Career Days at ISES

On May 21 and 22, the fourth graders enjoyed listening to people tell about their jobs.

Mary Alice Kinsler, from ISES, shared her husband's photos from the Vietnam War. It was so interesting to hear her tell his story. She even brought his uniform and allowed students to try it on. Mary Alice told how her husband thought America was the greatest country!!

Other occupations represented included: Bays Mt. Naturalist, Eastman employee, Our Very Own Nurse Laura, Fire Dept., Coach Warren, Agricultural Specialist, Vet, Chef, and Pilot.

Thanks to all who participated!

Thanks to Mrs. T. Calhoun for submitting this post!

Shiver Shack Coming Tomorrow!

Just a reminder that the Shiver Shack is coming to ISE tomorrow, courtesy of Fifth Grade Graduation. If you have not yet sent your $1 in and would like to have a snow cone, please be sure to bring it to school tomorrow!

Those 4th & 5th Graders are Characters!

History came alive on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 19 and 20, at Indian Springs Elementary. The 4th and 5th graders participated in their annual History Dress-Up Day / Who Am I? In the 4th grade, many historical figures such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Abigail Adams, and Mercy Otis Warren were seen strolling the hallways.

The 5th graders dressed as sports stars, music idols, and famous people in history.

Everyone did a great job!

We would like to thank Indian Springs Baptist Church for allowing us to use their facility for this event!

Thank you to Mrs. T. Calhoun for submitting this post!

So What Was the Special Announcement at the PTA Meeting?

The exciting special announcement was that... drum roll please... our application for a Lowe's Toolbox for Education grant was successful! We have been awarded $5000 to allow us to complete our project to install a school sign with message area!!

If you'll remember, back at the January PTA meeting, we had set aside $3000 toward this project, which will cost about $8000 total. In February, we applied for a Lowe's grant for the balance and recently found out we won! We will be placing the order for the sign this week and the goal is to have it in place by the start of school in the fall! Below you see an "artist's rendering" of what the sign will look like.

THANK YOU LOWE'S AND PTA supporters for making this project possible!

PTA Meeting Tuesday Night!

Our last PTA meeting of the year will be Tuesday night, May 19th, at 6:30 pm in the computer lab. Even though it's the last meeting, we have a full agenda and need your participation!

We will review and vote on our 2009-2010 PTA budget, so if you have opinions on that please come out and express them.

We will also vote on the special projects to be undertaken by PTA through the end of the year. PTA members will be able to hear the project proposals and express their preferences through the project ranking process. We will be allocating several thousand dollars of PTA money, so please come out and participate in the decision-making!

Also, I hope you are dying to know what our special announcement is! This will be "communicated" at the meeting, and it's a piece of great news for our school!

If you need childcare, please let Karen know ASAP at karenm@chartertn.net!!

Little Box Tops = Big Bucks for PTA!

You know all those box tops we ask everyone to send in for our Refunding program?

Did you know that we get $0.10 cash back for each one? Now, this may not sound like much, but with all of us plus grandparents, friends, etc. sending them in, they add up to a lot. General Mills keeps track of how many box tops we send in, and they send us a check every 6 months or so. We have received two checks this school year totaling $981.70... that's 9,817 box tops that people have turned in! So keep saving box tops over the summer, and ask all your friends and relatives to save them too, and turn them in when August rolls around!

General Grant and General Lee Sighted at ISE!

On Wednesday, May 6th, the two Civil War generals were sighted in the 4th grade classroom of Mrs. T. Calhoun. We were honored by their visit and glad they could be in the same room together!


Christian Thomas (5th grade) was Robert E. Lee while Carter Manis (4th Grade) was Ulysses S. Grant. These two young men taught Mrs. T.'s social studies classes about the Civil War.

Both boys were outstanding in their knowledge and performance of battles. Many teachers and even the principal stopped by to see the marvelous teaching taking place.

Mrs. T. is quite sure the boys will be involved in writing future books about the Civil War. Christian and Carter plan to pursue their desire to attend re-enactments this summer.

This is a great example of students teaching students in a way that brings American history alive!

History Bill Visits ISES 4th Grade!

History Bill (Bill Carey) from Nashville visited Indian Springs 4th graders on Wednesday, May 6th.

One of Mrs. T's favorite history websites is www.tnhistoryforkids.org. Mr. Carey is the founder of that TN website. Check it out!!

When Mrs. T. received the phone call from Mr. Carey that he and his wife were in Johnson City and wanted to come by, she was as excited as any lady could be!!

At 1:10 PM all the 4th graders gathered in Mrs. T.'s room and gave a warm ISES welcome to the founder of TN History for Kids. He talked with us and gave us a short history lesson on the regions of TN.

He brought his wife and baby son, Ben. We made them feel right at home! He was impressed with our memory work and just our good ISES manners.

We hope he comes back to visit us again. Until then, we will be watching History Bill on the website as he continues his TN visits!!

Thank you to Mrs. T. for submitting this post!

Field Day Memories

The sun did not shine on our Field Day today,
But we had lots of fun inside anyway!


We had games going on throughout the school. Thanks to intensive planning by Susan Williams and Mr. Winchell, the day inside went very smoothly. Thank you to them for their efforts!

Here we have some fifth graders doing a giant puzzle in the library...


First-graders playing the bean bag game in the music room...


And playing pass the hoop in the hallway...


It looked like a driving range in the gym!


Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of representative shots of all that went on, since I was staffing the sign-in / information booth most of the day.

Many thanks to the dozens of volunteers who helped run the games, snacks, etc. today. We were once again fortunate to have the Key Club from Sullivan Central to help us out during the first two sessions. We were also glad to see many dozens of parents come out to enjoy watching their kids play their games today as well. Maybe next year we will see the sun....

The Grand Finale

On the Thursday of Teacher Appreciation Week, the teachers and staff were treated to more edible goodies provided by our parents. There was a large variety of items, from veggies and fruit to rich brownies and cakes. Quite a bit was left over for everyone to enjoy again on Friday.

Thank you to all who sent items in and helped to make Teacher Appreciation Week at Indian Springs a wonderful event for our teachers and staff!

Field Day Information - IMPORTANT!!

Due to how soggy the field is and the prediction of even more rain to come tonight and tomorrow, the decision has been made to move Field Day inside for Friday. The event takes a lot of set up and we can't wait and see until tomorrow. And even if it managed not to rain tomorrow, the field is way too wet and muddy.

Here is the updated schedule of events:

9:00-10:30: 4th and 5th grade

10:30-11:30 AND 1:15-1:35: 2nd and 3rd grade

1:35-2:55: Kindergarten and 1st grade

Sorry everyone! 2 Fridays in a row of outside events that had to be moved inside. This weather pattern has been crazy...

Make a Note...

On our third day of Teacher Appreciation Week, each teacher and staff member received a handy stationary set including a notepad, post-it pad, and a ballpoint pen. Each set had a theme such as "Kids Are My Business", "I Make a Difference in the Lives of Children", "Together We Create a Better Tomorrow," "Educating Children Takes Everyone," or "Teachers Change the World One Child at a Time."


These sets were wrapped with a ribbon and notecard inviting the teachers and staff to come and have some goodies and snacks on Thursday around lunchtime.

Breakfast Bash

On our second day of Teacher Appreciation Week, many parents contributed to a nice breakfast spread for the teachers and staff in the teacher's lounge. We had a variety of items including yummy Greenwood biscuits, sausage balls, sausage muffins, assorted fruit, donuts, coffee cake, homemade cinnamon rolls, peach and strawberry breakfast desserts, several juices, coffee, and bottled water. I hope I didn't leave anything out!

Unfortunately, your blogmaster was too busy to get a picture of the original food setup or the crowd that came to enjoy it. But here you see what things looked like at about 9am after the main wave of folks came through.

We did have enough leftovers for the teachers to come back for seconds on several things, and even thirds and fourths throughout the rest of the day!

And here is Mr. Winchell being a good sport about having his picture taken with the goodies...


The teachers and staff were very complimentary about all the great food sent in by our awesome parent community! Thank you for making our breakfast bash a success!

The Cookie Monster Strikes!

Today is the first day of Teacher Appreciation Week, a nationally observed week of recognition for our educators. At ISE, we are doing several things this week to show our teachers and staff members how much we appreciate them all.


To kick off our Teacher Appreciation Week festivities today, each teacher and staff member received a personalized "thank you" cookie. 60 cookies in all were delivered!


These were wrapped up with a nice note of appreciation, including an invitation to enjoy breakfast goodies tomorrow morning in the lounge.


These lovely cookies brought smiles to many faces, and we hope it was a great beginning to a special week!

Thanks for a Great Walk-a-Thon!

Our Walk-a-Thon on Friday, May 1 was a great success, despite the fact that we had to walk inside due to the weather. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and we have raised over $5700 to support the work of the PTA for the school next year! Great job Indian Springs! See below for some pictures of the event. More will be added as we get them in.

We would also like to congratulate our prize winners, each of whom received a nice Family Fun gift bag:

Most laps walked:

K - Jacob Kilgore (Hubbard)
1 - Brittany Waddell (Mumpower)
2 - Kaden Duncan (Smith)
3 - Carson Lane (Counts)
4 - Cody Carter (Robinette)
5 - Payton Hammitt (Moore)

Most donations raised:

K - Olivia Mays (Phelps)
1 - Avery Leming (Jessee)
2 - Morgan Tingler-Barker (Holly)
3 - Allie Orton (Counts)
4 - Haley Bush (Calhoun)
5 - Hayley Robinette (Sparks)

Congratulations to all!

Here is Mrs. Pendleton leading her "duckies" down the hall.


Here you can see how the now beloved tape line in the hallway kept our "lanes" divided for the walkathon...


The gym was a good place to get organized before walking and to decompress and have a cold drink of water afterward...

Fifth Grade Class Portraits

5th Grade Class portraits will be taken Tuesday, May 5^th after lunch. Please have your child wear his/her 5^th grade class T-shirt. We are very fortunate to have an ISES parent/photographer who is willing to take the photo and give us a great price! Pre-ordered photos (8x10 size, only ) are only $5.00 each! However, we’re only able to offer this Special Price on pre-ordered pictures, due to the discount associated with a large order. Any photos ordered after May 8th will be at the regular price.

Order forms are being sent home today (Fri May 1st) - please complete and return the form Tuesday May 5^th. If you order, send a check (no cash!) payable to Cheryl Gray. You may order as many copies as you like at the $5.00 price. Be sure to place both the form and check in an envelope with your child’s name and homeroom teacher on the outside. Portraits will be available at Graduation.

Don't Forget: 5^th Graders Wear Class T-Shirts Tuesday, May 5^th for Portraits

Don't worry: if you forget to send the form Tuesday, you may send payment for portraits through Friday, May 5th and still receive the Discounted Price.

Walk-a-Thon Plan

We are walking inside. Weather is obviously bad right now and may stay that way for several hours. Unfortunately, we can't change our plan in the middle of the morning if it clears up since we will have everything set up for inside.

Walking schedule for inside is:

2nd/3rd - 9:00-9:30
1st - 9:45-10:15
4th/5th - 10:30-11:00
K: 2-2:30