
Como Park Elementary
October 2023
A Note from Principal Ewald
Como Park Elementary Families-
Strong relationships with families is essential to our success at Como. We have been offering monthly family meetings virtually so it easier for more families to attend. We would love to hear what topics you are interested in learning more about during our meetings. Please click on the following survey to help us plan our future meetings.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Jennifer Ewald, Principal
651-744-6055
A Note from AP Patel
We have had a wonderful month engaging with students through SOAR tickets. Students showing SOAR behavior in classrooms and on the school bus! Bus drivers have been actively engaging and passing our red SOAR tickets to students on the bus. This Tuesday, October 31, during our October Assembly, students will receive prizes for their positive bus behavior. Our school bus with the least bus referrals will receive popcorn as a treat at the end of the week!
Thank you to our bus drivers and families for promoting SOAR behavior on the bus!
Ms. Patel
iPads
Students started to leave their iPads at school so that they can be used for learning during the day. Please return chargers to school.
S.O.A.R
Como SOAR tickets!
At Como Park Elementary we are using SOAR tickets to recognize students when they are Safe, On task, are Respectful or Responsible. These tickets are handed out throughout the school day by Como Staff and recognize students as they accomplish work, help others, or show any of our SOAR behaviors. These tickets are collected in the classrooms during each month. At the end of the month, the tickets are combined by grade level, counted and the data is recorded by our fifth graders on a spreadsheet. We total all the tickets earned in the month for the whole school so we can monitor how students are progressing towards our SOAR expectations. Once counted, student SOAR tickets are dumped into a big bin. We select 3-5 student names from that bin at the monthly assembly and those students receive a prize. We share our new SOAR ticket number count at our monthly assembly and set a new monthly SOAR ticket goal for the next month. Families, make sure you ask your student how many SOAR tickets they have been receiving. If you find any of the SOAR tickets in their backpack or pockets, please encourage your student to turn them in at school so each ticket is counted, and your student is eligible to win a prize.
Upcoming Events
Conferences
- Thursday November 9 from (3-7pm)
- Friday November 10 from (8am-12pm)
- Tuesday November 14 from (3-7pm)
- Option for Virtual or in-person
PICTURE RETAKE DAY
Picture Retake Day will be on November 28, 2023. If you want to order pictures, you can go to mylifetouch.com and put in the Picture Day ID: EVTKX2DCT
Student Pick Up
Our new student pick up system is going very smoothly! If you regularly pick up your child from school, please remember:
- You must have your number with you.
- If you do not have your number, we will ask you to go to the office to show ID. This is for the safety of our students.
- If you need another number, please let someone at pick up know so we can get one made for you.
- If you walk up to get your student, the line now forms on the sidewalk. Please do not stand in front of the door in the parking lot.
- Please pick your student up before 2:10. After 2:10, students will be waiting in the office to be picked up.
Visitors
After 7:45 am, all visitors are required to sign in at the front office and wear a visitor badge while in the building. When you leave, we ask you stop by to drop off the badge and sign out. Staff will bring visitors back to the main office to get a badge if we do not see you wearing one. This is for the safety and security of everyone at Como Elementary.
Since our teachers are teaching all day, please arrange a time to talk or meet with your child's teacher or visit the classroom.
EXCITING THINGS ARE HAPPENING IN OUR CLASSROOMS
Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE)
In ECSE we have just started our new Area of Study “Exploring Change In World.” Some of the guiding questions for our first weeks include: How are you growing and changing? What is something new you can do? How do you feel when things change? How can feelings change? We will continue to explore changes in ourselves and changes in nature throughout this Area of Study.
PreK
This month we began our new unit, “Exploring Change in Our World.” We learned about the changes that are happening outside. We went on a fall walk and noticed all of the changes happening - such as leaves changing colors, squirrels busy looking for food, the weather getting colder, and people wearing warmer clothes.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten students went on a nature walk to collect objects that are showing signs of change with the seasons. Students found leaves, seeds, sticks, flowers, etc. We will be using these objects to study and write about in the classroom.
First Grade
Using our new HMH Math curriculum, students have been learning various strategies for addition and subtraction. Here, students are using ten frames and cubes to solve subtraction word problems.
Second Grade
Second Graders have been working hard during math! They have been learning about place value and using base-10 blocks to build and understand 3 digit numbers. Students are building numbers and breaking them apart to understand larger numbers. This week we had our first after school playground meet up! Second graders were invited to return to the playground with their family after school to play on the playground and socialize with friends. . Students had fun playing on the merry-go-round!
Third Grade
This month in third grade we have been working hard! In writing, we completed a small moment story. We learned how to stretch our writing out to make it more descriptive and interesting. In math, we have been working with numbers up to one million - rounding, estimating, and exploring place value. In reading we have started observing the similarities and differences between nonfiction books and writing book recommendation letters.
Fourth Grade
4th grade took a field trip to the Mississippi River to learn from National Park Rangers. The students got to learn about orienteering, shelter building, and fire safety while connecting to Native American traditions.
Fifth Grade
We have been very busy this past month. We had our first field trip called Bdote. We learned about the Dakota and Ojibwe indigenous people that live in our area. We studied three important sites to those first nations; Mounds Park, Wakan Tipi and the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers – Bdote. We had a beautiful day to explore the areas and imagine what it would have been like hundreds of years ago.
We continue to grow as readers, writers, and mathematicians. In reading we continue to build our vocabulary and improve our reading stamina. We are writing about our reading by creating reading responses which have a summary and opinion about the book we are reading. We have been working on learning how to divide 4 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers, for example 5,748 / 32. We have also been learning on how to interpret any remainders left over.
Our fifth-grade percussion group is practicing under the direction of Mr. Jaap. We continue to do our part around the building and help by taking out the recycling, counting all the SOAR tickets for the school and be role models for other students in the building.
Science
Third Graders designed and built carnival-type activities to model the forces of push and pull in their science unit “The Ultimate Playground.”
Counselor's Corner - Ms. Lee
Hello Families… We are getting to the end of 1st quarter already. I can’t believe it! I have enjoyed continuing relationships with students and families that have been here at Como, as well as meeting all the new families and students.
Our October cardinal character word of the month was Respect. It was also National Anti-bullying Month. We celebrated Unity Day by wearing orange. We were visited by superheroes called bully busters (ask your child if they saw one around the school). Many kids have had the chance to dress up and become bully busters themselves. It is a fun way to remember to stand up for others in a respectful way and discuss all the ways to show kindness to others by making Como a safe and welcoming place for all students. The first unit of counselor lessons centered around the importance of learning and trying new things. We discussed growing our brains and accepting/celebrating differences through lessons on identity and culture. We spent time on strategies for emotional regulation utilizing the Zones of Regulation. During 2nd quarter, this work will be continued through the bully prevention unit that I will be presenting in classrooms. November’s cardinal character word is trustworthy.
As always, if you have any questions/concerns or need any resources, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Ms Stephanie Lee
School Counselor
651-744-3600
From Nurse Morgan
The best way to protect yourself and your loved ones against influenza (flu), COVID-19 and RSV is to get vaccines as recommended. The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older receives a flu vaccine every fall, an updated 2023-24 COVID booster, and the RSV vaccine if recommended by a medical provider.
https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/whats-new/immunization-overview-2023-2024.html
Local clinics, CVS stores, Walgreens stores, pharmacies and certain SPPS school events offer the seasonal flu vaccine. Here is a link to the SPPS resource page: https://www.spps.org/studentwellness
Technology Tips from Ms. McConley
How Do I Protect My Young Child from Cyberbullying?
October was Anti-Bullying month. As we end the month, please help keep students aware and safe.
Once young kids can communicate with others on their devices, a range of new social opportunities open up for them online. If your kids are texting their friends or using social features on apps or games, they could be exposed to name-calling, teasing, or cyberbullying. And you can help them by explaining the basics of kind, responsible, and safe online behavior.
Here are some ways to protect your child from cyberbullying:
Have clear rules about interacting online.
Talk about which private information should not be shared. This includes full name, date of birth, gender, home address, school name, and family members' names.
Set limits and supervise online activities closely, while still supporting your child as they become more independent.
Choose high-quality, age-appropriate entertainment. At their age, it isn't appropriate to watch anything that models negative behavior without lessons or consequences. Encourage your kids to respect different experiences and identities by watching and playing diverse movies, shows, games, and apps.
You can also help them learn how to recognize and respond to cyberbullying:
Explain to your kids what cyberbullying is. It's repeated and unwanted mean or hurtful words or behavior that happens online.
Practice respectful communication and boundaries (like "don't be mean to others"). Also teach them to be kind and compassionate. These skills will come in handy both on- and offline.
Let them know that supporting a friend who is being bullied can make a big difference.
If they think they're being bullied, your kids should follow the steps of STOP:
STOP using the device.
TELL an adult who you trust what happened.
Get the OK from an adult before going back on the app or website where the bullying happened.
PAUSE to think about how you feel. After talking to an adult, would it be helpful to talk to the person who was being mean?
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/articles/how-do-i-protect-my-young-child-from-cyberbullying
U of M - Lime Project
This year Como Park is lucky to collaborate with the University of Minnesota to focus on student mental health through a federally funded grant. We have four school psychology graduate students working with us under the supervision of Wendy Lyman-Buttler School Psychologist. They will be on site on various days and times. From the students, “As school psychology practicum students, we are able to serve the school in multiple ways. Areas that we can provide support for GenEd include collaboration with teachers to provide consultation about universal classwide strategies to improve student outcomes. We will participate in SST and SAT processes to assist with individual student problem solving, and can engage in academic and social-emotional-behavioral interventions with students. We will also be assisting special education services and eligibility evaluations.”
SPPS Family Budget Engagement Opportunity
Please click on the SPPS Family Survey and scan the QR code to take a survey to help SPPS make budget decisions for next year.
Seesaw
For families with students in PreK-3rd grade, you will notice that Seesaw has a new icon.
Resources
Family Centers are site-based offices for Neighborhood House located at:
- Bruce Vento Elementary (East Side: 409 Case Ave E, St Paul, MN 55130)
- Dayton’s Bluff Elementary (East Side: 262 Bates Ave, St Paul, MN 55106)
- John A. Johnson Elementary (East Side: 740 York Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55106)
- St. Paul Music Academy (North End: 27 Geranium Ave. East, Saint Paul, MN 55117)
- The Wellstone Center (West St Paul)
- Highland / Sibley Manor (West 7th)
Neighborhood House is “a full-service hub for those seeking assistance with basic needs, from food to housing, as well as helping create future opportunities through family coaching and education programming.”
To contact Family Center for all services
- Visit a Family Center in person
- Contact Neighborhood House Service Connect: 651-789-3602
Family Center services/resources available include
- Diapers
- Clothes
- Food
- Housing
- County service navigation
- Internet connectivity
- Bridging/My Very Own Bed
- PSOP (Parent Support Outreach Program)
- Referral for all other Neighborhood House services (youth programming, Latino Leadership, parent and early childhood education, adult education…)
Eligibility
- Family Center is open to all – students/families in their home-base schools AND families from the community
- For most direct needs (food, clothing, diapers…), Family Center collects very little information – mainly only recording data to account for resources in and out (not family information)
- Other longer-term services and some of those offered through government funding do call for additional family information; Family Center staff will help families work through these questions to see if the services are a good fit
EDL
Looking for a few interested 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders who would like to stay after school until 3:45 and have transportation (Monday / Wednesday) to complete a bit of homework but enjoy learning about movies and how to use their iPad and all that it can do to make a quick movie. Please call the school for more information.
SPPS Family Engagement Opportunities
Quick Links
ENGLISH
Prefer a language other than English? You can open the newsletter link and click a button on the right (on a computer) or at the bottom (on a mobile device) to have it translated into many different languages. Please know that the translation function may be inaccurate or incomplete. If you have any questions, please call us at 651-293-8820.
KAREN
ကျိာ်ဂုၤဂၤတခါလၢနအဲၣ်ဒိးအီၤ လၢအတမ့ၢ် အဲကလံးကျိာ်န့ၣ်အိၣ်ဧါ. နအိးထီၣ်ကွၢ်လံာ်တၢ်ကစီၣ်ပှာ်ဘျးစဲ ဒီးစံၢ်လီၤဖဲ ပှာ်ဘျးစဲအဖီခိၣ်ဖဲစုထွဲတကပၤ(လၢခီၣ်ဖၠူထၢၣ်ဖီခိၣ်) မ့တမ့ၢ် စံၢ်လီၤဖဲတၢ်ဖီလာ် (လၢနလီတဲစိ ဖီခိၣ်) ဒ်သိး တၢ်ကကွဲးကျိာ်ထံအီၤလၢကျိာ်အဂုၤအဂၤအဂီၢ်သ့ဝဲဒၣ်န့ၣ်လီၤ. ဝံသးစူၤသ့ၣ်ညါလၢ လံာ်လၢ တၢ်ကွဲးကျိာ်ထံအီၤန့ၣ် ကအိၣ်ဝဲဒီး တၢ်အကမၣ် မ့တမ့ၢ် တၢ်တလၢတပှဲၤသ့ဝဲဒၣ်န့ၣ်လီၤ. နမ့ၢ်အိၣ်ဒီး တၢ်သံကွၢ်တဖၣ်န့ၣ်, ဝံသးစူၤကိးပှၤဖဲ 651-293-8820 န့ၣ်တက့ၢ်.
SOMALI
Ma waxaad doorbideysaa luuqad aan aheyn af-Ingiriis? Waxaad furi kartaa lifaaqa wargeysyada oo guji batoonka midigta (ee kumbiyuutarkaaga) ama xagga hoose (ee taleefankaaga gacanta) si aad wargeyska ugu tarjuntid luuqado badan oo kala duwan. Fadlan ogow in natiijada turjumaaddu ay noqon karto mid aan sax ahayn ama aan dhammaystirnayn. Haddii aad wax su'aalo ah qabtid, fadlan naga soo wac 651-293-8820.
HMONG
Puas xav tau ua lwm hom lus? Nej qhib txoj kab mus rau hauv daim ntawv xov xwm thiab nias lub pob ntawm sab xis hauv lub koos pis tawj, los sis yog lwm hom twj no ces nyob hauv qab, ces yuav muaj txhais ua ntau hom lus. Nco ntsoov tias cov lus txhais no yuav tsis raug txhua lo los sis txhais tiav tiav. Yog nej muaj lus nug, thov hu rau peb ntawm 651-293-8820.
SPANISH
¿Prefiere un idioma que no sea inglés? Puede abrir el enlace del boletín y hacer clic en el botón a la derecha (en una computadora) o en la parte inferior (en un dispositivo móvil) para traducirlo a muchos idiomas diferentes. Tenga en cuenta que la función de traducción puede ser inexacta o incompleta. Si tiene alguna pregunta, llámenos al 651-293-8820.
Como Park Elementary School
Website: https://www.spps.org/comoel
Location: 780 West Wheelock Parkway, Saint Paul, MN, USA
Phone: 651-293-8820
Twitter: @ComoElementary
Translations of required school-related communications can be made available upon request. Our school can also provide translators. Please contact the office or your student’s teacher if you are in need of these services.