SC Walk To School Day

Lake Carolina Elementary is participating in the SC Safe Routes to School by hosting a "Walk or Bike To School" day on Wednesday, March 8. Students are encouraged to dress like first responders (fire fighters, paramedics or police officers) and walk or bike to or from school. We can't wait to see everyone!

Gator Games T-Shirts

The 2017 Gator Games (our field day) are coming up!

Lower Campus will be on Friday, May 12

Upper Campus will be on Friday, April 21 

You may purchase your Gator Games t-shirt now. See info below for specific ordering information. 

Parents who would like to volunteer to help with Gator Games can contact:
--Coach Wittig (Upper Campus): pwittig@richland2.org
--Marianna Reeves (Lower Campus) would love for you to come the day of the games and help your child's class as they go through stations, allowing you to be with your child.

Order Form for Lower Campus

Order Form for Upper Campus

Lower Campus Transportation Changes

Lower Campus Parents/Guardians, 

We are asking families to try very hard to not call during the day to change how their child goes home unless it is absolutely necessary. Last minute changes cause a strain on our staff as we are very careful to make sure each child gets home safely.  If you do need to make a change in transportation, please try to plan ahead and use your child’s agenda book/communication log to write a note to the teacher. It is very important that changes in transportation be made through a note, not through email because if a teacher is out of the building the substitute in the classroom will not be aware of the change. If a change is necessary during the day, please be sure to call the kiosk. No changes can be made after 2:15 pm. 

Thank you for your support of our instructional time and dedication to student safety.

Gator Fest Donations

Gator Fest is just around the corner and if any parent, teacher, or staff would like to donate any item or service to the Silent Auction, please contact Ginger Jones at gjonesbooks@aol.com.

We gladly accept new gift items, vacation rentals, business and restaurant gift cards, etc. Thank you for your support!

LCE PTO is a 501(c)3 organization and can provide documentation for tax records.

Thanks to Book Fair Volunteers

Thanks to the volunteers that helped make the Book Fair a huge success! 

We appreciate your time to help our students and staff!

Laura Halstead, Jen Steck, Stacey Sherwood, Stephany Uehling, Shelley Cadena, Stacey Gilchrist, Elizabeth Adams, Isabelle Henderson, Liza Kibler, Kristen Chaneyworth, Jennifer Rassmussen, Charmaine Hood, Tiara Bomar, Suzanne Wells, Susie Watts, Daphne Patch, Kaitlin Patch, Catherine Shealy, Madeleine Dobson, Liz Adams, Liza Kibler, Ginger Jones, Monica Rasso, David Skrabec, Jeannette Dempsey, Andi Gatzke, Laura Halsted, and MaryKarl Boepple

Safety Reminder

Reminder to all of our families to drive safely during arrival and dismissal times near school property.

Thank you!

Richland Two Recruitment Fair

Golf Cart Raffle 2017

Lower Campus Literacy Highlight

February Spotlight on Literacy for Parents

• Children love to share stories about themselves, whether telling how they learned to ride a bike or how they caught their first fish. Photographs can be a great way to help children tell their stories, reminding them of details they might not remember on their own. Have your child write about photos and then choose their favorite sentences for a homemade memory book. Part of learning to write is learning to plan what we write and learning to write sentences about specific topics. This helps children plan and write clear descriptions of pictures before creating stories about their lives. In addition, when children read and write about their own lives they improve their understanding of their families and the places where they live and visit. It can also help get them excited to read and write because the topic is important and interesting to them.

• Encourage children to make thank-you notes or cards for special occasions, such as birthdays and holidays.

• Create a family blog or online photo album, and help your child write blog entries or photo captions. This can help children learn to write descriptively and enhance their computer skills.

Help your child create an illustrated journal or diary. Let the child pick out a special notebook and crayons/markers from the store. Encourage your child to write and illustrate in it on a regular basis. Entries can describe and illustrate things that happened to them at home, in school, or around the neighborhood and how those things made the child feel. For inspiration, check out the book Amelia’s Notebook by Marissa Moss.

Thank You Bus Drivers!

Job Shadowing at LCE

We enjoyed having middle school students job shadow
staff members at both campuses this month. 

Information from the Health Room

With cold and flu season upon us, many parents have questions on when to keep their child home from school. We follow DHEC guidelines for school exclusion. 

Please read the Should I Keep My Sick Child Home from School brochure to help with these questions.

Gullah Speaker for 3rd Grade

Gervonder Brown, a Charleston native, spoke to the 3rd grade students about the Gullah culture on Friday, February 10. Third graders have been studying the slave trade to the Carolina Colony and learned how the slaves kept their culture alive through music, songs, and dance. The Gullah language is a mixture of African languages and English. It is widely used throughout the Low Country of South Carolina. 

Students learned about the Gullah dialect by hearing songs and repeating words from the speaker. Ms. Brown also shared Gullah stories about the Geechie people and shared how a sweetgrass basket is made. As a finale, Ms. Brown taught the students a Gullah song!

Chorus Performance next Thursday, February 16

Spring Book Fair

Book Fairs at Lower and Upper Campus
February 13-17, 2017

Bullying Prevention and Intervention

Upper Campus' Counselor Corner

Every class in our school recently completed a bullying prevention unit with the school counselor. The lessons focused on the definition of bullying, strategies for kids to use to prevent bullying situations, and how to stop conflicts from escalating into bigger problems.  All students should know that bullying is something unfair done to another person on purpose, over and over.  They should also understand that bullying situations are one-sided, not conflicts or disagreements between people. Students worked through the differences between rude, mean, and bullying behaviors.  Student surveys given after the unit showed that the vast majority of students understand these concepts and report that bullying is not an issue of concern at LCEU.  Our students acknowledge that kids here are not perfect and have mean moments at times, but overall, an overwhelming majority of students report that they feel safe at school and that their school year is going very well. 

If you or your child have any concerns about bullying or conflict resolution, please contact 

Mrs. Skinner, School Counselor at LCEU, at jskinner@richland2.org or 691-3360 ext. 37116.

Chess Club Wins 3rd Place in Competition

On Saturday, February 4, the LCEU Chess Club members attended their first tournament. The Midlands Scholastic Chess League hosts an opportunity for young players to represent their schools while competing individually against their peers in the Midlands area. This experience was a great way to further enjoy and improve in the game, make new friends, and to build self esteem. 

The LCEU Chess Club came away with some great memories and won 3rd place out of seven elementary schools in the competition. Students competing were:

3rd Graders

Mason Dembowski

Joseph Robinson

Josiah Verdejo

4th Graders

Cooper Collins

Ben Jones

Talyn Meassick

Mitchell Stalcup

George Strange

William Van

5th Grader

Adam Van

School Nurse News

 News from the nurse about head lice.

Head Lice Facts

Picture Book Donations

Calling all well-loved picture books!  Is it time for your book to find a new home?

Donate a picture book before Friday, February 10th and each book that is still in good condition will get your name entered in a drawing for $10 to spend at the book fair next week!

Thank You LCE Community

We are overwhelmed by the generosity of our Lake Carolina Elementary families!

In one day, you donated $2,033 to the five families of Rice Creek Elementary School students who lost their homes and belongings in a fire last week. The LCE PTO delivered your donations, along with $500 from our PTO, to the Rice Creek PTO for distribution to the families. All those coins, bills and checks will help our nearby neighbors as they begin to get back on their feet after this devastating experience. 

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you!

National Wear Red Day

Lake Carolina Upper Campus Staff participated in National Wear Red Day® to Support Go Red For Women on Friday, February 3, 2017 to show support of increasing awareness of women's health.

Star Lab with Fourth Grade

Fourth grade students experienced the StarLab this week as part of their study of the astronomy. Students were able to view constellations, moon phases and the planets.

The StarLab is a portable planetarium experience with an inflatable dome and star projector that is part of the SC State Museum's Outreach program.  

Skype with Children's Author Suzanne Selfors

Ms. Comisky's 3rd grade class Skyped with Suzanne Selfors, a children's book author. They read Smells Like Dog as a class and asked her questions about the book as well as about being a writer during the session. This was a great experience!

National Geographic Bee @ LCEU

Congratulations to Harrison Knight, a 4th grader in Ms. Stanek's class, for winning the 2017 National Geographic Bee at Lake Carolina Upper Campus. Noah Brown, a 5th grader in Ms. Moses' class, is the runner up. 

Students in the Geography Club competed in seven rounds during the school level competition. Special thanks to Ms. Flores and Ms. Morrison for sponsoring this club.

Geography Club Members: Jiya Anand, Brooke Benson, Jacob Blevins, Noah Brown, Brian Grieve, Sevon Jenkins, Harrison Knight, Makaleigh Martin, and Kirk Perry

Braille Challenge

Congratulations to Sadie Spence, a 3rd grade student in Ms. Rosenberg's class, for winning second place for her freshman division in the Braille Challenge. 

The Braille Challenge is for students from across the state of South Carolina and is an academic competition emphasizing the study of braille. It was a day of challenges including spelling, proof-reading and reading comprehension in addition to fun-filled activities. It was held at the Commission for the Blind in Columbia. 

See news footage from this competition at WLTX.com 

http://www.wltx.com/news/local/blind-student-compete-in-braille-challenge/396015374

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Five students and a teacher at Rice Creek Elementary were among the families displaced by last Sunday's fire at The Reserve at Lake Carolina apartments on Hardscrabble Road. These families have lost most or all of their belongings. While these students are not Gators, they are members of the larger Lake Carolina community and the LCE PTO would like to help them as they recover from this devastating event.

This Friday, February 3, we will partner with the Rice Creek Elementary PTO to collect spare change, cash, and checks (made payable to Rice Creek PTO) in the car rider lines on both sides of both campuses at morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up. Look for volunteers holding signs and buckets for the collection. 

You may also send in donations with your child and teachers will collect them in homerooms.

The money will go directly to these families to help replace the items that were destroyed in the fire. Thank you in advance for your generosity and concern for our community!