Middletown Messenger
January 2020
From the Principal's Pen
Happy New Year! I have enjoyed seeing our students, families, and staff return from break with new energy! Over the next couple weeks, Ms. Mettling and I will be speaking to classes about good choices and reminding students of expectations for the school year. I believe it is important to acknowledge and celebrate students as they meet expectations. I will be collaborating with teachers this semester to recognize and reward students who consistently made good choices in the classroom and throughout the school over the first half of the year. These students will receive extra wellness time with me or another agreed-upon incentive. We will continue this practice throughout the year as well. I look forward to playing kickball and having fun with some students!
Ms. Mettling's Systems & Facilities Updates
As we begin 2020, many of us have made resolutions. To make sure we accomplish these, we must Put First Things First. Then, you can get to the little things that take your time.
This Habit is about recognizing what is important, prioritizing, and organizing tasks so that we don’t have to constantly be stressed! A written planner is a great tool. Modeling this behavior is the best way to teach it.
Teachers will be focusing on Habit 3 Leader in Me lessons throughout the month of January.
You may hear your child use words like prioritize, most important, responsibility, and put first things first. You can encourage your child to be a leader by using some of this language at home as well as practicing Habit 3!
Use a Weekly Planner or Calendar:
What you can do at home: Show your child what you use to organize your time and tasks. Is it a simple “To Do” list? Calendar? Digital Organizer? Help them create a list of things that need to be done in the week. How can tasks be broken down by day? Write it out. Small children can use pictures. Older kids and teens can plan times of day for tasks and include time for leisure activity as well.
Step 1: Identify Your Big Rocks
At the beginning of each week, brainstorm the things that you want to accomplish in the upcoming week. You may ask yourself, “What are the most important things I need to do this week?” Covey calls these your “big rocks.” The big rocks, once accomplished, will help you achieve your desired outcome.
Step 2: Block Out Time for Your Big Rocks
During your weekly planning, block out time for your big rocks. If you decide that the best time to read for 20 minutes is 6 p.m. and the best time to text or FaceTime your friend is on Sunday afternoon, mark it in your planner.
Step 3: Schedule Everything Else
Once your big rocks are in place, begin to schedule your daily tasks and appointments. Remember, pebbles fit nicer in your bucket when they are surrounded by your bigger, value-driven goals.
Fun Experiment to Try at Home!
Get a bucket, and fill it half full of small pebbles. Then try to put several big rocks in the bucket, on top of the small pebbles. Let’s imagine that the big rocks won’t fit. Now, try putting the big rocks in first, followed by the pebbles. The pebbles neatly fill in the spaces around the big rocks. The difference then is the order in which the rocks and pebbles were placed in the bucket. By putting the big rocks in first, everything fits. The big rocks represent your most important goals for the week, while the pebbles represent your daily chores.
Counselor's Corner
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all as a great Winter Break and enjoyed time seeing family and friends. As we begin the second half of the school year, we will continue to pick up where we left off and keep working hard to meet the needs of our students and families. This month the focus will be Habit 3: Put First Things First. This means identifying priorities and making sure the most important tasks get completed before the less important ones. It also helps students begin to identify their core beliefs, values, and elements that make them who they are. I will be making weekly videos for teachers to show classes that will help generate classroom conversations about what this means. Please also continue to have conversations with your children at home regarding this.
Operation Parent—We are continuing to partner with Operation Parent, an organization that offers numerous resources and webinars for parents to address various topics and issues that affect families. Please visit the website at https://operationparent.org/ for more information.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the services I provide or if you need more information regarding the mentioned events, please feel free to contact me through email at chas.meinecke@jefferson.kyschools.us or by phone at 485-8300. I thoroughly enjoy serving the students, parents, staff, and community as the school counselor in Middletown and will continue to do so to the best of my ability.
Sincerely,
Chas Meinecke, School Counselor
The Hite/Middletown Family Resource Center
HMFRC Mission: “To mobilize and coordinate students and family-focused activities at times and in locations appropriate to their needs. Through the creation of a local source of information and support, the HMFRC will strive to support students and their families in order to overcome barriers to achievement. By providing this support, the center will assist children to reach their full human potential as caring, competent, lifelong learners who contribute to the community in a positive manner.”
As stated in our mission above, our passion is to remove barriers that interfere with learning so that our students can achieve and succeed to become productive members of society. A lot of what we do takes careful planning, which is put forth in a grant that is written and approved every two years. We are currently in the midst of writing our grant for the next two years, and in order to learn and really understand what is most needed by our school community, we need our families to let us know. Please take the time to fill out the following quick survey to help us better serve our families.
PBS KIDS Spring Family and Community Learning With Scratch Jr. Coding Program
What is PBS KIDS Family and Community Learning? It is a series of sessions that engage families in project-based creative learning. Designed for families with kids ages 5 through 8 (and younger/older siblings), the sessions use creative play and exploration to introduce kids and grown-ups to digital and tangible tools that can be used to develop science and engineering knowledge, practices, and perspectives. Through child-led projects, the sessions aim to foster collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills among family members while empowering them to explore, create and express themselves with media and technology.
PBS Kids Spring Family & Community Learning with Scratch Jr. will be held every Wednesday evening, 6 to 8 p.m., February 5 through 26, and will be held in the Middletown Elementary cafeteria. At each session families will eat good food, make projects, and share ideas with other families while having fun and being creative together with technology.
If you are interested in attending this series, please email HFMRC Coordinator Elvira Paguada at elvira.paguada@jefferson.kyschools.us.
Middletown Gives Back!
A huge shout-out and wholehearted thank-you goes to all the Middletown Families who served as sponsors for our Middletown Gives Back initiative, which included both holiday assistance and Blessings in a Backpack supplementation. We had more than $8,000 worth of donations in the form of gifts and food that blessed 34 families. It takes a village, and our Middletown family really went above and beyond!
Attendance
It’s a new day, it’s a new year, it’s a new decade–hey, it’s a new attendance challenge for our Middletown Bulldogs! Beginning with the return from Winter Break, we are checking each classroom every day for 1) perfect attendance, and 2) arriving on time. Any classroom that has everyone here and “on time by 9” will earn an icon near the classroom door (look for snowflakes in January). At the end of the month, the classroom with the most icons will earn a special treat.
See, it pays to get up and get moving! We’ll see you “on time by 9” because Every Day Counts at Middletown Elementary.
HMFRC Compliments, Concerns, Questions or Suggestions...
The HMFRC is always looking for volunteers and donations; if you have items to donate, feel free to send them my way.
My office door is always open, please come visit Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can find me at Hite Elementary.
The Center’s hours are 8:30am-4:30pm.
email: elvira.paguada@jefferson.kyschools.us
Phone: 502.313.4504 (M, W, & F) or 502.313.4473 (T & Th)
Follow the center on Social Media:
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Extracurriculars
Spring 2020 After School Fencing Classes
Where: Middletown Elementary School
Grades: 3rd - 5th
When: Mondays, 4:15 pm to 5:15 pm | Spring Session: January 27; February 3, 10, 25; March 2, 9, 16, and 23, 2020
How long: This is an eight weeks class
Instructor: The program is under the teaching of Coach Dwain Kent, with oversight from Maestro Les Stawicki, head coach of the Louisville Fencing Center.
Uniform: Pants, T-Shirt, and Fencing Glove will be provided by LFC at the first class. Fencers will also need to provide their own white knee-high socks and tennis/court shoes. Fencers must be wearing the uniform to participate in in-class activities.
Equipment: All equipment (mask, jacket, and practice weapon) will be provided by the Louisville Fencing Center for student use during the class sessions as needed.
How much: Beginners pay $140 ($100 for classes and $40 for the glove, t-shirt, pants, & USFA Membership)
To enroll: Please return forms (please download below or click here) and payment to the front office, Attention: Elvira Paguada, HMFRC Coordinator, by Wednesday, January 22.
If you have any questions, you can email Coach Kent at dwainkent@gmail.com (the subject line should indicate “Middletown Fencing”).
SteamPunks
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Did you know?
Enroll your Kroger Plus Card number in the Kroger Community Rewards Program.
Go to www.krogercommunityrewards.com to enroll today! Our organization number is 14817.
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Martin Luther King Jr. Day--No School
Monday, January 20, 2020
Report Cards go Home
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Math Night!
Thursday, January 23, 2020
6-8 pm
Planetarium Visit
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
PBS Family & Community Learning with Scratch Jr. Coding Program
Wednesdays in February
Starting February 5, 2020
6-8 pm
Valentine's Day Parties
Thursday, February 13, 2020
About Us
Email: JCPS.Middletown-Office@jefferson.kyschools.us
Website: www.middletownelementary.org
Location: 218 North Madison Avenue, Louisville, KY, USA
Phone: 502-485-8300
Facebook: facebook.com/middletownelementary
Twitter: @MiddletownES