Nantucket Elementary School

Welcome to month two of school!!

Dear Families,

We hope you are feeling the same joy we have been experiencing at Nantucket Elementary School! Staff and students have been establishing classroom communities and practicing routines for all things in school. The children look so happy to be in school and they are trying to do their very best everyday!! We will send a Parent Update Monthly at the beginning of each month.

Tonight, we will have our Open House from 5:30 - 7:30 pm. This is an opportunity for you to come and see your child's classroom, learn about classroom content, and be sure you know how to be partners with our staff. One important thing for you to be sure to do is verify your information in Aspen so that you can be receiving Remind messages from your child's teacher. This means they must have correct emails and phone numbers. If you need assistance with registering in Aspen, feel free to contact Jane (508-228-7290 ext. 2104) or Patricia (508-228-7290 ext. 2105) in our front office.

We also had our first whole school morning meeting, last Friday. It was so wonderful to have everyone back in our gym together to do this monthly gathering. Kim Albertson, our Assistant Principal runs this each month. Our students and staff all participate in greetings, shares, activities, and presentations. We typically have these at the end of the month. Do ask your child about these wonderful NES community meetings!!

It is very important for your child to let their teacher know if they are interested in having a school lunch each day. These are free again this year, but these must be ordered by the day. In addition, please be sure your child knows their dismissal plan for everyday. These plans should not be changed without your contacting the teacher and/or the front office to let us know of any change. We have some students who like to change their plan because they want you to pick them up or they do not want to go to the club. No dismissal plans can be changed after 1:00 pm. There simply is not enough time for us to get messages to students and staff after 1:00 pm. We will follow the daily dismissal routines if we do not hear from you.

Remind App is a wonderful tool for both educators and families! We know this. We know our teachers love being able to communicate with the whole class as well as individually. We know that you, the parents, love this tool too! It is wonderful that this tool allows us to communicate in multiple languages. One caution for us to share is that teachers may not be able to respond to messages you send during the school day. They are teaching and not hanging onto their phones. You may not get a reply until after school dismisses.

We know the buses have been challenging this year. We are so grateful for your patience and flexibility. Hopefully, very soon - in the next two weeks - we will be adding another driver to the fleet.

Our 2023-2024 NES Parent Handbook has been shared with the School Committee. We are waiting for them to approve the Handbook, and we will then post this on the NES website. Please review it. We will also be creating a cheat sheet to highlight areas we really want you to take note of. We will also hopefully have you sign a form that you have reviewed these important parts of the handbook. We will be working with you this year to support student attendance in school. There is a section about this in the handbook. In order to make the best progress, students need to be in school daily.

Thank you for all of your efforts to support your child's learning. It is important for you to ask them about their school day, please do make sure the homework gets done nightly and gets returned to school, and please read books they bring home each day and make sure the book bags come back to school daily. We want you to be partners with us in this most important journey of supporting your child for success.

Know that Mrs. Kimberly Albertson, Assistant Principal, and myself are always available to support you. Feel free to call the school to set up appointments, call to speak with us, email us, or catch us outside in the morning and/or afternoon. We love feedback and want you to feel comfortable reaching out to us as needed!

Best,

Kim Kubisch and Kim Albertson

Meri Lepore's Nurse's Corner

The fall is a great time to prepare your family for a healthy winter and Nantucket has so many parks and trails to explore!

• Flu shots are available and a great way to help keep your family healthy this winter, please consider signing your family up for a flu shot this year.

• Spending time outdoors as much as possible is especially helpful in preventing illness, improved motor development, lower obesity rates and decreasing risk of nearsightedness. Students are spending more and more time looking at screens which significantly increases their risk of developing vision problems at younger ages.

• The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends kids ages 3-5 need at least 3 hours of physical activity per day or about 15 minutes every hour they are awake. Kids 6 years old and older need 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. At school all students have a 30 minute recess so spending time outside after school is very important!

• Nantucket has a lot of wonderful places to take kids including the playgrounds as well as tons of conservation land to explore. Also the Maria Mitchell Association has some really great programs for elementary aged children!

• Outdoor play has shown to make children physically healthier, more engaged in learning, more positive behavior and mentally healthier!

• We are fortunate to have not seen as much Lyme Disease this year although children are more likely to show later Lyme Disease. The Lyme Disease vaccine trial is still ongoing if you are interested in signing up.

• When spending time outdoors make sure to do a tick check afterwards!

• Below is a link about the benefits of playing outside

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/power-of-play/Pages/playing-outside-why-its-important-for-kids.aspx

Here is a link to the Conservation Foundation list of trails on Island.

• https://www.nantucketconservation.org/properties/trail-guides-and-maps/

Counselor's Corner from Jenny Williams and Heidi Smith

Ms. Smith and Mrs. Williams, our School Counselors, have been busy teaching Social Emotional Learning (SEL) every week in all K-2 classrooms using the Second Step curriculum. "Skills for Learning", the first unit, will assist your child in gaining skills to help themselves learn, including how to focus their attention, listen carefully, use self-talk to stay on task, and be assertive when they may need help with their schoolwork. Throughout the year, your child will be bringing home Home Links, simple and fun activities for you and your child to complete together. They are a great way for your child to show you what he or she is learning! When you see a Home Link, we encourage you to complete it with your child and have them return it to their classroom teacher.

Upcoming Events

SAVE THE DATES!!

• NES Open House 5:30 - 7:30 pm NES classrooms 10/2/23
• NPS School Committee LGI 6:00 pm 10/3/23
• NO SCHOOL - Staff PD day 10/6/23
• NO SCHOOL - Indigenous Peoples' Day 10/9/23
• NES School Pictures 10/11/23
• NES School Council 10/12/23
• NES ELL Family Night - 5:30 - 6:30 pm 10/12/23
• NPS School Committee LGI 6:00 pm 10/17/23
• NPS Half Day Dismissal 11:55 am 10/18/23
• NPS SEPAC meeting NHS 6-8 pm 10/18/23
  
• Homecoming Weekend NPS Campus 10/27 - 10/30/23
• NBGC is closed 10/29/23
• NES School Council Meeting NES Library 3:00 pm 11/2/23
  
• No school for students - Election Day 11/7/23
• FONPS Meeting NIS 6:00 pm 11/8/23
• No school - Veterans' Day 11/10/23
• NPS School Committee LGI 6:00 pm 11/14/23
• NPS SEPAC meeting NHS 6-8 pm 11/15/23

Important Information -

• Students are free to arrive at school by 7:35 am. We will have staff coverage to allow students to come into the school to choose a space that works for them - cafe, gym, library.
• We will have our Prek students lining up in front of the school for arrival.
• At dismissal time, the kindergarten and first grade students line up in the back by our cafe, facing Backus Lane, and closer to the ice rink on their line spots. These spots are lines for each class with the teacher's last name. Second graders are out front.
• Any students who will be a parent pick up, will be going in parent vehicles, will be walking home, or meeting adults outside, will find their students on the classroom spots at 2:20 pm.
• Adults may be invited into our school for very specific events throughout the year. But, these events will be scheduled and preplanned.
• Any visitors to our school need to share their identification with the front office staff in exchange for a visitor's badge. You will need to sign in as well.
• There will be no charge for lunches again this year. However, all families should complete the free and reduced lunch forms that were sent home with teacher assignment letters.

Website: www.npsk.org
Location: 30 Surfside Road, Nantucket, MA 02554, USA
Phone: 508 228 - 7290