Month: February 2019

Good snowing morning!
What an incredible storm–hope you are thoroughly enjoying your snow day! If it continues to snow like this we may be off again tomorrow. A big thanks to all of you for joining in the fun at the auction. It was a great night and fun to see you all there having a good time! Initial totals are looking good.

A little snow humor to get you going: If you live in an igloo made of snow, what’s the worst thing about global warming?
A: No privacy! 

A few notes to get us going:
1) Info tours are this week, Tuesday and Friday weather permitting. They start at 8:30am. If you have an empty bulletin board outside your classroom please take a moment to decorate it with art or other student work. Thanks!

2) Site Council is hosting the Listening Sessions this Thursday at 8am, 9:15am, and 5:30pm. If you can make one of the session please do! Your input is important. If you can’t make any of the sessions there will be an opportunity to fill out some cards next week–stay tuned. The idea is to get input from the entire community–what’s going well, what needs attention, and new ideas to consider.

3) Dental Screenings this week, Thursday and Friday. Info and permission forms went home last week. We’ll get you more info once we have all the forms in–please bring them to the office.

4) Kinder hosts Cafe Amity this week

5) SIW this week: We’ll read and discuss the last two chapters (Chs. 8 & 9) in Mathematical Mindsets. Also, have a look at appendixes A and B, with special attention to B. The big question: How will what we have been reading and discussing help to shape our common beliefs and practices in math?

6) The Variety Show is next week–Yikes!We’ll continue with rehearsals this week–I think we will need to add Wednesday since we are missing today.
*Final rehearsals on March 4 & 5
*Dress rehearsal on March 6
*Show time on March 7
*Wheel of Talent on March 8

Upcoming:
Feb 26 (depending) and March 1: Lottery Tours, 8:30am
Feb 28: Listening Sessions–8am, 9:15am, 5:30pm (see recent email)
Feb 28/March 1: Dental Screenings
March 7: Variety Show!

Here’s to a great week, however long it may be!
Andy

Good Morning All,
I hope you enjoyed the long weekend! I am not at school today, but I am with you in spirit. A joke to get you started: Parallel lines have so much in common. It’s a shame they’ll never meet.

A few notes to get us going:
1) The Auction is this Saturday night, Feb 23! Please be sure to include a reminder in your weekly note. 5:30-9:00pm

2) EBISS on Wednesday:
9:15-9:45—Grade 5
9:45-10:15— Grade 4
10:45-11:15—Grade 2
11:15-11:45—Grade 1
12:45-1:15–Grade 3 (Brad can cover)
*Kinder–we’ll schedule time next week

3) Grade 4 hosts Environmental Night on Thursday, 6:00-7:30pm. This has been a great event the past few years–please drop by to support the effort and enjoy the fun if you can.

4) Grade 1 hosts Cafe Amity this week

5) SIW this week–Lottery Info Sessions, 2:30pm and 5:30pm. I’ll send the outline Tuesday evening.

6) We continue with Variety Show practice! Here’s a rundown:
*Practices M/T/Th/F for the next 2 weeks.
*Final rehearsals on March 4 & 5
*Dress rehearsal on March 6
*Show time on March 7
*Wheel of Talent on March 8

7) I am away from school today and again on Thursday. Scott will be available to support when issues arise–either he will handle the situation or he can cover for you while you deal with whatever is going on.

Upcoming:
Feb 20: EBISS
Feb 20: Lottery Info sessions, 2:30 and 5:30pm
Feb 21: Environmental Night, 6-7:30pm
Feb 23: Auction at Boys and Girls Club, 5:30-9:00pm
Feb 26 and March 1: Lottery Tours, 8:30am
Feb 28: Listening Sessions–8am, 9:15am, 5:30pm (see recent email)
March 7: Variety Show!

Here’s to a great week, see you on Wednesday!
Andy

Good Morning All,
Last week was a bit disjointed with several of you away from school for a couple of days–I look forward to having everyone back and healthy this week!

A joke to start us off: What do you call an imaginary color? A pigment of your imagination.

Lost to share this week as we get going…
1) Math Screeners this week. Tonya will be here all week covering your classes:
Mon-Grade 3
Tues-Grade 1
Wed-Grade 5
Thurs-Grade 4
Fri-Grade 2

2) Hallway stewardship has been a bit lax in the last few weeks. Please take a little extra time this week getting your kiddos on board with helping to keep the hallway clean, especially at the end of the day. Thanks!

3) MAC Survey is on Tuesday. You should be getting an email about this.

4) SIW this week is off site. Hoping you’re all signed up for a workshop.

5) Grade 2 hosts Cafe Amity this week

6) I’d like to have a quick staff meeting Thursday at 8:15am to discuss next week’s lottery information meetings. As I will be away on Friday and next Tuesday (and Monday is a holiday) this is really the only time to meet prior to the meetings. Matt’s room.

7) The Auction is coming soon–next Saturday night, Feb 23! Please be sure to include a reminder in your weekly note. 5:30-9:00pm

8) Beth has opened up a few bulletin boards for your use. It would be great to have some student work up on the boards prior to the lottery info meeting and upcoming tours. Thanks!

9) It’s Variety Show season! Here’s a rundown:
*Practices M/T/Th/F for the next 3 weeks (except next Mon). Please note we are adding Thursdays until the show.
*Final rehearsals on March 4 & 5
*Dress rehearsal on March 6
*Show time on March 7
*Wheel of Talent on March 8

10) I will away from school this Friday and next Tuesday. Scott will be available to support when issues arise–either he will handle the situation or he can cover for you while you deal with whatever is going on.

Upcoming:
Feb 18: No School!
Feb 20: EBISS
Feb 20: Lottery Info sessions, 2:30 and 5:30pm
Feb 23: Auction at Boys and Girls Club, 5:30-9:00pm
Feb 26 and March 1: Lottery Tours, 8:30am

That’s it for now–three day weekend coming soon! Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

Good Morning All,
This week I’d like to launch an addition to celebrations, announcements, and message of the day at Community Time–Gratitude and Appreciation! I read a story to Kinder and Grade 1 recently that got me thinking about how important it is to provide our kiddos (and ourselves) the opportunity to express gratitude and appreciation and I’d like to give it a go with your support. I’d like to start at CT today, so if you hear me ask if there is anyone else that would like to express gratitude/appreciation it would be great if a few of you took the opportunity to share. I think it would be great if we did this once each week. Expressing and acknowledging gratitude have been shown to have incredible health and happiness benefits–I wholeheartedly believe this! An article to consider:
hhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-mentally-strong-people-dont-do/201504/7-scientifically-proven-benefits-gratitude

A few notes to get us going on this wonderful, snowy Monday morning:
1) Just a reminder that the art schedule for this week has changed–thanks again for your flexibility:
Monday
9:15-10:15 Kinder
10:40-11:40 Grade 4
12:35-1:30 Grade 5 (in classroom)

Tuesday
9:15-10:15 Grade 3
10:40-11:40 Grade 1
12:35-1:30 Grade 2 (in classroom)

2) DIBELS Wednesday morning. Scott will coordinate.

3) Family Game Night Wednesday 5-7pm. Pizza is being sold but you have to order ahead of time (24 hours before)–it will waiting for you at Game Night: https://www.friendsofamitycreek.com/product/game-night-pizza/

4) Monthly Fire Drill on Friday at 11:30am

5) Grade 3 hosts cafe Amity this week

6) Grade 5 heads to Bend Science Station on Tuesday and Thursday this week from 9-11am.

7) SIW this week–Chapter 8 Mathematical Mindsets. Please come prepared to share thoughts and ideas.

8) SIW on February 13 is coordinated by the district–have you signed up yet?

9) I have an admin meeting today and will leave around 3pm.

10) I’ll be leaving around 2:15 on Friday to participate in an admin panel at the OSU teaching program

11) Variety/Talent Show–we are planning to show some video of past shows today at CT. Tomorrow Invitations will be school wide to get kids signed up for things they think they want to do for the show. Friday Invitation will be for script writing.

Lastly, I want to express deep gratitude and appreciation for the meeting on Friday–great discourse, sharing of ideas, and consensus on assessment.  In addition we’re beginning to include a few other strategies in reading/writing and we are committing to figuring out how to support students who are struggling in math. I wanted to recap and give an update of our meeting to be sure I captured everything. Please let me know if something is missing!
*Fontas and Pinnel 3x yearly for K-2, looking in to IRI for 3-5 (I downloaded one possible IRI over the weekend)
*Math Screener 3x yearly, starting with Midyear screener for this year. Hiring a sub to come the week of Feb 11-15. Please let me know 2 days that would work good for you and I’ll do my best to schedule one of the two days. For Kinder we will work with Scott to cover the class for the day.
Other:
*K-2 will begin to include Units of Study for Phonics. K & 1 sets have been ordered, Grade 2 is being released this summer.
*We will use Calkins high frequency/snap/love/sight words. I’m working with Amanda to get this together.
*We will look to switch up some of Brad’s time to offer better math intervention (likely Bridges materials).
*We will continue to explore how we can track progress in essential skills in math, no agreement yet as to how that will look but I think it’s important to go along side whatever approach we follow in terms of math instruction.