Dear Families:

The beginning of a brand new year holds great opportunity to reflect upon our strengths, celebrate our accomplishments and move forward with a plan that will help us to be the ‘best we can be’. This was the message shared with our students at our January assembly. We talked about some of our New Year’s resolutions, sharing things like, “getting homework done on time”, “keeping our desk organized”, “making a new friend”, “watching less T.V.” and “becoming more active”. I offered the students a simple method of how to design a plan to accomplish their goals. Goal setting and decision making are important skills for our children to develop. We think it is important to work at every grade level to help our students be aware of the effects of their decisions on themselves and others. There are important life skills to develop and it is never too early to begin the conversation with our children.

Expanding on our school’s social responsibility goal Hammond students and teachers are actively participating in projects to make the world a better place. Each project we initiate encourages our students to develop a strong sense of community, highlights an awareness of positive ways they can help, and fosters a sense of empowerment over the world they live in. It is under the ‘Me to We’ umbrella that these projects have been created. ‘Hats for Haiti’ is a wonderful example of our students taking a leadership role by identifying a need and creating a plan to help! With the support of their teachers these students organized a coin drive to make a positive contribution to the devastation in Haiti. We appreciate the school-wide commitment and the financial support that the Hammond community provided.