Dear Parents and Guardians,
November has been a busy month for our students and we are all looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday with our families. This year I am feeling particularly grateful to be a part of our Red Mill community. Our staff are all so dedicated and caring and our students amaze me every day. We started the month with a patriotic recognition of Veteran’s at our assembly attended by over 60 veterans whom are family to our students. Our students paid tribute to our service members and learned the importance of remembering the sacrifices they have made, and the courage it takes to defend honor, duty and country.
This month we focused on appreciating what we have and helping others in need. Red Mill set a goal to collect 500 cans of cranberries for the Equinox Annual Thanksgiving meal and our students quickly doubled the goal and reached 1,000 cans. Red Mill did not stop there and to our amazement, we reached 1,548 cans—-tripling our goal! The spirit of generosity is alive and well in the Red Mill community! Students were happy to be recognized for their astounding efforts with a night free from homework!! As an extra incentive the top class will be awarded a pizza party (Mr. Brownell’s 3rd Grade, 139 cans) As we tripled the goal, we also increased the incentive to the top three classrooms (Mrs. Harrison’s 4th grade, 134 cans and Mrs. Santillo’s 1st Grade with 130 cans). Great job by the entire school!
Character Corner
October’s guiding principle was RESPONSIBILITY. Many of our students demonstrated the character trait throughout the month and were recognized and celebrated at our second Character Education Assembly led by our 2nd grade teachers and students. November’s guiding principle is COURAGE. Our social worker, Mrs. Petromelis, coordinated our Veteran’s Day assembly where each classroom and our 5th grade Chorus participated in making our Veteran’s feel very special. At our November character education assembly today, Mrs. Hayes 4th grader’s will share with us the courage they have shown by implementing mindfulness as a new strategy in the classroom to improve focus, increase health, wellness and positive thinking! Our students continue to benefit from learning lifelong skills beyond the excellent academic instruction they receive in the classroom each day. Our monthly focus on positive character helps our learners become happy and productive good citizens. The following classrooms were recognized by our special area teachers for exemplary behavior and efforts in Art, Music, P.E., Library and the Cafeteria:
VIP Class of the Month
OCTOBER
Music. – Mrs. Strock’s 2nd Grade Class
Art – Mrs. DeLancey’s 1st Grade Class
Library. – Mrs. Dunne’s Kindergarten Class
Cafeteria – Mrs. Deer’s 2nd Grade
Phys. Ed. – Mrs. Harrison’s 5th Grade Class
NOVEMBER
Music. – Mrs. Hayes 4th Grade
Art. – Mrs. Stickles 1st Grade
Library. – Mr. Brownell’s 3rd grade
Cafeteria. – Mrs. Harrison’s 5th Grade
Phys. Ed. – Mrs. Duncan’s 3rd Grade
Best of the Bus
Congratulations to the following students who were recognized by their bus drivers for being outstanding riders, respectful and helpful: Grade 5:Leah Vitale, Hayden Lizotte, Sienna Randall, Gage Fugitt. Grade 4: Carmella Bove-Stevens, Trinity Pallone-Sutton, Michael Marchiony, Eli Parkinson, Rebecca John. Grade 3: Evan Place, Henry Polito, Jacob Miller, James Boyer. Grade 2: Ava Rappold. Kindergarten: Lily Connor, Ski’Lah Griffin-Sprague, Chris Teng, Annalise Mahar, Anubhaw Gurung, Luke Vitale, Zachary Zassowski, Saige Charland, Kyla Whitlingum, John Seney. Thank you to these students for the example set on our buses!
Safety
In November we completed our first lockdown drill as well as a full school evacuation drill on November 21st to Genet. Our students were so impressive during both drills and commended for their conduct, especially during the evacuation drill where they remained silent throughout, demonstrating their understanding of the importance of full cooperation during safety drills. The police and bus drivers who accompanied our evacuation drill to Genet said they had never seen better than Red Mill! Our students made us proud!
Happy Thanksgiving to all our Red Mill Families!
Sincerely,
Helen Squillace
Principal