From the Principals

Dear YES Families,

We hope that you all had a nice February vacation! It has been wonderful to see our students back at school this week. Mother nature seems to be calling for an early spring but, as we know, the weather in Maine can change quickly. Please continue to encourage your children to dress in layers as we head into March and the weather variations that can typically present themselves this month.

As we begin these last few months of the school year, we want to thank you for your participation in our recent and upcoming parent-teacher conferences. This is an opportunity for you to celebrate your child's progress and learn more about their next steps in growing as learners. Please know that your partnership, feedback, and support are valued and greatly appreciated by our staff.

The upcoming month of March is a busy one with lots of information and exciting opportunities to share!

Best,

Ryan Gleason, YES Principal & Molly Kilpatrick, YES Assistant Principal

March Dates/Events to Remember

YES Spirit Month 2024!

Our annual "YES Spirit Month" is back! This year will once again feature fun spirit week dress-up days on the following Fridays in March:

Friday, March 8: Yarmouth Spirit Day!

Wear your favorite Yarmouth gear or the colors blue and white.

Friday, March 15: Comfy Clothes Day!

Pajamas or whatever clothes are your favorite "comfy" ones are the theme for the day.

Friday, March 22: Favorite Day!

Wear your favorite color, sports team, activity…anything that is one of your favorites!

Friday, March 29: Wacky Outfit Day!

A day for mismatches, wacky clothes, and hats.

STEAM Family Night!

YES will be hosting its first family STEAM Night on Wednesday, March 6th from 5-7 pm! Join us for an evening of engineering design challenges, science experiments, math activities, programming and robotics games, and team-building challenges. Volunteers are still needed! Learn more about family STEAM night by visiting this website. A huge shout out to Mrs. Colfer for planning and facilitating this event for our school community.

Sunday, March 10: Daylight Savings Time

We look forward to the time when our days start getting longer. Don't forget to set the clocks one hour ahead when you go to bed that night!

Third Grade CoGat Testing

In March, we will be administering the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) to all third-grade students. It is a series of short assessments that are a part of our universal screening process for gifted and talented instructional support. As you are aware, our Talents instructional support is consult-based at the elementary level. Beginning in grade four we have additional pull-out groups that represent 3-5% of the total grade-level population.

The CogAT is a multiple-choice K-12 assessment that measures reasoning skills with different types of verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal questions. There will be three 30-minute tests administered and spread out over the weeks of March 11, March 18, and March 25.

5th Grade School Play: Friday, March 22 at 6:00 PM

On Friday, March 22 at 6:00 pm, YES will present it's first every 5th grade school play! The play will be held in the gymnasium and students will be performing Finding Nemo: The Musical. Under the direction of Mrs. Pride students have been practicing for several weeks. It promises to be an exciting night of acting, singing and fun!

Yarmouth's Got Talent 2024!

It's Time to Get Ready for the 12th Annual Yarmouth's Got Talent
A K-12 Student Competition

All talent welcome to audition – music, dance, arts, magic, comedy or any creative endeavor that will win over the audience!

Entry Forms:
Entry forms: www.yarmouthsgottalent.org
Entry forms must be submitted by Thursday, March 28th.

Auditions:
Monday, April 1
Start at 3PM at HMS and YHS
Start at 3:45PM at YES and Rowe.

Show Date:
Friday, April 5 (Snow date, Saturday, April 6)

4:00 Dress Rehearsal

7:00 Showtime

Prizes:
Cash prizes based on audience vote.
A first and second prize will be awarded for each age group.

Pre-K-5 Parent Teacher Organization

The Yarmouth PTO is seeking fresh talent to join our leadership team for the upcoming 2024-25 school year! We have several leadership positions available, including both committee chair and board positions. Want to help but not through a lead position? That's great too - we have volunteer positions at every level.

To indicate your possible interest in any level of volunteering (or to update your volunteer interests), please fill out our 2-minute Volunteer Survey: http://bit.ly/PTOVolunteerSurvey . There is no better time than the present to get involved and make a difference in the lives of our students!

The next PTO meeting will be March 21st at 7:00 pm ALL OUR WELCOME! Meetings are held in the YES library.

World of Change/Time to Compete Fundraiser Begins

As we shared in the newsletter last month, our YES community is participating in a school-wide fundraiser by partnering with the Maine-based “World of Change”. Last year we raised over $3,000.00 as a school to support different needs in our local community.

This year all of our funds will be donated to the Time to Compete Foundation. Established by former YES student Gibson Harnett, this non-profit helps build support teams for young adults who have been diagnosed with debilitating illnesses.

When visiting the school you will see that the World of Change kiosk is located in the lobby where change makers can deposit their donations each day during the fundraiser. Students will also have change jars in their classrooms to fill the kiosk. This is an opportunity to live our YES core values of caring and citizenship and in April we will celebrate the total amount raised for Time to Compete.

Yarmouth Elementary School March 2024 Newsletter