ONE DAY WITHOUT SHOES - April 17th

Dear JES family and friends,

HOPE - One Day Without Shoes

How perfect that our character trait for April is HOPE! With ONE Day Without Shoes, we are giving children hope. One pair of shoes for a child can gain them entry to school, keep them healthy, protect them from injury, and most of all give them the knowledge that someone cares about them.

On April 17^th, we will be going shoeless (wearing clean socks!)at school to bring attention to the needs of children around the world who miss opportunities in life because they do not have shoes. Send in a NEW pair of shoes to donate to Shoes for Orphan Souls on April 17th. For more information visit the Shoes for Orphan Souls website at :

                                    

https://www.buckner.org/shoes/blog

Writing STARR testing for fourth grade is coming up on Tuesday, April 9^th. Third and fourth grades will be testing on May 13^th and 14^th.  Our students are well prepared. The most important thing that parents can do is make sure your child is rested, well fed, and in attendance on time for testing days. Thank you for your help.

Fourth Grade Orientation at DIS

Student Orientation for our fourth graders going to Durham Intermediate next fall is on May 21st. All fourth graders will travel to DIS by bus for an informational talk by the DIS administrators and a tour of the campus. Transition to fifth grade can be a challenge. Attending the orientation meetings can ease some of the anxiety by answering many of your questions about procedures, the schedules and the “always challenging” lockers!
Check out the orientation opportunities :

As always, if I can assist you in any way, please call at 817 949 4500.
Kindest regards,
Ziba Johnston
Elizabeth.johnston@southlakecarroll.edu

Dear JES Family and Friends,

Thank you to our JES PTO and the parent and student volunteers who worked on Project Linus! We have thirty seven fleece blankets which will be donated to the project and be dispersed to local hospitals. These blankets "provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets...lovingly created by volunteer blanketeers." Those blanketeers are us - JES DRAGON Family!

A Message from the CISD Counselors

Dear Carroll ISD families,
In the last few days, there has been significant national media coverage about a disturbing internet challenge known as “The Momo Challenge.”  CISD has received a number of calls from parents after seeing or hearing about Momo Challenge posts on social media. Please know that we have not had any instances of this happening at school or on school devices.

Although this appears to be more fear than fact and most trusted sources are calling it a hoax, due to the concerns related to this challenge, we are sharing this information with you as you may want to talk with your child.

Allegedly, Momo targets young children through various online apps (e.g. YouTube, Minecraft, WhatsApp, etc.), and encourages them to complete a series of increasingly bizarre and dangerous tasks from watching a horror movie to engaging in self-harm to taking their own lives. According to national news reports, children as young as 6 years old have heard of the “Momo” challenge, which is similar to the “Slender Man” and “The Blue Whale” challenges in years past.

We encourage parents to have intentional conversations with them about what they encounter online on their personal devices. Please consider age appropriateness and exposure from older siblings or friends. Let them know that if they see scary things pop up on phones, tablets, or computers that they should reach out to a parent, teacher, school counselor, or principal. Remind them to block unknown numbers asking them to play. Students should have an expectation that you will be monitoring their photos, conversations, and social media.

The following resources may be helpful in helping our young learners navigate the internet, as well as tools for parents in a digital age.

Family Online Safety Institute: 

https://www.fosi.org/good-digital-parenting

 Creating a Family Media Plan (American Academy of Pediatrics): https://www.healthychildren.org/English/media/Pages/default.aspx

 Teaching Kids About Internet Safety (GCFLearnFree.org)

https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/internetsafetyforkids/teaching-kids-about-internet-safety/1/

 Protecting Kids Online (Federal Trade Commission)

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/topics/protecting-kids-online

As always, if you have questions or concerns, please email or call your campus principal or the campus counselor.

INDIVIDUALITY - March Character Trait
We will discussing Discovering who you are meant to be so you can make a difference. Check out the career assessment for kids in the Family Ezine you received from your classroom teacher.

As always, if I can help in any way please contact me at Elizabeth.Johnston@southlakecarroll.edu or 817 949 4500.

Kindest regards,

Ziba Johnston