A Piece From The Principal's Puzzle

December

11 - Huntsville High Homecoming Parade (Rescheduled from October)

18 - Sixth Grade Band & Choir Performance at Blossomwood Cafeteria @ 1:00 pm

18 - PTA Meeting (Grades K, 1, & 2 performing) at Blossomwood Cafeteria @ 6:00 pm

19 - Holiday Parties, 1/2 Day Students & End of Semester

January

6 - Students Return to School

19 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (NO SCHOOL)

Last Tuesday morning, we had a Blossomwood Thanksgiving Parade hosted by Mrs. Murphree, Dr. Foster's, and Mrs. Williamson's classes!

The theme and fourth grade GATE service project called Balloons Over Broadway Thanksgiving Parade, which was in collaboration with Mrs. Williamson's resource classroom. The students read the book Balloons Over Broadway, researched the history of the Macy's Day Parade, and learned about various methods of building floats. Then, some of the students built "floats" with wagons borrowed from parents and PTA.

Each year we encourage our students to continue learning during the extended breaks such as Thanksgiving Break. This year is a little different since we not out the entire week of Thanksgiving, but we are going to still allow the whole week for the challenge. We sent a Thanksgiving Learning Challenge sheet home last week with every student in his/her Blossomwood folder (as attached) with the directions for participating in the voluntary Learning Challenge which includes a reading, math, and family event challenge. I wanted you to have it in plenty of time.

More specifically, one ticket can be earned for completing the reading challenge, one ticket can be earned for completing the math challenge, and/or one ticket can be earned for completing the family challenge. To be clear, a student can do one, two, or all three parts of the challenge. We will be giving away several donated prizes including gift cards for ice cream, wireless headphones, etc, and every child that completes the challenge will earn a food voucher for a local eatery.

The record sheet for the Challenge is due on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025 to Dr. Scott. An adult signature is required at the bottom of the completed sheet.

Coach Lam and Coach Stallworth would like to recognize the following students as that recent Jump Rope Contest Winners (Girl/Boy) from each grade level!

Kindergarten - Abbalaine Shelton & Bradley Adams

1st Grade - Eleanor Donahue & Logan Battle

2nd Grade - Derieyah Jones & Bryson Page

3rd Grade - Elizabeth Heatherly & Jaden Clark

4th Grade - Natalia Reyes & Karter Rich

5th Grade - Emmerson Sparks & Wesley Hall

6th Grade - Virginia Shumaker & Brandon Paige

Don't forget ALL students at Blossomwood are welcome to a FREE breakfast and lunch from our cafeteria.

• If your child would like a breakfast, please remind them to come directly to the cafeteria upon arrival. We serve breakfast from 7:30 to 7:50 am which allows students to be in their classroom ready to learn at 8:00 am.
• If you have questions about your child’s lunch account, please email our cafeteria manager Mirtha Petty at mirtha.petty@hsv-k12.org.

If you would like to volunteer and become more involved at Blossomwood, please reach out to our parent coordinator, Ms. Chelsea Clay. She will be glad to help find a role just for you! In fact, part of her role as parent coordinator includes establishing a parent advisory committee, hosting parent events, leading parent trainings, building relationships with all parents in our school, and acting as a liaison between the parent community and the school.

Email - Chelsea.Clay@hsv-k12.org

The main function of the house system is to develop a sense of identity or belonging and to celebrate achievements. Schools with a structure or system like this cite the positive impact it has on the educational experience and school culture. Students report how it helps them form friendships and closer bonds with peers, and teachers share that students seem to enjoy seeing a connection with students in other classrooms as well as other grade levels. As a school, we also believe our new House System supports our school mission statement and vision.

During the first week of school or upon enrollment, all of our students and staff have the opportunity to digitally "spin" the wheel to randomly sort each student into one of four groups or houses — Emerald, Garnet, Onyx, or Sapphire.

Our House System is designed to:

1. Create school-wide community by creating opportunities for students to connect to staff and students in other classes and grades that share their house. Older students become natural leaders by mentoring and supporting younger students. Mentoring also extends to teachers and school staff members who are also assigned to a house.
2. Create a culture of belonging as students are recognized for accomplishments both academically as well as their choices related to behavior.
3. Emphasize building character through a reward system that goes beyond earning a piece of candy for doing something good. Each individual achievement adds to the collective house/group, making the reward hopefully more meaningful and social.
   
4. Provide opportunities to praise and accentuate positives for both individual students and collective groups of students.