The holidays are almost here! This statement is doubly exciting for the students of Elementary schools across the Castle Country Area. For one school especially this rings true, as Creekview Elementary has big plans for the winter season. To discuss these plans, Principal Keith Palmer sat down with Castle Country Radio to provide an in-depth look at what’s coming up for the school.
Palmer opened by looking back at some of the different activities the Creekview Coyotes have done since our last conversation,” we always tie Red Ribbon Week to Halloween, which just makes it for a fun, busy week. We had many visitors come and talk to the kids, different police departments, and the fire department and health department, and just visit with them about how important Red Ribbon Week is. And just had different activities each day at lunch, and so the kids had fun with that.” Palmer continued,” We had a good Halloween. The kids were very well-behaved, which always makes it more fun when we behave and we can do the things we want to do. So they had great class parties, and it’s fun to see their costumes and their personalities come out that way.”
Switching gears to the academic side of things, Palmer discussed what the elementary teachers will be emphasizing going into the rest of the school year,” our focus is still a lot on our reading. We have a brand-new curriculum, and we weren’t sure how that was going to gel together with the reading data we’ve been getting over the years. But things are looking quite good.” explained Palmer,” and then in December, we’re going to be taking time to reassess the students and see where we are at the midyear point. And then we will regroup from there in January and hit it hard for the rest of the year with what we see in the data. So we’ll gather some reading and some math, and then we’ll make decisions based on that.”
Principal Palmer also said he noticed some stress coming from the students, especially as the midyear point approaches, and that he wants to reemphasize the importance of student connections. “The first week of December, we’re going to kind of step away for a second and do what we’re calling ‘connecting through service’. And so the students are all going to have the opportunity to be in a group working on a service project. We’re going to be making holiday and thank you cards for police departments, for the residents at care centers and just a bunch of different organizations. We’re going to be making some blankets that the ambulance crew takes with them to give to kids when they’re at the scene of an accident. And just a lot of different projects are going to be happening.”
In addition to this, the Coyotes are also preparing for Santa’s Workshop,” every student has the opportunity to pick a gift and make a card and they give it to somebody else. So a lot of what we try to do at school is about them thinking of others. They can pick their dad or their grandpa or their brother and they can go in and pick a gift, but it’s not something that’s for them … almost everything we do is about giving, giving, giving.”
In closing Principal Palmer shared,” We’re just here working hard, trying to help every kid to learn and I just appreciate my staff and all the students and parents. It’s just a wonderful place to work.”
To stay up to date with the Creekview Elementary Coyotes, you can follow the school on Facebook.