Head's Highlights

Dear Head Community,

September is just around the corner, and with it comes some opportunities for you to visit us at Head! Grandparents' Lunch, All Pro Dads, and our first School Council meeting are just a few. We will also be having a school dance that is out of this world! The students are definitely settling in and displaying a great understanding of our school expectations. I love to see them as I visit classrooms and pass them in the hallways. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Thank you to all who have joined the PTA so far this school year, we are off to a great start with nearly 200 members! Memberships can be purchased online using the following link:

TOTEM Membership Management

Classes with 100% PTA membership (1 membership per student) will earn a popsicle party! Please be sure to enter your student and teacher name when purchasing your membership.

We've got SPIRIT! Spiritwear that is! Gear up for the school year using the following link. Orders will be shipped directly to your home.

Head Elementary School Online Store

Looking for a way to get involved? Would you like to help our teachers get a much deserved break? Please consider volunteering as a Lunch Helper.

https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/60B0B4EAEA82AA5FB6-50872146-lunch

https://jointotem.com/ga/lilburn/r-d-head-es-pta/store#/Product

Congratulations to our very deserving Teacher of the Year finalists!

Hispanic Heritage Month is coming September 15- October 15! To honor our children with Hispanic roots, we are having a contest to see how many Hispanic countries our students can name. Below is a study map you can download. The first page has the countries, the second is blank. There is also a space in the media center to study. The winning students will be featured on Headline News, our morning news show. Hispanic Countries Maps.

In addition, students who are from Hispanic countries, or have ancestors from Hispanic countries are welcome during Hispanic Heritage Month to show us on the media center world map, The video clips will be shown on the news.

We will be celebrating: Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Spain and Equatorial Guinea.

Hispanic Heritage Month includes all countries where Spanish is spoken. So, beginning, Sept. 15th we will have Spanish lessons following the news show for our entire school. We will be using Mango which is also available for free to anyone with a Gwinnett County Public Library Card. Please get your child a library card today (not a branch-out card, but a regular library card) and download Mango so your child can continue to learn the beautiful language of Spanish at his or her own pace.

Do you enjoy creating bulletin boards? If so, we need a Hispanic Heritage Bulletin Board. All materials will be provided. Contact Alicia.Hines@gcpsk12.org if you are interested in volunteering.

Reading Makes You Smarter! We are off to a great start! So far, we have read over 4,000,000 words as a school. Keep reading, Broncos!

Read-a-thon: The media center is having a read-a-thon to promote reading and raise funds for exciting, new books, equipment, software and apps! Please help us by registering your student for their own read-a-thon account. Info will be in the Aug. 30th Friday folder. Once the account is created, you can send emails or texts to your friends and family asking them to donate to your child’s reading. By the end of the month, we hope to surpass last year's record of 7 million words and $5,000. Read on, Broncos!

Have an extra hour in the middle of the day? Do you want to spend your lunch hour giving our amazing teachers a much needed break? Consider signing up to volunteer one day per week this Fall!

To sign up, please visit: https://bit.ly/3yRnbHc

For curriculum night this year, we are trying something a little different! We are doing a "flipped" curriculum night model. This means you will receive the presentation BEFORE curriculum night to watch at your leisure. You will receive three video links a week prior to our curriculum night on August 29th. The links will include: your child's teacher's curriculum night presentation, introduction videos from our special areas teachers, and a video message from administration and PTA. Please watch all the videos prior to our curriculum night. We will use the time at curriculum night for an optional drop-in Q&A session. Classroom teachers, special area teachers, gifted teachers, and other support teachers will all be available for you to drop by. This will allow you to see all your child’s teachers within the 6:00-7:30pm time frame. This night will be for all grade levels K-5. Come by at any time within that window that works for you! We hope this new format will allow you to receive all the information you need to have a successful school year.

Payments accepted: Cash, Apple Pay & Credit Cards

Ice Cream will be sold in the Cafeteria for $1 during both Grandparent Luncheon days.

The lunch schedule is below.

The Environmental Club is open to 4th and 5th grade students who are passionate about environmental issues and making a difference in our community. Meetings will be held on Friday mornings starting in mid-September.

Applications will be accepted until September 6th and students will be notified of their acceptance by Sept. 10th. Space is limited and a waitlist will be created.

Chorus is for 4th and 5th graders who like to sing. Practices are on Wednesday mornings at 7:30 a.m. We perform at the Veterans Day program and other community events. Applications will be sent home on Fri. Aug. 16th. Practices start Wednesday, August 21.

Calling all 4th and 5th graders! The FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Challenge is an exciting global STEM competition that lets you dive into real-world engineering challenges. As a team member, 10 students will work to build and program LEGO robots to complete tasks on a themed playing field. But it’s more than just robots—you’ll also engage in research, problem-solving, coding, and an innovation project that lets your creativity shine. Please complete the application by Monday August 26th and be sure to attend the tryouts in the Computer Science classroom—4th Grade on Tuesday, August 27th at 7:30 AM, and 5th Grade on Wednesday, August 28th at 7:30 AM. Students will be notified of their acceptance by Friday, August 30th. Students will automatically be placed in the Robotics Club, if they do not make the team. The Robotics Club will begin in March.

You can purchase the whole class ice cream for $1 per student. Please send the money in prior to the start of the day.

8/27 - Room Rep Meeting at 6:00 PM

8/29 - Flipped Curriculum Night 6-7:30 (Pelican's Snoballs will be in attendance)

8/30 - Color Stables Dress Up Day

9/2 - Labor Day