Cheetah Pride Press!

Dear Families,

We hope everyone’s unexpectedly long weekend got off to a great start! Tuesday is our 100th day of school! We will be celebrating with decorations, a 100s Day photo booth, and plenty of Base 10 math activities.

The last couple of years have forced all of us to flexibly navigate unprecedented times and circumstances. Yet, despite all that we’ve faced, together with your support, we have continued to educate our students in a safe, nurturing, positive environment. I am so proud of what our school community has accomplished this year. I hope you are, too! I encourage you to truly celebrate the 100 day mark on Tuesday with your children. Take a moment to reflect on all of their successes!

Classroom Tidbits:

Preschool- students worked on the letters "N" and "O, " by making ninja turtles and octopuses.

Kindergarten-- learners practiced their social skills and strengthened their peer relationships during "Global Play Day."

Grade 1- learners practiced using strategies to help one another feel included. We are also learning about “play plans” that we can utilize during recess.

Grade 2-students have been working on how to manage anger with belly breaths, naming their feeling, and counting as strategies to cool down.

Grade 3- learners are working on managing disappointment and anger by using a stop signal (self- talk), naming their feeling and using a calm down strategy (belly breathes, positive self-talk).

As always, thank you for your partnership.

Joey & Andrea

A friendly reminder that morning student drop off is a "drop and go" process. We ask that you please drop your student off and exit without leaving your vehicle. It is important that we are considerate to all the people in the process, the traffic is flowing, and the drop off occurs in a timely manner.

The following items should be ready by the time you approach the cross walk:

• Coats on
• Backpacks ready
• Masks on
• Hugs and kisses given

If you need more time you are welcome to drive to the back of the building where you may park and walk your child to the front door. If you arrive after 8:40am, staff will not be at the cross walk. Please park and walk your child in so they receive a late slip to give to their classroom teacher.

Memorial Models are chosen weekly by their teacher and have excelled all week in taking care of themselves, others, and things.

This month we are working on taking care of others! Taking care of others is one of our three school rules. Staff have been discussing and modeling how to take care of others with students since the beginning of the school year. Writing letters, observing kindness week, and giving reminders through announcements are just a few ways we are promoting taking care of others this month.

Our Memorial School Post office has opened and is being run by the Preschool students in the Smart Start program. Students can write letters to anyone in the building. Writing a letter is one way you can take care of someone else. Through letter writing students can express their kind thoughts to someone and let them know they care. Encourage your child to write a letter to someone else in the building as a way to show that they care. It is just one of many ways we can spread kindness as Memorial School.

Linked is the article How to Teach Your Child To Care About Other People. This article is filled with ideas and strategies families can use to teach children at home to spread kindness, care and be empathetic. As adults we are the models for how we want our youth to act.

Dear Families,

On February 7th, Memorial School is proud to announce the opening of MEMORIAL POST! It will be open for approximately 4 weeks.

Students will be able to write to their friends in the school. The vision of the post office is to have these letters promote caring and kindness amongst friends in the school community.

Each week students' letters will be delivered by Preschool postal workers.

Congratulations to the Artists of the Month:

Prek: Remington Pero

K: Regan Sheehan

1: Jonah Kramer

2: Cooper O'hearn

3: Hunter Supinski

This February, we have spent our time exploring NEW art media, such as mosaics, clay sculptures, paper sculptures, and painting with unexpected materials like straws, beads, and pencil erasers! Below are the art room learning expectations for each grade level:

Prek and Kindergarten- we have learned expectations when using CLAY. "Scratch it and attach it" is an important step when joining real clay together, to make a strong bond while building a CLAY sculpture! We created unique "snowmen/snowcats/snowunicorns/ snowsuperheroes/ snowelephants, etc". The students learned how to roll, pinch, flatten, and carve clay. They learned that clay comes from the earth and is made of DIRT and WATER. They soon will be painting their clay sculptures!

1st grade- we completed our family Portraits for our "classroom quilts". We practiced increasing our stamina and fine motor control when coloring with colored pencils. The classroom Quilts will be on display in the hallways of Memorial School next week!

We then worked collaboratively with the 1st grade team to create valentines and cards for senior citizens. Students learned how to cut, glue and color cards with special messages. We even had a student donate really neat materials to add to our cards. We know our creations will make the senior citizens smile and feel so happy!

Lastly, we started using new materials to paint with!!!! NOT a paintbrush!! We are creating snowy day paintings, and are reading the book, "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats (my favorite book about winter, and adventuring in the snow).

2nd grade- the students performed their original plays with their masks that they worked so hard on! We hope you enjoyed watching their performances, sent in a link via parentsquare.

Then we began a new art unit, learning about abstract artist Alma Thomas, the first African American woman artist to have artwork on display in an exhibit at the Whitney Museum. Her work is also on display in the White House. We observed her style of using small squares to create mosaic-like abstract paintings. Then we discussed the history about mosaics and the process of creating one. We are currently building our own paper mosaic artworks and can't wait to complete them! We love how they are a lot like a big, complicated puzzle or lego set!!!

3rd grade- learning about typography and lettering as an artistic process has been exciting! We spent art class over the last few weeks creating our own style of lettering for our names. We have looked at many different artistic letters, designs, and works of art including unique and fancy lettering. Some students have already created all of the letters of their names and are beginning to build their own SCULPTURES with their cut out letters. We are super excited to soon be transforming our flat, two dimensional letters into three dimensional sculptures!!

Purchasing is available now through 2/12/22. Please use the attached link. You have a choice to have your purchases shipped to your home at a cost or sent to the school at no cost. All apparel sent to the school will be organized and students will bring it home.

Grade one is collecting Valentines cards for senior citizens in our community this year! Students around the building are creating Valentines Day cards. This year their goal is to collect even more cards than last year so they can deliver to more towns!

The due date for Valentines Day cards to be submitted is February 11th.

Do you have a vehicle or work for a company that has a cool truck or car?

Would you be willing to volunteer at Touch a Truck at Memorial school from 10am-1pm on March 27th?

If so please contact Stacey Gibson at sgibson@easthamptonct.org

We would love the support of the community for this event.

TOUCH-A-TRUCK will be for the whole community of East Hampton to have a hands-on interactive experience with a variety of vehicles parked in Memorial school’s parking lot.

Donations to attend support PreK experiences at Memorial school.

Dear parents/guardians,

If your child is experiencing any of the following symptoms, please keep them home for at least 24 hours (without use of pain relieving medication) before returning to school:

fever (temperature of 100.4 or higher)

sore throat

diarrhea

vomiting/nausea

uncontrolled cough

loss of taste or smell

poor appetite/lethargy

pink eye

Please make sure your child has a spare change of seasonally appropriate clothing as well as snow boots, snow pants, a coat and gloves. Students go outside for recess and mask breaks as long as temperatures are above freezing including wind chill.

With the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday, please be reminded to avoid food treats in the classrooms. We have several students with severe food allergies. Food treats will not be consumed in the classrooms and will be sent home. We appreciate your assistance in maintaining a safe environment for all students and staff.

We also ask that you bring a labeled water bottle for your child and they can fill it up throughout the day in the water filling stations as needed.

Please reach out with any questions or concerns!

Thank you,

Nurse Katie and Miss Michelle

School Nurse

Memorial Elementary School

20 Smith Street

East Hampton, CT 06424

Phone 860-365-4020 / Fax 860-365-4024

kwilliams@easthamptonct.org / https://www.easthamptonps.org/o/memorial-school

2/8 -100th Day of School

2/9- School Counselor Appreciation Day!

2/14-2/17 Celebrating Kindness Spirit Week

2/14- Valentine's Day- spirit Day Wear Hearts and BOE meeting at 6:30pm

2/15 Wear Read or Pink

2/16- Dress to Impress

2/17- I LOVE comfortable clothes

2/18- Professional Development Day- No School

2/21- President's Day

2/22-District Holiday

2/25- Cheetah Pride Day- Wear your Memorial School Gear or blue and yellow!

• Please reference the most recent guidance document from Paul Smith.
• The Connecticut General Assembly gave the Governor authority to extend Executive Orders through February 15, 2022. Executive Order No. 9, Section 1, and Executive Order No. 13A, provides the authority to require masks in schools, childcare facilities, and certain higher-risk settings, as well as providing municipal authority to require universal masking in certain settings.
• If a student is quarantined, asynchronous assignments will be provided and communicated by your student's teacher.
• Volunteers and guest speakers are welcomed in the building. All volunteers and guest speakers who enter classrooms, hallways, or other areas where children are located will be required to be vaccinated or submit testing results upon entering the school.

The school community of East Hampton is committed to the mission of honoring and celebrating the diversity of our students, our community, and our nation. We strive to guide our students to conscious, deliberate, individual and collective actions that cultivate the respect of all races, religions, and social backgrounds. Our school community endeavors to produce graduates who are equipped with a greater understanding of the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The East Hampton Board of Education, in compliance with federal and state law, affirms its policy of equal educational opportunity for all students and equal employment opportunity for all persons. It is the policy of the District to promote nondiscrimination and an environment free of harassment regardless of an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, ancestry, disability (including but not limited to, intellectual disability, past or present history of mental disorder, physical disability, or learning disability), genetic information, marital status, or age or because of the race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, ancestry, disability, genetic information, marital status, or age of any persons with whom the individual associates. The District shall provide to all students without discrimination, course offerings, counseling, assistance, employment, athletics, and extracurricular activities. The District shall provide equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The District shall make reasonable accommodations for identified physical and mental impairments that constitute disabilities, consistent with federal and state statutes and regulations.

Email: jbauer@easthamptonct.org
Website: https://www.easthamptonps.org/o/memorial-school
Location: 20 Smith Street, East Hampton, CT, USA
Phone: 860-365-4020
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ehmemorialschool