It finally feels like fall, just in time for the holiday season. Thank you to everyone who attended our Peter Piper Boo Bash and Halloween Parade last week. We all, students and staff, enjoyed celebrating Halloween with you! This is going to be a very busy month. We have several family engagement opportunities this month (please see attached flyers), and we're really looking forward to seeing you all on campus. And as we begin November, some important information to get you through:

• We hope you can make our Luncheon with Loved Ones this Wednesday. Please see the attached flyer for times. And if you would like to visit the Book Fair, we invite you to come during your student's lunch recess, which is the 15 minutes prior to lunchtime. Please see the attached Book Fair letter for all of the Book Fair times.
• In previous years we had a Girl Scout troop that met on campus. Unfortunately, the troop now meets elsewhere and is too large to accept new scouts. I'm working with the Girl Scouts to start a new troop on campus next year, but for now, if your student is interested,please see the attached flyer, and she can join a troop that meets nearby.
• In previous years, we also had a Boy Scout troop that met on campus. I'm working to bring a troop back to Howell. I'll keep you posted!
• If you haven't already, please take a moment to complete our Family Engagement Survey (QR Code below). Your feedback is very important to us, and we appreciate your time!
• Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day is November 14. This will be our first year participating, so we're starting small, with a school-wide walk in the morning, just after the morning bell. Please join us on the playground at 8:30 to celebrate Ruby Bridges' historic walk!
• Student and staff safety is our priority. Each school year we hold multiple types of drills to ensure that staff and students know what to do during an emergency. Please see the attached flyer for information on all of the drills. We are holding a Secure Drill on November 18.
• Please see the attached CharacterStrong Gratitude Newsletters. Gratitude is our focus trait for the month of November.

During October, our school counseling lessons covered internet safety. These were the four basic rules students learned:

· I will tell a trusted adult if anything online makes me feel sad, scared or confused.

· I will ask my parent or guardian before sharing personal information.

· I won’t meet face-to-face with anyone from the internet.

· I will always use good netiquette and not be rude or mean online.

This presentation came from the web site: NetSmartz.com which has a lot of great information regarding online safety. Another great resource – for parents & Kids, (in addition to teachers) - is CommonSense.org.

The 4th graders discussed issues that can arise during video games, and 5th graders talked about cyberbullying and standing up for themselves or others.

Currently, we are in the midst of the Kids’ Heart Challenge, which has two purposes. First, it is a fundraiser for the American Heart Association – to raise money for medical research related to heart disease. Second, it is an education curriculum to teach students heart healthy habits. Students who raise money will earn prizes of little characters for the different healthy habits.

Over the next two weeks, all K-5 classes will be doing a variety of cardio exercises for their hearts.

** The week of November 11th, all grades will participate in special heart healthy activities.

To sign up, students can download the app for the Kids’ Heart Challenge. Flyers & envelopes were sent home with Kinder, 1st & 2nd graders. Reminder flyers will be sent home the week of November 4th, which include the QR code.

Happy November everyone!

Happy Fall Howell Hawks.

We have some fun and exciting things happening this month. Our first Luncheon with Loved Ones is on November 6th.We will also have a Coffee and Connections on November 15th, from 8:30-9:30. Our Volunteer breakfast is on November 22, from 9:00-10:00.

I just want to remind our wonderful Howell families that we have many resources available. Such as food banks and clothing banks, just to name a couple. Please feel free to reach out to me or your child’s teacher if you need anything. You can reach me by stopping by room #3, calling me at 520-232-7218, or emailing me. I’m happy to help.

This month we gave out 30 new pairs of shoes. Thank you Shoes that fit for donating them! We also handed out two backpacks.

On the week of November 4th-November 8 Ms. Czarina will be joining us in the garden (Monday and Thursday) to help with a project from the First the Seed Foundation called TomatoSphere. All classes will participate but only our Monday and Thursday classes will have the assistance of Ms. Czarina. Each grade level will plant tomato seeds from 2 different packets. One packet will contain space seeds that were transported by Space X CRS-23 Dragon and spent 5 weeks on the International Space Station and one packet will have identical seeds that have maintained here on Earth. We do not know which packets are which so this will be a blind test. Over the course of their growth we will be documenting changes, similarities, difference and size. We will be submitting our results for TomatoSphere by January 15th to be compared to the results of other schools across the nation. This is a wonderful project that Ms. Czarina has helped us to get involved in and we can’t wait to start.

This month, the Squad has been talking about Responsibility to tag along with our school’s CharacterStrong theme. Our focus is to give students strategies to help them make responsible choices and to be responsible about themselves, their peers, our school and community. We continue to be amazed by our children’s responses during these engaging activities.

We would like to thank all the families involved for making the t-shirt project possible. We couldn’t have done it without your support! We are in the process of getting the shirts ready and it’s truly a process so we will continue to work on them.

As you know, TUSD Food services is providing healthy snacks for our club; the kids are enjoying the variety of treats they are given. Thank you, Mrs. Susie, for your help with this!