Haymarket Happenings

Dear Haymarket Partners,

We have officially closed out the 2nd quarter and are halfway through the 2022-2023 school year. While Conference Day has come and gone, there is never a bad time to connect and engage with your child's teacher about his/her educational and socio-emotional progress. We have been working to help our students continue their commitment to learning and continue to have a growth mindset.

This week is National School Counseling Week and we have a team that worth sharing this week and throughout the year. Mrs. Schenck has been an integral part of the success at Haymarket for many years. She has represented HMES on division-wide committees and supports our 4th-5th grade students through scheduled lessons and lunch bunch groups. Mrs. Criser has been with us for about two years now and has brought a lot of amazing ideas to our team with the focus on student success. She continues to challenge all of us with her ideas and continuous improvement mindset and focuses on K-1st grade lessons and lunch bunches! Mrs. Poore, our newest addition to our team, comes with a great deal of experience with varying populations. It isn't often schools get professionals of her quality! She is focusing on 2nd-3rd grade lessons and lunch bunches. I HIGHLY encourage you to have your child show their appreciate of their counselor this week...even if it's just a hug and "thank you" in the hallway, it is greatly appreciated! Coming from someone who has worked in various building and districts, we have a rock star team at HMES!

During the last month we have had the extremely fortunate opportunity to have Mr. Scott Brown as part of our staff as the Security Assistant. I can say from firsthand experience that his dedication to all things safety is beyond our expectations! He is involved, visible, communicative, persistent, and more...and all of that for the sake of our students and staff.

We are here for you as we continue to work together to engage our students and create critical thinkers!

Mr. Baldwin, Mrs. Mills, and Mrs. Shore

Congrats to the following teachers who received nominations from parents and staff (thank you to all those who nominated a deserving educator):

• Karen Perry (special education teacher)
• Suzanne Abner (Kindergarten teacher)
• Amy Baker (3rd grade teacher)
• Julie Buffington (3rd grade teacher)
• Lucia Byer (1st grade teacher)
• Deb Carter (4th grade teacher)
• Jennifer Casey (2nd grade teacher)
• JoAnn Caulfield (Kindergarten teacher)
• Alix Collins (2nd grade teacher)
• Kristin Cox (1st grade teacher)
• Stephanie Graham (PreK special education teacher)
• Sue Irvin (1st grade teacher)
• Tom Matteson (5th grade teacher)
• Lindsey Norman (1st grade teacher)
• Jessica Slusher (5th grade teacher)
  

We have a committee who will be evaluating the candidates from the criteria received from PWCS. The winner will be announced via an email blast shortly!

This February we are striving to SPREAD THE LOVE in our Haymarket community with 2,000 Acts of Kindness. Each week students will be provided with paper hearts to record their acts of kindness at school, home, and in the community. Parents are asked to help students reflect on their day and write down one kind act per heart. Students are welcome to make their own paper hearts to record any acts of kindness. We can’t wait to see how many hearts we receive!

Our students are once again embarking on an important effort to raise awareness for heart health. Check out the email that came out today for more information! Our goal is to have at least 110 students complete Finn's Mission! For more information, please reach out to Mr. Nenni.

Registration - https://www2.heart.org/site/SPageNavigator/khc_resources_search.html

Parent Resources - https://www2.heart.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=khc_resources_parents_corner

Engaged parents and caregivers are a critical part of a child’s successful learning experiences. Reading with students and talking about what is being read is important to the development of strong readers. Talking about and doing math within the family is a great way to engage students and encourage success. Some of the many online resources available for reading and mathematics are provided to help parents and caregivers support their children and continue their learning at home.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/teaching-learning-assessment/student-assessment/parent-caregiver-resources-for-growth-assessments

See video below on ways that you can support mathematics instruction at home

Science is all around us at Haymarket. Each week a Science question is posted on our school-wide Science board for students to answer. This is voluntary. There is a K-2 and 3-5 question of the week. Students respond by writing their answer on a sticky note and attaching it to the board. See it in action below:

Science vocabulary walls can be seen in the hallway and classrooms. This helps students build their knowledge and understanding of the science curriculum.

Home Connection: How can students continue Science learning at home? Discovery Education and Generation Genius are great resources students can access from home. These programs are available to students using their laptops through their Clever accounts.

Initiating play with peers info. Source: Kid Sense

Why is play important? Play is one way by which children learn. “Free” or unstructured play in early childhood is an important way that children learn about their world. Play is also an avenue through which social skills can develop. As they grow older, children learn about societal rules by making up games with rules, as well as about winning and losing and ‘playing fair’. They also learn about controlling their impulses in order to do well at something and about space, negotiating and problem solving. Above all, play is needed for fun and relaxation.

What are the building blocks necessary to develop play?

· Planning and sequencing: The sequential multi-step task or activity performance to achieve a well-defined result.

· Executive functioning: Higher order reasoning and thinking skills.

· Body awareness: Knowing where your limbs are in space and how to move them in relation to the body and environment. In typical learners this is an ‘automatic’ knowledge that makes learning easy.

· Problem solving: The identification of a challenge, including what the challenge is, what strategies could be used to overcome it, and the subsequent performance to overcome it.

· Social skills: Determined by the ability to engage in reciprocal interaction with others (either verbally or non-verbally), to compromise with others, and to be able to recognise and follow social norms.

· Receptive (understanding) language: Comprehension of language.

· Expressive (using) language: The use of language through speech, sign or alternative forms of communication to communicate wants, needs, thoughts and ideas.

· Self regulation: The ability to obtain, maintain and change one’s emotion, behaviour, attention and activity level appropriate for a task or situation in a socially acceptable manner).

What can be done to improve play skills?

· One-on-one time: Create opportunities for yourself and the child to play together (e.g. before dinner, at the end of each day) and complete activities that are fun and that the child finds enjoyable.

· Peer interaction: Create opportunities for the child to engage with other children in structured situations (e.g. play group) and social environments (e.g. playground).

· Play dates: Set up opportunities for the child to have friends over and to go to other people’s houses to learn more about sharing and interacting in different environments.

· Scripts: Create scripts that the child can copy whilst playing with toys (e.g. “Here comes the train. The dog gets on the train. The dog gets off the train. Here comes the train again. The cat gets on the train. The cat gets off the train”). This helps the child to learn how to use language in play and to plan and sequence actions within a play activity.

Friendship book recommendations include:

-A Little Respectful Spot by Diane Alber

-A Little Spot Makes Friends by Diane Alber

-Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller

-Enemy Pie by Derek Munson & Tara Calahan King

-Making Friends is an Art! by Julia Cook

-I'm Like You, You're Like Me by Cindy Gainer

Anti-bullying book recommendations include:

-The Juice Box Bully by Bob Sornson & Maria Dismondy

-Bully Beans by Julia Cook

Video recommendations include:

-Social Skills for kids (Mylemarks)

-All About Empathy

Tuesday, February 7th - Kids Heart Challenge Kick Off Assemblies

Tuesday, February 7th - Cookies and Cream Fundraiser courtesy of our PTO

Tuesday, February 7th - Advisory Council Meeting (Zoom) - 6:30pm

Wednesday, February 8th - Report Cards available in ParentVue

Wednesday, February 8th - PTO Meeting (in person) - 6:30pm

Friday, February 10th - HMES Spelling Bee Final (winners from 3rd, 4th, and 5th completing)

Friday, February 24th - Me and My Gal Glow Dance - 7:00pm-8:30pm (thank PTO!)

We have had an increase in the number of phones/watches being used to message at school during instructional times. As a gentle reminder, they are allowed in school, but should not be used to message parents, friends, siblings, etc. while at school. If you need to check in on your child, please call the main office landline and we can help. Our counselors can also do a check-in for you as well!

Thanks to our PTO and all those who have come to our events, our library will be getting an upgrade in the near future! Stay tuned for pictures (we can't give away the surprise!).

We are once again able to offer a diverse set of after school programs this spring. Club information will be coming out soon! The dates that classes will be running are early March until early May.

Finalizing dates and prices with Candid Color and information coming out through email and on the website as soon we have it!