Eagle Family Weekly News

Happy Labor Day:

There is no school on Monday! We hope your family enjoys a fun, safe holiday! If you want a quick learning break, you can check out this quick video for kids about why Labor Day is celebrated.

Progress Reports:

Progress Reports will be available via Infinite Campus Parent Portal on September 7. However, you don't have to wait until formal reports are released to know how your child is doing. You can stay informed of grades as they are entered weekly by adding notifications within your Parent Portal settings. If you have questions about your child's progress, you can reach out to your teacher at any time.

Morning Announcements:

In an effort to maximize instructional time and to allow teachers to complete morning routines most efficiently, we are going to continue beginning morning announcements at 7:30.

Our Champions are MADE: Motivated, Achievement-Focused, Determined, Exceptional.

Thank you for trusting us with your student's educational adventure.

Let's make this a great week, East Lake!

Dana Flowers

Principal

We 💗 Eagle Feather Fridays! Keep up that SOARing behavior, East Lake.

In an effort to provide a special, most enjoyable lunch experience for our families, we have moved the Eagle Family Café to the front of the school. We had our first families join us this week! This does look a little different, but I hope that everyone will enjoy this dining experience with their students!

To clarify the process of the new café:

• Families will sign in at the front office the way they always did.
  
• Your student's teacher will be informed that they have a lunch guest.
• Your student will meet you in the café for lunch. You can hear each other talk and enjoy some conversation and laughter.
• Your student will rejoin their class at the end of the lunch period.
• Lunch Guests are not permitted to leave the front office or Family Café areas. At the end of the lunch period, guests will sign out at the front office and will exit those doors as usual.

Answers to questions we received this week:

Can students buy ice cream?

• As a general rule, the student should not plan to purchase ice cream on days they have lunch guests. This is simply due to the logistics of walking back and forth and losing conversational time with their lunch guests. If you feel it is imperative for them to purchase ice cream, you can notify the office at check-in. As long as ice cream is being sold that day, we can provide instructions on when to send your student.
  
  

What about Friday Feather Drawings?

• No one loves Feather Drawing Fridays as much as I do! If students are located in the Eagle Family Café and their name is drawn, they will still receive their visit to the prize cart. It is true that they will miss out on all the cheers from their friends, but we will still make sure to celebrate their awesomeness. If that is something extra important to your student, I encourage you to schedule lunch visits on any other day of the week.
  
  

Please let me know if you have any ideas to make this an even better opportunity for our students and lunch guests. We appreciate our families and look forward to seeing you soon!

Our 2nd Annual Back to School Bash was AWESOME! Thanks for coming out to have some family fun, East Lake! We are already looking forward to the next event! More photos at https://www.facebook.com/eastlakehcs.

MAP reports are coming home this week for grades 1-5. Included with the student report, you will receive a parent letter explaining how to read and interpret your child’s scores.

Monday:

• Labor Day! NO SCHOOL!

Tuesday:

• Grandparents Breakfast for Kindergarten & 1st Grade
  
• This is a clear bag event, per HCS policy. Please let your family know in advance.
• Book Fair

Wednesday:

• Grandparents Breakfast for 2nd & 3rd Grades
  
• This is a clear bag event, per HCS policy. Please let your family know in advance.
  
• Book Fair

Thursday:

• Grandparents Breakfast for 4th & 5th Grades
• This is a clear bag event, per HCS policy. Please let your family know in advance.
  
• Book Fair

Friday:

• Book Fair Closes

Dear Wonderful Parents,

As we embark on another exciting week of learning, we want to sprinkle a little fun into a very important lesson: learning our home address! 🗺️

Why is knowing our address so important, you ask? Well, it’s not just about finding our way home after a day of adventures; it’s also a key part of safety and independence for our little explorers! 🚀

Here are some whimsical ways to make learning the address a delightful experience:

1. **Sing It Out Loud! 🎶**: Create a catchy tune or jingle with your address. Singing makes everything more memorable!

2. **Treasure Hunt! 🗝️**: Turn it into a treasure hunt! Hide clues around the house that lead to different parts of your address. Each clue can be a fun fact about your home!

3. **Artistic Flair! 🎨**: Have your child draw a map of your neighborhood, marking your home with a big, colorful star. This will help them visualize where they live!

4. **Story Time! 📖**: Incorporate your address into a fun story. Maybe your house is a castle, and you’re the royal family living there!

5. **Practice Makes Perfect! 🏆**: Set aside a few minutes each day to practice saying the address together. The more they say it, the more confident they’ll become!

Let’s work together to make this learning journey enjoyable and memorable for our children. Thank you for your support and creativity in helping them master this essential skill!

Happy learning, and may your adventures be filled with joy! 🌟

Warm regards,

Mrs. Varian

We are excited to host our 2nd Annual First Responders Celebration on Wednesday, September 11th! See the invitation below. Click here to RSVP.

All students & staff are encouraged to wear red, white, and blue on this day.

Greetings 5th grade families!

We will be taking our 5th grade overnight field trip to the Burton 4H Center in Tybee Island this May. The fifth grade team will be holding a virtual interest meeting for all 5th grade families to attend on September 9 at 6:00pm. This meeting is not mandatory, but highly recommended.

Even if you are hesitant about the trip, it would be great to see everyone on the Google Meet. We will be talking about what to expect while on the trip from the student viewpoint, information for parents who might want to chaperone, behavior expectations for students before/during/after the trip, and (of course) the tentative price of the trip. We will remind families as the date gets closer as well!

We hope to see you all there! 🤩

5th Grade Teachers

One of the most common complaints we get during events are related to the district Clear Bag Policies. It does not seem to matter how we advertise and request preparation, we frequently meet with disgruntled families who are inconvenienced and frustrated.

East Lake family, please know we do our very best to comply with these safety measures as required by Henry County Schools.

During all large events, clear bag policies will continue to be expected & enforced to the

best of our ability.

Are we perfect? No.

Are district personnel exempt from this policy? No.

Should we all do our best in an effort of maximize safety for all during each event? Yes.

When attending an event, please know that we are doing our best to prepare for you in excellence. We want your full experience to be one that is fun and memorable. Please plan ahead and comply with the expectations. Please check out the images below for additional details on what is acceptable on entry. Please note that large bags, including diaper bags, should be clear.

This is a HUGE event for our school! We appreciate PTO for helping coordinate some volunteers that will partner with our school as we plan a great event for all. You can volunteer by clicking here.

1. No lunch visitors will be permitted until August 29th. This allows us an opportunity to establish and practice lunch routines and procedures with all students.
2. To maximize opportunities for peer interaction and to ensure all guests have a pleasant lunch experience with spacious seating, it is preferred that students have no more than one lunch visit per week.
3. Parents may not bring outside food to share with students who are not their own. This policy includes birthday celebrations and lunch visits. Unless requested by a teacher, parents may not bring goody bags with snacks inside for students.
4. Food delivery orders (Uber, GrubHub, etc.) will not be accepted for students/parents.
5. Visitors are only permitted to report to the Eagle Café for the duration of lunch. Lunch Visitors are not permitted to travel with the class once their lunch period has ended. Lunch visits are not an opportunity for any parent/teacher conference.

I am so proud of our Eagles! We had our first lockdown drills of the year on Friday. Our students and staff couldn't have done a better job in planning and following directions. I am so proud!

Things for parents to know:

• There are no entry or exits to the building during either a soft or hard lockdown. There are lights by the main entry points to indicate that no entries will be permitted. Please know that in the event of a lockdown, you should wait inside your vehicle until we are in an all-clear.
• In the event of an actual emergency, parents/guardians will be contacted with official information from East Lake Elementary / Henry County Schools. It is best NOT to report to the school until official instructions are received. We need to ensure emergency vehicles have clear paths to access our building.
• If you are in the building during a safety drill or during an actual incident, it is expected that you also follow instructions by school staff. Once a lockdown begins (even for a safety drill) there are no entries or exits of students, staff, or school visitors permitted.
• Our students often react based on their understanding of adult behavior. If you are in the building for a lockdown and become agitated, anxious, or dramatic, that will likely spark fear and anxiety for our students. Please breathe deeply, remain quiet, and do not use your phone. We will communicate information as it is available and appropriate to share.

For those that might like some additional details regarding our campus alert system, I have shared one of our safety posters. Thank you for reviewing this and for checking out additional safety tips for parents at this link.

• We recognize two parties per year in our classrooms. Outside of those school-planned events, parents may not bring outside food to share with students who are not their own.
• For birthday celebrations, parents may choose to send in Goody Bags for each classmate (without any food or candy within) for teachers to distribute. This allows all students to participate regardless of food allergy, etc.
• Neither teachers nor students are permitted to delivery birthday (or any other) invitations to students in the class.

• Student cell phones (and other digital devices, including AirPods and smart watches) are to be turned off and left in student backpacks for the duration of the school day, which includes transportation on the school bus.

Each year, there are adjustments made to the HCS Code of Conduct. This is the guide used to determine consequences for behavior violations, and can be a helpful reference tool for conversations with school staff and with families.