Glenwood

Good evening, Glenwood families,

October is flying by! Since our last eNews, lots has taken place at Glenwood. Last Friday morning, our students gathered on the playground for an action-packed BMX and anti-bullying assembly. The weather was perfect, and the excitement on students’ faces as the riders performed incredible aerial tricks was unforgettable.

Today, we held our first Woody's Warehouse of the year! The smiles on kids faces as they spent their Woody bucks is a refreshing reminder of why elementary school is so important. I couldn't be more appreciative of our amazing PTG for sponsoring both events.

There is a lot happening all the time, so please check out all the happenings below!

REMEMBER...TOMORROW IS A 12:20 DISMISSAL!

Best,

Josh Rehak, Principal

Friday October 16th - 12:20 pm Early Dismissal / NO PM-Kindergarten / NO Lunches Served

Saturday October 17th - 3:30 pm - 5 pm: PTG Trunk or Treat at Arasapha Farms

Thursday October 22 - Wear PINK / Birthday Bash during lunches

Friday October 23 - School Pride Assemblies 9:40 am (AM-K, 1st, 2nd grades) / 1:40 pm (grade 3-5 & PM-K)

Tuesday October 27 - Picture Retake

Wednesday October 28 - Family Night / NO Homework

Friday October 30 - Fall Classroom Parties / 2:30 pm Halloween Parade

*Service animals are always welcome.

Glenwood will celebrate Red Ribbon Week from Monday, October 26 through Friday, October 30! Red Ribbon Week is a national campaign that focuses on being Drug Free. At the elementary level, we focus on encouraging children to make healthy, safe, and positive decisions. Throughout the week, students will take part in age-appropriate activities focused on healthy decision-making, kindness, sleep, exercise, and nutritious foods.

This year’s theme, “Be a Superhero: Healthy Decisions Are Your Superpower,” reminds students that the everyday decisions they make can support their bodies, minds, and relationships.

Students are invited to participate in the following spirit dress-up days:

• Monday October 26: Wear red to kick off Red Ribbon Week as we discuss healthy decision making.
• Tuesday October 27: Dress to impress as we we learn about the benefits of sleep.
• Wednesday October 28: Dress as your favorite superhero as we focus on kindness to ourselves and others.
• Thursday October 29: Wear Glenwood spirit wear or clothing from your favorite team as we celebrate exercise and being active.
• Friday October 30: No special dress-up theme. Students will learn how healthy foods fuel our bodies and brains.

Red Ribbon Week is also a great opportunity to continue conversations at home about healthy habits and the everyday decisions that help us feel our best. We look forward to a fun week of learning and celebrating healthy decisions together!

Miss Segal and Mrs. Vellios-Miller will often share counselor tidbits with our parent and guardian community throughout the year!

This week’s counselor tidbit: Friendships Aren't Always Easy!

Last week, we talked about how friendships often begin with small, friendly interactions that build comfort, connection, and trust. But what happens when those friendships hit a bump in the road?

One thing we know from working with elementary school children is that friendships can be complicated! One day two children are inseparable, and the next day someone is upset about who played with whom, who got invited to join a game, or something unkind that was said.

As adults, we sometimes want children to simply "be nice" or "work it out." But friendship skills don't magically appear as children get older. They develop through experience, practice, adult modeling, and sometimes a little coaching!

This connects beautifully to Glenwood's October character trait of EMPATHY. Learning to understand another person's feelings and perspective is an important part of building healthy relationships. And just like the growth mindset skills we discussed in September, empathy and friendship skills can be developed with practice!

One particularly important skill is REPAIR, or learning what to do AFTER something goes wrong in any relationship. Disagreements and hurt feelings happen, but children can learn how to communicate, take responsibility, and work toward making things better. In fact, REPAIR is one of the most important parenting skills Mrs. Vellios-Miller keeps in mind with her own children when she makes a misstep, to both support her own relationship with them AND model the skill.

Try It at Home!

When your child has a manageable friendship disagreement, try helping them think beyond who was right and who was wrong. You might ask:

• "What were you feeling when that happened?"

• "What do you think your friend might have been feeling?"

• "Is there something now that you wish you had done or said differently?"

• "What could you say or do to help make things better?"

• "What might you try next time?"

Help your child practice words they can actually use:

• Express feelings: "I didn't like when that happened."

• Share perspectives: "Can I tell you how I felt?"

• Take responsibility: "I'm sorry I hurt your feelings."

• Problem-solve: "Can we figure out a way to make this better?"

• Set boundaries: "I want to play with you, but I don't want to play that game."

And remember, repair doesn't always mean an immediate apology or becoming friends again. Sometimes children need time, space, or adult support. Learning to take responsibility while maintaining healthy boundaries is an important part of developing friendships, too.

Something to Remember:

Healthy friendships aren't friendships without disagreements. They're relationships where children learn how to navigate disagreements with respect. Our goal isn't to solve every friendship problem for our children. It's to help them build the empathy, communication, flexibility, and problem-solving skills they'll use in relationships throughout their lives.And just like our earlier conversations about growth mindset and grit, these are skills plenty of adults are still practicing, too!

Next week as we continue through National Bullying Prevention Month we will explore approaches for friendship or classmate situations that may not be manageable by children and how to give and get them additional support.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Vellios-Miller & Miss Segal
Glenwood School Counselors

Our Fall Parties will be held at various times throughout the day on Friday October 30th:

Kindergarten - 10 am - 11 am & 1:15pm - 2:15 pm

Guardians, siblings, and family are invited to join us on the back playground/field for our Halloween Parade from 2:30 pm - 3 pm on Friday October 30th

Campus VISITORS:

• We have limited parking on our campus (please try to carpool)

• Visitors should use the Bus Entrance and park in the side parking lots

• All visitors must sign in (by the green shed on the upper side of the building)

• Visitors will not have access to our school building

• Adults - in the interest of safety, please do NOT wear costume masks or face paint

• Visitors watching the parade do NOT need their Clearances
  
  

STUDENTS: Students may choose to bring a costume for the parade but it is not required.
COSTUME GUIDELINES - If your child wishes to wear a costume, please adhere to the following:

• AM & PM Kindergarten students should come to school dressed in costume

• First through Fifth Grade children bring his/her costume to school in a bag

• Children’s costumes must be of a nonviolent nature appropriate for a school setting

• Students are not permitted to carry any item that could be characterized as a prop weapon (grim reaper’s staff, sword, lifesaber, devil’s pitchfork, nerf gun etc.

• Students should be able to put their costumes on independently in their classroom, as we will be having 4 volunteers per classroom in the building to assist students

• Please limit face make-up since we have a limited amount of time to support the students

• We request that students do not wear inflatable costumes, as they can be very challenging to maneuver through stairs and hallways

• Caution your student about the safety factors involved in getting on or off a bus or walking home while carrying their costume

• Children are not permitted to go home at lunch to get dressed
  
  

In the event of inclement weather, the parade will be moved indoors. Thank you for your support in making this a fun and safe event for our school community!

For those who do not wish to participate in the Halloween Parade or classroom parties, or do not celebrate Halloween, there will be alternative fun offered! Past activities have included festive fall crafts and games. Please be sure to fill out the survey to let us know if your student would like to participate in the alternative activities so that we can plan accordingly!

Alternate Activities for Halloween Survey

Kindergarten Get Together

Glenwood Cafeteria on Thursday, November 5th from 6-7 PM

This is a time for all of the kindergarten classes to come together for a fun night of games & crafts!

An evite link has been sent to all kindergarten families who are registered on Membership Toolkit. If you did not receive the evite to RSVP to please RSVP to Denna Armstrong at guittared@gmail.com

News from 2nd GRADE

Second graders have been working hard in the first few weeks of school! They have been learning all about communities in their social studies unit! Students have learned about places to live, work, play, and solve problems. They have determined the differences between urban, suburban, and rural areas. They used this knowledge to create their own towns and maps! Second grade will continue to explore communities in preparation for their annual Community Day in November!

We have an amazing PTG that supports our students and staff in so many ways! Last week, the PTG organized a fun "Anti-Bullying" assembly - - and their message was explained through a BMX demonstration! The entire school joined on the playground Friday morning for the entertainment. THANK YOU to our PTG and family support for making these events possible!

To recognize Fire Prevention Month, the Middletown Fire Company visited our kindergarten students today - with a FIRETRUCK!!! Firefighters showed students the parts of the truck, their uniforms and how they wear them, and talked about fire safety.

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It wouldn’t be a Trunk-or-Treat without the TREATS! The candy monster will be collecting candy in the lobby of Glenwood October 1st - October 15th. Feel free to send bags in with your students or donate to our candy fund here: Candy Donation

The Glenwood Fall Spiritwear sale is now live! Included are lots of great options for Glenwood Green Fridays and upcoming field trips! Check out all the fun Glenwood gear here: Glenwood Spiritwear The store will remain open until Thursday, October 15th at 11:59PM. Please note the online sale takes place twice per year. Once the store closes, most of the items will not be available for order again until our next online store in the spring. Orders will take approximately 3-4 weeks to arrive once the store closes. Items can be delivered to your student’s homeroom class or we will be offering a pickup at Glenwood (date & time TBD).

To streamline communication, please use this form for all early dismissals and changes to your child’s regular dismissal plan. The form will notify both the classroom teacher and office staff, so there is no need to call or email separately.

If more than one child has a change to their regular dismissal plan, please submit one form entry for each student. All early dismissals require a photo ID or driver’s license at pickup.

If your child will be late, please call the Attendance Hotline (610-627-6900) and press 2 to let us know. When they arrive, an adult should walk them into the building and sign them in.

Notify us of your child's absence by click on the button below or by sending an email to:

ges-attendance@rtmsd.org. A note (or completion of this form) is required within three (3) days of the student's return to school.

In order for days out of school to be approved for a pre-planned absence, the “Pre-Planned Absence Form” must be submitted to the building principal for consideration a minimum of five (5) days prior to the absence. Please note that pre-planned absences will not be approved during the standardized testing windows. Trips taken without pre-approval by the building principal will be recorded as unexcused absences. No more than 5 pre-planned days will be approved during the school year.

Once completed, please send a paper copy with your child to the Main Office OR you can email it to Leah Benson: lbenson@rtmsd.org. She will request approval from Mr. Rehak and email you the decision. You also do not need to call your student out those day(s).

School hours for the 2026-27 school year are as follows:

Grades 1-5

• Student Arrival: 8:40 - 8:50 AM (Note: School Day starts at 8:50 AM)
• Student Dismissal: 3:30 PM

AM Kindergarten

• Student Arrival: 8:40 - 8:50 AM (Note: School Day starts at 8:50 AM)
• Student Dismissal: 11:25 AM

PM Kindergarten

• Student arrival: 12:55 PM (Note: School Day starts at 12:55 PM)
• Student Dismissal: 3:30 PM

Josh Rehak, Principal

Email: jrehak@rtmsd.org
Website: ges.rtmsd.org

Address: 122 South Pennell Road Media, PA 19063

Phone: (610) 627-6900

2026-2027 SCHOOL HOURS: Monday thru Friday

Grades 1-5: 8:50 am - 3:30 pm
AM-Kindergarten: 8:50 am - 11:25 pm

PM-Kindergarten: 12:55 pm - 3:30 pm