Feb. 4 - 100th Day of School & Global Play Day

Feb. 6 - District Half-Day - Dismissal at 12:17 pm

Feb. 13 - Elementary Half-Day - Dismissal at 12:17 pm

Feb. 16-20 - Vacation Week - No School

Feb. 27 - Full Day - Dismissal at 3:12 pm

District Calendar/Website

Be sure to visit our Live Feed section of the website for weekly highlights of teaching and learning, both inside and outside the classroom.

Thank you to our PTO for supporting hands-on enrichment experiences! Kindergarten students have been learning about liquids and solids and what characteristics they hold. Today, they explored these properties in a hands-on science program. Another amazing enrichment program that our PTO supports!

We would like to kindly remind families of the importance of keeping toys, stuffed animals, Pokémon cards, and similar personal items at home. As outlined in our Student Handbook, these items can become distracting in the learning environment and may lead to disruptions or conflicts during the school day.

Your partnership in reinforcing this expectation is greatly appreciated, as it helps us maintain a focused, safe, and inclusive space for all students to learn and grow.

Thank you for your continued support!

Swallow Union is excited to once again participate in Global Play Day on February 4th! Global Play Day is a worldwide initiative promoting the importance of unstructured, screen-free play for children. On this day, students are encouraged to explore, create, cooperate, and use their imaginations through self-directed play experiences.

Classroom teachers will be sharing more specific information with families, including what types of items students may bring from home. As in previous years, this does not mean students should bring toys, stuffed animals/stuffies, or personal items from home. Instead, the day is centered around simple, shared play experiences provided in the classroom.

We look forward to joining thousands of schools around the world in celebrating the power of play!

Over the next few weeks, I will be going into classrooms to provide a presentation on bullying. I wanted to provide you all with the definitions used for further communication at home and to clarify how we will be defining bullying at school.

The following is based on the Second Step Bullying Curriculum:

Bullying: when someone keeps being mean to someone else. It is repeated on purpose multiple times. The person it is happening to hasn’t been able to make it stop. It is unfair and one-sided.

Unfair and one-sided: The person who is bullying has to have more power than the other person.

Examples of more power: Size (bigger and stronger), amount of people (more than one person), social status, developmental stage, not being able to get the unkind behavior to stop

One-sided means the person who is being bullied is also not being unkind to the other person in other instances.

Children were also taught and reminded about the 3 R’s to be supportive bystanders to bullying:

Recognize - know when something is bullying vs. unkind

Report - Report to any trusted adults in school or outside of school

Refuse - stand up to the bully

Please reach out with any questions.

Best,

Sarah Woods (swoods@gdrsd.org)

(and/or Jill Jarvis jjarvis@gdrsd.org)

SU Hockey Night at UMass RiverHawks - TOMORROW! January 24 at 6:05 pm. It's not too late to order tickets in the LinkTree below!

Restaurant Night - February 11. Let Kyndra's Kitchen cook dinner for you! Orders are due by Feb 6, and can be picked up at SU from 4:30-6 pm on Feb 11. Place your order in the link within the LinkTree.

Author Day - local author Jason Viola will join us on March 5. You can purchase one of his books ahead of the event! Orders are due by Feb 5, see LinkTree below.

Tiger Twist - Friday, March 27, 5:30-7:30 at SU. We're still looking for a 1st-grade parent to take on coordinating the event.

Next PTO General Meeting - March 5 at 7 pm. We are considering a virtual option to increase attendance.

Fun Fridays - show your appreciation for our awesome staff by signing up for a Fun Friday! Our goal is to host two a month. Feel free to get creative or do something simple like having your class make sweet cards to put in the teacher's mailboxes! Sign up in the LinkTree below.

Box Tops - a super easy way to donate to the school without paying! See the referral link in the LinkTree.

Did you know the PTO will spend over $33,000 on programs for Swallow Union this year? Check out our PTO Monthly Newsletter for more details.

LinkTree: Swallow Union PTO | Instagram, Facebook | Linktree