HSS Family Newsletter

The students returned to school last Monday after the week off and they were so excited to see their friends and teachers and be able to use the playground equipment and take off their winter layers. I don't know who to thank for planting the spring bulbs in our front garden near the school sign, but they look wonderful!

We are starting our state SAS testing this week with the third graders. The test takes about an hour a day for three days. The fourth graders will take their test during the week of May 12th.

Just a reminder as we begin to turn our attention to next year that we are holding kindergarten screenings on May 9th and 16th. If you haven't registered your child for kindergarten next year, please call the office at school to set up an appointment.

May is a busy month. We will be celebrating our amazing educators during the staff appreciation week of May 5th - 9th. After that there are many field trips. The kindergarten classes will be going to the Lebanon Opera House, first grade will enjoy a visit from the planetarium, second grade will visit Squam Lake, third grade will be going to the Hood Museum, and fourth grade went to the state house in Concord last week.

Our annual all school field day is scheduled for May 30th and we will have a 4th grade BBQ celebration with families right afterwards. In June we have many other events planned including our kindergarten celebration and the 4th grade parade and breakfast.

I hope that everyone had a chance to enjoy the amazing day today and please see below for information on our screen free week.

Leah Wheelan, Principal

Students throughout school will take a “Screen Free Pledge” on Monday, 5/5 where they can pledge to avoid all screens for 1 day or up to 5 days next week or to decrease screen time. Students will complete a “Screen Free Pledge” form in class on Monday and bring it home as a reminder of their promise. Additionally, each student will get a “Screen Free BINGO” handout to complete during the week.

Here’s what to do:

1. Help support your child honoring the screen free pledge for the week. Maybe parents want to try participating as well??!!

2. Should you child choose the challenge, help them complete the Screen Free Bingo handout next week. If they complete at least 5 activities either across, diagonal or down and hand in the sheet on Monday, 5/12, to their teacher, they'll be eligible for our prize drawing. They can certainly complete more squares.

3. 10 lucky winners will be randomly selected and win a gift certificate to pick out a free cookie at Katie’s Cookies.

Why are we participating in Screen Free Week next week? In 1930 we spent 0% of our time online. Today, on average, we spend 60.76% of our time online. WOW! View the video below to see the drastic changes in how we spend our time over the last 95 years:

How We Spent Time Over The Years #online #family #friends #addictionhelp

We all worry about the amount of time children spend online either watching Youtube, Tik Tok, playing games, or watching shows or movies. Did you know that on average 8 - 10 year olds spend 6 hours a day using entertainment media (according to the CDC)? That means that almost 25% of our day is spent using screens of some kind. How do we fit everything else in our day if we are spending that much time on devices? The New York Times has an interesting article that discusses how social media usage has increased over time:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/well/family/child-social-media-use.html

Healthychildren.org also has a helpful article that explains how all this screen time is impacting children:

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/Media/Pages/adverse-effects-of-television-commercials.aspx

If you would like to learn more about the Screen Free Week initiative, the website is below: https://screenfree.org/project/sfw-school-guide/

Any questions? Please email hmaher@sau88.net.

Good luck and have fun!!

Please join us. We will leave at 7:30 from Colburn Park, 7:40 from Eldridge Street, and 7:45 from Wolf Road.

The concert is May 22nd at 6:30pm and our dress rehearsal trip to the opera house is from 8:20 to 11:30.

Friday, May 2nd, is Star Wars/Marvel Day.

Friday, May 16th is Disney Day.

Friday, May 23rd is USA Spirit Day.

Here is the latest LMS Express Newsletter. It can be found by clicking this link.

• April 29th - May 1st - 3rd Grade SAS testing
• May 1st - Title1 Math and Reading Night 4:30 - 6:00
• May 1st - PTO Meeting 6:30 - 7:30 in the library
• May 7th - Walk and Bike to School Day
• May 5-9th - Educators Appreciation Week
• May 9th - Kindergarten screening
• May 16th - Kindergarten screening
• May 22nd - Spring Concert at 6:30
• May 26th, Monday - No school, Memorial Day
• May 30th - Field Day and 4th grade celebration BBQ

I hope that you enjoyed working on these challenges together and I appreciate your support. Winners for the raffle will be announced this week and students will have the opportunity to pick from a variety of prizes. I would like to send a huge THANK YOU to our PTO for supporting this event this year and for years past. If you did take any pictures during any of the challenges completed this past week, please email them to me so we can post them in our school hallways.

Hygiene Talks

Every spring I have the opportunity to spend time in 3rd and 4th grade classrooms going over good hygiene habits. We talk about things we can do to keep our bodies AND minds healthy, especially as we get older. Students discussed the importance of brushing their teeth at least twice a day. They believe in using soap on their bodies, and they agree that it is important to change clothes each day and put dirty clothes in the laundry basket! Students also believe it is important to spend time playing outside and eating good food! Over the next few weeks, 3rd and 4th grade student will get a mini deodorant to use daily now that the weather is warming up. I encourage you to talk with your child about our class conversations, and have some fun picking out new soap and deodorant for your child to use.

Sunscreen

It is certainly nice to see the sunshine out more these days. As the weather warms up and students are spending more time outside, please remember the importance of using sunscreen and sending your child in with a hat for recess. Please respect that staff at school cannot apply sunscreen to students. If your child wants to bring sunscreen to school and apply it on their own, please ONLY send in lotion and avoid sending in spray. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. Thanks for your help and support.

Take good care,

Holly Maher, RN

hmaher@sau88.net

603-448-0618