Dear Heritage Families,
December is here, and with it comes the excitement of the holiday season! As we reflect on the year so far, we are grateful for the hard work, growth, and joy that our students have shown in and out of the classroom. This month, we are looking forward to celebrating the season with festive activities, and opportunities to spread kindness. We hope this newsletter helps keep you informed and excited about all the wonderful things happening at our school as we close out 2024.
Wishing you a joyful and peaceful December!
Maura Neville, Stefanie Lowery & Gary Vojtush
Notes From the Nurse
Medical Authorization Form
With the weather changing more illnesses will start to occur at Heritage. Please remember that we cannot give any cough drops, ointments, or OTC meds without a Medical Authorization Form signed by a doctor and on file in the clinic. Thank you in advance for your understanding on this matter.
Student Illness During the School Day
In the event your child is sick, the office and/or nurse will contact you directly. Teachers are busy instructing our students and are unable to answer any type of communication about sickness during the day. We also ask that students do not email or text their parents during our school day to report illness. All communication must go through the office in order for us to know who we are expecting and when.
Notes From the Office
Dress for the Weather
Per our handbook, we will be going outside in weather above 20 degrees. Please have your child bring appropriate cold weather gear, such as a warm coat, gloves, and a hat. If you're having any difficulty getting these items for your child, please let me know!
Library Notices
Some parents selected to receive library notices during the PowerSchool registration process at the beginning of the school year. These emails will be sent out every Friday as long as there is an active transaction on your child's account. The library notice lists when each book was checked out, the due dates listed for each book, as well as any fees owed if the book is lost and needs to be replaced.
School Fees
You are encouraged to pay school fees each school year for your student. Payments can be made online using https://payschoolscentral.com/ or you can bring a check made payable to “Avon Board of Education” in an envelope marked “student fees” and turn it in to the Heritage office.
Students who have unpaid school fees will not be permitted to attend field trips.
Notes to School
Please remember to add your child's last name to any notes that need to be sent to the school offices. While their homeroom teacher may have only one student by that name in their classroom, we have many students with the same first name throughout Heritage school.
Early Dismissal
To expedite early dismissals, please remember to call the office with last minute appointments that are made before coming to pick them up. This will ensure your child/children are ready for pick-up.
Sign-Out
To ensure the safety and security of our students at Heritage Elementary we ask that if you are picking your child up early from school, you bring your identification card to the office when signing your child out. Our office staff will ask you to identify yourself and hold your ID card up to the window for verification. This will help us ensure you are a safe adult for one of our children. While we understand this procedure can be frustrating, especially if you have to go back to your car for your identification, we are doing this to keep everyone safe and secure. Thank you in advance for cooperating with this very important procedure.
Dropping Off Items
To promote safety, we will be limiting guests entering our Main Office areas. Therefore, parents needing to drop off items at the school will be doing so within the double door vestibule areas, where a table will be set up to leave the marked item(s) example: lunchbox. This table will also have a sign-in area if your child were to arrive late due to a given reason. Guests can always push the buzzer to ask questions with the office personnel.
Mrs. Lee
Can you believe it's already DECEMBER?! Oh how time flies when you are having fun. Mrs. Lee's 4th grade art classes (ANDERSON, BARRETT, BENDZUCK, JAMES, MASLINSKI, MAUSER, ROGGENBURK, SUTER) and 5th grade art classes are busy at work painting their clay sculptures! When painting we are focusing on how we handle a brush, to remember to paint background to foreground, and MY FAVORITE- COLOR THEORY! I love seeing all the new colors that are created each and every day. It is like a giant science experiment class, after class, after class. They are learning that if you add white to a color it will make it lighter (this is called a TINT), while if you add black to a color it will make the color darker (this is called a SHADE). If they are choosing to use black, they need to be careful because black is the most powerful paint color- they know to use the smallest amount of black at a time or it will turn their new color black almost instantly. I can't wait for everyone to see these beautiful sculptures. While I do provide smocks, accidents still do happen and paint can get on clothes/shoes. Please help remind your child to not wear their favorite clothes/shoes on the day they have art.
Mrs. Bryant
South Music
We are less than a month away from the 3rd grade concert on Monday, December 16th. Look for reminder emails and a paper with details going out next week.
When: Monday, December 16th
Where: High School Performing Arts Center
Times: Classes perform at a certain time (6:00, 6:45, or 7:30)
What to wear: Students may wear holiday PJ’s or dress up in holiday colors (blue, white, red, green). They could also wear a holiday themed costume. I just ask that they are comfortable!
4th graders have had fun playing instruments, games, and learning new musical concepts. Excited to continue making music with them!
Mr. Moellman
Congratulations 5th grade students on an amazing Veterans Day concert last month! Your behavior and musicianship set a new standard for Heritage concerts. You should be very proud.
Parents- all of the students completed a concert reflection assignment that got them thinking about their future in the music program. Band, orchestra and choir are all classes in 6th grade, and the AMS guidance department needs to know whether to include one of these electives in your child's schedule next year. For band or orchestra, we don't need to determine exactly what instrument they will play until the beginning of next year. If your 5th grader is most interested in a string instrument (violin, viola, cello, bass) then they should sign up for orchestra. If your 5th grader is most interested in a wind instrument (trumpet, trombone, baritone, flute, clarinet) or percussion (drums/xylophone etc.) then they should sign up for band. Choir will teach vocalists how to harmonize with their voice.
There will be a paper form sent home after break to actually make these elective selections. Any questions about the process can be directed to my email: moellmane@avoneagles.org
11/11 Vets Concert 6:00 performance (unlisted video link)
11/11 Vets Concert 7:15 performance (unlisted video link)
Mr. Jayne
South gym Physical Education students have been working hard playing throwing and team cooperative games. This week they will be building igloos made from hula hoops in a relay race style game. Did you know that getting physical activity improves students' executive functioning, working memory, focus, and much more.
Mr. Mauser
4th and 5th grade P.E. during the month of December will be focused on cooperative games, where in the students will be building skills needed for teamwork.
Our PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) Program is up and running! Our students are earning Eagle Bucks when they are showing appropriate behavior in all areas of the school (classroom, lunch, recess, hallways, specials, on the bus...everywhere!). This year we hope to continue to bridge home and school with our Nightly PBIS Conversations calendar (shown below) that comes home at the beginning of each month. We encourage you to use these prompts to ask your child about their day, get them to reflect on positive choices, and reinforce our SOAR expectations. Sign off and send it back for a chance to win a prize. Thank you for your support!
Eagle Buck Help
Are you interested in helping us cut Eagle Bucks for this school year? If so, please sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050544AFAF2AA6FF2-50924254-eagle#/
Eagle Bucks will be sent home with your child and they can return them to either office. Thanks so much for your help!
Family PBIS Survey
Please take a moment to complete this PBIS Survey. Your feedback is valuable and will help us better understand your experiences, enabling us to create a more supportive and enriching environment for your child. We appreciate your input and look forward to working together to ensure the best possible outcomes for our students. Fall Survey (https://tinyurl.com/heritagefallpbissurvey)
Eagle Pride Days
We celebrate our school pride on Eagle Pride Day once a month. On these days, students wear purple and/or gold to show school pride, and are encouraged to bring in $1 to donate to the Heritage Boosters based on a community-service deed they completed to help out around the home/neighborhood to show school pride. We also recognize a student from each homeroom who shows the Eagle Pride Day assets we encourage at Heritage Elementary. Eagle Pride Day will be on Wednesday, December 18th and the asset trait we will be celebrating is Caring.
Eagle Pride Day assets and dates for each month are listed below:
- September 18th-Decision Making
- October 16th-Respect
- November 20th-Responsibility
- December 18th-Caring
- January 15th-Fairness
- February 19th-Trustworthiness
- March 19th-Positive Identity
- April 16th-Citizenship
- May 21st-Empowerment
Boosters will use the Eagle Pride Day dollars for student programming throughout the year. For those who don't have cash on hand - Eagle Pride Day donations can be made here: https://2022-pride-day.cheddarup.com
Heritage Boosters
Thank you all book fair volunteers and families / Students that attended the book fair at Heritage! A HUGE special thanks for Jennifer Roffey for putting the book fair together and being at the school daily to run it.
Overall the Book fair proceeds from the sale provided $6500 for Heritage libraries and classrooms! Round up the change raised an additional $388 for the North and South Libraries!! YAY to new books for all the Heritage Students!!
Boosters also wants to thank you for donating to CRS Baskets and to Parent teacher conference meals. We would not be able to give back as a community or spoil our staff without your generosity!
Sarah Hughes & Michelle Karla
Avon Heritage Boosters Presidents
