Cheetah Pride Press!

Dear Families,

The calendar turns to February next week, and we are looking forward to all that this month has in store! February is full of dates that have us feeling the love….. World Read Aloud Day on February 2nd, Valentine’s Day on February 14th, Random Acts of Kindness Day on February 17th, and Black History month all month long! We are confident that this month’s positive vibes will see us through the rest of the winter season, no matter what the groundhog says! Please encourage your child to scatter kindness around all month!

Classroom Tidbits:

Preschool- worked on the letter N and M. They learned how to form it and write it. They learned the sound it makes.

Kindergarten--writers used all they know to select and revise a piece to publish. They made their pieces beautiful to get ready for publication by focusing on endings with feelings.

Grade 1- students focused on hooking the reader by writing catchy introductions and snazzy conclusions! One way we do this is by asking and telling the reader to do something.

Grade 2-is producing wonderful pieces of poetry. One of the things they are working on is including comparisons in their poems. They are learning that these comparisons are called, "similes and metaphors."

Grade 3- students brainstormed ideas for opinion pieces using a graphic organizer prior to drafting a piece of writing

Joey & Andrea

A friendly reminder that morning student drop off is a "drop and go" process. We ask that you please drop your student off and exit without leaving your vehicle. It is important that we are considerate to all the people in the process, the traffic is flowing, and the drop off occurs in a timely manner.

The following items should be ready by the time you approach the cross walk:

• Coats on
• Backpacks ready
• Masks on
• Hugs and kisses given

If you need more time you are welcome to drive to the back of the building where you may park and walk your child to the front door. If you arrive after 8:40am, staff will not be at the cross walk. Please park and walk your child in so they receive a late slip to give to their classroom teacher.

Memorial Models are chosen weekly by their teacher and have excelled all week in taking care of themselves, others, and things.

This month we are working on our Profile of Graduate Principle, Confidence.

During morning announcements we are educating students that confidence is feeling sure about yourself and your abilities! Staff will assist students in building confidence through their daily learning, self reflection, and risk taking.

Linked is a video you can watch with your child that encourages, teaches and explains how to let one's confidence shine.

Lets work together to help our children, "believe in themselves!"

Hi everybody, we hope you are having a great start to 2022 and enjoying the snow and winter environment!

The children have been doing a great job with our basketball and ball skills using our hands unit and our classroom expectations. We work every class on fitness, flexibility, power and strength, and balance as our warm up.

We are finishing up our dribbling, passing, and shooting skills assessment, and our Basketball Shooting Fitness Club for our older grades. As we evaluate our students some of the things we look for are effort, willingness to try a new skill, cooperation, fun and enjoyment, and skill development. We have baskets of all different heights to accommodate all our students so they can enjoy the skill development and have success at each skill and level. We also have basketballs of different sizes and weights, as well as a big assortment of rubber playground balls as well. We have a ball and hoop for every child to enjoy and have success.

PreK and K: we focused on dribbling, bouncing and catching, tossing and catching, doing these various skills while moving, and of course some fun challenges with the ball. We also worked on on passing, against the wall and with a partner, and some various eye- hand coordination skill work. For the shooting section we worked with lower height baskets and shooting the ball with two hands from the chest, “jump and push” was a familiar phrase the students heard from us!

Grade 1: Same as PreK and K plus more dribbling skill work, both kneeling, moving, and in more restricted spaces. We had a challenging, yet fun dribbling assessment which even included some dribbling with our eyes closed (while kneeling)! Using both hands and alternating hands were practiced. The chest pass and bounce pass was our focus with partners, stressing teamwork and cooperation with various partners. The shooting work continued at the lower heights and progressed, for the students that were comfortable, able, and wanted to, to the slightly higher six baskets.

Grade 2 and 3: Similar skill progression and development from grade one, really focusing on individual improvement, success, and feeling of accomplishment in the higher levels skills and assessments. Dribbling work included right/left/alternating skills while moving and looking around at others as they changed direction and speeds. We also worked on behind the back (spinning around) and between the legs (ball going down and leg going up over the ball), as well as two ball dribbling with various challenges to work on. Many individual challenges and skills were worked on from the kneeling position, standing stationary, and while moving. Passing focused on the chest, bounce, two hands over the head, and passing multiple balls between partners to increase eye- hand coordination, hand speed, and kinesthetic awareness (not to mention that the challenges are fun to try, practice, and master!). For shooting we worked on the jump shot and layup stressing good form and proper technique. Shooting games were continued, with new games introduced. The students ended our basketball unit with the Basketball Shooting Fitness Club where they had one minute to try to score as many points as they could with cooperative partners who encouraged them, helped “coach” them, rebound for them, and kept score for them. It was a great time and fun way to end our basketball unit.

There seems to be a pretty big number of students playing Park and Recreation basketball this winter, which is great if they are able to, and we hope our unit in PE class helped them with their skills and confidence!

As we move forward towards the end of Jan. and into Feb. we will begin our cooperative games unit, the next round of PE Fitness Clubs, our scooter unit, and into beachball volleyball as we continue with ball skills units using our hands.

Have a great Feb., enjoy the outdoors and snow and time with your family being active and healthy!

Coach Ruel

Coach Boscarino

Grade one is collecting Valentines cards for senior citizens in our community this year! Students around the building are creating Valentines Day cards. This year their goal is to collect even more cards than last year so they can deliver to more towns!

The due date for Valentines Day cards to be submitted is February 11th.

Do you have a vehicle or work for a company that has a cool truck or car?

Would you be willing to volunteer at Touch a Truck at Memorial school from 10am-1pm on March 27th?

If so please contact Stacey Gibson at sgibson@easthamptonct.org

We would love the support of the community for this event.

TOUCH-A-TRUCK will be for the whole community of East Hampton to have a hands-on interactive experience with a variety of vehicles parked in Memorial school’s parking lot.

Donations to attend support PreK experiences at Memorial school.

Dear parents/guardians,

Please send in a spare change of seasonal appropriate clothing to keep in your child's classroom. If your child prefers a particular type of mask please send in a spare, so it can be kept with their change of clothes, but know we have medical masks available for anyone that needs one.

COVID Information

As I am sure most of you are aware, the quarantine and isolation guidelines have changed once again. Please see the East Hampton updates below. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. People with these symptoms may have COVID-19:

Fever or chills

Cough

Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

Fatigue

Muscle or body aches

Headache

New loss of taste or smell

Sore throat

Congestion or runny nose

Nausea or vomiting

Diarrhea

IF SYMPTOMS ARE PRESENT:

Those students and staff who are fully vaccinated or not vaccinated and have any symptoms should isolate at

home and get tested with a self-test or at a testing site.

• If test is negative, return to school when fever-free for a least 24 hours and symptoms have improved.
• If test is positive, isolate for 5 days after start of symptoms, and return to school on day 6 as long as fever-free for a least 24 hours and symptoms have improved. (5 days is indicated in the new CDC guidelines.)

NO SYMPTOMS PRESENT:

Those students and staff who are fully vaccinated or not vaccinated who are asymptomatic (NO symptoms)

and have positive test results should isolate at home.

• Isolate for 5 days after test results and return to school on day 6 as long there continue to be no symptoms.

CLOSE CONTACT outside of SCHOOL:

Those students and staff who are fully vaccinated and DO NOT have symptoms:

• Continue with in person learning.
• Recommended: Test for COVID-19 with a self-test or at a testing site 5 days after the exposure.

Those students and staff who are not vaccinated and DO NOT have symptoms:

• Quarantine at home from school and all activities for 5 days from the last exposure.
• Test for COVID-19 with a self-test or at a testing site.
• If the positive individual is a parent, the unvaccinated student must wait for their parent to complete their 5 day isolation before their 5 day quarantine begins. Testing on day 5 after last exposure to the positive individual.

Continued Reminders

*With the colder weather here, please make sure your child also has a coat, gloves and a hat labeled with their names. The nurse's office has very limited clothing to spare in case a change or spare is needed.

*We also ask that you bring a labeled water bottle for your child and they can fill it up throughout the day in the water filling stations as needed.

Please reach out with any questions or concerns!

Thank you,

Nurse Katie and Miss Michelle

School Nurse

Memorial Elementary School

20 Smith Street

East Hampton, CT 06424

Phone 860-365-4020 / Fax 860-365-4024

kwilliams@easthamptonct.org / https://www.easthamptonps.org/o/memorial-school

Winter may have just begun, but it is never to early to register for Little League!

East Hampton Little League will be moving to a new website as of January 1, 2022. You can follow the link below or find the link in the attached instructions. Although registration will not open until Jan 1st, we would love for you to create an account so that we can contact you via email with registration reminders and what not.

If you or somebody you know can't afford registration fees or equipment please reach out to me at ehllpres@gmail.com, we have resources to help. If a child is not playing baseball or softball this year it won't be because they couldn't afford it.

Happy Holidays from your friends at the EHLL!

https://clubs.bluesombrero.com/default.aspx?portalid=53644

2/1- Black History Month

2/2- Groundhog's Day, Global School Play Day, and World Read Aloud Day

2/4- Winter Olympics Begin Spirt Day ( Wear red, white, and blue)

2/7 -100th Day of School

2/14-2/17 Celebrating Kindness Spirit Week

2/14- Valentine's Day- spirit Day Wear Hearts

2/15 Wear Read or Pink

2/16- Dress to Impress

2/17- I LOVE comfortable clothes

2/18- Professional Development Day- No School

2/21- President's Day

2/22-District Holiday

2/25- Cheetah Pride Day- Wear your Memorial School Gear or blue and yellow!

• Please reference the most recent guidance document from Paul Smith.
• The Connecticut General Assembly gave the Governor authority to extend Executive Orders through February 15, 2022. Executive Order No. 9, Section 1, and Executive Order No. 13A, provides the authority to require masks in schools, childcare facilities, and certain higher-risk settings, as well as providing municipal authority to require universal masking in certain settings.
• If a student is quarantined, asynchronous assignments will be provided and communicated by your student's teacher.
• Volunteers and guest speakers are welcomed in the building. All volunteers and guest speakers who enter classrooms, hallways, or other areas where children are located will be required to be vaccinated or submit testing results upon entering the school.

The school community of East Hampton is committed to the mission of honoring and celebrating the diversity of our students, our community, and our nation. We strive to guide our students to conscious, deliberate, individual and collective actions that cultivate the respect of all races, religions, and social backgrounds. Our school community endeavors to produce graduates who are equipped with a greater understanding of the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The East Hampton Board of Education, in compliance with federal and state law, affirms its policy of equal educational opportunity for all students and equal employment opportunity for all persons. It is the policy of the District to promote nondiscrimination and an environment free of harassment regardless of an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, ancestry, disability (including but not limited to, intellectual disability, past or present history of mental disorder, physical disability, or learning disability), genetic information, marital status, or age or because of the race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, ancestry, disability, genetic information, marital status, or age of any persons with whom the individual associates. The District shall provide to all students without discrimination, course offerings, counseling, assistance, employment, athletics, and extracurricular activities. The District shall provide equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The District shall make reasonable accommodations for identified physical and mental impairments that constitute disabilities, consistent with federal and state statutes and regulations.

Email: jbauer@easthamptonct.org
Website: https://www.easthamptonps.org/o/memorial-school
Location: 20 Smith Street, East Hampton, CT, USA
Phone: 860-365-4020
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ehmemorialschool