Cheetah Pride Press!

Families,

This was a crazy weather week, so our learners were not able to get outside as often as we’d hoped. However, we ended the week with our first Cheetah Pride assemblies of the school year; and we were able to shake out some energy during our Cheetah Pride dance party. It was so great to come together as a school community to share our spirit and positivity. The cafe was full of joy! Our monthly assemblies are used to foster community, reinforce school rules, celebrate success, and introduce our Profile of The Graduate (POG) skills. Once a skill has been introduced, it remains the focus for the following month. All members of our school community help reinforce the monthly skill. While we focused on school rules and bus expectations today, we will begin introducing our POG skills in October. First up…. TEAMWORK!

Have a lovely weekend!

Joey & Andrea

With all the crazy weather this week Mr. Gowac was able to capture this rainbow over Memorial School.

Cheetah Pride Assemblies are held monthly. They are a time for the building to gather as a community to build our culture and climate. We celebrate all the hard work students have completed throughout the month. Usually our assemblies are held at the end of the month, but we had this assembly early, so we could review our 3 school rules, bus and bathroom expectations. Staff modeled how to play Minute to Win-It with a game called 3 Rule Bounce. Our students will earn the chance to participate in the monthly Minute to Win-It games at future assemblies.

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.

All of the students have come to visit the art room during the first few weeks of September! We have practiced our rules, routines, and procedures! We have read inspirational books like “I’m the Best Artist in the Ocean” by Kevin Sherry, and “Sky Color” by Peter H. Reynolds. We are getting to know each other and what makes artists so special. We are also diving into the world of art MEDIA, and we have begun our very first art units for this school year!

Art lessons are designed with MEDIA in mind, to correspond with the East Hampton Public Schools K-12 Visual Arts Curriculum and the National Core Arts Standards.

I want my students to know how to manipulate and synthesize the various art mediums available to them throughout the school year in order to have their most authentic artistic experiences. Student choice is so important when creating art, and all of the students get to make their own decisions when creating their masterpieces. By the time students reach third grade, all third graders will participate in a “Choice Art” classroom, where they design their own artistic learning path to master all art media!

For our first projects of the school year, students are learning, exploring and creating with the following art units:

Prek/K: My First Self Portrait and The Wheels on the Bus Collage: we also read the books “I’m the Best Artist in the Ocean” by Kevin Sherry, and “School Bus” by Donald Crews. We are learning how to look for shapes on familiar things, like a BUS! We sang “The wheels on the bus!”. We learned scissor safety and how to cut straight across in order to make windows and bus shapes! Afterwards, we used crayon to add any details we wanted to complete our Bus collages!

1st Grade: A Still Life Masterpiece: We selected our own special objects from home for our masterpieces. We are learning how to make our objects look like they are sitting on a table (overlapping). We are learning how to draw shapes, and contours (the outside shape of an object), and include all of the details we see! We looked at artist Pablo Picasso’s painting “Bull Skull, Fruit, Pitcherl” 1939 for inspiration and to wonder why an artist might want to make a “Still Life” work of art.

2nd Grade: Under the Sea Landscape Drawing: We learned overlapping/foreground/middleground/background to create SPACE in a drawing. We will be painting our sketches next week! We looked at artist David Miller’s painting “Jewels of the Sea”. We also watched a clip from the new “Little Mermaid” for inspiration! We listened to and watched the part with the song “Under the Sea”, where the creatures of the sea are all dancing and moving exuberantly through the coral reef.

3rd Grade: Self Portraits with Proportion--“Who is Mona Lisa? Who is Leonardo Da Vinci?”. We are learning how to utilize the guidelines Leonardo Da Vinci created to place facial features in realistic, measured places on the human face (proportion). We talked about the history behind Mona Lisa and why this painting is so important!

Please reach out any time through my email, parentsquare, or phone as the year progresses!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Vining

Art Teacher, Memorial School

860-365-4020/ cvining@easthamptonct.org

Ms. Andrea Winiarski is the district K-5 Math/Science Coordinator and 3-5 Math Specialist. This is her fifth year in East Hampton after previously working as a classroom teacher and instructional coach in East Hartford. She is very excited about our K-5 math program, Bridges in Mathematics, and can’t wait for students to explore new concepts and hear the amazing mathematical discourse that will soon echo in the halls. Ms. Winiarski works at both Memorial and Center and enjoys working with students across the district. Her favorite thing about math is encouraging all mathematicians to find multiple ways to solve problems and show different ways of thinking.

Mrs. Elisabeth Ellis is the K-2 Math Specialist. This is her sixth year in East Hampton after previously working as a classroom teacher in Middletown. Prior to becoming a math specialist, she taught kindergarten, grade 1 and grade 5. Mrs. Ellis has always had a passion for math. She loves being able to go into different classrooms to talk with Memorial Mathematicians. Her favorite thing about math is using manipulatives to show her thinking. Keep an eye out around town for Mrs. Ellis and her three children who are always busy with sports!

Mrs. Abby Skarvelas is the 2-3 Literacy Specialist, and ELA Team Leader at Memorial School. This is her ninth year in East Hampton where she also spent her time as a second grade teacher. Before joining the Memorial team, she was a literacy coach and first grade teacher in New Haven. Her favorite thing about Memorial is the sense of community and the smiles she sees on students’ faces every day. Reading is her passion and she enjoys working to find ways to meet the needs of all learners. This year, she is looking forward to supporting teachers with piloting new literacy programs. When she is not at school, her daughters Alexandra (age 4 ½) and Ellie (age 3) keep her very busy!

Mrs. Kerry Liebler is the K-1 Literacy Specialist at Memorial. This is her third year in East Hampton. Prior to that, she was a classroom teacher and instructional coach in East Hartford. Mrs. Liebler enjoys getting into the classrooms and engaging with students during their literacy activities. She especially enjoys an interactive read aloud. Mrs. Liebler is looking forward to meeting the needs of the students with a new intervention program this school year. In her free time, you can find Mrs. Liebler curled up with a good book!

MATH AND LITERACY INTERVENTION SERVICES

The East Hampton Public Schools uses assessment data to measure student growth and skill development in both math and literacy. Through universal assessments, the reading and math department identifies students who may need additional tiers of support to demonstrate grade level skill attainment. Our reading and math department started meeting with students for additional support based on spring data the week of September 11th. Once our fall assessments are completed, we will review student needs to determine changes to services or groupings of students. The reading and math department communicates directly with families regarding any additional services.

Mrs. Wendy Sturmer has been working as a paraeducator at Memorial for sixteen years. She loves teaching literacy and math to students in grades K-3. Her favorite thing about Memorial is the relationships she makes with students in her groups and watching them utilize what they are learning, making progress, and becoming self-assured and confident young learners each and every day. When she is not at Memorial, she can be found enjoying time with family and friends, traveling, and cuddling with one of her two kitty cats.

Mrs. Alexis Tammaro joined the Memorial Cheetahs in 2021 as a Math and Literacy Paraeducator. She’s really excited to kick off the new school year with our young learners, and is especially excited to engage students in the Bridges into Mathematics and S.P.I.R.E programs. Mrs. Tammaro really enjoys her time with the students, helping them grow, encouraging them to learn something new every day, and to not give up on themselves! She has two children who also attend Memorial, and is so excited to be a part of the community more. You can usually catch Mrs. Tammaro enjoying the outdoors with her family either on their boat, or exploring our beautiful state parks. She has a passion for always learning new things, be it with trying new recipes or helping her husband build something for the house.

Mrs. Linda Glaude is a Literacy and Math Paraeducator. This is her twenty-sixth year at Memorial. Her favorite thing about Memorial is how the staff collaborates and builds the confidence of all our young learners. She especially enjoys the occasions when a student has an “aha” moment when they discover that they can solve a problem that once was difficult. She is looking forward to welcoming new friends to the Reading Center and Math Lab this year. In her free time she can often be found walking with her dog on the airline trail or enjoying some kayaking adventures. She also loves reading books and spending time with her granddaughter.

Mrs. Nicole Tammaro-Arndt joined the Memorial School literacy department 2 years ago. Her favorite thing about her role is being able to instill confidence in her students that hopefully follows them throughout their educational career. When not at school, you can find Mrs. Tammaro at her home trying to perfect recipes, hosting family gatherings, walking around our beautiful lake or playing outside with her 11 year old son!

Mrs. Sarah Moore-Riddell has worked for Memorial as a literacy paraeducator for 6 years. She really enjoys working with kids in smaller groups, helping them persevere with new concepts. This year she gets to be involved with math groups and supporting the Bridges program with enthusiasm and eagerness. Mrs. Moore-Riddell especially feels rewarded after a student smiles when an idea clicks. In addition to loving Memorial school, she loves her daughter who is currently in 7th grade as well as hiking, reading, and playing/watching all kinds of sports. She is looking forward to a great year with many milestones to achieve.

Each year the East Hampton Public Schools administers the i-Ready Diagnostic in Reading and Math in the fall, winter, and spring for grades 1-3 to monitor student growth and performance. The i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions to suit your child’s needs. Each item a student receives is based on their answer to the previous question. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier ones. The purpose of this is not to give your child a score or grade but to determine how to best support their learning. These results are reviewed as one data point amongst other assessments, observations and data regarding student performance. The assessment is integrated into your child’s day as part of their academic learning and is paced to ensure that they work on the assessment in small chunks of time. The implementation of this assessment is completed in accordance with Connecticut State Department of Education guidelines. I-Ready will begin the week of September 11th.

The i-Ready Diagnostic will provide results that help our team identify your child’s strengths and determine next steps for instruction. All students in grades 1-5 will have access to i-Ready Instruction upon completion of the Diagnostic. i-Ready Instruction provides students with lessons based on their individual strengths and areas for growth. These lessons are interactive and provide strategic supports to keep your child engaged as they learn. We will provide additional information about access to i-Ready Instruction and the frequency of use for that program once the Diagnostic is completed.

Today we reviewed bus expectations at our cheetah pride assemblies. Please take a moment to discuss them with your learner.

MEMORIAL - What’s Cookin’ in the Kitchen?

Farm to School:

Our Totally Toasted Tomatoes are, literally, bursting with flavor! We take fresh cherry tomatoes from Cold Spring Farm, toss them with olive oil, garlic, and fresh Basil from our garden, and roast them in a 400F oven. The perfect recipe for end-of-the-summer tomatoes.

Lunch They’ll Love to Munch:

Your kiddos are going to love our Peach Dump Cake this Tuesday! Made with just 3 ingredients, this simple cake highlights the fresh tart taste of peaches. Check out our Facebook page, @EHPSCafe, to get the recipe for at home.

In the Garden:

The garden is BURSTING with produce! This week our garden club picked Basil and parsley to use in the Totally Toasted Tomatoes and Peach Salsa today. They also picked Tomatoes and Tomatillos and checked on the Collard Greens they planted last week – which are just peaking up from the soil! They also crushed up eggshells and sprinkled them around our tomato plants to stop our tomatoes from getting end-rot! Keep sending in those eggshells!

Grand Opening Offer: 25% Off Everything Code: SPIRIT Limited Time Only!

Week of 9/18/23- Start With Hello

9/18/23- PTO Meeting at Memorial 5:30pm

9/20/23- Wear Green for Start With Hello Week

9/20/23-K-1 Open House 6:30-7:30pm

9/21/23-2-3 Open House 6:30-7:30pm

9/25/23- Board OF Education Meeting at 6:30pm

9/29/23- PTO Sponsored Jog-A-Thon (More information to follow)

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.

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