Parkside Elementary School Schedule and Update

By Danielle X. Harris and Dr. Sarah K. Haynes, Interim Principal
Parkside Elementary School, located at 658 Mercer Street in Grant Park, would like to announce its upcoming 2013 schedule.
February 15: Friendship Dance, 3:00pm to 4:30pm (Parkside Students only, grades 3-5)
February 16: Discovery
February 18: Student winter break (school closed)
February 22: Basketball game, Parkside vs. Boys and Girls club (6:00pm at the Boys and Girls club)
February 28: African-American History Program (Time TBA)
March 1: Read Across America Day
March 2: Discovery
March 6: Fifth grade writing test
March 7: Fifth grade writing test make-up
March 8: Early release day (students are to be picked up from school at 11:30am)
March 13: Junior Achievement Day, 9:00am to 1:00pm (K-5)
Parkside Elementary is participating in the first Lego League Robotics state competition at Georgia Tech on Saturday, January 26. To make it to this stage, the Parkside “RoboPandas” had to qualify at the Regional and Super Regional levels. Fourth graders Ian Smith, Elliott Kerns, Raveon Moore, and Corey Donerlson had the highest score in the qualifying round with the robot that they built and programmed. These students competed against third- through eighth-graders from throughout Metro Atlanta and North Georgia. Parkside Science teacher Mr. Thomas and Kindergarten teacher Mr. Weems led several other teams from Parkside who also competed. Aside from engineering skills such as robot design, research, and computer programming, students also learned core values including teamwork, professionalism, and cooperation. This is the second consecutive year the RoboPandas have advanced to the state championship.
Parkside Students along with other local schools will participate in the annual Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. Helen Ruffin was a media specialist in DeKalb County who wanted to find a way to encourage reading of the Georgia Children’s Book Award nominees. She created a reading competition in game format to test the knowledge of books from participating teams.
This year there are 24 teams from APS and DeKalb County Schools participating in the Reading Bowl. The competition schedule is as follows:
Local: January 26 at Drew Charter School from 10:00am to
12:00pm
Regional: February 2 at Clayton State University, Morrow,
GA from 10:00am-12:00pm
Divisional: February 23, location to be determined
State Final: March 9 at the University of Georgia Annual Conference on
Children’s Literature
Parkside Elementary School is participating in the Box Tops for Education Campaign, which pays 10 cents for each coupon that the school sends in. Box Tops for Education coupons can be found on Kimberly Clark products. We invite all of our Grant Park residents and their friends to support Parkside Elementary School by bringing Box Tops for Education coupons to the school. We have a gigantic display box in the rotunda where you can deposit your coupons. Please help us earn lots of dimes for education – clip and bring your coupons to our school before February 27.