Greetings Hereford Families,

It is hard to believe that we are only one week away from spring break, March 11-15!

As a reminder, Friday, March 8, 2024, is an eLearning day for scholars and they will not report to school but will engage in remote learning from home. Scholars will be provided assignments, activities and instructional support in all subject areas.

Assignments will be located on Schoology and/or Class Dojo for retrieval and access.

Teachers will provide support times via zoom to assist scholars with instruction, activities, assignments, and/or answer instructional questions the scholars may have. Your child’s classroom teacher will send an informational letter providing guidance and instructions.

Best regards,

Principal Williams

• March 8 - E -Learning Day for Students

• March 11 - 15 - Spring Break

• March 20 - Parent Focus Meeting ( 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.)

• March 28 - Parent Advisory Committee Meeting (1 p.m.)

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PBIS at Home Guide

1. Expectations

Create a list of 3 -5 POSITIVELY worded expectations for the whole house. Keep it simple!

• Be respectful
• Be understanding
• Be helpful

2. Examples

Create a few examples of what each of those expectations looks like for the house. Ask your kids to contribute!

Respectful

• I can be respectful by… staying quiet when the adults are working.
• I can be respectful by… waiting for my turn to use the computer/device.

Understanding

• I can be understanding by… recognizing our new reality and the challenges it presents.

Helpful

• I can be helpful by… cleaning up the messes I make or cleaning up a mess I see.

Have a great week!

Kelli Eaton

The 100 Black Men of Greater Huntsville Inc., The Greater Huntsville (AL) Chapter of The Links Inc., National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Professionals North Alabama Chapter, and National Coalition of 100 Black Women (Huntsville) present the 2024 STEAMposium on April 6, 2024, at Calhoun Community College (CCC). The theme this year is “E-STEAM” Empowering Youth through Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. This event will serve as a platform to educate and expose students to the various opportunities within the STEAM career fields.

This is a free event and provides hands on workshops in Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Robotics, Rocketry, Drones, Forensic Science, Medicine, and Art. This is also an opportunity for participants to have one-on-one interactions with leading experts in the various fields. A free T-shirts will be given to those that preregister before March 13, 2024.

I would like you to disseminate this information to the leadership of your school and coordinate the submitting of this information to the parents of your students. I believe this will be a great STEM engagement opportunity for the students.

Registration Link: https://form.jotform.com/240438352263150

Hello, Hereford Families!

Do you remember your favorite book from childhood? What do you remember about that story? Maybe you remember a fascinating character, or the sense of accomplishment of being able to read a story on your own, or maybe you remember being read to by a loved one. As caregivers, we have the biggest influence on whether our children see themselves as readers and develop a love of books. We set the stage for their success or difficulty with learning to read. Here is a video from the Institute for Reading Development with some great suggestions on growing readers and helping our children love books.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jZsl2MBv2E

Very respectfully,

Mrs. Tomes

Greetings Hereford Elementary School Families,

March is Women’s History Month! Today, we will spotlight Dr. Mae C. Jemison. Mae Carol Jemison is an incredibly talented and inspirational figure. As a decorated engineer, physician, mathematician (go math!), and NASA astronaut, she is best known for becoming the first African American woman to go to outer space, which happened when she was a member of the Endeavour Space Shuttle that launched into orbit in 1992.

Before becoming an astronaut, Jemison served in the Peace Corps as a general practice physician.

Today, she serves on the council for the Science Matters initiative, with the goal of encouraging children to pursue STEM careers at a young age.

We are also still celebrating Read Across America Week. Take some time to watch the video below about the smartest boy in math class. Pay close attention to how he overcame his math anxieties and discovered his true math abilities!

Until next week, remember, math is not a spectator sport. The only way to learn math is to do math!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l7xTaHU_Zs

April M. Draine

Curriculum Specialist

Support Children’s Understanding of Fractions by Thinking About How to Use Them in the Real World

By encouraging children to apply their fractions knowledge to real-world contexts, parents and caregivers can provide meaning to fractions and help children solve problems presented in formal notation.

Encourage your child to think about problems involving fractions in everyday contexts. Cooking and baking activities provide a fun, real-world application of fractions knowledge!

It's National Reading Month and Read Across America Week! This week happens to be one of my favorite weeks of school. It was originally launched in 1998 as a campaign to encourage reading and has continued since.

At Sonnie Hereford, we promote reading daily, from lessons taught in the classrooms to library visits. We want to help you encourage reading at home as well. This week, start by sharing in the excitement that your child will likely display when he or she comes home from school each day this week. Ask them about the types of stories that they read or heard that day.

Click the links below to check out some free online reading resources. Happy Reading!

Mrs. Hereford

Greetings Hereford Family,

I’m Mandisa Thornton and I’m glad to have started working with you as School Attendance Officer. If you hear from me, know that I’m working with you, not against you. My mission, and all of our mission, is to make our students as successful as possible. Did you know that attendance is one of the biggest factors in academic success? We are so proud of Sonnie Hereford’s amazing progress as a school and our increase in attendance. We could never have done it without all your efforts as families. We are looking forward to finishing the year strong. Each day and every moment of the day prepares students for their future. Let’s do our best to get kids to school on time every day. Let’s ace attendance and ace life!

Mandisa Thornton

School Attendance Officer

School-Parent Compacts

School-Parent compacts are a written commitment between parents, students, and school to share responsibility for improved student achievement. Every student enrolled in a Title I funded school MUST have a signed school-parent compact on file every school year. We are still missing quite a few School-Parent compacts. Please sign your child’s compact and return it to their teacher. If you need another compact, you can email me (ann.elkins@hsv-k12.org) and I will gladly send another home with your child. Thank you!

My Upcoming Meetings

Parent Focus Meeting

Topic- Math Tips and Resources

When – Wednesday, March 20, 2024 – 9:00 A.M. or 12:30 P.M.

Where – Hereford Elementary Library

Parent Advisory Committee Meeting (PAC)

When – Tuesday, March 26, 2024 – 1:00 PM

Where - Hereford Elementary Library

Hope to see you there!

Are there any topics you would like to see a Parent Focus Meeting on? Please feel free to give me suggestions/feedback at ann.elkins@hsv-k12.org. Thank you!

Thank you!

Ann Elkins

Hello Parents,

This week’s lesson in Guidance is entitled “My Voice, My Actions”. In this week's lesson, I will be helping our scholars learn about Bullying and its negative effects.

Did you know that according to verwellfamily.com in bullying incidents, there is one person impacted by bullying that is normally overlooked? It is the bystander. Even though they are not the target of the bully, they are still affected. Some studies show that bystanders may suffer as much as the actual victim. They can suffer from guilt, anxiety, depression, and feelings of helplessness. As educators, we need to remember to look for the many ways that bullying affects all students involved in the bullying situation so that needed support can be provided.

Women’s Her-Story Nugget: As first lady, Michelle Obama served as a role model for women and worked as an advocate for poverty awareness, education, nutrition, physical activity, and healthy eating. She supported American designers and was considered a fashion icon. Michelle Obama was the first African American woman to serve as first lady. Michelle Obama is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. In her early legal career, she worked at the law firm Sidley Austin where she met her future husband. She subsequently worked in nonprofits and as the associate dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago. Later she served as vice president for Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Michelle married President Barack Obama in 1992 and they have two daughters.

Have a great week!

J. Jewel Thorne

School Counselor

Sonnie Hereford Elementary School

• Supervision of students begin at 7:30 each morning; therefore, students should not arrive to school before 7:30 AM.

• Students who are walkers are to follow the sidewalk leading to the crossing guard and to the front door of the school.

• Students who are walkers should not walk across the Pre-K parking lot without being supervised by parent/guardian.

• Parents who enter Pre-K parking lot (yellow arrows) to drop off Kinder-6th grade students must park and escort student(s) to front of school.

• Parents who enter faculty and staff parking lot (blue arrows) to drop off Kinder-6th grade students must park and escort student(s) to crosswalk.

• School starts promptly at 8:00 AM.

• Students arriving after 8:00 AM are tardy and must have a parent or a guardian sign them in at the main office.

Student check-out ends at 1:45-must have valid identification and listed as a contact in

PowerSchool SIS.

• All students will be dismissed at 2:30.

• Students are either a bus rider, car rider or walker.

• Parents are asked not to congregate near the front door of the school or the pick-up area. You

will be asked to clear the dismissal area- please do so.

• Parents of walkers are asked to meet your children at home or at the crosswalk.

• Parents of car riders are asked to remain in your vehicle in the car line during pick-up.

• Pre-K parking lot (yellow arrows) is reserved only for Pre-K families with Parking Permit displayed.

• WALKERS- in the event of rain, parents are asked to provide child/ren with rain gear or send a written/typed note to teacher to change dismissal to car rider for that day by 1:30 pm.