A Message from your Admin. Team

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We have finished 5 months of the school year and have 5 months left in 2024!   With each passing day our children grow a little more, as they take steps down the path of their lives. It is bittersweet!  We love to teach them, but also know that the years of childhood pass by quickly. 

One of the many ways we work to serve your children is through continuous staff learning. Each month in our staff meetings, our aides and teachers spend time learning about relevant information that can help them in the classroom and in life.  For example, we have spent time talking about the Emotional Keyboard and the amygdala and the stress response.  

During the month of February, our staff will be learning about how the brain learns and stores new information into the memory center of the brain. I thought I would share some of the big key points with our parents and caretakers. Since we do all of this work together, I thought you may find this information interesting and helpful too.

Our children are tasked with many challenges that involve learning something with automaticity; meaning they know it so well, it is cemented in their memory, and they can recall it with very little effort.  For example, when students are learning the sounds that letters make, the goal is to learn them so well that they can recall the information to blend the letters into words with little effort.  This takes time and practice!  Another example is math facts.  When students know these facts with automaticity, they don’t have to think about the facts when they are learning  multiple, complicated steps to solving a problem, such as multiplying fractions or long division.

Science not only tells us, it shows us with brain scans and detail that every person’s brain is different. This is one of the wonderful parts of being human! For example, some people can learn letter sounds quickly and others need a lot of repetition. The brain’s “building blocks” are called neurons.  As a person learns something new, whether it be learning to read, math facts, skiing, or typing, with practice,  the neurons in the brain make connections. The more connections and the stronger the connections, the easier it is to pull the information from the memory part of your brain with automaticity.

A few brain facts for parents and guardians:

1. The best way to store information into memory is through recall. Therefore telling your child an answer to a math fact and having them repeat the answer is an okay way to learn, but even better is then asking them 30 seconds or 1 minute or 5 minutes later. Having them recall repetitively helps them to create neural pathways.

2. During sleep, the brain is working to make those neuron connections and store the information in the memory part of the brain. Therefore, for kids in elementary school, a routine of getting between 9-12 hours of sleep per night is vitally important to learning information that needs to be stored in the memory part of the brain.

3. The growing human brain is constantly building neural connections, while pruning away less-used ones and digital media use plays an active role in that process. Much of what happens on screen provides “impoverished” stimulation of the developing brain compared to reality. Our kids need a diverse menu of online and offline experiences, including the chance to let their minds wander. Don’t forget–”boredom” is the space in which creativity and imagination happen.  

I do get very excited when I get to share information about how children learn. It is a passion of mine! I hope you also find the information interesting and helpful as well!

Mrs. Molly Dehlinger

UPES Principal

Attendance Reminder

• Anytime your child is absent from school, a paper note must be sent to school with your child upon their return, stating the reason for the absence.  If you do not turn in the note, the absence will become an unexcused absence.  Parents, please check your child's report card for any unexcused absences and send in a note for those date(s).  If you are uncertain of the date(s), please contact  Margaret Duszynski in the Attendance Office in the morning at (716) 646-3288.

• Please call the Attendance Office each day that your child is absent.  Our phone number is (716) 646-3288.   A message can be left at anytime school is not open.   Please do not call the main office or email the teacher to report an absence.   

• If your child(ren) will be absent because of a vacation, please fill out a vacation form two weeks prior to your departure.  These forms are available in the main office, on our district website or click on this link: Family Vacation Form .

Staff News:

Welcome to our new Head Custodian, Mr. James King.

Union Pleasant Elementary School

150 Pleasant Avenue  Hamburg, NY 14075

Main Office Phone:   (716) 646-3280 option 1

Fax: (716) 646-3237

Attendance Office:  (716) 646-3288

Nurse's Office:  (716) 646-3287

To email the main office, contact Mary Beth Murray at mmurrayhcsdk12.org or Jenny Carrig at jcarrig@hcsdk12.org.