kelly meisenzahl, principal 540 2570 kelly.meisenzahl@lcps ... · 10/17 10-4 fall farm tour...
TRANSCRIPT
We have enjoyed a fabulous start to the new school year! As I take my daily walk throughout the school, I am always pleased to see the happy faces of students who are engaged in learning. Learning is alive at Hamil-ton Elementary! As educators, we are always promoting the habit of be-coming life-long learners. There is a lot of learning going on as teachers are working very attentively to make sure your children are getting the best possible, engaging learning environment here at Hamilton Elemen-tary.
One to the World is a Loudoun County initiative that focuses on significant content and the important competencies of critical thinking, communica-tion, collaboration, creativity, and contribution. Students are engaged in authentic problems and create public products for the world. At Hamilton we have some of our classrooms using the gardening beds for this experi-ence. Mrs. Voce’s class has been measuring the garden beds using pe-rimeter and area skills and analyzing seeds to see how they will need to be planted for optimal growth. The class will be creating QR Codes to be placed in the beds to mark the plants and the students will be creating brochures or posters about the process of the food chain and healthy eat-ing habits, two SOLs taught in third grade. Ultimately, our students are learning that there are needy families in our community. All of the vegeta-bles will be donated to the Tree of Life food pantry in Purcellville where they will be distributed within the community to feed needy families with fresh vegetables. Stay tuned to future articles to find out what other clas-ses are doing to reach beyond the classroom to connect to the world.
We are also helping the Tree of Life Food Pantry by starting our food re-covery program on Monday. Please take some time this weekend to talk to your children about food recovery. We want to make it clear to all stu-dents that first and foremost we want them to eat their lunch, whether it is a school lunch or packed lunch. Secondly, if you want your child to bring home an unopened packaged snack, we want the students to honor your wishes. The food recovery is set up to collect unopened packaged snacks, fresh fruit and unopened dairy items that would otherwise be thrown away. We are able to collect apples, yogurt, cheese sticks, milk cartons and oth-er packaged snacks. They will be picked up once a week and donated to the Tree of Life Food Pantry in Purcellville. This is a wonderful opportunity to teach our children charity. Instead of throwing food away, we can give it to people in the community who need it.
Kelly Meisenzahl
Kelly Meisenzahl, Principal 540-751-2570 [email protected] OCTOBER 2015
Upcoming Dates
10/5 2:30 Family Garden Clean Up
10/8 6:30 PTA Meeting ParentVue
10/12 Columbus Day—No School
10/17 10-4 Fall Farm Tour Carnival
10/29 Wear Orange Perseverance Spirit
10/30 End of 1st 9 weeks
10/30 1:40 Harvest Day Parade in Gym and Class Parties
11/2 No School Teacher Workday
11/3 Election Day and Teacher Workday—No School for kids
11/6 Grade 5 Field Trip to Blandy Farm
11/9-11/13 Book Fair
11/10 6:30 PTA Meeting Reading with your child at home
11/10 Book Fair Family Night
11/11 Report Cards go Home
11/11 Picture Retakes
11/16-11/21 American Education Week
11/20 Panther Spirit Day
11/23 Cosmic Adventures Assembly
11/25-11/27 Thanksgiving Break
12/3 6:30 PTA Meeting
12/4 Wear Red Trustworthy Spirit
12/17 8:30 Reptiles Alive Assembly
12/18 1:45 Winter Sing Along
CONGRATULTIONS:
Congratulations to the Hamilton Ele-mentary staff , stu-dents and parents for receiving the Vir-ginia Board of Edu-cation Distinguished Achievement Award! This is truly a great accomplish-ment and can be at-tributed to the hard work and dedication to instruction.
A school receives the Virginia Board of Education Distin-guished Achieve-ment Award for be-ing fully accredited and for making sig-nificant progress to-ward educational goals.
What happened to the news show?
Hamilton is excited to be joining many other LCPS schools by purchasing the Wirecast software to use with our morning news show, the WHAM show. This new software will allow students to take the controls working in various news production positions: on-camera reporting, producing, directing, graphics creation, etc. We hope to use green screen technology to produce high-quality live newscasts daily, enhancing the show with graphics, audio and other professional touches!
Harvest Day
We will celebrate Harvest Day on Friday,
October 30, 2015 with a parade for grades
1-5 at 1:40 p.m. The morning kindergar-
teners will parade from 9:30-9:45 a.m. with
a class party to follow. Parents are invited
to attend both parades. Teachers and
room parents are working on class parties
and will be sending home information sep-
arately. We are asking students to dress
as a fictional storybook character or nonfic-
tion storybook character or historical figure.
Please be mindful of scary characters, and
any accessory resembling a weapon will not be allowed. If your child has already selected a
costume that doesn’t fit our theme, please remember that there are several community events
during the holiday weekend. Some teachers may request parental assistance. Please check
with your child’s teacher to make sure help is needed. Also, if you have questions in regard
to class parties, feel free to contact your child’s teacher.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR!
Scheduled Field Trips!
November 6th- Grade 5 to Blandy
Experimental Farm
February 11 - Grade 5 to Leesburg
Adult Day Center
April 5th-Grade 5 to Winchester
Medical Center
April 14th-Grade 4 to Harpers Ferry
May 24th - Grade 3 to Rust
Watershed
Stay tuned for more to come . . .
Guidance News- Mrs. Dominique
The Month of October Begins our
Bullying Prevention Program
Dates to Remember:
Thursday- OCTOBER 22nd is: IT’S COOL TO BE KIND SPIR IT
DAY! We invite your children to come to school with messages of kindness decorated on T-shirts. If you have
an old shirt and you want to decorate positive messages with sharpie markers or any other creative ways to
support kindness!
Thursday - OCTOBER 29 – Wear Orange for the CHARACTER TRAIT OF THE MONTH: PERSEVERANCE
We will be reviewing the “Stop,Walk,Talk” in guidance classes. We will review the difference between
CONFLICT and BULLYING.
Stop: Teaches assertiveness skills and tells the perpetrator to stop. If that does not work, we walk. Quiet-
ly... walk away. Walking away removes the reinforcement for problem behavior. We will discuss a variety
of appropriate responses in class, as well as practice/role play. If any of these steps do not work…we talk
and report the problem to an adult. Talking is not tattling and helps a student to find the support they need
in a bully situation. These concepts will be taught for all elementary grade levels. Along with the LCPS bul-
lying prevention program, I will also continue the concept of bucket filling. This concept was inspired by a
book called, “Have You Filled A Bucket Today” By… Carol McCloud. This book is a sweet and simple story
that encourages positive behavior. It teaches kindness and respect on a daily basis. I will use the concepts
from this story throughout the school year and it will be my 2015-2016 guidance theme. Be a Bucket Fill-
er! When you’re a bucket filler, you make your home, your school, and your neighborhood better places.
Congratulations to our RESPECT winners!
Front row: Chloe Winn, Catalina Nemes, Madison Monsalve,
Back row: Abigail Winn, Charlie Robey, Ava Olechna, Carson Rhoads, Sophia Sills
Great Job!
Erez Rozman, Maddie Gammache, Maddie
Cook, Kessem Rozman, Mia Wolf, Mircea
Nemes, Mason Wells, and Sophia Sills all
completed the Summer reading Bingo Challenge.
Viola Vangjeli completed the TenMark Summer
Math Challenge. We enjoyed a pizza lunch and I
loved hearing about all the books they read this
summer.
The Loudoun Symphony flute quartet came to Hamilton Elementary on
Friday October 25th. The name of the program was "The Sound of Histo-ry: the Making of an American Culture". The quartet shared music in-
spired by Native American culture, the Revolutionary War, post-Civil war patriotism, railroad expansion, the 1960's Civil Rights movement, and
Hollywood movies. The program had a little of something for everyone and was enjoyed by all!
During the week of October 19th – 23
rd, LCPS will
recognize National School Bus Safety Week, and we will be designating Wednesday, October 21
st of
that week as the day to sincerely thank all of our School Bus Drivers and Attendants for their
continuous efforts in transporting our students to and from school safely. Please take time to thank
your driver!
Thank you to Mr. Robey (Hank and Charlie’s grandfather) for the BEAUTIFUL Big Book Holder for
our Kindergarten Class!
We are lucky to have his generosi-ty and talent touch the
kindergarten classroom!
Thank you to our WATCH D.O.G.
Dad’s for coming to our WATCH
D.O.G. orientation! The Dad’s
and children enjoyed pizza and
their time together at school. We
are thankful to all of the Dad’s who
will be coming out on Thursdays
to help in the classrooms.
Thank you to the PTA for
sponsoring the sock hop! Many
families came out to enjoy the
soda floats, crafts, hula hoops,
photo station and good times with
friends. Thank you to Miss Aman-
da Estep from LVCC for the
performance and dance lesson.
A good time was had by all!
Thank you to the PTA for hosting family breakfast! It was a great way to start
the rainy day! Thank you to everyone who came out to start their day at
Hamilton Elementary!
Did you know that as of September 1,
2015, 4th graders and their families can
get into our National Parks for FREE?
Details at https://everykidinapark.gov/
Your 4th grade teachers can pirnt a pass
for each of their students. Each pass ad-
mits all children in the family under 16 and
up to three adults for free.
Contact Mrs. Christiansen if you are inter-
ested in a pass.
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!
https://twitter.com/Hamilton_ES
14th Annual Family Stream Day
Sunday, Oct 18th 1-4 PM
Claude Moore Park Historic Area 21544 Old Vestal's Gap Rd, Sterling, VA 20164
571-258-3700
Visit www.loudounwatershedwatch.org and www.loudounnature.org for more information
‘Loudoun Streams Feed Loudoun’s Dreams
Event will be held rain or shine
It’s FUN! It’s FREE! Everyone can participate and learn more about the streams and creeks in Loudoun County and learn about how animals, plants trees depend on healthy streams for food, shelter and sustenance. There will a series of stations with interactive hands-on activities. There will be special gifts for those who get their “passport” stamped. We hope that you will join in for this great family event.