THE PRIDE PRESS
Essex Elementary School Newsletter
December 22, 2021
PRINCIPAL NEWS
Greetings EES Families,
I want to wish you all a wonderful, safe, and healthy break with your families. It is a pleasure to work with your children each day and I hope you get some extra time to enjoy them during this season. Students enjoyed a special winter celebration with a movie, popcorn and hot chocolate on Tuesday.
I will look forward to starting 2022 with your children on January 3rd. As you may have heard, I am expecting a baby in early March. I will be on maternity leave for 12 weeks starting approximately March 3rd. Wendy Cobb will be the administrator in the building on Mondays and Tuesdays and an additional principal sub will be the administrator Wednesday-Friday. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Enjoy the break with your families,
Ashley
NEW AT EES - PICKUP PATROL!
Remember to sign up for the Pick Up Patrol app and start using it by 2/1/2021. If you have any questions, feel free to email the office staff at nbergeron@ewsd.org, dsturgess@ewsd.org, and lwignall@ewsd.org.
If you are having trouble logging into Pick Up Patrol, please reach out to support@pickuppatrol.net.
SEL NEWS
The Social-Emotional Learning Team has been working to teach and practice ways to show others that we care about them. In our first edition of Pride News (schoolwide student videos), students shared ideas of how to spread kindness, include everyone, fix small problems, and give compliments.
Students and staff members then added leaves that highlighted acts of kindness to our Caring Tree bulletin board to inspire others!
MS. ROTACH'S FIRST GRADERS STEP BACK IN TIME
First graders in Ms. Rotach’s class celebrated the end of our “life long ago” unit with Step Back in Time Day. Students arrived at a classroom that was lit by candles with a warm fire burning (on the Smartboard). They read by candlelight, completed dictation on animal skins (wrinkled brown paper) with felt pens, worked on paper weavings, and played an “old-fashioned” math game. It was a fun way to celebrate the end of our social studies unit while experiencing what school was like for children long ago.
MRS. EPSTEIN'S SECOND GRADE
Second graders in Mrs. Epstein’s class made homemade paper cards for a community service project. The purpose of the project was to raise money for the Heavenly Food Pantry and those in need in Essex. Cards were sold for money and food donations. The project raised $400 for community members in need! Well done, second graders!
A short video of the cardmaking process can be viewed here.
WHAT'S NEW IN ART?
We have been getting up to a lot of fun and creativity in art class. Students glazed their clay pieces which were fired and then wrapped to keep them safe. The art room was completely changed over to "Artist Studio Choice Stations." For two weeks students were able to choose their media. Artists chose between building stations, painting, collage, drawing, or magnet/Geostix manipulatives. Students worked on their social skills by using kindness, flexibility, and teamwork to be sure our art space feels like a positive place to be. Monday and Tuesday groups got into some drawings and paintings of hot chocolate before break. Yum!
Ms. Blain
HOUR OF CODE
The Hour of Code is a world-wide movement that happens every year, introducing tens of millions of students worldwide to computer science. All kindergarten classes started their coding experience with BeeBots. These are little bee robots that move around a mat once the students input a code to tell it to move. After the BeeBots, kindergarteners were introduced to Kodable. In first grade, the students were introduced to LightBot. In second grade, students learned about block coding through Angry Birds on code.org.
SCHOOL LUNCH NEWS!
We have revamped our menu and came up with some new winter options! Chicken noodle soup, chicken and cheese hot pockets, and a new asian inspired Teriyaki chicken and rice dish. We have also added some more options for our vegetarian friends like Tofu and Black Bean Burgers which are going to be offered more frequently. It's updated on the school website check it out and email me Kwhite1@ewsd.org with any questions or concerns!
After we return from break we will be reintroducing metal utensils!! Yay for no more plastic (well less than we have been using). If you could chat with your kids about making sure metal utensils go in the appropriate spots and not back home in lunch boxes that would be great! It costs more money to replace the metal silverware than it does the plastic so if we can keep our silverware count consistent we may be able to keep silverware for good!!
Hope everyone has a safe and healthy break! Look forward to feeding your kiddos in the New Year!
Kelly White
Cafeteria Coordinator
802- 857-2107
UPCOMING EVENTS/ REMINDERS:
12/23/21 ~ 12/31/21 - Early Winter Break
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ESSEX ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
*We take care of each other
*We take care of our school
C*A*R*E*S
Cooperation Assertion Responsibility Empathy Self-Control
Email: dsturgess@ewsd.org
Website: https://www.ewsd.org/EES
Location: 1 Bixby Hill Road, Essex Junction, VT, USA
Phone: (802)-878-2584