December Newsletter
Week of November 29, 2022
Congratulations - Parent Choice Award Recipients
Aimee Sheren, Amanda Roma, Alexa Bessette, Annamarie O’Brien, Anne Sagnella,
Ashley Taylor, Brianna Guido, Bryan Troiano, Ellen Nedinsky, Erika Scheer, Heather Tricarico, Jenna Velardi, Jennifer Wilson, Kara Piper, Kristen Macunas, Kristen Nagel, Rachel Papa, Sharon Sorrentino, Tracey Heller, & Wilfred Velez
Canned Food Drive Total as of 11/27...1800 items
Partnering with Parents
Unfortunately, the 70 degree days are behind us now. As we enter into the colder months, we ask your assistance with ensuring your child(ren) is prepared for outdoor recess. It is important that our Cougars come to school with hats, gloves, scarves and a winter coat. Students will go outside for recess when the temperature is above 32 degrees (including the wind chill factor). Please label your child's belongings, in case items gets left behind.
Next, we are experiencing higher than normal number of bus reports for inappropriate language, unkind words, hands on other peers and inappropriate hand gestures. We have been reviewing our PROUD Cougar Bus expectations in the classrooms, but ask for your support in speaking with your child about safe, appropriate behavior on the bus. It is a privilege to ride the bus, and we would like all students to have a safe ride to and from school.
Thank you in advance for your support!
Important Dates
Celebrations Around the World
Monday, November 28th - Board of Education Meeting @ 6:30pm, 45 S. Main Street
Tuesday, November 29th - Special Education PTAC Meeting @ 6pm
Friday, December 2nd - End of First Marking Period
Friday, December 2nd - CH Town Meeting 10am
Tuesday, December 6th - K-Kids Meeting @ 8:10am
Friday, December 9th - PJ DAY for the KIDS (CCMC)
Friday, December 9th - Report Cards emailed home
Tuesday, December 13th - St. Lucia's Day
Tuesday, December 13th & 14th - PTO Holiday Shop
December 14th - Poinsettia pick up 4:30-5:30pm
Thursday, December 15th - Early Release Day (1:30 dismissal)
Thursday, December 15th - VIRTUAL -Holiday Book Evening Bookshare 6:30pm-8:30pm
Sunday, December 18th - Hanukkah begins
Monday, December 19th - Board of Education Meeting, 100 S Turnpike Road @ 6:30pm
Tuesday, December 20th - System-wide PTAC Google Meet 6-8pm
Wednesday, December 21st - Crazy Holiday Sweater Day
Thursday, December 22nd - Spirit Day - Holiday Head to Toe
Friday, December 23rd - Holiday PJ Day
Friday, December 23rd - Early Dismissal at 1:50pm
Sunday, December 25th - Christmas
Monday, December 26th - Hanukkah ends
Monday, December 26th - Kwanzaa begins
Sunday, January 1st - New Year's Day
Sunday, January 1st - Kwanzaa ends
Holiday Break - NO school Dec 24th - January 2nd
Classes Resume on TUESDAY, JANUARY 3rd
PTAC & PTO December Meetings Canceled this month.
Literacy Tips!
A strong sense of phonemic awareness, or being able to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words, is the foundation for reading. Phonemic awareness does not involve looking at any letters or words. It is a completely oral/auditory skill. Think: you can do it with your eyes closed!
Phonemic awareness is important for our students of all ages! Ways that you can support this skill at home is by pulling your child’s attention to the individual sounds in words, like asking “what is the first sound you hear in the word “ball” (/b/)? how about the last sound in the word “dish” (/sh/)?
You can also support phonemic awareness by providing the individual sounds and asking your child to blend them together to say the word: “if I say /s/ /i/ /t/, what word am I saying?” (sit). You can ask your child to also segment the word into individual sounds: “what sounds do you hear in the word ‘road’?” (/r/ /oa/ /d/).
A final idea would be to think of words that all start with the same sound: “I see a car! What other words start with the /k/ sound?” (cat, crew, kite, clip, etc.).
Activities like this will help your child to continue to build a strong foundation that will support them as readers and writers. Have fun with it!
Third Annual Food Drive
It is time for the Third Annual Food Drive Competition. Last year Cook Hill and Parker Farms School managed to win against Highland and Fritz Elementary Schools by bringing a total of 5471 food items for the Town of Wallingford. This year we are again competing against Highland and Fritz Elementary Schools who brought in 3538 items last year. We will be holding a food drive to help support the Wallingford Community. We are collecting any unopened and unexpired nonperishable items.
Some examples include, but are not limited to: Canned goods, pasta, rice, tuna, hot/cold cereal, juice, soup, coffee & tea, peanut butter, jelly.
We will be collecting items beginning Monday, November 14th through Tuesday, December, 6th.
To create some excitement and build on the success of last year's Inaugural Food Drive Competition, Cook Hill will try to beat our own total of 1733 from last year. If we achieve this goal, a special school-wide celebration will be planned prior to our winter break.
GO COUGARS! GO BULLDOGS!
There will be drop off locations at the Doors Gym Lobby, Main Office Doors, Kindergarten Doors, and Preschool Entrance. We will be limiting the movement of all items brought into the building to maintain the safety of students and staff. We request that donations be left during school hours, from arrival to dismissal.
Thank you for your support in this time of need!
The Cook Hill StaffPTO Information and Events
Community Events
Important Message from Food Services!
Parents,
Please read the following message carefully and in its entirety, as it contains important information.
Just a reminder that the date of the end of free school meals will be Wednesday, November 30th.
This means that as of Thursday, December 1st 2022, students will be charged for breakfast and lunch meals unless they have been approved as eligible to receive free meals.
Payment methods for school meals:
Online School Meal Pre-payment info!
Wallingford Schools utilizes the MyPaymentsPlus internet based meal accounting system for parents.
MypaymentsPlus enables you to do the following:
- Deposit funds directly into your child's meal account using credit card, debit card, or electronic fund transfer! A small convenience fee, currently 4.75% per transaction, will be charged. Funds will usually be available for student use at school within twenty four to 48 hours.
- Check your child's meal account balances and monitor the food items they purchase at school.
- Create settings to automatically replenish your child's account or receive a notification email when the balance is low.
- If you don't have a computer, you can still put money on your child's meal account and check the balance via 1-866-764-0702 (toll free).
- Do any or all of these activities at your convenience, 24 hours a day / 7 days a week.
- If you have a technical problem you can call 1-877-237-0946 between the hours of 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM EST.
- You can also download the free MyPaymentsPlus app to your iPhone, iPad,or Android device. This app will allow you to perform all the same functions as on a computer.
To get started parents can go to https://www.mypaymentsplus.com. Please note that in order for you to register, you will need your child's student ID number (Not their meal PIN number). This number can be obtained from your school office, or by emailing to jquigley@wallingfordschools.org
If you have already signed up in prior years, you are still registered and do not need to re-register.
When depositing funds in student meal accounts, parents also have the option of choosing how their students can spend their meal funds.
Parents have the option of depositing the funds in a meal account only, which only allows students to purchase only one breakfast and one lunch meal per day, and no snacks. Parents can also choose to place the funds in a general account, which allows students to purchase both meals and snacks each day.
Checks or Cash:
Of course parents can choose to also pre-pay for meals with checks or cash (Although we do not recommend paying with cash).
Checks or cash must be placed in a sealed envelope, with the students name, grade, teacher or homeroom written on the front of the envelope. Checks must be made out to Wallingford Schools Food Services. Students can submit payment directly to the cafeteria staff, or to elementary school teachers.
Parents paying with checks or cash can also utilize the MyPaymentsPlus website to check meal fund balances, and monitor purchases.
Meal Pricing will be as follows beginning on Thursday December 1st, 2022:
Breakfast:
Elementary School Breakfast- $2.00
Middle School Breakfast - $2.10 (Middle School Breakfast is currently not offered but will be coming soon)
High School Breakfast- $2.15
Breakfast is $ .30 for those students at all schools that are eligible for reduced priced meals, and free to those students who are eligible for free meals.
Lunch:
Elementary School Lunch- $3.25
Middle School Lunch- $3.35
High School Lunch- $3.45
Lunch is $.40 for those students at all schools who are eligible for reduced priced meals, and free to those students who are eligible for free meals.
If you have not yet completed the free and reduced meal application, and feel you may qualify but have not been approved for free or reduced price meals, we urge you to complete an application before November 30th. If you have already been approved for free or reduced priced meals you do not need to do anything.
Applications can be completed online at https://frapps.horizonsolana.com/WALB01
There are also applications in English and Spanish that can be printed out and completed by hand
https://www.wallingford.k12.ct.us/uploaded/Food_Services/19-20/21-22/22-23/Family_Application_Spanish_2022-2023.pdf
Physical applications can also be obtained in each school office or at the Board of Education Office at 100 South Turnpike Road.
Applications can be returned to your school office, or mailed to Wallingford Schools food services, 100 South Turnpike Road, Wallingford, CT 06492
Please also note that all information presented here today and in the future can be found on the Wallingford Schools website at: https://www.wallingford.k12.ct.us/departments/food-services/menus-meal-pay
Thank you
School Hours
School Hours: 9:05 AM - 3:30 PM
(Parent drop off 8:50am-9:05am)
Delayed Openings
2 hour: 11:05-3:30
No AM Preschool class
Early Dismissals
2 hour: 9:05-1:30
2 hour and 45 minute: 9:05-12:45
No PM Preschool class
School Contact Information
Amy Yost ~ Principal
Kara Piper, Secretary - kpiper1@wallingfordschools.org
Amy Yost, Principal - ayost@walllingfordschools.org
PreSchool Office
Kelly Vallancourt, Secretary - kvallancourt@wallingfordschools.org
Email: ayost@wallingfordschools.org
Website: https://www.wallingford.k12.ct.us/our-schools/cook-hill-elementary-school
Location: 57 Hall Road, Wallingford, CT, USA
Phone: (203)284-5400