Cheetah Pride Press

Joey & Andrea

Families,

February brings many exciting events, including the opening of Smart Start’s Cheetah Pride Post Office, the 100th Day of School, and Groundhog’s Day. On Friday, we will all anxiously wait to see what the groundhog says about the arrival of spring! Between the arctic temperatures last week, and the rainy weather over the last few days, I think the Groundhog is going to be very confused.

We hope everyone is able to get in some outdoor time before more inclement weather begins on Sunday. Think sunny thoughts!

Joey & Andrea

On Monday students enjoyed a fine dining experience in the cafeteria. Thank you to the many volunteers, cafeteria workers and Kate Caselli for making this event magical.

On Tuesday, January 23rd Grade 3 students celebrated the half way mark of the school year. They dressed up with halfway outfits and completed halfway activities.

On Monday our Unified Sports Team played Octopus Tag.

Students gathered for our monthly assembly where we celebrated the many things students WONDERED about this month. It is a time for our school community to celebrate the hard work we complete each and every day by having a dance off with our Cheetah Mascot, playing Minute to Win-It games with our teachers, and showcasing student work!

A PAWsitive office referral is submitted when a staff member recognizes a student who is going above and beyond to exemplify one of our three school rules - taking care of others, taking care of self, & taking care of things.

Meet Hannah!

Her teacher is Mrs. Hennessy.

She is special because she is a cheerleader.

Animals are her favorite things.

She wanted to be on student council to help lead the school.

She loves that everyone at school is nice.

Memorial School received a beautiful gift from the East Hampton Arts and Culture Commission. The commission gifted Memorial School with a piece of artwork that they purchased through their annual art purchase award initiative. It was created by East Hampton artist, Geralyn Yocher. This art award program helps support local artists financially and shares their work with the community by installing it in public spaces. Lucky for us, this lovely painting will now live in the Memorial School lobby. We appreciate the commission’s generous gift!

This past month has welcomed the true beauty of winter! I have been thrilled to hear stories from students that tell how they appreciate the aesthetics of winter. They marvel at the branches coated with snow, the way the snow reflects the sky, and the beautiful little snowflakes that fall around them. Students tell me all of the fun to be had in the snow, with snowman building, snowball throwing, and sledding. These anecdotes have filled the art room with excitement, wonder, and inspiration for creating art during this special time of year! Over the next few months, feel free to email me special photos of you and your child(ren) creating masterpieces in the SNOW! I will display those photos proudly in the art room to further celebrate this magical time of year filled with artistic and creative potential.

Below you will find the classroom expectations for each grade level over the past month during art class:

Prek and kindergarten students have been working with CLAY! We examined clay closely, smelled it, felt it, shaped and formed it, attached clay together, and created our very own ceramic sculptures. We have created all sorts of snow creatures! There are snowmen, snowladies, snow animals, snow dinosaurs, snow unicorns, snow monsters, and even snow families! These little artists have been so creative while sculpting and arranging their clay forms. We are currently waiting for the clay sculptures to dry and be fired so that we can glaze them! We can’t wait to bring them home! So while we are waiting, we are also learning how to make symmetrical SNOWFLAKES!

First graders have been working incredibly hard on learning the color wheel and certain specific color families: primary colors, secondary colors, and tints and shades. Ask your child how to make the secondary colors! And the best way to practice is to go for it, and mix some paint! We have refined our painting skills and are now synthesizing the appropriate brush for certain techniques. Some paintbrushes will make our job as an artist much more difficult, or much easier, depending on what we are doing with our painting. We then took our tints and shades (light and dark colors) to create moody, reflective snowy “winter wonderlands”. It was so exciting to share some actual scenes of actual snow out the window to the children as they painted!

Second graders have been shifting their artistic mindset to think in 3D! We are learning different ways to shape paper, in order to create our paper mache sculptures into FOOD! We recognized that there are specific ways to manipulate and form paper, in order to achieve certain results, for example; twisting the end of a cylinder a little to change it to a cone, folding a flat, long rectangle then bending it into a short wide cylinder, or bend and fold to make rectangular and triangular prisms. We will be covering our forms in paper mache, to make a hard and paintable surface over the next few weeks! We can’t wait to show you our amazing “food” sculptures of epic proportions!

Third grade students have finally reached the halfway point for choice art! We took an assessment to check in and show what we know about the art supplies and the art subjects we have been learning and diving into during choice art class. Students are continuing to amaze me with their unique and authentic creative minds. We all have our own ideas, and those ideas are celebrated and expanded upon during each choice art class. There are many students who are on track to reach our goal of making six choice art projects that capture and demonstrate the 6 main art subjects! Some students are making a plan on how to stay on track, and there are a few students who have already surpassed their goal! Taking time to assess where each child is on their artistic journey has been a great way to have a conversation and further guide each child to success during choice art!

Congratulations to this months artists of the month!

Cody Ellis

Meara St George

Charlie Winkler

Avery Hafele

Danika Bernier

Oliver Smith

Andie Glascoff

Eric Kaplan

Classroom teachers have been working on incorporating Interactive Read Alouds into their daily instruction. They are using Interactive Read Alouds as an instructional tool to enhance vocabulary.

This article was written a few years ago but still has many helpful tips for doing an Interactive Read Aloud at home with your child along with some great suggestions for read aloud texts. Interactive Read Alouds: Tips for Parents and Caregivers

Month Of February is African/American History Month

2/6- Tentative 100th Day of School

2/7- Global Play Day: Kindergarten

2/7- World Read Aloud Day

2/7- School Counselor Appreication Day

2/14- Valentine's Day

2/15- Brain Show

2/16-Professional Learning Day = No School For Students

2/19-2/120- President's Break No School

In celebration of the 100th day of school in early February, grade one students will be collecting the following items for the local food bank. We are hoping to collect 100 items of each! (Please do not send in canned vegetables as the food bank has an abundance of this items and limited storage space).

• Tuna
• Baked beans
• Oatmeal
• Coffee & Tea
• Peanut butter & Jelly
• Pasta & Pasta sauce
• Instance rice & Instant potatoes
• Mac and Cheese
• Soup & Canned meals (ex: Chef-boyardee)
• Snacks

We realize our goal is lofty, but the need in our community is great. If you are able to make a donation, please send it in BEFORE February 1st. Thank you for supporting our loving community here in East Hampton!

Grade One Teachers

Dear Families of Memorial Elementary Students,

This is an important update! We are asking for your assistance in helping keep our school healthy and safe. We have been experiencing a surge in stomach bug, coughing, strep throat, pink eye and fevers as well as several covid cases. If your child tests positive for covid or any illness, please inform the nurse office asap as we track all illnesses. Positive covid cases should stay home for 5 days and can return on day 6 as long as it has been 24 hour fever free without medication. It is also encouraged to wear a mask for days 6-10 while at school.

We have also recently had several food items brought in to share in classrooms. Please be aware that non food treats are encouraged. If food items are brought into school for sharing, it needs to be store bought, prepackaged and made in a nut free facility and the school nurse must be notified at least 24 hours in advance.

Please consider the following guidelines, provided by the school nurse, for sending students to school:

• Consider keeping your child at home for an extra day of rest and observation if he or she has any of the following symptoms:

• Very stuffy or runny nose and/or cough
• Mild sore throat (no fever, no known exposure to strep)
• Mild headache and/or stomachache
• Fatigue

Definitely keep your child at home for treatment and observation if he or she has any of these symptoms and remember the 24 hour rule:

• Fever (greater than 100 degrees. May return to school after 24 hours of no fever WITHOUT fever reducing medications)
• Vomiting (Even once. Must wait 24 hours after last vomit episode to return to school)
• Diarrhea (Must wait 24 hours after last episode to return to school)
• Chills
• General malaise or feelings of fatigue, discomfort, weakness, and/or muscle aches
• Frequent congested, wet, or croupy cough
• Lots of nasal congestion with frequent blowing of nose
• redness and discharge from one or both eyes

To help prevent the flu and other colds, please remind your child(ren) about good hygiene habits:

• Wash hands frequently
• Do not touch eyes, nose, or mouth
• Cover mouth and nose when sneezing/coughing and then wash hands
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick

Often when a child awakens with vague complaints (the way colds and flu begin) it is wise to observe your child at home for an hour or two before deciding whether or not to bring them to school. Your child should be physically able to participate in all school activities on returning to school. Keeping a sick child at home will minimize the spread of infections and viruses in the classroom. We use our nursing assessment and judgment when students come into the nurse office and make calls home as we deem necessary. Thank you in advance for helping to make this year at school as healthy as possible.

*Please also update emergency contact information! In case of an emergency or in instances where your child needs to be dismissed from school, it is extremely important that we be able to reach someone on the contact list. We have also been having trouble with parent voicemail boxes that are full and we are unable to leave a message.

Please also make sure to have a spare change of seasonally appropriate clothing for your child to keep in their cubbies!!

Remember to notify the nurse's office if your child has been diagnosed with any illness (or injury). The nurse tracks illnesses and will send a note home to the class if there are 2 or more cases in the classroom. If your child has an injury that has activity restrictions, please share with the nurse's office so we are aware and can notify appropriate staff members. We want to keep our students healthy and safe and your cooperation is needed to do so. We appreciate your assistance.

Kindly,

The Health Office Team,

Nurse Katie and Miss Michelle

Please contact your child’s pediatrician first. If unable to be seen, here is a list of

local walk in/urgent care locations if unable to be seen by pediatrician:

CVS Minute Clinic, East Hampton 866-389-2727

ProHealth Extended Hours, Glastonbury 657-5940

Middlesex Health Urgent Care, Middletown 860-358-4170

Colchester Urgent Care 860-531-9749

The East Hampton Board of Education and the school community as a whole promote a secure and productive school climate, conducive to teaching and learning that is free from threat, harassment, and any type of bullying behavior. Therefore it shall be the policy of the Board that bullying and/or teen dating violence committed against a student by another student is prohibited. The Board believes that a school environment in which students feel safe, supported, engaged and helpfully challenged is optimal for learning and healthy development. The Board seeks an environment in which students and adults feel socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically safe; an environment that is free of harassment, intimidation, teen dating violence and bullying. Our website provides links to various policies and reporting forms including our Safe School Climate Plan. Hard copies are also available in our main office. If at any point you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to building administration for further assistance.

When considering the number of absences your student has accrued, keep in mind that a student must be present for 195 minutes in order for the day to count! When bringing your student in late, or signing them out early if they have not been in school for a 195 minutes the day will be recorded as an absence.

Memorial School Attendance email:

memorial_attendance@easthamptonct.org * there is an _ between memorial and attendance!

Students, parents, and community members have access to an anonymous tip line on the front page of the school district website to report self-concerns, mental health concerns of a friend, or concerns of violence. Simply click here or view on the website: https://www.easthamptonps.org/.

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