Blue Jay Weekly Game Plan

Hello, Blue Jay Families!

Week 8 was amazing and what a great way to end it with our PTA Trunk or Treat! As we head into Week 9, we're reminded that greatness isn't built in a single day—it's built through the little things we do consistently, day after day!

At Sylvan, we're working hard to help our Blue Jays develop strong habits that lead to success. We're reinforcing the importance of following expectations, showing kindness, taking responsibility, staying engaged in learning, and giving our best effort—even when things get challenging.

But building these habits takes a TEAM, and our families are some of our most important teammates!

🎯 This Week's Family Challenge: Practice Makes Progress!

This week, encourage your Blue Jay to focus on three simple habits:

⚾ SHOW UP READY: Be at school on time, every day, ready to learn. Every instructional minute matters!

⚾ GIVE YOUR BEST SWING: Remind your child that learning isn't always easy, but effort, participation, and perseverance help us grow.

⚾ OWN YOUR GAME: Talk about the importance of following directions, showing respect, making good choices, and taking responsibility for our actions.

Here's a great question to ask your child each evening:

“What's one way you stepped up to the plate today, even when something was difficult?”

Remember, we're not expecting perfection. We're building progress, responsibility, confidence, and a belief that every child is capable of greatness.

Quick Reminders:

Thank you to everyone who is following out AM Traffic Pattern.

• Please continue to turn RIGHT ONLY when exiting campus back onto the main road. This will ensure we do not create a traffic jam for families coming into campus. We understand this may be inconvenient, but when it comes to the safety of our students, staff, and families, there is nothing too inconvenient to ensure everyone is safe.
• We are down to two bus drivers, driving three routes. I understand this is frustrating and inconvenient, but we are doing the best we can to get students to school safely. If you know of anyone interested in driving a bus, please let us know.

Thank you for partnering with us, reinforcing these important habits at home, and cheering on our Blue Jays every step of the way!

💙⚾ One Team. One Goal. Step Up to the Plate!

With Blue Jay Pride,
Mrs. Hamilton
Principal
Sylvan Elementary School 💙
Building Greatness in Every Student. Every Day.

💙We are doing a great job having our Blue Jays ready to exit the vehicle.

💙All students have the opportunity to go to breakfast. At 7:40 students are sent to class with their breakfast and allowed to eat until the transition from Morning Meeting is over by 8:15am at the latest.

💙Students that arrive late until 9:00 am are offered breakfast and 15 minutes to eat in the classroom.

💙If a student arrives after breakfast has stopped and is still hungry, we work with the cafeteria to ensure there a nutritious snacks on hand that we can give to a student to hold them until lunch.

💙Blue Jays are not knowingly sent to class hungry. That is not optimal for teaching and learning!

This week is School Bus Safety Week!

• 4th/5th Grade Field Trip to NC Symphony
• Village Tutoring at BEJ 4:45pm-7:15pm

• World Unity Day

• Fall Picture Day
• Read to Achieve Test

• Quarter 1 Awards: 1st/2nd Grade 8:30-9:30, 3rd-5th Grads 10:00-11:00
• Kindergarten Field Trip

• 10/26- Teacher Workday, NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
• 10/30- Book Character Parade
• 11/2-11/6- NC Check-Ins
• 11/3- Teacher Workday, NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS, GO VOTE!
• 11/4- Report Cards available in Infinite Campus
• 11/9-11/13- NC Check-Ins
• 11/11- Veterans' Day, NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
• 11/12- World Kindness Day, Harper Belles' Coffee Truck 7:00-9:00am

Families, please use the linked form OR scan the QR code to indicate the preferred name for your student. For instance, if your student is named Daniel and you prefer for them to be called Danny, indicate that on the linked form. This is in accordance with North Carolina State Law (S.L. 2023-106; Senate Bill 49) Section 115C-76.45.(5). If you completed this last year, you do not need to do it again.

If you need to submit a note or doctor's note for your student's absence, please use the form linked here. Please note, per board policy, notes must be submitted within 2 school days of the absences. Sylvan will not accept notes after 7 days (1 week).

Click the attachment below to access the 26-27 Sylvan Student-Parent Handbook

Please know that we take every incident reported seriously and we investigate to the fullest extent possible. Sylvan does not tolerate inappropriate behaviors of any kind. We are also including the link to the District’s Code of Conduct here. While each of you are familiar with our school handbooks, we wanted to make sure you had access to the District’s Code of Conduct that guides our decisions with consequences. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our administrative team.

All students will receive FREE breakfast and lunch at Sylvan Elementary. The menus can be found here.

Thank you to everyone who came out to our first PTA Meeting of the 26-27 school year! We had a wonderful turn out.

• Linked here are the minutes for the first meeting.

At Sylvan, Capturing Kids’ Hearts (CKH) is how we intentionally build strong, positive relationships and create classrooms where every student feels safe, connected, valued, and ready to learn. Through daily practices such as welcoming students, sharing “Good Things,” creating classroom Social Contracts, giving affirmations, and teaching students how to communicate and problem-solve respectfully, we build a culture of both connection and accountability. Simply put, CKH helps us reach students’ hearts so we can better reach their minds. 💙

Each month focuses on a different character trait. This month's character trait is SELF-DIRECT!

Self-Direction is the ability and learned skill to cast a vision of future goals and then take intentional steps toward who, where, and what we want to be. Instead of focusing on things to control or avoid, we emphasize our responsibility to make positive choices related to our emotions, attitudes, and actions.

Why focus on Self-Direction?

• Self-Direction strengthens relationships. Self-Direction helps to grow social skills and develop meaningful, positive relationships with others.
• Self-Direction teaches personal responsibility. Learning to Self-Direct teaches students to take responsibility for their own actions.
• Self-Direction helps us to regulate emotions: Self-Direction empowers students to regulate their impulses and emotional responses to situations and circumstances in their life.

Self-Direction in Action:

• Practice goal setting and action planning. When we establish goals and develop action plans, we learn to take intentional steps to successfully achieve goals.
• Monitor and adjust. Provide students with regular feedback and opportunities to self-assess progress toward goals to make adjustments and improvements in their behaviors.
• Reflect and evaluate. Facilitate discussions and reflection to prompt students to examine what they do, think, and say against their goals and vision for their life and learning.

The Capturing Kids’ Hearts Social Contract is a set of agreements created with students, not just for students, that describes how everyone wants to be treated in the classroom. Students and teachers work together to identify behaviors such as respect, kindness, responsibility, honesty, and teamwork that will help create a safe and positive learning environment. Throughout the year, the Social Contract becomes a shared guide for celebrating positive choices, solving problems, and holding one another accountable—helping students understand that everyone plays a role in creating a classroom where we can learn, grow, and succeed together.

The Capturing Kids’ Hearts hand signals give students and staff simple, respectful ways to communicate and hold one another accountable while protecting relationships. At Sylvan, we use Check as a friendly reminder to follow our Social Contract, Time Out when the teacher needs the class to pause and give attention, and Foul when someone’s words or actions have hurt another person’s heart. When a student is receives a foul, they have to give two "put-ups" to the person their fouled to repair the relationship. These signals help students learn to communicate concerns appropriately, accept redirection, repair relationships, and take responsibility for how their choices affect others—all while keeping our classrooms positive, respectful, and ready for learning. 💙

Enrollment is open for our 26-27 Afterschool Program. Please click the link below to register!

ENROLLMENT FORM