A Piece From The Principal's Puzzle

January

13-17 - i-Ready Testing Window (All grade levels)

20 - MLK, Jr. Holiday (NO SCHOOL)

* Report Cards were sent home last week. If you didn't receive your child's report card or if you have any questions, please email or send a Class Dojo message to your child's teacher. She/he will be glad to assist you.

Thank you to our Student Council for leading the Pledge of Allegiance at last week's Huntsville City Schools' Board Meeting. The Blossomwood Student Council was represented by Nick Lockwood, Wilson Smith, and Emma Carter! Thanks for being a leader in our community!

* Special thanks to our Student Council faculty sponsors; Ms. Bethany Pauli and Mrs. Tanya Richardson.

As part of our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program, we recognize students that demonstrate our P.A.W.S behavior as well as the character word of the month. The character word for December was "cheerfulness," and according to their teachers, the following students displayed this in and out of the classrooms. Congratulations to everyone!!!

Kindergarten - Daisy Penley and Harper Austin

1st Grade - Symonne Mathies and Margot Anderson

2nd Grade - Khaliani Gardner

3rd Grade - Isabella Woodard

4th Grade - Breeze Griffin and Christian Miller

5th Grade - Francie Lehr and Valerie Burton

6th Grade - Zach Roland and Karsyn Mixon

Mrs. Williamson’s class - Daisy Temple

We had 57 students that choose to participate in the holiday learning challenge during Winter Break.

• Each student that completed the challenge during Winter Break received a coupon for a FREE food/snack coupon to Dodge's Convenient Store. The students love their slushies and chicken fingers!
• In addition, the students received tickets for a special drawing for completing the challenge of reading for 20 minutes for at least five days, practicing math for 20 minutes for at least five days, and/or writing about a family event from the break.
• The prizes from the drawing included: a 1-hour Jump Pass to Flow, , a karaoke microphone, games such as Jenga, bluetooth speakers, bluetooth headphones, a huge container of Sour Punch Twists candy, and gift cards to a couple of restaurants, remote control cars, books, and a few other prizes.
• Special thanks to Dodge's Convenient Store and Flow for donating the coupons. See the picture below for some smiles!

We will have another holiday learning challenge for Spring Break. Our goal will remain the same with us encouraging students to develop the habit of learning and reading on a daily basis.

As we begin the second half of the school year, I wanted to share with you our attendance data through Friday, December 20 for the school as well as each grade level. Each day counts and accumulates in a manner that either helps or hurts the amount of learning that is possible for our students. Please help us by encouraging your child to be at school each day unless he/she is sick.

* School attendance also impacts our Annual School Report Card. We lose/gain points for our overall percentage of attendance as well as for the number of children that are deemed "chronically absent" by the Alabama Department of Education for having 18 or more absences during an academic school year. (That total per child is for all absences, including illness and excused.)

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.