15- 5/6 concert 6pm
16- Hotline
17- Hot lunch
       Gordan Korman visit
18- Field Trip 106
        Treat Day
21- Vision and Hearing
          PTA meeting 7pm

Principal’s Corner 11-16-11

Posted November 11th, 2011 by Mrs. Weiner

Greetings Heroic Hale Community!

In my email to the community last Thursday, I emphasized the idea of heroes in our student body and in our community. During the assembly with our guests from the VFW, two important themes emerged: 1) Gratitude for the opportunity to serve others, and 2) Courage in the face of adversity. Before dismissing the students, I reiterated to the students how they can use the lessons that our veterans imparted to us in any challenging life situation. If we define a hero as someone who sacrifices their time and energy to help others, then Nathan Hale Elementary School is overflowing with heroes. I would like to highlight a few heroic things that your children may have been involved with recently.

As mentioned in the Thursday email, many thanks go out to our Student Council and all students who donated food to our District 54 food pantry. Special thanks to our Student Council supervisors Mrs. Bulger and Mrs. Atamian for their coordination of this event. Also, I would like to thank Mrs. Scolire, Mrs. Atamian, Mrs. Bulger, Miss Ellis, Mrs. Krebs, and Mrs. Nystrom for their work with the candy drive. We surpassed last year’s total by almost 100 pounds. Although a piece of candy might not seem like much, I am sure it will mean a lot to the soldiers serving overseas to know that children back in America are thinking about them.

The aforementioned candy drive is the result of our first meeting of “Hale’s Heroes”. Once a month, staff members meet with groups of 11-12 students in a sort of “mini-family”. These families consist of students from grades 1-6, and include students in our autism program. The focus of the Hale’s Heroes activities are service, trust, and mentoring. It is truly wonderful to see our older students working with our younger students and acting as positive role models to them.

Many of our heroic Hale students are also involved with promoting positive interactions with our children with autism. One of these activities is called “Reverse Mainstreaming”, where students from the general education population participate in supervised PE activities with our children with autism in the gym during recess time. Another such activity is called “Partner’s Club”, which takes place on Wednesdays, and focuses on cooperative games and activities. A third type of activity is called the “Integrated Play Group”, and it typically involves 1-2 children with autism along with 2-3 typically developing children supervised by our social workers and speech pathologists. The Integrated Play Groups focus on cooperative projects and constructive play time.

One of the most important aspects to the development of a child with autism is interaction with typically developing peers. The beautiful thing about Nathan Hale is that there is never a shortage of students who are eager to sacrifice their time for the privilege of working with our children with autism. And what do our general education students benefit from their investment? The great joy of serving others that truly defines a hero. If your child has had the opportunity to participate in any of these activities, please ask them to tell you more about it. It is truly inspiring to see your children in action.

Sincerely,

Brian Lawson

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Principal’s Corner 11-16-11

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