the whole school together once a month to celebrate our 7 Habits and highlight some student leaders, we will say the pledge all together as a school, and we will just have a general celebration of being a Yealey Bobcat with our roll call.  This will be a quick 10 minute assembly that occurs from 8:40 - 8:50.  Our first one was a great success and the students really loved it!  I am excited to see this assembly grow and become a truly student led event!  Here is a link to a video to view the fun we had this week,  https://youtu.be/Sb9JmOEOfB4

A big thank you to St. E Hospital who donated backpacks and supplies for each classroom to have a stocked emergency backpack.   These backpacks came packed with band aids, gauze, wrap, tape, etc.  This was a very generous and much appreciated effort started by our custodian, Jim Boh's wife, Trish.  It's awesome the things that can happen when the Yealey Family works together!

Also, Delta Airlines donated blankets and Abiding Faith Lutheran Church donated band aids and alcohol wipes.  We so appreciate these community partnerships!

THANK YOU to all of these organizations!

Be sure to follow us on social media to see lots of pictures of all the learning that goes on here each day. The buttons on the side will take you directly to the pages.  I love checking in each night. Because no matter how hard I try, I can't be everywhere at once and there are so many great things going on here each day!

Have a great weekend with family and friends!

Mrs. Turner
Principal

Hi Yealey Families,

It's been a jam packed short week!  I wanted to share something new we are trying. We have started a new lunch schedule that we are very excited about.  It is based on research which looked at the benefits of having recess prior to lunch.  We started with just 4th and 5th grade at this point so that we can work out the logistics and get solid procedures in place before introducing it to the younger students.  Our goal is to get this down to the younger students by the end of the year.  Here are some of the highlights of having recess prior to students having lunch.  If you'd like more information please visit https://www.peacefulplaygrounds.com/download/lunch/benefits-recess-before-lunch-facts.pdf 

When recess is before lunch, research shows that students:

• waste less food (as much as from 27% to 40%)
• consume more calcium and protein as much as 35% 
• have decreased number of nurse visits for headaches and stomachaches after recess 
• are calmer and ready to get to work immediately instead of needing cool down time 
• have an increase in classroom time on task 
• have decreased discipline referrals 
• need less supervision in cafeteria 
• have fewer accidents during lunch break 
• litter less on school ground and inside the school

I will keep you updated on our progress with this schedule.  This does not take the place of the students' regular recess.  Students will just get some additional physical activity time!  We are hopeful that this is a win-win solution that will have a positive impact on many different things!

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!  We will be headed to Morehead for a college visit - just part of the senior year fun!

See you next week!

Mrs. Turner

Principal

Hi Yealey Families,

I hope you've had a great week.  We have had lots of exciting happenings here at school this week. We have this blog up and running.  Please notice that the Bobcat mascot and the Social Media Logos are all live links to our webpage or our social media pages.  Also, there are pages within the blog for PTA, Clinic, and FRC, just click those links on the side.  Hopefully, we will be able to load a calendar also that will have the year on it so that you can look ahead at future events past the next couple of weeks.  We are still working on that.

We completed our FAll STAR Benchmark tests.  I am happy to say that many of our kids are starting the year strong!  This is a nationally normed test - meaning that the results are compared to how students score across the nation.  You will receive individual results for your child soon.

We have almost completed our Leadership Rock Path.  Kindergarten is the only group of students left to decorate a rock.  Be sure to check it out the next time you are here.

If anyone is looking to volunteer, we have an opportunity to help one of our moms who runs copies for teachers.  If you're interested just let me know and I will get you in contact with Ms. Campbell.

I hope everyone has plans to be with friends and family over the long weekend.  Looks like we will have summer weather to enjoy!

See you next week!
Mrs. Turner