OUR GRAY HAWK FAMILY works together to help students feel safe, loved, and inspired so they can be empowered learners and engaged citizens.

OUR music teacher, Mrs. Penfield, will soon be leading an instructional unit and professional development on bucket drumming. Bucket drumming not only helps reinforce rhythmic concepts learned in music class, but is also beneficial to self-regulation and expression.

In order to get this project going, we need your help! We are looking for 5 gallon buckets to be donated to Gray Hawk Elementary. Our hope is to have a class set for music (30), as well as one in each classroom to use for regulation when needed. Donations may be dropped off at the front office.

Thank you for your support as we bring regulation through rhythm into our everyday routine here at Gray Hawk.

GOAL #1 (PRIMARY) : 30 5 gallon buckets to be used as a class set in the music room

GOAL #2 : An additional 30 plain white 5 gallon buckets (preferred) for staff professional development opportunity in the future

Kindergarten: boxes of individual snacks (goldfish, wheat things, ritz, etc)

1st grade: hand sanitizer and sidewalk chalk

2nd: bubbles and sunscreen

3rd: kids gardening gloves and gallon ziplocks

4th: adult gardening gloves and quart ziplocks

5th: 12 packs of small bottles of water

We are also hosting a Spirit Week. (Remember that there is no school on Monday, 2/21, so Spirit Week will begin on Tuesday, 2/22).

Tuesday 2/22: Show Kindness - Spread your Gray HAwk Wings and wear a school shirt or red

Wednesday 2/23: Say Yee-Haw for Kindness: Dress in western wear

Thursday 2/24: We Don't Hide from Kindness - Wear camo, green, black, or brown

Friday 2/25: Kindness never gets old! Dress like a senior citizen

There will also be a poster contest and posters are due on Tuesday, February 22. Posters should be on 8.5x 11 paper and must include the saying "SPREAD YOR GRAY HAWK WINGS, SHOW KINDNESS". Be sure to write your name and grade level on the back. There will be a winner selected from each grade level. Check out below for more information.

Box Tops & Dimes Competition: Feb. 9-25. If we collect $450 as a school, OUR Gray Hawks get a Popsicle Party!

-Clip box tops and send in to your teacher

-Submit box tops on the app

-Forward your digital receipts to receipts@boxtops4education.com

(Be sure to have Gray Hawk and your child's teacher to receive credit!)

With February being Black History Month and March being Women’s History Month this is the perfect time to combine them. This week we will take a look at just a few of the African American women who have done amazing things!

We will look at several books that tell amazing stories about amazing people.

Our featured story is If a Bus Could Talk by Faith Ringgold.

A young girl named Marcie has a magical bus ride where the bus itself tells her the story of the mother of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks. Because she was black, Rosa had to walk miles to a one-room schoolhouse while white children could take the bus, and as an adult, Rosa could only sit in the back.

As a part of our commitment to ensuring that our students are exposed to the contributions of people of color and from different backgrounds, we kicked off this past week by giving daily clues to a famous person from history that has made our world a better place. This past week, the students heard the following clues:

• I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 23, 1978 and I spent some of my childhood in Italy where my dad played professional basketball. My dad’s name was called Jellybean Joe and I had two older sisters.

• I went to high school in Philadelphia and like my dad, I earned a lot of awards playing basketball including the Naismith High School Player of the Year Award.

• I decided not to attend college and entered directly into the NBA Draft. If I had decided to go to college I would have chosen Duke University. I was the 13th player taken in the NBA draft and I was chosen by the Charlotte Hornets. I was only 18 years old when I played in my first NBA game, making me the youngest player in NBA history to ever start a game.

• Even though I was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets, I played my entire career for the Los Angeles Lakers. In that time, I set many records: I was the youngest player to ever reach 26,000 career points. I also hold the record for most points ever scored in a career as a Laker. I once scored 81 points in a single game which was the second most points ever scored in one game. I won Olympic Gold Medals in 2008 and 2012 for Team USA and I was the NBA Dunk Champion in 1997.

• I died tragically in a helicopter accident with my daughter Gianna and seven other passengers on January 26, 2020 in Calabasas, California. I will forever be remembered as the “Black Mamba” and still many people consider me to be one of the greatest players in the history of basketball.