Important Dates
10/18 &10/20-Bookfair and Bake Sale **Date Change from Calendar/No Dinner this year**
10/26- 11:30-Early Release No Burlington Kids/Sara Holbrook After school programs
10/27- Sign Up for Parent/Teacher Conferences Begins
11/3-PTO Meeting- 6:30-7:30 Meetings are held in-person in the Flynn library or via Google Meet (https://meet.google.com/fuj-omkp-bnv). Childcare is provided by the wonderful Ms. Wanda!!
11/10-School Play-Performance during school day for Flynn students and staff
11/11-School Play-6:30 P.M
11/12-School Play- 4:00 P.M
11/21-In Person Parent/Teacher Conferences
11/22-Google Meet Parent /Teacher Conferences
11/21/11/22-Parent/Teacher Conferences No School
11/23-11/25-Thanksgiving Break-No School
12/1-PTO Meeting- 6:30-7:30 Meetings are held in-person in the Flynn library or via Google Meet (https://meet.google.com/fuj-omkp-bnv). Childcare is provided by the wonderful Ms. Wanda!!
12/7-11:30- Early Release No Burlington Kids/Sara Holbrook after school programs
12/22-11:30- Early Release No Burlington Kids/Sara Holbrook after school programs
12/23-1/2-Winter Break-NO School
Important Reminders
As a reminder, this school year we are unable to accept outside treats for classroom celebrations.
We won't be celebrating Halloween formally as a school, but some classrooms may talk about the holiday, read books to learn what it is, and discuss its significance. This holds true for any discussions about holidays that may happen in our school community.
When coming or leaving the school from the north side PLEASE use the safe way and avoid crossing the entrance to the parking area.
Principal's Corner
Greetings Flynn Families,
The month of October is flying by! And I’m already seeing so much academic, social, and emotional growth in our Flynn scholars across all grade levels! We’ve really settled into our routines here in our Flynn learning community, and students are learning so many new skills each day!
Something that I am reflecting on this month is our push to become a restorative community. Being a restorative community means focusing on relationships between individual students and staff and their relationships to our community as a whole.
When harm or conflict occurs among students in our community, we work to support both the student(s) who were harmed and the student(s) who caused harm - after all, our goal at Flynn is to support students to learn from their mistakes. In the coming months, I will be offering some restorative community seminars for parents and guardians who are interested in learning more about what being a restorative community means. In the meantime, try out the following questions at home with your child when they make a mistake, and see what happens:
What happened?
What were you thinking/feeling at the time?
What have you thought about since then?
Who was affected by what you did?
What do you think needs to happen to make things right?
These are the same questions we use at school to help students and staff to reflect on and process when they make a mistake or are involved in conflict.
In partnership,
Nikki Ellis
Free Family Portraits at Book Fair!
Sign Up Genius
Hi Flynn Families,
Here is a Sign Up Genius for the Bake Sale Fundraiser being held during the Book Fair next Tuesday (10/18) and Thursday (10/20). Don’t forget to bring a little cash to the Book Fair if you would like to purchase baked goods with your books! (We also take checks and Venmo.)
Thanks!
PTO Corner....stay informed
Interested in the Flynn PTO? If you are an adult in the life of a Flynn student, you are already a
member! We invite you to participate in the PTO in a way that works for you!
Here is the link to our meeting minutes from our meetings this year:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1k6WbpEDxIqqodGc3S8gLqxHVymVG2aZI?usp=sharing
Our next meeting is Thursday, November 3rd at 6:30 pm. Meetings are held in-person in the
Flynn library or via Google Meet (https://meet.google.com/fuj-omkp-bnv). Childcare is provided by the wonderful Ms. Wanda!!
The Book Fair and Bake Sale are coming up on October 18th & 2th . The bake sale is a PTO fundraiser that will have lots of yummy offerings, so come and purchase some lovingly baked treats for a good cause! If you would like to bake something for the sale, please check out the sign-up genius: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C054CA8A722A5FA7-book.
Outerwear Swap—if you have gently used winter gear, please hang on to it for the upcoming
winter outerwear swap. Stay tuned for more info!
Looking to volunteer at Flynn? There are lots of opportunities to help out with literacy activities, such as reading to a Flynn student. Did you know the school has a goal to read 500
books a month to our emerging readers?!! Contact Principal Nikki Ellis if you are interested in
getting involved (nellis@bsdvt.org).
Other ways to get involved:
Choose J.J. Flynn as your AmazonSmile beneficiary. When you shop on Amazon, a percentage of what you spend gets donated to the PTO at NO cost to you!
How to use AmazonSmile on a web browser:
- Visit smile.amazon.com
- Sign in with the same account you use for Amazon.com
- Select your charity
- Start shopping! Remember to checkout at smile.amazon.com to generate donations for your chosen charity. Tip: Add a bookmark to make it easier to shop at smile.amazon.com.
How to use AmazonSmile using the Amazon app on your mobile phone:
- Open the Amazon Shopping app
- Navigate to the main menu (≡)
- Tap on Settings and then select “AmazonSmile”
- Select your charity and then follow the on-screen instructions to turn ON AmazonSmile
in the mobile app.
Once AmazonSmile has been activated in your app, future eligible app purchases will generate a donation for the charity you have selected.
Note: The tablet app is not yet supported. Please visit smile.amazon.com/onthego to learn
more.
Donate via Venmo. The PTO is a non-profit organization that relies on fundraising to continue
its support of the Flynn community. If you are able to give a monetary donation to support the
PTO programming, then it’s easy—scan, donate, done! Our Venmo account is @jjflynnpto.
Scan those Box Tops!
- Click this link to download the app: https://www.boxtops4education.com/s/get-the-app
- When prompted to find a school, type in the zip code ‘05408’ and choose Flynn from the choices and you are ready to start scanning those receipts!
Safety Drills at Flynn School
October 12, 2022
Dear Flynn Elementary Families,
As required by the Vermont Department of Public Safety and Vermont Agency of Education, Flynn students and staff are required to prepare for emergency situations that may arise. These emergency situations include Evacuation/Fire (or “Egress”) Drills as well as Options-Based Drills. For both of these drills, we take an instructional approach. We practiced our first Evacuation/Fire Drill on Wednesday, September 28th, and students moved quickly, calmly, and safely. The entire drill lasted a total of 10 minutes. We will continue to have safety drills throughout the year.
We will conduct an options-based drill on Thursday, October 2oth at 2pm. This drill is used in the event of an active threat, including a violent intruder.
For the drill this month, teachers will begin with a classroom discussion to discuss what an options-based drill is and under what circumstances an options-based drill might be used. An options-based drill would be used in situations when there is a violent threat outside or inside the school building. Teachers will utilize age appropriate language when having these discussions.
Thank you for your support in ensuring the safety of our community. For more information, we encourage you to review the Drill Guidance from the Division of Fire Safety and Agency of Education, which can be accessed by visiting the following website: https://schoolsafety.vermont.gov/news/school-safety-planning-resources-upcoming-2022-2023-school-year .
Sincerely,
Nikki Ellis (they/them)
Principal, JJ Flynn Elementary School
Burlington School District
802.864.8478
Garden and Food Education Updates with Ms. Jen
Dear Flynn Families,
Last week, students spent time tasting, learning, and exploring the bounties of the Flynn Garden. Our lessons started off with a taste-test showcasing October’s featured produce item: pears! Students had the opportunity to taste-test to compare and contrast two different varieties of pears - Bartlett and Asian. Students shared some great descriptive words and phrases: sweet, juicy, delectable, crunchy, squishy, “the best pear I’ve ever tasted!!” We’re working hard to ensure a variety of pears show up throughout the course of the month in classroom snacks, on the lunch line, and in special garden lessons. After devouring pears, K-2 students explored the garden using “color palettes” to find matches between their paint chips and the natural colors around them. We had some pretty close matches with yellow tomatoes, pink cosmos petals, and gray-green kale. Blue was the trickiest color to match until students turned their eyes to the sky! 3-5th grade students helped with a variety of harvesting tasks throughout the garden. An assortment of cherry tomatoes picked by students made their way onto the salad bar for the school community to enjoy! Finally, all students sampled an array of plant parts - kale, basil, and dill leaves; chive stems; and cherry tomato and pepper fruits. Our carrots still need some growing time, but we’re hoping for a harvest before the first snow. We’ll begin putting the garden beds “to bed” over the upcoming weeks before transitioning into Cooking Cart lessons during the winter months…I can’t wait, it’s sure to be tasty!
Ms. Jen
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