Orchard Drive Elementary
November 2019
Wilson's Words
Dear Orchard Family,
Our number one priority is to keep your children safe; therefore we are always working on ways to continuously improve.
Each school year we review our emergency drills at least three times. The emergency drills that we practice are; fire, earthquake, tornado, and intruder. The Jackson Fire Department came to Orchard on October 10th and we were able to evacuate the entire school in about 2 1/2 minutes. We participated in the Great Central U.S. Shake Out on October 18th and plan to partake in a State-wide Tornado Drill in early spring. Both of these are in addition to the other scheduled drills. With these drills, our students and staff are well informed on the procedures to follow in emergency situations.
Our teachers and staff members have received training on intruder response. We work with our local authorities on simulated response situations specific to our building as well. Role playing scenarios offer hands on, valuable learning experiences.
Response to a major emergency is also included in safety plans for teachers and staff. We will practice procedures in early spring. This will allow our safety teams (first aid, search and rescue, assembly area, site safety, extended care, and command) to experience procedures and will teach students how to assemble in such an event.
As always, I feel very strongly that a child can only succeed when families and school work together. If something happens in your family and you are in need of anything, please let us know how we can help you and your child. We always want our kids to have everything they need to be successful.
If you have any questions regarding safety procedures or student needs, please feel free to call or visit with me any time.
Enjoy your November!
Shanna Wilson, Principal
Simmons' Scoop
Dear Families,
I really can’t believe that we are already having fall parties and will be celebrating Thanksgiving in a few weeks. Something that I often hear from families is how busy everyone is with so many activities at school and home. I want to share with you a tool that may help you stay on top of school activities. If you visit the Orchard website located at https://www.jacksonr2schools.com/Orchard-Drive-Elementary-School/Orchard-Calendar/
and click on the calendar link located in the top right hand corner of the page you will find a very useful tool. The calendar on the website is a Google calendar. We do our very best to keep this updated with schoolwide activities going on at Orchard. If you currently use Google calendar on your phone, you can click on the blue + sign near the bottom of the page, and this will automatically add these dates to your calendar. If you do not have Google calendar, no worries, as you can always check the calendar on the website. I hope you find this calendar useful.
If you have any questions or concerns, I’d love to chat with you. I can be reached at 243-9565 or by email at jsimmons@jr2mail.org
Jessica Simmons, Assistant Principal
Counselor's Corner
During the month of October, the focus of our counseling class lessons was disABILITY awareness (how we are the same and different, but all have ABILITIES) and safety. On Thursday, October 31st, our school resource officer visited with our students about Halloween safety.
In November, we will begin our discussions about handling conflicts with our peers and dealing with feelings. We will learn and/or review tattle vs. report and participate in bully prevention lessons.
Bully Prevention Terms:
Tattle: To tell on someone in order to get attention for yourself or get another person in trouble.
Reporting: To tell on someone to get help for them or yourself.
Bullying: In order to be considered bullying, the behavior is aggressive in nature, has the intention of harm, includes an imbalance of power, and occurs more than one time.
Conflict: A conflict is a disagreement that is more naturally occurring. There is typically no intent to harm, but a difference of goals or opinions.
Rude: Inadvertently saying or doing something that hurts someone else.
Mean: Purposefully saying or doing something to hurt someone once (or maybe twice.)
What I Need [WIN]
ORCHARD DRIVE ELEMENTARY PTO AUCTION
Letters from the Library
Birthday Book Club
November
Josh Duck 7 Wren
Harper Bruce 8 Winchester
Stevey Carter 22 Pourney
Lexi Rivera 23 McLeod
Keaton Geske 25 Bohnert
Congratulations to Bryce Turner for reading all 12 Mark Twain Award book nominees! What an accomplishment. The Mark Twain book club is open to any fourth grader. Ask your child about it or contact Mrs. Ticer for more information.
If your child brings home an overdue notice for a library book, it is usually just a reminder that the book is due. We print them for students when they come to library without their books so they know which titles to look for and return next time. The replacement cost of the book is listed, but that is only for books that are lost or destroyed. The notes are just meant to be a helpful reminder! Thank you!