Patrick Henry Post

As we turn the corner from Winter to Spring, we are excited to see flowers blooming and trees blossoming with new life. The rainy weeks will continue to nourish our plant growth and bring in beautiful new growth. Like our natural surroundings, we as people feel that wonderful sense of relief and hope with a new season. As we enter our final quarter of the school year, we turn our attention to our state assessment, the MAP test, and our last two months of academic achievement. We will continue to push our students to grow as much as they can in our final eight weeks together, and we will cheer them on all along the way. We hope you join us in our quest for learning and growth in every single student here at Patrick Henry!

Laila Al Salem, second grader in Ms. Jackson's class, encourages students all across the district to prepare themselves for the MAP test by getting a good night's rest, coming prepared to school, and doing their best on the test! Laila's promo video can be accessed at the three links below:

• https://www.facebook.com/stlpublicschools/videos/2154788028022768/
  
• https://www.instagram.com/tv/CcGasLilpYa/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
  
• https://twitter.com/SLPS_INFO/status/1512498107883347969?s=20&t=wa_foNT8Lw6TFnduc_4RUw
  

This week, Detective Hayes brought a team of police officers for a tutorial on gun safety with all of our students. We had three sessions - one for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade, one for second and third grade, and one for fourth and fifth grade. Each presentation was geared towards the age level of the students present, but contained similar tips:

• If you see a gun, do not touch it!
• If you see a gun, tell an adult
• If a gun is left out where people can touch it, it is not a safe place
• Call 911 if you see a gun or hear gunshots or feel unsafe
• Tell your parents that they can get a free gun lock from the St. Louis Police Department at any time, free of charge

Thank you to Detective Hayes and her team for coming to Patrick Henry to keep us safe and informed! Thank you to all of our students for being such good listeners and asking excellent questions!

Every month, we recognize our students who are here 90% or higher. Each student receives a special Patrick Henry Attendance Star bracelet, and every student with 100% attendance for the month gets to take a dive in the treasure bin! We are so proud of our families who have hit this goal!

Students with 100% Attendance for March

• Janiya Jamison
• Lynette Browder
• Aiden Perkins
• Rayshaun Shaw
• Zurrell Harris
• Phlaysia Robinson
• Deon Sanders
• Anthony Chatman
• Nova Young
• Kaje Bonner
• Kaidyn McCoy
• Zar'mon Wilson
• Josiah Carter
• Shaq Bonner
• Jayden White
• Emmori Williams
• Cherish Brumfield
• Terriona Brumfield

Jayla Rivers and Jaleah Andre were honored at the St. Louis Symphony this week after they won an art contest in Ms. Godfrey's class. All of our students entered the Symphony's "Picture the Music" competition along with 11,000 students from all over the St. Louis region. Jaleah and Jayla were selected in the top 100 students for their excellence in artistic expression! Jayla also won a special honor as one of the top 25 students, earning her a medal during the ceremony! Patrick Henry and St. Louis Public Schools could not be more proud of these two brilliant young artists, and we were so thrilled to celebrate them!

Several times this week, students were "caught" reading books together, reading books alone, reading books with their teachers, reading books with their beloved Reading Specialist...there was so much READING it was hard to find a place where kids were not falling in love with books somewhere in this building! We love every minute of a child enjoying a book in a comfy place, and we are so proud of our students' interest in stories of all kinds!

We also received a delivery of brand new books for our classroom libraries and we cannot wait to see how our teachers put them to good use with their students!

As we enter Spring, we are finally able to get back into our beautiful school garden to begin the weeding and planting process! Several classes got outside this week to make sure our garden was in the right shape for planting. We are excited to announce our first ever Garden Party for students on May 18th during the school day, following by our first ever Garden Party for Families on May 18th after dismissal! We will harvest our crops, create some recipes that use our fresh produce, and of course, taste our fruits and veggies! During the family event, we invite parents and guardians to join us in the garden to hear about our Parent Support Group that launches in Fall, 2022. We will meet at 3:15pm and refreshments will be provided!

Spire has been an important community partner to Patrick Henry for years. Spire began the partnership by bringing backpacks for every student in the school that were filled with supplies to start the school year off with a positive and practical approach. That event turned into an ongoing relationship between Patrick Henry and Spire, and our latest project was unveiled this week: The Spire Parent Resource Market at Patrick Henry. This room is a converted classroom that will now serve as a multipurpose room. First, it will be a market place with resources for families in transitional housing. This might mean a packet of food, hygienic supplies, or paper products - anything a family in crisis might need to make sure they are safe and healthy as they work through a difficult time. Second, the room will provide the space for parents and families to utilize school resources like the computer center, printer station, and scanner. Third, this space will be used by staff for Professional Learning Community meetings and by families for parent meetings. We thank all of our partners who have made this space a reality. It truly serves a need in our community and school.

A special thank you goes out to the Patrick Henry staff for making this event and room possible. A few specific thank you notes:

• The Patrick Henry Leadership Team put forth an immense effort of physical labor to convert this space in just a few days time. This was not an easy endeavor, but it was done out of love and service to our families. Ms. Webb, Ms. Harris, Ms. Gregory, Ms. Jones, and Ms. Smith are incredibly strong women who used their power for good this week!
• The Patrick Henry substitute team took over just about every lunch duty, classroom duty, office duty, and door duty that we have so that everyone could help prepare this room in time for the ribbon cutting. They also helped with the physical set up of the room and covered classes during the ceremony!
• The Patrick Henry teachers ensured this event was possible by doing what they do best: working with their students, ensuring a quiet day during the ribbon cutting ceremony, and focusing on academics with their children!
• The Patrick Henry office staff, the support team, and those teachers without a classroom made sure our school was looking its absolute finest while the news crews were in the building and the visitors were around. Our school is always so beautifully kept, but it is always special to make your home shine when company comes over to visit, and our staff stepped up as usual!

The team at Patrick Henry has been busy between Spring Break, school events, and staff camaraderie events over the past several weeks! Ms. Teska added two new puppies to her life, Ms. Jackson went to a fabulous blues festival at Stifel Theatre, Dr. Rogers visited South America to go hiking in Patagonia, Chile, Ms. Willard went to Opening Day of the Cardinals 2022 baseball season, and the staff went to a St. Louis Blues game and saw them beat the Arizona Coyotes with an incredible game full of exciting goals!