January Parent Newsletter

Happy New Year! I hope you were able to enjoy this holiday season with family and friends. It actually felt normal for the first time in a long time. As expected, December was a busy month and went by very quickly. There were so many exciting things happening throughout the building. Grade 2 continued engaging in their enrichment. Ms. Santucci was reading Anansi stories and incorporating dance and drumming into the enrichment sessions. Grade 4 took a trip to the Genesee Country Village & Museum to learn about life in Rochester long ago and holiday traditions. Grades 5 and 6 attended a show at School of the Arts, and our orchestra/band members also visited SOTA for a special concert. Spirit week, while cut short, was a lot of fun! And who could forget the outstanding School 46 winter concert. Watching our students perform is one of the things that brings me the most joy. Our students played to a full house and sounded absolutely amazing. Thanks to all who were able to come out and enjoy the concert. We are so lucky to have the talents of Mrs. Pitnell and Mrs. Bellamy!

Health and Wellness

Illnesses in our building were really beginning to increase before the holiday. I know that it is difficult to take time off from work when a child is sick, but Department of Health regulations require me to send students home who have a fever, or significant symptoms (excessive coughing or congestion). If your child is sick, please help me mitigate the spread of illness in the building and keep your child home. Also, please call the main office and let us know that the child is sick. If it is Covid, I so still have protocols that need to be followed. The entire class will receive a note and a test kit when a student tests positive for Covid. There is a mandatory 5 day quarantine after a positive Covid test, but the student can return masked for an additional 5 days provided that they are fever-free. RSV and Flu have been worse than Covid this year, and as they have symptoms similar to Covid, it's a good idea to have a symptomatic child seen at the doctor.

Testing

In January, every elementary building in the RCSD will be conducting two midyear benchmark tests in grades K-6. The first is the i-Ready (Reading and Math) midyear diagnostic, which is computer-based and will give us information about how our students have been progressing toward meeting grade level standards. The second is the midyear Common Formative Assessment (Reading and Math), which is also computer-based and will allow us to determine if students are on track to meet grade level standards. The information will not count toward student grades, but is diagnostic information that guides our work as educators. With this data, we will be able to determine our strengths and weaknesses, and determine how to modify our instruction to ensure that your children are all on track to reach NYS grade level standards.

Uniforms

We still have many brand new uniforms in a variety of sizes. Both pants and shirts are available, so let us know if you are in need:

1. Call the main office: 288-8008; ask to speak with Mr. McCloud

2. Email us at 46info@rcsdk12.org

3. Contact your child's teacher via Dojo with sizes and quantities.

Hoping you all have a blessed and happy new year. Thank you for sharing your children with us!

January 2: ALL FACILITIES CLOSED

January 3: First day back from break

January 13: Parliament Meeting #4

January 16: MLK Day: ALL FACILITIES CLOSED

January 25: 8:00 AM SBPT meeting/ library conference room/Zoom

7 Essential Life Skills

Life skills are based on executive functions (mental skills that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. They bring together our social, emotional and cognitive (thinking) capacities to problem solve and achieve goals. Studies have found they are critical to success in school and life.

1. Focus and Self-Control

Children need this skill to achieve goals, especially in a world filled with distractions and information overload. This includes paying attention, exercising self-control, remembering the rules and thinking flexibility.

2. Perspective Taking

This involves understanding what others think and feel, and forms the basis for children’s understanding of the intentions of parents, teachers and friends. Children with this skill are less likely to get involved in conflicts.

3. Communicating

Much more than understanding language, reading, writing and speaking, communicating is the skill of determining what one wants to communicate and realizing how it will be understood by others. It is the skill teachers and employers feel is most lacking today.

4. Making Connections

This Life Skill is at the heart of learning: figuring out what’s the same, what’s different, and sorting them into categories. Making unusual connections is at the core of creativity and moves children beyond knowing information to using information well.

5. Critical Thinking

This skill helps children analyze and evaluate information to guide their beliefs, decisions and actions. Children need critical thinking to make sense of the world around them and to solve problems.

6. Taking on Challenges

Children who take on challenges instead of avoiding or simply coping with them achieve better in school and in life.

7. Self-Directed, Engaged Learning

By setting goals and strategies for learning, children become attuned and better prepared to change as the world changes. This helps children foster their innate curiosity to learn, and helps them realize their potential.

How can these skills be taught?

-Provide choices

-Help children begin tasks and then encourage independent completion.

-Encourage perseverance, Never Give Up! Keep Trying! You got this!

-Play memory games.

-Teach Organization skills; clean a room and group similar items together.

-Help children to develop plans, help them think ahead, make lists.

-Teach habits for success.

-Teach problem-solving skills.

-Teach listening skills; “can you repeat back to me what you just heard?”

-Question them to “check-in.”

-Help children to prioritize/order “what needs to happen first?” “What is most important?”

-Establish routines; studying and reading, bedtime, meal times, brushing teeth, bathing.

-Help children to set goals and reward their achievements.

Should children do chores? Research says, yes!

1. Doing household chores help kids feel competent and build their self-esteem.

2. Performing chores is associated with the development of pro-social behavior.

3. Completing chores promotes independence.

4. Chores help kids develop essential life skills.

5. Household tasks help the development of a sense of responsibility, effort, and discipline

6. Doing chores is a teamwork effort that creates a sense of collaboration and belonging

7. House rules are important, and chores may be a part of it.

Doing household chores help kids feel competent and build their self-esteem.

Research suggests that performing chores in elementary school is associated with later development of self-competence and self-efficacy. Knowing that they can complete their chores brings children the satisfaction of contributing to the family and a feelings of competence.

It is essential to choose tasks suited to the child’s age and personal attributes and abilities. Focus on actions that the child can do. The idea is that, in addition to collaborating with the family, the child feels stimulated and fulfilled.

If you give a very young child a task that they cannot complete, they will become frustrated, lose confidence in themselves, and not want to try again.

Remember to be patience patient when assigning and showing your child how to complete a chore, help them with the process of incorporating household’s tasks so that they can learn with you how to do them independently.

Performing chores is associated with the development of pro-social behavior.

Researchers have found that kids who perform household tasks tend to show less antisocial behavior.

Completing chores promotes independence.

Being independent should be one of the goals of children’s education.

We want to raise children who can cope with life’s challenges without necessarily depending on anyone other than themselves.

It is critical is to help children understand that they have a role in running the house and that parents cannot (and shouldn’t) do everything.

Research suggests that kids responsible for household tasks report a higher degree of autonomy (independence) than those without responsibilities in their home.

Chores help kids develop essential life skills.

Household chores help our children develop several skills.

They teach them to accept responsibilities, set goals, and acquire specific motor skills. They can also learn time management skills.

Fortunately, from an early age, children are very interested in play that imitates adult household activities: kitchen, household or DIY toys, caring for a baby doll, and so on. The children imagine doing everything like Mom and Dad, doing “as the grown-ups do.” So we can provide them with toy dishes, toy vacuum cleaners, toy tools and encourage their innate desire to replicate what they see at home.

Even preschoolers can do simple chores like putting away toys or putting used clothes in the laundry basket.

Household tasks and the development of a sense of responsibility, effort, and discipline.

Assigning household responsibility that your child can’t decline or hand on to somebody else helps them acquire a sense of the effort and discipline that will serve them well later. It also allows them to understand that tasks are part of the daily life of adults and children.

Teamwork Skills: A sense of collaboration and belonging.

Involving our children in household chores also strengthens their sense of belonging and spirit of collaboration.

Collaborating in the tasks helps the child understand that it is everyone’s obligation to contribute to the common good. Not just the parents’ obligation. The satisfaction of helping the rest of the family will be a reward for your child.

Take your child’s age into account when assigning household chores. Before the age of three, children already understand that they have specific responsibilities, including their toys. Even if they need your help to tidy up their room and put away everything lying on the floor, they will quickly understand how it works and then do it alone.

Don’t forget that for your little one, helping you with housework is an opportunity to have a good time with you and to strengthen the bond of attachment that unites you.

It is essential to instill a sense of pride and highlight their role and contribution to the family unit and avoid the perception of chores as burdens or punishment – so don’t assign chores as punishment!

House rules are important, and chores may be a part of it.

House rules provide structure and predictability, and improve family dynamics and coexistence.

Knowing how to keep the house tidy and respect hygiene is important. Establishing rules of coexistence helps children to be able, in the future, to have their own home.

Resources: https://www.rif.org/literacy-central/book/enemy-pie

https://www.upperelementarysnapshots.com/2016/08/enemy-pie-5-literacy-lesson-ideas.html

Theme(s): In this funny yet endearing story, one little boy learns an effective recipes for turning your best enemy into your best friend. Accompanied by charming illustrations, Enemy Pie serves up a sweet lesson in the difficulties and ultimate rewards of making new friends.

We are a committed community of learners serving a population of preschool age children through sixth grade. We provide a safe and nurturing environment where students engage with a rich and challenging curriculum.

Email: 46info@rcsdk12.org
Website: rcsdk12.org/46
Location: 250 Newcastle Road, Rochester, NY, USA
Phone: (585)288-8008
Twitter: @RCSDsch46