We are happy to be back at school and look forward to a great second semester. We hope that everyone who reads this had a wonderful holiday with family and friends.

The Baldwin County Reading Council is sponsoring an annual essay contest titled “My Favorite Book” to encourage children to read and to write. The essay contest is open to all first- through sixth-grade students. Our school will have a contest to select the best two essays per grade level for their school. These two local winning essays per grade level will then be sent to the Baldwin County Reading Council for judging in the county-wide contest.

Here are the criteria for judging: the title of the essay is “My Favorite Book.” The written essay must contain the name of the book and the author’s name. The essay must be written at school under teacher supervision. The essay may be about a book the child has read or a book that an adult has read to the child. The essay may be typed or handwritten. The essay must not exceed five sentences for first-, second- and third-grade contestants or eight sentences for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade contestants.

Emphasis is placed on the writer’s ability to describe why this is a good book to read. The child’s name, grade, school, parent’s name, parent’s home phone number, teacher’s name and teacher’s home phone number should be written at the bottom of the essay for notification purposes. The best two essays from each school’s grades will be sent for country judging no later than Feb. 1. Notification of the winners will be no later than Feb. 16. The winners, their families, teachers and principals will be invited to the Feb. 21 meeting of the Baldwin County Reading Council at Christ the King School in Daphne for presentation of the prizes. 

Refreshments will be served at 3:30 p.m. with the meeting starting at 4 p.m. The prize is a $15 bookstore gift card along with a framed certificate and will be awarded to a winner in each of the sixth grades.

Good luck to all of our Spelling Bee participants. By the time you read this, we will have a school winner. We look forward to reporting about our winner for next week.

The fourth grade participants were: Christopher Walding, Blinne Moore, Austin Grass, Sara Hunter, Cassidy Jordan and Adison Barnett. The fifth grade participants were Mariah Bagwell, Leah Trainer, Emma Kirby, Cory Mitchell, Taylor Dupuis, Christian Meager and Allison Watson.

Report cards went home earlier this week. Don’t forget to get those signed and returned to school as soon as possible.

Please take a moment to complete the ShowMe Character January–February 2008 online parent survey. You can find the link to the survey at our homepage www.daphneelementarysouth.com under the ‘Spotlight’ section.

Project Jubilee continues to recycle used laser and inkjet print cartridges, old cell phones, PDAs, iPods, digital cameras, laptops computers, video game systems and video games. We are able to redeem the equipment for points that can be used to purchase technology equipment and classroom supplies. The items can be dropped off at the school office. We welcome local businesses that might want to sponsor our school in this recycling effort. Please contact Mrs. Blair Heald through the school office if you have any questions.

Don’t forget to clip and save Campbell’s Soup UPC codes as well as other labels and send them to our PE Department.

To find out what other product UPC codes can be saved visit the Web site: www.labelsforeducation.com.

Our PE Department is also collecting Box Tops for Education. Many General Mills and Pillsbury products have box tops to cut. To find out what products to buy visit these two sites: www.boxtops4education.com and www.tyson.com/projectaplus.