The next HPS Spirit Wear Sale is this week, now to February 3. Click here to browse the options, and make your purchase! Orders placed during the sale window will be delivered to your child's homeroom free of charge in time for Spring Sports Games!

We've been waiting since 2020, and now, MOM PROM IS BACK!! This awesome event, Open to All of HPS, returns on THIS FRIDAY from 6:30-8:30pm in the HPS Gym.

Some additional volunteers are needed to help with set up before the big event! Please sign up here if you can help!

Tickets to attend are still available and are priced as follows: $45/guardian & child with $5 for each additional child, or $35/guardian & child with $5 for each additional child for HPS Athletics Boosters members. Click here to buy tickets or scan the QR code in the graphic below!

Thursday, March 2 from 5:30-7:30pm marks the long-awaited return of International Night at HPS! International Night is a fun and exciting event of exploring different countries, cultures, religions, and traditions. Parents and students have the opportunity to create exhibits displaying flags, maps, traditional dress, artifacts, sports, music, art, games, traditions, food/drink, or any other aspect of their heritage or a country/culture of interest. Or, if you don't want to create a display, you can travel from country to country through the halls of HPS experiencing the different cultures and traditions along the way!

If your family is interested in participating in International Night, click here to sign up as a presenter by this Wednesday, February 1. If not, that's okay! Please save the date, and plan to attend! We'd love to have you explore the world with us at HPS!

To get in full spirit, get the event gear! The Limited Edition International Night Shirts can be purchased here with proceeds to support the HPS Student Council and its initiatives at the school, such as this one-- celebrating the diversity of our community!

Registration for Girls on the Run opens TOMORROW (January 30) and runs through February 8. In Girls on the Run team members will run and become more physically active, but Girls on the Run is about so much more than running. Its mission aims to inspire every girl to be healthy and joyful; to dream big, activate her full potential, and embrace differences; to become more confident, problem solve, and learn how to positively handle adversity. This group will meet from 2:30-3:45 Mondays and Wednesdays at HPS beginning on February 22 and is open to 16 girls. A lottery will take place for random assignment on the team if all 16 guaranteed spots are filled. Register here! More information is included in the flyers below. Please contact Coach Andre Klocke at gemma0299@yahoo.com with any questions.

Do you have kids interested in being part of a Hyde Park School cheerleading team? We are in the initial phase of gauging interest. We are also seeking interested adults (parents, family, friends) or even mature teenagers with cheer experience. Do you know someone who might like to invest in coaching little cheerleaders? If you have any interest or ideas contact HPS parent Tina Hubert who is collecting information to explore this possibility: tinaleehubert@gmail.com. 

HPS Kindergarten Information Night is set for February 16 at 6:00 pm in the HPS Gym. This meeting is for Parents of Incoming Kindergarteners for the 2023-2024 school year, so please spread the word through your network of families with preschoolers! *Please Note* in order to keep the meeting focused on informing the parents, this meeting is for parents/guardians only, not the incoming Kindergarteners. Socials for incoming families to meet one another and for the children to meet their teachers will take place in the Summer.

Planning is underway for the 11th Annual Spring Celebration! If you're new to HPS, Spring Celebration is a large-scale adults-only party that serves as our biggest fundraiser for the year! The Spring Celebration provides an opportunity for HPS families, staff, and community sponsors to celebrate our successful and growing school. At Hyde Park School, we are proud to provide a personalized learning environment that supports academic achievement and social-emotional development for children in grades K-6. We are proud to serve nearly 600 students primarily from the Hyde Park and Oakley neighborhoods.

What better way to get the most out of Spring Celebration than by volunteering and being part of the team that makes this spectacular event happen! Links to various volunteer and sponsorship opportunities will be posted in this Newsletter in the coming weeks. But in the meantime, we are seeking volunteers to help solicit donations from area businesses to stock Raffle Baskets and the Silent Auction. If you are interested in helping, please contact Ashley Hammond at president@hydeparkschoolpto.org.

One of the highlights of the Silent Auction is the student art that will be up for grabs! Each grade creates a project, which will be featured in the Silent Auction. And the student art projects are already underway! Here's a sneak-peak at the 5th Grade Zentangle projects, in the works!

With colder temperatures hitting here and there throughout the Winter, indoor recess is inevitable. HPS is seeking to create several Board Game Carts that will travel to classrooms and provide good old-fashioned entertainment for the indoor recess days. If you have extra or otherwise unwanted board games and/or extra plastic containers to store games/game pieces when the cardboard boxes become too torn and weathered, we'd put them to good use at HPS! Please bring them to the Main Office or send them to school with your child (along with a note/post-it that the game is being donated to the school's indoor recess supply). Thank you!!

Self-control is the ability to recognize and manage one’s own emotions, emotional responses, and behaviors. This set of skills may be the most important ones that children learn at school and at home. Here are some children's books that focus on self-control. Recent studies find that a child’s emotional intelligence, or “EQ”, is even more important than their “IQ” for future success and happiness. People learn better, feel better, and act kinder when their emotions are regulated. When humans feel strong emotions like anger or fear, the amygdala (part of the brain responsible for decision-making, memory, and emotional response) sends out a signal in the form of a neurochemical that throws our brains into survival mode. The higher-level, rational-thinking part of our brains shuts down, and reasoning, logic, the ability to plan, choose, or empathize all become inaccessible in that moment. But life is oh so much smoother and sweeter when we can control our emotions! People learn better and act kinder when their emotions are regulated. And the good news is, self-regulation skills can be learned at any age! (Resource: sounddiscipline.org).

Lunch time involves a learning curve, and our youngest students are in need of some assistance during lunchtime! Tasks like opening cheese sticks yogurt lids, and even putting straws in drink boxes can be challenging to little hands. If you could spare an hour of your time, please join our lunch and recess period to help make the most of this important hour of their day! Click here to sign up. This signup link will be included in this Newsletter each week for you to access.

*IMPORTANT NEW INFORMATION*: To allow for more eating time, Kindergarteners now will be having recess BEFORE lunch. This means if you are the Lunch/Recess Duty Volunteer, you should check-in at the Main Office, then report to the Playground instead of the Cafeteria. Then, following recess, you will help escort the Kindergarteners to the Cafeteria where you will assist them as they eat lunch. Please act as the Caboose for the line, ensuring that the very last students and any stragglers make it safely into the Cafeteria.

*Please note (and, yes, it goes without saying, but) by signing up for this opportunity, you will be signing up to assist ALL Kindergarteners with their lunch and to help monitor ALL students on the playground during recess, not just your child.*

Streamline your life by using this link to upload all HPS Events to your calendar: HPS Events Calendar. Throughout the year, this link will be updated with other events like socials, movie nights, family swims, playground dates, and more!