OUR GRAY HAWK FAMILY works together to help students feel safe, loved, and inspired so they can be empowered learners and engaged citizens.

Please check out the important dates below.

Thursday, October 14 - END OF THE FIRST QUARTER

Friday, October 15 - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS. TEACHER WORK DAY

Please sign up for a conference with your child(ren)'s teacher. The times designated for these conferences are Wednesday October 20 and Thursday October 21. If you are unable to come in person, our teachers can accommodate a Zoom or phone call. Please do not ask teachers to have a conference on a different day. They are working so hard and are spread thin as it is. Thank you for your consideration!

Wednesday, October 20 Report Cards distributed. Conferences from 4 - 8 pm

Gray Hawk Specials Teachers will be here on Wednesday only and will spend Thursday at Linwood Elementary. If you would like to speak to Mrs. Penfield, Mrs. Ramsey, or Mr. Eller please stop by their rooms on Wednesday evening.

Thursday, October 21 from 1:00 - 7:00 pm *

Friday, October 22 is a day off for staff. *

Students will NOT come to school on Thursday, October 21 or Friday, October 22.

Thank you, Morgan Brown for organizing our first GRAY HAWK Walk to School Day. It was awesome to see so many of OUR GRAY HAWKS together!

Stop by Daylight Donuts at 15518 Pinehurst Drive on Saturday and pick up some delicious donuts or ice cream treats and a portion of each sale will come right back to OUR GRAY HAWK PTO for programs that directly support OUR GRAY HAWKS! See you there!

OUR GRAY HAWKS are doing a fantastic job of remembering to bring their masks to school and to remain masked while in class. We are so proud of their efforts during this difficult time. It would really help if your child could bring an additional mask to keep in their bag or cubby and I would encourage you to wash them nightly (if possible). They get pretty grungy and a clean mask is always appreciated by our students. Thank you for your consideration.

As of Friday, we have 141 ACTS OF KINDNESS reported by OUR GRAY HAWKS. We still have 12 days to try to reach OUR SCHOOL GOAL of 1000 acts of Kindness or Springer's goal of 2,500 acts of kindness. If there is any school that could do this, it is OUR GRAY HAWKS!!!

Remember to encourage your children to write their acts of kindness on the orange papers that were in your mailboxes last week. Please have them write ONE act of kindness per slip of paper. Remember with 241 students and over 50 staff members, we could reach Springer's goal if every did 10 kind things by the deadline!

Last Monday, OUR GRAY HAWKS were tasked with ensuring that OUR GRAY HAWK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL COMMUNITY is UNITED for a KINDER, more ACCEPTING, and INCLUSIVE world! We are participating in PACER's National Bullying Prevention program and helping to spread KINDNESS throughout OUR GRAY HAWK COMMUNITY.

From now until October 20, we are asking OUR GRAY HAWKS to complete random acts of kindness to bring us closer together and raise awareness about bullying. Our goal for the school is 1,000 acts of kindness in total. When you think about it, that is - on average - about 4 acts of kindness per student over the next 16 days. OUR GRAY HAWKS can do better than that because they truly are the kindest children ANYWHERE! So... with that said, I have set up a goal of 2,500 acts of kindness over the next 16 days and these can be completed by our students, our families, and our staff. That is about 10 acts of kindness/student. (I still think we can exceed even that!). When a student completes an act of kindness, have them write on the paper what they did. NO ACT OF KINDNESS IS TOO SMALL. Sometimes the smallest acts can make the BIGGEST impact!

We will put these together for an assembly. IF OUR GRAY HAWKS MEET OR EXCEED SPRINGER'S goal, each class will have the opportunity for a class representative to SLIME Dr. Springer at an all school assembly.

Unity Day is associated with the color orange and we would like to encourage OUR GRAY HAWKS to wear orange on October 20 to signify us all unifying against bullying and helping to create a kinder, more inclusive and accepting world! We can't wait to see OUR GRAY HAWKS step up to the challenge!

PLEASE SHARE THE VIDEO BELOW WITH YOUR STUDENTS!

Bullying Statistics may be found at the following link: https://www.pacer.org/bullying/info/stats.asp

Patricia McKissack was a prolific African American author of children’s books. She published over 100 books and won multiple children’s book awards. Her focus was often on African American history and the folktales that went with this. She was born in Tennessee in 1944 which had an influence on much of her writing. Her adult and writing years were spent in St. Louis, Missouri.

Many of her books were Non-fiction and focused on important and often overlooked African Americans throughout history.

Our featured book this week is “Goin’ Someplace Special”.

In Tricia Ann’s southern town there is a Special place where all are welcome no matter the color of their skin. Even though Tricia has to ride in a certain spot on the bus to get there she knows once she is there she will be welcomed with a smile. A personal narrative story which shares a positive message while telling about an unbelievable time.

(Thank you Mrs. Kenton and Miss Quinby for another great author!)

As a part of our commitment to ensuring that our students are exposed to the contributions of people of color and from different backgrounds, we kicked off this past week by giving daily clues to a famous person from history that has made our world a better place. This past week, the students heard the following clues:

• I was born on July 6, 1907 in Mexico City. When I was 7 years old, I got a disease called polio and was in bed for almost 9 months. This disease made my right leg shrink and I walked with a limp for the rest of my life.

• When I was 18 years old I was in a bus accident that I almost died in. It was because of this accident that I gave up wanting to be a doctor and became an artist specializing in self portraits.

• I married an artist from Mexico named Diego Rivera and our faces are on the 500 pesos bill, which is Mexican money.

• My most famous painting is called Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird

• I died on July 13, 1954. I am admired for being a Mexican artist and for inspiring so many people! In 2002 a movie was made about my life and it was nominated for six academy awards including best movie.

The answer this week was artist Frida Kahlo

Our video this week is all about how brains are built. So many things go into building a healthy brain and it is crucial that we understand those components and share the information with our community. I really like Alberta Family Wellness videos - especially this one. It discusses SERVE & RETURN, the role that stress plays in our lives as we go through critical developmental milestones, as well as describing the role that executive functioning and self regulation play.

Email: dspringer@usd458.org
Website: http://ghes.usd458.org/
Location: 16000 Garden Parkway, Basehor, KS, USA
Phone: (913) 662-7170
Twitter: @drspringer12301