The Ram Report
Happy New Year and welcome to 2025! We hope your family enjoyed a restful and joyful holiday season. As we embark on this new year, it's an ideal time to reflect on the past and set meaningful goals for the future, both individually and as a family.
The Importance of Goal Setting with Your Children
Engaging your children in goal-setting activities can be a transformative experience. It encourages self-reflection, responsibility, and a sense of purpose. Here are some benefits of setting goals with your children:
Fosters Personal Growth: Goal setting helps children identify areas they wish to improve or new skills they want to acquire, promoting continuous personal development.
Enhances Motivation: Having clear, achievable goals can boost your child's motivation and enthusiasm for learning and personal achievements.
Builds Confidence: Accomplishing set goals provides a sense of accomplishment, building self-esteem and confidence.
Teaches Responsibility: Setting and working towards goals teaches children about commitment, responsibility, and the value of perseverance.
Tips for Effective Goal Setting
To make the goal-setting process enjoyable and effective, consider the following tips:
Involve Your Children: Encourage your children to express their aspirations and interests. This involvement ensures the goals are meaningful and personalized.
Set Specific and Achievable Goals: Help your children define clear and realistic objectives. For instance, if they aim to improve in a subject, set a specific target grade or a study schedule.
Create a Visual Reminder: Use charts or vision boards to display goals. This visual representation serves as a constant reminder and motivator.
Celebrate Progress: Acknowledge and celebrate milestones achieved along the way to keep the momentum and enthusiasm alive.
By setting goals together, you not only support your children's development but also strengthen family bonds through shared aspirations and collaborative efforts.
Wishing you and your family a prosperous and fulfilling 2025!
During the week of January 6-10, 2024, students in Grades K-5 will participate in Literacy Task Assessments and benchmark assessments in iReady Reading and Mathematics. These assessments are an important opportunity to measure your child’s progress and growth in key academic areas.
The Literacy Task Assessments will include:
Kindergarten
Letter Naming Fluency of Mixed-Case Letters Task
Rapid Automatized Naming of Objects Task
Pseudoword Decoding Fluency
First Grade
Grade 1 Passage Reading Fluency Task
Rapid Automatized Naming of Letters Task
Pseudoword Decoding Fluency
Second Grade
Grade 2 Passage Reading Fluency Task
Rapid Automatized Naming of Letters Task
Pseudoword Decoding Fluency
Third Grade
Grade 3 Passage Reading Fluency Task
Rapid Automatized Naming of Letters Task
Pseudoword Decoding Fluency
Passage Reading Fluency Task
Vocabulary Assessment
These evaluations help us celebrate student growth and identify areas for continued support.
Assessment results and data will be sent home on Wednesday, January 15, 2025. If you have any concerns about your child’s progress, please reach out to schedule a conference with your child’s teacher(s).
Thank you for your continued partnership in supporting your child’s academic success.
We are in hope that we will have 100% of staff members to join our PTA. Please click the link below to join the Mt. Carmel PTA.
https://jointotem.com/ga/douglasville/mt-carmel-es-pta/join
Why Join? More than 30 years of research shows that children do better when their parents and families are involved both at home and at school. Grades are higher. Test scores rise. Self-esteem grows. Schools improve.
When you join the PTA, you’ll enjoy these and other exclusive member benefits:
Online parenting resources and other materials on issues related to children’s education, health, and well-being.
E-newsletters on parenting and legislative issues.
Special offers and discounts from corporate supporters of PTA (go to www.pta.org/benefits for details).
Leadership training opportunities, in-person and online.
Discounted rates for PTA conventions and subscriptions to Our Children magazine, the official magazine of the PTA.
The Member-to-Member Network connects PTA members to members of Congress when help is needed on issues important to children, families, and schools.
Membership is only $10.00 per person (subject to change annually). Don’t forget to invite other family members and friends to join so they can take advantage of the benefits too!
In addition to parents, we encourage extended family members as well as members of the community to join the Sparks Elementary PTA and take advantage of the benefits also!
To ensure that you have all the important dates for this year, be sure to visit our school website to access our year-at-a-glance calendar. Click here to access our school calendar.
Important Dates
January 6-Report cards will be available online.
January 8-Report cards will be sent home in your child's Wednesday folder.
January 20-MLK Day (No School)
January 23-100th Day of School
February 4-Spring Pictures
February 14-Valentine's Day Dance ($5.00 admission fee)
February 17-21 Winter Break
What is character education? Character Education is a learning process that enables students and adults in a school setting to understand, care about, and act on core ethical values such as honesty, respect, and responsibility for self and others. Below are the weekly character traits for the month.
Week of January 6, 2025| Conscientious-Wishing to do what is right, especially to do one’s work or duty well and thoroughly
Week of January 13, 2025| Humble-Being modest, not overly proud, haughty, or not being arrogant
Week of January 20, 2025| Ambitious-Having or showing a strong desire and determination to succeed
Week of January 27, 2025| Ethical-Being in compliance with the rules or standards
It takes a team to help a school function effectively, and all employees play an important role in the lives of young adults, families, and the community. Each month, we recognize outstanding teachers and staff members who are making a positive impact at Mt. Carmel Elementary School. Those receiving awards are nominated by the students, parents, administrators, teachers, and staff members for excellence in their classroom and positive contributions to our school community.
Teacher of the Month Award
This award has been established to recognize our outstanding educators for their dedication, professionalism, and excellence in instruction.
Selection Criteria: Each month, we will recognize a different educator based on their contribution to the school, excellence in the classroom, leadership abilities, citizenship, community involvement, and going above-and-beyond for students. Teachers will be nominated and selected based on the following criteria:
- Excellence in the Classroom – Consistently advancing students to higher levels of thinking and academic achievement.
- Motivation – Having the ability to motivate and encourage students to advance beyond their expectations both academically and socially.
- Leadership – Serving as a leader not only in the classroom, but also throughout the school.
- Community Service – Demonstrating the importance of civic responsibility by being active in community or other service organizations.
- Creativity and Imagination – Utilizing teaching methods that inspire students to learn. For staff, this means demonstrating creativity and imagination in carrying out their job duties in such a way that they motivate and inspire others in the school community to grow.
- Dedication – Showing excellent attendance, punctuality, and a desire to see their students advance academically and personally; participating in programs and activities outside of the school day in support of the community, campus, and students.
- Professionalism – Showing respect for peers and interacting in a positive manner with staff and students; acts in a responsible, ethical manner.
Staff Member of the Month Award
This was established to recognize our outstanding staff members for their dedication, professionalism, and excellence in their positions. Those receiving these awards can be nominated by the students, parents, administrators, teachers, and staff members for excellence in their position and positive contributions to Mt. Carmel Elementary.
Selection Criteria: Each month, we recognize a different staff member and on their contributions to the school, leadership abilities, citizenship, community involvement, and going above and beyond for students, staff, and school. Staff members will be nominated and selected based on the following criteria:
- Makes a difference to Mt. Carmel Elementary School
- Goes above and beyond expectations
- Excels as a team player
- Demonstrates a positive attitude, professionalism, dedication, and respect for others
- Represents “RAM PRIDE” and is committed to the mission of MCES and the Douglas County School System.
Click here to make your nomination.
Student handbooks are updated and distributed to families electronically at the beginning of each school year. For questions or information concerning the handbooks, please contact Dr. Boone.
Parents, grandparents, guardians, and other family members are always invited to eat lunch with their children. Prior to arriving for lunch, you will have to notify the teachers with a 24 hour notice that you would like to join your child/children for lunch. This will help us to streamline the process and be sure that we have adequate space for visitors.
When planning to eat lunch with your child, please DO NOT bring any food from outside vendors, fast food lunches or carbonated drinks to cafeteria. Be sure to bring proper identification and sign into the front office before going to the cafeteria.
Also, please adhere to our café expectations & procedures as follows:
a. Everyone is to stay in his/her seat.
b. No talking when the music is playing.
c. Clean up your area when you are finished eating.
Grade Level Lunch Times
10:15-10:50 Kindergarten
10:35-11:15 2nd Grade
10:55-11:30 3rd Grade
11:15-11:55 1st Grade
11:35-12:10 4th Grade
11:50-12:30 5th Grade
School Lunch Menu
Click here for the school breakfast and lunch menu.
Nutritional Analysis
Click here for the nutritional analysis of the items that are on the menu.
Cost for meals for guests is $2.00 for breakfast and $4.00 for lunch (be sure to have exact change).
This year, all students (K-5) will use agendas in conjunction with AVID Elementary. Through the implementation of AVID Elementary, students develop the academic habits they will need to be successful in middle school, high school, and college, in an age-appropriate and challenging way. Children learn about organization, study skills, communication, and self-advocacy. AVID Elementary students take structured notes and answer and ask high-level questions that go beyond routine answers.
AVID states that “ When students effectively manage their time, it helps them to meet classroom deadlines, increase the quality of their work, reduce their stress, and accomplish their goals, while also helping to ensure that they have time for other interests and passions.”
All agendas are $7. To purchase your child's student agenda, please use the link below
Parents are required to complete a Free and Reduced Meal Application in order to qualify for free or reduced meals. Meals will no longer be free. Parents will be required to send money for breakfast and lunch until the free/reduced meal application is approved. You can use schoolcafe.com to load money to your child's account or send cash for meals.
Note: If you receive notice that your child has a negative balance, please contact Mrs. Muhammad at 770-651-4216. She will be able to provide you more information on the balance.
Note: If your child has a negative lunch balance, they will not be accepted into any MCES extracurricular activities until that balance is cleared.
We do not allow whole birthday cakes or any birthday treats that are not individually wrapped. We enjoy
honoring our students on their birthday. We announce the birthday child’s name on the morning announcements and allow families to bring in treats within the guidelines below.
▪ Snacks must be store bought AND prepackaged/individually wrapped. [No exceptions!]
▪ Cupcakes must be individually packaged in container or prepackaged wrapping. [No exceptions!]
▪ Any treat should be served during recess.
▪ No invitations to birthday parties should be sent to school unless an invitation is available for every student in the class. A list of student names will not be permitted to be sent home.
When buying treats, please be sure to speak with your child's teachers. Some students have food allergies. Also, you may want to think about non-food items. The items listed below will still make your child feel special and they will last a lot longer than a food item.
- A game for the classroom
- A classroom book (A nice touch would be having your child pick it out, sign it, and date it.)
- A classroom set of items for each child to keep such as pencils, pens, erasers, markers, etc.
All afternoon dismissal and transportation changes must be made in writing. Also, if there is someone other than yourself picking your child up from car riders, please email the name of the person AND provide them with either your child's car rider number or the car rider tag. If he or she does not have the car rider hang tag, please let them know that we will ask to see their license prior to releasing any student. This is to protect the safety of your child. Please make all transportation changes no later than 1:30 PM.
There are some days that your child's bus may be late due to busses being combined or a substitute bus driver driving a new route. If you would like to know if your child's bus will be late, you may locate that information here. This information is updated each morning and each afternoon.
Here Comes the Bus is available for parents and students to download now. The highly-rated free app currently has over a million users. To sign up, visit the Apple or Android store, or visit www.herecomesthebus.com. The code needed to complete the registration process is 79003. Students are still encouraged to arrive at their stop five minutes early and to follow any additional instructions given by drivers.
Ms. Lizzy Kilgore is our District Bilingual Liaison. Please contact her if you need help with translating or interpreting.
Phone: 770.651.2223
Email: lizzy.kilgore@dcssga.org
