Pawsome News
Mill Creek Elementary School-March 2022
Work Ethic/Responsibility
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” ― Stephen King
Vision Statement for Mill Creek Elementary School
Our students at Mill Creek will acquire literacies in multiple areas including English Language Arts, math, science, and digital media. They will become creators, problem solvers, and critical consumers of information. They will develop confidence, resilience, persistence, empathy, and compassion. Students will develop a love of learning through fun, challenging, and relevant learning activities. Their academic, physical, and social emotional growth will enable them to lead happy, productive, meaningful lives as contributing members of our democratic society.
Message From the Principal
Opportunities for our students to practice being leaders helps our students develop critical skills needed for success in life such as communication, decision-making, organizing, action planning, and strategic thinking. Students also learn to work together to accomplish a task.
This year our student council has lead several service projects for the school. The first event was the food drive for the ERA Food Pantry. This was a great event and was supported by all grades. In January, student council started their shoe drive. This drive supports your closets, the landfills, and developing countries at the same time. The shoes are cleaned, repurposed, and sent for a new life. There was also a fun PJ day at the end of January. In February, student council hosted Super Hero Day, to remember and honor the life of Christopher Becker, who lost his life, but chose to give the gift of life to others through organ donation.
We are proud of our students for their service to the community and to the Mill Creek community. The organizational and collaboration skills they are developing will serve them for a lifetime!
Sincerely,
Dr. Vitella
News From the Office
March 7, progress reports available on Parent Portal
March 9, early dismissal for students at 1:15 PMMarch 16, schools closed for staff professional development
News from the Nurse
Counselors' Corner-Ms. McDonald
RESPONSIBILITY
Responsibility means taking accountability for your actions, being dependable, and making good choices. Responsible students lookout for the well-being of others, are in control of their own behavior, and can be trusted. Examples of responsibility include doing your chores, remembering to wear sneakers for PE class, doing your homework, admitting when you make a mistake, and cleaning up after yourself.
You can teach children responsibility by setting limits, following through with consequences, providing opportunities to help, modeling responsibility, and creating a no-blame household. Instead of providing orders like “brush your teeth,” ask your child, “what do you need to do next to get ready for school?” This helps children become responsible for their self-care. When children hurt someone’s feelings, ask them what they can do to repair the relationship rather than punish them.
Here are some books that teach children about responsibility:
“What if?” By Colleen Doyle Bryant
“David Gets in Trouble” By David Shannon
“What if Everybody Did That?” By Colleen M. Madden
“But It’s Not My Fault” By Julia Cook
News From 5th Grade
SWPBIS News
Our SWPBIS team is leading the entire school community with a focus on conflict resolution and how to solve problems using our words instead of first resorting with physical force. The assembly at the end of February will focus on ways to resolve problems in appropriate ways. In addition, teachers have been provided resources to use within the classroom to teach lessons on how to solve problems. Our counselors and social workers are great resources, too.
Mill Creek stresses the use of K.Y.H.F.O.O.T.Y. (keep your hands, feet, and objects to yourself.) We ask that you continue to stress the importance of appropriate conflict resolution at home and how to handle situations in an appropriate manner. It is always great to have conversations at home about the things we are doing in school to keep that home-school relationship cohesive. One way to do this is to just discuss various age appropriate scenarios that could happen with your child, and then discuss together ways to handle these situations and the different outcomes. Furthermore, the use of “I messages'' can be very powerful for children. These messages are stated as “I don’t like it when you…please STOP.” Working together, we can make a lasting impact!