On a mission

Sioux Trail staff have been exploring exactly what our mission is and we've been working to put that into words. When in you are in the building on a regular basis you can see that we are on a mission and we work hard with all of our students. We're engaging in the challenge of putting our daily work into a short concise statement. Here are some of our rough drafts.

• Sioux Trail Elementary in collaborations with students, staff, and community, will strive to provide a warm, welcoming environment where diverse learners are instilled with rich opportunities for lifelong learning.
• The Sioux Trail community is a safe and engaging learning environment focused on ensuring the success of all students.
• Sioux Trail is a diverse, caring community of learners where each student achieves his or her full potential in an atmosphere of respect and an acceptance of personal responsibility.
• Here, at Sioux Trail, our highly qualified staff aim to meet high expectations set forth through school and state standards while establishing rapport with the community, families and students through diverse and rigorous learning.
• The Sioux Trail learning community believes that in order to be the best we can be we need to be connected, capable and we must contribute.
• Sioux Trail is growing a garden of lifelong learners
• To engage students and families in a focused learning environment which supports and promotes positive learning behaviors / attitudes and leads all to individual success in life.
• Sioux Trail provides an inclusive, safe, nurturing community for all. Sioux Trail staff, in collaboration with families, volunteers, students and community strives to educate each student to reach their full potential as life-long learners.
• Challenging the whole child in a diverse community of learners so they become caring responsible leaders.
• Sioux Trail is a student centered community of students, parents, and educational professionals dedicated/focused on educating the whole child-academically, emotionally, socially and preparing all students for success. We believe all children can learn and all learners will experience challenge and success daily at Sioux Trail.

What is missing? Sioux Trail Elementary School is a community and represents the work of a large group of people. I will be sharing our work at the May 27 PTO meeting as well. If you have thoughts or ideas please post a comment or send me an email at: takin@burnsville.k12.mn.us

Minnesota Weather

Our swings in weather are having an interesting effect on the Sioux Trail Lost & Found. We laid out several items on tables this week because some of the lost & found boxes are overflowing. The sweatshirt box and the coat hooks have a large number of items in them. We're in the part of the year where you need a coat when you leave the house in the morning, but when you go home in the afternoon it is warm enough to go without a coat. At Sioux Trail that means we end up with a growing pile of forgotten items. Please encourage your student to check the lost & found for missing items. All items that remain at the end of the year will be donated to a charity that can use them.

Champions!

The Sioux Trail Chess Team won the the Title of Top South Suburban Chess Team in two areas!
Our Chess team won the primary (K-3) and elementary (4-6) championships. The tournament was last weekend (April 24) and I'm very proud of our players and their coach, Mr. Kleven.

Here is the team with the newest additions to our trophy case.
Congratulations!

Thank You!

Tuesday, April 27 is Volunteer Drive Thru or as the sign says Community Thank You! Sioux Trail staff set aside an hour of the morning to pass out Donut Star donuts and Caribou coffee to anyone who helps make Sioux Trail the wonderful school that it is. We're optimistic that we'll get more folks to stop in so we bought more donuts and coffee this year. Students have prepared thank you cards that will get distributed along with the breakfast treat.

Please drive thru between 7am and 8am on Tuesday, April 27 and let us say thank you.

Make Over Complete!

I'm sure that many of you have been checking the blog frequently for updates on the "wooden guy" make-over! It is complete and two of our "wooden guys" have retrofitted bases and a brand new coat of paint. The "green guy" was blue and the "orange guy" used to be a peach color, but it was also splattered with something blue!

Behind the newly made-over "wooden guys" are two more that need to be "adopted", and repainted! This could be a great family project and it is an easy way to support Sioux Trail.

Rehab

I hope no one filed a missing persons report! On Friday I absconded with two of our "wooden guys". Sioux Trail has four of these creations and they are wonderful tools. We've used them for a wide-variety of things, from helping display lost clothing, promoting the food sold during carnival and welcoming students back to school. I don't know who made them, but they become an invaluable part of Sioux Trail.

This weekend I brought one home (the blue guy) because the base had broken off and it could no longer be repaired. I am rebuilding the base and then it will get a new coat of paint. In order to rebuild the base I had to borrow another wooden guy to get the correct dimensions. I'm not sure how to describe this color, it is probably what Crayola used to color "flesh-tone", but that refers to my skin color. The second wooden guy needs a new coat of paint as something blue had been spilled or sprayed on it and looked a little tired.

Rehab will be done soon and there will only be two more "wooden-guys" who need a little TLC. If you'd like to adopt one and give it a fresh coat of paint please let me know!

Happy Birthday Shadow!

Shadow celebrated his 2nd birthday on January 29. Shadow originally arrived after Sioux Trail students named the panther, which is our school mascot. With the help of folks at Lakeville North High School (they are also "The Panthers" and they also have red and black as their school colors) a full sized Shadow arrived to be a part of the Naming Ceremony. I joined the Sioux Trail community shortly after the Naming Ceremony and Shadow was all the buzz. At a PTO meeting Mr. Glende shared an idea as to how Sioux Trail could have our very own full sized Shadow. The idea was an instant hit and Sioux Trail now has it's very own full sized panther! Shadow emerges from his cat cave and makes appearances at a wide variety of Sioux Trail events - his most recent event was for the I love to Read month kickoff on February 1. This year I love to Read Month has an Olympics theme and Shadow brought in the torch to get us fired up. He is very popular with students and the investment has paid for itself many times over.