February 6, 2020
Dear Falcon Families,
Thanks so much for attending Mindfulness Night! Students enjoyed the therapy dogs, pizza, and healthy food samples and ideas. Thank you to Wesley Allen, our school psychologist who talked with families about ideas to relieve stress by having set routines for their evenings. Remember how important sleep is to your elementary students. Limit electronics and gaming in the evening to ensure there is time to wind down and prepare the brain for sleep. Your child will benefit!
We currently are in a "Be the Change" initiative to end childhood hunger! If you have change you can part with, please send it to our big red bucket in the front office. Any change we collect will go to our Blessings in a Backpack fundraiser that helps feed our children in need on the weekends.
We are so excited for Black History Month! All month long our children are celebrating on the morning announcements to share their Black History projects, poems, reports, and videos! If you'd like to lend your expertise to help us celebrate please let your child's teacher know! One of my favorite civil rights activist to share with the kids is Maya Angelo. Did you know she wrote 36 books? Wow! One of my favorite quotes she shared was," When you do nothing you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes in knowing you are working to make things better." I am proud of our students who work hard each day to be better!
Yours in Education,
Mrs. Seiss
Elementary Magnet Program Application
The Elementary Magnet Program Application season is now upon us! This program is designed for academically gifted students in grades 3 – 5 with superior performance in both language arts and mathematics.
Application information will be available beginning January 24, 2020, and may be obtained online at www.fcps.org/academics/elemmagnetprg . The 2020-2021 Elementary Magnet Program application is for students currently in Grades 2, 3, and 4.
Parents and teachers are encouraged to review information, including some characteristics of gifted students. All information may be found:
via this flyer.
online via https://www.fcps.org/academics/elemmagnetprg.
via information at your school’s front office
If you have questions, please contact the Office of Advanced Academics at 301-696-6891.
School closings or delays due to inclement weather can be found in multiple ways- 1) FCPS will send out a Find Out First with the information as early as possible, 2) you can check on www.FCPS.org, 3) TV and local radio stations. We respectfully request that you use these ways to be informed. The school front office is not informed sooner than Find Out First and at times struggles handling the volume of calls with weather questions. Thank you for your help!
Blessings in a Backpack is looking for Volunteers here at NFES to help pack weekend food for our kids. We pack on Thursday mornings beginning at 8:30am in our Cafeteria. Please use the Sign Up Genius below so that we know we are covered. We pack for 340 of our students! Sign Up Genius
Looking Ahead
*Dates and times are subject to change.
Keeping You Informed
Attendance
Good attendance leads to success and boosts graduation. Our school goal is 96%.
2019 - 95.7% Our Attendance Year to Date is 95.7%. Our goal is 96%.
Please help us meet our goal by sending your child to school and on time.
Help us keep our attendance percentage above 96% this year!
From the Front Office:
- We require all transportation changes, both daily and permanent to be provided in writing via a note or email for safety reasons. Emails can be sent to Jennifer.mathers@fcps.org. We appreciate transportation changes to be submitted by 2pm if possible.
- Morning Car rider line- If possible, please help us by having your child able to exit out of the car on the curb side to keep everyone safe and help to keep our line moving efficiently. Thank you!
- The front office is closed from 2:30-3pm every day to allow the front office to dismiss all children in a safe and timely fashion.
- Please remember to bring a government issued photo ID when visiting the school and/or signing students out of the school.
Thank you for being so understanding and helping NFES keep our students safe.
PATHS®
Daily PATHS® lessons continue in all classes each week. We encourage you to think about ways you can reinforce these skills and concepts at home.
Do your children ever have difficulty calming down? You can use the steps in the control signals poster as a way to help your child get control of their behavior.
Using the same steps at home that students are learning for problem solving at school will help your child remember and follow these steps more often when they have a problem. Helping your child solve their own problems builds self esteem!
Students are learning how to "do the turtle" as part of PATHS lessons. This includes using a body movement which mirrors that of a turtle going into its shell (hands on head and tucking your chin towards your chest). As students move into the turtle position they work through the steps on the poster shown above. This process promotes their ability to identify their emotions and self-regulate their response to something that has happened. This is first step in the problem-solving process.
Students are learning to use a stoplight approach to problem solving. Stopping to recognize the problem and how they feel about it (part of doing the turtle) is the first step. Then students begin to think of ways to solve a problem and what might work best. Finally, students select the best solution to the problem and then evaluate how it worked. Teachers are supporting students in using control signals during times problems arise individually and as a class.
Students use feeling faces cards to identify comfortable or uncomfortable feelings they may have during the day. Recognizing emotions is an important step in communicating how you feel and what you need when problems arise.
Movie Night coming February 21
MET Play March 6 and 7, 7pm
Scholastic Book Fair March 17-20
NFES Fashion Show April 4
Spring Carnival May 29
Did You Know...?
You can put money on your child's lunch account online! - If you would like to update your child's lunch account, please visit: http://www.myschoolbucks.com.
BUS DELAY INFORMATION
FCPS has a Transportation Delay Board that you can access easily when you wonder why your child's bus hasn't arrived yet.
Bus Delay will let you know!
This can also be found on the FCPS.org website under "Our Schools" tab. The Bus Delay link is on the right side under "Quick Links". It updates often, so keep checking. This is faster than calling your child's school!
Keep scrolling down for News from our School Counselor and School Social Worker
PTA News-
Congratulations to Ms. Spevak’s class for turning in the most Box Tops! They will be treated to a lunch-time Pizza Party!
Coming soon!
Friday, February 21
Sign up for Concession Donations
Be on the look-out for our Hershey Park ticket fundraiser
coming home in next week’s Thursday Folder!
Tickets on sale Feb. 12th - March 13th.
Save the Date!
Spring Book Fair coming Tuesday, March 17-Friday, March 20
Sign up to Volunteer HERE
Great News!!! We have an online store for you to shop and the school earns 25% of all sales! Please visit the online store by clicking HERE The online book fair is available March 11th-24th
Please “like” our PTA Facebook Page to keep up to date on all events!! Click the link above, or search“North Frederick Elementary School PTA”
BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION Do you know that NFES earns $.10 for every clipped box top? Thanks for remembering to clip, save and send them in with your student. We are still collecting Box Tops, so keep them coming! Learn More
Counselor's Corner-