Dear Kindergarten Parents/Guardians:

It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to Longfellow Elementary School.  A world of excitement, adventures, and learning experiences are awaiting you and your child.  We believe that a child’s first experiences in a public school setting are extremely important in establishing good work habits, routines, and positive attitudes, which will influence a child’s future in school and throughout their lives.  Our goal is to help all of our students become life-long learners.

An integrated curriculum presents an educational program that unifies all content areas – language arts, math, science, social studies, health and safety, music, art, physical education, and technology.  The program is designed to strengthen physical, emotional, social and intellectual skills while encouraging creativity, critical thinking and problem solving.

The home-school communication is one that we value highly.  We hope that you will become active in our school programs and the Parent Teacher Association. We know that parents are their child’s first and most influential teachers and can do many school-related activities at home to help their child succeed in school.  We present several workshops designed to share home activities with you, which reinforce skills being taught in school.  Research shows that the child’s achievement is enhanced and the school is more successful when parents are engaged as partners with the school’s program.

Our current kindergarten teachers and paraeducators are looking forward to meeting with you.  We will hold our Kinder-Carnival Visit on May 17, 2023 from 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm. You must RSVP to this event.  We would like to spend some time getting to know your child during a Kinder-camp session held Aug 10, 2023, or Aug 14, 2023.  During Kinder-camp, your child will get to meet a few other children and try some kindergarten activities.  Please schedule your child’s Kinder-camp session with the front office.  There will be three sessions offered each day.  

If the proposed HCPSS calendar is approved, Kindergarten Orientation/Open House will be held at 1:15pm on August 25, 2023.  A complete list of buses and bus stops will be available at the orientation as well as listed in the Columbia Flyer and Howard County Times.  Our school-wide open house will follow the orientation from 2:00pm-3:00pm.  If you would like to learn more about our school prior to orientation, you may visit loes.hcpss.org to view Kindergarten’s Welcome to Kindergarten Booklet.

Although Longfellow does not honor parent requests for specific teachers, we want to take the time to learn as much as possible about your child.  Please click HERE or use the attached sheet entitled, “Parent Consideration Form” to share important information about your child with us.  For example:

• My child is extremely shy and needs to be called upon to answer.

• My son/daughter needs to sit close to the board.

• My child works best in a classroom setting that is….

When placing a student, the administration uses a wide range of criteria, which are supportive of the Howard County philosophy of heterogeneous grouping.  Your response will be added to these other considerations.

We at Longfellow Elementary School look forward to meeting you and your child.                                                 

You can also submit your image HERE

• March 23rd - PTA Hispanic Family Parent Event

• March 23rd - Wear Green to support Cerebral Palsy Awareness (see flyer below)

• March 30th - Kindergarten Field Trip

• March 31st - End of Quarter 3; Half-day for HCPSS Students

• April 11th - HCPSS students return from Spring Break

• April 21st - HCPSS schools closed for students

Click HERE to access the full HCPSS calendar for the 2022 - 2023 school year

Click HERE to access the full order form

Spanish Translation

Click HERE to submit an interest form

Hello Longfellow families.  Our technology classroom needs your help!  

We are in search of older iOS or Android phones or tablets that you would be willing to donate to us so we can successfully complete an amazing project.  Devices need to be from within the last 7 years or so, still work, charge, and connect to wifi for us to use them with the project app.  If they use a nonstandard charger (other than lightning, microusb or usb-c) please attach the charger so we can continue to make use of it.  Please send in any donations with your student for Ms. Baker.

Thank you so much for digging around to help us out!

Click and scroll on the calendar below for color day rotation information for related arts classes

Check out the events happening within and around our community

Medication & Sharps Disposal Event: Free. The next safe and convenient drive-thru medication & sharps disposal event will be held on Saturday, April 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Wilde Lake Village Center Parking lot near the Swim Center. HC DrugFree is accepting prescription and over-the-counter medications, sharps (needles, syringes, EpiPens, etc.), vapes, inhalers, veterinary medication and more. Medication will be guarded/transported by Howard County Police. We are in need of Teen and Adult, and medically trained adult volunteers! Groups encouraged to volunteer. Learn more or sign up to volunteer at https://hcdrugfree.org/drug-take-back-day-1/ Members of HC DrugFree’s Teen Advisory Council (TAC) can earn community service hours for volunteering. If your student is interested in joining TAC, please visit https://hcdrugfree.org/teen-advisory-council/  to learn more and download an application.

Free Parenting Classes (open to grandparents too): Free. Guiding Good Choices is an evidence-based, interactive prevention program that provides families with the skills and knowledge to reduce the risk that their children will use drugs and alcohol or engage in other dangerous behaviors. Howard County parents, guardians and grandparents will learn how to encourage your child to adopt healthy attitudes and behaviors, how to communicate more effectively, how to build a relationship of trust, and much more! Classes will be held Tuesdays, May 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. via Zoom. Learn more or register: https://hcdrugfree.org/2023/02/guiding-good-choices-free-classes-for-parents-2/

8th–12th Grade Teen Advisory Council: Free. HC DrugFree's Teen Advisory Council is open to all Howard County students in grades 8 through 12. This is a great opportunity to help prepare younger students for success in high school while allowing older students to develop their leadership and mentoring skills. The registration form is available at https://hcdrugfree.org/teen-advisory-council/ and community service hours are available. Email your registration form to admin@hcdrugfree.org or mail a hard copy the office. Meetings are on Zoom from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. To register for the Monday, April 17 meeting or any upcoming meeting, click on the TAC registration link next to the meeting date https://hcdrugfree.org/teen-advisory-council/

Know What’s Happening in Howard County: Sign up for HC DrugFree’s newsletter at https://hcdrugfree.org/enews-signup/ or follow us on social media to get updates on events as well as information to keep your family safe and informed:  Facebook  Twitter  Instagram  LinkedIn

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