Dear Leighton Families,

Happy Friday! What a great week we had with the culminating event of our Valentine's Day Parties!! I was asked by a few students this week what my favorite holiday was and I believe they were expecting my answer to be Christmas because of all the holiday fun or 4th of July since it is during summer break, but my answer was "Valentine's Day" because it is a day where we can spread joy, kindness, and love to others! In a world where we can be anything and being kind is paramount, I feel very grateful and blessed to be a part of a great educational community filled with acts of kindness from all stakeholders each day! Enjoy the pictures below of our special Valentine's Day parties today!

We are also looking forward to celebrating World Kindness Week next week with our Random Acts of Kindness "Paper Chain" Challenge. Anytime a student shows another student a random act of kindness throughout the week, they will add their act of kindness to a paper strip that will be added to create a chain. Our building goal is to make a chain around the media center or the center of our building.

Our Imagination Destination Student Club will be selling Kindness Grams and Kindness Bracelets during lunch times next week. Kindness Grams are $.50 and bracelets are $.50. See below for more information. Thank you to our two facilitators of this student led group, Erin Toler and Stephanie Quinn. Bring your change and let's spread kindness!

Just as we will watch kindness grow this week, we are excited to continually watch our students grow as they soar with their strengths and continue to set learning goals that foster continued growth.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kind Regards,

Mrs. Michelle Nizen, Building Principal

Mrs. Maria Goodman, Assistant Principal

February 14th through Februray 18th is World Kindness Week! You might remember the Kindness Tree that grew exponentially throughout February last year with all the acts of kindness students displayed and shared on a paper heart that acted like leaves on our kindness tree. It was awesome to watch the kindness grow and spread!

This year we are going to create a “kindness chain” that will stretch around the walls of the media center in the hallways for students to watch grow as they spread kindness! Each grade level will have a different color strip of paper. Each time students display an Act of Kindness they will fill out their act of kindness on a strip of paper and add it to the chain. We can't wait to see our kindness spread and grow around the heart of our building.

Our after school student club called Imagination Destination comprised of a group of 4th and 5th Graders wanted to help spread kindness a little more!! This student group is working to give back and is working to raise money for a service project to support injured and homeless Australian Wildlife.

This thoughtful group of 4th and 5th Graders will be helping to spread kindness by selling Kindness Grams during all lunch times Monday, February 14th-Thursday, February 17th to support their service project. Students can purchase Kindness Grams at lunch for $. 50 and include a handmade bracelet for another $.50. See flyer below. Bring your change and let's spread kindness!

Our UDL (Universally Designed Lessons) hone in on each focus skill allowing us to explicitly teach those skills, reinforce them, and connect them to our strategic vision including our 6 competencies of a learner (critical thinker, collaborator, innovator, resilient, balanced, and empathetic). Ms. Mazzella also capitalizes on teaching these skills in her classroom lessons focused on various topics including friendships, growth mindset, perseverance as it relates to school work, etc.

We are looking forward to announcing our next Golden Fork winners next week for demonstrating our 3 pillars in the lunchroom and at recess while following all the expectations. Congratulations went to Mrs. Parker, Ms. Most, and Mrs. Samelko who earned the Golden Fork last week and will be getting ready to pass it along to the next winning classes to display outside their classroom doors.

Our next monthly PBIS office raffle will be Friday, February 25th. Students will continue to turn in their caught being good tickets to the office and a building-wide drawing will take place, where caught being good tickets will be read over the announcements and students will pick a prize from our PBIS rewards cart.

Here are some great resources to support your PBIS efforts at home. Thank you for your partnership!

https://www.pbis.org/resource/supporting-families-with-pbis-at-home

https://www.pbis.org/resource/supporting-families-with-pbis-at-home

Yearbook Orders: Yearbooks are now on sale! The sale runs through February 21st. Please use the link to purchase your yearbook

https://mailchi.mp/a3827dc5c1cb/pre-order-your-2021-2022-yearbook-for-leighton-elementary-school?e=5913bcd71d

Password: leighton22

Mother/Son Bowling Night: Join us for a special outing for our boys and a special grownup in their life at Roseland Lanes on 3/5/22. Attached to this email is the registration form which also came home last week in student folders. Please send money in at the time of registration. Also, while we know how disappointing it is to hear, the Princess Prom is unable to be held this year. It is typically organized by the NHS at the high school. We, the PTO, are trying to come up with an alternative event for our girls until the dance will be able to be held again. We appreciate your patience while we work this out, and welcome any great ideas you may have!!

Bowling Registration Form:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SAWySPOEMnnQ8ZuwAhh3HXqUso8vr9pie2StWH1Mqas/edit?usp=sharing

PTO ELECTIONS: There are board positions for next year! It's a wonderful way to volunteer in your child's school! Please consider joining the PTO board and helping to plan fun and meaningful events for our elementary schools!!! If you have any questions, or would like to talk to a current board member, see the emails below:

PTO President: Katie Stump auroraptopres@gmail.com
Craddock Vice President: Lindsey Twarogowski auroraptocesvp@gmail.com

Miller Vice President: Erin Toler auroraptomesvp@gmail.com

Leighton Vice President: Natasha Rodriguez-Olah auroraptolesvp@gmail.com

Treasurer: Ashley Keating auroraptotreas@gmail.com

Secretary: Bridget Sable auroraptosec@gmail.com

Head Room Parent Communication:

If you would like to receive communication from your head room parent, please click on the link and fill out the form.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeKGjTwj3kvxBeEWJHYTk9Dh7tg_pBsEKtoOQFhWd1GE3jeFQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

As a reminder, please monitor your child for any COVID-related symptoms and contact our school nurse if you have any questions. We appreciate your attention to this.

• Check your child each day for COVID-related symptoms. If your child is showing any symptoms whatsoever, it is best to keep him/her home to monitor.
• Students sent home with a fever, may not return to school until they are fever-free without medication for at least 24 hours. This means if your child was sent home on Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. with a fever, he/she may not return to school until Thursday. If your child does return the next day, our school nurse will be calling for you to come to pick him/her up. Thank you for your support and efforts in this area.
  
• We have COVID-19 home testing kits available that we can send home with any child or family should you question symptoms or exposure. We will be able to answer any questions about these kits should the need arise.
• Please make sure your Final Forms medical information is up to date. We will closely read the health sections to address any medical concerns.

If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Tanski in the clinic at 330-954-2285 or email her at atanski@aurora-schools.org

**** If your child will be absent for an extended period, please reach out to your child's teacher and they will get school work ready for your student for the period of the absence. You may pick up the work outside the main office on a table that will be labeled with your student's name. We are a google district and utilize google classroom in our 3-5 classes. Please check in with your child's teacher about any google classroom posting and/or assignments in his/her absence.