The Patrick Henry Post

This week, we had the honor of hosting Parent-Teacher Conferences for all of our families to review our students' progress throughout first quarter. We loved seeing families in person again and connecting with our families! The word "family" can encompass a LOT - parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins, friends, siblings, neighbors...everyone who helps raise our Patrick Henry students to be kind, smart, innovative, fun kiddos.

At Patrick Henry, we have a beautiful community of families who are raising our students. We love how different every family is, and we celebrate each one of our students' support systems. Thank you for coming to Parent-Teacher Conferences, and thank you for your deep involvement in your child's school life. School simply cannot happen without family support, and your child is growing every day because of you!

This week, all families should have received a packet of interventions for their child that is specific to their reading and math levels. These packets are meant to be at-home interventions so that parents can help their child continue their learning at home. If you have questions about the interventions, contact your child's teacher. If you did not receive any interventions, please contact deborah.rogers@slps.org and we will resend the intervention packet home immediately.

If you want to support your child even more in reading, take a look below for parent resources for reading interventions at home:

• 11 Ways Parents Can Help Their Child Learn to Read
• 4 Tips to Support Reading at Home
• Read with your child every night at home before bedtime - make it part of the bedtime routine!
• Allow your child to choose books to read with you, even if they seem "too hard" or "too easy" for your child. Support them with difficult texts and let them feel successful with easier texts.
• Practice reading everything, no matter where you are! The grocery store has labels for everything!!

If you feel like your child needs extra help in math, see below for parent resources for math interventions at home:

• 5 Ways to Build Math Fluency
• Khan Academy - Free to Create a Login!
• Review your child's math homework with them every day and ask them to explain the math strategy they are using. Math is VERY different from when we were kids, so ask your child to show you the new strategies!
• Practice math problems no matter where you are! You can create a math word problem out of just about any real world situation.
• Review your child's addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts until it is a routine and easy for them to remember.

We know that it is incredibly hard to schedule a conference with the school when you are working and have other responsibilities. We are always here for a conference or a conversation. Please contact your child's teacher or call the school at 314-231-7284 to arrange a time to talk. Our goal is to communicate with you often to make sure you have a strong understanding of what is happening with your child at school.

This year, our 5th grade students are participating in a program called Junior Achievement. This is a program that teaches our students about opportunities in the real world and how they might be suited for that particular field. They learn about managing money, applying for jobs, and the types of careers that might be interesting to them. This week, our students had the amazing opportunity to travel 45 minutes west of the city to Junior Achievement's BizTown, a mini city where the students have a specific job for the day and they get to experience life in that industry. Our students had a great time, and they learned so much! You can read all about Junior Achievement and BizTown by clicking here.

Thank you to our chaperones, who made sure our students had a safe, fun experience. Thank you to SLPS, for sponsoring this trip all the way out to Chesterfield, MO. Thank you to Junior Achievement, for the consistent partnership and opportunity!

This week, our Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students had an amazing opportunity to see Halloween preparations in person at the Stuckmeyer Farm Pumpkin Patch in Fenton, MO. Our students had so much fun taking a hay ride, picking pumpkins, and learning about how the farm worked! You can read all about Stuckmeyers Farm by clicking here.

Thank you to our chaperones for making this trip possible, and to Ms. Versen for planning this adventure for our students!

Our new community partner, Live! By Loews, has supported the teachers of Patrick Henry this week by providing dinner for our staff who stayed late for Parent-Teacher Conferences. This is an event that spans the course of a week, and teachers stay late in order to give parents and families flexibility in when they come to the school to meet to discuss their child's academic growth. It is a service to our parents to make sure we provide helpful times, but it can be a strain on our teachers, who have to stay late and often miss their evening time with their own families. As a special treat, Live! By Loews provided dinner for our staff each night of conferences. It was an amazing gesture of support from our school partner, and we are so thankful for this gift!

Join us as we celebrate being a DRUG-FREE environment! We will host a Spirit Week, and all staff and students are encouraged to participate! See below for our schedule of themed days:

• Monday, October 24th: Nerd Day...Celebrate your inner nerd and dress up in your most brainiac outfit!
• Tuesday, October 25th: Twin Tuesday...Connect with a classmate and dress alike for the whole day!
• Wednesday, October 26th: Wacky Tacky Wednesday...Dress up in your weirdest, craziest, most mis-matched outfit ever!
• Thursday, October 27th: Throwback Thursday...Dress up in an old school outfit from another decade or a different phase of your life!
• Friday, October 28th: Halloween Costumes...Dress up in whatever you'd like for Halloween, just remember that students can't bring weapons, even if they are part of a costume!

On Friday, October 28th, Patrick Henry will celebrate Halloween with our students through an amazing event at the school! We invite all students to bring or wear a costume to school that day, but please remember that all costumes must still be school-appropriate and cannot have any type of weapon, even as a part of the costume. We are always in need of family support for this event, so please see the ways you can contribute below:

• Donate candy to the school for our candy stations (all candy welcome!)
• Volunteer the day of the event (Friday, October 28th, 1:00-2:30pm) - We need people to help run our stations, walk with the students through the event, and support the teachers as they assist students with costumes and candy collection
• Donate bags for the students to use to collect and hold their candy

Parents must be a registered volunteer with the district in order to participate in this event. Please contact Shanice Webb for more details: shanice.webb@slps.org, 314.231.7284

Save the Date! On Monday, October 31st, students with perfect attendance during the month of October will be invited to an afternoon celebration, and their families are invited to attend! We will have light refreshments, certificates, and prizes for all of our students, and we want their families to feel celebrated too! In order to qualify for this celebration, students must have:

• 0 absences
• 0 late arrivals (students must arrive before 8:10am)
• 0 early dismissals (students must stay at school until 2:52pm)

An invitation will be sent to families who qualify by Ms. Shanice Webb. If you have questions about your child's attendance, please call the school at 314.231.7284 or email deborah.rogers@slps.org.

On Tuesday, November 1st, we will start fresh in the race for excellent attendance! Make sure you are here every day the month of November so that you can be celebrated for your amazing attendance!

In honor of Election Day, all SLPS schools will be closed on Tuesday, November 8th. Make sure you find your polling place and vote!

• Click here to register to vote in Missouri.
• Click here to learn how to vote in Missouri.
• Click here to find your polling place in Missouri.

In honor of Veterans' Day, all SLPS schools will be closed on Friday, November 11th. Learn more about Veterans' Day by visiting the links below:

• PBS Kids Video for Veterans' Day
• Veterans' Day General Information
• History of Veteran's Day