Coffee with Cale - a psychologist & parents expert workshop!

Today at Hamagrael we were so lucky to have Dr. Randy Cale, a local psychologist and parenting expert come in for one of his parenting workshops.  This was just one of many sessions he has offered to the Bethlehem School District.  Our topic today was titled "Mom... I hate you. Can you buy me a new phone?" and focused on managing communication with children in order to create kindness and respect between both the parent and the child.  This workshop was applicable to children of all different ages, personalities, and communication styles.  We had a great audience, as these sessions are open to any parents in the district, no matter which school it is located at.  I was lucky to be able to sit in on this talk and took plenty of notes in case any of my Hamagrael parents come to me with similar problems with their children. If you seem to be struggling with your child when it comes to kind and respectful communication please feel free to ask questions about his presentation!

There is only one more "Coffee with Cale" session left.  This one will be held on April 7th at Slingerlands Elementary School at 9:30 am.  This topic is "Dealing with Childhood Anxiety: Practical tools for parents." Even if you do not feel your child has extreme anxiety, many children may struggle with feelings of anxiety over little things here and there. For some children this may be a new feeling that they do not completely understand.  Having these practical tools available when you need them may be helpful for all parents! We hope to see you all there!

For more information on our districts collaboration with Dr. Cale you can click here: http://bethlehemschools.org/News/201314/131028parentexpert2.html

For Dr. Cale's website you can click here: http://drrandycale.com/

And if you have any other questions about this, as always, please feel free to reach out to me about this by e-mail at ehunter@bcsd.neric.org !

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

For those of you who did not know this, yesterday was Dr. Seuss's birthday! We had a lot of fun celebrating this at Hamagrael today. Our principal, Mr. K was dressed up as the cat in the hat and visiting classrooms this morning, and many classrooms were decorated with different crafts from his various books. 

Dr. Seuss has always been my favorite author so of course I had to do something to celebrate today. One of my favorite quotes from him is, "Today you are you! That is truer then true! There is no one alive who is youer then you!" I shared that quote with first grade and we made self-esteem cat in the hat masks! I asked them to reflect on what their favorite qualities are about themselves, and what makes them unique. They then wrote three of them on their hats! 

In friendship groups we talked about qualities that we need to be a good friend and wrote those on our hats. Both sets of masks turned out adorable! Here are some pictures from our birthday celebrations today...

This week is also national Read Across America week AND Hamagrael's no TV week. If you are participating in no TV week make sure to bring your slips to be entered in the raffle.  Turning in your slips gives you a chance to win a $8 coupon for our book fair that we have going on this week! Don't forget to stop in and check out all of our books while they are here. 

Happy 100 days of school

Acceptance!

The theme of the month at Hamagrael is ACCEPTANCE!

All month long we have been hearing different quotes read by our Hamagrael Peer Leaders on the morning announcements about acceptance. This morning we had a fabulous assembly put on by the 5th graders to teach us a little more about acceptance.

They did a great job using poems, quotes, music, and personal accounts to teach the entire school about acceptance. Thank you to all of those who were involved in putting the assmebly together and thank you to all of the students and faculty at Hamagrael for showing the true meaning and importance of acceptance everyday!!

Below is a picture from todays assembly and the song that they played for us. I suggest you listen and watch the video - its awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyVzjoj96vs

Breast Cancer Awareness Month! 

Hamagrael is excited to be Making Strides Against Breast Cancer with the American Cancer Society this year. The walk will be taking place on Sunday, October 20th in Washington Park. Registration begins at 10am and the walk will start at 12pm. There will be food, vendors, shopping, bands, cheerleaders, performers, survivors, arts & crafts, and much more to create an inspirational, light hearted, fun family day.

We encourage all of our Hamagrael community to join the fight against breast cancer by signing up to walk with us on Sunday. If you would like to participate, please go to this link and click on JOIN OUR TEAM! http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Hamagrael

There is no registration fee and no requirement as far as fundraising however we encourage all participants to fundraise if they'd like to.  All the money that the Albany Making Strides raises stays in the Capital Region to help our families, friends and neighbors in their fight against breast cancer. This is so important because 21 men and women are diagnosed with breast cancer each week in the Capital Region alone- that is almost 2000 people a year! 

If you are unable to make it to the walk on October 20th and would like to donate to the Hamagrael Making Strides Against Breast Cancer team please feel free to do so at the above link or send a cash/check donation in to Ms. Hunter in the Hamagrael guidance office. Checks can be made out to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. Please remember, every donation helps to create a world with less cancer and more birthdays, no matter how big or small it is.

Last year's walk brought out 15,000 community members and raised over $1 million dollars. This years turn out is expected to be even larger as we are celebrating the 100th birthday of the American Cancer Society. As a community we hope to come together with the American Cancer Society and help finish the fight in 2013!

If you have any questions about this please feel free to contact Elizabeth Hunter at elizabeth.hunter@cancer.org at anytime!

Hamagrael School Counseling!

• Individual Counseling: If you are interested in signing your child up for individual counseling please contact Ms. Hunter to let her know and make sure to fill out a permission slip to be returned to the counseling center.

• Group Counseling
• Banana Splits: Understanding change and being able to recognize and express feelings that go along with it in a healthy way. Activities will also help to improve communication and increase positive thinking.
• Friendship: Learning how to build, maintain and strengthen friendships
• New Student: Get to know other students over lunch with Ms. Hunter
• Academic: Learning effective ways to organize and prepare for education

• Classroom Guidance
• I will be making arrangements with teachers to come into each classroom for various guidance lessons. We will address different character education topics through books, activities, and discussion.