Rocket Wrap Up

November Newsletter

Season of Thanks

Dear Families,

November is one of my favorite months because it helps me slow down and really think of the many things and experiences we have to be grateful for. I find myself this year being extremely grateful for normal! After the last three academic years that have been anything but normal, we have had the great opportunity to experience a little bit of what life was like before the pandemic. It has been refreshing and nostalgic at the same time.

A few other things that I find myself grateful for so far this school year:

Smiles and good mornings each day when students get off the bus (and the good byes and still smiles when they leave in the afternoon!)
Heat!
The amazing hard work at individualizing that our staff does each day to work with your children.
Our PTO and the support they give us each and every day
Books and reading--the experiences that these give each of us!

Your teachers and staff have been focusing on several pillars this year to carry out our mission: Learning, Safety, Partnerships, and Fiscal Responsibility.

A few of the ways we are doing this are:

Learning--Teachers of math in grades 2 - 5 have started working with an additional program called Reflex to help students automate math fact fluency for each student. Each student is working at their level and working to earn a "green light" each day for their work and improvement in these important facts.
Safety--Staff has been introduced to Second Step, a social emotional program that will focus on helping students develop skills for success. Students in grades K - 5 will take part in lessons each week on similar, age appropriate topics to cover topics such as Growth Mindset and Goal Setting, Emotion Management, Empathy and Kindness, and Problem Solving. More information about this focus will be included each month in our newsletter (see below for this month's information!)
Partnerships--With the introduction of our 21st Century Grant, we are continuing to seek out and foster additional community partnerships. This includes volunteers and community members that are willing to come in to our building during the day or during after school hours to work with and assist our students and teachers. If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out to me and we can add you to our volunteer database and ensure you have all of the appropriate paperwork on file!
Fiscal Responsibility--Our staff continues to seek out ways to provide innovative and worthwhile opportunities for students in the most fiscally responsible way possible. You may see some additional requests for donations and/or support to help support some of these initiatives. We continue to work with the District Treasurer and Superintendent to align all of our initiatives with the above pillars and appropriate budget support.

We look forward to continuing to work toward our mission together, and serving our students and community. Please do not hesitate to reach out to your child's teacher for any help or assistance!

Yours in Education,

Jess Parthemore, Ed.S.

Principal

Ridgedale Elementary

Congratulations--Fire Safety Coloring Contest

Congratulations to the following students for winning the coloring contest for the Salt Rock Township Fire Department and were awarded a $5 McDonalds gift card each:

Heath Braumiller (absent), Nash Braumiller, Karrah Austin, Merina Bosley, Lina Perez & Emma Richmond

Congratulations Silas Meade!

Silas Meade is the first 5th grader to be 100% fluent in 0 - 12 multiplication AND division facts!

Second Step

We want your child to be successful in school and that means supporting and encouraging their whole development. While excelling in academic classes is important, children also need skills to take on learning challenges, make good decisions, manage strong emotions, and get along with others.

Starting November 7th, we will be Second Step Elementary, a research-based social-emotional learning program designed to improve children's social-emotional skills. Second Step skills and concepts are designed to help children both in and out of school. Four units will cover the following:

Growth Mindset & Goal Setting: Children learn how to pay attention and manage distractions, develop a growth mindset, and apply goal-setting strategies to their social and academic lives.
Emotion Management: Children learn how to identify and label emotions and use emotion-management strategies--including stress management for older students--to calm strong feelings.
Empathy & Kindness: Children learn how to recognize kindness and act kindly, have empathy for others and take others' perspectives, and recognize kind acts and empathy as important elements of building and maintaining relationships.
Problem-Solving: Children learn how to identify and state a problem, recognize if a problem is an accident, and use the STEP problem-solving process:

S: Say the Problem

T: Think of solutions

E: Explore the outcomes

P: Pick a solution

You'll receive communication from your child's teacher to help you reinforce Second Step language, skills, and goals at home. If you have any questions about Second Step Elementary, please don't hesitate to contact me or your child's teacher for more information. Thank you for your support as we work to build a safe and supportive school community.

Additional Information about the program can be found here.

Unit 1 Home Links can be found here for each grade level. Unit 1 will take place over 5 weeks, beginning November 7th.

Art Club!

Art Club began in the month of October and has been a huge success. Students have been learning about and painting with primary and secondary colors, focusing on perspective, line, form, and blending, while introducing different mediums and artists.

zoom_out_map

4th & 5th Grade Science

Mrs. Campbell’s 4th and 5th grade science classes completed a Halloween Glow lab. Students were trying to answer the question, how does water temperature affect glow stick brightness. They learned that thermal energy speeds up the chemical reaction in the glow sticks and causes them to glow brighter.

Old Instruments Lying Around?

zoom_out_map

Do you have an old trumpet or trombone laying around? Flute? Clarinet?

If you have an old, but still is good working condition, instrument that you are no longer using/needing, please consider donating it to our music/band program!

We would like to improve our inventory of spare/pre-used instruments for students that are not financially able to rent or purchase an instrument for band.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and donations!

Fall/Winter Fundraiser

Our Fall/Winter Fundraiser will kick off on November 4th. Order forms and information will be sent home with students that day.

Orders may be taken online or with the paper catalog. Checks (made payable to Ridgedale Schools) or cash are accepted with the paper version or you may pay with a card through the online catalog.

Money raised from the fundraiser assists with paying for rewards, incentives, and various student activities and materials throughout the year.

PTO News

zoom_out_map

The PTO Spirit Sale is live now! The last day to order is November 13th.

Please click on the link here or scan the QR code to order: https://ridgedalepto23.itemorder.com/

Counselor Corner

Over the next several months, Miss Warwick will be sharing tips for parents to help teach responsibility for their child's learning and behavior. We have to teach our children what it means to be responsible and how to go about doing this. Being responsible is not something they can learn on their own. As adults, we need to model the behaviors we want our children to learn.

November is goal setting. Here is what you can do:

Teach your child how to set goals:

Help your child identify one goal to work on per week
Have your child write the goal down and post it on the refrigerator
Talk with your child about how to accomplish this goal
Throughout the week, check the progress of goal attainment
At the end of the week, help your child evaluate how well he/she did
Praise your child for trying. Set a new goal for next week!

Afternoon Dismissal

Please send a note to the office or call the office whenever there is a change from your child's regular dimissal schedule. Our staff will follow your selected dismissal path unless we hear otherwise.

Buses are released at around 3:10 each day (after the Tri Rivers shuttle returns), so it is often too late to get someone off the bus or put them on the bus if we do not know about it before dismissal begins (and not that we don't trust your child, but sometimes they want to go home the opposite way that they are supposed to and will try to make that choice for us :-)).

Thank you for your help with this!

Stay Safe Speak Up Safer Schools

Ridgedale Schools has partnered with PublicSchoolWorks to offer the Safer Schools site to help with student safety reporting.

You can now use this to report any concerns that you may have. PublicSchoolWorks monitors these reports 24/7. If there is anything that is especially concerning, administration is immediately called to begin to address the concern. If it is not considered an immediate need, administration will receive an email notification to address the situation the following day at school. Please see below for screenshots (they are also hyperlinked to be able to direct you directly to the site).

You may always access the site from the Ridgedale website and app.

open_in_new zoom_out_map

What do I do if my child is absent?

Daily, consistent attendance is crucial for your student's development and academic growth. The State of Ohio has establish attendance law that requires us to track student attendance, notify you when your student is not present at school, and notify you if your student meets certain attendance thresholds. Please see the document here for more information about attendance law.

Sick

If you child is sick, please call the office or send an email to Mrs. Shumaker (cshumaker@ridgedaleschools.org). If you take your child to the doctor or urgent care, please send the school excuse in to school (paper form or email).

This will be an excused absence.

Medical Appointment

If your student has a medical appointment (doctor, dentist, counseling, etc.), please send the school excuse (paper form or email) in to the school.

This will be an excused absence.

Vacation/Planned Absence

As we approach the holidays--please keep this in mind!

If your family has a planned absence, please send a note/email in to the school before the absence. This allows our staff the opportunity to provide work or materials for your student and allows for the absence to be an excused absence.

Any vacations or planned absences that are not notified before the absence occurs will be not be excused absences.

Volunteers

If you are wishing to volunteer at any point during the school year (field trips, special events, field day, etc.) a current BCI background check is required. Please call the office for more information.

Ohio Governor's Imagination Library

Do you have a child under 5 at home? Do you know a family that has children under 5?

The Imagination Library, offered through the Ohio Governor's Office, Marion Public Library, and Dolly Parton's Imagination Library provides a FREE book for any child under 5 that is signed up, each month!

If you are interested in signing up, please use the QR code below or download the sign up form. This program is free for all who participate!

"The single most important factor influencing a child's early educational success is an introduction to books and being read to at home prior to beginning school."