HMS Update
September 2016
From the Principal
To the HMS Community,
Happy Fall! The first month of the school year has gone by so quickly. Hopefully, by now our students have established a routine amidst their busy school and extracurricular schedules.
Every month, I will share with our community, through this newsletter, highlights from the month and information about what lies ahead.
My personal highlight of the month has been participating in the morning announcements. I really enjoy having the opportunity to share with our students the news of the day and providing a thought-provoking or motivational quote of the day. Our daily morning announcements include student-led renditions of the Pledge of Allegiance and often a performance of a patriotic song by a student or group of students. This really makes for a positive and fun way to start our school day.
I hope you enjoy this month's newsletter, and that your family's school year is off to a great start.
Proudly,
Doug Layman
Principal
Upcoming Important Dates:
10.3-7: Week of Respect
10.4 or 10.5: 4th Grade Trip to Sterling Mine
10.5: HMS Trivia Night
10.10: No School, Teacher In-Service
10.12: No School
10.13: HMS Bulldog Run to benefit Joseph T. Quinlan Bereavement Center
10.17 or 10.20: 5th Grade Trip to Quiet Valley
Helen Morgan History
Week of Respect
Pickup/Dropoff Procedures
If you need to pick your child up early, please arrive before 3:15. Arriving later than 3:15 can cause delays to our dismissal process.
For more information on these procedures please visit Mr. Ciaburri's webpage.
November/December 1/2 Days
11.28-12.1: K-5 1/2 days for conferences
12.2: 1/2 day for entire district
HMS Water Station
News from the Media Center
Please feel free to follow our account on social media! We are always posting fun activities in the Media Center.
Instagram - hmschoollibrary
and
Twitter - @hmschoollibrary
STUDENT HANDBOOK UPDATE
All areas of the elementary schools are under 24 hour camera surveillance. All activities are monitored and recorded, both within the school and at the entrances.
Catching Kind
We are making an effort to acknowledge our students' acts of kindness. A leaf will be added to the kindness tree (pictured on the right) with the act and the name of the student that did it. We are going to add a vine soon and tie it into the kindness theme for the year.
Every Kid In A Park
Introducing Sophie
On the occasional Friday, I plan on bringing Sophie, an 8 month old black lab who is being trained by my family for The Seeing Eye in Morristown, to school. The Seeing Eye breeds and trains dogs to become guide dogs for vision-impaired individuals. Our goal as a puppy-raiser is to socialize her through exposure to busy and diverse environments. Sophie will be in my office, and will occasionally be in the halls and outside- she will not go into classrooms. Sophie will be wearing a service vest, which indicates one should not interact with her while she is in “work” mode. However, she welcomes visitors when she is in my office, not vested, and “off duty”.
If you have any questions or concerns about Sophie's presence in school please don't hesitate to reach out to Mr. Layman.
HMS REMIND TEXT MESSAGES
HMS PHOTO ALBUM
EXPLORATIONS- Fall 2016
RITA's night
Meet paprika
learning to raise the flag
the hms kindness tree- watch it grow
daughters of the american revolution visits hms
messy with states of matter
Helen Morgan School
Principal
Email: doug.layman@sparta.org
Website: hms.sparta.org
Location: Sparta, NJ
Phone: 973.957.1467