Thank You Urban Burrito!

Urban Burrito was kind enough to donate the food for our first PVA Night on October 15, and we really appreciate it!  Please stop in and let them know how much if you have a chance!

Not sure what a PVA Family Night is?  Find out all about them here and come joins us at the next one, Math Night, on November 19th.  

Roots & Wings and Wild Wings!

Claxton students' painted pumpkins will be featured in Wild Wings Café's Annual Great Pumpkin Painting Pageant on Tuesday October 30th 6:00-8:00 pm.

Wild Wing Café invites local classrooms to participate in their Annual Great Pumpkin Painting Pageant. They donate pumpkins to local classrooms for the students to paint, decorate and enter into the pageant. Mr. Cassara had roots and wings classes paint pumpkins, and five were chosen to be displayed at the restaurant.  Winners will be chosen from multiple schools the night of the pagent.

Wild Wings hosts their Kids Halloween Party on Tuesday October 30th.  Painted pumpkin finalists will be judged and the winner will be announced! The winning pumpkin will win a $100 donation to the schools art department, as well as a catered lunch for the winner’s classroom. The student’s individual prize will be free Kids Meals for a year plus other prizes to be announced.

Students do not have to be present to win and all students are invited to attend the Kids Halloween Party.  Wild Wing Café will be hosting a Kids Costume Contest and will provide a free Kids meal to every child in costume (with an adult meal purchase).  So, make the most of those Halloween Costumes and come on out to see what Claxton students have created!

FIRST Lego League Tournament at UNCA November 3rd!

Come cheer on Claxton 4th adn 5th grade students as the flex their Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) education skills at the FIRST Lego League Tournament at UNCA on November 3rd!

What to expect at the tournament: Teams spend the first half of the day in closed judging sessions presenting their research, demonstrating and discussing how the Core Values informed the work they did together, and explaining how they designed and programmed the robot.  The afternoon is filled with back to back rounds of table competition.  Teams square off at back to back tables, and compete both against their own best scores and in cooperative and competitive tasks that involve the other team. Each round last only 2.5 minutes and teams keep the best score from their three opportunities to compete.   The afternoon is a fast-paced and exciting.  The competition is free and open to the public. 

The tentative tournament day schedule includes:

12:45pm Parade of Teams & Opening Ceremony
1:15pm – 3:15pm Robot Runs
3:45pm Awards Ceremony

The tournament at UNCA is a qualifying event, and the teams that score the best across all areas of competition will progress to regional competitions and then on to state-wide competitions.  Claxton had a team progress to the state level last year.  So, come on out and cheer on this year's teams as they show how their skills!

Oh!  And keep an eye on WLOS New 13's Never Stop Learning for an upcoming story on our teams!

Book Fair Going on Now!

Make sure you visit our Scholastic Book Fair and experience a celebration of reading that provides families the opportunity to get involved in a universal mission: encouraging kids to read every day so they can lead better lives.

Our Scholastic Book Fair theme – All-Star Book Fair: Every Reader Is a Star! – is part of an exciting reading event that brings to school a wonderful selection of fun, engaging, and affordable books kids want to read. Giving kids access to good books and the opportunity to choose their own books will motivate them to read more. And like most acquired skills, the more kids practice reading, the better they’ll get.

Hope to see you there!

Book Fair Dates: Friday, October 26th-Wednesday, October 31st.

Shopping Hours: 8am-3pm

Special Events: Family Shopping Night, Monday, 29th, 5pm-8pm (shop and have dinner!)

Grand-Person Breakfast, Wednesday, 31st, 7:45-8:15 am (bring a special person to shop and eat)

In Search of the Perfect Pumpkin?

The 5th Grade is selling punpkins grown right here in Buncombe County!

Pick one up after school 2:30 - 4:30 -- Last day is Friday October 19th

Average price: $4 - $10

Proceeds reduce the cost of the 5th grade field trip for all students and help to ensure that any student who is eligible to participate will be able to do do - regardless of financial need. 

Congratulations PTO Mini-Grant Recipients!

This Fall the PTO is proud to support two proposals from our faculty:

The first brings a Harlem Renaissance exhibit to Claxton. This exhibit features 3 large color display panels as well as posters, exhibit information and a teacher's guide. The exhibit will be in a prominent location to benefit students, parents, and visitors. 

Classroom teachers are encouraged to incorporate grade level literary components based on the poetry of Langston Hughes and other writers. Mr. Butler will incorporate lessons in the jazz movement associated with the Harlem Renaissance: Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and others. Mr. Cassara will involve parents as docents and members of the YMI Cultural Center as resources. Goals are for students to be able to express their feelings through art, music and poetry. The project is further intended to increase pride in our rich cultural heritage. Thank you Mr. Cassara for spearheading this wonderful project!

The second grant aims to promote literacy and to integrate arts into the curriculum by creating paintings on 36x 48" canvasses depicting covers of some of the student's favorite books. These will be hung in the cafeteria. Each classroom will select and nominate books. Grades will then ultimately select one book. The A+ committee will oversee the selection of a volunteer artist.

Students gain appreciation of the visual arts as they consider book covers. This grant covers phase one and  allow 3 books to be hung in the cafeteria. Funding for the remaining three book covers is a work in progress. Placing the paintings in non-classroom areas helps to reinforce books and reading a part of life beyond classroom requirements. Thank you Ms. Powell for bringing this proposal on behalf of the A+ Committee!

Additional mini-grant opportunities will be available in the Spring.  We encourage everyone to be thinking of creative projects like these that help to enrich the experience of all students.