We have enjoyed a fabulous start to the new school year! As I take my daily walk throughout the school, I am always pleased to see the happy faces of students who are engaged in learning. Learning is alive at Hamil-ton Elementary! As educators, we are always promoting the habit of be-coming life-long learners. There is a lot of learning going on as teachers are working very attentively to make sure your children are getting the best possible, engaging learning environment here at Hamilton Elemen-tary.

One to the World is a Loudoun County initiative that focuses on significant content and the important competencies of critical thinking, communica-tion, collaboration, creativity, and contribution. Students are engaged in authentic problems and create public products for the world. At Hamilton we have some of our classrooms using the gardening beds for this experi-ence. Mrs. Voce’s class has been measuring the garden beds using pe-rimeter and area skills and analyzing seeds to see how they will need to be planted for optimal growth. The class will be creating QR Codes to be placed in the beds to mark the plants and the students will be creating brochures or posters about the process of the food chain and healthy eat-ing habits, two SOLs taught in third grade. Ultimately, our students are learning that there are needy families in our community. All of the vegeta-bles will be donated to the Tree of Life food pantry in Purcellville where they will be distributed within the community to feed needy families with fresh vegetables. Stay tuned to future articles to find out what other clas-ses are doing to reach beyond the classroom to connect to the world.

We are also helping the Tree of Life Food Pantry by starting our food re-covery program on Monday. Please take some time this weekend to talk to your children about food recovery. We want to make it clear to all stu-dents that first and foremost we want them to eat their lunch, whether it is a school lunch or packed lunch. Secondly, if you want your child to bring home an unopened packaged snack, we want the students to honor your wishes. The food recovery is set up to collect unopened packaged snacks, fresh fruit and unopened dairy items that would otherwise be thrown away. We are able to collect apples, yogurt, cheese sticks, milk cartons and oth-er packaged snacks. They will be picked up once a week and donated to the Tree of Life Food Pantry in Purcellville. This is a wonderful opportunity to teach our children charity. Instead of throwing food away, we can give it to people in the community who need it.

Kelly Meisenzahl

Kelly Meisenzahl, Principal 540-751-2570 Kelly.meisenzahl@lcps.org OCTOBER 2015

Upcoming Dates

10/5 2:30 Family Garden Clean Up

10/8 6:30 PTA Meeting ParentVue

10/12 Columbus Day—No School

10/17 10-4 Fall Farm Tour Carnival

10/29 Wear Orange Perseverance Spirit

10/30 End of 1st 9 weeks

10/30 1:40 Harvest Day Parade in Gym and Class Parties

11/2 No School Teacher Workday

11/3 Election Day and Teacher Workday—No School for kids

11/6 Grade 5 Field Trip to Blandy Farm

11/9-11/13 Book Fair

11/10 6:30 PTA Meeting Reading with your child at home

11/10 Book Fair Family Night

11/11 Report Cards go Home

11/11 Picture Retakes

11/16-11/21 American Education Week

11/20 Panther Spirit Day

11/23 Cosmic Adventures Assembly

11/25-11/27 Thanksgiving Break

12/3 6:30 PTA Meeting

12/4 Wear Red Trustworthy Spirit

12/17 8:30 Reptiles Alive Assembly

12/18 1:45 Winter Sing Along

CONGRATULTIONS:

Congratulations to the Hamilton Ele-mentary staff , stu-dents and parents for receiving the Vir-ginia Board of Edu-cation Distinguished Achievement Award! This is truly a great accomplish-ment and can be at-tributed to the hard work and dedication to instruction.

A school receives the Virginia Board of Education Distin-guished Achieve-ment Award for be-ing fully accredited and for making sig-nificant progress to-ward educational goals.

What happened to the news show?

Hamilton is excited to be joining many other LCPS schools by purchasing the Wirecast software to use with our morning news show, the WHAM show. This new software will allow students to take the controls working in various news production positions: on-camera reporting, producing, directing, graphics creation, etc. We hope to use green screen technology to produce high-quality live newscasts daily, enhancing the show with graphics, audio and other professional touches!

Harvest Day

We will celebrate Harvest Day on Friday,

October 30, 2015 with a parade for grades

1-5 at 1:40 p.m. The morning kindergar-

teners will parade from 9:30-9:45 a.m. with

a class party to follow. Parents are invited

to attend both parades. Teachers and

room parents are working on class parties

and will be sending home information sep-

arately. We are asking students to dress

as a fictional storybook character or nonfic-

tion storybook character or historical figure.

Please be mindful of scary characters, and

any accessory resembling a weapon will not be allowed. If your child has already selected a

costume that doesn’t fit our theme, please remember that there are several community events

during the holiday weekend. Some teachers may request parental assistance. Please check

with your child’s teacher to make sure help is needed. Also, if you have questions in regard

to class parties, feel free to contact your child’s teacher.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

Scheduled Field Trips!

November 6th- Grade 5 to Blandy

Experimental Farm

February 11 - Grade 5 to Leesburg

Adult Day Center

April 5th-Grade 5 to Winchester

Medical Center

April 14th-Grade 4 to Harpers Ferry

May 24th - Grade 3 to Rust

Watershed

Stay tuned for more to come . . .

Guidance News- Mrs. Dominique

The Month of October Begins our

Bullying Prevention Program

Dates to Remember:

Thursday- OCTOBER 22nd is: IT’S COOL TO BE KIND SPIR IT

DAY! We invite your children to come to school with messages of kindness decorated on T-shirts. If you have

an old shirt and you want to decorate positive messages with sharpie markers or any other creative ways to

support kindness!

Thursday - OCTOBER 29 – Wear Orange for the CHARACTER TRAIT OF THE MONTH: PERSEVERANCE

We will be reviewing the “Stop,Walk,Talk” in guidance classes. We will review the difference between

CONFLICT and BULLYING.

Stop: Teaches assertiveness skills and tells the perpetrator to stop. If that does not work, we walk. Quiet-

ly... walk away. Walking away removes the reinforcement for problem behavior. We will discuss a variety

of appropriate responses in class, as well as practice/role play. If any of these steps do not work…we talk

and report the problem to an adult. Talking is not tattling and helps a student to find the support they need

in a bully situation. These concepts will be taught for all elementary grade levels. Along with the LCPS bul-

lying prevention program, I will also continue the concept of bucket filling. This concept was inspired by a

book called, “Have You Filled A Bucket Today” By… Carol McCloud. This book is a sweet and simple story

that encourages positive behavior. It teaches kindness and respect on a daily basis. I will use the concepts

from this story throughout the school year and it will be my 2015-2016 guidance theme. Be a Bucket Fill-

er! When you’re a bucket filler, you make your home, your school, and your neighborhood better places.

Congratulations to our RESPECT winners!

Front row: Chloe Winn, Catalina Nemes, Madison Monsalve,

Back row: Abigail Winn, Charlie Robey, Ava Olechna, Carson Rhoads, Sophia Sills

Great Job!

Erez Rozman, Maddie Gammache, Maddie

Cook, Kessem Rozman, Mia Wolf, Mircea

Nemes, Mason Wells, and Sophia Sills all

completed the Summer reading Bingo Challenge.

Viola Vangjeli completed the TenMark Summer

Math Challenge. We enjoyed a pizza lunch and I

loved hearing about all the books they read this

summer.

The Loudoun Symphony flute quartet came to Hamilton Elementary on

Friday October 25th. The name of the program was "The Sound of Histo-ry: the Making of an American Culture". The quartet shared music in-

spired by Native American culture, the Revolutionary War, post-Civil war patriotism, railroad expansion, the 1960's Civil Rights movement, and

Hollywood movies. The program had a little of something for everyone and was enjoyed by all!

During the week of October 19th – 23

rd, LCPS will

recognize National School Bus Safety Week, and we will be designating Wednesday, October 21

st of

that week as the day to sincerely thank all of our School Bus Drivers and Attendants for their

continuous efforts in transporting our students to and from school safely. Please take time to thank

your driver!

Thank you to Mr. Robey (Hank and Charlie’s grandfather) for the BEAUTIFUL Big Book Holder for

our Kindergarten Class!

We are lucky to have his generosi-ty and talent touch the

kindergarten classroom!

Thank you to our WATCH D.O.G.

Dad’s for coming to our WATCH

D.O.G. orientation! The Dad’s

and children enjoyed pizza and

their time together at school. We

are thankful to all of the Dad’s who

will be coming out on Thursdays

to help in the classrooms.

Thank you to the PTA for

sponsoring the sock hop! Many

families came out to enjoy the

soda floats, crafts, hula hoops,

photo station and good times with

friends. Thank you to Miss Aman-

da Estep from LVCC for the

performance and dance lesson.

A good time was had by all!

Thank you to the PTA for hosting family breakfast! It was a great way to start

the rainy day! Thank you to everyone who came out to start their day at

Hamilton Elementary!

Did you know that as of September 1,

2015, 4th graders and their families can

get into our National Parks for FREE?

Details at https://everykidinapark.gov/

Your 4th grade teachers can pirnt a pass

for each of their students. Each pass ad-

mits all children in the family under 16 and

up to three adults for free.

Contact Mrs. Christiansen if you are inter-

ested in a pass.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/Hamilton_ES

14th Annual Family Stream Day

Sunday, Oct 18th 1-4 PM

Claude Moore Park Historic Area 21544 Old Vestal's Gap Rd, Sterling, VA 20164

571-258-3700

Visit www.loudounwatershedwatch.org and www.loudounnature.org for more information

‘Loudoun Streams Feed Loudoun’s Dreams

Event will be held rain or shine

It’s FUN! It’s FREE! Everyone can participate and learn more about the streams and creeks in Loudoun County and learn about how animals, plants trees depend on healthy streams for food, shelter and sustenance. There will a series of stations with interactive hands-on activities. There will be special gifts for those who get their “passport” stamped. We hope that you will join in for this great family event.