Happy New School Year!
First, thanks for an amazing retreat last week-it was so good to spend the day with you sharing our hopes and dreams for our students, and thinking deeply about the ways in which we can impact their lives. I feel genuinely inspired and I look forward to following up on this soon with all of you.
School starts Wednesday and I’m super excited for the start of this year. Yes, we still have some obstacles in our path, but as always we will work together to find good, safe routes around, over and through the obstacles! Thanks for your enduring flexibility and positive attitude as we work to bring Amity back into it’s full glory!
One thing I had hoped to spend some time discussing last week was School Wide Themes for the year. We simply ran out of time to do this last week, but I’d like to start the year with the theme of Community. It seems to make sense to start here for the first month. The beginning of the year is always a great time to talk about community and how we are all an integral part of the community. Please spend time in the coming days and weeks exploring what community means, how communities function, what the key components of a community are, how our school is a community, what role each person plays within a community, and what responsibilities each community member has in relation to each other. It seems natural to weave in Taking Care of Self/Others/Place! Here are two sites I found that could help you get started:
*https://npl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/WhatisCommunity_lesson.pdf
*One World, One Heart Beating
A few notes for this first week:
1) Be sure you have are up to date on the First Two Weeks
2) Sign up here for Invitations for the first Thursday: Invitations first week
3) We will have Community Time on the first day. Prior to bringing your students down please spend a few minutes setting expectations. At the retreat it felt like we all agreed that we need to do a better job of setting clear, school wide expectations. Let’s start with the following traits of good audience members (this can also easily transfer to outside performers/experts who come to school). Asking your class what makes a good audience member would be a great way to start the conversation, and they will likely nail every one of these!
Good audience members:
*Sit next to people they feel will also be good audience members
*Quietly listen when the hosts/performers are speaking, singing, or performing
*Let the hosts/performers know they appreciate their efforts by clapping and cheering when they are finished
*Politely ask their neighbors to be quiet if needed
*Leave their snacks and any toys in their classrooms
4) Remember that parents are allowed to walk their child to class in the morning. Here is the after school in-class pick up rotation (all other days you will walk students out to the grass area along the fence):
Mondays: Kinder and Grade 1 families
Tuesdays: Grades 2 and 4 families
Thursdays: Grade 3 families
Friday: Grade 5 families
5) I have left a master schedule in each of your classrooms and it can be found in the shared folder: Master Schedule 22-23
6) Attendance: EAs will take care of this each morning. Kelli will do Kinder and Grade 5, Karima will do Grades 1 and 2, and Diane will do Grades 3 and 4. Please help them provide reasons for absences if you are in the know. Thanks!
7) As a reminder, Specials (Enrichment, PE) start next week.
8) Afternoon duty help needed first day! Normally we don’t have afternoon Choice Time on Wednesdays, but we do on the first day. Since no one is assigned to duty on Wednesdays I kindly request that everyone try to be out on duty the first day. As a reminder, here’s the duty rotation–be sure to grab a vest and fanny pack, and have your keys and phone:
K-2 Teachers (including Lauren): Monday and Thursday
3-5 Teachers and Brad: Tuesday and Friday
9) You will be provided with some paper work for each student to take home on the first day (including a Camp Amity permission slip). Please be sure it goes home and that you let parents know to expect it and to sign and return forms ASAP. Please collect and track the Camp Amity permission slips as they come in, and keep them in the folder. Please also collect all other forms and pass them along to Patti and she will track them.
Upcoming Dates (lots here but want to be sure you get these on your calendar)
September 7: First day–full school day. Community Time at 1:45pm
September 8: Invitations, 1:30-2:00pm. Sign up!
September 9: PM recess and popsicles, 1:45pm
September 12-16: Scholastic Book Fair-CANCELLED. More info soon
September 20: Fire Drill, 9:20am
September 22: Back to School Night, 5-6:30pm
September 26/27: Camp Amity at Shevlin Park! 9:30am-1pm
September 29: DIBELS
September 30: Lockdown Drill, 9:20am
September 30: Pancake Breakfast, 7-8am
October 3/4: Dental Screenings
October 11: Picture Day
October 12: Vision Screening (Lion’s Club)
October 15: Harvest Festival (tentative, pending parent volunteers)
October 18: Earthquake/Fire Drill, 9:15am
October 19/20: Conversations, No School
November 10: Secure Drill, 9:20am
November 11: Veteran’s Day, No School
November 21-25: Thanksgiving Break, No School
November 29: Fire Drill, 9:20am
November 30: Picture Retakes
Here’s to a great year ahead! But let’s start with a great first day…
Andy