JFK Elementary School
February 2, 2024
Hawks’ Herald
SOARing through the Week at JFK
Hello JFK Families!
Today marked the 100th Day of School at JFK! As I shared with the staff this morning, my principal heart is full of pride towards our learning community as we look back on the progress we have made in the first 100 days! I am honored to be a part of your children’s learning journey and I appreciate your partnership in forging a home-school connection. I hope you will take a few minutes to look through some of the photos included in the folder at the end of this newsletter to check out some of the ways our learners celebrated and reflected upon 100 days of learning! Our students’ enthusiasm and creativity is impressive!
As you will see, the month of February is full of many fun PTO and school events. I encourage you to take time to take note of some of our Hawk-some upcoming events. I encourage parents/guardians to attend our February PTO meeting next week to stay connected to the school community. You may join either in person or via Google Meet. We also have several events next week including Tech Night, a Financial Literacy Night (Saving for College for Elementary Families), and our Sweetheart Dance. We hope you to see you at some of these events.
Until next week, be well, JFK! Take care of yourself, our community, and most of all BE KIND!
In partnership,
Amy E. Rizzo
Amy E. Rizzo, Principal
Follow me on X (formerly Twitter) @JFKPrincipalRIz
Important Dates & Information:
February 6th- PTO Family Tech Talk
February 7th- Early Dismissal for Students (Professional Learning for Staff)
February 7th- World Read Aloud Day 🌍📖
February 7th- PTO meeting 6:30 pm Join in person or via Meet
February 8th- MPS Financial Literacy Night hosted at JFK
February 9th - Jersey Day *** This is a DATE CHANGE***
February 9th- PTO Sweetheart Dance ♥️
February 12th - PTO Enrichment Program - Prismatic “Kindness Quest” Laser Show
February 16th & 19th - No School - Winter Recess
February 21st- Early Dismissal for Students (Professional Learning for Staff)
February 29th-Leap Day- An Extra Day for Kindness!
❄️ In the case of inclement weather please check the MPS website and your email for delays, cancellations, or early dismissals.
School Counselor Notes - In October, we notified you school counselors would be conducting Minute Meetings with all of our 4th and 5th graders this year. Counselors found the October meetings very valuable in getting to know our students, and they will be doing follow-up meetings in February. As a reminder, Minute Meetings are brief, face-to-face meetings with each child to make sure all of our students are connected in school and they know where to go if they need help. Counselors ask children a few simple questions about their friends, what adult they go to if they need help, their challenges, and their interests. Please contact your school counselor, Jessica Swope - jswope@milforded.org if you have any questions.
Parent Reminders:
Student Absence & Reporting Procedure:
The school attendance line is no longer the means for reporting student absence. A new requirement is for parents/guardians to fill out the Attendance Absence Form within PowerSchool any time their child is absent.
The procedure for notifying the school of your child’s early dismissal or late arrival is the same as previous years. If your child will be arriving/joining late or leaving early, please email the building secretary, the greeter and classroom teacher.
This form must be completed on the day the child is absent and must be completed on each day
Absent. If you fill out the form more than once in a day, only the latest will be seen.
You can watch the steps below in this video:
The purpose of this form is to keep everyone safe and healthy by verifying the child’s symptoms.
1) Start by logging into PowerSchool (https://gradebook.milforded.org)
2) After logging in, click Forms in the left navigation.
Note: If you are on a phone’s browser and don’t see Forms at first, tap the little right-facing
arrow in the upper-left corner to show the left navigation.
3) If you have more than one child, make sure you click/tap the correct child’s name in the
upper-left corner first.
4) On the Forms page, look for the Attendance section. Click/tap the Attendance Absence Form -
Parents link.
Note: If the form never loads, please make sure you are not using the Firefox web browser.
5) Answer Yes or No to the questions and then click/tap Submit.
PowerSchool Portal:
Please take a moment to log into PowerSchool and update your parent contact information. We want to make sure we have accurate addresses, phone numbers and contact information for all of our JFK learners. Thank you!
Morning Drop Off:
Please be sure to pull all the way up when dropping students off in the morning! It helps the drop off line move more smoothly. Thank you!
Kindergarten Registration for the 2024-2025 School Year
Kindergarten registration is available online for the 2024-2025 school year.
Morning Snack/Breakfast
The cafeteria does not serve breakfast on delayed opening days. Please be sure your child has breakfast before coming to school. On delayed opening days lunch is served at the regular times.
K & 2 - 11:10-11:40
1 & 4 - 11:45-12:15
2 & 5 - 12:20-12:50
❤️🩹News from the Nurse
Hello families!
With cold/flu season upon us please remember to be diligent with handwashing. There is a copy of the illness guidelines on the MPS JFK website under the nurse's office tab.
Remember to make sure your student has a winter coat for outdoor recess.
Change of Clothes - If your child comes home with clothing from the Nurse’s Office, please wash the item and return it to school as soon as possible. We do encourage parents of our students to pack a change of clothes in their child’s backpack.
Community Connections News
This week's CCC News contains information and links for a mix of resources & fun activities. Among the community services you will find links for the CT FoodShare's Mobile Pantry and The New Haven Ballet.
For Family fun you'll find information about fun events for the family from Milford's Public Library and The Carousel Museum. For students A STEAM activity to build a pipe organ that you can play. Also registrations for the Summer Theater Camp at the MAC have opened!
Financial Literacy Night- Feb. 8 , 2024 at John F Kennedy Elementary School
It’s never too early to start saving for college and with the dozens of ways to go about it, we are pleased to invite you to this special FREE event to learn how to begin. Join us as we hear from our guest experts as they share the many ways that anyone can afford a college education.DInner and Free Childcare will also be provided.
For information and to register visit the CCC Website or call the MPS Community Connections Centers.
Remember that the CCC Website is updated with links to community resources.
To locate the CCC’s web page go to Milford’s main page and click on the Menu tab & scroll down under district Information to find the Community Connections Centers!
Mary-Kathryn Williams, Coordinator
Milford Community Connection Centers
203-882-6094
Learn more about our Hawk-some Pre-K Paraprofessionals Ms. Judy & Ms. Fedor
Specialist Spotlight - STEM
Hi JFK Families,
Since I last gave an update, a lot has happened for me personally. My wife had a daughter, so I missed some time in the lab. However, our JFK students didn't miss a beat, they have carried right on studying weather, light and sound, and even animal life cycles and food webs As the weather (hopefully) warms up over the next few weeks, I am planning to have our science classes take advantage of the courtyard space and other outdoor areas to find new ways for students to engage in science!
This week I wanted to highlight this interesting science phenomena, but feel free to check out other fun experiments that I have recorded here!
Thanks,
Mr. Sabo
News from the JFK PTO
Be sure to check out the Newsletter from the JFK PTO this week that includes important information on upcoming events, programming and fundraisers! When you support the PTO you are directly supporting our school community.
Our STEAM program for our K-2 students has been so much fun. Thank you to Mrs. Bellon and Mrs. Shabarekh for doing this along with our two parent volunteers. Take a look at all the fun they are having.
Room 17 and the Milford Arts Council
Room 17 and the Milford Arts Council have designed an event to showcase that Math is EVERYWHERE! Children (“artists”) in grades K-12 can use various media (Music, Digital Media, Dance, Photography, Painting Sculpting..etc.) to create a piece and share how they incorporated math.
Artists will be invited to The MAC on March 24th, 2024 to share their creation with our community and their family members. Judges will be visiting all artists and selecting finalists and winners. Prizes will be awarded. New this year, we will have CASH prizes for our grades 6-12 winner(s)! Finalists and winners will have their work displayed at The Walnut Beach Coffee House for a period of time after the event. Last year we received news coverage as well!
We would appreciate it if you could share this opportunity with your teachers and school communities. See attached flier to display in Art Rooms, included in weekly Upcoming Milford Events and school newsletters!
Click here for submission details and deadlines or visit www.room17math.com/MACshow.
Interested in judging, sponsoring or donating to our event? Email MACshow@room17math.com.
We encourage EVERYONE to save the date and stop by to support youth education and the arts! See attached photos and a few submissions from last year!
~The Room 17 Team and The Milford Arts Council
Room 17, Inc. is a women-run nonprofit organization with a mission to spread the joy of mathematics through engaging experiences, in order to eliminate math phobia. We are deeply passionate about teaching and learning mathematics, encouraging everyone to see math all around them, and creating a community of confident mathematicians.
A Glimpse at the Week:
Click here to view pictures of some of the HAWK-SOME learning and events that happened at JFK this week!
JFK: A Community Where ALL Learners SOAR!