Panther Press

Update from Principal Marris

January/February 2023

Dear Families,

January and February have been busy months full of learning, celebrating, and goal setting! Our students have been working hard on wrapping up units in literacy and math, celebrating their progress on personal goals during our Panther days, and earning lots of Panther tickets.

Some highlights we have shared together:

Students and staff had fun dressing up and celebrating the 12 festive days of December leading up to vacation!
Celebrating our Panther goals students dressed in green and gold and swag wear!
Students completed projects to end their literacy units!
After three traditional snow days, we had a great level of participation for our remote learning day!
Our PTO hosted a successful "Sweetheart BINGO" night with a great turnout!
We celebrated a festive 100th day of school together!
Students and staff had a lot of fun dressing up together for spirit week before February break!

We love having parents and family members volunteering in our classrooms and helping in our school community! Please call the school to learn more about how you can get more involved in our school communtiy!

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns, or to make a connection. I always enjoy connecting with our Park Avenue families.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Stephanie Marris

Principal

smarris@auburnschl.edu

207.333.6657 x.2506

Save the Date!

February 20th - 24th

February Vacation - No School

Wednesday, March 1st

Early Release Wednesday → Dismissal @ 1:00

School Committee Meeting @ 6PM [Auburn Hall]

Wednesday, March 8th

Early Release Wednesday → Dismissal @ 1:00

PTO Meeting @ 5:30 PM in the library

School Committee Meeting @ 6PM [Auburn Hall]

Wednesday, March 15th

Full Day Wednesday → Dismissal @ 3:00

Panther Day Celebration in classes --> Wear green and gold!

School Committee Meeting @ 6PM [Auburn Hall]

Friday, March 17th

No School - Teacher Workshop Day

Monday, March 20th

School Assembly for ELHS Band and Chorus @ 10AM

Wednesday, March 22nd

Early Release Wednesday → Dismissal @ 1:00

Parent Teacher Conferences [1PM-8PM]

School Committee Meeting @ 6PM [Auburn Hall]

Wednesday, March 29th

Early Release Wednesday → Dismissal @ 1:00

Parent Teacher Conferences [1PM-3:15PM]

School Committee Meeting @ 6PM [Auburn Hall]

Attendance Matters - Starting the year off right!

In January, we averaged 96% of attendance! Well done, everyone!

As a reminder, please be sure to contact the school if your student will be home sick or absent for another reason. This helps us to monitor unexcused absences and avoid truancy counts!

Attendance Matters

If your child is sick or has an appointment, please remember to call the school to let the secretary know they will be absent.
Absences for illness or appointments are considered excused.

Health and Wellness

A friendly reminder to be sure to do the Daily Health Screening before sending kids to school each day!
If a child has a fever, or is vomiting, they must remain out of school for 24 hours and/or until symptoms are improving without medication.

Influenza and other respiratory illness reminders:

We expect that we will continue to detect cases into the fall and winter, and that the number of cases may increase. As we strive to keep everyone healthy this school year, it is most important that students and adults who are sick not go to school, work, or social activities. The following checklist can help determine if someone has influenza-like illness

Does my child have the flu?

Yes /No Does your child have a fever of 100 degrees or more?

Yes /No Does your child have a cough?

Yes /No Does your child have a sore throat?

Should I keep my child home?

If you checked yes to: Fever of 100 degrees or more and a cough or a sore throat your child has an influenza-like illness. Keep your child home for 24 hours after the fever resolves without the use of medication.
If you checked yes to only one of the questions above, or if your child is ill with other symptoms, keep your child at home at least one day to observe for additional symptoms. If additional symptoms develop, use the checklist questions again to decide whether to continue to keep the child home.

When should my child go to the doctor?

Call your doctor or seek medical care if your child has trouble breathing or has behavior changes including changes in eating or drinking habits. Call your healthcare provider if your child is ill enough that you would normally seek health care advice.

If you have any questions or health concerns, please contact our nurse, Kasey Smith, via phone 333-6657 Ext 2510 or via email ksmith@auburnschl.edu.

A Message from Mrs. Breton - Our School Counselor

Coming back to school after December break always feels like a good time to reset. We are about half way through the school year at this point and it is a nice time to refresh everyone on not only expectations, but also on relationship skill sets as well. With that in mind, I decided this month I would spend my CARES class time working on interpersonal skills. We started the month out discussing problems and whether a problem is a kid sized problem or a grown up problem. In the really young grades, this took the form of tattling versus telling and in the older grades, it led to some great conversations about the things that need to be addressed by an adult and the things that can be handled by ourselves or even ignored.

After that I moved into lessons on friendship and conflict resolution. We talked about the qualities of a good friend and why friends are important. We ended those lessons discussing how to solve conflicts using skills such as “I” statements, listening and not making choices that will make the conflict worse. We also talked about how it is important to be kind even if we are frustrated, that as human beings we all deserve respect and that there is never, ever a reason to be unkind to others.


2nd Grade Writers! 2nd graders have been researching and writing non-fiction pieces!	Persuasive Writing in 1st Grade! For their inquiry based project, students in first grade wrote a persuasive letter to a zookeeper. They researched an animal, found facts about that animal and then wrote a letter to try to persuade a zookeeper to add their animal to the zoo. The first graders met as a grade for a writing celebration.	2nd Grade Friends!

2nd Grade Writers!

2nd graders have been researching and writing non-fiction pieces!

Persuasive Writing in 1st Grade!

For their inquiry based project, students in first grade wrote a persuasive letter to a zookeeper. They researched an animal, found facts about that animal and then wrote a letter to try to persuade a zookeeper to add their animal to the zoo. The first graders met as a grade for a writing celebration.