Soaring Falcons
October Edition 2019
Falmouth Elementary
LEARN with passion
LEAD with confidence
LIVE with character
Email: fewebmaster@staffordschools.net
Website: https://www.staffordschools.net/fes
Location: 1000 Forbes St, Falmouth, VA 22405
Phone: (540) 373-7458
Twitter: @FESNVA
Principal's Greeting
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Stafford County Public Schools is committed to creating unique learning opportunities for students by securing all possible sources of funding. Our schools are eligible for Impact Aid funds due to the increased federal presence in our area. Forms will be sent home on Tuesday, October 1st and can be accessed via the SCPS website. We need each family to complete and return the Impact Aid form, whether or not your child meets the criteria listed below. Please take a moment to complete the Impact Aid form and return to school by October 22, 2019.
Students with federal connections are:
- Children of active-duty U.S. uniformed services
- Children who live on federal property
- Children whose parent(s) work on federal property
Participation by all families is important to help ensure all students receive an excellent education.
Thank you for your support!
Ms. JP (Principal)
***Transportation Safety Information***
As Principal of Falmouth Elementary, I am responsible for the safety of everyone on the property at all times. With that, I am asking everyone to refrain from all distracting activities (cell phones, reading, eating) while driving on school property. Also, it is important to keep everyone in the vehicle properly restrained until our car rider staff members approach to assist your child out of the vehicle. Remember, the law requires all occupants of your vehicle under the age of 18 to be properly restrained anywhere in the vehicle while the vehicle is in motion.
Lastly, please make sure you are following the directions of our trained crossing guards as they keep our Falmouth Elementary grounds safe. They are doing a fantastic job of keeping cars, buses, and pedestrians safe during drop off and dismissal, but need your help and attention throughout the school year.
General Car Rider Reminders
Morning Car Rider Reminders
1. We ask that you continue to be courteous of other drivers as you form the single line of traffic and enter the school bus lanes, then turn right next to the building.
2. Please have your son/daughter ready for release, pull up as close as possible to the car ahead of you and begin releasing students along the sidewalk in the area designated.
3. Please refrain from using cell phones and other distractions that may take your attention away from being observant. This will allow us to get more cars into the driveway, more students released, and ensure a steady flow of traffic.
4. As you leave the school driveway, please be careful and cautious of pedestrians and traffic on the connecting streets.
5. If you need to walk-in your son/daughter for various reasons (bring in items, meeting, etc.), please use the left lane to enter the parking lot and use the appropriate crosswalks. Please do not drop-off your son/daughter in the parking lot because you wish to not follow the traffic pattern. You place your child’s safety in danger when you drop them off along the street or in the parking lot and allow them to walk across without adult supervision.
Afternoon Car Rider Reminders
1. Please form two lines of traffic.
2. Please place your car rider number plate in the windshield of the car for the callers.
3. Please refrain from using cell phones and other distractions that may take your attention away from being observant. This will allow us to get more cars into the driveway, more students loaded, and ensure a steady flow of traffic.
4. A staff member will monitor students as they load the cars.
5. A child should never cross in front of or behind another vehicle without the supervision/assistance of an adult. Be watchful of other cars exiting and/or faculty members crossing the driveway.
6. Please be patient and courteous as both parents and students learn the procedures. The process does move quicker as everyone learns and follows the procedures.
Ms. JP (Principal)
Exciting Things are Coming!
PTO Meeting
Early Release/Holidays
October 11
October 31
Community On The Court
September 30 - 5:30 to 7:30
October 7 - 5:30 to 7:30DARE Skate Night
Field Day
Library Book Fair
STEM Night
Trunk or Treat
Unity Week Festivities
- Come dressed in PAJAMAS
Tuesday, Oct 22 - "Be All That You Can Be!"
- Come dressed in CAMO attire or RED for EDucation
Wednesday, Oct 23 - "Orange You Glad You Are Here at FES!"
- Wear ORANGE
Thursday, Oct 24 - "We are in'VEST'ed in what we do!"
- Come dressed in a VEST
Friday, Oct 25 - "Hats off to being part of the Falmouth Family!"
- Come dressed in SCHOOL COLORS and a HAT
***Falcon Clinic News***
Vision screenings have been conducted with our kindergarten and 3rd grade students. If you received a vision referral letter for your student, the recommendation is that your child be seen by an eye doctor. Because vision can affect learning, it is important that students who need glasses wear them while in school. If you need assistance in finding an eye doctor or financial assistance for glasses, please let the school nurse know.
Listed below are the Stafford County Health Services guidelines which parents should use in determining if a sick child should stay at home and when a previously sick child is ready to return to school.
Medical Exclusions and Reasons to Stay Home From School
• Fever 100 degrees or higher within the past 24 hours
• Vomiting or diarrhea within the past 24 hours
• Severe earache pain
• Swollen or extremely painful joints from an injury
• Suspected contagious diseases. Examples include:
o Chickenpox
o Conjunctivitis (pink eye)
o Pediculosis (head lice)
o Scabies, ringworm or impetigo
o Undiagnosed rashes
• Antibiotic treatment which has just begun. Students given antibiotics for communicable infections should stay home for the first 24 hours.
Flu season is here and the CDC recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older should get a flu vaccine every season. Vaccination is particularly important for people who are at high risk of serious complications from influenza. Please see the CDC website form more information regarding the influenza vaccine for the 2019-20 season.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/index.htm
As always, please contact me at any time if you have any questions or concerns regarding your student’s health!
Nurse Anna
phone: (540) 373-7458 email: krushinskiam@staffordschools.net
***LIBRARY NEWS***
The Scholastic Book Fair is coming Oct. 21-25 and will be open during school all week including STEM night which is Wednesday the 23rd. Informational flyers will go home the week before. The link below will give you a sneak peek at some of the titles:
http://bookfairsfiles.scholastic.com/flippingbooks/f19-custom-booklist/f19-custom-booklist.html
Also, we have begun VA Reader’s Choice for this year which is our school’s big reading program. I will read all ten primary titles to classes in grades K-2 and then we will vote for our favorite book when finished. Students do this across the state. Students in grades 3-5 choose to take part and can earn incentives which we have gone over in class. More information on this year’s books are at:
https://www.vsra.org/virginia-readers-choice-program
Mr. Ward, Librarian
***MATH NEWS...STEM NIGHT***
STEM Night
October 23, 2019 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm
Mark your calendars for October 23rd to participate in Falmouth’s annual Family STEM Night. There will be exciting activities all over the building! Of course the book fair will be in the library. There will be lots of great door prizes. We will also have lots of wonderful family fun all over the building. Each grade level will have 2 different rooms to visit--one a math game and the other a STEM activity.
Along with the STEM and math games we will have the Planetarium again and for the first time we will have the Stafford County Kilroy Robotics team here with their STEMival robot!!!!
We will have the classroom science experiments on display all over the school. This will be a very exciting family night. We look forward to seeing everyone come out and enjoy the evening.
Ms. Smetts, Math Specialist
***NEWS FROM THE READING ROOM***
We are on our way to another great year of reading at Falmouth Elementary, where reading is always hot, hot, hot! We have great things in store this year, including Literacy Night, Battle of the Books, and visits from the Reading Fairies and Larry the Lemon, to name just a few. Our Literacy Committee is hard at work planning activities and events to support reading fun!
You can support your child’s reading by ensuring your child reads every day. Kindergarten and first grade parents, you should have received information about Raz-Kids, an online reading program. Your child has access to Raz-Kids at both school and home. This is an interactive program that provides books at your child’s reading level. Second through fifth grade parents, please encourage your children to take Accelerated Reader tests for the books they are reading. Accelerated Reader is a computerized program that tests reading comprehension. Students select books on their reading level, read independently, and take an independent comprehension test on the computer. Each book is worth a certain number of points based on its length and reading level. Students enjoy tracking their points.
We look forward to watching our young Falcons grow as readers!
***Art News***
Lauren Bennett
Ashby Hall
Lyra Lewis
Rylee Taliaferro
These artists and their families were invited to an opening reception on Thu, 9/26. Their work will be on exhibit at the Bandy Center throughout the school year.
Mrs. Clark, Art Teacher
***PE NEWS***
We are now less than three weeks away from our first ever Fall Field day! The big day is scheduled for Friday, October 18th with a make-up day on Friday, November 1st. Please set that date aside if you would like to help by volunteering to run one of our 18 morning or afternoon stations.
Kindergarten through 3rd grade just started with a week of parachute activities. Before that, those classes spent the previous 3 weeks working on throwing, tossing, rolling, and catching. Messy backyard and Pinball were two popular games that students played after practicing their skills for two weeks.
Our 4th and 5th graders have been sort of multi-tasking. They have been running once a week and recently finished their 8 or 9 minute run. They have also been trying to complete fitness testing while mixing in some football skills such as throwing, catching, punting, and kicking field goals. We have one fitness test left to complete as we get ready to begin our soccer unit.
Mr. Emerson and Mr. Brown, PE Teachers
***FOCUS NEWS***
Ms. Pickett, FOCUS Teacher
***COUNSELORS' CORNER***
In September, Falmouth Counselors were in K-5 classrooms teaching lessons focused on positive conflict resolution. As we know, conflicts and disagreements are a normal part of life and often happens when children get together. However, until children learn and are encouraged to use peaceful skills to handle conflict, they often use hurtful words, gestures, or sadly even physical attacks. These behaviors are unacceptable ways to deal with disagreement; often making a manageable situation much worse which can lead to unwanted or unintended consequences.
Our goal at Falmouth is to teach students constructive ways to deal with difficult situations. To do this, we use “Kelso's Choice,” a conflict management program for children. It teaches students the difference between "small" problems (things they can solve all by themselves) and "big" problems (problems they should get an adult's help with). This program empowers students to make good choices and to become excellent problem solvers! When faced with “small” problems students are encouraged to try two of the following nine “Kelso’s Choice:”
1. Go to another game
2. Share and take turns
3. Talk it out
4. Walk away
5. Ignore it
6. Tell them to stop
7. Apologize
8. Make a deal
9. Wait and cool off
By using “Kelso’s Choice” students will develop effective problem solving skills that they can use throughout their life, assisting them in handling conflict in a constructive manner and reinforcing the positive peaceful results when making good choices in challenging situations.
We encourage parents to become familiar with this program and use it in their home. Working together, we can help children learn to be the creator and maintain peaceful happy relationships at school and home.
Ami Brown, M.Ed. and Jennifer Crane, M.Ed.
FES School Counselor
***Technology News***
Hello FES parents, I am very excited to be a part of the falcon family! I updated my ITRT webpage that is linked to the FES homepage to include a section titled “Parent & Student Resources”. https://www.staffordschools.net/Page/28528 Here you can access links to tools and resources that I hope will help you to remain an active part of your children's education and to encourage safe and responsible use of technology and social media. I am excited to visit classrooms and support the important work our staff and students do here each day. Go Falcons!
Mr. DuPont - ITRT
***Lost and Found***
*** Important Reminders from The Front Office ***
Student Dismissal
Reporting a Student's Absence
To assist the office staff, please be sure to call the office number to report your child's absence at (540) 373-7458 prior to 9:30am. If you would like to complete the Report An Absence form online, YOU MAY CLICK HERE
Lost and Found
Please take a moment to label all items including lunchboxes and jackets for your children. It will assist us in returning lost items to the proper students instead of filling our Lost and Found.