The Hawk's Nest
Hansen Community Newsletter
December, 2024
A Note from Mrs. Jones
We are a third of the way through our school year together- time is moving quickly! I am so proud of our Hansen HAWKS and the work they are doing to help create a safe and welcoming community at our school. Hopefully your student told you all about our latest 10,000 HAWK ticket celebration and seeing Mr. Garner and me get slimed with silly string!
VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION
We still have some need for families to complete our Family Income Survey. We will send home a survey with your student if we do not have one from your family. We need every single family to fill this paperwork out and send it back to school. If you have not yet, please fill this out and return it to your child's teacher ASAP. By having all families fill out this survey, our school receives incredibly important federal funding. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that EVERY SINGLE FAMILY fill out this paperwork. Thank you so much for attending to this very important task!
ATTENDANCE
School attendance is key in a child's growth and development. At Hansen, our classroom teachers and support staff dedicate each day to making the most of their instructional minutes with our students. We want to partner with families to ensure a successful school year for our HAWKS. Missing 18 days in a school year is 10% of the school year and considered chronic absenteeism. Missing just 2 days per month will add up to 20 days by the end of the school year, which is the equivalent of your student missing an entire month of the school year. We hope to see all Hansen HAWKS at school everyday, as much as possible.
Anytime you have questions, concerns, or a desire to serve our school in a particular way, please reach out to me via email. We will set up an appointment to sit down together and talk. My email is: [email protected]
Announcements
CISPUS info Meeting
Hansen Elementary is hosting a CISPUS informational meeting on Wednesday, December 4th. The meeting will begin at 5:30PM and will be hosted in our cafeteria. This is a CISPUS info meeting for all westside elementary schools. All 5th grade families are encouraged to attend so that you receive the best information regarding CISPUS this year. CISPUS is an excellent experience of outdoor learning for our OSD students- we hope all 5th graders attend CISPUS!! They will make memories that will last forever!
Parenting Series
Olympia Education Foundation is sponsoring a parenting series throughout the school year. Expert Emily McMason is leading us through a Student and Family Wellbeing series through the winter. Please join us at Hansen Elementary on Thursday, Dec. 5th from 6pm - 7:30pm for a FREE parenting workshop focused on SCREENS. Free childcare is provided on site for all children who can independently use the bathroom.
Holiday Gift Cards
Hansen is collecting and distributing gift cards this holiday season. If you are able, please donate $25-$50 gift cards for various locations in Olympia: Fred Meyer, WalMart, Target, or VISA. Our family liaison, Lakia Hollis, will distribute these gift cards to Hansen families who express interest in receiving them. If you would like to be added to our list of holiday gift card recipients, please contact Lakia at [email protected] or 253-200-5313
Book BINGO!
Hansen's all-school event, "Family Book BINGO" is coming up on Thursday, December 19th from 6:30pm - 8:00pm. Come have fun with your friends and win a free book! Families will enjoy playing BINGO, winning books, and eating snacks together. This is a great way to end 2024 as a Hansen community as we enter into Winter Break. All students who attend should be accompanied by an adult. We hope everyone will attend!
Please use this link to volunteer to help out!
Canned Food Drive
From Dec. 2 - Dec. 13, Hansen is joining Capital High School in their annual canned food drive. Capital High School is having their annual food drive to support the Thurston County Food Bank.
CHS has invited our westside schools to join in the food drive! We will be collecting canned food and cash donations until December 13th. This is a great opportunity to partner with our neighborhood high school and participate in our local westside community.
Electronics/Toys Reminders
Our school district policy at the elementary level is that all electronics be left in students' backpacks during the school day. At Hansen, we ask that all earbuds, AirPods, smart devices, including smart watches, be kept inside student backpacks during the instructional day. If students are worried about theft, they are welcome to store devices in the office. If students need to get in touch with a family member during the school day, we welcome them to come and use the office landline to call. Thank you for helping us remind your students to keep their electronics stowed in their backpacks while at school.
Additionally, we ask that toys and other trinkets please be left at home. When they are brought to school, it often creates distractions and disruptions in the classroom. Students can lose important items, and this causes a lot of disruption in the learning environment. Thank you for double checking your student's backpack to ensure toys are left at home.
(Sometimes we have exceptions when classrooms are having a HAWK ticket celebration with permission to bring an item from home. Your student's teacher will communicate with you about that.)
Birthdays at School
We love celebrating our kids at school! When students have birthdays, we want to recognize them and celebrate them in a way that is inclusive and doesn't disrupt our learning environments.
Teachers are always looking to honor kids' wishes on their birthdays as well, particularly if a student does not want the class to sing or make a 'big deal' out of their special day.
At Hansen, we are looking to shift our birthday celebrations to focus on building relationships within the classroom community. This means teachers will be asking the birthday person to choose their favorite class game to play, choose a favorite song for a quick dance party, or creating a birthday book for all classmates to write an encouraging note to the birthday person. Many of our younger students also have birthday crowns their teachers give to students on their special day.
One of the big shifts with birthday celebrations at school will be eliminating the extra cupcakes, cookies, treats, food, and trinkets. Bringing in these items can be dangerous for kids with allergies, or can cause kids to feel left out when they are unable to eat the food because of a specific health need. Our policy at Hansen, moving forward, is that we ask families to please not send food or trinkets to school for students' birthdays. Teachers will continue to celebrate each student on their birthday, but we will be focusing this celebration on building deeper relationships within the classroom community. Thank you for understanding, and please feel free to reach out with any questions you have.
Parent Square
At this point, we hope you all have received email notifications to sign up for Parent Square. This is the platform that our school will use for school communications. If you do not sign up for Parent Square, you will continue to receive notifications based upon your Skyward preferences.
However, please sign up. This platform is amazing. It will allow you to keep track of all school communications and it will allow you to update your Skyward information with ease.
Here is a link to sign up for Parent Square.
Here is a link to learn more about Parent Square through the district website.
Snack Donations
Hansen is looking for snack donations. Most classrooms will have a class snack time. We are looking to provide a snack to any child who needs one during their snack time. We are specifically looking for donations of:
Goldfish crackers
Pre-made Popcorn
Saltines or Pretzels
Financial Assistance Available
he Olympia School District Education Foundation provides support to families in need. With their support, we can help with:
- Rent and utility bills
- Clothing and shoes
- Eye exams and prescription glasses for students
- Transportation
- School Supplies
- School-related expenses
- Internet through Xfinity
- And so much more...
We can also provide grocery vouchers to Ralph’s or Bayview grocery stores and gas vouchers to help with transportation. Contact Family Liaison Lakia Hollis if you have questions. [email protected]
School Day Logistics
Movin' Right Along!
Thank you for your patience in our drop-off and pick-up lines. I know that this can be a long wait, but our #1 priority is student safety. One specific detail- when you pull into the traffic circle to drop your student, please pull as far forward as possible. This allows the most cars possible to enter the circle behind you. Additionally, once your student has exited the car, please wait for all cars in front of you to move forward rather than zipping around the car in front of you. Students could be exiting the car in front of you on either side (not necessarily just the sidewalk side), and we don't want to risk injuring a student to save a few seconds of time.
When you are dropping or picking up students, please do so as quickly as is safely possible. Please do not exit your car, but ask your student to be ready to exit/enter car independently.
Below is the map to follow when entering and exiting our parking lot/drop-off zone:
HAWK Award Assemblies
We will continue to celebrate our weekly HAWK award winners every-other-month at assemblies. That means our Nov/Dec HAWK award winners will be recognized in an assembly in December.
Dates:
3rd-5th grades: Monday, December 16th @ 2:10PM
Kinder-2nd grade: Tuesday, December 17th @ 2:10PM
Because these assemblies are pretty quick, we have moved the start time to 2:10pm so that we end with just enough time to walk back to classrooms, pack up, and leave.
If your student has received a weekly HAWK award in Nov. or Dec. and will be recognized, you will receive a phone call and an email from the school.
Lost & Found
Our Lost & Found is quite full! If your student is missing any kind of item (coat/sweatshirt/water bottle/lunch box/etc.), it is likely in our lost & found area. This is located in the hallway near the gym where students enter the building each morning. Parents are invited to come and check out the Lost & Found any time. Please simply sign in at the office, and our office professionals will show you the way. Once we reach Winter Break, all items left in the Lost & Found will be donated.
Prearranged Absences
During the school year, we ask that trips, extended weekends, and other endeavors be scheduled during non-school hours/days as much as possible. Sometimes, however, family logistics will require that your student miss 3+ days of school. Anytime you know that you will need to pull your student out of school for an extended period (3+ days) please fill out our prearranged absence form.
Here is a link to the Planned Absence Request Form.
HCC/HAP News
Monthly Meeting
Please join us every month for the HCC and HAP parent meetings. You will see a reminder in each month's newsletter about the meeting date and time.
- Date: Tuesday, December 10th
- Schedule:
- HCC @6PM
- Principal's Report @6:45PM
- HAP @7PM
Both HCC and HAP will hear the monthly principal's report at 6:45pm. Please consider joining HCC and/or HAP. This is an excellent way for all community members to be a part of the wonderful things going on at Hansen!
Visit the Hansen HCC website here or email [email protected] to find out more information.
*If you cannot attend in person, please click here for either meeting to attend virtually
HAP Board Chair
HAP needs one or two volunteers to assume the Chair role for our Board. This is an opportunity to help shape the future of HAP and to continue valuable work for our students, teachers, and school. Email [email protected] or come to the community meeting on December 10th if you are interested in volunteering and would like to find out more about the position.
HAP email list
If you’d like to receive emails from the HAP Leadership Team regarding upcoming HAP events, donation and volunteer opportunities, please sign up by filling out our Google Form. We hope you will join us for the HAP parent meeting this month where we will be voting on our HAP Handbook during the meeting. Come at 6:45 to hear the principal's report and stay for the 7pm meeting.
For questions regarding HAP or how to be a part of the HAP lottery this spring, email [email protected] anytime!
Important Upcoming Dates
December 2: School Resume
December 4: CISPUS info meeting @ 5:30PM- all 5th grade families invited
December 10th: HCC Meeting 6pm; Principal's report 6:45pm; HAP mtg 7pm.
December 16th: HAWK Award assembly 3rd-5th grade @2:10pm
December: 17th: HAWK Award assembly K-2nd grade @2:10pm
December 19th: Book BINGO! 6:30-8pm
December 23rd -January 3rd: Winter Break, NO SCHOOL
January 6th: School resumes
December 4th, 11th, and 18th: Early Release @ 1:55pm