Eagle Family Weekly News

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

We look forward to a truly remarkable year, our 25th Anniversary of winning for kids at East Lake!

Morning Announcements:

In an effort to maximize instructional time and to allow teachers to complete morning routines most efficiently, we are going to begin morning announcements at 7:30 this week. This is a practice already in place at other schools in our cluster and has proven beneficial. We are going to give it a try!

Stay Connected:

• Please make sure to get connected to your classroom Class Dojo account.
• Our teachers include all types of valuable information in their weekly newsletters for families. You can find information about what your child will be learning over the next week, testing dates, schedules, etc. Be sure to check it out!
  
• If you haven't checked out Henry Connects, look at the QR code below. This is a great tool developed to connect families with learning between home and school.

• You can also follow our Social Media accounts to keep up with the fun throughout the year.
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eastlakehcs
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eastlake_hcs/
• X (formerly known as Twitter): https://x.com/eastlake_hcs

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

Dana Flowers

Principal

We are so proud of one of our 3rd grade teachers for finishing her doctoral program and becoming our newest Ph.D. in the house! She is a phenomenal teacher leader who is committed to serving students in excellence.

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

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.

Monday:

We need volunteers for our upcoming Book Fair & Grandparent's Day events. If you are able to commit to either one of these (or both), please sign up here:

• Book Fair here
• Grandparent's Breakfast here

Thursday

6:30 - 8:00 p.m. PLEASE PLAN AHEAD: THIS IS A CLEAR BAGS ONLY EVENT!

From the East Lake family to you...it's our 2nd annual Back to School Bash: 90's Style! There will be food trucks, light concessions, music, games, and fun. The only cost for this event is for food items and Book Fair purchases. Dress up! Take pictures! Have some fun with your kiddos!

*This is not a "drop-off" event. Parents are responsible to monitor their own students*

**We do have a very limited number of t-shirts for sale. Those are $10 each and available for purchase on Thursday night.

Our Fall Book Fair begins! You can shop with your student during the Back to School Bash.

Friday

College Football Season Kick-Off! Students are encouraged to join our staff and wear your favorite gameday apparel proudly! (How many DAWG fans do we have in the house?!?)

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.

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

We greatly appreciate all who are willing to help. You can volunteer by clicking here.

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.

• 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.