A Parent’s Guide to Setting Goals With Their Child
As we usher in 2025, now is the perfect time to encourage our children to set academic and personal goals. Goal setting is a powerful tool that fosters a sense of purpose, increases motivation, and equips students to overcome challenges. Here’s how you can guide your child in the process:
1. Understand the importance of Setting Goals: Explain to your child that goals give us direction and purpose. They help us stay focused and they can be a source of motivation when we face challenges.
2. Identify Areas to Improve: Discuss with your child their strengths and areas they could improve on. This can be academically, socially, or personally. It is important to ensure this conversation is positive and constructive. For example, if your child focuses on the negative, set a goal to share the best thing that happened to them that day before they share anything else. If your child often comments on what they can’t do, set a goal that highlights what they CAN do. If your child struggles with reading, set a goal to read together for 20 minutes each evening.
3. Set SMART Goals: Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). For instance, instead of saying, “I want to read more,” a SMART goal would be, “I want to read one chapter book each month.”
4. Break Down Larger Goals: Big goals can appear daunting. Teach your child how to break goals down into smaller, more manageable tasks.
5. Monitor Progress: Regularly review your child’s progress toward their goals. Celebrate their successes and help them adjust their strategies if needed.
6. Encourage Persistence: Remind you child that it is normal to face obstacles and that persistence is the key to achieving their goals.
By involving our children in the goal-setting process, we empower them to take control of their learning, cultivating a sense of responsibility and self-control
January Habit of the Mind: Think Win-Win
The students at Hinton Elementary are continuing to build their leadership skills this month by focusing on win-win thinking and creating positive outcomes for everyone. Let’s take a closer look at Habit #4: Think Win-Win and how this type of thinking can help us grow into Highly Effective People.
Contrary to what might pop into our heads at first glance, win-win thinking isn’t about giving in, giving up, or giving a trophy to both teams. It’s about cooperation, collaboration, community, and creative thinking!
Win-Win thinking is cooperating to seek a solution that leaves both sides happy with the outcome. Our success does not have to be framed by another’s failure. That concept of win/lose is expected in a board game or a tennis match, but life and relationships are not competitions. Instead of competing, we ask: How can we re-frame a problem so everyone can win?
Win-win requires flexible and creative thinking—it pushes your brain to try something new. And using your brain is fun! Win-win thinking recognizes that there is more than one solution to the decisions and challenges of the world. We aim to help children see that their way plus your way may be the best way.
We provide many opportunities throughout the day for students to use their creativity and problem-solving skills. When children solve a complex math problem or build a tall tower out of wooden blocks, they are building pathways in their brain that will support their ability to look at a social problem and come up with multiple solutions. All of our learning is connected and focused on guiding your child to grow as a leader and contributing member of society!
Kicking off our second semester, we’d like to highlight the importance of reviewing our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) expectations at school. After a lengthy winter break, it is crucial to reestablish the school routine. A review of PBIS expectations reorients students to the school environment and behavioral norms. Expectations for the bus, classroom, halls, cafeteria, restrooms, and playground will be revisited. Regularly reviewing PBIS expectations promotes consistency in behavior. It helps students understand and internalize the expectations, leading to more consistent application. As we review, we will continue to recognize students displaying expectations, better known as the Blackhawk Code, celebrate achievements, and identify areas in which we can improve. This second semester review reminds students that these guidelines are not just rules, but a framework for a positive and productive learning environment.
Your child needs snow pants and snow boots along with a winter coat, hat, and gloves for recess. Some students like to bring 2-3 pairs of gloves or socks so they have a fresh, dry pair for each recess. Even if your child doesn't play in the snow, their winter gear will help to keep them warm. We go outside if the "feels like" temperature is 0 or above. Preschool guidelines are more stringent. Check your preschool newsletter for temperature guidelines.
School attendance is important at every level. It is particularly important in the lower elementary because students can’t read a chapter in a textbook or complete an assignment to catch up on what they missed. Most of the learning in lower elementary occurs through demonstration, discussion, and activities. When students are late or absent, the information from discussions and demonstrations and activities is missed. This information cannot be “made up” with the same quality and level of depth that occurred in the classroom while the child was out.
A child should never miss more than 5 days in a semester. When absences are higher than this, gaps begin to form in a child’s learning. Sometimes these gaps show themselves immediately and sometimes they don’t show up until the next year when a child is learning something new and we discover that the foundational learning is not there. Take note of the attendance on your child’s next report card. If your child has several tardies or absences, set a goal and develop a plan to make sure that your child is on time and attends every day during the second semester.
Iowa has new attendance legislation stating that children will be considered chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of the days in a grading period. At 15% missed days, the school is expected to hold a school engagement meeting with the parent/guardian, child, and a school official. At this meeting, and absenteeism prevention plan will be developed identifying barriers affecting the child’s attendance and interventions that may be used to improve attendance. When a child has missed 20% of the school days in a grading period, truancy procedures begin.
Based on this legislation, when a child reaches 5% or more days of absence in a grading period, the elementary office will send out a notice to the parent/guardian to make them aware. It is purely for awareness so families can keep an eye on the number of absences their child has accumulated, and hopefully prevent reaching the stage of Chronically Absent.
Student should arrive at school between 7:55 and 8:10 a.m. We start our day with Walk to Read. This is the time that each student gets the “extra scoop” of reading instruction they need based on the data from their diagnostic assessments. Students receive remediation, extra practice, or extended learning depending on their reading performance. When students are late for school, they miss this important learning time that is individualized to their specific needs.
Please remember when dropping students off in the south parking lot, to either park in the lot or pull all the way forward in the drop off/pick up lane. Do not leave gaps. When cars ahead of you leave, please continue to move forward to fill the gaps. When cars do not continue to move forward, we have other cars backed into the bus lane and out into the street.
If those picking up choose to park across the street, the adult needs to get out of the vehicle and walk the child across the street. We do not allow TK-3 students to cross the street during dismissal without an adult. If you park in the south parking lot, we highly encourage you to walk your child through the parking lot to your vehicle. Parking lots can be hectic, particularly during drop-off and pick-up times. Cars are often moving unpredictably, and drivers may not always see small children walking between vehicles. By accompanying your child, you help ensure they navigate this busy space safely.
