January 29

Communication 

Carpool parents:  Please hang your carpool tag from your mirror during carpool to help us move the line efficiently. 

Elective Updates:  Quarter 3 electives began on Monday, January 29th.  Be sure to check the elective letter website found here to learn more about the electives your child is taking. 

First Friday Spirit Day - For our  First Friday Spirit day we are going to celebrate our 100 days of school with our Valentine: Underwood Elementary. So on Friday students can dress up like a 100 year old, Celebrate Valentines and/or wear Underwood Elementary shirts.  

Winter Carnival - Looking forwarded to seeing students and families at our Winter Carnival on February 10th from 11-3 at Underwood Elementary. Information can be found at http://underwoodpta.org/events/winter-carnival/. 

Collaboration

Volunteer Registration - 

This is a friendly reminder that any adult that would like to volunteer in our school or attend any field trips as a chaperone, are required to be a registered volunteer with Wake County Public Schools.  Volunteer registration must be filled out each school year.  It does not roll over.  Volunteer registration must be completed in a WCPSS school.  Volunteers list the schools they would like to volunteer at on the form.  If you have students at multiple schools make sure you list each school.  Thank you so much for helping support our students.   

Critical Thinking 

Foundation Gala -- Save the date our fifth annual Gala for March 23, 2018, 6:30pm - 9:00pm. More information to come soon. You can go to http://www.underwoodfoundation.org/?p=1095  for more information or to donate. 

Creativity

Lego Club-We will be having an after school K-2 LEGO Engineering club starting on Wednesday, February 21st from 3:45-5:15pm (running 8 Wednesday afternoons).  A flyer went home in Tuesday folders with more information.  In the spring, we will have a Grades 2-5 LEGO Engingeering club opportunity.

Student and Staff Awesomeness -- Check out what our team is doing in their classrooms -- via Twitter - @underwoodgtm -- #weareunderwood Keep up the great work! 

Celebrations!

• We were able to complete (and survive) a full week of school! 
• Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Frasier and Mrs. Fichter-Venners will be hosting a team of teachers from Fuquay-Varina ES to learn more about Conscious Discipline this week!
• Ms. Williams is going to be an Online Facilitator for NC State's MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) Foundations in Reading for people seeking continuing education credits!
• Mrs. Mbalia recently was a Panelist at the NETA conference for the breakfast for PBS on the importance of early childhood education and Moderator for Learning with PBS Kids "Exploring Arts and Creativity with Pinkalicious and Peterrific" Virtual PD!
• 4th and 5th grade completed the NC Check-Ins that were online! Way to go Mrs. Judge-Lenkeit for taking the lead on this process! 

Calendar:

January 29th - Q3 Electives begin
February 6th-Report Cards go home
February 9th-Early Release; 1:15pm dismissal
February 10th-Winter Carnival; 11-3pm
February 27th-Q3 Interims

January 16th

Celebrations 
Spelling Bee -- Congratulations to Kate on being this year's spelling bee winner. Congratulations to Kash for finishing runner up. Both of them did a fantastic job. Thank you Jen Page for organizing, Charlotte Nagy for being the pronouncer, and to Shannon Tant, Mallory Mbalia, and Travis Shillings for being judges.  

Communication 

Broadway Beat Theater Production is Thursday night at 7pm.  Hope to see you there!

Volunteer Registration - 

This is a friendly reminder that any adult that would like to volunteer in our school or attend any field trips as a chaperone, are required to be a registered volunteer with Wake County Public Schools.  Volunteer registration must be filled out each school year.  It does not roll over.  Volunteer registration must be completed in a WCPSS school.  Volunteers list the schools they would like to volunteer at on the form.  If you have students at multiple schools make sure you list each school.  Thank you so much for helping support our students.   

Collaboration

CAM Docent Program will begin at the end of January.  Selected 5th grade students will go on five consecutive Tuesday afternoons for training after school, followed by presentation opportunities to the general public during First Friday Evening Events at CAM.  If you are able to come attend and help, please sign up here.  

Critical Thinking 

Year-Round / Magnet Schools Application for 2018-2019 -  application is ONLY for students that are enrolled or pre-registered to attend a Wake County Public School for the 2018-2019 school year. Any application submitted for a student that is not enrolled or pre-registered for the 2018-19 school year will not be processed. Go to https://magnet.wcpss.net/apply/ to complete the application. This includes rising sixth graders that are applying for a magnet middle school. January 10th - 31st. 

Creativity

Lego Club-We will be having an after school K-2 LEGO Engineering club starting on Wednesday, February 21st from 3:45-5:15pm (running 8 Wednesday afternoons). Parents need to be able to pick up at 5:15pm) In the spring, we will have a Grades 2-5 LEGO Engineering club opportunity.

Student and Staff Awesomeness -- Check out what our team is doing in their classrooms -- via Twitter - @underwoodgtm -- #weareunderwood Keep up the great work! 

Calendar:

January 15th-MLK Holiday (No school)
January 18th - Broadway Beats at 7:00 
January 23rd-SIP meeting
January 25th-Q2 elective report cards due
January 29th-Q3 electives begin
February 6th-Report Cards go home

January 2nd

Dear Families, 

Happy New Years to all! We are looking forward to an awesome 2018! Our mission at Underwood is to provide a relevant and engaging education and will graduate students who are collaborative, creative, effective communicators and critical thinkers. We look forward to continuing this partnership with you all to make this mission a reality at Underwood Gifted & Talented Elementary! 

Communication 

Elective registration will continue with 3rd and 2nd grade this week  Ashley will be in touch with scheduling details via email.

Science Olympiad - practice this Saturday from 9-12. 

Collaboration

MTAC -- Why MTAC? 

Underwood's newly formed Media Technology Advisory Committee (MTAC) will have our first meeting on Thursday, January 4 at 7:45 in the media center. Coffee will be served!

If you are interested in serving on our MTAC, let Andrea or Tanya know. We are hoping for the following representatives - admin, K-1, 2-3, 4-5, specialist, and parent. 

CAM Docent Program will begin in January.  Selected 5th grade students will go on five consecutive Tuesday afternoons for training after school, followed by presentation opportunities to the general public during First Friday Evening Events at CAM.  If you are able to come attend and help, please sign up here.  

Critical Thinking 

Readvolution: Remember to remind and encourage students to keep reading and logging books in the Hurricanes Readvolution app found in the WakeID Portal over break. Our school has only logged 658 entries so far. That is way under 2 books per students since Readvolution began.

Creativity

Student and Staff Awesomeness -- Check out what our team is doing in their classrooms -- via Twitter - @underwoodgtm -- #weareunderwood Keep up the great work! 

Calendar:

January 9th-SIP meeting
January 10th-Magnet Open House, 10am/12:30pm/6:30pm
January 11th-Theater Production, 7pm
                    -Q2 electives end  (Electives down Jan. 15-26)
January 15th-MLK Holiday (No school)
January 16th-Reflections Breakfast 8am (media center)
January 22nd-Workday
January 23rd-SIP meeting
January 25th-Q2 elective report cards due
January 29th-Q3 electives begin