A Piece From The Principal's Puzzle

November

8 - Veterans' Day Breakfast @ 9 am

11 - Veterans' Day (NO SCHOOL)

13 - Progress Reports Sent Home

25 - 29 - Thanksgiving Holidays (NO SCHOOL)

December

2- 13 - ACAP Summative Practice

• i-Ready Mid-Year (MOVED TO JANUARY 2024)

17 - PTA Meeting (Grades K, 1, & 2 performing) at Blossomwood Cafeteria

20 - Holiday Parties & End of Semester

Thanks to everyone that came out and was a part of our PTA Fall Festival 2024! What a great time for families and a HUGE crowd!

Thank you to our PTA, our teachers, community partners, and both Huntsville Jr. High and Huntsville High students that volunteered for the event. Also, special thanks to the Huntsville High School Baseball Program for arriving early to help with setting everything up!

We are blessed to have a supportive community!

Last Friday, we had a wonderful Book Character Parade for grades PreK-2. The children loved dressing up like their favorite book characters! Even our teachers, Mrs. Collier, and Dr. Scott dressed up, too!

Red Ribbon Week highlights the importance of living a drug-free life. During Red Ribbon Week, we will pledge to live a healthy lifestyle.

The main function of the house system is to develop a sense of identity or belonging and to celebrate achievements. Schools with a structure or system like this cite the positive impact it has on the educational experience and school culture. Students report how it helps them form friendships and closer bonds with peers, and teachers share that students seem to enjoy seeing a connection with students in other classrooms as well as other grade levels. As a school, we also believe our new House System supports our school mission statement and vision.

During the first week of school or upon enrollment, all of our students and staff have the opportunity to digitally "spin" the wheel to randomly sort each student into one of four groups or houses — Emerald, Garnet, Onyx, or Sapphire.

Our House System is designed to:

1. Create school-wide community by creating opportunities for students to connect to staff and students in other classes and grades that share their house. Older students become natural leaders by mentoring and supporting younger students. Mentoring also extends to teachers and school staff members who are also assigned to a house.
2. Create a culture of belonging as students are recognized for accomplishments both academically as well as their choices related to behavior.
3. Emphasize building character through a reward system that goes beyond earning a piece of candy for doing something good. Each individual achievement adds to the collective house/group, making the reward hopefully more meaningful and social.
   
4. Provide opportunities to praise and accentuate positives for both individual students and collective groups of students.