Greetings Hereford Families,

Welcome back to our final 4th 9 weeks of school! We have a lot going on these last 9 weeks! We will start with ACAP Assessments for our 2nd through 6th Grade Scholars. Testing will begin on March 26th and we will begin testing each day at 8:30 a.m. It is important to arrive on time.

Parents, letters will come home this week for scholars who are invited to summer school. Be on the lookout for letters to arrive on Tuesday, March 19th for Kindergarten through 5th Grade participants. Letters are due on April 5.

Best regards,

Principal Williams

• March 20 - Parent Focus Meeting ( 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.)

• March 22 - ACAP Pep Rally

• March 28 - Parent Advisory Committee Meeting (1 p.m.)

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Easing back after the holidays can range from feeling really excited and eager to concern, fear or anxiety. Getting butterflies or general worry about going back to school is common. Not thinking about school until it is time to go back is one way to enjoy the last few days of a break. But for some, this can make going back to school more difficult.

1. Set up a back-to-school routine

Create structure about going back with a school routine. Be guided by your knowledge and history of what best supports your child during times of change and transition.

Set up a practical chart of getting ready. You could include:

• what needs to be done each day for school like getting up, eating breakfast, dressing

• what help does your child need from you to get ready?

• what they can do on their own? (Establish these together).

The first week back can cause disruption from being in break mode so don’t forget healthy habits around sleep (around 9-11 hours for children aged 5-13 and 8-10 hours for those aged 14-17), exercise (around one hour per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity three times a week) and diet.

2. Talk about going back to school

Most children deal with some level of stress or anxiety about school. They have insight into their school experiences, so find out what worries them by asking directly.

You can offer support by normalizing experiences of worry and nerves. Reassure your child the feelings they have are common and they will likely overcome them once they have settled in. Worries and courage can exist together.

3. Help create a sense of school belonging

A sense of belonging at school can affect academic success and student well-being. Parents can facilitate positive attitudes about school by setting an encouraging tone when talking about it.

Have a great week!

Kelli Eaton

The 100 Black Men of Greater Huntsville Inc., The Greater Huntsville (AL) Chapter of The Links Inc., National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Professionals North Alabama Chapter, and National Coalition of 100 Black Women (Huntsville) present the 2024 STEAMposium on April 6, 2024, at Calhoun Community College (CCC). The theme this year is “E-STEAM” Empowering Youth through Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. This event will serve as a platform to educate and expose students to the various opportunities within the STEAM career fields.

This is a free event and provides hands on workshops in Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Robotics, Rocketry, Drones, Forensic Science, Medicine, and Art. This is also an opportunity for participants to have one-on-one interactions with leading experts in the various fields. A free T-shirts will be given to those that preregister before March 13, 2024.

I would like you to disseminate this information to the leadership of your school and coordinate the submitting of this information to the parents of your students. I believe this will be a great STEM engagement opportunity for the students.

Registration Link: https://form.jotform.com/240438352263150

Hello, Hereford Families!

Do you remember your favorite book from childhood? What do you remember about that story? Maybe you remember a fascinating character, or the sense of accomplishment of being able to read a story on your own, or maybe you remember being read to by a loved one. As caregivers, we have the biggest influence on whether our children see themselves as readers and develop a love of books. We set the stage for their success or difficulty with learning to read. Here is a video from the Institute for Reading Development with some great suggestions on growing readers and helping our children love books.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jZsl2MBv2E

Very respectfully,

Mrs. Tomes

Greetings Hereford Elementary School Families,

Welcome back! I hope you had a restful Spring break. We are beginning the 4th and final 9 weeks of the school year! This year has gone by quickly. There is still so much to do! We will begin ACAP testing next week. Attendance is extremely important during testing time. Let’s make sure students are at school and ready for this assessment every day! Below are a few ways to help your scholar get ready for the assessment.

-Get a good night’s rest.

-Arrive at school on time each day. Teachers will begin gathering testing materials just after breakfast.

-Stay positive! The test may seem hard but remind your child that he/she can do hard things!

Until next week, remember, math is not a spectator sport. The only way to learn math is to do math!

April M. Draine

Curriculum Specialist

Math Talk: Measurement at Home

Young children compare and measure things all the time, and in natural and normal ways. These early understandings of measurement are foundational for children’s later math learning in school. Here are ways parents can use daily talk and playful activities to support children’s developing understanding of measurement.

What is Measurement?

Anytime we use a process to find out the size, length, or amount of something, we are measuring. That can mean we put an object on a scale to determine its weight in pounds or use a ruler to measure an object’s length in inches. It can also mean counting the total number of items in a set, or using pennies to decide whether a stick is ten pennies long. Kids start comparing incredibly young, and they do not need to know about formal units, like pounds and inches, to do it.

Supporting Your Child’s Early Measurement Skills:

You can support your young child’s early measurement skills by helping make connections between approximation, comparison, counting, and measurement. Here is a tip to use at home.

Approximation and Comparison

• All children are naturally curious about their environment and are constantly comparing things, even before they have the words to describe what they are comparing. You can help your child by using comparison words like bigger, smaller, longer, and taller. For example, my shoes are bigger than your shoes!
• As your child starts to use comparison words, you can have conversations about what these comparisons mean and expand on them. For example, when your child says that your shoes are bigger than hers, you could expand by talking about the opposite relation—That is right! That means your shoes are smaller than mine. —or by being more specific—That is right! My shoes are longer and wider than yours!

Have fun measuring at home!

Families,

This week brings the official start of Spring! During the month we will also continue to celebrate Women's History Month and learn about the many contributions of some amazing women. Click the link to enjoy "Women Are History Makers".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUnVhzKsbj0

Also included is a link to the book Counting on Katherine read aloud. It is about Katherine Johnson, the scientist played by Taraji P. Henson in the movie Hidden Figures. The story takes us through her childhood, and how her love for math and science was an important part of who she was as a little girl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFIqDDBfQh8

Mrs. Hereford

Greetings Hereford Family,

I’m Mandisa Thornton and I’m glad to have started working with you as School Attendance Officer. If you hear from me, know that I’m working with you, not against you. My mission, and all of our mission, is to make our students as successful as possible. Did you know that attendance is one of the biggest factors in academic success? We are so proud of Sonnie Hereford’s amazing progress as a school and our increase in attendance. We could never have done it without all your efforts as families. We are looking forward to finishing the year strong. Each day and every moment of the day prepares students for their future. Let’s do our best to get kids to school on time every day. Let’s ace attendance and ace life!

Mandisa Thornton

School Attendance Officer

For some parents, being involved means dropping off or picking up their child from school or asking whether their homework’s complete. This isn’t to say those things are negative or unhelpful.

But the American Psychology Association calls for something more — a shared responsibility: “Parents and school staff working together to support and improve the learning, development and health of children and adolescents.”

In the context of children’s education, parental involvement is a broad term that can take many forms both inside and outside of school. So, what role do parents play in education?

Depending on schedules, parents can help their children by participating in school functions or obligations, advocating for the school, and improving their children’s schoolwork.

Examples of getting involved at home include:

• Helping with homework
• Modeling desired behavior
• Providing ongoing encouragement
• Monitoring homework completion
• Creating a time and space for study

Parents can be more involved in their child's school by:

• Communicating with teachers
• Volunteering for school activities
• Attending parent-teacher conferences

Are there any topics you would like to see a Parent Focus Meeting on? Please feel free to give me suggestions/feedback at ann.elkins@hsv-k12.org.

Thank you!

Ann Elkins

Hello Parents,

I certainly hope that your scholars had a wonderful Spring Break. As we prepare for the new school week, please make sure that your child has a good night's rest and is prepared and ready for school with their laptops all charged up and ready to go. Looking forward to seeing your scholar back real soon.

This week’s lesson in help your students learn and understand the word “Compassion”. Compassion is using our words and actions to display kindness to others. Compassion is showing others that we care about them. Compassion is caring in action. A compassionate person is the opposite of a bully. There is value in every person, and every person deserves to be treated with compassion. It only takes one person with a compassionate heart to show someone that they care.

Women’s Her-Story Nugget: Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. Jemison joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1987 and was selected to serve for the STS-47 mission, during which the Endeavour orbited the Earth for nearly eight days on September 12–20, 1992. Born in Alabama and raised in Chicago, Jemison graduated from Stanford University with degrees in chemical engineering as well as African and African-American studies. She then earned her medical degree from Cornell University. Jemison was a doctor for the Peace Corps in Liberia and Sierra Leone from 1983 until 1985 and worked as a general practitioner. In pursuit of becoming an astronaut, she applied to NASA.

Have a great week!

J. Jewel Thorne

School Guidance Counselor

Sonnie Hereford Elementary School

• Supervision of students begin at 7:30 each morning; therefore, students should not arrive to school before 7:30 AM.

• Students who are walkers are to follow the sidewalk leading to the crossing guard and to the front door of the school.

• Students who are walkers should not walk across the Pre-K parking lot without being supervised by parent/guardian.

• Parents who enter Pre-K parking lot (yellow arrows) to drop off Kinder-6th grade students must park and escort student(s) to front of school.

• Parents who enter faculty and staff parking lot (blue arrows) to drop off Kinder-6th grade students must park and escort student(s) to crosswalk.

• School starts promptly at 8:00 AM.

• Students arriving after 8:00 AM are tardy and must have a parent or a guardian sign them in at the main office.

Student check-out ends at 1:45-must have valid identification and listed as a contact in

PowerSchool SIS.

• All students will be dismissed at 2:30.

• Students are either a bus rider, car rider or walker.

• Parents are asked not to congregate near the front door of the school or the pick-up area. You

will be asked to clear the dismissal area- please do so.

• Parents of walkers are asked to meet your children at home or at the crosswalk.

• Parents of car riders are asked to remain in your vehicle in the car line during pick-up.

• Pre-K parking lot (yellow arrows) is reserved only for Pre-K families with Parking Permit displayed.

• WALKERS- in the event of rain, parents are asked to provide child/ren with rain gear or send a written/typed note to teacher to change dismissal to car rider for that day by 1:30 pm.