Highcroft Hotline

At Highcroft, we help learners grow in a safe, caring community where ALL are valued and supported to become leaders.

September

• 23: Picture Day
• 24: Flu shots, 9:00 am - 11:00 am
• 24: Free & Reduced Meal Applications Due
• 25: Late Start, School begins at 11:05 am
• 25: Hats for Hikers Fundraiser
• 25: Board of Education Meeting, 7:00 pm, 471 N. Woods Mill Road
• 26: Jog Jam
• September 30 - October 4, Parent-Teacher Conferences
• September 30 - October 4, Arctic Adventure Book Fair

October

• 3: Parent-Teacher Conference Night, 4:15 pm - 8:15 pm
• 3 Arctic Adventure Book Fair - evening hours during conferences
• 10: 4th Grade Field Trip to Cahokia Mounds
• 10: All Read, 3:25 pm - 3:45 pm
• 10: PSO Meeting, 7:00 pm
• 18: No School, Professional Development
• 21: No School
• 21 - 25: Red Ribbon Week
• 23: Halloween Safety Presentation
• 23: Board of Education Meeting, 7:00 pm, 471 N. Woods Mill Road
• 24: Pumpkin Run
• 25: Visit your Elementary School
• 30: Late Start, School begins at 11:05 am
• 31: Halloween Parade, 2:15 pm
• 31: Halloween Parties, 2:45 pm

Highcroft's Fall Conference Night is October 3rd, from 4:15-8:15 pm. We utilize an online system to schedule conference meetings. This system, called MyConferenceTime, will allow you to schedule your conference with your student’s teacher without having to send in paper forms.

You will be able to schedule your conference beginning on September 19th at 8:00 am. There are a few easy steps to register for your conference. If you have one child at Highcroft Ridge:

1. Go to www.myconferencetime.com/highcroftridge
2. Click your child’s teacher from the list of teachers.
3. Choose your preferred conference time from the list of available conferences and click “Sign Up” under your preferred time.
4. Fill in all required information and any necessary optional information and click “Sign Up for Your Conference.” Please be assured that all information is submitted securely and will only be used by the school for confirmation purposes. It will not be available to outside sources.
5. You will receive a confirmation email confirming your conference time.

If you have multiple students at Highcroft please click “Register for Multiple Conferences,” then follow the steps to enter the information for each child. You will then be presented the schedules for multiple teachers to compare.

Again, the website will open at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 19th. Please be aware that this system is set up in a way that everyone will have the same priority in scheduling. If you have a need for a specific time, it will be important that you schedule as soon as possible once the window opens to ensure availability of conference times.

If you do not have access to a computer or have difficulty scheduling, please contact Sherry Heyse at sheyse@parkwayschools.net or call at 314-415-6406.

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Highcroft Ridge Elementary School will be offering a flu shot clinic at on Tuesday, September 24, 2019. VNA (Visiting Nurses Association) will be at Highcroft providing flu shots to students and families from 9 AM - 11 AM. We will be providing shots for students ages kindergarten and up as well as for parents and family members.

Please go to https://www.parkwayschools.net/Page/680 for all of the forms and information you will need. If you want your child vaccinated, please complete the form and return to the school nurse by Monday, September 16th, 2019. Parents do not need to be present for their child’s vaccination, however, if you want to attend, please note this on the consent form.

Most insurances are accepted - please provide insurance information. A regular flu shot is $19.00 cash or check payable to VNA if there is no insurance used. VNA accepts these Insurance Plans: Aetna, Anthem - Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Cigna, Coventry, Essence, HealthLink, Humana, Medicare Part B, and UHC. If you do not have insurance, you can still receive a flu shot by paying $19.00.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.

Thank you,

Cathy Hubert, BSN, RN,

School Nurse, Highcroft Ridge

314-415-6410

The Parkway School District is pleased to offer free or reduced breakfast and lunch to students who qualify. There is an annual application that must be completed each year to receive free or reduced meals. For those renewing, the 30 day grace period for reapplying will be at the end of the business day on September 24, 2019. On September 25, 2019, all students who have not reapplied will be placed on Full Paid status.

To apply for free or reduced meals click here.

Ms. Yelton

Phonological awareness is extremely important in helping young children prepare to read. Below is a great article on helping to build phonological awareness in your child. This can and should be used with older students as well. A link to the article is here. Below is a quick recap:

9 Ways to Build Phonological Awareness in Pre-K and Kindergarten

by Kelli Johnson, MA

“One way preschoolers and kindergartners [and some 2nd and 3rd graders] get ready to read is by noticing and playing with the words, rhymes, and syllables they hear in everyday speech. This called phonological awareness.

Kids also start to tune in to the individual sounds or phonemes in words. This is called phonemic awareness. The more you can build on these early “pre-reading” skills, the more prepared your child will be for the challenge of learning to read [and learning to read well].”

1. Listen up. Read to your child. Have your child listen for sounds, syllables, and rhymes in the words they hear.

2. Focus on rhyming. For example, say four short words, like cat, bat, sat, and log. Ask your child to pick out the word that doesn’t rhyme.

3. Follow the beat. Clap, jump, or stomp the syllables in a word.

4. Get into guesswork. Play guessing games by saying, “I spy something blue that starts with /s/.” or “I’m wearing something on my foot that rhymes with new” to work on rhymes.

5. Carry a tune. Sing rhyming songs or rap together to focus on rhymes.

6. Connect the sounds. Say, “What word do these two words make… p ig?

7. Break apart words. Ask your child to say “doorbell,” then to say doorbell without saying door (answer: bell)

8. Get creative with crafts. Make a collage out of magazine pictures that start with the same first letter. Make puppets that only eat things that start with a certain sound.

9. Search Online. There are lots of resources out there. Check them out!

https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/learning-at-home/encouraging-reading-writing/9-ways-to-build-phonological-awareness-in-pre-k-and-kindergarten

Mrs. Stilts