There was a feast to be had at Santaquin Elementary on Tuesday, November 20th.  The students of Ms. Harker and Ms. Craig enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner as part of their celebrations.  They dined on homemade weaved place-mats and enjoyed a turkey dinner complete with mashed potatoes, stuffing, salads, sweet potatoes, and ... pumpkin pie!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Walk in the halls ... keep hands to yourself ... appropriate noise level.  These are the things students at Santaquin Elementary are being recognized for!  Teachers, faculty and staff are keeping a watch out for students who are working on these school-wide goals and recognizing them with Positive Behavior tickets that teachers collect in each individual classroom.  In the lunchroom, students work to keep the noise monitor light from going to red by using "inside voices" while eating.  Ten days without going to red equals a whole school reward!  Student names are periodically drawn and the deserving winners get to come pick a reward from the treasure box!  Keep up the great work, students!

On Thursday evening, November 15th, the fourth grade teachers at Santaquin Elementary were excited to hold their first annual Write Nite.  This was an opportunity for parents and students to receive strategies and tools to encourage writing at home.   Prizes and writing materials were given away to those in attendance at the end of the evening!  Families learned about all Core Writing Areas, to include: opinion, informational and narrative.  Thank you for supporting student learning through our Parent Literacy Night. 

Our Santaquin Trading Post is open Wednesday(s) from 8:30am-8:55am and 2:30pm-3:00pm to exchange books!  Students and parents can purchase books for 25 cents and sell books for 10 cents, with a note of consent from their parents!  Come check it out and let’s get reading!

Ballet West came to Santaquin and performed some dances from the Nutcracker for the students.

The dancers showed the studentbody how they warmed up before dancing and explained what it took to be a professional dancer.

Several students from the audience were picked to go on stage and try a spin with the dancers.  We think our students did a great job.  It's harder to do than it looked!!

The dancers told the story of the Nutcracker Prince, and it was fun to see the costumes and a few of the dances that they will perform in the real show.

For many students, it was the first time they had seen "toe-dancers" in real life.  

Thanks, Ballet West for an enjoyable afternoon!

Mrs. Rawle has a Halloween Birthday.  This year she found out that a sixth-grade student, McKenna Brailsford ALSO has an Oct 31st Birthday. 

Mrs. Rawle's sixth-grade class "took a wrong turn" during the parade and hurried back to class to surprise her by decorating the room.

As the kids strut through class room after class room, we enjoyed looking at the Zombies, Avengers, and other costumes.  This time of year, everyone gets candy and everyone has a party.  I

n my class, we had to try to eat a doughnut that was on a string tied to a pole.  Most students would catch the doughnut and rest it on their shoulder while they ate it.  I just took bite after bite. 

"YUCK!" is how most kids acted after they had their hands in the fake body parts. "BINGO!" was heard at another table, but there was nothing scary about that. We had fun Glo-Sticks for prizes though.

I wonder how YOU spent your Halloween?

                                                                        Joseph Jacklin, Student Reporter

Our Halloween Costume Parade began here at Santaquin Elementary at 1:00pm on Wednesday, October 31st.  Parents were welcome and came to join us in the gym and main entryway to watch as students and teachers “paraded” through the school.  Clowns, witches, doctors, superheros, etc., marched in step, showing off their amazing costumes.  Happy Halloween!

Each month Santaquin Elementary will post a new edition of our very own school newspaper, the Santaquin Sentinel.  This publication will include:  calendar items, review of important school events, guidance from our school counselor, and a special message from Mr. Argyle.  Thank you to all members of our school community for your continued support of our learning.

http://santaquin.nebo.edu/content/santaquin-sentinel

On the evening of October 24th, 2012, the parking lot of Santaquin Elementary was full.  Parents and second grade students were at the school for their second annual ‘Parents and Pumpkins’ Literacy Night.  Parents and 2nd graders came to learn about word work strategies, comprehension tools and technology they can use at home.  Parents enjoyed the strategies learned that evening, going home with a variety of materials for being in attendance.  One of the highlights of the night was the pumpkin drawing.  During the month of October, 2nd grade students had the opportunity to turn in ‘pumpkin reading tickets' for every 20 minutes they read.  Containers were filled with ‘pumpkin reading tickets’ from each class.  The students sure read a lot!!!  It was at the end of ‘Parents and Pumpkins’ that students’ names were drawn to pick an awesome hand-painted pumpkin.  The pumpkins were donated locally and painted by volunteers.  ‘Parents and Pumpkins’ was a great event for all!