In order to promote a positive, caring atmosphere in the classroom, devote a portion of class for “Tell Me Something Good.” This exercise takes just a couple of minutes from a class period, but has long-lasting effects and sets an optimistic tone for working together. During this time, students can share any positive aspect of their life, from school, friends, or family. Taking time for the class to get to know each other promotes a positive environment, builds confidence, and creates a sense of community within the class. Ask your child to share their something good each day with you!
Calhoun Early Learning Academy
Tell Me Something Good....
CELA Hero Spotlight...
Our Counselor
My name is Heidi Allen, and I am very excited to serve as the school counselor for the Calhoun Early Learning Academy. This is my 29th year in education and my 21st year with Calhoun City Schools. My role as the school counselor for CELA is to promote the academic, personal, social, and emotional development of all students. Services will be delivered through individual counseling, small group counseling, and classroom guidance lessons that are developmentally appropriate and designed to help students build strong character. I am on-site on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 8:00 until 2:30. I can be reached by email at allenh@calhounschools.org or by phone at 706-602-6871. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. I look forward to working with parents to ensure a successful school year for our students!
The CELA is thrilled to have Ms. Tami Pass, the school-based clinician join us on Mondays to support any student concerns.
More Heroes!
We will also begin recognizing our students as superheroes next month beginning with best effort. Teachers and peers choose a student who best demonstrates best effort and they are "caped" for the day and will have an opportunity to attend the principal's party as a thank you for their hard work!
We are also thrilled to have Ms. Nicole Errikson, the school social worker in house to support our students on Fridays.
The Calhoun Yellow Jackets will play Carver on Friday night and we want to once again show our support and spirit by wearing our Jacket spirit wear and/or black and gold! The CHS cheerleaders will be at CELA on Friday selling tattoos for $1.00 each. If your child would like to purchase a tattoo, please send the money in a labeled envelope.
College and Career Media Center Reading Kick-Off
Thursday, August 31st
Students and staff are invited to dress as their favorite HERO. This could be a superhero or a community hero...Someone who is special to the student. If your child would like to dress up, please refrain from sending full face masks or toy accessories since these could get misplaced or damaged.
On August 31st, we will be kicking off our reading program for the district. We encourage you to read at home with your child daily. Mrs. Stodghill and Mrs. Scoggins will send home more information soon!
We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do!
GOOOOOOOO JACKETS!
The Golden Giraffes enjoyed celebrating Football Friday.
What's for Breakfast and Lunch?
Student Lunch Payments
Students can pay charges in person during their lunch at one of the registers or you can visit schoolcafe.com to make an online payment. This is also a great way to check balances and make payments throughout the year. Specific questions can be directed to School Nutrition Director, Kim Kiker at kikerk@calhounschools.org.
Student Meal Prices: Breakfast= $1.50
JJA Lunch-$1.75
PreK/Kindergarten Lunch-$2.45
Parents have the option to monitor and manage the settings on their child's lunch account through schoolcafe.com.
Free and Reduced Lunch Information
Calhoun City Schools is currently accepting online applications for meal benefits at www.schoolcafe.com. We encourage everyone to apply as soon as possible as students will be required to pay for meals until approved. Your child's five-digit lunch number is required for the application; if you do not know this number, please contact your child's school.
KINDERGARTEN NEWS
The GKIDS Readiness Check is a new component of the Georgia Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (GKIDS). It is designed to be administered during the first six weeks of the kindergarten year. The GKIDS Readiness Check is aligned to the Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards (GELDS) and correlated to the state mandates content standards for kindergarten. The goal of the assessment is to provide information about the skills of students entering kindergarten.
We are pleased and excited to announce the launch of a parent resource website for the GKIDS Readiness Check! The site will serve as a resource for parents to learn more about kindergarten readiness, the skills assessed on the GKIDS Readiness Check, and activities to help support their child’s development at home. The site includes Spanish translation and closed captioning. For more information, visit The Georgia Department of Education.
MAP Fluency
MAP Fluency testing will continue this week in Kindergarten classes. This information provides us with baseline data to assist teachers and staff with planning lessons to support the instructional needs of our students.
Family Toolkit Family Guide to MAP Growth
Please contact your child's teacher with any questions or Mandy Robertson at robertsonm@calhounschools.org
This week Kindergarten students learned about how to fill each others buckets. In Ms. Nichelson's room they read the book “How Can You Fill a Bucket?” and discussed the social contract. A social contract is a poster created by students and teachers that hangs in every classroom and allows students the opportunity to create rules for their classroom. The social contract helps our students understand how to self-manage and correct behaviors that are not part of this agreement. On the Peach Parrot social contract they have listed they we be bucket fillers. This means making sure everyone has a happy heart by others being kind to them. Students then completed a bucket filled craft and each heart represents one way we can fill another persons bucket.
K Support at Home
We focus on 3 main areas at school to help our students succeed in all areas:
1-Listen. 2-Follow Directions. 3-Hands and feet to self.
You may also hear your child mention the following and they should be able to demonstrate how to practice at home!
Whole body listening eyes on you, ears listening, mouth quiet, feet and hands are down and still, and brain is thinking about what is being said.
We also encourage you to assist you child with properly hold scissors and a pencil and stay seated at table while working or during meals.
What's Happening In Pre-K
Students in Ms Candi’s and Ms. Farrah's Green Frog class have been working on strengthening their finger muscles, or fine motor skills by making a “salad” for their frog puppet to eat. They tore up green (lettuce) red (tomatoes) and yellow (cheese) paper to make a delicious “salad.”
PRE-K PRACTICE AT HOME
Want to continue the learning from home? Here are some of the tasks we work on at school that you can continue practicing and reinforcing from home with your child. Please reach out to your child's teacher with any questions.
identify emotions and feelings.
engage in activities for 15 minutes or more.
hold pencils, crayons, and scissors properly.
take care of bathroom needs
open food packages independently
We're thrilled to announce the new app for Calhoun City Schools! It's everything CCS, in your pocket.
Download for Android https://bit.ly/3AksnRa
Download for iPhone https://apple.co/3AkIWMO
Arrival and Dismissal Procedures at CELA
Wahoo! Thank you for making arrival and dismissal so smooth!
Thank you for arriving in plenty of time and having your child ready to get out of the vehicle once you approached the drop off area. Please make sure to refrain from using cell phones while in the car rider line and try to stay a close, but safe, distance from the car in front of you to avoid large gaps in the line. Arrival after 7:30 will be a tardy. Please arrive in plenty of time, prior to 7:30, to allow for waiting in the car rider line while still having your child here on time.
Calhoun Early Learning Academy opens at 7:00 am each morning. Please do not let students out of vehicles or leave them unsupervised on campus before this time.
Pre-K and Kindergarten Car Rider Arrival: Car rider drop-off will begin at 7:00 each morning. All vehicles should enter Barrett Rd. from the direction of Red Bud Rd. heading south. Vehicles should make a right turn into the school car rider line, forming one single line of traffic in the far right lane on Barrett Rd. Vehicles will proceed through the line, using the right lane only, until they reach the end of the covered awning, which will begin the car-rider drop off. Students will remain in their vehicles until school personnel get to the vehicle to provide assistance. Students will be unloaded with assistance from school staff. Parents should not get out of the vehicle to assist students.
The left lane should not be used to pass vehicles in the car rider lane.
Parents will not be allowed to park in the parking lot and walk students across traffic upon arrival. All cars should proceed through the car rider line.
Students should arrive on campus by 7:30. Cars entering the car rider line after 7:30 will be held and allowed to proceed to the covered awning area or parking lot once directed by traffic personnel. Parents will park along the covered walkway, single file, or park in the front parking lot, and walk their child into the building to check them in at the front office. These check-ins will be considered tardies and logged into our student information system accordingly. (See the attendance section of the handbook for further information.)
If students need to eat breakfast at school, it is advised that they be in the building no later than 7:20 so that they have time to get breakfast and eat before class starts at 7:30.
Please make sure students are ready to unload when school personnel arrive at the vehicle to assist them.
Pre-K and Kindergarten Car Rider Dismissal: Car rider dismissal will begin at 2:00 each afternoon. All vehicles should enter Barrett Rd. from the direction of Red Bud Rd. heading south. Vehicles should make a right turn into the school car rider line, forming one single line of traffic in the far right lane on Barrett Rd. Vehicles will proceed through the line, using the right lane only, until they reach the far end of the covered awning, which will begin the car rider pick up. Students will stand at colored cones with school personnel until their car reaches the stop. Students will be loaded into cars with assistance from school staff. To ensure that dismissal is safe and efficient, parents should not get out of the vehicle to assist students.
School issued car rider tags must be hanging from the rearview mirror and visible to school personnel while in the afternoon car rider line.
Parents will not be allowed to park in the parking lot and walk to pick up students during dismissal.
Please have booster seats located on the back passenger side of the vehicle to ensure students and adults do not have to cross in front of traffic to load. If you need to assist your child with buckling, please pull all the way forward in the designated Buckle Zone to do so.
Turn around is not permitted at the back entrance of the school (Meadow Ln).
Car riders should be picked up no later than 2:30 each afternoon. If students need to stay after 2:30, parents must utilize KEEP, which is a prepaid program. Students that are repeatedly not picked up by 2:30, and have not not registered or prepaid for KEEP, will receive notification of a charge should the late pickup occur again.
Changes in transportation may be arranged by sending a written note to your child's teacher or by sending an email to celaattendance@calhounschools.org. Please be sure to include your student's name, teacher, grade, date(s) of the change in transportation, and whether your child will be car rider or KEEP. No changes will be made for notes/emails received after 1:00 pm.
An adult must be present for bus drop off. Please be at the stop ready to receive your child at 2:05 unless the driver communicates a different time.
Junior Jackets and Fast Passers should use the information provided from open house. Email robertsonm@calhounschools.org with any questions.
CELA Attendance Policy Reminder
Click here for information about CELA attendance.
All medical and parent notes should be emailed to celaattendance@calhounschools.org
Stay Informed with Remind!
All parents are encouraged to join the Remind for the district and school threads by entering the codes below either in the Remind app or by texting 81010.
Calhoun City Schools Remind: @ccs1902
Calhoun Early Learning Academy Remind: @celahive
