Patrick Henry Elementary School

MCPS families: The final registration for Back2School is Tuesday, July 23 from 6-8 p.m. Back2School provides FREE school supplies for children but pre-registration is required. Check your email or visit www.gob2s.com for more information.

We're providing free meals for kids and teens 18 and under Monday through Thursday at all of our schools across the district this month! No applications, no sign-ups, no hassle. Stop by with your family to enjoy breakfast or lunch on us. To learn more, call (276) 403-5172. Visit our website for a full list of meal times and locations: https://www.martinsville.k12.va.us/article/1615863

Thank you to our fantastic MHS student-athletes for celebrating Read Across America Week with our young readers! Yesterday, student-athletes from Martinsville High School travelled to Clearview, Albert Harris, and Patrick Henry to read with some of our classes. It was inspiring to watch these student-athletes sharing stories with our young learners. Thanks for helping us inspire a love of reading and learning in the next generation!

Congratulations to PHES students Zefrina, Jesmari, Bradley, Amreen, Paris, Adelaide, Katie, and Asma! Bradley and Adelaide won the PHES Three Sentence Scary Story Contest and the others won the Great Pumpkin Storybook Character Contest! 🎃 Both contests were sponsored by PHES librarian Ms. Smith. Winners received a gift certificate to the Book Fair 📚 and Halloween candy. 🍬 You can see their winning entries on display in the PHES library!

Today, our PHES kindergarten students got a special visit from the Virginia Museum of Natural History! Students created some beautiful artwork while learning about the life cycle of a butterfly! 🐛🦋

Today was a perfect day for a field trip! 🍂 Our PHES and AHES fourth graders traveled to Fairy Stone State Park today to plant the native black willow trees they have been sprouting in their classrooms thanks to the Dan River Basin Association's Streamside Trees in the Classroom. Students spent the whole day outside at the park, immersed in all things nature. Besides planting their trees, they also learned about the important role riparian buffers play in protecting our waterways, the geology of fairy stones, played a trivia game, and more! Our MHS AP biology students also got in on the fun, preparing and facilitating some creative activities for the younger students! Thank you to all of our amazing high school students, teachers, and community partners who came together to make this day possible for our young learners!

Today was a perfect day for a field trip! 🍂 Our PHES and AHES fourth graders traveled to Fairy Stone State Park today to plant the native black willow trees they have been sprouting in their classrooms thanks to the Dan River Basin Association's Streamside Trees in the Classroom. Students spent the whole day outside at the park, immersed in all things nature. Besides planting their trees, they also learned about the important role riparian buffers play in protecting our waterways, the geology of fairy stones, played a trivia game, and more! Our MHS AP biology students also got in on the fun, preparing and facilitating some creative activities for the younger students! Thank you to all of our amazing high school students, teachers, and community partners who came together to make this day possible for our young learners!

🌦️🌟 Exciting Weather Day at PHES! 🌦️🌟 Today, our fourth-grade students at Patrick Henry Elementary had an unforgettable experience as they welcomed two guest speakers from from WDBJ7 Weather: Chief Meteorologist Brent Watts and Meteorologist Payton Major! Brent and Payton visited the school as part of our fourth grade unit on weather. Students were particularly excited about the visit because they have been recording their own weather reports in class. Payton and Brent showcased the tools they use to measure rainfall, wind, temperature, and humidity and even created a cloud in a bottle to demonstrate the effects of high and low pressure on the weather. ☁️ Students thoroughly enjoyed the whole visit and learned so much more about weather, but they REALLY perked up when the two meteorologists talked about the possibility of snow this winter! ☃️ This was a great way for our students to connect real-world experiences to what they have been learning in the classroom! Tune in to WDBJ-7's 6 p.m. newscast tonight and you just might see a quick shoutout to PHES!

Today is the 20th day of school! Students who have missed two or more days by this point in the school year are considered chronically absent. It's never too early to start building the habit of good attendance! Children who are chronically absent in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade are much less likely to read at grade level by third grade. Students who cannot read at grade level by the end of third grade are 4 times more likely to drop out of high school. #AttendanceMattersVA #schooleveryday

Please remember that MCPS will be closed on Monday, September 4 in observance of the Labor Day holiday. Classes will resume Tuesday, September 5.

On his last day of work, MCPS would like to thank Officer Shane McPeek for serving has our SRO for over a decade. Officer McPeek has worked at both Martinsville Middle School and Martinsville High School and has played played an integral role in school safety improvements during his time with us. Thank you, Officer McPeek, for keeping our students and staff safe! We wish you the best in your retirement!

It was amazing to see so many smiling faces this morning on the first day of a new school year! Thank you to the Martinsville Sheriff's Office, Police Department, Martinsville Fire & EMS, and city council members who joined our staff and school board members in welcoming our students back to school! It was a great way to kick off the Year of Endless Possibilities here at MCPS! Students, your MCPS family missed you! We can't wait to see what you will achieve this year!

Curious about the upcoming school year? 🍎 🏫 MCPS is hosting a district-wide open house for all schools on Wednesday, August 9 from 12-7 p.m. This is a great opportunity for students and their families to meet teachers and staff, visit classrooms, learn about the upcoming school year, and get to know their school! ✉️ Each school will send out information to families regarding their specific open house procedures. 👉 To learn more about open house, visit our Back to School page on the MCPS website: https://www.martinsville.k12.va.us/page/back-to-school-2023-2024

During Career Camp at PHES, students had the opportunity to hear from a number of professionals in our community about their jobs. One guest speaker was a VERY familiar face- PHES’ own school resource officer, Sgt. Anitra Huff of the Martinsville Sheriff's Office! Not only did campers get to hear about what Sgt. Huff does, they got to get some first-hand experience, exploring her police car and testing out some of its tools! 🚔

Just because the academic year is over doesn't mean our teachers aren't hard at work! Last week, teachers from across the division came together for a full week of curriculum work to prepare for the upcoming year of learning. So what exactly is curriculum work? Teachers and instructional staff are working together, collaborating across disciplines, grade levels, and even schools, to examine data from this school year to adjust their pacing and build assessments to help improve the learning experience and monitor student progress throughout the next year. (As you can see from some of the expressions in the photos, some teachers handle the pressures of curriculum work better than others. Hang in there, Mr. Hackenberg!)

Wow! Congratulations to our MMS Odyssey of the Mind team! They placed 7th overall in the World Finals and 2nd in Spontaneous! 🌎 These students have worked so hard and we were proud to have them represent MCPS on a global stage.

In honor of Rooster Walk weekend, we wanted to share a little story. This is Sara Kasey, a human resources specialist here at MCPS. A 2010 graduate of Martinsville High School, Sarah holds a special place in Rooster Walk's history as the very first recipient of the festival's Penn-Shank Memorial Scholarship! Each year Rooster Walk awards the scholarship to an outstanding Martinsville High School senior to honor the memories of the two MHS alumni for whom the festival and the scholarship are named. Sara used her scholarship to attend Randolph College, where she majored in psychology with a minor in business administration with the goal of entering the human resources field. Fast forward to 2019, when we were fortunate enough to welcome Sara back into our MCPS family as an employee. It's truly a full-circle moment for her as the office she now occupies was once her kindergarten classroom when she was a student at Druid Hills! Join us in celebrating Sara's achievements and the incredible opportunities that Rooster Walk provides for the next generation of Martinsville students.

That's a wrap on the 2022-2023 school year! As we bid farewell to another year of growth, learning, and memory-making, we want to take a moment to thank everyone- parents, students, teachers, and staff- for making this yet another amazing year at MCPS. Just 82 days until the 2023-2024 year begins!

MCPS families: Tomorrow is the last day of the 2022-2023 school year! Please remember that MCPS will dismiss students 3 hours early tomorrow (Wednesday, May 24).

Meet the newest members of the PHES family! 🐣🦆 Students at PHES have been busy raising chicks and ducks in their classrooms and it's been an incredible learning experience for them. From watching the eggs hatch to comparing the feet and beaks, our students are learning about the unique adaptations that help these birds thrive in their natural environments. It's amazing to see how engaged and excited they are about their new feathery friends! Once they leave the school, these chicks and ducks will go live on a farm where they can continue to grow and thrive. We're so proud of our students for taking part in this hands-on learning experience!