Jenkintown Elementary School Newsletter
September 30, 2016
Dear JES Parents/Guardians,
As you know, Halloween falls on a Monday this year. We have decided to switch the date of our annual Halloween Parade and classroom celebrations to the previous Friday in order include it into National Red Ribbon Week. Please make note on your calendar’s that the Halloween parade will take place on Friday, October 28th 2:00 p.m. The classroom parties will also serve as a culminating celebration of Red Ribbon Week, which takes place October 24-28.
On Tuesday, many of our students participated in a special Farm to Table program through our partnership with Greener Partners. This program coincided with our Green Strides tour that brought many visitors to our school to observe all of the wonderful things that our district is doing for sustainability and environmental education. Unfortunately, we were not able to schedule all of our classes in one day, so we will be bringing the Farm To Table truck back again in the Spring.
Despite the rainy weather, Walk to School Week 2016 was a huge success! We had an average of 317 elementary students walk per day with 1,585 total walkers for the week. They seemed to enjoy stomping in their rain boots and shaking off their umbrellas. The students signed large duck feet signs today, pledging to keep walking and biking to school. Keep up the good work of encouraging your kids to bike or walk to school. I want to thank all of our parent volunteers who were here every morning signing students in and handing out tickets. I want to especially thank Becky Wainwright for organizing the entire weeklong event.
Finally, please make note of the following upcoming events. The 8th annual Jog-A-Thon will take place on Wednesday, October 19th. Please see the electronic Monday folder for a schedule and detailed information about this event. Picture Day is on October 10th and retakes will be held on November 30th.
Please be reminded that school is closed this Monday, October 3rd for Rosh Hashanah. Have a wonderful weekend!
Keith L. Purcaro
JES Principal
From the Counselor
First, I want to introduce myself! I’m Karen DeMarco, the JES Guidance Counselor. This is going to be such a great year at JES! I am looking forward to beginning my weekly classroom guidance next week! I will start in kindergarten and first grade October 4th through the 7th and third and fourth grades the following week. I am working with 5th and 6th grade teachers to schedule the best time to work with our older students. Miss Seeley, our Aldersgate representative, began working with the second grade classes Monday, 9/26 and Tuesday, 9/27.
Both Miss Seeley and I are using a program called Second Step. Although we’ve used pieces of the curriculum for years, We just acquired the most recent edition of Second Step, thanks to Mr. Purcaro and Dr. Takacs! The new edition of Second Step offers more resources and updated lessons to help students gain skills for learning, manage emotions, and improve social skills. Please be on the look-out for more information on Second Step in the form of parent letters and home activities that you and your student can enjoy.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Karen DeMarco
Guidance Counselor