Dear Parents and Guardians,

It is hard to believe that we are moving through October. Teachers continue to work hard everyday to engage students and make learning a fun experience.Students are working hard toward academic and social goals. As a school, we continue to emphasize strong effort.

The month of October proved to be another exciting time at Hampton Oaks. Our Singing Hawks and flying music club picked up momentum. Mrs. Perham had several days of perfect attendance. SIR Hawks had successful sessions learning about strength, integrity, and respect. Our Girl Smarts program is underway. Our PTO had a good turnout for soccer. The physical education running club had a good number of students participate. We had several teachers participate on running days. Our art club is off and running. Our guidance department is getting ready to celebrate red ribbon week. Finally our PTO in collaboration with the library is getting ready for another successful book fair. At Hampton Oaks Elementary School, we celebrate each child and continue to provide opportunities for all children and families to learn, have fun, and excel. Community is very important here at Hampton Oaks. We recently hosted NED and the kindness tour for our younger students. Finally, In the month of November, we are looking forward to celebrating our veterans. Their service to our country and community is very important.

With several holiday breaks approaching along with the possibility of bad weather, it is very important that parents support what we are doing at home. Please be sure to read every night with your child. Ask questions and have your child explain their thinking. Ask them to solve problems in different ways. Practice math at home and ask your child to think aloud. Real world activities are more effective and important than worksheets and memorization. Have your child count objects at home, help weigh things at the grocery store or measure ingredients for cooking. These are just a few ideas to help support learning at home. Please email your child’s teacher with any questions you may have. Again, we believe in the importance of the school family partnership.

We continue to offer many opportunities for our families to be involved at Hampton Oaks. Please try to participate in as many school activities as possible. Children who are involved in their school community tend to be more successful. At Hampton Oaks we believe in strong minds, strong heart, and strong effort.

Take Care,

Allen Hicks

Principal

Reporting Absences

A reminder that automated calls regarding student absences now generate at Central Office. To eliminate receiving this call, please go to the Hampton Oaks Elementary School website or click this link to record your child's absence before 9:00 am. Reporting online serves as a "written notice", therefore it will not be necessary to send in a note with the child - unless the absence has exceeded three days. For those not reporting on our school website - you will still receive the automated call and you will need to send a note the day the child returns explaining their absence.

Kiss and Ride (Car Rider line)

Those that choose to transport your child to and from the school by private vehicles should use the lower entrance on Northampton Blvd and enter the circular drive in front of the school. All parents transporting their children to and from school MUST use the Kiss and Ride Area. When you enter the area please pull up to one of the four cones to let your children out. Thank you for your understanding and for helping us speed up this process in the morning and afternoon.

Hampton Oaks Elementary School is one of several schools in Stafford County participating in the Collect Pasta event for the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank. We will be collecting pasta from November 1st through the 11th. Please help support the neediest families in our region during this event if you can. Bring all the pasta into school and we will have a collection area. Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank trucks will be here on November 14th and 15th to pick up from our school.

Several exciting competitions are starting up in November. The first Wordmasters Challenge for the year will be given the week of November 12-15. Over sixty students in grades 3-5 have

been preparing for their written multiple-choice tests. Students are learning multiple meanings of a list of 25 challenging vocabulary words in order to correctly place those words in 20 analogies. Look for results in the next newsletter.

Scripps Spelling Bee preliminary rounds will be given in grades 3-5 classrooms during the week of November 4-8. Students with the highest scores will receive a letter with additional details. The annual Hampton Oaks Spelling Bee will be an event of December 4, 2019, in the school library and will be broadcast to allow students and visitors to watch on the broadcast. Hampton Oaks will be sending our 1 st and 2 nd place winners to the SCPS Spelling

Bee on January 9, 2020. Our final news is about this year’s National Geography Bee.

The Hampton Oaks Geography Bee will be an event of January 2020. Fourth and fifth grade students are eligible to compete by earning the highest score in their class on the preliminary test. This test is given in computer lab time after Thanksgiving. Good luck to our Geography experts!