October 31-Thursday-Halloween Costume Parade

November 8-Friday-Early Release-Students Dismiss at 11:38 am

November 13-Wednesday-Late Start-School Begins at 11:38 am

We had multiple family events this week and it was great to see so much support! We love connecting with families as it is such a huge part of our students' education!

We all know that Halloween is something that many of our students look forward to, and we are so excited to be able to celebrate this year! Please see the information below regarding costumes, parties, and our parade.

Here are a few guidelines to consider.

-Classes will have Halloween activities in their classrooms on Thursday, October 31st

-Teachers will be sending out information about their classroom activities.

-Costumes will be allowed, but teachers will provide more information about what times they will be wearing them in their classrooms.

Guidelines for Costumes:

1. Students are prohibited from wearing/using face paint, blood, gore, or weapons and costumes must be school-appropriate. Students are not allowed to wear masks in the building but will be able to during the parade outdoors.

2. Students must be able to put on their costumes without assistance.

-Parents are not permitted to help with costumes, and parties, or bring food/snacks to the building throughout the day.

3. If sending snacks, please consider healthy options (such as pretzels, popcorn, fruit snacks, fruit, cheese sticks, etc.)

Parade (WEATHER PERMITTING):

-We will have a building-wide parade at 2pm. Please see the route below. We are working with Alma PD to help block the roads to help make this as safe as possible.

-We will do a Facebook Live video as well for parents that are not able to attend.

For specific questions about your child's class, please make sure to contact the teacher.

Wow! Over 300 people attended our Donuts with Grownups for 2nd and 3rd grade!!! THANKS to the PTO for putting on this great event!

Thanks to everyone that came out on Tuesday. What a great night of families learning together!

Over the last few years, APS has worked very hard at developing and implementing systems to help all students be successful. This flyer helps to give more details regarding our progress.

One of the components that we use to measure how we are doing with our Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) systems, is called the Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI). We have used this over the last few years to measure our progress. We have made GREAT gains over the last few years and have put so many systems and procedures in place to help and support students!

Over the years, we have a partnered with Child Advocacy to come in to our schools and teach lessons to our students regarding safety. The program that was used formerly was called Protect Yourself and those lessons were taught to 1st and 3rd grade classes.

Child Advocoacy has updated that curriculum this year and is using a program called Safer, Smarter Kids. Mrs. Richelle Davis from Child Advocacy will be teaching these lessons to our 1st graders this fall and our 3rd graders in the Spring.

You can view the website here:

Safer, Smarter Kids

The students did VERY well during the ALICE drill this week. We know these are challenging situations to talk about and deal with, but we want to make sure our students are prepared!

If you or someone you know is in need of child care for your 2.5-4 year old, we still have spots available. Click the picture to begin enrollment or contact Kimberly Hamad at 989-466-7593 for enrollment information.

Spots are still available for our tuition-based preschool for 4-5 year olds. Open House is September 5, and school begins September 9. Contact Kimberly Hamad at 989-466-7593 for enrollment information.

We have a few spots available for K-5th grade students who are in need of before and after school care. Contact Kimberly Hamad at 989-466-7593 for enrollment information.

We have a tradition at Hillcrest of wearing our theme shirts on Tuesdays! It can be any form of camping shirt, such as camo colors, fishing, from a State Park, or whatever camping is to you!

On Fridays in Alma, we wear orange and black, or anything PANTHERS to show off our school spirit!

APS will once again have Late Start and Early Release Days about once a month. For both days, the time to remember for Hillcrest is 11:38 am. Our Late Start days are on Wednesdays and our Early Release days will be on Fridays this year.

November 8-Friday-Early Release-End at 11:38 am

November 13-Wednesday-Late Start-Begin at 11:38 am

December 11-Wednesday-Late Start-Begin at 11:38 am

January 10-Friday-Early Release-End at 11:38 am

February 28-Friday-Early Release-End at 11:38 am

March 12-Wednesday-Late Start-Begin at 11:38 am

April11-Friday-Early Release-End at 11:38 am

May 14-Wednesday-Late Start-Begin at 11:38 am

Thanks in advance for planning transportation for your students on these day!

At Alma Public Schools, we teach students to follow their ROARS. We focus on a positive approach and help them to understand the expectations and what following their ROARS looks like, sounds like, and feels like in all areas of the building.

As a way to promote positive behavior and as an incentive to follow their ROARS, students can earn Panther Paws.

Please make every effort to have your child at school every day! We want to see them and their classmates miss them when they are not here! It is so critical to their education process that they in school!

In all of our classrooms, we teach positive expectations for behavior so students know what to expect. We use the acronym MAC (Movement, Activity, Conversation) to help student understand those expectations. The M stands for movement so students know what the expectations are for moving. The A lets the students know the activity they will be coming and the C is the conversation so the students know what volume level they can be at.

Make sure to download the APS App on your phone. This year we will be using this app for all parent communication from teachers and coaches. At Open House, you will receive more information on how to connect the app to your student's classroom.

We greatly appreciate and welcome volunteers and chaperones in our classrooms and events. Your involvement in our students' activities and classrooms offers a valuable opportunity for teachers and students, enhancing the safety and enrichment of the learning experience. If you’re interested in volunteering this year, please review our volunteer and chaperone guidelines on our district website under “Parents and Community” and complete the volunteer form. This form will remain on file for one school year.

Click on the link to open the form.

Families are such an important part of their child's education and we want to make sure families are connected to APS! Please seek ways you can be a part of our schools!

Don't hesitate to reach out to the office or to your child's teacher to see what we can do to make this a great experience for your students!

If you need to make a transportation change for your student, it must be communicated to the office before 2 p.m. The end of the day is very hectic at an elementary school and messages are not always able to get to teachers after 2 pm.

Thank you for being so understanding in this situation!

Our buiding uses Second Step to help support our students and their Social-Emotional Learning. Each class does weekly lessons to teach a variety of different skills and techniques.

We have officially begun our ELA program called Bookworms! Our classes have done a great job and we are excited to see their progress throughout the year! Each student will receive three different blocks of reading and writing instruction a day.

One of the Bookworms blocks is called DI. Every student is placed in a group based on their skill and needs. They work on lessons geared toward progress in their reading skills and move up the staircase as they gain the necessary skills.

For all of our K-5 classes, we are using a six-day rotation for our specials, which we call A-F day. All of the students in grades 2-5 have STEAM, Art, Music, Social-Emotional Learning, and two days of PE. Students in first grade will not have music this year, but will have two days of Art class instead.

We are very fortunate to have so many offerings for all of our students that are taught by certified teachers!

Here is a link to all the Camp Hillcrest Happenings for the 2024-25 School Year.

Camp Hillcrest Happenings for 2024-25

Email: jhelinski@almaschools.net
Website: www.almaschools.net
Location: 515 East Elizabeth Street, Alma, MI, USA
Phone: 989-463-3113
Facebook: facebook.com/almahillcrest
Twitter: @almahillcrest