Proud Hawk Community Update

Dear Heritage CUSD #8 Proud Hawk Community:

It is hard to believe that we are one quarter of the way through the school year. By this time, routines should now be in place and we want to keep that momentum going. As we push forward into the next part of the year, it’s crucial to remember that our success depends not only on our work in the classroom but also on how well we take care of our physical and mental health. Healthy habits are key to staying energized, focused, and motivated as we move forward.

We have focused on the character traits of being kind, respectful, and responsible. This leads us into National Anti-Bullying Month as we raise awareness of those traits and promoting a positive culture within our schools. Encourage open communication with your child and follow the following steps if your child experiences or witnesses bullying:

We also want to ensure that students know how to get help from an adult if they experience bullying, harassment, or intimidation. We reinforce those steps at our schools. However, if you have concerns as a parent or caregiver and are unsure what steps to take if your child is bullied, please review the Heritage CUSD 8 Bullying Policy

Let’s continue to balance academic and social-emotion wellness, so that our entire school community can thrive both academically and personally. Together, we can make the remainder of this school year just as successful as the first quarter.

Thank you for your continued dedication to our school community, and let’s keep up the great work!

- Dr. Norton

Thank you to students, parents and donors for your contributions to Hawk Walk! If you are looking for ways to get involved, email heritageptc@gmail.com to join our email list or for help finding our FB page!

• 10/30-Harlem Wizard assembly at the Homer building
• 11/2-Harlem Wizards vs Midwest Mentors basketball game, 7pm, doors open 6pm at Heritage High School, purchase advance tickets at heritageptc.com
• 12/4-6-Secret Santa! Kids have an opportunity to shop at school for loved ones. They experience the joy of giving while also learning to budget their money. We need a lot of volunteers, please sign up here https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10C0F45A5A62CA13-52635463-secret
• 1/29-Crime Scene Science assembly at the Homer building
• 2/24-3/1-Theater Week! Missoula Children's Theater will return to help select K-8 students perform "The Wizard of Oz." Two shows will be available 3/1 at Heritage High School
• 5/23-Fun Day!

Please reach out if you are able to help with any of these events! heritageptc@gmail.com

Our FFA is modeling our shirts that were sponsored by our community partners. Special thanks to:

• Ms. Becky's
• Fertilizer Dealer Supply
• C & R Ag Supply
• Casa del Mar
• Kelso Heating and Cooling
• Sidell Agri-Services
• Dyno Tune
• J & K Body & Paint

To be featured in future partnerships please contact Norton.kimberly@heritage8.org

Saturday, November 9th, from 9am to 12noon

at the Homer Community Library/Village Hall

500 E 2nd St., Homer, Illinois

Meet and visit with 13 of our local, talented authors and illustrators, and stock up on your book collection! We will have several awesome prize drawings, and some fun crafts & activities.

New this year: Cowboy Ed, will provide children's entertainment!

Come join us for a day of fun!

As the leaves begin to turn and we begin to embrace the vibrant colors of fall, we

begin to get excited about all the upcoming changes that are starting to occur at

Heritage Elementary and Junior High School.

We recently completed our first quarter of school and are looking forward to soon

completing our first semester. Parent/Teacher conferences were held the week of

Oct. 15 th . It was so nice to see all our parents coming to hear about the great start

to our school year. We completed many activities and events over the past month.

Some of our students started their day in late September at “Meet you at the

Pole” sponsored by FCA and organized by our 7 th grade student, Garret Hurley. It

was a beautiful and inspirational morning for all that were able to attend. During

that same week, our JH students attended a musical at the Krannart Center in

Champaign. To end the month, all our students participated in the Hawk Walk,

sponsored by our very own PTC. Everyone had a great time, despite the rain and

change of plans to indoors. We are so grateful for all our PTC does for our

students.

Other exciting events that occurred over this past month were the annual FFA

petting zoo, where all K-5 th grade students go to the high school to participate in

the petting zoo set up and organized by our High School FFA students. The K-4 th

grade RIF program also was a huge hit as always! A huge shout out to the Homer

Library for helping sponsor this event for our students. Finally, another highlight

of the fall is the annual 8 th grade boat float. The 8 th graders take several weeks

working in both math and science designing and building a boat from cardboard,

then testing it to see if is sea worthy. It’s a sight to see to see which ones will

float and which ones won’t! The kids have an awesome time with this project and

we are grateful to everyone that helps in getting this activity planned and

completed.

Remember to check your TeacherEase accounts for updates and tracking your

students’ progress and watch our Facebook page for updates! We have so much

going on with our sports teams and classes, we wouldn’t want you to miss out!

-Mrs. Sanders

October has been a busy month for Character Strong happenings! Responsibility, which we define as “taking action and understanding the impact of our choices”, has been this month's focus. Responsibility is 1 of 3 traits we will explore throughout the year that helps students 'Be Strong'. Taking action can mean doing the right thing, or completing the tasks you have been assigned. Understanding the impact of our choices means that our actions matter. Positive and responsible actions can help people, while irresponsible actions can hurt others. K and 1st grade students have been working on increasing focus and engagement in class, along with ways to avoid distractions. 3rd-5th graders have been working on organization and goal setting. They've creating actions plans to help them overcome obstacles along the way. Our JH students have been learning about values and ways to live them out their lives.

Our K-8 students have been contributing to this month's Character Strong service project; a Penny Drive for St. Jude's Childrens' Research Hospital. It's been great to see buckets full of contributions towards this project. We will be announcing the final totals for each grade level and for our school in early November!

Mrs. Desmond & Mrs. Mahoney

The third grade held an elementary election, where the students voted on their October Character Strong celebration. They were able to choose between a Halloween craft or a Halloween movie. With 115 votes, the Halloween movie was the winner! The movie and popcorn celebration will be Friday, November 1st in the afternoon.

1st grade participated in Spooky Week! Our classroom turned into a Haunted House. We worked on using our senses (what do you feel, touch, see, and hear) to describe what it felt like to go through the haunted house. We then brainstormed nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs to help us build our descriptive vocabulary. All the kiddos were then able to write about their very own Haunted House. It was spooktacular!

Congratulations to our Heritage Junior High Cross Country athletes, Gwen and Greyson! They competed in the state meet in Normal this past weekend. Gwen had a time of 14:41 and Greyson with 11:52. They both had an outstanding season! We also want to thank our coaches, teammates, and families for their support!

It has been quite a month at Heritage High School. We crowned our King Jedidiah Nickelson and Queen Harlee Gustin at the Homecoming Grand March on September 27. All students in attendance then had a good time at the dance.

Our October Student of the Month, Evan Brazzel, was named for being "Spooktacular."

Students have been busy making visits to different colleges and businesses to learn about what they might like to do after High School. Students have visited Illinois Wesleyan, Parkland College for Manufacturing Day and The News-Gazette. We also have students attending Illinois State next week for a Future Teacher Conference. Continuing with college and career preparedness, some Juniors and Sophomores took the PSAT and ASVAB tests and our Seniors completed applications on College Application Day.

The FFA has been busy serving harvest lunches and hosting the petting zoo for the Elementary students. A group of FFA members are attending the National Convention in Indianapolis this week.

FCCLA has also been busy as they attended their Section Rally and hosted Pink Night with the Volleyball team. Their efforts on Pink Night were tremendous as they will be donating over $1200 for Breast Cancer Research.

The Student Council is staying very active since Homecoming as this week they are hosting the Kickapoo District Halloween dance.

The Marching Band finished up their marching season at Quincy last weekend. In all, they competed in 4 competitions and improved every time they stepped on the field.

The Golf season wrapped up with some of the best finishes as a team and individuals. The team finished 5th in conference and Anthony Happ finished 3rd at the conference match to earn all conference honors and he also advanced from Regionals to the Sectional match.

Cross Country continues to have a strong year as the boys' team finished 2nd at the conference meet with Christian Paul and Clark Roland earning all conference honors. On the girls' side, Kiara Jones earned all conference honors as well.

Volleyball finished in 5th place at the conference tournament and start Regionals next week as the 4 seed in the sub-sectional.

-Mr. White

This month 3 FCCLA Members attended their Ignite conference to spark their passion for leadership! Then we took our first large group trip to EIU to our Fall rally hosted by our state officers! Students got to tour different parts of campus and hear from an amazing speaker! Later that night students also hosted our annual Pink Night where we raised $1,100 for Mills breast cancer research!

Mrs. Knowles and her class was featured in the News Gazette’s Top of the Morning section the other day after our field trip there!

Congratulations to Wyatt Young (tenor sax), Jack Ballard (trombone), and Alex Tatman (clarinet) for being selected to represent Heritage in the Millikin Honor Band on Monday, October 21.

We’re thrilled to announce an exciting initiative to enhance our library collection through book donations! This is a fantastic opportunity for students and families to contribute to our literary resources and help foster a love for reading within our school. Your contributions can make a significant difference in our students' educational experience. Thank you for being a part of our Heritage High School community and for supporting our love for reading! Select this link to visit our page: Amazon Heritage High Library Partner Special thanks to Mrs. Tate for working with students and staff to coordinate this list.