Olivia Johnson
Only Six More Days to our 13th Annual Veneta Elementary School Auction on Saturday, April 9th. Doors Open at 5:00 PM. Silent Auction Ends at 6:30. Oral Auction begins at 7:00. The Fern Ridge Kiwanis Club will be selling food at our auction. $3 BBQ Pork Sliders, $3 Walking Tacos, $1 for water/Gatorade/Juices. Credit cards will be accepted. There will be a bake sale as well.
We are giving away a $100 gift card to Winco as a door prize at the end of the night. No purchase is necessary to win the door prize but you must be present at the end of the night. This year we will not be providing child care during the auction.
Our 4th/5th grade Choir will perform before the oral auction and during the intermission of the oral auction.
Help Support Our School. Funds raised go towards field trips, assemblies, playground equipment, and much more! Please follow the jump for a partial list of items that will be up for bid during the event: Continue reading
We had a great turnout for our kindergarten information night. It was a 
lot of fun meeting all of our future kindergarten students and their families.
We have just updated our kindergarten registration links and information for next year. You will see the link to our kindergarten registration page on the right hand side. Continue reading
Auction Highlights
Come to our Auction on April 9th. You can bid on the following packages:
- Get creative at Brushfire and then have lunch with Mrs. McGuire and Ms. Beller
- Spend the day with Mrs. Orme and her husband on their boat on the river. Float and fish in their drift boat including a picnic lunch.
- Have dinner with Mrs. Pebworth and her family.
- Principal for the Day- Your child can be VES Principal for a Day. This includes a “working” lunch with their “assistant” principal Ms. Johnson.
- Get creative and build something with Mr. Moeller who is offering to work on a woodworking project with a student.
- Have lunch and take in a ballet or concert at the Hult Center in Eugene with Mrs. McGuire and Ms. Knox.
- Teacher for the day- Take over Mrs. Pebworth’s second grade class for the day.
Staff Lunches: The following staff members will also be available to bid on during the silent auction. The winning bidder will have a special lunch with the staff member that they “won”:
- Olivia Johnson
- Erika McGuire
- Makenzie Knox
- Kasey Cutsforth
- Amanda Wyncoop
- Angie Pebworth
- Mirka Chen
- Daniel Kallio
- Melody Kallio
- Kyle Moeller
- Michelle Marshall
Don’t forget that each class is creating a wonderful, creative, and one of a kind project that will also be up for bid at the auction. We also have great items that have been donated. Doors open at 5:00 on April 9th. Credit cards accepted. Come to our auction and support our school!
If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes an incredible hard working and supportive school staff work
ing together to educate one. We would be lost without the amazing and incredible classified staff we are lucky to work with here at Veneta Elementary School. From our instructional assistants to our custodians to our kitchen helpers to our secretaries- the classified staff at VES rocks. We are lucky to have each and every one of them. Please join our school this week in saying thank you to our classified staff for all that they do each and every day to support our students. Thank you to Ronda, Lorie, Cherri, Kristi, Shannon, Donna, Bonnie, Jessica, Sam, Kim, Missy, Cara, Misti, Delise, Jaime, Cortnie, Kelly, Janet, Laura, Mona, Pete Jr., and Pete Sr. Thank you for making our school a wonderful place to grow and learn.
Families with students who will be five years old before September 1st are invited to Veneta Elementary School’s Kindergarten Information Night on March 31st from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM. We will share information about kindergarten curriculum and expectations. We will provide ideas and strategies that you can use this spring and summer to prepare your student for the transition to kindergarten. There will be activities that you can take home with you that night and use with your child. Families will also get a chance to visit classrooms and see what Veneta Elementary is like first hand.
We will also share information about our new preschool type program KITS (Kids Into Transition to School) that will start this summer to provide academic/social/emotional skills instruction to help young children prepare for this important transition into school. Continue reading
Raffle Ticket Sales Start March 7th! Help us make this year’s Auction and Raffle the most successful one yet!!!
What: Sell Raffle Tickets for our 13th Annual Auction Raffle. The grant prize for the raffle is a 48 inch Samsung Smart TV valued at $500. We also have lots of other great prizes.
Who: Everyone!
Why: To raise money for our school! Funds raised help to pay for field trips, outdoor school, assemblies, special events, music, field day, and much more!
Plus students can earn prizes! The class that sells the most tickets will get an ice cream party. Students can also earn individual prizes including laser tag or cosmic bowling with the principal. See the below for information about the great prizes.
Science tells us that our children’s first five years are when they develop the foundation for all future learning. Every time we connect with them, we light up the neurons in their brains that open up the pathways to learning. The brain is wired to grow, especially during those first five years where it makes 700 neural connections every single second. We know that interactions between adults and children impact that brain development; even kids that can’t yet talk are looking, listening, and relating to adults every second.
Vroom is a new program available online or in an app that has activities that you can do with children 0 to 5 years old that are designed to fire up the neurons in their brain and start making connections. They are simple activities that families and caretakers can do at home, waiting in line, sitting at the doctor’s office, riding in a car, etc. Vroom activity ideas can be found on their website or if you sign up for the app they will be sent to your phone daily. Vroom is brought to you by the Oregon Department of Education Early Learning Division. There is no charge for Vroom or the Vroom app.
You can find more information at joinvroom.org
Or click here for some sample vroom activity cards
Or click here for a poster showing the brain science behind Vroom
Attention All Readers! Veneta Elementary’s annual Reading Celebration and Contest begins Monday, Febru
ary 29th. Students at all grade levels can participate by reading or being read to each night. Students in grades K-2 should read at least 15 minutes a night and students in 3rd-5th should read at least 25 minutes a night. They can read or share their favorite books or have someone read to them. Students who meet their goals (165 minutes total for K-2 and 275 minutes for 3rd thru 5th will win two tickets to a Eugene Emerald’s baseball game. But we don’t stop there. The student in each classroom who reads the most minutes will receive a gift certificate to the Spring Book Fair. Plus this year we have a basket of books worth over $50 for the student who reads the most minutes in grades K-2 and the student who reads the most books in grades 3-5.
Reading is one of the most important skills young children need to build. Reading opens doors to amazing worlds both real and imagined for children to visit, wonder at, and learn from.
We will be sending home on Monday a tally sheet for students to keep track of the minutes they read. Tally sheets should be returned March 11th.
Fern Ridge School District now has a Family Resource Center! Located at Veneta Elementary School, the Family Resource Center will provide services to all families in the district with a focus on families with children birth to five years old. As it gets going, the center will feature information for families on community resources, parent education workshops, and activities for small children. The goal for the center is to help build literacy skills in small children and help families make the transition to kindergarten. The Family Resource Center is made possible by a grant from Lane Kids.
Our Family Resource Coordinator is Angi Trent. Angi has been on the job for a short time but she already has big plans for the Family Resource Center. She already has planned a play date on March 9th at 1:00. It will feature sensory play with shaving cream and a visit from a local police officer.
For more information on the Fern Ridge Family Resource Center contact Angi at 541-935-8225 ext. 418.
We are excited to announce that Bob Curtis, Science Guru Extr
aordinaire, will be coming to Veneta Elementary School on March 1st from 6:00 to 7:00 PM for an evening of science fun in our new cafeteria/commons. Bob will do some demonstrations and lead hands on experiments for families to take part in. At 7:00 PM there will be a tour of the new classroom spaces. Please plan on joining us and spark your child’s scientific curiosity.