Upper Nyack Elementary School SCOOP

PICTURE MAKEUP DAY - FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18

Please be reminded that our PICTURE MAKEUP DAY is Friday, November 18!! Please speak with your child and notify the teacher if you'd like a picture retake on Friday.

Virtual Parent Coffee with Principal Dreves

Please be reminded that I hold a virtual parent coffee for any interested parents to join me from 9:30-10:00 on the third Friday of each month. Our next Virtual Coffee is THIS FRIDAY, November 18.

CLICK HERE FOR THE SCHEDULE AND THE LINK

PIE SALE FUNDRAISER

The PTA Pie/Cake Fundraiser sold just over 200 pies/cakes!! They will be delivered to our school next Tuesday, 11/22. Valerie Schmidt will be out in front of UNES from 2-4 on 11/22 for families to pick up their pies/cakes. Please contact Valerie at vmeleschmidt@gmail.com with questions or concerns.

Gratitude Day is November 23!!

Wednesday, November 23 is a half day before Thanksgiving at UNES. On this day, valuable social emotional learning about GRATITUDE will meet the joy of BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY! Our students will be learning about gratitude and how to practice it in their daily lives. In addition, they will be making Gratitude "Balloons" listing all the things for which they are grateful which will eventually make their way home to you. Before dismissal, we will all be proudly displaying them in the hallways as community helpers from around Nyack join us in a celebratory event at UNES.

Keep your eyes out on Wednesday for Gratitude balloons to be coming home to you and hopefully they can inspire some wonderful family conversation around the topic. We thank the PTA for supporting our efforts and providing balloons, plates and paper for this wonderful project!!

Family Resource Center Support for the Holidays

Our Family Resource Center is working hard to support our UNES families in need during this holiday season. They are currently collecting Shoprite and Target gift cards which will be offered to identified families in need in December. If you are able and interested to support this effort, you can contact Joanne Wallace at jwallace@nyackschools.org for more information, or simply drop them off in the main office.

Parent Teacher Conferences are Coming

Friday, December 9 and Friday, December 16 are Elementary Early Dismissal Days. Students will be released at 11:45am. Parent Teacher Conferences will occur on these afternoons and you should have received a Google Form Signup directly from your child's teacher. These afternoon sessions (generally from 12:45-3:15pm) will be in person at UNES. On Thursday, December 15, we have EVENING PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES that are VIRTUAL ONLY.

If you have not yet signed up, please do so as soon as possible as schedules are being set up. If you have not yet received information, please reach out to your child's teacher for more assistance.

CLASS PARENTS

We are so grateful to the parents who stepped forward to take on the role of class parents for various classrooms at UNES. These individuals will act as a liaison between the wider parent community and the teacher to assist with specific class needs, events and celebrations.

Additionally, these class parents will act as community builders by putting parents in touch with each other. Since the original vision of the school directory hit some unforeseen obstacles, these individuals will help to facilitate communication amongst our parents.

If you provided your information for the original directory idea, then our class parents have your emails and you should be hearing from them shortly, if you haven't heard from them already. If you would like to be added to their email distributions, then please email them at the address included in the document linked below.

CLICK HERE FOR THE CLASS PARENT LIST

Elementary Winter Concert Dates

Please note that there were some errors in the printing of the calendar in regards to the elementary concert dates. The correct dates/times are as follows:

WEDNESDAY, January 11 - Grades 1, 2 & 3

Upper Nyack Elementary - Grade 1 (9:30am), Grade 2 (10:00am), Grade 3 (10:30am)

Thursday January 19 - Grades 4 & 5

Upper Nyack Elementary Grade 4/5 Concert: (9:30am)

Student Council and Spirit Days are Coming

We're working so hard to get back to normal at UNES and celebrate all that makes our school excellent and joyful. Led by Ms. Schumacher and Ms. Maddalena, Student Council is in the works for grades 3-5 with elections hopefully launched before the winter break.

A Spirit Week is also being planned with the help of a group of interested 5th graders for the week before the holiday break. Stay tuned for more info.

Finally, our PBIS (Positive Behavior Support) Team has been working on some school wide ways to celebrate and reinforce good behavior throughout the school.

Cold Weather and Recess

Research shows that recess and exercise are incredibly important to children's well being. We will be working hard to give our students a taste of fresh air and exercise every day possible. To that end, we will be going outside for recess whenever the REAL FEEL temperature is above 25 degrees.

The weather is quickly getting colder, please send your child with a warm jacket, winter hat and gloves so that they are prepared for the weather. Please reinforce your expectation that your child wear a jacket and warm clothes to school, and at recess. Our staff will do the same as we all work together to keep our students safe and healthy.

Lost and Found

Our lost and found table is quickly piling up with items that have not been claimed. If your child is missing an item, please remind them to check the table in the cafeteria where they are folded and waiting to be reclaimed. If your child is very young, consider reaching out to the teacher, or the main office so that someone can accompany them to help them find their items.

On Friday, December 2, all items that have not been claimed will be donated to charity. Please be aware that in the first week of each month, unclaimed items will be donated to charity.

BUDDY BENCH AT UNES

Thanks to the class of 2019, UNES now has a buddy bench right by the basketball courts (installation was delayed during the pandemic). General rules of a buddy bench are that when kids need a playmate, they sit on this bench and when others see them there, they come over and invite them to join them. We're trying to build this inclusive mindset on our playground, but we wanted to share with you all in case you'd like to reinforce it at home. Thanks to our class of 2019 for the wonderful donation!

Afterschool Pickup at Dismissal

We've recently had some incidents where children got hurt running around on the front lawn after they had been released to parents/guardians at dismissal. We love to have our school community gather and spend time with us, but it's so important that parents/guardians are closely supervising their children on our grounds after school. As we know, there is a busy road and many, many people at dismissal so please keep your children close once you've picked them up from school.

SEL Supports at UNES

The district and our building level support team provide a wonderful array of supports for your children as they work their way through day to day challenges. Our guidance counselor, Andrea Perez, has been pushing into all classes and has already discussed the following topics with students: Kindness, Bullying and Friendship. Upcoming topics include:

Peace is Possible (accepting others for their differences)
The Power of Words
Problem solving
Emotions and calming strategies
Erin’s law
Careers

Our team, which includes Andrea Perez (Guidance), Enisa Nikocevic (Social Worker) and Kevin Lopez (School Psychologist) provide individual and group counseling, check in and check out opportunities, Calm classroom training and a myriad of other services.

I provide this information to the community so we are all aware of the great supports that are provided to our students and the many things that our team of clinicians do within our school.

UNES SPIRIT WEAR FOR SALE

PLEASE CLICK HERE if you'd like to purchase UNES Spirit Wear from the PTA online store.

ARCHIVES ON OUR WEBSITE

There are archives of my community newsletter on the UNES WEBSITE - CLICK HERE, as well as on the UNESPTA Website (coming soon). If you can't find the old newsletters and are looking for info - you can find that info in these two places.

Mark Your Calendars!

Friday, November 18 - PICTURE MAKEUP DAY
Friday, November 18 - Peace Program Presentation for Grade 3
Friday, November 18 - VIRTUAL Parent Coffee with Principal Dreves (9:30-10am)
Wednesday, November 23 - Gratitude Day (HALF DAY 11:45 Dismissal)
Thurs/Fri, November 24&25 - Thanksgiving Break (NO SCHOOL)
Parent/Teacher Conferences - December 9 & 16 (early dismissal) & December 15 (evening)