Elkton Elementary School Memo
September 9-13
Back to School Night
Third Grade Vision Screening
Mark Your Calendar
School Store Online Info- Sept. 9
Back Door Bus Drill- Sept. 10
Lock- Down Drill- Sept. 12Back to School Night- Sept. 17
Book Fair Sept. 26- Oct. 2
Early Release- Sept. 20
Fall Picture Day- Oct. 2
Early Release- Oct. 11
Race for Education- Oct. 18
Unity Day- Oct. 23
General Announcements
September is Attendance Awareness Month
EES continues to have the best school attendance in the county. Let's continue to make coming to school a priority.
This month we will be recognizing grade levels with the best attendance for the week.
Vacation Approval
End of the School Day Dismissal Changes
Due to a safety issue, we are requesting that a parent not call the office staff to make a dismissal change at anytime. If a situation arises whereby you must call the school to change your child’s afternoon transportation, then you need to speak to an administration before 1:15 PM. So please make arrangements before the school day concerning dismissal changes.
Count on Kids
Back to School Night
School and Home Connection- EES welcomes parent involvement
EES welcomes Parent Involvement. We would love parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and community members to volunteer. Email Cindy Hepner at chepner@rockingham.k12.va.us if you are interested in being a volunteer.
PTA News
Complete the form below to get involved at EES. Your support is appreciated.
Lunch Menu for Septmeber
School Calendar
WatchDOG Program
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o2mJFj9Cku7Rj-62eKawXIdPoks-gFvi0tR1V-qZqD8/edit?usp=sharing
Mr. Crissman Leads Community Circles
Once a week we have a grade level community circle time for the 1st and 2nd grades. We call the time: Share the Love (our students named it last year). We pack a lot into our 30 minute time together: music, lesson on social/emotional well being, and emotional check-in/sharing. I bring a new instrument each week for the students to explore. We talk about what makes it similar to other instruments we have listened to as well as different (and different features of it/why it is designed the way it is). The listen to the timbre and describe it. Then we usually sing a couple songs together (sometimes high energy, sometimes more reflective).
Next we transition into our mini-lesson... usually several minutes long, talking about how to live/navigate life together in healthy ways. I work with the grade level teams (and have gotten input from Cindy Hepner, our Counselor) to identify topics/things that are most pressing based on what is happening in their classrooms. I remember last year we talked about personal space and how important it was to ask before touching someone else (hugs, etc). From then on, the number of kids who I saw asking before hugging other students or adults went way, way up. Amazing. It wasn't just from our time together that they heard it, but it reinforced the things that their teachers were all saying separately, and it was great to see changes in their behavior.
Lastly we do our check in... students choose :) :/ or :(... and then after we have tallied all of how we are feeling as a group, we share words of love/encouragement for each other who are having good, average, or hard/sad days. I think it really helps students to practice taking their own emotional "temperature" and then learn empathy by hearing their peers say that they are having rough days. It seems like it has helped them show each other a bit more grace. The words of kindness/love they share with each other is always so beautiful.
We end our time singing a song that Lucinda Swartzendruber taught me a few years ago:
Love grows, 1 by 1
2 by 2 and 4 by 4
Love grows round like a circle
and comes back knocking
at your front door.
I love working with the 2nd grade team (last year and this year) and now also the 1st grade team on this.
Thanks Merck & Co.
Focus on the 5 C's- This week- Citizenship
-Demonstrate trustworthiness, respectfulness, fairness, responsibility, and caring
-Appreciate democratic values and institutions
-Strive to understand the past, participate in the present, and care about the future
-Recognize diversity as a strength
-Act as a steward of self, community, and world