Mary Hogan Family Newsletter

Dear Mary Hogan Families,

What a beautiful and full week we had at Mary Hogan! We soaked up the sun at recess and on walks, we gathered together for our first All School Meeting, we welcomed families at the Back to School Night, and so much more!

On Wednesday, we had our first Community Day of the year. This was a shorter day and we have set up a whole different day for students that is focused on building connection, belonging, and community. We had our first All School Meeting, greeting one another, singing, and creating rain in the North Gym. Students met their buddy classroom and their buddies for the year. They went outside for a walk and then created some art together. Then we had lunch, recess, and a community readaloud. It was a day filled with joy and connections. We look forward to more Community Days in the coming months!

Best,

Jen

Tuesday 9/23 - Options Based Drill (see more info below)

Friday 9/26 - Climbing Wall Training

Tuesday 9/30 - 3rd grade to Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area

Thursday 10/2 and Friday 10/3 - No School

At Mary Hogan, we practice safety drills designed to ensure that our students and staff are familiar with how to be safe in an emergency. Some months, we practice what to do if we need to evacuate the building. Other months we practice what to do when unsafe people or hazards enter our school.

We are required to practice two options-based drills - one in September and one in January. Options-based drills introduce students to various strategies in response to a threat.

We will always announce these drills to you in advance, so you know when it is happening and can support your child. Please know that all options based drills are trauma informed and age appropriate.

We will be holding our first options-based drill on Tuesday 9/23 at 9.30am.

Please read this whole letter that explains the options-based drill we will be doing as well as how to support your child at home before an after.

802 Smiles Dental Hygiene Program is returning this Fall to offer free dental screenings and preventative care to all ACSD students. Please complete the forms below by September 22, if you would like your child to participate. You can access the forms here, or there are paper copies available at your school.

Every month the library will present the students with a reading challenge and the students who meet the challenge will win some small prizes. The September challenge is to read 3 books about people (biographies). There are sheets in the library to record their progress and the completed forms should be turned into Julie or Liz in the library. We hope students will explore different genres throughout the year! Some topics we might cover are Vermont (author/setting), Animals (fiction and nonfiction), How-to books, Around the World (fiction and nonfiction), poetry, etc. We hope many of our students will participate!

It is always amazing to come together as a whole school and celebrate who we are and what we have been learning. This month's All School Meeting was focused on our learner profile attribute for September - Principled.

And, what principled learners they were in All School Meeting. They took care of one another by greeting each other with quiet voices, making sure our newest students were not overwhelmed. The 5th graders modeled what it means to be at All School Meeting and be leaders. And, we had a chance to have some fun making it sound like it was raining. Here is the slideshow we used if you want to see what we did!

All of our K-5 Students are paired up with a student in another grade to be either a big buddy or a little buddy. Buddy classrooms are paired by grade in this way:

• Kindergarten & 3rd grade
• 1st grade & 4th grade
• 2nd grade & 5th grade

This week was the first time most students met their buddies. They got outside to walk and talk and then did some crafting and talking inside too. It was incredibly joyful and fun for everyone. All of the older students were excellent leaders and the partnerships were a beautiful representation of our core school values of belonging, connection, growth, and respect.

Part of our Community Day on Wednesday, we all read Your Name is a Song by Jamilah Thomkins Bigelow. This book is about a child who gets frustrated by a day full of teachers and classmates mispronouncing her beautiful name. She shares this with her mother and learns more about her name and others, and how beautiful they can be. She then shares this knowledge with her classmates.

Every classroom read and talked about Your Name Is a Song on Wednesday. They also worked with buddy classes to share the importance of their own name and how beautiful each name.

To read the book with your child, you can check it our from our library or the Ilsley. Or you can watch this video of the readaloud.

We had our picture day on Tuesday this past week. It was a perfect day for photos since it wasn't too hot out, so everyone looked fabulous going into the photos - even those who did them after recess. You will get your child's photos in a few weeks. And there is alway a retake day if you don't like the photos or your child was absent from school. We will share that date closer to the time.

We had one of our two required bus safety and evacuation practices this past week. All K-5 students got on the busses and learned about how to keep themselves safe on the bus and what to do in the case of an emergency. The favorite part of the practice is always having a chance to slide out the back entrance - with help.

It was great to see so many families at Back to School Night on Thursday. Students were tour guides, engaged in scavenger hunts, and visited new and former teachers.

We were able to hand off a lot of winter gear we had built up over time at Mary Hogan to you! We are so glad it was helpful and we look forward to seeing it on kids this coming winter.

We were also so excited to have MESA there with Mary Hogan gear and Steve with soem ice cream sandwiches. Yum!

for your child's self-portrait. Students make this last year on the MESA-led Field Day and we got them up before Back to School Night. Students are loving to find themselves and it is awesome to see the whimsical faces of our students in art!

Our 4th and 5th grade chorus has 62 members! They meet together on Wednesdays from 2.10-3 to learn and practice their songs together. Mrs. K would love some help from volunteers at this time as an extra adult to help answer student questions or support their attention. If you are available to help and have signed up to be a volunteer, please reach out to her at skulhowvick@acsdvt.org.

The Mary Hogan Physical Education department is looking for volunteers to help with the 4th and 5th grade climbing wall unit. This unit helps students develop strength, balance, and coordination while encouraging perseverance and resilience. It also fosters teamwork, communication, and trust, as students often rely on one another for support and encouragement.

Volunteers are a vital part of the success of this program and can help in a number of different capacities. If you are interested, Project Adventure will be here to offer training on Friday, September 26 from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm. This training is required as part of the volunteer process and will cover basic belay and safety protocols. Volunteers must also be registered in the ACSD volunteer program. Please reach out to Cyndi Palmer cpalmer@acdvt.org with any questions and to sign up for the Sept. 26th training.

We are so grateful to our family and community volunteers! If you plan to volunteer for an event or activity this year, now is a great time to apply or make sure your paperwork is up-to-date!

• Learn more about the volunteer process here.
• Check in with your front office if you've volunteered in the past to make your paperwork is up to date.
• Fill out this form if you've never volunteered before and plan to this year.

Want to know more about the Volunteer Process? Check out more information HERE.