Happy Holidays from The ROCK!

Holiday Recess:

I want to wish the Split Rock Community a happy Holiday Recess! I hope everyone is able to take some time and enjoy with family and friends. Staff, students, and families certainly deserve this time and I hope you all take full advantage of time together. After everyone has been able to recharge we will look forward to hitting the ground running as we open up the new year and get back at it. We will see everyone on January 6, 2020!

1000+Holiday Cards: 

We reached our school-wide goal of 1000 holiday cards!  The KINDNESS COMMITTEE delivered those cards to St. Camillus this morning, threw kindness around like confetti to the recipients and brightened their day. We are so proud of our Split Rockers for spreading a little SPARKLE and holiday cheer. Because they reached their goal,  we rewarded them with a PIE a TEACHER in the FACE segment during this morning's Positivity Assembly. Please click here to view this morning's assembly.

Calls For Commentary:

It would be much appreciated if you can take a minute and respond to the district's call for commentary. This will give the Strategic Planning Committee the information necessary when looking at areas of celebration, as well as those areas in which need to be improved upon. Here is the link. We thank you ahead of time for your participation!

Kindergarten Registration:

Believe it or not, Kindergarten Registration has begun for the 2020-2021 school year. These students will be the graduating class of 2033! Wow! Registration began on December 3, 2019, and will run until March 31, 2020, at the Central Registrar Office located at the District Office 300 Sanderson Drive, Camillus, NY 13031. For information about registering your student, go to the Registration Section of the website. Before coming in to register, you will need to make an appointment by clicking the appropriate link on the Registration web page or by calling the Central Registrar Office at (315) 487-4683.

December Happenings at "The ROCK"!

The students and staff at "The Rock," came back from the Thanksgiving break ready to work and did a phenomenal job in doing so. We hope to build on this over the next two weeks as we work right up to our Holiday Break which begins on December 21!



Holiday Concert:

What a great night! These Grade 4 and 5 students sounded truly amazing and are absolute ROCK stars! Special thanks to Mrs. Mercer. Mr. Muldoon and Mrs. Speich for creating such a special performance that was enjoyed by all!

Calls For Commentary:

It would be much appreciated if you can take a minute and respond to the district's call for commentary. This will give the Strategic Planning Committee the information necessary when looking at areas of celebration, as well as those areas in which need to be improved upon. Here is the link. We thank you ahead of time!

Kindergarten Registration:

Believe it or not, kindergarten registration has begun for the 2020-2021 school year. These students will be the graduating class of 2033! Wow! Registration began on December 3, 2019, and will run until March 31, 2020, at the Central Registrar Office located at the District Office 300 Sanderson Drive, Camillus, NY 13031. For information about registering your student, go to the Registration Section of the website. Before coming in to register, you will need to make an appointment by clicking the appropriate link on the Registration web page or by calling the Central Registrar Office at (315) 487-4683.

Looking Ahead

Positivity Project:

We spent the last two weeks working with the character strength of kindness. We will not be introducing humility (12/9-12/13) and finish up with self-control (12/16-12/20) before the break. The students who have these top character strengths will be recognized throughout next week and/or at the Positivity Assembly on 12/20.

1,000 Handmade Holiday Cards:

The students at Split Rock were given a challenge at the beginning of December, and that was to generate 1,000 handmade Holiday cards as a building. These cards could be made at school or at home. At our upcoming Positivity Project Assembly on December 20, these cards will be turned over to Mrs. Eipp and our Kindness Committee. They will be taking a field trip to St. Camillus to spread their kindness around like confetti and deliver the cards to all the residents.

If the students do reach the 1,000 cards goal, eight staff members at "The Rock," will receive a pie in the face at the assembly as a celebration of their achievement and their actions to pay it forward! Stay tuned for an update!

Attendance Awareness: 

We have started an attendance awareness program in which we recognize classrooms that have perfect attendance. We will be keeping track of the number of homerooms with perfect attendance, and when we reach 200 instances of perfect attendance, we will hold a random dance party at some point in time throughout the day! Homerooms with perfect attendance will be recognized on the afternoon announcements! If you happen to stop in, please take a minute to view our attendance display board to see where we are at!

Cafeteria "ROCK" stars: 

The Goal: 

The focus is on recognizing students who are being; Present, Respectful, Responsible, and Safe in the cafeteria.

We will be implementing this in January 2020. Students who receive an award will be put into a monthly drawing for the "prize of the month," as well as, receive a certificate of recognition that will be posted on the cafeteria wall.

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

Friday, December 13:

• Report Cards Distributed

Friday, December 20:

• Positivity Project Assembly (9:30am)

Friday, December 20- January 3 -Holiday Recess - NO SCHOOL 

Reminders from "The ROCK"!

PTO Tully's Fundraiser: 

Take the night off from cooking! Stop out to Tully's to support our Split Rock PTO tomorrow, Tuesday, November 19.  Tully's will donate 10% of the proceeds directly to our school. Please bring your paper coupon with you for redemption. Thank you for supporting Split Rock!

Reminder: 

Our November PTO meeting has been canceled. Instead, please join us for Open Forum with the Board of Education.

The West Genesee Central School District Board of Education (Board Members) invite parents, staff, community members, and students to a Community Forum. It will be held on Wednesday, November 20 at the West Genesee High School Library starting at 6:00 p.m. (prior to the Board meeting that will start at 7:00 p.m.) It will be an opportunity to meet the Board and ask questions that you would like answered about their role within the District in their continued effort to listen and engage community members on any range of topics of interest. We hope you take the opportunity to attend this forum.

Winter Weather:

When winter weather is predicted, stay tuned to the @WestGeneseeCSD
twitter feed, the district website, district Facebook page, the West Genesee app, and the local radio and television stations for information on delays and cancellations. In addition, please make sure that your child has appropriate clothing. Students not only walk to and from the bus but also play outside for recess. We want to make sure they stay warm!

Blackboard communications software allows us to send emails, texts, phone app notifications, and make phone calls. (Phone calls will be used for emergency situations only) Parent/Guardians and Staff will NOT need to sign-up to receive information from schools that you are registered for in Schooltool. (You will have the option to opt-out if you choose not to receive emails, texts, and/or phone calls.)

For more information and/or to sign-up (if you are not a parent/guardian or staff in the Schooltool system) go to westgenesee.org and click on the WG Communications sign-up/school app link.

Spirit Day: 

Our Spirit Day is this Friday, November 22. Grade 4 students will be recognized. All students are encouraged to wear  BLUE and GOLD or any Spiritwear you might have and help us celebrate the day. 💙💛

November "ROCKS"!

It has been a very busy two weeks, and Split Rock Elementary continues to shine! Academically students can be found working extremely hard and collaboratively throughout the day. On top of that,  students and families have risen to the occasion to offer help and support of others and had the opportunity to recognize those who have served!  We look forward to carrying this positive momentum through the month of November as we being to approach Thanksgiving break!

Veterans Day Celebration Assembly

It was an honor to host eight Veterans and VIP Guest Speaker Retired Army Captain Robert Burke last week at our Veterans Day Assembly. The tradition of this wonderful event continued as we had the help of some of the members WGHS Wildcat Marching Band, Mr. David Bills and four Grade 5 students Edison Coles, Dominic Talucci, Molly Sheehan, and Alessandra Vigliotti who were our readers during the ceremony. **Please note: You can view the Veterans Artifact Walk by clicking here and the Veterans Day Celebration Assembly if you click here.

Paying It Forward

Candy Donations

Split Rock students and families continue to amaze me! With the help of our phenomenal PTO, we donated over 198 pounds of Halloween candy in order to create treat bags for our Veterans at the Syracuse VA Medical Center. These treat bags will come with a thank you note for serving our country. 

Food Train

The Split Rock annual Food Train has left the station. Our donations are headed to St.Joseph's  Food Pantry and several Split Rock Families this Thanksgiving. As always, we appreciate your generosity, it certainly makes a difference in the lives of others. #otherpeoplematter

Inspirational Snowflakes for Golisano Children's Hospital:

Our fifth-grade students spent some time with our ADAPEP counselor, Lisa Eipp to create snowflakes with inspirational messages on them to distribute to kids at Golisano Children's Hospital for the holidays! I had the amazing and powerful opportunity to read many of these and I can tell you that our Grade 5 students are very compassionate.

Split Rock's Super Spellers:

We would like to congratulate Dylan Wainwright (Grade 5 Cunningham), Daniela Thorpe (Grade 5 Callahan), Keira McGlaughlin (Grade 5 Cunningham), Edison Coles (Grade 5 Cunningham) and Laura Anastasio (Grade 5 Callahan) for competing in the district-wide Grade 4-8 Spelling Bee last week. They all did a phenomenal job. Good luck to both Edison Coles and Dylan Wainright, as they have both made it in the top 12 and will be advancing to compete against students from other districts in the very near future. 

Halloween Celebration: 

We had a great time celebrating Halloween and carrying out our indoor parade and parties. We again, want to thank all families and friends for respecting our procedures and protocols ensuring student and staff safety throughout the event. For all those interested in viewing the parade click here or you may do so from the West Genesee website, click on Split Rock, On-Air tab then pre-recorded events.

Looking Ahead

Over the next two weeks, staff and students will focus on the Other People Matter Mindset "Knowing my words and actions affect others," and the character strength of  Gratitude.

Positivity Project Challenge

We have a building-wide goal of creating 1,000 handmade Christmas cards between now and December 19th. On December 20th we will hand over the cards to our ADAPEP Counselor, Lisa Eipp and our Kindness Committee to be delivered to a local nursing home! These cards can be created in many different ways and not just in school but at home as well. Students will submit their completed cards to their teachers, which will then be handed off to me prior to our December 20 Positivity Assembly! If this goal is achieved five staff members will have the lucky opportunity to be pied in the face by selected students during the December assembly.

Upcoming Dates

Wednesday, November 13:

• Book Fair Family Night Art Room 7 pm

Thursday, November 14:

• Book Fair 

Friday, November 15:

• Chess Club (8:30 am)
• Positivity Project Rockin Readers Event (9:30 am-9:50 am)
• Book Fair

Monday, November 18:

• Merry-Go-Round Playhouse (Grade 3)

Tuesday, November 19:

• PTO Tully's Fundraiser Event 

Wednesday, November 20:

• PTO MEETING CANCELLED
• BOE Community Forum 6:00 pm 
• BOE Meeting 7:00 pm

Friday, November 21:

• Grade 4 Spirit Day

Monday, November 25:

•  Half-Day -11:30 am Dismissal for Students / Parent-Teacher Conferences 

Tuesday, November 26:

•  Half-Day -11:30 am Dismissal for Students / Parent-Teacher Conferences

ROCKin Through October!

Week In Review

Author Vist: 

It was an amazing two weeks at "The Rock!" I continued to be amazed of the many wonderful things that take place on a daily basis. Students were certainly busy this week and really worked hard! We would like to thank author Troy Cummings for visiting "The Rock" last week. He was very engaging! Both staff and students loved the presentations he offered.

Unity Day

It was great to see all the orange in the building on Unity Day in support of bullying prevention!

Grade 1 Science Experiments

Grade 1 worked very hard in preparing and carrying out their science experiment in which they studied erosion!

A Great Partnership

Mrs. Spurchise's class and Mrs. Callahan's teamed up last week to listen to a read-aloud "The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin," and then worked together to create their own pumpkins. A fantastic activity and opportunity for students to interact with each other. Teamwork makes the dream work!

2019 Annual Spelling Bee (Grade 4 & 5)

Congratulations to the following students who will be advancing to the district level competition on Thursday, November 7 at Camillus Middle School! We wish you the best of luck!

Dylan Wainwright (Grade 5 Cunningham)

Keira McGlaughlin (Grade 5 Cunningham)

Edison Coles (Grade 5 Cunningham)
Daniela Thorpe (Grade 5 Callahan)
Laura Anastasio (Grade 5 Callahan)

Looking Ahead

Positivity Project 

Over the next two weeks, staff and students will focus on the character strengths CREATIVITY and BRAVERY, which will lead us to our Veterans Day Assembly on November 8th! 

A Friendly Halloween Reminder

As we keep school safety at the forefront of our district decision making, thank you for understanding that Split Rock Elementary will continue last year's practice and will no longer hold outdoor Halloween costume parades. We will hold an indoor parade on Thursday, October 31, so that our students can have the experience within the building. Following the parade, each classroom will be partaking in a classroom party. ONLY parent volunteers who signed up at Open House will be able to enter the building and permitted into the classrooms for the parties. Implementing these protocols ensures the safety and well being of both students and staff. We thank you ahead of time for respecting these procedures.

D.E.A.R Program Has Kicked Off 

Drop Everything And Read! D.E.A.R began on October 24 and will run until November 8. Split Rock's PTO sent a letter home with a calendar and all the pertinent information. Be sure to chart your progress on the calendar and have your child return it to school on Friday, November 8. Upon submission, you will be entered in a drawing to win a $10 Scholastic Gift Certificate to use the Split Rock Book Fair November 13-15. There will be one winner per classroom!

Halloween Candy Drive

Our Halloween Candy drive is back! This year the Split Rock PTO is partnering with the Syracuse VA Medical Center for our Halloween candy drive. You may bring in your extra Halloween candy to school November 1-8. The Grade 5 students will package all candy donated to create treat bags for our Veterans, which will also include a thank you note for serving our country. A letter was sent home last week explaining the event in further detail.

Veterans Day Celebration Assembly

Our Veterans Day Assembly will be held on Friday, November 8 at 1:45 pm. We look forward to hearing from honorary guest speaker retired Army Captain and current NYS Trooper Robert Burke!

Special Guests

We would love to have your son or daughter bring a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle and/or sibling as a special guest if they are are a veteran and have them recognized during the assembly. If your child has a veteran that would be willing and able to attend the assembly please email me directly at mkimpland@westgenesee.org. I would ask that you include their rank, branch of service and the year in which they served.  

Artifact Walk

We will be setting up an artifact/memorabilia collection to honor those who have served our country. Tables will be set up along "The Bridge" hallway so the students can showcase pictures of their relatives in uniform, for all students to view the day of the assembly. We will start collecting photos/memorabilia immediately and continue through Thursday, November 7, the day before the event. Students will receive the pictures back no later than Tuesday, November 12. Please look for a letter to be sent home later this week with more details.

Early Dismissal Reminder: Tuesday, November 5 is a Half- Day for students. Dismissal will be at 11:30 am. Please be sure to send a note if your child's drop off location will change for that day.

Upcoming Dates:

Thursday, October 31:

• Halloween Parade 

Friday, November 1:

• Veterans Halloween Candy Drop-off begins

Tuesday, November 5:

• Half-Day Students- Early dismissal 11:30 am 

Wednesday, November 6

• BOE Meeting 7:00 pm

Thursday, November 7

• District Spelling Bee Competition at Camillus Middle School 

Friday, November 8

• Veterans Day Celebration Assembly 1:45 pm
• D.E.A.R Program ends
• Veterans Halloween Candy Drop-off ends