Hello Families, Caregivers, and Students,
We are now in the third quarter and the second semester of the school year. Time is flying! Second Semester brings with it spring testing. We will have started with administration of the OELPA (Ohio's English Language Proficiency Assessments) February 3-14. This is a test taken by our students who are English language learners to mark their progress toward learning English reading, writing, and speaking. We are proud of the progress our Northtowne students are able to make. It's one more way that we can support students to "dream big, achieve more" this year! End of year iReady tests (grades kindergarten-2nd) and Ohio State Tests (grades 3rd-5th) wil take place later on in April/May.
I am also excited for the annual Northtowne Black History Month Showcase. Several of our students work hard all month long to be able to put on the presentation under the direction of 4th grade teacher, Ms Weaver and her team of staff assistants. The hard work is showcased at the end of month in a daytime performance to the student body and an evening performance for our families. An exciting shift this year is that students were able to select for themselves which important figure from Black history and culture they wanted to honor with research and being presented in the Showcase.
Have a great month,
Mr. Taylor
Please stay with your child prior to 8:30 a.m. and/or when there is no adult supervision. For the safety of your child, please wait until a staff member is outside. Children should not be dropped off before 8:30.
If you drive your student to school, please enter the parking lot area and drive beside the sidewalk. Pull forward, as much as possible, until just past the open cafeteria doors.
Breakfast is served starting at 8:30 and is free for any child who chooses to eat.
February is Black History month. We celebrate two important people in Black history in February: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (born February 12), who issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and African American abolitionist, author, and orator Frederick Douglass (born February 14). But Black history is about more than the end of slavery in the US: it is a celebration of the critical cultural and historical role African Americans have played in the US since its inception. We also look toward a bright future of new possibilities.
Black History Month Colors and Their Meanings
- Black - Represents the resilient people whose existence as a nation is honored and affirmed by the existence of a flag.
- Red - Symbolizes the blood of innocent Black lives that has been shed throughout history.
- Yellow - Stands for optimism, justice and equality for everyone.
Guidance lessons are now focusing on empathy. The dictionary defines empathy as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another". Sometimes we tend to focus on getting students to understand and demonstrate kindness, but understanding and acting with empathy takes things a step further than basic kindness.
Teaching empathy to kids can have many benefits, such as better mental and emotional health, a greater connection with their peers and teachers, increased acceptance and tolerance of each other, better communication skills, promotion of social harmony, and more.
Here are some strategies being used this month to teach empathy:
1. Teach Students to Recognize their Emotions
Many students fail to show empathy simply because they are unable to tell how another person might be feeling. When students are able to recognize and label their own emotions, they are slowly but surely going to be able to recognize similar emotions expressed by those around them.
While providing students with vocabulary is important, but students will also have help to figure out what common emotions look, sound, and feel like. Once they are able to understand that we all have emotions and that emotions are sometimes expressed by the words we say and our body language they are more aware of the feelings of those around them.
2. Teach Perspective Taking
Once students are familiar with identifying their own and others' feelings, it is time to start talking about why we feel these different feelings. A few important things students come to realize is that we all experience a wide range of emotions, there are no "good" or "bad" emotions, and it is possible to feel differently than another person about the same thing! When people feel differently about the same thing they have different perspectives. We can work to communicate and understand another person's perspective.
3. Talk about Empathy Explicitly
Like any skill, empathy must be taught and practiced. Of course, it comes more easily to some children, but we can't expect students to automatically be able to show empathy. When teaching empathy to kids, it's important to explicitly talk about it. Explain what empathy is, why it's important, and give real-world examples of what empathy looks like and what it doesn't look like.
4. Model Empathy
Now that students have the knowledge and understanding of what empathy is, it's important for them to see it in action. As adults (teachers, staff, and family members) show compassion, positive regard, and understanding when interacting with students, they will recognize us showing empathy and will try to emulate us. We encourage teachable moments in the classroom (and at home) to explain how a student or even a character in a story might be feeling in a particular situation.
School Smiles dental services will be back in our building March 11. What is School Smiles? The School Smiles on-site dental program provides comprehensive on-site dental care at our school for students that sign-up to participate. The dental team will set up inside our school to see students for dental cleanings. They accept Medicaid, private insurance, offer self-pay rates and grants through their foundation. Registration is now open online at https://schoolsmiles.com/student-signup/ with over 100 languages to choose from when completing the online form.
Nurse Cassie is also reminding families that have received communications from her that you must follow up to answer questions or provide necessary medical documentation. If you have questions about communications received from Nurse Cassie please contact her at the school monday through Wednesday or directly by text at 614-300-0130. Thank you!
First, a note of congratulations to House Altruismo who was the winner of our iReady Reading challenge. The grand total for all houses was 1705 iReady Reading lessons completed
during the month of January. Everyone who participated was able to benefit from this challenge. Way to go, Northtowne!
For the month of February we are focusing on kindness and friendship with a Letters for Friends House challenge. From February 3rd though the 26th write a notes to friends and drop them in your House's box. Make your your notes have your name and your friend's name a grade so that we can deliver the notes after the 26th. Families, you can encourage your students to write these at home and bring to school the next day. The House with that authors the most letters written will win extra recess and a surprise! Also, while pictures drawn by students who cannot write sentences will be accepted, random scribbles don't count.
Our Stay in the Game room has been getting good use. Each month we run a report of students who have had perfect attendance for the month. Those students are then able to use the games and activities in the Stay in the Game room for a 20 minute reward. For the month of January we had 83 students with perfect attendance for the month!
Staff Heros Illustrating Northtowne Excellence (SHINE) is an award for our staff that is similar to the student TAG awards. SHINE recognizes that even adults thrive better when they are recognized for their efforts! While staff are able to nominate each other for these awards, the real magic happens when our families get involved too!!
With SHINE caregivers, and students (with the guidance of their adults at home) can share a moment of greatness that was noticed and appreciated. Did a staff member go above and beyond? Were they especially helpful? Were they responsive to your needs or concerns? Even small actions can make a big difference for the people they impact. Please let our staff know when they have positively impacted your or your student's life!
To nominate a staff member, fill out the “SHINE” Google Form with the date, your name, name of the nominee, and reason for the SHINE. A SHINE award certificate will be filled out and delivered to the appropriate staff member for each nomination made in the Google Form. The link for the form is here: https://forms.gle/Zhs76dZ6kgLY16DF6
Do you have concerns about how your student is managing school expectations (academic, behavior, social, etc.)? Click the link below to fill out a form that will let the school know about your concerns. Your communication with us helps us to be sure that no one in need is missed.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeWUlEYRyPMJkDPvLB5DLRO-6aYS6JJErlVyZokHqc4rV1s1A/viewform
Did you delete a Northtowne News email and then realize there was a resource you still wanted to check out? Do you remember seeing a newsletter announcement about a community resource but now you can't remember the name of the organization and you can't find the email from the newsletter? Don't worry! The information you need is not lost! All prior Newsletters and mid-month updates are available on the Northtowne Elementary web site. The button below will take you directly to the newsletter archive.