Dear Hayden Peak Families,
It might be cliché, but at Hayden Peak we are focusing on gratitude this month. Studies continuously emerge linking gratitude with physical, social and emotional well-being. Grateful people sleep better, have fewer aches and pains, exercise more often, and have more satisfying relationships. People who live in gratitude report being happier and having less depression. Gratitude helps with resilience and increased self-esteem.
How can we practice gratitude with children? Writing thank you notes together nurtures relationships and authentically uses emerging literacy skills. Delivering and reading the notes in person add the dimensions of building terrific memories and practicing oral communication. At home, families can create a list of blessings and add to it throughout the month, or individually keep gratitude journals by writing three things at the end of the day each person is grateful for. You can find free gratitude journal apps for mobile phones, and one positive use of screen time might be to keep a gratitude text or email thread with grandparents or other extended family members, with a challenge for each person to contribute one grateful comment each day.
We are grateful at Hayden Peak for our terrific faculty and staff. In addition to the most important work of student learning, a school is a place busy with meals and housekeeping, landscaping and custodial work, and maintenance that includes keeping people mostly happy whether it’s 100 degrees outside or 5 below. (We had an uncharacteristically cold indoor recess day in October when the wind chill outside made it feel like 18 degrees!) Our office and support staff manage illnesses, injuries, lost teeth and medications as well as all the business of keeping a school stocked with supplies, substitute teachers when needed in classrooms, and children safely checking in and out throughout the school day. (They could tell you a hundred more things they do each day.) We are grateful for each of them.
Our teachers look forward to meeting with each of you during parent teacher conferences November 6-7. Thank you for making time to celebrate your children’s growth and set goals for improvement. If you have not yet made an appointment, please log on to Skyward today to schedule this very important meeting. Each of our teachers are deeply committed to the work of learning, and we are grateful for the work they do each day.
Thank you for the contributions you make for the well-being of our school community, the grace you extend to us when we fail to do things perfectly, and for sharing your amazing children with us. We at Hayden Peak wish you a wonderful November and a Happy Thanksgiving.
Jennifer Fisher
Principal
Cathy Ford
Assistant Principal