November 27, 28, 29-Wednesday-Friday-No School-Thanksgiving Break

December 11-Wednesday-Late Start-School Begins at 11:38 am

December 23-January 3-No School-Winter Break

As we enter Thanksgiving Week, we have SO MUCH to be thankful for! We have so many great things happening at APS! Enjoy the week with family and friends doing whatever it is that you love to do; eating, relaxing, shopping, watching football, crafting, baking!

The colder weather is here! A reminder that students will go out to recess when the "feels like" temperature is 0 degrees or above. Please make sure students come prepared for the colder weather with coats, hats, and gloves daily.

When snow gets here, for students to be able to play in the snow, they must have boots and snow pants on.

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO LABEL ALL ITEMS!

November is Homeless Awareness Month and we’re excited to be partnering with United Way of Gratiot & Isabella Counties to raise money for The Hope House through a coin war challenge called “Coins for a Cause”! Start saving and collecting your coins to send with your student! The classroom that raises the most amount of money will win a PIZZA PARTY! 🍕

Would you like to recognize one of our AMAZING staff members! Please fill out this form and let us know they great things they are doing to support your child! You can fill this out for any of our staff members, from teachers, paraprofessionals, support staff or office staff!

We are so lucky to have partnerships with Alma College in our back yard! 2nd grade students were able to be on campus today and learn from Alma College students all about different parts of science!

You may have heard your students talk about our new supplementary math curriculum, Number Corners. This is a highly engaging, daily number sense routine that our students do in each class. Ask your students about it and I am sure their families will light up as they talk about the exciting activities they do each day!

Click on the link below for more information.

Please make every effort to have your child at school every day! We want to see them and their classmates miss them when they are not here! It is so critical to their education process that they in school!

This year we have added an Encore class entitled Social Emotional Learning, taught by Mrs. Kristie Hancock. She has been doing great things for our students and teaching many great lessons and skills to our students. Recently, we have added a new School Board adopted curriculum entitled, Character Strong. We are very excited for these interactive lessons to help support our students!

Click on the link to view the website.

Over the last few years, APS has worked very hard at developing and implementing systems to help all students be successful. This flyer helps to give more details regarding our progress.

The school calendar for NEXT school year has been released.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR THE LINK TO THE DOCUMENT

Over the years, we have a partnered with Child Advocacy to come in to our schools and teach lessons to our students regarding safety. The program that was used formerly was called Protect Yourself and those lessons were taught to 1st and 3rd grade classes.

Child Advocoacy has updated that curriculum this year and is using a program called Safer, Smarter Kids. Mrs. Richelle Davis from Child Advocacy will be teaching these lessons to our 1st graders this fall and our 3rd graders in the Spring.

You can view the website here:

Safer, Smarter Kids

If you or someone you know is in need of child care for your 2.5-4 year old, we still have spots available. Click the picture to begin enrollment or contact Kimberly Hamad at 989-466-7593 for enrollment information.

Spots are still available for our tuition-based preschool for 4-5 year olds. Open House is September 5, and school begins September 9. Contact Kimberly Hamad at 989-466-7593 for enrollment information.

We have a few spots available for K-5th grade students who are in need of before and after school care. Contact Kimberly Hamad at 989-466-7593 for enrollment information.

We have a tradition at Hillcrest of wearing our theme shirts on Tuesdays! It can be any form of camping shirt, such as camo colors, fishing, from a State Park, or whatever camping is to you!

On Fridays in Alma, we wear orange and black, or anything PANTHERS to show off our school spirit!

APS will once again have Late Start and Early Release Days about once a month. For both days, the time to remember for Hillcrest is 11:38 am. Our Late Start days are on Wednesdays and our Early Release days will be on Fridays this year.

November 8-Friday-Early Release-End at 11:38 am

November 13-Wednesday-Late Start-Begin at 11:38 am

December 11-Wednesday-Late Start-Begin at 11:38 am

January 10-Friday-Early Release-End at 11:38 am

February 28-Friday-Early Release-End at 11:38 am

March 12-Wednesday-Late Start-Begin at 11:38 am

April11-Friday-Early Release-End at 11:38 am

May 14-Wednesday-Late Start-Begin at 11:38 am

Thanks in advance for planning transportation for your students on these day!

At Alma Public Schools, we teach students to follow their ROARS. We focus on a positive approach and help them to understand the expectations and what following their ROARS looks like, sounds like, and feels like in all areas of the building.

As a way to promote positive behavior and as an incentive to follow their ROARS, students can earn Panther Paws.

In all of our classrooms, we teach positive expectations for behavior so students know what to expect. We use the acronym MAC (Movement, Activity, Conversation) to help student understand those expectations. The M stands for movement so students know what the expectations are for moving. The A lets the students know the activity they will be coming and the C is the conversation so the students know what volume level they can be at.

Make sure to download the APS App on your phone. This year we will be using this app for all parent communication from teachers and coaches. At Open House, you will receive more information on how to connect the app to your student's classroom.

We greatly appreciate and welcome volunteers and chaperones in our classrooms and events. Your involvement in our students' activities and classrooms offers a valuable opportunity for teachers and students, enhancing the safety and enrichment of the learning experience. If you’re interested in volunteering this year, please review our volunteer and chaperone guidelines on our district website under “Parents and Community” and complete the volunteer form. This form will remain on file for one school year.

Click on the link to open the form.

Families are such an important part of their child's education and we want to make sure families are connected to APS! Please seek ways you can be a part of our schools!

Don't hesitate to reach out to the office or to your child's teacher to see what we can do to make this a great experience for your students!

If you need to make a transportation change for your student, it must be communicated to the office before 2 p.m. The end of the day is very hectic at an elementary school and messages are not always able to get to teachers after 2 pm.

Thank you for being so understanding in this situation!

Our buiding uses Second Step to help support our students and their Social-Emotional Learning. Each class does weekly lessons to teach a variety of different skills and techniques.

We have officially begun our ELA program called Bookworms! Our classes have done a great job and we are excited to see their progress throughout the year! Each student will receive three different blocks of reading and writing instruction a day.

One of the Bookworms blocks is called DI. Every student is placed in a group based on their skill and needs. They work on lessons geared toward progress in their reading skills and move up the staircase as they gain the necessary skills.

For all of our K-5 classes, we are using a six-day rotation for our specials, which we call A-F day. All of the students in grades 2-5 have STEAM, Art, Music, Social-Emotional Learning, and two days of PE. Students in first grade will not have music this year, but will have two days of Art class instead.

We are very fortunate to have so many offerings for all of our students that are taught by certified teachers!

Here is a link to all the Camp Hillcrest Happenings for the 2024-25 School Year.

Camp Hillcrest Happenings for 2024-25

Email: jhelinski@almaschools.net
Website: www.almaschools.net
Location: 515 East Elizabeth Street, Alma, MI, USA
Phone: 989-463-3113
Facebook: facebook.com/almahillcrest
Twitter: @almahillcrest