Parading and Trotting, Stonehedge Stays Active!

The past week has been jam-packed with engaging activities at Stonehedge! From the Halloween Parade to the Turkey Trot, students and parents paraded and trotted around with excitement. 

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble: Turkey Trot A Great Success
Yesterday's sunny, crisp weather for the annual Turkey Trot helped to motivate students, parents, and teachers to walk, jog, and run 4,779 laps around the Stonehedge parking lots!  With each lap averaging a 1/4 mile, that's1,194.75 miles-- or nearly the equivalent of walking from Stonehedge to Disney World in Orlando, Florida! Way to go Stonehedge! 

In addition to teaching lessons to the students on thankfulness and becoming physically fit, the event generated dozens of overflowing boxes worth of donated food for local food pantries. Thank you to everyone who contributed. Donations will be accepted throughout the week. Special thanks to the physical education department for coordinating and the many parent volunteers and staff who helped out during the day.  (See below for many more pictures from the Turkey Trot.)

Honoring Our Veterans
In November we celebrate "thankfulness" as an important character trait. Again this year, we are highlighting our appreciation of the veterans of the armed services and active servicemen and women. On Monday, November 10, we will have veterans from the VFW Post #8664 of Camillus and the Camillus American Legion Knifetown Post #1540 on the morning announcements. A celebration will be held beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Stonehedge library for veterans and their families.

The 7th Annual CNY Veterans Parade and Expo will be held on Saturday, November  8 at the New York State Fairgrounds. The purpose of the event is "Thanking Our Veterans" of every generation and conflict.

The one and one-half hour long parade features more than 90 veterans and military organizations from throughout Central New York and beyond. The parade is based on the old-fashioned military style parades that featured military vehicles, local military units, Veterans of Foreign War Posts and American Legions. Every branch of the armed services and every conflict since WWII are represented.

The VA and other organizations present information about services available to veterans of any age. There will once again be a presentation about TRI-Care for retirees and a Kids' Area, Sponsored by TOPS, that will feature activities, games, displays and even face painting.  For more information, go to www.cnyveteransparade.org or click the image above.

Halloween Parade Was a Treat

There were plenty of Princess Elsas, zombies, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles happily marching during this year's Halloween Parade. 

Important Upcoming Dates:

PTA Game Night for Kindergarten and First Grades, Thursday, November 6,  6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

School Picture Re-Takes: Thursday, November 6, 6- 8 p.m.

No School, Tuesday, November 11, Veterans' Day

 

More great pictures from the Turkey Trot!

October Bustles with Exciting Visits

October is Fire Safety Month

Last week, students in grades K-2 had the opportunity to interact with firefighters from the Fairmount Fire Department. They discussed what to do should there be a fire at their home. They learned:

• To get out and stay out!  
• To stop - drop and roll if their clothing catches on fire, 
• To stay low and crawl to avoid smoke and heat, 
• And the importance of establishing a meeting place so all members of a family can be accounted for.  

Thank you to Firefighters Mazzoni, Kolar, and Rath for presenting information at the assemblies, Firefighter McDaniels for giving students a tour of Fire Truck #7, and to Mrs. Barbuto for organizing the visit and supplemental materials for teachers.  October is Fire Prevention month, please be diligent about replacing batteries in home fire detectors and reviewing evacuation plans with your children.

Excited students got to tour the fire truck.

Children were captivated as they listened to details about the fire truck.

Dressed in full firefighting gear, firefighter Rath crawled through the cafeteria giving the kids a glimpse of what he would look like if he were at their house during a fire. The object was to teach kids that there is nothings scary about the muffled sounds of firefighters' voices through the oxygen mask, and in the event of a fire, children shouldn't hide.

Orange has Special Meaning 

October is National Bully Prevention month. UNITY DAY took place October 22 when all students, staff, and faculty were encouraged to come together, wear orange and send one large ORANGE message of hope, support, and unity! 

Stonehedge united by creating a long paper chain where each student/adult made their own orange paper link.  Our UNITY chain is displayed in the corridor connecting our buildings. Everyone can make a commitment to bully prevention by signing the digital petition here!  

Students from Mrs. Cunningham's first grade class dressed in orange to support unity day. Here they posed under the paper chain hung throughout the building. 

Halloween

The Stonehedge Halloween Parade will kick off at 10:00a.m. on Friday, October 31 beginning with our kindergarten children. Classes will parade out of the Blue Entrance and follow the sidewalks along the front of the building and to the bus circle. Parents may also view the parade as it tours around the Blue playground in the back of the building. Visitors are sure to have a great view at any point along this route. There is no need to sign into the building to view the Halloween Parade. Look for a letter coming home soon with more detailed information.

As always, student costumes should be appropriate, refraining from costumes that might frighten our younger students. No weapons or inappropriate props will be allowed.

Only parents who signed up to help with the Halloween party and have been contacted by the room parent will be allowed in the classrooms. Teachers will take care to pack up costumes so all will be ready for trick or treating later in the evening. What fun it will be to have Halloween on a Friday night!

Community Helpers Visit First Grade

A police officer, a nurse, and a representative from a dental office came into the first grade classrooms last week to discuss their roles as community helpers. Students asked many questions about how they help in our community. Thank you to all who volunteered.

Officer Dellow speaks to Mrs. Cunningham's first grade class with his son Logan. 

Upcoming Events:

CODE Assemblies: Thursday, October 30

Halloween Parade: Friday, October 31, 10 a.m.

Turkey Trot: Monday, November 3 (Details to come home with students)

PTA Game Night: Kindergarten and First Grade: Thursday, November 6, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

School Picture Retakes: Thursday, November 6, 6- 8 p.m.

~Lori

Falling into Some Fun at Stonehedge

PARP's "Cool Cat" Guest Readers Visit Classrooms

Dozens of guest speakers are visiting Stonehedge during the month of October and reading to students as a popular part of the PTA's PARP program. Along with PARP's theme of Cool Cats Read, these guests enthralled readers in all grades. A few pictures follow:

Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Brown, read to students in Mrs. Shepard's kindergarten classroom.

Board of Education member, James Soper, shares a story with the attentive listeners in Miss Cantone's first grade class.

Second grade students in Mrs. Schweitzer's class enjoyed listening to Camillus Town Supervisor Mary Ann Coogan as she read. 

Stay tuned for even more great PARP pictures in the next blog!

These HEDGE Award Winners Demonstrate Responsibility
The school year is still young, but these students are already working hard and demonstrating how responsible they are. They were recently honored with HEDGE Awards at the year's first Character Education assembly. 

During the assembly, students from Mrs. Bailey's and Mrs. Carrington's second grade classes introduced next month's character trait of respect. They created a video which explained a variety of ways to show respect in their homes, school, and community. 

First grade winners: Muhammad Awawda, Olyvia  Albright, Isabella Apps, Mia Barbuto, Alex Bigelow, Addison Biggs, Peyton Blair, David Bosak, Anthony Bowles, Molli Clark, Jack Cosamano, Jacob Dalton, Landon Derbyshire, Georgia Dziedzic, John Egerbrecht, Logan Frese, Mackenzie Ginty, Lilly Hodell, Katie Klaczko, Kylie Michaels, Gavin Moore, Ethan Reynolds, Grady Robertson, Sarah Smithers, Kaelyn Stone, Daniel Timoshuk, Johsua Whann, Ryan Zeleznock

Second grade winners: Christian Bower, Michael Colon, Grace Abert, Elijah Apps, Kaelyn Ashby, Garrett Bleskoski, Samantha Casson, Enya DaFoe, Devin Dantuono, Kyira Davis, Erik Dombroske, Sidney Hamilton, Zachary Hann, Ethan Jackson, Janie Kang, Braeden Keller, Riley Kittle, Ben Korzeniewski, Isabella Makarchuk, Madison Mayer, Calina Olson, Alexa Pallone, Evan Powers

Join us for Family Fun Night This Friday

The PTA's annual Harvest Family Fun Night is taking place Friday, October 17, from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Enjoy activities like dancing, face painting, story hour, BINGO, Simon Says, and Dance, Dance, Revolution. You'll also be able to get a child ID through the Camillus Police Department and our West Genesee Resource Officer, Officer Grace. Admission is $2 per person and will cover the cost of four (4) BINGO cards, a small water, a bag of delicious popcorn, one of our ever-popular glow sticks, and a raffle ticket. We hope to see you all there!



Other Upcoming Events 
October, 22 Fire Prevention Day
October 24, Half-Day, Professional Development, Dismissal 11:30 a.m.
October 30, CODE Assemblies
October 31, Halloween Parade, 10 a.m. (Look for information from your child with more details.)
November 3, Turkey Trot

Yours-

Lori

Stonehedge Gives a Groovy Welcome to Author Eric Litwin

We got on our school shoes today and thoroughly enjoyed three assemblies by author-and all around entertainer-Eric Litwin.

Litwin is known for writing the first four Pete the Cat books.  He rocked the audiences with age-appropriate songs and readings. Students learned lessons about call and response songs, rhythm, and storytelling. With fantastic audience participation, students moved and grooved without even realizing they were learning!

The author's visit kicked off our PTA's month-long celebration of PARP (Parents As Reading Partners). An events calendar went home earlier this week with dates for all the exciting PARP activities. Check below for a list of upcoming events.

Special thanks to our PTA for bringing in the author and our library for hosting the day.

Kindergarten students sing along with Mr. Litwin.

Second Grade teacher Mrs. Prosser served as one of several "Official Page Turner" volunteers during the assemblies.

Our cool cat library crew were dressed for the occasion. From left, Mrs. Graser, Mrs. Abbott, and Mrs. Eichhorn.

  Third grade student Amaiya Bear helped sing a song during one performance.

It was hard to control the excitement during the show!

Important Dates to Remember

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 10/7-10/9,
Scholastic Book Fair,  Gold Foyer, 3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Tuesday, October 7 (Please note this is a correction from the PARP calendars that went home.)

Library Night, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, October 8 

PTA Meeting 6:30 Stonehedge Library

Thursday, October 9 

RtI Parent Information Night (K-5) Library, 6:00-7:30 p.m.

Monday, October 13 

Columbus Day – No School

Friday, October 17

PTA Sponsored Family Fun Night (6:30-8:00 p.m.)

Stop by for some great fall family fun after dinner!                                                         

Thursday, October 23

Library Night, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Friday, October 24

Half-day for Students – 11:30 a.m. dismissal

Friday, October 31, 10:00 a.m. 

Halloween Parade and Classroom Parties

Yours-

Lori and Brent