October Bulldog Bulletin
Spring Mill Elementary 2023-2024 School Year
Translate/Traducir/ترجمة/ Traduire/ Tafsiri
Spring Mill Elementary
Email: kmerritt@msdwt.k12.in.us
Website: www.sm.msdwt.k12.in.us
Location: 8250 Spring Mill Road, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Phone: (317) 259-5462
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpringMillElementary/
Twitter: @springmillelem
October
2 - School Custodian Day
3 - Hearing Screenings - 1st and 4th Grade
5 - Cultivating A Community (ML Family Event) - 4:30-5:30 pm
5 - 3rd Grade Folk Dance Festival - 6:00-7:00 pm
5 - World's Teacher's Day
6 - End of Quarter 1
6 - Kindergarten Holliday Park Field Trip
9-13 - Fall Break
20 - Awards Ceremony 3rd - 5th Grade @ 8:30 am
25 - Dine to Donate @ Chipotle
27 - Schoolwide Pajama Day Reward for PTO Fundraiser
27 - Bulldog-tober Fest
30 - Book Fair begins (see below)
30 - Kindergarten Russell Farms Field Trip
November
2 - Special Person's Day
7 - eLearning Day
16 - Dine to Donate @ Noble Roman's
17 - PTO Popcorn Day
20-24 - Thanksgiving Break
Message from Ms. Merritt
Dear SM Bulldogs,
Just as Mrs. Keeling shared her "Where I'm From" poem with you, I would like to share mine as well so that you can get to know me from the perspective of my family traditions and childhood.
"Where I'm From"
I am from Raggedy Ann and Andy ice cream stand.
From long dresses and baby dolls.
I am from the brick house in Whitely on Elgin Street.
I am from the big oak tree in my backyard,
the one we always dreamed could be a treehouse.
I'm from my dad's black Ford Falcon and large Afro comb,
From my grandparents, Emma and George Bacon.
I'm from all-day church on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays,
and Christmas at Aunt Joyce's house.
From "dry those tears up or I'll give you something to cry about"
and "Mitchells never quit".
I'm from Thanksgiving dinners in Gary, Indiana with family.
I'm from Muncie, Indiana.
My grandma's cornbread dressing and my mama's collard greens,
from the Christmas where we got our first colored TV,
the times I was able to lay my head across my father's lap as he
told stories and drove our family car for many miles.
I'm from reciting all 66 books of the Bible from the pulpit of a
church as a 6 year-old.
I'm from all these moments that shaped me.
My foundation always has been and will forever be my faith and family.
I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events listed above during the month of October. Thank you for your continued support, we appreciate you!
Ms. Kellee Merritt
Principal
There has never been a better time to be a Spring Mill Bulldog!
#BulldogProud
#goodBetterBEST
#excellentonpurpose
#whyWT
Spring Mill PTO
Happy Fall, Bulldogs!
First off, a H-U-G-E THANK YOU to everyone who donated to our fall fundraiser! We raised $6,235 which will all go directly to supporting events, grants, and Spring Mill activities throughout the year. While we did not quite hit our $10K goal, we raised more than last year through multiple fundraisers (which we now don't have to do this year, yay!) and we have a baseline for future fundraising efforts like this. Thank you all so much, our kiddos can get excited about their Pajama Day reward on Friday, October 27!
One of our BIGGEST events of the year is our upcoming Bulldogtober Fest on Friday, October 27, from 6-8 pm. Stay tuned for exciting updates about all the awesome activities, games, and food we have planned to provide fun for the whole family! There will also be numerous opportunities to volunteer so, if you've been wanting to get involved, this will be a great night to help out. Look for more information coming your way soon.
Speaking of, we are still looking for a few additional items for an upcoming teacher appreciation activity. If you're interested in bringing in needed items, please check out our Sign Up Genius here and bring your donations to the office by the end of the day this Wednesday.
Also, mark your calendars for our next Dine to Donate: Wednesday, October 25 @ Chipotle!
We're so grateful for all of you and our incredible Bulldog community! Thanks for all you do!
Go Bulldogs!
SME PTO
Get Your Teach On (GYTO) Rock Your School (RYS) Event
Our entire school had a rockin' great time participating in GYTO's Rock Your School (RYS) event on Friday, September 29. Educators from around the world participated in the event by creating an outside-the-box educational experience designed to engage their students and bring learning to life in their classrooms and increase student engagement. We appreciate the work all of our teachers put into making our first RYS event such a success and are looking forward to making it even bigger and better next year!
See pictures below of our students and staff "rocking out" during their RYS activities!
Parent-Teacher Conferences
Cultivating A Community - Multilingual Family Night
3rd Grade Folk Dance Festival - 10/5/23
Third Grade Families, please join us for this year’s Folk Dance Festival. We need your musicians there!
When: Thursday, October 5, from 6:00-7:00 pm
Where: Spring Mill Elementary Gymnasium
Who: All 3rd Grade students and families
What: A night of learning dances from around the world, seeing your student perform things learned in music class, and bonding with the community through music. Wear comfortable clothes that are easy to move in. Students should bring an adult from home to be their folk-dance partner. It is important that students are present for this music event.
Clothing Drive
- Pants (preferably with an elastic waist) size 5,6,7, and 8
- Shirts size 5,6,7, and 8
The following items must be NEW:
- Boys underwear 5,6,7, and 8
- Girl's underwear 5,6,7, and 8
- Socks in any size or style
You can drop items off at the main office. Thank you for your continued support!
Spring Mill Standout of the Month
Book Fair
Students will attend the Book Fair with their classes from Monday, October 30, through Wednesday, November 1. The Fair will also be open during Special Person’s Day on Thursday, November 2.
You can visit the flyer online, shop, and create an eWallet for your students here.
Bulldog Ambassadors
Bulldog Ambassadors Respect Video
Madline Urbanski and Brianna Amspaugh have the pleasure of working with our Bulldog Ambassadors. Bulldog Ambassadors always aim to demonstrate positive and high expectations for their fellow Bulldogs. Our ambassadors wanted to share with the whole school what respect can look like throughout the building to tie into September's Bulldog Bone Behavior focus. The Ambassadors had autonomy in the creation of the videos to determine what and how each scenario could demonstrate respect for their peers. We think they did an excellent job! Click the link to watch their video demonstrating respect.
Back row – Miss Urbanski, Maddox Smith, Connor Dillon, Anthony Farris, Levi Higgins, Tryon Kincade, Mrs. Amspaugh
Front Row- Kylee Riley, Jordyn Primm, Kimberly Perez, Mia Quintanilla, Gianna Jefferson, Jensi Nabor
The Bulldog Times
Our Spring Mill News Reporters are excited to share October’s edition of The Bulldog Times with you. Ashli Hess, Teacher-Librarian, works with our reporters to create articles that classroom teachers use interactively with their students.
Our Bulldog Times reporters are: Adalyn Amspaugh, Scout Schultz, Clare Wright, Elle Schlimgen, Anna Weatherly, Faneza Hunter, Simone Dale, Isabel Hudson, Melanie Clara, Arthur Arduini, Bella Ann Turley, Abigail Way, Isaiah Roberts, Keenan Shah, Nemroud Gidey, Thatcher Cook, Salem Wolderufael, Levi Higgins, Cristian Vazquez-Cervantes, Kylee Riley, and Layla Marshall.
"Paw"sitively Excellent Students for September
For the 23-24 school year, we are adding to our program by having the "Paw"sitively Excellent Student of the Month for each classroom. Teachers select a student that exemplified the focused behaviors throughout the month. For the month of September, our focus was Respect and the following students were selected for modeling respectful behavior throughout the month:
Kindergarten
Bloomer- Lorinda Saint-Hilaire
Gabbei- Hiyab Negash
Miranda- Natalie Ayers
Moore- Laila Hamilton
1st Grade
Harton- Moxie Schultz
Johnson- Noah Jackson
Keegan- Cameron Dillon
Schneider- Kennedy Fatherree
2nd Grade
Culp- Kayden Coicou
Finley- Christopher Garcia-Tellez
McAllister- Simone Dale
Urbanski- Warren Williams
3rd Grade
Gallagher- Furah Mawazo
Hartnagel-Ava Cope
Joyner- Cristian Vazquez Cervantes
Sweeney- Devonta Norrington
4th Grade
Dewey- Ja’Niyah Harrison
Morse- Lal Luai'
Patterson-Lailah Van Hoosier
Turner- Elsa Malloy
5th Grade
Amspaugh- Malayla Wilson
Arms- Zain Ali
Badger- Giana Jefferson
Evans- Levi Higgins
October Behavior - Responsibility
Golden Spoon Award
Every day, the class that has best demonstrated safety, respect, and responsibility for their grade level in the Cafeteria is awarded the Golden Spoon to hang outside their classroom door and a Positive Paw. The following classes have earned the Golden Spoon the most times in September and celebrated with a picnic lunch today (see pictures below)
- K- Gabbei
- 1-Keegan
- 2- Urbanski
- 3- Gallagher
- 4- Turner
- 5- Amspaugh