Last week students and staff were treated to an assembly about perserverance and determination through the lens of jumping rope. Our presenter, a professional rope jumper, taught us skills that can transfer to jump rope, or other parts of life. The fifth graders were especially tickled to see their teacher Ms. Pabian be a courageous volunteer and double dutch for the whole school!

Old Mill was recently treated to a hilarious assembly from author and illustrator Jon Agee. He taught students his unique style of storytelling through illustration, and gave aspiring illustrators some tips for bringing their creations to life. He even gave us a sneak peek of a book that's coming soon.

Jon Agee reads one of his new books to the school.

An inspired second grader works on a Agee-esque drawing after the assembly.

Did your student see a group of teachers visiting their classroom last Friday?

Old Mill Teachers are participating in a practice called "Learning Walks" in which a group of teachers gets to tour the school and spend 10 minutes in other teachers' classes. Visiting teachers keep an eye out for a specific teaching practice while they are in their colleage's classroom and debrief with other visitors afterwards.

Learning Walks are an important part of our Old Mill teachers building their staff community. Often teachers learn the most from watching each other, and it helps the staff to bond over common practices and new learning.

Thank you for continuing to support our teachers as they improve their teaching practices for all Old Mill students!  

Last Friday, Old Mill came together to talk about responsibility. After being led in an impromptu holiday sing-along by the Kindergarteners, we talked about how students can be responsible at school, in the community, and around the world. We were treated to skits performed by 2nd and 3rd graders representing scenarios in each of those places.

Finally, many students, staff, and parents were recognized for demonstrating responsibility. Look for their "hands" on the bulletin board in the front entrance.

Last Sunday Old Mill School and the surrounding sidewalk was filled with neon-clad students and familes. Our annual Lapathon fundraiser encourages students to rasie money for the school by running laps and collecting pledges for the amount of laps they run. This year's Lapathon featured an 80's theme, which helped provide inspiration for the T-shirt design and music at the event. Students enjoyed running laps, eating snowcones, cake-walking, adding to the graffiti wall, and participating in a number of games out on the yard.

Congratulations to the top lap runners!

K - Hudson (and 5th grade buddy) with 102 laps

1st - Landon with 47 laps

2nd - Alexander M with 50 laps 

3rd - It's a TIE! Dillon & Elena with 56 laps each

4th - Andrew S with 83 laps

5th - Will R (and K buddy) with 106 laps

Ms. Levin's class ran the most laps....552 laps!

Ms. Pabian's and Ms. Kaye's (5th/Kinder) had the largest combo of laps...661 laps!

Mrs. Demaret and Ms. Dowell's classes had 100% participation.

Collectively 287 kids walked/ran 4,049 laps! Based on 4 laps around the school equaling a mile, that is 1,012.25 miles...from OMS to Baja, Mexico!

Thank you to all the participants AND volunteers! What an amazing community building school event!

September 22nd is Character Day, but what does that mean? Character Day, according to its host site Let It Ripple, "Character Day is a free annual day and global initiative where groups around the world screen films on the science of character development from different perspectives, ...dive into free printed discussion materials, and join an online global conversation around the importance of developing character strengths (resilience, grit, empathy, courage, kindness) -- all rooted in evidence-based research." 

Old Mill School will participate in this third annual character day. If you would like to prepare for the day at home, take a look at some of these great shorts reccommended by Let It Ripple:

The Science of Character

Class Dojo Big Ideas (Growth Mindset Series)

Gratitide Revealed

In addition to watching movies about character, there are plenty of resources to encourage discussion around the topic of character. Check those out here.

We can't wait to participate in the event this Thursday, and we hope your family can connect to the day at home as well.

Grades K-5 got together last Friday to welcome back the returning students, and also welcome students who are new to our school. We invited new students up to the stage where buddies from their class introduced them to our whole school. We were also pleased to welcome our new teachers, Ms. Pabian (5th), Ms. Brundige (PE), and Ms. Kaye (K).

Finally, we welcomed the newest member of our playgroud- the turf! We held a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and watched a few parents take on Mr. Deppong and Ms. Riley in a mini-soccer match. What a sight! 

It's great to be back at Old Mill!

The whole school is ready to learn!

Welcome new students! We're so glad you're here!

The Old Mill teachers and staff can't wait to see all the families, new and returning, bright and early on Wednesday, August 24th at 8:30am. 

Don't forget, our first day lands on a Wednesday, which means school gets out at 1:45 for grades 1-5. Kindergarten will release at 11:50, and this will continue until September 19th.