Hamline Family Newsletter

Hamline Families,

I am excited to let you know that we just installed a Free Little Library outside of Hamline on the Englewood side of the building. Some of you may have seen these little library houses around your neighborhoods. The idea is to take a book and when you have a book, give a book. This little library is called "Read in Color" and will be supplied with books that support and promote inclusivity for all. The books are BIPOC themed and LGBTQ themed.

We learn from a very young age how we fit into the world and too often narratives are missing. Historically many groups of people have been under represented in books, sending a message that some belong and some do not. Having children read books, where they can see themselves and that equitably represent all cultures, colors, genders and orientations, begins to bring a sense of inclusivity and equity. If you're in the neighborhood stop by and grab a book.

Thank you to the Hamline families who helped to support the Free Little Library by getting it in the ground before winter and are maintaining and caring for our little library.

Please watch our weekly video posted on Seesaw for grades PreK-3 and Schoology for grades 4-5. Every Monday, we send a video to students and families that includes:

• Weekly Announcements
• a Hamline Weekly Challenge
• Staff of the week
• Student shout outs

As always, please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns. We will keep you updated around any announcements that come out around the next possible date that we could return to school in a hybrid model. We are expecting to be updated this week on the January 19th possible return date to hybrid.

Remember, near or far, you are always in our hearts.

In Partnership,

Principal Kristin Reilly

Hamline Huskies-

Every Friday we are having a school spirit day. Please make sure to watch our weekly video to for a reminder of the theme for the week. Our next two spirit days are:

Friday 12/18 Hat Day

Tuesday 12/22 Pajama Day

As always, if you have any questions or concerns during Distance Learning, please reach out to me by email, text, or phone at:

Email: jennifer.ewald@spps.org

Office: 651-744-6055

Google Voice: ‪(612) 315-0791‬

Winter Break

• No School Wednesday December 23-January 1
• Distance Learning resumes on Monday January 4, 2021

Please click on the following icons for more information.

"Our job is not to prepare students for something; Our job is to help students prepare themselves for anything."

As we build our inquiry-based learning model at Hamline, we have identified five competencies that we want every student leaving Hamline with: Collaborators, Communicators, Problem Solvers, Creators, and Self and Community Aware. We believe these are the characteristics needed to prepare students for the 21st century.

Hello Hamline Families!

I will continue to hold office hours every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to help further assist students with their classwork and homework. These office hours will be from 9:00-10:00am & 2:00-3:00pm, via google meets. The Meet code is “Hamlinehelp”. Assistance will be provided on a first come, first serve basis. I ask that if a student is already working with me when you log on, please mute yourself until I am done working with that student.

Kalu Abosi

Behavior Intervention Specialist

We started the career counseling lessons for our 5th grade students. These are a series of lessons that will focus on helping students create a portfolio using Xello. The software will have them think about and add their interests, skills, favorite subjects and careers that align with them. I will continue the Mindsets and Me meetings with students to help them make personal and academic goals that are meaningful to them.

I also wanted to share with you these office hours that I will hold Monday-Thursday 11am-12pm if in case you ever need to get a hold of me or want your student to meet with me. You can use the google meets code: meetkaltun. If I happen to be meeting with another student, I will simply make an appointment to follow up.

- Kaltun Abdikarani, School Counselor

Hello Hamline Husky Families!

I would really love to connect with more of you, so I have recently started having open office hours for students and guardians Mon., Tues., Thurs., and Fri. from Noon - 1:00pm. If your student(s) would like to swing by during that time to chat about any challenges they may have or just to say hi, that would be wonderful. If you as the guardian would like to learn about and/or get connected to community resources and/or chat about any questions or concerns you may have with school, home, or anything else that might be challenging, please feel free to pop on to my google meet as well (Code: Mslynn) or you can also email me (lynnette.medcalf@spps.org) to set up a time to talk when it is most convenient for you.

Most importantly, I just want everyone to know that there is a safe space for students and guardians to talk and I would love to talk to as many of you as possible. We are all dealing with a lot right now, and I want you to know you don't have to deal with things alone!

Lastly, I am planning to host a Family Night in the coming months and would love to get your feedback. Please take just a couple of minutes to complete my survey and tell me which two topics you are most interested in. The Family Night will take place sometime between 5 - 7pm on a weeknight. Once I tally everyone's vote, I will send out an update and hopefully a date for the event.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf4cU1Q-aT2O_M3D0-pm06t84fXi2ZKy3hypPmRSNKzMTDVTA/viewform

Peace, Joy & Love

Lynnette Medcalf, School Social Worker

Should you consider Mental Health Therapy for your child?

Life has been turned upside down for everyone. The current life events that are happening should not be processed alone. Therapy can help children begin to process and make sense of their worlds with a Mental Health Professional.

Paying attention to the mental health of children can help reduce problems at home, school, and in social interactions with others.

If you would like more information about starting therapy services for your child please reach out to our School Social Worker, Lynnette Medcalf at Lynnette.medcalf@spps.org or School Counselor, Kaltun Abdikarani at Kaltunabdikarani@spps.org. You can also fill out the help form for families on the Hamline website, spps.org/hamline.

Thank you,

Sharice Zaccardi

Community School Mental Health Practitioner

The Midway Food & Empowerment Project aims to collect and distribute resources to our community on an ongoing basis.The speed at which multiple community partners came together to make this happen is nothing short of amazing. We will continue to work with our partners to ensure that our community members receive the items they need to thrive

https://www.hamlinemidway.org/TheMidwayProject

Reminder to fill out the annual iUpdate student form at Campus Parent. It is important we have updated contact information so you will receive updates from the school. If you need any help with your login or password, email karen.azen@spps.org or leave a message at 651-744-4287.

Bridging Snelling Avenue, Hamline Elementary and Hamline University are one integrated campus. Each member of our community is both a teacher and a student, engaged in a journey of lifelong learning that provides a rich variety of resources to support this diverse education. Our partnership with Hamline University, the first of its kind in the nation, places more than 100 tutors and mentors in classrooms and provides students with access to the university campus on a continual basis. Hamline students see themselves in college students. As the saying goes, "College begins in kindergarten". We are two campuses, but one community in the heart of the Hamline Midway neighborhood.

Website: hamline.spps.org
Location: 1599 Englewood Ave, Saint Paul, MN, USA
Phone: 651-293-8715
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hamlineelementaryschool
Twitter: @HamlineElem