The Morse Message
Grant D. Morse Newsletter - Vol. 5.2
Welcome Back Message from Mrs. G
Dear GDM Families,
Welcome to a new school year! I hope your summer was filled with opportunities to relax, spend time together, make memories, and enjoy the things that matter most to your family. As we prepare to welcome our students back, I am filled with excitement and anticipation for all that this year will bring.
Our focus this year is Celebrating and Growing Our Strengths. Every student enters our school with unique strengths, talents, interests, experiences, and dreams. Our job is to recognize those strengths, celebrate them, and create opportunities for every child to build upon them. Growth does not look the same for every student, and we are committed to meeting children where they are, challenging them to reach their potential, and celebrating the progress they make along the way.
Our district’s commitment to academic excellence, a positive student experience, family and community engagement, and a strong professional culture reminds us that student success is a shared responsibility. We know that when schools and families work together, students are empowered to learn, grow, and thrive.
This year, I encourage our students to be curious, courageous, and willing to try something new. I encourage our families to ask questions, share ideas, celebrate successes, and partner with us when challenges arise. Most importantly, I want every child to know that they belong here, that their voice matters, and that there are people in our school who believe in them.
Our school is a place where every student is known, valued, supported, and inspired to grow. I look forward to filling this year with learning, laughter, meaningful connections, and countless opportunities for our students to discover just how much they are capable of achieving.
Thank you for entrusting your children to us. I am so excited to begin this journey together and to celebrate the strengths that make our students, families, and school community so special.
Welcome back! Let’s make it a wonderful year of celebrating, growing, and learning together!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Giangreco
Summer Learning Challenge Reminder
Last spring, we shared a Summer Learning Challenge with all the students. There was a math challenge and a reading challenge for all students. I challenged students that if 20% of students completed one or both of these challenges we would celebrate with a family movie night. I hope that your child was able to complete one or both of these challenges during the summer.
Please have your child return their completed Summer Learning Challenge to school by September 11th. If Morse has met the challenge (and I have full confidence we will), we will hold our family movie night in conjunction with the PTA Back to School BBQ on September 25th.
September Attendance Update
School attendance is one of the number one factors in students' success, engagement, and social growth. At Grant D. Morse, we talk about being present every minute, every day. Throughout the year, we look at attendance, set goals with students, recognize students who are making attendance (or improved attendance) a priority, and communicate with families to offer support and help with improving attendance.
Research shows that students who miss 2 days of school in the month of September are at risk of becoming chronically absent for the school year. We would like to invite you to partner with us this school year, to make attendance at school a priority for your child. We care about your child very much and we want to see them every minute on every school day.
September's Core Value
Saugerties Central School District has adopted a set of core values that guide our work. Each month at Morse, we will focus on one of these core values. We will define it, reflection on it, and recognize students demonstrating it.
September's core value is being "Solution-Focused". Being solution-focused means you look at a problem like a puzzle. Instead of crying or getting mad about a broken toy, you look for the pieces to fix it. You think about what you can do right now to make things better.
What It Means:
- Look forward: Do not worry about who made the mess. Think about how to clean it up.
- Try new ideas: If your first plan fails, try a different plan.
- Ask for help: Smart people ask others for good ideas.
- Stay calm: Big feelings make it hard to think. Take a deep breath first.
Examples:
- Problem: You forgot your pencil.
- Not solution-focused: "My day is ruined!"
- Solution-focused: "I will raise my hand and ask a teacher for a spare."
- Problem: Your block tower falls down.
- Not solution-focused: "I quit!"
- Solution-focused: "I will build it wider at the bottom this time."
The World Needs Who You were Made to Be
In the #1 New York Times bestseller The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be, Joanna Gaines and illustrator Julianna Swaney celebrate how creativity and acceptance can come together to make for a bright and beautiful adventure. The book follows a group of children as they each build their very own hot-air balloons. As the kids work together, leaning into their own skills and processes, to fill the sky with beautiful colors, we discover that the same is true for life—it's more beautiful and vibrant when our differences are celebrated.
Together with Joanna, you will take a journey of growth and imagination as you learn in full color that:
• We should celebrate every child's one-of-a-kind strengths as well as teamwork and acceptance of differences
• Everything can be made more beautiful when we share our talents and abilities
• We should lend a helping hand and do our best to take care of one another
With plenty of pink, a bounty of blue, orange and green and yellow too, this vibrant hot-air balloon adventure celebrates every child and teaches kids that we are in this together. "You're one of a kind, and it's so clear to see: The world needs who you were made to be."
(Summary from goodreads.com)
About Us
Email: kgiangreco@saugerties.k12.ny.us
Website: https://www.saugerties.k12.ny.us/
Location: 70 Harry Wells Road, Saugerties, NY 12477, USA
Phone: (845) 247-6960