The Wise Owl

"Have You Seen the Owl Today?"

October 29, 2017

Some news, information, and FUN that will be helpful to know as the autumn weather finally comes!

SOME IMPORTANT DATES:

No School (P/T Conferences): Thursday and Friday, November 2 and 3
UES Parents Group: Wednesday, November 8, 6:00-7:00
Scholastic Book Fair! November 8, 9, and 10
Veterans Day Parade! Friday, November 10, mid morning
Family Movie Night! Friday, November 10
Union Playground Project Community Night: NEW DATE: Monday, November 13
Community Thanksgiving Lunch! Wednesday, November 15
No School (Thanksgiving Break): Wednesday, November 22 to Friday November 24

University of Vermont Outstanding Teacher!  Dr. Ricca and I had the pleasure of joining Teacher of English Language Learners Hannah Barden earlier this month at the University of Vermont as teachers from around the state were honored for their teaching excellence! If you know Ms. Barden, you'll understand why so many of her peers nominated her for this honor. I was certainly honored to join her!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Halloween is coming this Tuesday, and it's time to be thinking about how we'll approach this special day as a school community.  As much fun as it would be to celebrate with costumes and parties, we believe that such revelry would be simply too disruptive to the learning environment for an entire day.  We ask that students keep the costumes and candy at home so they can be ready for the fun on Tuesday night.  Please help us maintain a healthy learning environment the following days as well; we ask that all candy remain at home when the children return to school on Wednesday.  If you have any questions or concerns, please call me or stop by.

On a more fun note, many children know that I have a very close friendship with Batman (it's true!), and I know for certain that he'll be spending Halloween night at my house in the meadow neighborhood!  As always, all superheroes who stop by will get two treats!  Have lots of fun and be safe -- we hope to see you all!

Parent/Teacher Conferences ...are scheduled for this Thursday and Friday, November 2 and 3. There will be no school on both days. If you haven't scheduled a conference with your child's teacher yet, now is the time to do so!

SUMMIT SCHOOL SESSION TWO! Summit School's second session begins next week, and goes to mid-December! Check out these terrific offerings for your musically inclined student:

WALKING SCHOOL BUS UPDATE Our apologies for the Walking School Bus being shut down this week! Generally speaking, the bus will go on rain or shine, hot or cold! We needed to have the full faculty here before school last Wednesday to have a group picture taken, thus the need to cancel. Just like Tuesday night, an email to the community will go out the night before to confirm the cancelation. Unless the windchill falls below 0 degrees, the Walking School Bus will go on!

Mrs. LaFleur wanted me to share this great shot of her Capitol Crew:

Clearly a perfect start to the day!

A Few Reminders From the Front Office: Pam and Diana greatly appreciate your cooperation here, and so do I!

* The Start to the Day:The school day begins at 8:15, and our Morning Meetings in classes begin at 8:25. Please do your best to ensure your child is in his or her classroom by 8:25 so they don't miss this essential start to the day! Additionally, children cannot be at school prior to 8:00 - there is no supervision on the playground prior to 8:00, and the doors to the building are locked until 8:00. Teachers will be meeting and preparing for the day every day before 8:15 when the bell rings. Thank you all in advance for helping us with this! We really appreciate it.

* Calling in Absences or Changes in After School Plans: In order to ensure that we know where all students are and where they are going at the end of the school day, we'd like you to be aware of our procedures concerning absences and after school plans:

PLEASE CALL your student in absent before 9:00am to the front office (225-8200)

PLEASE CALL After school changes in before 1:00 pm to the front office (225-8200)

PLEASE DON’T text or e-mail after school changes.

* Sharing Contact Information: In order to protect everyone's privacy, the office cannot share families' contact information (email, phone numbers, addresses, etc.) with other families (for birthday parties, weekend plans, playdates, etc.).

Hennessey's Gems "Gems" and not "Hoots"? See below!

A Hennessey Gem to UES First Graders for...

* ...welcoming Professor Mahesh Sharma when he visited us recently to work with our students in their math classes! Kinders, 2nd and 3rd graders got to visit with Professor Sharma too, and he'll be joining us again in early December. Please let us know if you'd like to come in and join us!

 Professor Sharma with Ms. Closter's 1st Graders

....entertaining all of UES last week with their Annual Bug Parade!

Mrs. Griggs' 1st Graders buzzing through the halls!