JFK Elementary School
February 16, 2024
Hawks’ Herald
SOARing through the Week at JFK
Hello, JFK Families!
This week was a short one for us at JFK, but we sure packed a lot into two and a half school days! We began the week with a Hawk-some PTO-Sponsored Laser Light Kindness show! The students really enjoyed it– thank you PTO for bringing this experience to our school community! Also, thank you to the PTO, Sweetheart Dance Chair Stacey Stevens, and all of the families who came out to enjoy the JFK Sweetheart Dance last Friday night. The kids had a blast!
Despite the snowy slushy weather this week, many of our classrooms celebrated Valentine’s Day on Wednesday. You will see in the photos shared at the end of the newsletter some of the fun Valentine’s celebrations that took place! You will also notice that our JFK Kindness Hawk has been swooping into many classrooms to spread kindness around the school. This week happened to be Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) week. As you know, JFK is a “Kind Campus,” so it came as no surprise that our school community was happy to take part in extra acts of kindness all week– I saw notes, compliments, kind words, posters, and small tokens of appreciation being shared throughout the week as we celebrated RAK as a school community! It’s important to remember that Random Acts of Kindness can happen any day, not just during a special week. I encourage all of our families to continue to promote and acknowledge “Random Acts of Kindness” at home and within our Milford community. Kindness is contagious!
As you may recall from last week’s newsletter, we will be spotlighting a different strategy for parents to support our learners in “Making Thinking Visible” at home. This week our focus is on Developing a Growth Mindset. At home you can do this by avoiding saying things like “You are so smart” or “You are good at soccer.” Rather, focus your praise on the process, the learning and the effort that your child has put in by saying things like “I am proud of how focused you were when you were reading today” or “I saw how hard you were hustling during practice” helps to focus on continuous learning, progress, and resilience. Click to learn more about characteristics of a Fixed Mindset Vs Growth Mindset
Finally, during this kindness celebration week, I wanted to take a moment to thank all of our families for your continued kindness and support of our JFK learning community! The home to school partnership is vital to the success of our school community. I wish you all a wonderful long weekend. 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 19th - No School - Winter Recess
February 21st- Early Dismissal for Students (Professional Learning for Staff)
February 29th-Leap Day- An Extra Day for Kindness!
February 29th- Ben’s Bells Kindness Night Sponsored by the PTO
March 1st- Spirit Day- Tie Dye Day
March 4th- Author Visit Sponsored by the PTO
March 6th- No School (Professional Learning for Staff)
❄️ 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 and when picking them up in the afternoon! It helps the drop off/pick up line move more efficiently and safely. 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 Milford Recreation's Adaptive Programs, TEAM's tax help for anyone and the Foodshare Mobile Pantry.
For Family fun you'll find information for programs about Black History taking place at Bridgeport's Public Library. Yale's Lunafest 2024 will host several events in New Haven. There is also information about Milford's Receation summer camps.
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!
Have a great week!
Mary-Kathryn Williams, Coordinator
Milford Community Connection Centers
203-882-6094
Learn more about our Hawk-some First Grade Team!
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.
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!