Blue Jay Weekly Game Plan

⚾ Welcome to the Season, Blue Jay Families!

Blue Jay families, what an incredible first week in The Stadium! 💙 Our students spent the week reconnecting with friends, building relationships with their teachers, learning routines, and beginning to understand what it means to be part of One Team with One Goal. Let's celebrate that we had a school wide attendance rate of 98% for the first week of school! WAY TO GO!

As we head into Week 2, we are moving from getting ready for the game to playing the game! Our teachers will continue building strong relationships through Capturing Kids’ Hearts while also diving deeper into grade-level learning. We want every Blue Jay to know two things when they walk through our doors: You are cared for here, and we believe you are capable of great things.

Families, you are an important part of our team! You can help us build strong habits by making sure students are at school, on time, well-rested, and ready to learn each day. Ask your child what they are learning, celebrate their effort, and remind them that sometimes learning is supposed to feel challenging. We don't give up when something is hard—we keep swinging!

We are doing at great job with students entering at 7:30 through the weapon detection systems. Thank you parents for working with us on this. One quick update is that our Ident-A-Kid system for signing students in and out now REQUIRES you to have your ID to scan. We can no longer manually input your information.

This week ALL K-5 Blue Jays will enter the building through the car rider line of bus drop off. There are no parents walking students to doorways or classrooms moving forward unless you have a scheduled appt to speak with your child's teacher.

Our goal isn't perfection in Week 2. It's progress, consistency, and growth. Every day we show up, work hard, encourage one another, and get a little better.

Here’s to another great week at Sylvan!

💙 Every day matters. Every minute matters. Every Blue Jay matters.

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.

💙ALL STUDENTS will receive FREE BREAKFAST and LUNCH!

💙We will start unloading cars and buses at 7:30 am this year.

💙All K-5 students will enter the school via the ramp at the end of the sidewalk for our weapons detection screening.
💙All students will report to the cafeteria for breakfast or wait in the gym until we release students to go to class.
💙Instruction starts at 7:50, and arrival after that is considered tardy, and parents MUST walk students into the building and sign them in.

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.

Please note: Tuesday's menu will consist Chicken Sandwich, Regular or Spicy and Yogurt Snack Packs instead of what is on the menu

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

ENROLLMENT FORM

• Labor Day Holiday: NO SCHOOL!

• Beginning of Grade Reading Test for 3rd Grade
• PTA Meeting 5:30pm in the Media Center

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 EMPATHY!

What is Empathy?

Empathy is the ability to be aware of, understand, and be sensitive to another person’s feelings. Instead of focusing on how these feelings impact ourselves, empathy motivates us to focus on others and respond with care and compassion.

Why Focus on Empathy?

• Empathy builds a positive classroom culture. Empathy empowers students to learn to understand each other to build trust and safety in the classroom.
• Empathy strengthens community. Empathy helps students strengthen their relationships with classmates, other students and adults at school, and at home.
• Empathy prepares your students to be leaders in their community. The best leaders understand the people they lead and are able to show they care

Empathy in Action:.

• Take a different perspective. When you take a different perspective, you put aside your own feelings and reactions to see the situation through another’s eyes.
• Put aside judgment. Take a pause, and rather than express conclusions about a situation based on what you see, step back and consider other things you may still need to know or understand.
• Communicate that you understand. Instead of giving advice, respond with reflective phrases like, “It sounds like you...” or “I hear that you...” to express that you understand and care.

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. 💙

Our first PTA Meeting will be Thursday, September 10th at 5:30 pm in the Media Center. We look forward to seeing you there!