This week our attendance team met to review October's attendance data, as well as our cumulative attendance data since the start of school. We have SO much to celebrate and it's thanks to all of you making sure your child is present each and every day! Below are our CELEBRATIONS by the numbers!

• There are currently 33 students considered "chronically absent". This is 5 less students than September!!!
• In September, 7.7% of our population was considered "chronically absent". In October only 6.1%. This is SO close to our goal of only 5%!!!
• Our average daily attendance percentage not only met our goal of 95% or more, but exceeded it with 96.76%. That's two consecutive months of meeting our goal!!!
• Kindergarten attendance saw a significant improvement from September to October; a decrease of 2 students considered "chronically absent" and average daily attendance going from 92% to 96%!!!

We wanted to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering support in our efforts to enhance student attendance at Eli Terry. Your involvement and dedication have played a pivotal role in making a positive impact on our students' daily attendance.

Your encouragement and consistent communication with your children about the importance of attending school regularly have not gone unnoticed. We've witnessed significant improvements in student attendance and a more enthusiastic attitude towards learning as a result of your collective efforts.

By working together as a community, we are nurturing an environment where every student can thrive academically and socially. We appreciate your partnership in this endeavor and are excited to continue our journey towards better attendance and brighter futures for our students.

Thank you for your continued support, and let's keep working together to ensure the success of our ET students!

Mike & Jenn

On Friday, October 27th, the Ambassadors took a field trip to the Team Leadership Center at Nevers Park. This field trip was an opportunity for this group of students to engage in some intentional team building facilitated by Mr. Huck. Engaging in cooperative games and collaborative problem solving activities, these 5th grade students learned:

• Teamwork - ideas together are better than individual ideas.
• Leaders aren't leaders all the time - play to peoples' strengths!
• Roles within a team can be helpful.
• Communication is most effective when it's respectful.

We are looking forward to seeing how these powerful life lessons support their Ambassador work within our building, as well as in the larger South Windsor community!

We are cordially inviting veterans to attend our Veterans Day Assembly on Friday, November 10th.

Check-in and coffee will begin at 9 a.m. in the Cafeteria with our Principal. The assembly will begin at 9:15 with all veterans walking into the gym together. After the assembly (10:00) veterans are encouraged to join their child/ren's classroom to share their experiences and duties with our students.

Thanks to all of you, and members of the larger South Windsor community, we were able to collect 440 pairs of pajamas to support Oliver's Pajama Project. These pajamas will be distributed to families in need all across the state through various social service agencies.

Grade 5 won the collection contest with 80 pairs collected, but 4th grade (78) and 1st grade (75) weren't far behind.

We are so proud of how the Ambassadors worked to partner with Oliver and ensure 440 individuals would be able to go to bed this winter/holiday season cozy and warm! That's almost a pair of pajamas for every student in our school!

You can check out Oliver's Pajama Project on Facebook, in the next few days, to see how our collection combined with his efforts and the total number of PJs collected this year!

A HUGE thank you to Clare Johnson who spent two mornings with us helping to count, organize, and sort by size every single pair of jammies!

Our Lost and Found is overflowing! Please take a peek at the photos below to see if anything belonging to your child/ren has been "found".

With conferences coming up later this month, we encourage families to visit our tables and racks when you come in. You are also welcome to sign-in at the Main Office and check out the selection during the school day.

We hope all these lost items find their rightful homes! :0)

A HUGE thank you to Prince Varghese for helping to be our Lost and Found organizer and paparazzi!

We HIGHLY encourage labeling your child's items, whether with a sharpie or super cool personalized labels. Thanks to 4 families utilizing this strategy, these items were already returned to their loving homes!

Did you know our school has a new pet?

Meet our axolotl who now calls Mrs. Hammer's office home!

Thanks to a very persuasive student from Mrs. Conyer's class, our whole school community can now visit this creepy little critter and even win a chance to feed them in our new PAWS raffle!

A BIG thank you to 4th graders Maggie, Christopher, and Ethan who created the slides below. These were shared with the WHOLE school, and now all of you, to help everyone learn about our new friend.

Last week the whole school voted to choose his/her name and Marshmallow was the winner!

And look at all this love and support for our new ET "family" member!

The first RULER skill involves being able to “Recognize” emotions and how they are experienced in the body (thoughts, facial expressions, and physiological responses). As a result, in October, students were explicitly introduced to and taught the feeling word - excited. Through both oral storytelling experiences and connecting to the character in a picture book, students learned that excited is:

• An adjective meaning “happy because something good is about to happen”

• Located in the yellow quadrant of the Mood Meter

• Described as pleasant with high energy.

People who are feeling excited are probably smiling or have open mouths with raised eyebrows and high cheeks. They are probably having a hard time staying still and speaking quickly and

loudly. They might even be laughing. Excited bodies often have quick heart rates and fidgety hands and feet. Their muscles may feel tight.

To complement students' work with this word in the classroom, here are some things you can do at home to reinforce what they are learning, as well as connect as a family in new ways!

• Have each family member share something that they are excited about in the future each evening for a week.

• Each new day, check-in with each other to see how the exciting events turned out.

• Share a story about a time you (the adult) were excited. Then ask your child to share a story with you about a time they were excited.

• With your family, talk about these questions: Did you notice that talking about feeling excited with other people makes you feel more excited? Did you notice that telling someone that you are excited for them, makes them feel more excited?

• Choose stories to read before bedtime where the main character feels excited. As you read together, look for “clues” that help you recognize the feeling (thoughts, actions, body language, etc.) Here are a couple suggestions:

- Clark the Shark

- The Pigeon Will Ride the Roller Coaster

- Waiting is Not Easy (Elephant & Piggie)

- The Very Impatient Caterpillar

• Using tallies, a pom pom jar, or other way of keeping track, collect data on how many times your family feels excited in the week.

• Set goals together about ways you can help one another feel excited.

At Eli Terry, we're EXCITED about hearing how families are supporting the RULER work at home!

4th grade students from Mrs. Conyer's class worked with 2nd grade students in Mrs. Glasser’s class on the math reflection videos they created and sent to their families on Seesaw!

We celebrated Mr. Luis's birthday on Thursday! He surely felt all the love from our students, staff, and families. Thank you to everyone who made his first birthday in an elementary school memorable!

Our specials teachers are truly embodying RULER! On Tuesday they replicated the characters/feelings from Inside Out! I think it's safe to say they NAILED IT!

• NO SCHOOL - Election Day - Tuesday, November 7th
• Picture Retakes - Thursday, November 9th (see info below!)
• Veterans Day Assembly - Friday, November 10th, 9-10AM
• PTO Flash Food Drive - November 13th - November 16th
• PTO Virtual Paint Night - Tuesday, November 14th, 6:30-7:30PM (registration required!)
• PTO Meeting - VIRTUAL - Wednesday, November 15th, 7-8PM (link above!)
• Wear Blue for 22q11.2 Awareness - Wednesday, November 22nd (see flyer below!)

Remember...any of the above events can be quickly added to your own Google Calendar just by clicking the blue hyperlink!

Throughout the year, you may miss something and want to easily access a previous week's newsletter. Thanks to YOUR feedback, we've made that easy. You'll be able to just click the links below! We've included the last few weeks of newsletters here:

October 27th, 2023

October 20th, 2023

October 13th, 2023

October 6th, 2023

PTO October Newsletter

If you would like access to ALL previous newsletters you can find them here!