Executive Functioning Skills at Work
Executive Function Skill of the Week: Perseverance
Woohoo! You've made it to the end of my Executive Functioning PSAs! That's Perseverance! Just kidding, that's just being a responsible adult, reading the school newsletter, but I really do appreciate your time and efforts to best support your child's functional growth as a young human. Perseverance is doing hard things, even if you don't really want to, and especially if you want to, but also just because you need to, without stopping, dragging your feet, or whining about it until everyone else around you is as miserable as you are letting yourself be if you choose not to persevere. Whoa. That was a long sentence. Short version...less talk, more action. In Bulldog language, less bark, more wag. The obvious exception here being positive self-talk that pumps you up and reminds you that you've got this!
Have you watched a baby launch themselves across the floor to get to the dog bowl, watched a toddler scramble upwards to the cabinet above the fridge, seen an athlete get back up and finish the race? All of these are great examples of perseverance. Nothing was going to get in the way of the goal! Love that! Well, you may not love the climbing toddler example, but when I saw the video of my grandson do it, I had to admire his ingenuity and spunk!
Daily, we find ourselves tasked with helping our students build personal stamina to persevere toward the goal of learning. Academic perseverance looks like getting started and then sticking with the task until it is completed correctly. Without this ability, work is left unfinished, incomplete, or just poorly done. We see a lack of perseverance most often in the children who rush through everything just to be finished. That's the opposite of perseverance. It's saying no to the integrity of the exercise. It's evading being on the hook for personal accountability. It's phoning it in and waiting for your participation trophy. Here's the real deal...a person has to learn that they really can do hard things to get to what they want. They can't learn that if they don't ever have to do the hard things to get to what they want. If a child doesn't know the joy of getting to the goal that they inherently wanted to attain, they'll find it rEaLLy hard to learn how to persevere through challenges to reach a goal that someone else (like a parent or a teacher or a coach) wants them to achieve.
Need a strategy:
- Set a goal as a family. Make sure that everyone understands what they need to do to reach the goal and that you can't reach it unless everyone does their part. (Easy ideas: shovel the driveway, de-poop the backyard, organize the game shelf, you get the idea.) Set a timer if you think that will help add pressure to stick with the assignment. Pump up the family! Practice self-talk! Get going! Get it done! DO NOT DECLARE IT OVER until the job is TRULY FINISHED well. Then CeLeBrATe together. Point out how you saw each child persevere when they got tired or distracted. Tell them how you kept yourself on track. This is how you build perseverance. Time after time.
We Did it AGAIN!! World Record in Sport Stacking Participation
752,632 stackers is the new STACK UP! World Record
A huge thank you to each of the 752,632 stackers and 2,298 schools / organizations who took part on November 12th, 13th and/or 14th to help set a new WSSA World Record for the "Most People Sport Stacking at Multiple Locations". You and your schools came through to help push us past the previous record of 746,698!
Belmont students helped support the new World Record of Sport Stacking! So fun!! Thank you to Physical Education Teacher, Dawn Koester, for getting our students into the record book for the 4th year in a row!
Will Your BE Bulldog Be in the Bee This Year?
That's up to you as a parent! If you have a 3rd, 4th or 5th grader at Belmont, please talk with them about whether or not they'd like to be a participant in this year's spelling bee. We no longer conduct classroom spelling bees, but instead, have opened the bee to all students who live for and love to spell fun words! Mrs. Barcus, our spelling bee coordinator, will make sure that every child signed up by December 16th has a practice list in their hands by December 20. That will allow for plenty of practice time before our Belmont Bee on Monday, January 13 at 2:00pm.
Our building champion will represent Belmont at the Johnson County Spelling Bee. So exciting!
If your 3rd-5th grade child would like to participate in the school bee, they are welcome to do so. Parents may opt-in their child using the form link below.
CLICK HERE to sign your 3rd, 4th or 5th grade word-loving student up for the school spelling bee by Monday, December 16th!! Practice spelling lists will be sent home with students by Friday, December 20.
Our BE Spelling Bee will be held on Monday, January 13 at 2:00 pm in the cafeteria. Parents of spellers are welcome to attend!
Winter PTO Classroom Parties and Celebrations of Learning
December 20th is going to BE a BIG short day of school! We'll be enjoying Winter Wonderland classroom parties, Celebrations of Learning and musical performances by our band and choir.
9:00-9:45 Classroom parties for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th grades- sign up to volunteer below!
10:00-10:20 Kdg. - 2nd grade Celebration of Learning in the gym, families welcome!
10:25-10:45 Musical Performances by Belmont 5th Grade Band and 4th & 5th Grade Treblemakers Choir in the gym, families welcome!
10:50-11:10 3rd - 5th grade Celebration of Learning in the gym, families welcome!
11:15-12:00 Classroom parties for Kindergarten and 4th grades- sign up to volunteer below!
12:10 Dismissal
How Can You Best Fight Germs in Every Season?
Wash those hands!!
Handwashing is an easy, cheap, and effective way to prevent the spread of germs and keep kids and adults healthy. When your family is healthy, you don’t have to worry about missing school, work, or other activities.
Did You Know?
Handwashing can help prevent diarrhea-related sicknesses and respiratory infections, such as a cold or the flu.
Making a plan:
- Help your child develop handwashing skills
Parents and caretakers play an important role in teaching children to wash their hands. Handwashing can become a lifelong healthy habit if you start teaching it at an early age. Teach kids the five easy steps for handwashing—wet, lather, scrub, rinse and dry—and the key times to wash hands, such as after using the bathroom or before eating. You can find ways to make it fun, like making up your own handwashing song or turning it into a game.
- Give frequent reminders
Building handwashing skills takes time. At first, your child will need regular reminders of how and when to wash hands. It is especially important to remind children to wash their hands after using the bathroom, before eating, after touching pets, after playing outside, and after coughing, sneezing, or blowing their nose. But once handwashing becomes a habit and a regular part of your child's day, they will practice it throughout their lives.
- Lead by example by washing your hands
Young children learn by imitating the behaviors of adults in their lives. When you make handwashing part of your routine, you're setting an example for your children to follow.
- If soap and water aren't available
Washing hands with soap and water is the best way to get rid of germs. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that has at least 60% alcohol, and wash your hands with soap and water as soon as you can.
- Baby wipes
Baby wipes may make your hands look clean, but they're not designed to remove germs from your hands. CDC recommends washing hands with soap and water when possible.
Remember to make handwashing a healthy habit at home, school, and at play!
Join us!
We need TWO MORE special people to join our Connections C team! We've been making the magic work by pulling people from their other jobs, but we would sure rather provide consistency for our students with the same staff every day. How about you? Are you pretty consistent? Do you love kids? Do you think it's pretty cool to work with other pretty cool people? We laugh. We cry. We hug it out. (To be clear...hugging is completely optional.) We celebrate. We learn and we grow. Come grow with us!
Your future "I didn't know how much I'd love it!" opportunity starts by clicking here.
Coming Up at BE:
December 18 🌻 BE Night at Sombrero's
December 20 🌻 Celebration of Learning
December 20 🌻 12:10 Dismissal
- No Lunch Served
December 23 - January 6 🌻 Winter Break
- No School for Students
Visit the BE Online Calendar of Events (by clicking on the button below) for a more complete list of activities!
Now Accepting Reservations for BE Family Luncheon Seating
11:00-11:30 1st Grade
11:20-11:50 Kindergarten
11:40-12:10 5th Grade
12:00-12:30 4th Grade
12:20-12:50 3rd Grade
12:40-1:10 2nd Grade
Reservations are required to join your child for lunch- when we are ready, you'll be able to CLICK HERE to reserve your family table!
WatchDOGS Wednesdays!!
It's a WatchDOGS revival in the Belmont DogHouse! With at least a week's notice, we'll welcome a DAD (gotta be a significant adult guardian or relation) each Wednesday to work a day at BE. There will be a schedule provided that will include a variety of tasks including building safety, academic assistance in classrooms, and logistical support during lunch, and the reward...RECESS! We guarantee you'll have the opportunity to enjoy lunch and recess with your own child(ren) and around that, we'll put you to work in the classrooms where your extra hands will be the most helpful! Do YOU have the opportunity to take a day off to hang out with about 370 beautiful children and the adults who love learning with them?
Access the WatchDOGS Sign Up HERE.
Making A Difference Staff Recognition
We are blessed to have such an amazing team here at Belmont! Would you love an opportunity to formally show appreciation...without spending a dime? Through the generosity of the Great American Bank and the USD 232 Education Foundation, we have the opportunity to recognize staff members who go above and beyond in their daily interactions with students. All you need to do is click on the link below and fill out some general information about the deserving nominee. Thank you for helping our team know that their dedication is appreciated. I appreciate your time and gift of gratitude if you've recently nominated, or plan to nominate a Belmont team member for their service.
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You'll find us at:
Email: phargrove@usd232.org
Website: be.usd232.org
Location: 5805 Belmont Drive, Shawnee, KS 66226, United States
Phone: (913)667-1810
Facebook: Belmont Elementary Bulldogs
Twitter: @BEBulldogs