Hope Happenings

Welcome back and Happy New Year 2025! During this holiday break, I hope you and your family were able to refresh, rest, and are ready to start the new year strong!

We are well into the second trimester and approaching the mid-year benchmarking period. During this time, all Hope students will complete testing in both math and reading to assess their progress from the beginning of the year. AimsWeb Plus will continue to be used to assess students in grades K-5. These assessments, while informative, are one of many ways that our Hope teachers assess student progress over the course of the year.

To our dedicated Hope PTA volunteers -- we are so grateful for your support. The students were SO excited for the Book Fair and Holiday Shop which would not have been possible without your careful planning, time, and support. Thank you!

Please reach out with questions or concerns at any time. Happy New Year!

Rebecca Toomey, Principal

rebecca.toomey@scituateschoolsri.net

• As a reminder, if your child is going to be absent please send a note, call the front office or email Mrs. Kenney at mary.kenney@scituateschoolsri.net.
  

• If you have a change in dismissal for your child, please alert the front office before 2:00pm. This allows us time to inform the teacher and student of the change.

• District Policy requires all parents and school volunteers to maintain a current BCI check and to renew all BCI checks yearly prior to volunteering in classrooms/school or field trip activities. If you are unsure if you're BCI is currently active, please call the school at 401-821-3651.

As we enter winter, it is important that your child is dressed appropriately for school. Students will be going outside for recess with temperatures at 28 degrees or above. Please ensure your children are dressed for these conditions, and have a jacket, hat, and gloves as needed. If students are not dressed appropriately, then they will not be permitted to go outside.

If there is snow on the ground, please ensure that your child is sent to school with snow pants and boots as well, in order to play in the snow.

A big thank you to Mrs. Ethier and the 4th and 5th grade chorus for a a fun-filled holiday concert on the Thursday before break! We have such talented performers in our Hope community!

Monday: Twin Day (Dress like a friend)

Tuesday: Switch Day (Dress like a teacher)

Wednesday: Crazy Hat/Hair Day

Thursday: Dress to Impress (Dress up or dress in holiday gear)

Friday: PJ Day

Huge thank to you our Student Council for organizing this festive week for our school!

During the month of December, students and teachers collaborated to decorate their classroom doors! So many doors looked SO impressive...next year we might need to turn this event into a competition!

Specials thanks to the Scituate Police Department and Cindy's Diner in Scituate for the generous donations, which supports our Adopt a Family Program! Hope Elementary School appreciates your support during the holiday season!

As we celebrate the holidays and look forward to a new year, this is a good time to reflect on the past several months. Think about what routines you already have in place. What seems to be working well? What might need some adjusting?

Routines provide children with a sense of safety and predictability each day. Unpredictability can set children up for experiencing worry and anxiety. Keep in mind that we cannot be consistent 100% of the time but here are some general guidelines on ways to maintain consistency and routines throughout the school year.

Try to keep similar sleep and eating schedules

Disrupting daily biological routines can lead to changes in mood, fatigue and irritability. It’s tempting to let kids stay up late and sleep in during holiday break. But it’s important to stick to consistent bedtime and eating routines.

Homework routines

Having a routine for homework during the school year is essential for your child to establish helpful habits and cognitive skills, such as: organization, planning, prioritization and time management.

Some helpful homework routines…

• Have a quiet place in the house designed for homework and studying

• Set a time for homework each day

• Maybe pair homework with a snack or follow it with a preferred activity before dinner

• Help your child with time management by writing down how much time it should take for each task

• Provide your child with consistent positive encouragement for completing their work

Check in with your child

As the first half of the school year winds down, take some time to talk with your child about how they think their school year is going.

• What subjects do they enjoy or struggle with?

• What are some fun things they do with their friends?

• Who are some of their friends and how do they get along?

• What are they most proud of this year?

• What goals do they want to accomplish this year? Go up a reading level? Learn multiplication?

Overall, let your child know that you and the school are there to support them each and everyday.

Students can receive these awards given by a faculty or staff member for EXEMPLARY behavior in the following categories: Growth Mindset, Problem Solving, Managing Emotions, Effort, Kindness, and Goal Setting. These categories align with our Social Emotional Curriculum- Second Step.

KB loves their book buddies from Grade 4!

Students in 1M love participating in math centers!

In our Mystery Science Material Magic unit, students examine how large structures like houses are built from smaller pieces. In the activity, Paper Towers, students work together to design structures using an unconventional building material: paper! Students built towers, using 3 x 5“ index cards and paper clips. First, they built tall towers, then challenged themselves to build towers, strong enough to support a hardcover book.

Students increased their knowledge of place value strategies by representing a number in many forms by creating wreaths with ornaments representing those numbers.

Members of the Scituate Lions Club visited our third grade classrooms for a presentation on dictionaries and our students were lucky enough to each be provided a dictionary of their very own. Students were eager to use their dictionaries for work in the classroom. They had a great time using clues to find specific words in the dictionary. Huge thank you to the Scituate Lions Club for providing each third grade student in Scituate with their very own dictionary!

WOW! This month flew by here in fifth grade. We are in the midst of our animal adaptation research project for reading and writing! We just started our science unit about the ecosystem and food webs. In math we are learning how to divide four digit numbers by two digit numbers! We had so much fun during our spirit week with everyone dressing up! And everyone in 5D enjoyed the chorus concert we had at the end of the month!

Students in Grades K-5 love practicing their math facts!

Can you guess this song performed by 4R and 4C in music class?

Click below to see our new PE newsletter. Check back for monthly updates!

December was a busy and fun month for Hope's PTA. THANK YOU to all our parent volunteers for making our Confreda Pie Fundraiser, Book Fair, and Holiday Shop all so successful! We can't thank you all enough for volunteering your time!

If you have any questions, please email the PTA executive board at hopeschoolpta@gmail.com.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, January 15th @ 6:30pm

The next Scituate School Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 7th at North Scituate Elementary School! All members of the school community are encouraged to attend in person or virtually. The meetings begin at 7:00 p.m. For more information about meetings, click here.

• 01/02: Back to School in 2025
• 01/07: School Committee Meeting @ North Scituate Elementary
• 01/08: Hope PTA Fundraiser @ Texas Roadhouse
• 01/16: SIT Meeting @ 3:20pm
• 01/20: No School- Martin Luther King Day
• 01/30: 1st Superintendent PACT Meeting @ 5:30
• 01/30: Building Committee Mtg 7:00pm
• 01/31: Stuff A Husky PTA Night, 6-8pm
• 02/17-21: February Winter Recess
• 03/13: Trimester 2 ends
• 04/11: Grade 5 Transition Event at RIC (tentative)
• 04/14-18: April Vacation- NO SCHOOL
• 05/26: Memorial Day- NO SCHOOL

Email: rebecca.toomey@scituateschoolsri.net
Website: https://hope.scituateschoolsri.net/
Location: 391 North Road, Hope, RI, USA
Phone: 401-821-3651