Month: November 2021

Greetings Team,
I hope you had an AMAZING break and that you had good time with family and friends. I had a super low key break here in town and got lots of house projects done. At the end of the week my daughter, son-in-law, and grand daughter (Aurelia) came from Corvallis to celebrate the holiday with us. It was the first time my little family has all been under the same roof in almost 2 years–it was so much fun!

Here is one of the projects I got done over the break-removing my old, defunct hot tub. What a messy project! Just waiting for the new tub to arrive…

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We’ve got 3 weeks between now and winter break and I always love this time of year. Have some fun and enjoy these 3 weeks!

A few notes to get you going…
1) Happy Hanukkah! Hanukkah officially began last night and ends the evening of December 6. We have several families who celebrate the holiday and if you’re interested in finding out more about the history and traditions of Hanukkah you can start here with these links (there are an endless number of links with out there if you’re interested): Hanukkah link 1, Hannukkah link 2.

2) Camp Amity is a go for Wednesday, December 8. We’ll have time to chat about this later this week at our SIW. In the meantime, please be sure you are signed up to lead an activity: Camp Amity Sign Ups

3) SIW this week starts at 1:30pm in Brian’s room. We’ll cover a few items:
*Overview of our focus of the year (School Design, etc)
*Check in on how you’d like to spend some of our meeting times
*Future direction of Wednesday Team meetings
*Camp Amity planning

4) Weather permitting, we’re still doing outdoor Community Time on Fridays at 1:30. Here’s what I have in my notes, please correct me if I am wrong:
*December 3: Grade 4
*December 10: Kinder
*December 17: Grade 2

5) SLGGs (Student Learning and Growth Goals) are back once again and need to be filled out by January 1. I’d like to meet with each of you for 15 minutes next week to get this done-please sign up for a time: SLGG Meeting

6) Please keep sharing photos with parents in your weekly notes–keeping them connected continues to be so important, and they love the pics!

7) Grade 5 students will be organizing a food drive that will take place between now and the winter break. Please do all you can to support their efforts. More info coming soon.

8) We’re still in zones at recess at least until after the winter break. This will be a little tougher now that the natural play area is completed, but I appreciate your help in keeping kiddos in their proper zones for now.

9) On December 14 my two bosses (Skip and Tammy) will be here doing some observations to get a better picture of what’s going on in the schools. As we get closer to the date I’ll be checking in with you to see who’s up for a classroom visit. Just putting it on the radar…

10) I’ll be away from school on Friday this week. I’ll send a reminder on Thursday.

Lastly, how about a delicious Holiday Potluck on the 17th before we head off for the holidays? I’ll post a sign up sheet if desired…

Upcoming
*December 6-10: SLGG Meetings
*December 8: Camp Amity–new date
*December 20-31: Winter Break
*January 13: EBISS

Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

Good Morning Team,
I hope you enjoyed the wonderfully warm weekend! I got out on my bike on Saturday, and on Sunday Michelle and I got in a great hike on the Six Lakes Trail (across from Elk Lake). We got to 3 of the 6 lakes–Blow, Doris, and Sanuj (in order below).

That short week sure felt long last week! But, the good news is we are in that special time of year–we have 5 more days and then a nice long week off, 3 weeks and then Winter Break! Hard to believe we are already at this point of the year!

A few notes to get you going:
1) Community Time on Monday at 2:15pm outside, weather permitting

2) Lockdown drill on Tuesday at 9:15am. We’ll follow it with the monthly Fire Drill and be done in time for recess. Please take a few minutes to talk with your class about the drill and be sure they know what to do. Here’s the info I shared with you last week: Talking with Children About Lockdowns

3) Camp Amity is postponed until Wednesday, December 8 (assuming the weather cooperates). We’ll revisit this after the break. I’ll share this info with parents in a note first thing this week.

4) Just a reminder that we are back to zones at recess. When you are on duty please take a moment to check the zone chart posted on the “Love” wall and be sure kiddos are in their zones. Thanks for your support with this!

5) SIW this week: They’ve scheduled an admin meeting for Wednesday at 1:30 so I will not be available for SIW. Please use the time as you wish.

6) One last note–please be sure to leave the hallways free of obstacles so we can exit the building quickly in case of an emergency. It fits in nicely with taking care of each other and this place! Thanks.

Upcoming
*November 16: Lockdown and Fire Drill, 9:15am
*November 22-26: Thanksgiving Break!
*December 8: Camp Amity–new date
*December 20-31: Winter Break
*January 13: EBISS

Here’s to a great week ahead with a vacation on the horizon,
Andy

Greetings!
I hope the weekend was good and that you’re feeling energized as we head into these next two weeks before the Thanksgiving break. It’s a short week this week and we may have a fair amount of students out on Friday with the Thursday holiday.

A good friend of mine was in Glasgow at the Climate Change Summit this past week and sent this picture of Greta Thunberg (that’s her in the middle). It got me thinking about my commitment to living a more environmentally conscious life, and how we as a school could find ways to inspire and empower our students. Just thinking…

A few notes to get you going:
1) No School on Thursday in honor of our veterans.

2) Community Time today at 9:15am. Grade 5 hosts on Friday at 1:30pm.

3) No zones starting today! A few new things in place:
*K-2 (only) Gaga in the AM, everyone at lunch, 3-5 (only) in the PM
*Each group gets a wall ball spot: K-2 on the side closest to Broadway (back of wall), 3-5 on the owl side. Youngers can join Olders if they want to challenge themselves, but let’s keep the Olders out of the Younger’s game. We’ll use cones to split the field in 2 so multiple games can be played.

4) I’ll be out Wednesday. On that note, I am hoping we can trade SIW times–next week is supposed to be teacher directed but I’d like to switch that to this week, and next week we’ll have a formal SIW. Any objections? Please let me know.

5) Quick staff meeting on Tuesday from 3-3:15. With a Lockdown Drill coming up (see next note) I want to be sure we are all using similar language when we talk with students. We’ll meet in the staff room.

6) We need to do our annual Lockdown drill this month so I am scheduling it for Tuesday, November 16 at 9:15am. We’ll follow it with the monthly Fire Drill and be done in time for recess. We will discuss language to be shared with students at our quick staff meeting on Tuesday at 3. Here’s something I’d like you to read prior to our meeting: Talking with Children About Lockdowns

7) Ofrenda: We are setting up the Orfrenda starting this week. If you’d like to honor a loved one please share a photo–you can bring one in or send Patti a digital photo. If you’d like to share some words about the person(s) please do!

8) Camp Amity Sign ups–if you haven’t signed up yet, please do so this week: Camp Amity Sign Up

9) I’m including the following as reminders:
*I’d like to slowly start to bring back Choice Time (currently known as recess). Choice Time allows students to stay inside at break times (AM and PM, not lunch). We’re not ready for students to be able to wander from room to room yet, but you could pick a break time or two each week and stay in your room with students who want to stay in. Frans has already been doing this for a little while now and the students clearly appreciate and enjoy the opportunity. I only ask that you do not choose times when you have playground duty. Thanks for considering this, I think it will be really great to reestablish this, even if in small bits. You’ll still need to meet students at the end of break times so be sure to have students in your classroom clean up early and join you for a stroll to get the rest of the class.

*Keeping Taking Care of Yourself/Others/Place alive! I think that if it is not a regular part of your routine that you take some time to review work you have done with your class around Taking Care of Yourself/Others/Place. Values and agreements work best when we keep them alive and present in our daily lives-revisiting this each and every week will have the greatest, most long term impact. Thanks!

10) I’ll be leaving school around 2:45 today to get to an admin meeting at High Lakes. Call or text if you need anything.

Upcoming
*November 9: Staff meeting, 3-3:15
*November 11: No School
*November 16: Lockdown and Fire Drill, 9:15am
*November 17: Camp Amity! Please sign up for an activity
*November 22-26: Thanksgiving Break!
*December 20-31: Winter Break
*January 13: EBISS

Here’s to a great, short week ahead!
Andy