Dear Rock Creek Parents and Guardians,
I hope this message finds you well as we welcome in the month of November. I want to express my gratitude for your ongoing support and involvement in our school community. I am so grateful for the support of our PTO co-presidents, board members, and volunteers. Together, we are fostering a positive and enriching environment for our students. I would also like to take a moment to thank those who donated food items for our teachers during parent-teacher conferences last week and a special shout out to the dads who helped pass out muffins & milk during Moms and Muffins. You are greatly appreciated!
As we approach the season of giving, our Student Council has once again organized our Thanksgiving Food Drive to restock school pantries and assist families in need. Please see details below. We hope to see many of you get involved as we come together to make a positive impact.
On another note, the weather has certainly taken a turn. Please keep an eye on the weather and dress your students appropriately. If you need assistance in getting warm coats, hats, gloves, etc. please reach out to the office. We are always happy to help.
Thank you for your continued partnership and support. Your involvement is vital to the success of our students and our school community. Wishing you and your family a wonderful November filled with joy and gratitude.
Warm regards,
Mrs. Gebbie
Friday , Nov. 1st- Student Council's Food Drive Begins. See below for details and thanks for giving!
Sunday, Nov. 3rd- Daylight Saving Time Ends
Tuesday, Nov. 5th- Election Day: Get Out & Vote
Wednesday, Nov. 6th- Picture Retakes. Please communicate with your student's teacher if you would like your child to have retakes.
Monday, Nov. 11th- Veteran's Day
Tuesday, Nov. 19th- Hands-On Painting Night in the Gym from 4:30-7:30 PM
Friday, Nov. 22nd- Spirit Day
Nov. 25th- 29th- Thanksgiving Break š¦
Thursday, Dec. 5th- Holidays Around the World from 5:30-7:00 PM
Thursday, Dec. 12th- Holiday Live Performances for 1st grade, 4th grade, and Choir
- 1st grade- 6:00 - 6:30
4th grade- 6:45 - 7:15
- Choir- 7:30 - 8:00
Doors to open at 5:45 and close at 8:15pm. 1st grade will report to their classrooms to get situated.
4th grade will have an assigned spot between room 134 and the music room to line up. Choir will report to the music room.
Friday, Dec. 20th- End of 2nd Quarter, Early Dismissal at 12:45 PM
December 23-January 3rd- Christmas Break ā
Access the 2024-2025 Calendar HERE
Do you love your childās teacher? Has your child had a teacher who made an impact or who went above and beyond?
The Twin Falls School District is lucky to have an Education Foundation that helps recognize our outstanding educators. To do this, they organize a Teacher of the Month program that names one elementary teacher and one secondary teacher for this honor. If you know a great educator, please take a moment to nominate them for this award. The nomination application is open now and can be accessed here: https://forms.gle/Hc52jFpyeRV8TKKW8
Southern Idaho Kids Magazine also runs a Teacher of the Month program. Nominate your teacher now by clicking HERE.
Attendance Taters
Rock Creek's new attendance initiative is well under way. Each classroom has an Attendance Tater to promote consistent student attendance. Ask your student about their Attendance Tater!
Every classroom has been given its own Potato Head. Classrooms can earn a new piece for their Potato Head based on their classās average daily attendance for the week.
*The Attendance Tater pictured is Steve from Mrs. Hunsaker's 2nd grade class
Follow Rock Creek's PTO on Facebook
Counselor Lessons: This year the special teachers will be teaching lessons every Monday to support your children. The lessons your child will be learning about for the next four Mondays are Friendship, Self-Esteem, I am Unique, and Empathy.
How to Boost Your Kidsā Self Esteem by Big Life Journal: How to Boost Your Kids' Self-Esteem
Give Choices and Responsibilities
Do you want cereal or toast for breakfast
Give age- appropriate chores like setting the table, feeding pets, and making their bed.
Praise Sincerely
You are getting so good at coloring in the lines.
You worked hard on your reading.
Use Failure as an Opportunity
Let your children face challenges, make mistakes, and occasionally fail.
Encourage your child to try again.
Avoid Harsh Criticism and Sarcasm
Criticize thoughtfully and gently.
Explain to your kids that you may dislike their actions, you never dislike them.
Create Opportunities for Success
Teach them they can do things for themselves.
Focus on their strengths.
Notice what they enjoy and give them opportunities to grow in these areas.
How to Help Your Kids Make and Keep Friends:
How to help kids make friends: 12 evidence-based tips
All around the world, successful friendship depends on the same, fundamental skills. To be successful, kids must
regulate their own, negative emotions;
understand other peopleās emotions and perspectives;
show sympathy, and offer help to friends in need;
feel secure and trusting of other people;
know how to handle introductions, and participate in conversation;
be capable of cooperation, negotiation, and compromise;
know how to apologize, and make amends; and
be understanding (and forgiving) of other peopleās mistakes.
Itās a long list, and honing these skills requires experience, effort, practice.
How to Help Your Child Develop Empathy:
https://www.zerotothree.org/resource/how-to-help-your-child-develop-empathy/
Empathy is the ability to imagine how someone else is feeling in a particular situation and respond with care. This is a very complex skill to develop. Being able to empathize with another person means that a child:
- Understands that he is a separate individual, his own person;
- Understands that others can have different thoughts and feelings than he has;
- Recognizes the common feelings that most people experienceāhappiness, surprise, anger, disappointment, sadness, etc.;
- Is able to look at a particular situation (such as watching a peer saying good-bye to a parent at child care) and imagine how heāand therefore his friendāmight feel in this moment; and
- Can imagine what response might be appropriate or comforting in that particular situationāsuch as offering his friend a favorite toy or teddy bear to comfort her.
https://mentalhealthcenterkids.com/blogs/articles/empathy-activities-for-kids
- Empathy is the ability to understand and share anotherās feelings.
- Teaching empathy is important as it allows kids to be more understanding and caring.
- Children can learn about empathy from an early age with a wide range of activities.
What is Empathy?
Empathy is being able to sense other peopleās feelings and relate to them. It also involves mirroring someone elseās feelings with no selfish intention. The main goal of being empathetic is to understand someone more clearly. This allows kids to bring kindness and compassion to their relationships.
1. Label your Feelings
Present your kids with different scenarios and ask them to label their feelings after imagining themselves in those situations. Some examples include being bullied, sitting alone at lunch, or being teased at the playground.
2. Drawing Emotions
Drawing or illustrating is a great way to teach kids about simple and complex emotions. Ask your kids to draw faces depending on how theyāre feeling.
3. Modeling Emotions
Guide them through the activity by asking them to model out their emotions using the clay. You can then ask them specifics on how the face looks to really help them practice their emotional recognition skills. Children aged 4 and up can enjoy this activity.
4. Acts of Kindness
This activity will encourage children to be empathic by showing kindness. Have your child tell you about something kind they did for someone else and how they felt about it.
5. The Golden Rule
The golden rule is a great way to teach kids about treating others the way they would want to be treated. You can illustrate this with both positive and negative examples, such as getting invited to play or being made fun of. Here, it is important to teach your child that if someone does something to hurt them, it does not give them the right to hurt that person back. This allows them to develop better relationships with friends and peers as well as understand different perspectives. This is an appropriate activity for children aged 6 and above.
6. Emotion Charades
Emotional charades can challenge children to express their feelings without saying them using words. This activity helps kids identify other peopleās emotions through non-verbal cues.
7. Differences and Similarities
This simple activity can help children learn how to be more accepting and understanding of people who are different from them. Explain to your kids that no two people are exactly the same. Some may be taller or shorter, while others may be better at outdoor games than indoor ones. Tell them how these differences make each person unique and that we still share important similarities, such as how we feel about one another.
8. Roleplaying
Teaching empathy to kids can also be done with roleplaying. Give children a specific situation and ask them to think about how they would feel. Then, instruct them to act it out as though they were really in that situation. Some good examples would be if their classmate broke their toy, yelled at them, or if they found a puppy. Praise good reactions and patiently teach them other ways to respond if they show aggression or anger.
9. Emotion Worksheets
Worksheets are a great way to engage kids and teach them more about emotions. You can use a worksheet for exploring emotions so that kids can learn how to recognize feelings and how they act as a result.
10. Mood Charts and Trackers
Another great way to understand emotions is to teach your kids how to track their moods. Using a mood tracker or a feelings chart, have your child write down how they feel every day throughout the week.
11. Stories and Movies
Children love movies, so choosing ones that teach empathy can really make an impression on them. Try films such as E.T., Inside Out, or Zootopia. You can also narrate or read stories from books that show the importance of being kind and empathetic.
12. Paper Chain of Kindness
This is a fun and creative way of emphasizing the importance of acts of kindness. Have your kids cut out paper strips and write down acts of kindness they offered or received that day. Help them glue, tape, or staple the strips of paper to form a chain and hang them up on the wall. They can keep adding to the chain every time they give or receive an act of kindness.
13. Board Games
Board games are a fun way to have children learn! You can choose games like My Feelings or Happy or Not to talk about feelings while having fun at the same time.
14. Empathy Display
This activity is excellent for teachers who have students that are getting to know each other a little better. Using paper cutouts in the shape of shoes, have the children choose a shoe and color it in. Tack it up on a board with the statement āYou canāt understand someone until youāve walked a mile in their shoes.ā Then have the children share their colored shoe along with a few facts about them.
15. Journaling
Journaling is one method that can promote empathy in children. By further understanding their own thoughts and feelings, it is easier for kids to learn about the thoughts and feelings of others.
16. Kindness to Animals
Teaching kids to be kind and gentle to animals can teach them how to be more empathetic in general. Your child can help take care of your pets by playing with them or tending to their needs. If you donāt have a pet, then your child could offer to walk the neighborās pet. Other examples of activities you can do are creating a bird feeder or reading a book about being kind to animals.
17. Sentence Completion
Sentence completion is a great way for children to understand their emotions even more. Write down sentences for them to complete, such as āI feel excited whenā¦ā or āWhen I see my friend is sad, Iā¦ā
18. Emotion Wheel Activities
Create an emotion wheel and hang it up in your home or classroom. This will help kids identify emotional states, explore their emotions in everyday situations, start conversations about emotions, and even express the intensity of their emotions.
19. Perspective-Taking
Perspective-taking is an activity that can be quite enlightening for kids. Sometimes what is obvious to others may not be clear to us until we see it from their perspective. Have a set of scenarios that your kids or students might encounter and have them answer questions on how people in that situation might feel. You can also ask your kids how they feel about the situation.
20. Conversation Cubes
Conversation cubes are a fun way to start discussions on different topics, especially those related to prosocial behaviors such as friendship and gratitude. Create cubes out of paper with statements on each side. They can be questions like āWhat would you say to a friend who is sad?ā and other similar statements.
21. Different Interests
Teach your child that people have different interests and preferences. You can start by asking questions about who does what in your family and their classroom. For example, ask questions about what people do for fun: Who likes to play basketball? Who enjoys video games? Who likes Legos? It sounds simple, but even older kids will benefit from remembering their friendsā preferences as it helps them show that they care.
22. Emotion Collage
Get some old magazines and search for pictures of faces feeling different things. Cut them up and make a collage. You and your child can have fun hypothesizing why these people feel this way.
23. Help a Friend
Putting an emphasis on helping others shows children that they have connections and interpersonal relationships with other people. Organize activities and opportunities that will allow your kids to help others, such as volunteering. This will allow them to be more caring and empathetic toward others in their community.
24. Say Something Nice
One way to be empathetic is to say something nice to a friend. Encourage your kids to say something nice to someone everyday until it becomes a habit.
25. Sharing
It is true that sharing is caring.
School Resources: Check out the brochures located in the front office for ideas and activities to help support your children.
Community Supports:
- Resources for Families- The district is offering the Student and Family Assistance and Program (free counseling sessions) for our students and their families again this year.
- Need Help? Idaho Lives Project Website http://www.idaholives.org Idaho Suicide Prevention Program (208) 258-6990 Idaho Crisis and Suicide Hotline 988
- Food Bank: Rock Creek partners with Robert Stuart and Harrison Elementary. Community food bank information and resources are available.
- Hygiene Kits: comes with a towel, soap, deodorant, shampoo, tooth brush, etc.
- Coats for Kids: The Twin Fall Optimist Club sponsors getting free coats or winter gloves and hats for families in need.
School Breakfast and Lunch
Lunch is not free to all students at Rock Creek. If you have any questions about payment or completing the application for free or reduced lunch call 208-733-0134. We encourage you to complete the form as soon as possible because there is not back payment once you qualify for free and reduced lunch. You can also pay lunch balances online or at the office.
Lunch account balances add up quickly. It's important to keep up on payments to avoid a large bill at the end of the school year. Unpaid account balances also follow your student from year to year.
Breakfast Prices: $1.65 students
Lunch Prices: $3.00 students
60Ā¢ extra milk
Rock Creek's Mission is to Develop Kind, Safe, Respectful Lifelong Learners who Strive to Always be their Best
Email: gebbieli@tfsd.org
School Website: rc.tfsd.org
District Website: tfsd.org
Location: 850 Federation Road, Twin Falls, ID, USA
Phone: (208)732-7565
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prfile.php?id=100063781904437
School Report Card: https://idahoschools.org/schools/1382
