Nantucket Elementary School

Dear Families,

Hello and Happy Spring!! What a wonderful weather we have had this past week!! I speak of this as I am more accustomed to having a very cold spring in Nantucket.

Welcome to May!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in our NES Community!

❤️ THANK YOU SO MUCH TO THE NES FAMILIES FOR YOUR INCREDIBLE GENEROSITY!! ❤️Our staff appreciation luncheon was delightful. We all truly felt honored and so grateful. We would also like to thank our NES School Council for organizing this Staff Appreciation Luncheon, last Wednesday. The parents on our council are Ekaterina Maksimova-Evans, Katie Manchester, and Allyson Mitchell. They did an amazing job soliciting donations for 45 Surfside, soliciting donations of chips and soft drinks, arranging for flowers, and setting up the cafe.

We are now in the midst of the race to the end of the school year!! This will be our last comprehensive update for families. This week we will be rehearsing for Lip Sync on Wednesday, celebrating Unified Arts Night on Thursday, and enjoying the performance of so many of our talented students in the Lip Sync performance on Friday night in the MPW auditorium at NHS. Tickets are still available for the show. These can be purchased in the Main Offices at NES and NIS for $10.00 each. There will be tickets for sale at the door Friday night as well.

Our staff is working on placement for students for school year 2023-2024. We have compiled all the information you shared for placement, and the teachers are working diligently to set up balanced classrooms for next year. We send out teacher assignments and other back to school information in the middle of August. We will be sharing our EduKit information for school supplies as well.

We will be hosting a Parent Coffee to share information about supporting students over the summer. This can be a time of academic slide, meaning students regressing a bit in their current performance levels over the summer without daily reading, writing and math activities. Our interventionists run this coffee and it is always an exciting time! Please join us at 8:00 am in the NES cafe on Friday, June 9th.

Here is news from our grades and departments:

PreK - PreK - In May and June the students are learning about flowers, community helpers, sports/games, transportation, the ocean, and summer fun! We were fortunate to have the police department, coast guard, and fire department join us to teach us about how they help the community and also bring vehicles for the students to check out! As the weather is warming up we will continue to take opportunities to bring our learning outside such as through activities, storytime, and picnics. We have many special days planned for our grade level, please be sure to read over the flyer that was sent home from your child's teacher for more detailed information about each event.

1. May 18th - Field Day
2. May 25th - Vehicle Day
3. June 8th - Jetties Beach Field Trip with families
4. June 15th - Certificate Ceremony at 9:30am

Kindergarten - Kindergarten has begun our ABC countdown to the end of the school year. Click here for a link to the countdown days! Just a reminder that our Kindergarten Celebration is at 10:00 am on Friday, June 16th. This will be the last day of kindergarten. In classrooms, we have been learning about life cycles- planting and incubating chicken eggs. Kids and adults were both excited to watch the chicks hatch. We visited the Nantucket Atheneum and kindergarteners got their own library cards to visit and check out books over the summer. We are working on becoming Avid Readers and learning to love to read. Students are also working on becoming fluent when adding numbers 1-5 and knowing the difference between subtraction and addition. We will soon begin learning about maps and each student will learn their address, our state, country, and the name of our school. If there have been any physical moves since September, please make sure you update your addresses in Aspen so that your child learns the correct one.

First Grade - First graders have been working hard and finishing their projects on American Symbols. We are learning about donations and economics. During math we have been working on adding and comparing double digit numbers. We have been practicing reading and writing words with silent e. We are looking forward to STEM week the first week in June!

Second Grade - We have a busy few weeks left of second grade! We have begun learning about arrays and the beginning of multiplication. We are also learning about folktales, fairy tales, and fables in reading and different versions of the same story. Students studied about their heritage this term. They researched a country where their ancestors are from and created a project from the facts that they found. We will also complete another research project about animals and their habitats. The end of the year is quickly approaching and we are all excited but still have so much to do!

Meri Lepore's Nurse's Corner

As the school year starts to wind down, here are some summer recommendations for our students.

Ticks

When spending time outdoors be sure to avoid tall grass and do daily tick checks on your child and yourself. If you find a tick on yourself or your child, call or message your doctor’s office. If your child has a fever, rash or is not feeling well, it is a good idea to be tested for a possible tick borne illness. My favorite doctor has a saying “There is no such thing as a summer flu.” We had a relatively warm winter so the ticks will be out and active.

https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/

https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/symptoms.html

https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/avoid/on_people.html

Physical Activity

According to the CDC, all children ages 6-17 need to be active for at least 60 minutes every day, children 3-5 will need to be active throughout the day. There are so many benefits to physical activity including brain health, improved academic performance, long term improvement in health, building strong muscles and bones, and maintaining a healthy weight to name a few. It is important for us as parents to model the importance of physical activity and participate in activities with our children. Encourage your child to go for a walk with you or take them to the playground.

https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adults/health-benefits-of-physical-activity-for-children.html

Sun Safety

Sunscreen is hugely important for the prevention of sun burns. As our weather warms up, please be sure to apply sun screen to your child when outside. Other options to prevent sun burns include wearing clothing that covers their skin, hats with brims to protect their face, ears, and back of their necks. Sunglasses to prevent damage to their eyes from sun exposure.

https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/basic_info/sun-safety.htm

Healthy Eating

Encourage healthy eating habits, focusing on eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, low fat dairy and whole grains.

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/children/index.html

Please be sure that your child is up to date on their immunizations and all new students need a recent physical exam to start school.

Meri Lepore

Nurse Nantucket Elementary School

leporem@npsk.org

Counselor's Corner from Jenny Williams, Heidi Smith and Madeleine Sybert, Social Worker

Dear Families,

This month the counseling team continues to reinforce and teach the Problem-Solving Steps during our SEL lessons. These steps help students become skilled problem solvers which can result in fewer conflicts with peers. We are noticing that your children are really enjoying singing and dancing to the Problem Solving Song (attached below)! We encourage you to listen to this song with your child and we guarantee you will love it too! Problem Solving Song

Teaching students how to identify, name problems and apply different strategies to solve problems will help them be more successful inside and outside the classroom. In order to build upon these skills, we are teaching students how to use these steps when responding to playground exclusion, playing fairly on the playground, and handling name-calling. These are important lessons for your child because it will help them learn how to demonstrate assertiveness and generate solutions to problems.

As parents and teachers we can’t always be there to solve every problem for our children. In fact, it’s best that we encourage and teach them to solve problems by themselves. Students with effective problem-solving skills will be able to better manage their emotions and persevere when encountering challenges.

We encourage you to discuss and practice these steps at home when you notice that your child has encountered a problem. Losing a toy or having a disagreement with a sibling can be a great opportunity for you to help your child say the problem and then come up with ideas to solve it.

Warmly,

Heidi Smith

Elementary School Counselor Intern

smithh@npsk.org

Jenny Williams

Elementary School Counselor

williamsje@npsk.org

Madeleine Sybert

School Social Worker

sybertm@npsk.org

Thank you for all of your efforts to support your child's learning. We need your partnership with us in this most important journey of supporting your child for success. Know that Mrs. Kimberly Albertson, Assistant Principal, and myself are always available to support you. Feel free to call the school to set up appointments, call to speak with us, email us, or catch us outside in the morning and/or afternoon. We love feedback and want you to feel comfortable reaching out to us as needed!

Best,

Kim Kubisch and Kim Albertson

Here are a few very important reminders that have been previously shared. As we always say, we need you the parents and adult family members to be partners with us in your child's education. An important role that you play is to be a model for our high expectations. Please review these sections and let us know if you have any questions.

Attendance - we are starting to see some students with higher absence numbers. It is very important that you notify your child's teacher or call the front office. You can send a message to your child's teacher through REMIND or call the front office to leave a message regarding your child's absence at (508) 228 - 7290 ext, 3. If your child needs to miss 5 or more consecutive days, you must make an appointment with the principal well in advance of upcoming absence. The NES Parent Handbook has been posted on the NES website (www.npsk.org, click on schools, click on Nantucket Elementary School). Please review the important section on attendance. Retention in the current grade level is a possibility if a child has excessive absences. As we continue to rebound from the Covid Pandemic, children being in school each day is a necessity.

Driving and Parking on the NES/NIS campus

We have had several concerns shared regarding safety of students as they enter and exit the school recently. These concerns have been regarding parent drivers not following safety rules. These are listed below for your reference. We appreciate all of your anticipated efforts and required patience.

• NES will open in the morning at 7:45am. Students who are walking, biking or getting dropped off should be outside the building no earlier than 7:35am and walk to their assigned class meeting place outside.
• If parents wish to escort their child to their assigned class space, they must park their car in the Backus Lane parking lot ONLY.
• The parking lot off of First Way, behind the school is for staff only.
• All of the parking spots are assigned to staff or students at NHS.
• Parents and Guardians should not use that lot for any reason.
• This is a terrible place for students to be dropped off, this is not a drive through, and there is nowhere for any non permitted driver to park.
• Again, please stop driving in this lot. We are asking you to be a model for all children in the morning and the afternoon.
• Drive through drop off in the morning is permitted at the K and NES/NIS side entrances. This means parents stay in their car, and a staff member will open the passenger side door to help your child exit safely. Then, the car continues driving out the exit. This is for all students.
• Drive through pick up in the afternoon is permitted for all students grades 2-5 in the large circle between NES and NIS. This means parents stay in their car, and a staff member will oversee students entering cars. Then, the car continues driving out the exit.
• K and 1 students are met by parents at the back K entrance. Students will be standing in their assigned class lines.
• The circles and driveways on campus ARE NOT PARKING SPACES. An adult driver must stay in the car while waiting for students to exit or enter the car.
• At dismissal, all parents will continue to wait outside in the already designated spots with staff supervision (kindergarten circle for kindergarten and first grade students, outside of the front door for second grade students).
• In the event of inclement weather (severe snow or rain), kindergarten and first grade students will be dismissed out the kindergarten and cafeteria doors to parents outside and second grade students will be dismissed out the gymnasium doors to parents outside.
• Drivers may not pull into the bus loop to pick-up their children EVER.

Upcoming Events

SAVE THE DATES!!

• NES Unified Arts night Grades 1 & 2 5:30 pm NES 5/18/23
• NES/NIS Lip Sync NHS Auditorium 6:00 pm 5/19/23
• NO SCHOOL Memorial Day 5/29/23
• NES Polished Dental 6/1/23 & 6/2/23
• NPS School Committee LGI 6:00 pm 6/6/23
• NES Field Day 6/7/23
• FONPS Meeting NHS 6:00 pm 6/7/23
• NES Field Day Rain date 6/8/23
• NCS Extended Day Registration 9:00 am 6/13/23
• NES Flag Day Celebration 6/14/23
• FONPS Meeting NIS 6:00 pm 6/14/23
• NES Last Day of Prek 10:30 am dismissal 6/15/23
• NES Last Day of Kindergarten 10:30 am dismissal 6/16/23
• Sunday, 6/18/23 Father's Day
• NO SCHOOL Juneteenth 6/19/23
• NPS School Committee LGI 6:00 pm 6/20/23
• Last Day of School 1/2 Day 12:00 pm Dismissal Friday 6/23/23
• Report Cards published in Aspen and sent home 6/23/23

Website: www.npsk.org
Location: 30 Surfside Road, Nantucket, MA 02554, USA
Phone: 508 228 - 7290