TIME: something we all should cherish. Our Longfellow Lions mean the world to us and we look forward to seeing them each day. Their educational journeys are branching in so many directions and are filled with challenges to help guide them towards their goals and also being kind citizens of the Mitchell community. The time, that we are able to spend with them, is PRICELESS!! We thank parents for sharing their children with us and ensuring they are school each day. Please take the much deserved TIME to make new memories with your children. TIME is something we can never get back and we look forward to hearing all about your break. We are so blessed to collaborate with such caring parents and know that our LO Lions are raised to WORK HARD and BE KIND.

The Longfellow Staff want to wish you all a very Merry CHRISTmas and may 2025 be a year filled with positivity and kindness.

Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year!

Mrs. Heckenlaible

The cold weather has been & will be again at our doorstep. so we want you to be aware that the doors do not open and supervision doesn't start until 7:30 am. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

The Lions of Longfellow show how we can ALL show respect. We challenge the Mitchell Middle School to show N (No Excuses)

K-E-R-N-E-L-E-S

We understand that families need to make doctor appointments and have family vacations. As you are scheduling those, it may help to be aware of these dates.

1/20 Mon-NO SCHOOL - MLK Jr. Day/Teacher Inservice

2/14 Fri-NO SCHOOL

2/17 Mon-NO SCHOOL - President's Day

3/13-3/17 Thurs-Mon-NO SCHOOL - Spring Break/Teacher Inservice

4/18-4/21 Fri-Mon-NO SCHOOL - Easter

We do the bulk of our statewide testing in April as well (3rd-5th graders). When a student

misses the scheduled testing time, we are required to reschedule for that student. Learners do

better when testing with the rest of their peers. We appreciate you doing your best to avoid

absences or leaving for appointments during those dates.

Den A (Mrs. Schoenfelder, Mrs. Gunnare, Miss Osthus, & Mrs. Coats) hosted Densmas, decorated a tree for downtown Mitchell, and had fun playing Minute-to-win-it. The link below is to the Facebook Live video from the den meeting where they played Minute-to-win-it.

You are encouraged to fill out a free and reduced meal application at any time throughout the school year. When in doubt, fill it out. If you completed the 2024-2025 application already this year, then you should have already been notified of your status. If you have experienced a financial change due household membership or job change, you are encouraged to apply again.

You can create an online account to monitor your child/ren’s meal account, balances, and add money to their account. Visit the district
the school website and click on

“Mealtime Online Access”

We are very proud of our attendance rates at Longfellow Elementary as we had a 97% attendance rate for the 2023-24 school year!! We are currently at 97% and want to keep that going! We want to thank our parents for continuing to bring their child/ren to school each day and on time.

Attendance is extremely important to the success of each child's education.

Thank you for making attendance and education a priority in your child's life!!

Den B (Mrs. McPeek, Ms. McCarty, Mrs. Kramer, and Mrs. Abts) had fun hosting a Den luau for the students who earned it through their reward system and AR points. They also played super fun games during their den meeting. A video of lights on/lights off was shared via Facebook live and you'll find a link to that video below. Den B decorated their hallway with a Polar Express theme and the hot chocolate mugs went along perfectly.

If your child is in need of a winter coat, please sign up for a Caring Closet pop up. The link is in this newsletter. Mitchell also has The Salvation Army and Goodwill. Due to all of these wonderful resources, we no longer keep extra coats/boots/snow pants on hand and ask that YOU reach out to them yourselves.

Please remember that students will always go out for recess unless it is raining or below zero with windchill. Thank you!

Pick up and drop off can be a very stressful time for parents and students. Everyone is in a hurry and ready to move on to the next part of their day. However, safety is the most important factor! Please remember to go to the corner and cross the street with the crossing guards. Please do NOT encourage your child to cross in the middle of the street. We want to keep our students safe and set a good example.

• BK/K learned to ride Strider bikes
• Omnikin (a gigantic ball/"snowball") activities - we built our strength, power, and agility with these activities
• Christmas & grinch stations, races challenges & games.

You'll want to check out the photos, below, to see the fun our Lions had.

PLEASE remember that students need proper shoes on gym days. Sandals, cowboy boots, snow boots, fashionable boots, flipflops, crocs, etc., are fine shoes but not appropriate for PE days.

Longfellow does not have spare shoes for students to borrow. Thank you.

Mon. 6th - Back to SCHOOL

Tues. 7th - PTO meeting

Fri. 10th - Student Council Store OPEN

Fri. 10th - Teacher/Staff of the year forms due

Sat. 11th - Caring Closet - Pre-registration Required

Mon. 13th - School Board meeting

Thurs. 16th - Report cards go home

Fri. 24th - Student Council Store OPEN

The school doors open at 7:30 am. Even if it is cold or raining, we do not have staff in the building to supervise so students will wait until 7:30 am to enter the building. Likewise, our staff leaves by 3:45 and students will need to be picked up before that time. We appreciate you making arrangements to have your children dropped off and picked up within those times.

Building doors open 7:30 am

Breakfast served 7:30-8:10 am

First bell rings at 8:10 am

School begins at 8:15 am (meaning a student is tardy at 8:16 am)

School dismissed at 3:15 pm

If your child needs to leave during the school day or will come late due to an appointment, simply alert the school office at 605-995-3092. If you need to take your child out early, we appreciate you alerting the office ahead of time, if possible. Your child will remain in class until you come inside to sign them out and we will do our best to have them prepared and ready to go as quickly as possible.

Please ask your child if they have headphones for school. If you forgot to send some or they are no longer working, we have headphones in the office available for purchase for $5.00. Our lions use headphones daily.

Stay tuned to your classroom newsletter as well as the Longfellow Facebook page and website for upcoming fundraisers. There will be things happening in January and February!

All medications must be administered through the office. Students may keep cough drops in their lockers or desks but allergy meds, cold & flu, antacids, inhalers, etc., as well as all prescription medications will be held in the nurse's office. Please stop in to see Mrs. Snoozy, Longfellow's nurse, or call 605-995-3092 and ask for our nurse, if you have any questions.

Mrs. Snoozy's hours at Longfellow vary but she will be available at open house and will call you back should you leave a message.

Please remember that students are NOT ALLOWED to carry any medications on them (even aspirin). It is not safe to have elementary students carrying meds as we don't want them to get into the wrong hands. We are happy to keep OTC medications in the office for your child when/if they need them.

In the next couple of months, we will be screening all K-3rd graders, as well as any new students, for hearing and vision. You may receive a letter or phone call from our nurse if any results are at all concerning.

If your child had any health concerns in the past (milk allergy, asthma, etc.) our nurse may be contacting you via a letter in your child's backpack, mail or phone call to confirm. If your child HAS any health conditions we need to be aware of, please fill out the form below so we can be prepared

Our wonderful spirit committee came up with so many fun activities for the Longfellow staff to help get us through the holiday chaos. While December is a fun time, it can also get overwhelming trying to keep your students (and yourself) engaged with all of the busyness of the season. Our committee gave us several opportunities to join in on the fun from cookie exchanges to guess that song and Jingle Jaunt, just to name a few.

We decorated doors around the building and the students voted for their favorite. All staff got involved and we think there were even a few closet doors fully decorated.

We had baby pictures of staff members and then we had to guess who they were.

There were also hidden gingerbread men throughout the building each day and we had to keep our eyes peeled to see if we could spot them.

Our staff surprised the students with an Underground SPIRIT week (staff only). Day one, we were dressed up all in black, like Secret Service Agents. Day two was socks with sandals. On Wednesday we did flannel day. Thursday we did double duty by having denim squared, all the denim you can find. PLUS, anything but a water bottle. Our students were SO shocked to see staff members drinking out of anything BUT a water bottle. They saw boots, jeans, coffee pots, oatmeal containers, etc. It was a blast. Then, on Friday, we topped it off with dress as your favorite holiday.