Cheetah Pride Press
April 25, 2025
Head Cheetah Message
Families,
Spring activities are in full swing. Please review the Spring Calendar that has been added to this week’s newsletter.
Next Friday is School Lunch Hero Day. Our devoted School Lunch Heroes - Ms. Kelly, Ms. Michelle, Ms. Iris, and Ms. Tammy - keep our lunch waves running smoothly. They not only serve up delicious, healthy meals each day, but they greet our learners with friendly smiles. We’re so lucky to have them in our school cafeteria. Please take a moment to thank them for all they do. May 2nd is also School Custodians Appreciation Day. We have an amazing team of custodians who help keep our school clean and safe. We can't wait to celebrate them!
Best,
Joey & Andrea
Chetah In Action
Bus Driver Appreciation Day
Tuesday was Bus Driver Appreciation Day, and we are so thankful to our amazing drivers for keeping our students safe as they travel to/from school each day. Thank you, drivers!
Earth Day
On Tuesday, we celebrated Earth Day. Mrs. Snyder's class and the Cheetah Council picked up trash around our school.
Administrative Assistant Appreciation Day
On Wednesday, our team of Administrative Assistants were treated like the queens they are! They are a small team that keeps our large building humming; and we are grateful for them every day!
Garden Club
They visited the grow station in the Kitchen to see how the seedlings have sprouted. Then, students weeded and raked out garden beds. We were surprised to see how the strawberry plants are popping up all over! Students planted cauliflower, broccoli and kohlrabi.
School Yearbook Cover Contest
Congratulations to Kimberly Cruz for her drawing being chosen for the front cover of the yearbook. Congratulations to James Jackson for having his picture being chosen for the back cover of this year's yearbook.
Month of The Military Child
Today Memorial supported month of the military child by wearing Purple!
Memorial Models
Memorial Models are chosen weekly by their teacher. These students have excelled all week in taking care of themselves, others, and things. The recipients will dine at a VIP table during lunch every Friday!
Kindergarten
First Grade
Second Grade
Third Grade
PAWSITIVE Office Referrals
A PAWsitive office referral is submitted when a staff member recognizes a student who is going above and beyond to exemplify one of our three school rules - taking care of others, taking care of self, & taking care of things.
Order Of The Cheetah
Congratulations Mrs. De Olivera, Ms. Dyer, and Mrs. Sanchez on being honored with this week's Order Of The Cheetah award. Mrs. De Olivera and Mrs. Sanchez are special education teachers in our RISE program. Ms. Dyer is a BCBA in our building that specifically works with the RISE Program. They are invaluable employees whose main focus is accommodating student needs and ensuring student success.
Related Arts
April News from the Art Room!
Spring has surely sprung! The flowers are in bloom, and the trees are budding. All the beauty of spring surrounds us, and the students and I are noticing all of it! During the past month in the art room, students have explored various new media and topics, enjoying the time spent creating and expressing ourselves!
Prek and Kindergarten students spent this past month learning about ROYGBIV- The order of the colors of the rainbow! We have learned how to make our own colored paper. We created the secondary colors after mixing the primary colors. We discussed how the artist, illustrator, and author, Eric Carle, used this same technique and process to make his children’s books. Taking our own colored papers and then cutting, ripping, and arranging them to create our very own rainbow collage was challenging, and so fun! Our colors are so vibrant and rich, and we can not wait to take our rainbow collages home!
First Grade students have learned the proportions of the human form (figure), and how the human head seems bigger when we are younger, and smaller when we are older. Did you know that when we draw a person, we can measure our own body with the size of our heads? A child who is about 8 years old will be 6 heads tall, while a teenager or adult will be 8 heads tall!! Learning to measure by comparing our drawing of a head, and counting, creates realistic proportions for a human figure drawing. We are drawing “someone we love”, and will be adding that drawing to pattern design frames we created! While adding color to our drawings, we learned techniques with layering and blending colored pencils, and how to apply different pressure to create light or dark versions of a color. To culminate our unit on figure drawing, we will be observing and judging famous works of art, to see which artists had proportionate figures, versus which artists did not draw proportionate figures.
Second Grade students have been completing the glazing of their magical clay houses, and then began a new unit on PRINTMAKING! I love teaching printmaking, and watching the excitement of our students as they discover how a copy is made. We used string to make symmetrical mono-prints. Each time a string prints, it makes one exact copy (a mono-print). And because we folded our paper in half first, we were able to create symmetrical imagery with the use of that printing process. The art room was BUZZING with students interpreting their string prints to see what it “could be”. Imagination at its best! We will be finishing our string prints by adding color and additional embellishments to turn these abstract prints into a creature!
Third Grade students have been reaching their goals left and right! Students are wrapping up their last few works of art to complete their art portfolios, just in time for the 3rd grade Art Showcase (on June 4th). It has been wonderful to meet with each student and discuss their entire body of work that they will be presenting at the Art Showcase. They are proud and excited to share their work with all who come to view it! Over the next month, we will be labeling, mounting, and preparing our work for show time!
Upcoming Art Installation “SURPRISE” for visiting authort!
All students in grades K-3 have begun their “Box Monsters” as a special surprise to our visiting author, Daniel Jude Miller. When he comes to visit Memorial School, the students' monsters that they are creating during art class will be lined up along the hallway between the library and the gym. We hope that this installation of monsters will surprise and shock Mr. Miller! We know that monsters are something he really enjoys creating and writing about in his books, and we are super excited to bring our monsters to life while creating them in the art room! Thank you again to all of the families who were able to send in extra snack boxes. Those donations have been extremely useful!
Artists of the Month
Congratulations to the Artists of the Month in February and the Artists of the Month in March! I am so proud of all of your hard work, and how you demonstrate cheetah pride each week in the art room!
February:
Prek: Autumn Smith and Cole Lessor
K: Rowan Christie and Johnathan Tucker
1: Maeve Keily and Angelus Tammaro
2: Sarah Holeman and Rowan Scott
3: Jackson Eckert and Olivia Royce
March:
K:Benjamin Bushey and Vivien Matvienka
1:Remington Pero and Isha Salad
2:Breckon Barillaro and Evie Coleman
3:Austin Hubeny and Lucy Tyree
Notes From The Nurse
Please let us know if your child is diagnosed with any illness or injury (such as strep, flu, pink eye, fracture/broken bone, lice, pneumonia, covid, etc.) as the nurse office tracks illnesses and sends notification letters home if there are 2 or more cases in a specific classroom. Please be specific with any of the symptoms your child is experiencing.
Consider keeping your child at home for an extra day of rest and observation if he or she has any of the following symptoms:
Very stuffy or runny nose and/or cough
Mild sore throat (no fever, no known exposure to strep)
Mild headache and/or stomachache
Fatigue
Definitely keep your child at home for treatment and observation if he or she has any of these symptoms:
Fever (100.4 degrees or higher. May only return to school after 24 hours of no fever WITHOUT fever reducing medications)
Vomiting (Even once. Must wait 24 hours after last vomit episode to return to school)
Diarrhea (may return to school after 24 hours since last episode)
Chills
General malaise or feelings of fatigue, discomfort, weakness, and/or muscle aches
Frequent congested, wet, or croupy cough
Lots of nasal congestion with frequent blowing of nose
Please remind your child(ren) about good hygiene habits:
Wash hands frequently
Do not touch eyes, nose, or mouth
Cover mouth and nose when sneezing/coughing and then wash hands
Avoid close contact with people who are sick
Often when a child awakens with vague complaints (the way colds and flu begin) it is wise to observe your child at home for an hour or two before deciding whether or not to bring them to school. Your child should be physically able to participate in all school activities on returning to school. Keeping a sick child at home will minimize the spread of infections and viruses in the classroom. Please send in a copy of the doctor’s clearance, as needed. Thank you in advance for helping to make this year at school as healthy as possible.
Medications
Every medication that is brought into school requires a “Medication Authorization” form to be signed by the student’s doctor and parent/guardian and the medication in original packaging with prescription label is to be brought in by a parent/guardian, not in the child’s backpack. No child may carry their own medications at the Elementary level. Please use a large ziplock bag for the medication plus the medication order, and label the bag with your child’s name before dropping off. Any controlled medications will need to be counted and signed off with the RN and parent so please allow for a few extra minutes at drop off.
Please note: COUGH DROPS count as medications and are not allowed in school. All over-the-counter medications also need a medication order from your provider.
Food
We have several students with severe food allergies, therefore we highly recommend non food items to share for birthday celebrations. We ask for at least 48 hours advance notice. A great resource for allergy free snacks is the Safe Snack guide at https://snacksafely.com/safe-snack-guide/
Safe Snack Guide | SnackSafely.com
Peanut and Tree Nut-Free Products; Milk (Dairy) Free Products; Gluten-Free Products; Sesame-Free Products; Custom Guide — Create your own guide customized to exclude any combination of the 11 allergens we track: peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, soy, wheat, fish, crustacean shellfish, sesame, mustard, and gluten.
Health Concerns
If your child has a new health concern which you would like to speak to the nurse about e-mail kwilliams@easthamptonct.org and mlemire@easthamptonct.org at any time.
If you have any specific concerns that arise during the school year (such as stitches, concussions, broken bones/fractures, etc) it is best that you send in a doctor’s note with dates, guidelines and restrictions, so we can all be on the same page and keep your child safe.
Phone Numbers/Contact information
Please make sure to update cell phone numbers and make sure mailboxes are not full. We call home and use ParentSquare for notifying parents and it is essential that we are able to contact you in case your child is ill, hurt or needs to be picked up from school or in case of an emergency.
Respectfully,
Katie Williams, RN
and Ms. Michelle Lemire
kwilliams@easthamptonct.org, mlemire@easthamptonct.org
Your Health Office Team
Memorial Elementary
Phone 860-365-4020
Fax 860-365-4024
Beth Kelpen, RN
East Hampton High School
Phone 860-365-4030
Fax 860-365-4034
Melanie King, RN
mking@easthamptonct.org
East Hampton Middle School
Phone 860-365-4060
Fax 860-365-4064
Jordan Morehouse, RN
jmorehouse@easthamptonct.org
East Hampton Center School
Phone 860-365-4050
Fax 860-365-4054
Save The Dates
April
4/29- SBA Testing Begins in Grade 3
May
5/5-5/9- Cheetah Council Penny War Fundraiser
5/23- Last Cheetah Pride Assembly
* Click on the below District Calendar for the remaining end of the year events!
Upcoming Events At Memorial
Cheetah Council Fundraiser Penny War
Community Events
EHEPTO
May Beakfast Menu
May Lunch Menu
Safe School Climate
The East Hampton Board of Education and the school community as a whole promote a secure and productive school climate, conducive to teaching and learning that is free from threat, harassment, and any type of bullying behavior. Therefore it shall be the policy of the Board that bullying and/or teen dating violence committed against a student by another student is prohibited. The Board believes that a school environment in which students feel safe, supported, engaged and helpfully challenged is optimal for learning and healthy development. The Board seeks an environment in which students and adults feel socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically safe; an environment that is free of harassment, intimidation, teen dating violence and bullying. Our website provides links to various policies and reporting forms including our Safe School Climate Plan. Hard copies are also available in our main office. If at any point you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to building administration for further assistance.
Attendance Matters
Please note
When considering the number of absences your student has accrued, keep in mind that a student must be present for 195 minutes in order for the day to count! When bringing your student in late, or signing them out early if they have not been in school for a 195 minutes the day will be recorded as an absence.
Memorial School Attendance email:
memorial_attendance@easthamptonct.org * there is an _ between memorial and attendance!
Protecting Our Youth: A Community Approach to Suicide Prevention
Please Review This Important Information Below.
Students, parents, and community members have access to an anonymous tip line on the front page of the school district website to report self-concerns, mental health concerns of a friend, or concerns of violence. Simply click here or view on the website: https://www.easthamptonps.org/.
Memorial Elementary School Contact Information
Email: jbauer@easthamptonct.org
Website: https://www.easthamptonps.org/o/memorial-school
Location: 20 Smith Street, East Hampton, CT, USA
Phone: 860-365-4020
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ehmemorialschool
