Cheetah Pride Press

Families,

For those of you who have been hoping for a snow day, your wish may come true on Monday! We’ll see… Either way, stock up on supplies, stay warm, and stay safe! Next week, we’ll wrap up mid-year assessments, and officially ease into the second half of the school year!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Joey & Andrea

Thursday was the 90th day of school, which means that we’re officially half-way through the school year. In honor of “Half-Way Day”, grade 3 students engaged in a variety of activities related to halves. Mrs. Lukeski’s class created their own animals using half of one animal and half of another; and Mrs. Haydu’s class wore half-way outfits and hairstyles, and ate half & half snacks!

On Thursday, members of our 2nd and 3rd grade Unified Sports Team took a trip to a rock gym in Glastonbury. Through team building, trust, encouragement, and support of one another, they grew their muscles and practiced their climbing skills. A great time was had by all!

Mountain Dairy Farm, our host farm, is excited to share an Adopt A Cow video that they’ve prepared for us: https://youtu.be/nMjv8mMXwvE

You may also CLICK HERE to access the entire Adopt A Cow Farm Tour Playlist on YouTube where you can find your farm's video along with the other host farms in the program.

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.

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!

Meet Harper.

Her teacher is Mr. Evans.

She is special because she loves to ice skate.

Her favorite thing is snowy weather.

She wanted to be on the Cheetah Council because she wanted to be seen as a role model.

She loves school because it is filled with nice people.

Linda is a personal nurse working at Memorial who is always flexible and willing to try new strategies when working in the classroom. She brings a positive attitude every day, and treats students and staff with kindness. We are lucky to have her on our team.

Cleaning out your child’s books?

The Cheetah Council is accepting gently used children’s books to donate to our book swap and shop.

We are collecting books in the month of January.

The book shop and swap will begin in February. More info on this to come.

*If you have books to donate please bring them to school and leave them in the Book donation boxes in the hallway near room 38 or in the front office.

THANK YOU for supporting the cheetah council!

1/26 BOE Meeting at Town Hall @ 6:30

1/30 Cheetah Pride Day/Assemblies

2/2 National School Counselor Appreciation Day

2/2 Magical Monday

2/4 World Read Aloud Day

2/5 100th Day of School

2/9 BOE Meeting at Town Hall @ 6:30

2/13 Profession Day for Staff/NO SCHOOL

2/16&2/17 Presidents Day Break NO SCHOOL

Hi everyone,

We hope you and your family are enjoying the snow and all the fun activities of winter!

For January we continued to work on our fitness, stretching, exercises, and scheduled curriculum unit/skill activities.

Here are a few things that are keeping us busy and active.

Pre Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and Gr.1:

We started the month with stations, while introducing Pickleball skills as we worked on eye- hand coordination activities and skills.

Some of our stations:

- basket click it catching

- ice cream/snow cone catching

- spinning plates

- two Pickleball stations

- stacking cups (of different sizes)

- a basketball shooting station

- an assigned basketball dribbling and passing area

- rock climbing wall

- short jump ropes

- long jump ropes

- hula hoop area

- tic tac toe game boards using beanbags

Towards the end of January we will begin our beachball volleyball skills unit, which will last for about 4 weeks (more about that unit in our next newsletter!).

Gr. 2 and Gr. 3:

We started the month with stations, and introduced Pickleball skills and games as we worked on eye- hand coordination activities and skills.

Some of our stations:

- basket click it catching

- ice cream/snow cone catching

- spinning plates

- two Pickleball stations (we marked off eight Pickleball courts and the children had a selection of partner games they could play, there was also room for individual Pickleball skill development)

- stacking cups (of different sizes)

- a basketball shooting station

- an assigned basketball dribbling and passing area

- rock climbing wall

- short jump ropes

- long jump ropes

- hula hoop area

- tic tac toe game boards using beanbags

Towards the end of January we will begin our beachball volleyball skills unit, which will last for about 4 weeks. The children will work on the various skills, shots, and rules, finishing up the unit with a week of modified games and the “volleyball serving club” (more about that unit in our next newsletter!).

Thank you for supporting your child at home with healthy eating habits, movement, exercise and play, and family time as you enjoy the January days off and the “mini vacation” coming in February!

Take care,

Coach Ruel

Coach Boscarino

**Change of Clothing**

Between accidents, spills, puddles and mud, there are many ways student’s clothing can become soiled. The nurses office does not routinely keep extra clothing. Every student should have a full change of clothes (underwear, pants, shirt) in their backpack to be kept at school. If your child requires a change of clothes and they do not have any in their bag, a parent will be asked to come to the school to bring it in.

Nurse office reminders

We want to share some guidelines that are helpful for families:

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. Per our food sharing protocol, we ask for at least 48 hours advance notice to check for classroom allergies. Please inform your child’s teacher AND the nurse in order to approve food being brought in to share. A great resource for allergy free snacks is the Safe Snack guide at https://snacksafely.com/safe-snack-guide/. We appreciate your assistance in keeping our school safe.

Respectfully,

Krista Kardys RN

and Ms. Michelle Lemire

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!

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/.

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