Brookside Families,
We have finished our first full week of the school year! Our students and teachers have been working hard to navigate the transition from summer fun in the sun to the start of new and exciting year. We love seeing their smiling faces each morning and watching the buzz that occurs in classrooms as students are learning together. One of the best ways to support your students at home is to engage them in conversations about their day. Here are some questions that might elicit some really neat responses:
Tell me about the best part of your day.
What questions did you ask today?
What is one kind thing you did for someone else? Was anyone kind to you?
What is something hard that happened to you today?
What did you read today?
Tell me one thing you learned.
Did you do anything today that made you proud?
Reminder:
Students and Staff have been working so hard that we decided to give them Monday off. No School Monday, Labor Day:)
Community Events (Also found under News and Events on the Brookside website)
Bus routes
Bus routes have been revised once again. Please take a look and feel free to call the office with any questions: https://huusd.org/bus-routes If you notice a change, PLEASE be sure to update your child(ren)'s default plans in PickUp Patrol!
Free Book Fair
Today your student will likely come home with some new books. As staff members have retired or left Brookside and teachers have reorganized classrooms, we been left many, many books that are not being used by our teachers. Instead of just getting rid of them, we decided to allow our students to shop for new books. Students had the opportunity to choose books to bring home. Be sure to ask them about their new books and dedicate some time reading them together. Our own kids have been ecstatic to have some new books to read!
Four Winds Nature Education Program
Brookside Primary School's Four Winds Nature Education program is seeking volunteers to help teach kids about our natural world. Get kids outside to experience hands-on standards-based science education concepts. This year the theme is “patterns in nature” and we will be teaching 5 different outdoor lessons. If you’ve been a volunteer in the past please join us again this year. You do not need to be a parent of a BPS student. We have had excellent volunteers that were grandparents, aunts/uncles, neighbors, and interested community members that just want to help introduce the splendor of our natural world to young minds. We offer all the training and supplies to get you started. Please email us at fourwindsbps@gmail.com to let us know if you are interested in volunteering this year or if you have any questions about the program.
-Lindsay Barrett, Christine Colangeli, Emily Marotto
Backpack Program
Please find the application for the BPS Backpack Program linked here. If you are interested in your child/children receiving food over weekends and long breaks, please print the application, fill it out and send it in to the Main Office. If you need a hard copy, you may request one. As always, please do not hesitate to call Bonnie Flanagan at 802-583-8023 or Michele Ballard at 802-583-8024 if you have any questions about this program.
Kids Heart Challenge
Brookside Primary School is a proud winner of the Kids Heart Challenge grant! With the money, we will be purchasing bikes from Waterbury Sports to use in our PE program. Biking is a fun way to stay heart healthy for a lifetime! I am honored to be chosen for giving back and raising money for a great cause.
-Mrs. Baitz, PE Teacher, Brookside Primary School.
Way to go Mrs. Baitz!
COVID 19 Health Guidance
Consider these Questions before coming to school:
Have you been in close contact with a person with COVID 19 in the last 14 days?
Have you felt unwell with any of the following symptoms: cough, shortness of breath, chills, fatigue, muscle pain or body aches, headache, sore throat, loss of taste or smell, congestion or runny nose, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea?
Do you have a temperature of 100.4 F or higher? If the answer to any question above is yes, keep your child home and contact your school nurse.
COVID-19 Symptoms If your child has any of these symptoms, we ask that you keep your child home. Please call your school's Health Office for guidance on returning to school.
Runny Nose
Cough
Fatigue
Headache
Fever greater than 100.4
Loss of Taste or Smell
Difficulty breathing
Sore Throat
Congestion
Nausea/Vomiting/Diarrhea
School Board Survey:
The HUUSD School Board is in the process of developing a bond proposal to put before our 6-town community this November. The Board has created this brief survey to better understand our community’s perspective on the decisions ahead. If you are a parent, a student, a teacher, or a resident of our six towns, please consider filling out the survey so that your thoughts can be added to the mix. Survey closes September 7th.
Contact us:
Chris Neville
email : cneville@huusd.org
Phone: 802-583-8026
Sarah Schoolcraft
email: sschoolcraft@huusd.org
Phone 802-583-8007
Communication
As you may have noticed in our first communication of the year, the weekly FYI’s are now called the Brookside Blast. We will send this each Friday so that you have all of the timely information you need. It will be linked under the “Quick Links” section of our school website. The most recent edition will also show up under “News and Events “. Community Events will be housed under the “News and Events” section as well. A link will also be provided for Community Events at the beginning of each Brookside Blast. Our goal is to give you timely and important information as well as make it easy to find if you need to refer back to it.