Author: communications

Dear Hayden Peak Families,

Holiday greetings to each one of you this amazing month of December, a time of year when many of us leave our homes and return to them in darkness while still generating extra light throughout the day for celebrations of kindness, generosity, and goodwill.  Though we only meet at school for three weeks this month, our school calendar is bursting with tradition.  Some of the celebratory happenings in our Hayden Peak community are listed here for you.

We hope your needs are met this holiday season.  While we don’t do a formal Santa program here at school, if you are in need or have extra to give, please call our office and we can try to support both giving and receiving.   Additionally, we want our students to stay warm.  We send our children (and the adults who watch them) outside every day the weather (including wind chill) is above 20 degrees Fahrenheit, unless it is raining or snowing hard.  Sometimes our students get caught outside as a storm sweeps in, and it’s important that all students have warm coats.  Gloves, boots and hats are also very helpful.  Help your children come to school prepared, and If you don’t have warm enough clothing, let us know.

As you know, our Winter Break extends from after school on Friday, December 20^th through Sunday, January 5, 2020.  If possible, keep or start some reading traditions while students are out of the classroom.  It’s especially fun to read a book together, parent and child taking turns reading pages, discussing simple story elements like character, setting, plot, conflict and theme when reading fiction, and summarizing sections of text when reading non-fiction.  Also, have great conversations about events in your own family history or places you have visited, or dreams for the future.  Reading comprehension is built around background knowledge and vocabulary, and the conversations you have at home directly contribute to success at school.

Please be safe as you travel this month.  On icy days, we give students a few extra minutes to get to school, so take your time if the roads are treacherous.  Throughout this season and as we begin 2020, may your homes and our classrooms be places of peace and goodness.  Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Jennifer Fisher, Principal

Cathy Ford, Assistant Principal

December Principal Newsletter (Click to view/print)

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