Old Mill Elementary School

🎄💫 From our Old Mill family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We are so grateful for our incredible students, families, staff, and community partners. Your support makes Old Mill a place where kids thrive and joy is felt every day. Wishing you peace, rest, and special moments this holiday season. See you in the new year! 💙 https://youtube.com/shorts/3gv0Mrb9D8A?feature=shared

This week has been a whirlwind of holiday celebrations! Our staff has been absolutely showered with love...Christmas gifts from our principals and leadership team, a generous popcorn and hot chocolate donation from Southeast Christian, ServPro, our social committee and our PTO going above and beyond with lunch, gifts, and raffles. We’ve also had so much fun with staff competitions, including gingerbread decorating, an ugly sweater contest, and team Christmas Clash challenges that brought out lots of laughs and friendly competition. And we’re not done yet… tomorrow we go out with a bang with our annual Reindeer Games! 🎄✨

✨⚖️ Learning Comes Alive in 5th Grade! ⚖️✨ Our 5th graders recently took part in a Hogwarts-themed courtroom simulation based on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone! Students stepped into roles as judges, lawyers, witnesses, jurors—and even Harry himself to answer the big question: 🧙‍♂️ Was Harry Potter justified in going after the Sorcerer’s Stone? Using evidence from the text, students practiced critical thinking, speaking and listening skills, teamwork, and evidence-based reasoning as they presented arguments, questioned witnesses, and defended their claims. This engaging activity helped students deepen their understanding of character motivation, decision-making, and how to support opinions with proof from a text—all while having a little magical fun! We are so proud of our students for their creativity, collaboration, and thoughtful discussions during this unforgettable learning experience! 💫📚

Tonight is Bubba's 33 night for Old Mill! All you have to do is show them this flyer and it benefits OMES! We hope to see you there!

🌍✨ Quarter 2 3rd-5th Learning Excursion Spotlight ✨🌍 Our students wrapped up Quarter 2 with an inspiring learning excursion project focused on using their unique talents to encourage others to take care of the Earth through recycling. Through creativity, teamwork, and problem solving, students showed how small actions can make a big impact. In Visual and Performing arts, students transformed recycled materials into stage props for a class play. They thoughtfully planned, designed, and created pieces that brought their story to life while showing how reused materials can be both meaningful and beautiful. In PE, students put their innovation into action by using recycled items to design and create their own games. They tested their ideas, adjusted rules, and worked together to make sure their games were fun, safe, and engaging for everyone. Throughout the project, students demonstrated our Graduate Profile competencies. They were effective communicators by sharing ideas, giving feedback, and explaining their creations. They showed growth as productive collaborators by working as teams, solving problems, and supporting one another. Students acted as self directed navigators by planning their projects, managing their time, and making thoughtful choices along the way. Each group stayed focused, revising their work, and seeing their ideas through from start to finish. We are so proud of how our students used creativity, movement, and teamwork to care for our planet and inspire others to do the same ♻️💚

We can’t wait to see all of our students back in the building tomorrow! 🐨💛 As a reminder, we’ll be wrapping up i-Ready assessments, so please make sure your child brings their Chromebook fully charged and ready to go. We’re excited to be back together and finish strong!

Mark your calendars! This Tuesday night at Bubba 33s is OMES night!

Have a great weekend, Old Mill! ❄️ https://youtube.com/shorts/S3aGWPVpCjs?feature=shared

❄️ Hello, Snow Day! ❄️

Our first snow day is officially here! We hope our students and families are enjoying a cozy day filled with rest, play, and a little winter magic.

Drop a ❄️ if you’re loving it
Drop a ☕ if you’re staying cozy
Drop a ⛄ if you’re headed outside

Stay safe and warm, Old Mill!

Today’s staff Christmas celebration was all about fun and connection—Elf on the Shelf shenanigans and a chocolate fondue that brought everyone together!

Mark your calendars! 🗓️

We are so excited to launch our new partnership series designed around the concerns YOU have shared with us.
Our first session will focus on anxiety and screen time—what we’re seeing in kids, why it’s happening, and practical strategies families can use at home.

More details coming soon—we hope you’ll join us!

✨ Staff Spotlight of the Week: Mrs. Jodi Osborne! ✨

Jodi is the definition of a team player. She brings positivity to every space she enters and always finds a way to make people smile. Students adore her, former students go out of their way to come back and see her, and current students can’t wait to share their day with her! We’re so grateful to have Mrs. Osborne as an essential part of our Old Mill family. 💛

🎄✨ Connecting Generations Through Learning! ✨🎄 Our 2nd graders are learning how different cultures across North America celebrate holidays and traditions and today they took that learning into our community! 💙 Students visited Sanders Ridge to interview residents about their favorite holiday memories and traditions. They’re working on a special project to preserve these stories and share a meaningful gift later in December. ❤️ Through this experience, our kids are growing as: 💬 Effective Communicators 🤝 Productive Collaborators 🌟 Community Contributors We are so proud of their big hearts and curiosity!

🌟 Community Shout-Out of the Week! 🌟
This week, we are shining the spotlight on the incredible partners who helped make our National Blue Ribbon Conference experience possible! 💙🏆

Thank you to:
✨ John Spalding, Attorney
✨ East & Westbrook Construction Co., Inc.
✨ OMES PTO

Your overwhelming support was felt loud and clear, from Bullitt County all the way to Orlando!

We are so grateful for your continued investment in our students, staff, and community.

💛 We are better together. 💙

📚✨ It’s i-Ready Testing Week at Old Mill! ✨📚 Our Koalas have been working hard, setting goals, and preparing to show what they know! As we head into testing, a few reminders to help our students do their very best: 🌙 A good night’s sleep 🍳 A healthy breakfast 🎯 A quick pep talk about the goals they’ve set and how proud we are of their effort! We believe in them — and we know they’re going to shine! 💛💙 And the BEST part? Next week we’ll be celebrating all their hard work and growth with an i-Ready Rewards Day… featuring a SILENT DISCO! 🎧🎉

The countdown is ON! Join us next week as we celebrate holiday traditions the Old Mill way — dressed head-to-toe in festive fun! ❤️💚

⏰ 🐨 Koalas of the Month: Efficiency! 🐨 ⏰

These Koalas know how to make every minute count! They plan ahead, stay focused, and use their time wisely to get the job done without wasting a moment. We were honored to celebrate them with lunch, basketball, and a little air-hockey fun to recognize their hard work! They have a slide pass to use every day in December! Koalas CREATE!

We hope everyone has a great weekend! Check out Mrs. Joiner's weekly video below to hear about the exciting things happening at Old Mill next week!

https://youtube.com/shorts/OspPOZ62R8M?si=AhsXCuFZc1H-EmfY

Today we launched our 12 Days of Christmas staff celebration! We enjoyed a cozy Popcorn Bar and added special ornaments that reflect who we are, our passions, our families, our unique personalities, and our love for our school community. 💛

🌟 Student Spotlight: Logan D. 🌟
Logan truly shined as an innovative problem solver! During an engineering challenge, he faced several tough obstacles—but never once gave up. Logan approached each setback with creativity and determination, always searching for a new solution. Even when things got challenging, he stayed calm and encouraged his partner, reminding them that all hope wasn’t lost.

His perseverance, teamwork, and positive attitude made all the difference. We are so proud of Logan’s hard work and the incredible endurance he showed from start to finish! 🚀💡