STC Newsletter

The best way to reach the Family Advocate is via cell, 612-202-7366, as she travels between all school buildings at USD 498. The daily schedule has changed a bit this school year, but I will begin each day at the jr./sr. high school to meet students' need before classes start. After 9 am, you can generally contact me or schedule a meeting at these schools .I will continue teaching Character Ed and working with students one on one at the Elementaries, so please be considerate and call ahead.

Monday: Blue Rapids Elementary

Tuesday: Waterville Elementary (except on Harvester's Tuesday-the third Tuesday of each month)

Wednesday: Valley Heights Jr/Sr High

Thursday: Waterville Elementary

Friday: Blue Rapids Elementary

If you see the "care bus" parked out front of the Elementary school she will likely be there; either in the bus or inside a classroom at that school..

THANKSGIVING Holiday is on our calendar every November to celebrate the harvest with family and friends, as the Pilgrams did in 1621. The traditional meal and preparations may vary from family to family, but typically includes, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Other traditions may include a parade, football games, a turkey trot 5K, pulling the wishbone or volunteering at a community shelter or church to serve meals.

Whatever your family tradition is at Thanksgiving, EVERYDAY is a day to practice gratitude because the benefits will improve your daily life and affects those around you. Gratittude helps reduce stress, improves sleep quality, imporves heart health and stregthens relationships.

There are lots of ways to practice gratitude everyday; journaling, thank you notes, a mindful pause or prayer, gratitude walk in nature, or create a gratitude jar. Use Mindful.org or Grateful.org for more quidance on gratitude exercises to practice. Brian Tracy, a motivational speaker encourages others with thes 4 A's of gratitude:

• Appreciation: Expressing general thankfulness and actively valuing the positive people, circumstances, and provisions in your life.
• Approval: Giving immediate, specific praise and positive reinforcement for other people's efforts, suggestions, or hard work.
• Admiration: Continuously complimenting others on their personal traits (such as punctuality or persistence) and concrete accomplishments.
• Attention: Practicing patient, calm, and active listening without interrupting to show deep respect and value for others.

View this YouTube video to see Brian Tracy speak about the 4 A's. You can learn to have an attitude of gratitude that changes your life.

Thank you Tessa for making popcorn for the Fall Festival Popcorn balls!

Thanks to this hard working group of 9 VH students for assisting with making popcorn balls for Fall Festival and sorting through many bag of donated items to be added to our Mustang TradIN shop and Colts Closets! Working together as group, you accomplished more than I could have in 3 days! Thank you for serving Schools that Care.

Thank you Stuco for planning a day to help and serve others.

Christmas Meals donations will be accepted through December 9. Schools that Care, VH KAYs and FaCs are working together with all VH students and community members to ensure that all VH families have a Christmas Meal to celebrate the holidays! The VH Jr/Sr High will have a Semeniar Challenge to collect doantions for the meal boxes. Waterville Elementary will hold a Class Challenge to collect canned goods and stuffing mixes to include in the meal boxes. And Blue Rapids Elementary will hold a Class "spare change" Challenge to benefit the meal boxes.

If you'd like to help provide a meal to a family in the VH community you may drop off donations of food at VHS by Dec. 9. High school students will shop for the remaining food items needed on Dec. 10 & 11. Items needed to complete a meal are 1/2 ham, a stuffing mix, 5lbs potatoes or instant potatoes, a gravy packet, 2 cans green beans and 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 french fried onion packet, 10 dinner rolls and a fruit or pumpkin pie to complete a meal for 4. Alternatively, you may mail cash donations and a student will shop for you! It is estimated that $40-$50 will cover a meal. Make checks payable to VHS USD#498 and mail to VHS c/o Schools That Care at 2264 7th Road, Blue Rapids, KS 66411, please indicate Christmas Meal Boxes in the memo.

To refer a family to receive a Christmas Meal, please complete this form and submit it confidentially to Schools that Care. The family you refer will be contacted about how to receive a meal and will not be told that you referred them. Your contact info is only necessary in the event that the family in unable to be contacted. Thank you!

We are also seeking pie bakers to donate pies, freshly baked or frozen. Please deliver pies to VHS on Dec. 9

Lunch Bunch with Ms. Jayne at Blue Rapids Elementary just finished up the first four-week groups in all grades 3-6. Students have met to have lunch in a small group, once a week and practiced table manners, sharing and caring for others in the group and taking turns talking in a small social setting. Mrs. Moriah Dobrovolny joined us one Monday in October and will agin in November. Mrs. Dobrovolny is the Student and Family Liaison at Marysville USD #364 with similar duties as Ms. Jayne, the VH Family Advocate with Schools that Care. She spent a professional development day shadowing Ms. Jayne and collaborating. Lunch Bunch students enjoyed meeting her and practicied introducing themselves to our guest and asked her questions about her family, her work and home. The second small group of Lunch Bunch begins Monday, Oct. 26, and Friday, Oct. 30.

Blue Valley Technologies is accepting donations for their 31st annual Giving Tree! You can donate online or shop for a specific need by picking up a card from a giving tree at one of these local businesses in the BVT service areas: Axtell Lumber Inc., Beattie United Bank and Trust, Blue Rapids First Commerce Bank, Centralia USPS, Mo's Stop and Shop in Linn, Onaga Community Healthcare, Vermillion First Heritage Bank, Farmer's State Bank of Westmoreland and at BVT Home Office. Last year, their giving tree served 126 families with 341children in their service area. BVT is thankful to all donors and these businesses for contributing to the success of the giving tree for over 30 years!

For families applying to receive gifts, some guidelines have changed and applications will be accepted online with a very strict deadline on Nov. 16. Applicants must live in the Blue Valley Techonologies service area to be eligible. Check out the income guidelines and click here to apply before the strict deadline on November 16.

NO SCHOOL Monday, NOV. 9-Professional Development Day

THANKSGIVING BREAK NOV. 25-27-NO SCHOOL

Fall Festival is always a BLAST seeing the kids in costume, the community coming together at the square and a little Fall is in the air. This year's event seemed to engage a larger crowd, with dancers in the street, a band on stage and activities all around. Schools that Care prepared a "SNACK ATTACK" doantion drive to collect donated snacks for VH students as they have done in the past. "SNACK ATTACK" donations of prepackaged snacks will be accepted through January to help refill snacks needed during the school days! The Schools that Care Mobile Family Resource Center, aka, "the care bus" was in the shop ofr a repair, so our Family Advocate showed up with popcorn balls in her jeep that dressed up to look like the care bus! There was a special surpise guest there too, Mrs. Haylee (Whitson) Sommer. And then just like that...230 popcorn balls vanished!

In October we celebrated Stop Bullying Month at the Waterville Elementary School. During Character Education lessons we discussed ways to stop bullying by showing kindness to others, including others and kind ways tp speak up for ourselves and others. We discussed the differences of tattling and telling an adult when we suspect someone is being bullied and we identified adults to tell at home and at school. Students repeated the Stop Bullying pledge and signed it with their classmates, teacher and Ms. Jayne. It is everyone's responsibility to STOP Bullying when we see it. That creates a trustworthy environment to learn and play and live in.

The path to becoming a Big is a great way to influence and mentor the next generation of little people in our community! Have you considered being a Big Brother or Big Sister? It can change the life of one little person, their family, and it might change you too! Have a heart for helping others? Being a BIG might be right for you! Click the button above to get started today. There are some options to spend time with littles during the school day and after school. If you have questions, reach out to the VH Family Advoacte, Jayne Whitson. Jayne has been a Big for almost 5 years and can answer most questions you might have about our program. Not all students have a trusted adult to turn to outside of their family and school; you might be that person for someone.

Emotions have an impact on our bodies, mind, and our behavior (actions). In October during character education lessons in grades K-4, students learned how their emotions can affect their bodies. Emotions give our bodies clues to what we feel...sometimes our body temperature changes when we feel anger, our heart beats faster when we feel scared or threatened, we gasp if we are surprised and our facial expression changes quickly and so much more. It is important for students to learn that our bodies react similarly to emotions so that they can not only identify their own emotions, but also be aware of others' emotions. That helps them to learn and understand empathy. Caring for and understanding others is key to building freindships and relationships as students grow and become more social. Caring for our own emotions also helps keep ourselves in check if anger danger approaches or saddness lingers a little bit too long. The important lesson about emotions is that they change. Students learned that emotions can change a lot through out each day and that how we respond to our emotions affects how our bodies feel, our health, our friendships, how our day goes, our moods, the choices we make and how we learn.

A New FREE Resource to help Kansas families and youth. Call, text or chat 833-441-2240. Getting help during a mental health crisis when your child needs it most is available through this new Hotline service in Kansas. Insurance is not necessary. Anybody can call, parents, teachers, caretakers, neighbors....any adult who determines that child/youth is in a psychiatric, emotional or behavioral crisis. A trained liscensed professional will answer your call to assist with de-escalating the the behavioral crisis over the phone-such as home/school/work stressors, substance abuse, missing, changing, skipping or stopping medications, a home situation, or any other situation/disturbance determined by the caller. The helpline offers free interpreters at no charge as requested by the caller. A Mobile Crisis Response Team of trained professionals for crisis intervention or emergency official may be initiated to respond to your location to assist in de-escalating a situation, help with safety planning and connect you to community resources if necessary.

Learn more. https://www.dcf.ks.gov/FCR/Pages/default.aspx

Assistance is available for phone or internet service if your family qualifies through USAC Lifeline Support. Lifeline is a federal program that assists families by lowering the cost of phone or internet service. You may qualify for a discount if your family already receives other government assistance like SNAP, Medicaid, Tribal TANF, Veteran's Pension and Survivors Benefits, others adn if your household income is at or below 135% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. Apply now at Lifeline.org.

Blessing boxes are available in both Waterville and Blue Rapids. Give what you can and take what you need. In Waterville the Blessing Box is located on Commercial Street near the Citizens State Bank. The Blessing Box in Blue Rapids is located in Riverside Park near the playground by the recycling container.

in Marshall and Washington Counties

Does your child act on impulse? Is your child patient? Does your child act before fully considering the consequences? Is your child one that actively explores their environment and habitually satisfies all of their sensory seeking indulgences? Understanding impulsivity, the tendency to act urgently on temptations without regulating or adequately thinking about the consequesnces can be tough.

Adults have had years of practice resisting temptations, learning from mistakes and everyday life. But some children who lack impulse control may live with severe problems from day to day. Learning impulse control is a natural stage of growth and development but can be affected by excitement, fatigue, frustration, and immaturity. In some cases, there may be other things affecting a child like: mental wellness, a developmental disorder, or commonly, ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) that need professional diagnosis. Nevertheless, when your child is lacking impulse control, it is affecting their daily life, yours and the whole family.

It is important that all children learn impusle and self control for better everyday living; to avoid trouble and danger. Most kids learn from siblings and friends as well as parents and other adults in everyday life who model self control. Practicing self control is important for children so that they learn to think before they act. Like everything we practice, self control can become a strong habit that heightens self awareness and how we interact with others when considering the consequences of our own actions. Learning to think before they act will help them make better decisions now, and later as they grow into teens and adults.

Click here for 21 Impluse Control Activities for Kids that will help you teach them and practice self control, to think before they act, and consider others.

There are Colts Closets at the Waterville Elementary, Waterville Preschool and Blue Rapids Elementary. Items have been donated to fill these closets with clothing items. Clothing items are sorted and placed at the location most appropriate for the size. Waterville Preschool sizes: Infants to 5T. Waterville Elementary: sizes 4T- Youth 10/12. Blue Rapids Elementary: sizes youth7/8-Adult Small.
The Mustang TradIn closet at the Jr/Sr High School accommodates some L and XL Youth sizes up to Adult sizes XXL. The Colts Closets are accepting dress up clothes to help provide students dress up clothes during the holiday season.
The closets are open during school hours. Parents may also make appointments with the Family Advocate to shop the closets at a time more convenient to them. Call Jayne Whitson 612-202-7366 to make an appointment.