The Heart of Haleʻiwa

• Sign up for Virtual Conference Week
• Miss Hawaiʻi Sweetheart
• Literacy Corner: #808 Reads by Mrs. Yamakawa
• Hispanic Heritage Month by Ms. Santos
• 3rd Grade Writing Club: A Great Day
• COVID-19 and School- Based Testing by Nurse Connie
  
• SEL: Making Treats with Love by Ms. Yonting & Mrs. Dolan
• Gratitude is Good by Mrs. Sumbad

Milah Kupihea is a rising fourth-grader at Haleʻiwa Elementary School. She will be attending the Royal International miss pageant in Orlando Florida, on July 9th 2022, as our Miss Hawaiʻi Sweetheart. Milah hopes to bring the crown home to Hawaiʻi for the second year in a row. She will be competing against girls from various countries.

Milah was also first runner-up at the Miss Hawai'i Elementary America pageant as Miss Hale'iwa and hopes to win the title next year. Milah has completed over 50 hours of community service in the last year and was able to take home The Overall Community Service Award. One of her most enjoyable community service was arranging a clean up for the North shore beaches with her family and friends. Milah also won overall best Academic Award and Judge's Choice for the Prettiest Smile.

Milah's goal is to support her community by feeding the homeless. She looks forward to holding can food drives, cleaning up the beaches and giving a helping hand whenever she can. What Milah hopes to gain from pageantry is a scholarship to help her attend college as well as to improve her public speaking ability. Milah looks forward to all her future endeavors.

If you would like to follow her journey as our Royal International Miss Hawai'i Sweetheart 2022 you can follow her Instagram page @milahmalania_official or her team page @teamrimhawaii.

Our first reading challenge for the school year is "Hawaii Reads Quarter 1". Our island home is unique, with traditional and modern influences from around the world combining with natural features in this special place. Students ... you can earn badges that represent the many facets of Hawaiʻi by reading and logging minutes in "Beanstack" via your Clever login. Read anything you like. Try something new. Read your favorite stories again. Itʻs all up to you. You get to choose what and how much you read. Then log your minutes to earn special Hawaiʻi badges in this state-wide reading challenge!

So far, our students have logged in 4639 minutes! Our top 3 readers will earn a prize, and each participating student will be entered into a lucky drawing. Winners will be announced after the Fall Break. Keep on reading!

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated between September 15 until October 15. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson enacted Hispanic Heritage Week and in 1988, President Ronald Regan changed the celebration to an entire month. This month celebrates the histories, cultures, and contributions of Hispanic Americans who have ancestors from Spain, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.

Did you know that Spanish is the official language in 21 countries in the world? Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world with 534 million speakers. Spanish is the second-most spoken language in the United States, next to English.

Here are a couple of fun facts:

• Hispanic Heritage month begins on September 15, Independence Day for five Latin American countries: – Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. They gained their Independence from Spain in 1812.
• September 16 is Mexico's Independence Day
• September 18 is Chile's Independence Day
• The term "Hispanic" was first adopted by the United State Government in the early 1970's.
• Read about some famous Hispanics here: https://www.biography.com/news/notable-hispanic-americans

I love sharing about my culture and language with others. If you do anything to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month this year, please share with me- I would really enjoy hearing about it!

Below are some books that you can check out:

This week, students in Ms. Felz's class wrote a paragraph about a great day they have had in their life! Read about Chalyce Ching and Hendrix Guerrero's great days.

Getting kids back in school safely requires using layers of mitigation strategies to effectively disrupt COVID transmission. The most important and significant strategy is the vaccine. Vaccine preventable infectious diseases become controllable when the general population achieve a level of immunity to the disease. Grade school children at this time are not able to receive the vaccine. It is up to the adults to decide whether to contribute to our collective goal of herd immunity by vaccination.

COVID-19 transmits easily from an infected person to others before there are obvious signs and symptoms of illness. It can take anywhere from 2-14 days from the time a person exposed to COVID may develop signs or symptoms if that exposure lead to an infection. For these two reasons, COVID-19 has proven to be a very challenging infection to keep out of community settings including schools.

The CDC recommends adding screening tests for COVID in communities with moderate to high transmission and low vaccination coverage. Screen testing will allow schools to identify people with COVID without symptoms so they can stay home from school thereby increasing school safety.

Haleiwa Elementary is partnering with Color Health to offer our school staff and students the opportunity to get tested every week at school with no out of pocket cost. The program uses the Perkin-Elmer RT-PCR test: a very sensitive test for detecting the COVID virus. The sample is collected using a dry swab that goes into the inside, front part of the nose for less than 1 inch. The test sample is gently collected as the test participant performs the test on themselves supervised by a trained observer.

We welcome staff and students who are interested in participating in our school-based COVID testing program to help keep our school safe and healthy. For more information, click this link: COLOR

More information on how you can pre-register your child for COVID screening on campus coming soon!

Easy Frozen Yogurt Fruit Bark Recipe

Ingredients:

1. One large container of vanilla yogurt

2. 2 cups of chopped fruits

Instructions:

1. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper

2. Pour the yogurt onto the baking sheet evenly

3. Sprinkle the chopped fruit

4. Freeze for 3-4 hours until frozen solid and slice up

5. Enjoy with family!

According to Tracy Brower, a contributing editor to Forbes Magazine in an article dated January 3, 2021, "Gratitude is Good". When you practice gratitude on a daily basis, among other things it can help you:

Be more patient. Needless to say, this pandemic has seriously tested our patience. The good news is research has shown that people who focus on being thankful are better able to demonstrate patience. Additionally, research shows that gratitude has a positive impact on our mental, emotional and physical health. It also leads to behaviors such as exercising and helping others. -- What all of this means is, gratitude may be just what we need as we "hang on" or wait for things to get better.

Be more joyful. Gratitude tends to focus you on what you have and not what you might be lacking. And since you can't feel both thankful and unhappy at the same time, when you're thankful you're more likely to feel joy. Additionally, being grateful helps you to focus on now--appreciating the present--and thereby reducing stress or anxiety about the future.

Foster relationships. A study at the University of New South Wales found that when people express appreciation, others believe that they can form a constructive relationship with them, and tend to invest and contribute to connecting. "Together is better" is a saying that we've often heard during this stressful time. Expressing gratitude tends to spread positive feelings towards each other, which in turn may effect an entire community.

To build your gratitude muscle, Tracy Brower recommends the following:

• Begin and end with intention. Start each day by thinking about all you appreciate and expect from the day, and before you turn out the lights at the end of each day.
• Give continuous attention. Throughout each day, find small things about which you can be thankful...Avoid taking things for granted. Make everything count and bring conscious attention to the things that make you glad.
• Be expansive. Ensure you're focusing on being grateful not just for things, but for people and conditions.
• Write it down. Research has shown that when you do that, it can foster happiness and wellbeing.
• Express yourself. Gratitude is both an individual and team sport. When you share what you're grateful for in a team environment, it holds even more power. Thank a coworker during a team meeting or provide positive feedback to a colleague during a project session. When gratitude is expressed and shared, it helps both you and the group.

Gratitude is good, and it has plenty of positive effects. It may also be what can help get us through the last miles of the pandemic marathon. Staying present, being attentive of others and appreciating all we have--just as we wait for all we want--can help us get to the finish line.

It is our hope that you will practice "Gratitude" and thereby "Choose Love" during this pandemic. "Together we can make a difference"!

Click on the button below to read Tracy Brower's article in its entirety.

Email: haleiwaschool@haleiwa.k12.hi.us
Website: haleiwaelementary.com
Phone: (808)637-8237
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haleiwaelementary
Twitter: @HaleiwaElement1