Hovatter Elementary

Greetings Hovatter Families!

This upcoming Friday will mark the end of the second quarter and half way through the school year. We are analyzing mid year assessments and will adjust instruction accordingly so our Honeybees can continue to thrive!

With the colder winter temperatures, please be certain your child is dressed appropriately for the colder weather. Our teachers do try to go outside for recess when the temperature is comfortably above freezing, even if it is an abbreviated period of time. Also, it is helpful if outerwear, lunch bags, water bottles, etc. are labeled with your child's first and last name. Our Lost and Found is often overflowing with items left inside and outside of the school and would love to be able to return these items to the rightful owner.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend! Stay safe, and for our Washington Commanders fans....wooohooo....let's GO!

Calendar Reminders for Upcoming Student and School Holidays:

January 20th: School Holiday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

January 27th-28th: Teacher Workdays/Professional Learning Day: No school for students

January 29th: Lunar New Year: School Holiday

Congratulations to our Honeybees who were recognized for Honeybee of the Month for December! As part of our school wide PBIS program, these students consistently demonstrated exemplary behavior in Readiness, Respect, Responsibility AND Kindness in the classroom and across learning environments!

Grade 3: Grayson Sutton, William Davidson, Luca Vagnerini, Sahana Bhatia, Charlotte Mathieu, Addie Hegman, Anna Conolly, Youssef Reyad, Brandon White, Vihan Singh, Silas Spinosa and Kai Metzgar

Grade 4: Ari Rajbhandari, Celine Kalifa, Thomas Hughes, Aria Hoffman, Tyler Wilson, Estelle Tabron, Adera Dawit, Adhrith Srungaram, Caroline Van Horne, Ella Estrada, Siddhan Gukulram, Connor Gondek, Ava Nagra and Rosaline Travis

Grade 5: Sarah Koujalgi, Hari Yoseph, Sophie Gundry, Kenaan Homa- Tanai, Gianna Dalessio, Carson Landry, Brayden Harrell, Tabi Marquez, Evan Nolte and Audrey Nosrat

Keep up the great work and effort!

Congratulations to the following 20 super spellers who won their classroom spelling bee and competed in the Hovatter school spelling bee on Friday. We are very proud of these HoneyBEES!

Chaitra Matta, Seth Reeder, Vihaan Tirumalasetty, Aditi Nellutla, Sahasrika Koripalli, Yuthika Dasari, Tyler Dao, Nicholas Obendorf, Colton Eways, Emmanuelle Reddy, Zain Khaja, Sanvitha Sadhu, Chase Coulter, Ryleigh Stewart, Alex Macchiarolo, Noelle Nam, Ashvath Thogaru, Shlok Sondhi, Aaryan Mandala, Rayaan Sundaram

Alternates:

After 25 competitive rounds Vihaan Tirumalasetty was named our Spelling Bee Champion, by correctly spelling championship word eulogy. Chaitra Matta was our 1st Runner Up.

Vihaan will move on to the next round of competition next month

Sharing Your Culture

Hovatter is committed to sharing the cultures of our families and learning from each other. Please consider sending in a video or artifact we can share on our internal morning news show or display in our locked showcase which might teach others about your customs and traditions. Each month we celebrate different cultures. For example, September 15th-October 15th is Hispanic Heritage Month. Ideally we would like to play the videos and display the artifacts during this time period from our Hispanic families. During other months, we could share other customs from other cultures. Some examples of videos could be a recipe, dance, or story. If interested, please complete this form to submit an entry.

TUESDAY

LCPS FOOD SHOW FAVORITE LOMO SALTADO

FAJITA CHICKEN RICE BOWL

CHEESE QUESEDILLAS

COLD OPTION

YOGURT, STRING CHEESE AND BAGEL

SUN BUTTER & JELLY SANDWICH

WEDNESDAY

CURLY PASTA WITH MARINARA SAUCE

BREADED MOZZARELLA CHEESE STICKS

COLD OPTION

YOGURT, STRING CHEESE AND BAGEL

SUN BUTTER & JELLY SANDWICH

THURSDAY

CHICKA BOOM BOOM SANDWICH

GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH

COLD OPTION

YOGURT, STRING CHEESE AND BAGEL

SUN BUTTER & JELLY SANDWICH

FRIDAY

FOUR CHEESE PIZZA

PEPPERONI PIZZA (TURKEY & BEEF)

MINI CORN DOGS

COLD OPTION

YOGURT, STRING CHEESE AND BAGEL

SUN BUTTER & JELLY SANDWICH

1/30/25 TO 1/31/25

THURSDAY

HAMBURGER

CHEESEBURGER

GRILLED CHEESE

COLD OPTION

YOGURT, STRING CHEESE AND BAGEL

SUN BUTTER & JELLY SANDWICH

FRIDAY

FOUR CHEESE PIZZA

PEPPERONI PIZZA (TURKEY & BEEF)

MINI CORN DOGS

COLD OPTION

YOGURT, STRING CHEESE AND BAGEL

SUN BUTTER & JELLY SANDWICH

Breakfast and Lunch are served daily during the school year. You can create your student's lunch account on LINQ Connect or send in cash/check. Meals include a main entrée, fruit, veggie, and a milk. Meal costs are $3.05 for lunch and $2.50 for breakfast. There are many different a la carte items which can be purchased additionally with the meal, including ice cream (coming soon). You are able to limit extra items in your student's LINQ account. https://linqconnect.com/

Welcome back to our cafeteria manager, Ms. Binni Gandhi, who can be reached at binni.gandhi@lcps.org.

Occasionally, students will forget items at home (chromebook, lunch box, water bottle) and a parent or guardian will need to bring these items to school. We have office volunteers who help deliver these items to the classroom. We are unable to accommodate deliveries from Grub Hub, Door Dash, etc. for students who forget their lunch. These vendors are not permitted access into the school, and our staff cannot ensure the safety of the contents of the delivery. Our staff will ensure every student is offered a lunch choice in the event they do not have a packed lunch.

Please use the form on the Hovatter ES webpage to make a change to your student's normal dismissal method for one day only. For example, they are going home with a friend for a playdate or need to be picked up in the car line for an appointment. All changes must be received by 2:00 p.m. as the form will not be accessed during dismissal. If an urgent change after 2:00 p.m. is necessary, please call the office at 571-367-4120.

Each month our staff receives an email presentation, The Buzz, which highlights important information for the upcoming month.

This year, we would like to continue monthly (individual) shout-outs to our amazing staff members, who are dedicated to the success of our students every day.

We would like to invite you to nominate HOV staff members, who you feel should receive a spot in our monthly Hovatter Hall of Fame. The nominee will have their picture posted in The Buzz, as well as a description of why they were selected and by whom.

You can nominate as many times as you would like! Click the link to nominate today!

We need your help during lunch! From now through the end of the school year, we have set up one-hour shifts to volunteer in the cafeteria (if you can do longer, please sign up for back-to-back shifts). "Duties" include: Talking with students, passing out materials, and monitoring the coming and going of students to the restroom. This allows our staff to focus on managing the room, behavior, clean-up, etc. These slots will continue through the end of the school year. Thank you to this amazing hive--we appreciate the ongoing support!

Sign up here!

A family liaison serves as a resource person for the families within our school community to bridge the communication between school and home by helping parents get the information, help, and support they need to ensure their child's academic and social success in school. Help is provided to families with a variety of information about programs, resources, school requirements, special events, and/or activities. Please contact our Hovatter Family Liaison, Jill Teague, jill.teague@lcps.org if you need assistance with anything.

Winter ASEP Classes🐝

Winter ASEP registration is now OPEN and classes are filling fast! There is only ONE WEEK left to sign up!

We have 53 total classes this session between the two schools and the teachers are so excited to share them with the students! If you have any questions about classes or ASEP in general please email programs@hovatterpta.org

To see class options and for registration click here: https://hovatter.schooltwist.org

Winter ASEP classes will begin February 3rd!

‼️Important Announcement : CANCELLED -Upcoming School Spirit Ninja Camp Days Jan 27th-29th

After much consideration, the owners of AiM Ninja & Parkour have made the difficult decision to cancel the January Ninja Camps.

"The unforeseen challenges of opening a new gym during the holiday season, combined with weather-related delays, have made it necessary to act now rather than waiting until the last minute. We recognize how critical reliable childcare is on teacher workdays, and we did not want to leave families scrambling for alternatives at the eleventh hour."

They will be emailing families who have already enrolled in any camp to issue refunds.

STEAM DAY EVENT!!🐝

Mark your calendars Honeybees!

We are buzzing with excitement to announce that Henrietta Lacks and Hovatter Elementary will be hosting a joint school event, STEAM DAY on Feb 8th @ 10:00 am - 1:00 pm!!

Put your MAD SCIENCE thinking caps on and come and join us for a Saturday morning full of

bee-rilliant STEAM DAY activities ! Highlights of the event will include:

🎉Girls in STEAM

🎉Mad Science

🎉Bubble Lady

🎉Bee guy

🎉TSJ Foundation

🎉Food Vendors

And much more...!

Stay tuned for more details to come!

Spirit Wear Store

Attention All Honeybees!!

We are super excited to announce our New Winter Inventory is ready and available to purchase online ! New products include Squad Gear Fleece Sweatshirts; Outerwear; Infant Wear; Accessories; Homegoods and so much more!!

Click to access our Spirit Wear Store today! https://bit.ly/hivespirit

This year, our spirit wear store will stay open throughout the school year and your order will ship directly to you!

Staff Favorite Things/Wish Lists🐝

Staff Favorite Things Forms with classroom wish lists are now up on the PTA Website! Missing forms will be added as we receive them! These are great resources to help with classroom needs and to spoil our staff for all they do for our honeybees! https://hovatterpta.givebacks.com/w/StaffAppreciation

Business Sponsorships!

We are currently looking for Business Sponsors for the PTA! Do you own a business or know a business that may be interested ? Click for more information and to become a sponsor! Sponsorship Form

My name is Leah Macchiarolo, and I am the LEAF (Loudoun Education Alliance of Families) Representative for Hovatter Elementary School. LEAF is an advisory group voice for parents to elevate educational concerns and provide feedback to the board on current or proposed policies or issues facing the School Board.

LEAF is continuing to explore best practices to effectively disseminate information to LCPS families and ensure we are a well-informed community. Outside of newsletter updates, one potential means for communication is via a LEAF specific facebook group(s). Hovatter and Henrietta Lacks are part of the Dulles South District Facebook Group. There is also the Lightridge Pyramid Schools Page to find information regarding upcoming community events for Lightridge and its pyramid schools (Willard MS, Pinebrook ES, Buffalo Trail ES, Aldie ES, Goshen Post ES, Hovatter ES, Henrietta Lacks ES). I recommend connecting to these two groups to stay in contact with our amazing district.

Let's advocate for our children and have our voices heard! If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me directly at hovatterleaf@gmail.com.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through the details of dismissal. Day 2 improved from Day 1, and we are continuing to review our plans to ensure the most safe and efficient processes.

A few details to note:

• NO cars may park and walk students through the moving car line into the school. If you are dropping your child off at school by car, you must enter the car line.
• If you are a walker or bike rider, it means you are walking from your home, not from your car parked in any of the school parking areas.
• There are no left turns into the Hovatter school campus during arrival times. The cones are placed on Collaboration Drive at 6:45 and removed at 7:33.
• Please pay close attention to the staff supervising the car line by keeping cars moving and encouraging drivers to pull up as far as possible.

Email: Hovatter@lcps.org
Website: https://www.lcps.org/hovatter
Location: 41135 Collaboration Drive, Aldie, VA, USA
Phone: 571.367.4120
Twitter: @HovatterES