Good Morning Y’all,
I hope you thoroughly enjoyed the very well deserved 3 day weekend! And, I’m hoping that Conversations went really well!
A few notes to get you rolling:
1) I’ll be a little late this morning as my flight from LA does not arrive until 9:15am. I should be at school by 10am. I can be reached until 7am and then again after 9:15am (assuming that all goes well).
2) Following up after Conversations: Just a reminder to follow up with that handful of families that you made support plans with during Conversations. This can be a simple email capturing what you spoke about and what each of you committed to doing. Having it in writing can be super helpful and serves as a great reminder.
3) We’ll be Trick or Treating with masks on at the Ed Center on Tuesday starting at 1pm. Let’s stagger our departure from school:
K/1 leave at 12:50
2/3 leave at 12:55
4/5 leave at 1
When we get back let’s have some play time on the playground. After, Grade 4 can get to PE.
4) Jammie Jam on Wednesday! Pledge sheets are due today–please be sure you include a reminder in your weekly notes. Here’s the plan:
*Parents will set up the course starting around 9am. Depending on the weather we will either be inside or outside.
*K-2 will be on the course from 10-10:30am. We’ll need help from EAs to count laps
*3-5 will be on the course from 10:30-11am. Please help with lap counting!
5) If you’re planning to show a movie on Wednesday please be sure you check out Common Sense media to get some intel on the movie before you commit to it: Common Sense. Also, you might want to check to see if the movie is working on your projector system the day before because Ray recently ran into an issue trying to show a movie. Let me know if it’s not working and we’ll problem solve.
6) I sent you an email related to Goal Setting meetings. If you haven’t signed up for a meeting time yet please do! Thanks to those of you who have already done so!
7) Christine Bachtel, Emory’s mom, will be our visiting artist in November–she’ll be doing ceramics with the kids! All sessions are planned to happen during your Enrichment times and will be supported by Gina. There may be a little time here and there that Chris may need to work with kids in your class outside of Enrichment time and she will coordinate that with each of you.
Upcoming this week
October 31: Trick or Treat at the Education Center, 1pm
October 31: Team Collaboration Time, 2:45pm-3:30pm
November 1: Jammie Jam! K-2: 10-10:30am, 3-5: 10:30-11am
November 1: School based SIW–lots of good stuff to talk about!
Upcoming through Winter Break
November 7: Staff Meeting (Add to the Agenda). Andy’s last day for a while…
November 8: School based SIW
November 10: No School, Veteran’s Day
November 14: Team Collaboration Time, 2:45-3:30pm
November 15: Teacher work day SIW
November 16: Amity Eats, MOD Pizza (by Market of Choice)
November 20-24: No School, Thanksgiving Break
November 28: Staff Meeting (add to the agenda)
November 29: School based SIW
December 6: Teacher work day SIW
December 12: Team Collaboration Time
December 13: Teacher work day SIW
December 18-January 1: No School, Winter Break!
*Cafe Amity dates: November 8 (Grade 3 hosts), November 29 (Grade 2 hosts), December 13 (Grade 1 hosts)
*Bread and Jam dates: November 3, November 17, December 8
Here’s to a great week and fun filled week ahead!
Andy
Month: October 2023
Monday AM Notes, October 23 2023
Greetings all!
I hope the weekend was good to you and you’re looking forward to Conversations this week! (Please remember to reach out to families who have yet to sign up.)
A big thanks to those of you who made it to Harvest Festival. The evening was a big success on all levels!
Just a few notes for this short week:
1) First, a big safety concern. It is imperative that the door leading out to the playground be shut and locked (locks automatically if shut) at all times other than Choice Time, lunch recess, or Invitations–essentially any time we have large groups of children on the playground. If you are the last adult coming off the playground you MUST be sure that you are shutting the door. This has to be a priority for all of us at all times.
2) A big thanks to all of you for the Student Success Meetings last week. I’ll be sending some follow up emails this week.
3) Mask making is moving along really well and the kids have made some amazing masks! A reminder that we will Trick or Trick with masks on at the Ed Center on Halloween. We’ll plan to arrive at 1pm, with one class leaving every few minutes to spread us out a little.
4) A quick reminder that we are hosting the Jammie Jam the day after Halloween. Pledge sheets were sent home last week and it would be great if you could mention something in your weekly note this week–all encouragement is appreciated! Thanks for supporting the effort, last year we raised some needed funds! Pledge sheets are due by October 30th.
5) Like last year, I want to meet with each of you to do some individual goal setting. I’d like to do this the week of October 30-November 3. I’ll send out a sign up link soon.
Upcoming meetings:
*October 31-Team Collaboration Time
*November 1-School based SIW
Upcoming
October 24: NO Staff meeting
October 25-26: Conversations (no work on 27th)
October 31: Trick or Treat at the Education Center, 1pm
October 31: Team Collaboration Time, 2:45pm
November 1: Jammie Jam! K-2: 10-10:30am, 3-5: 10:30-11am
November 1: School based SIW–lots of good stuff to talk about!
November 7: Staff Meeting (Andy’s last day for a while…)
Here’s to a great 4 day week ahead!
Andy
Monday AM Notes, October 16 2023
Hello Amazing Team!
Well, last week was quite a week–a big thanks to all for keeping it positive and helping out when needed. Hoping to have the team back together this week…
A few notes to get you going:
1) Mask making begins this week. I sent the schedule out last week. Should be fun! As we did previously for some years the kids will be wearing masks to go trick or treating over at the Ed Center on the 31st (afternoon). The staff there love getting dressed up and hosting the kids.
2) Student Success Meetings on Wednesday. Please be sure you have the SSM Prep form ready to go (sent you a link last week). Here’s the schedule, Brad will be here to cover your classes:
8:30-9:00-Lindsey
9:00-9:30-Sara/Lauren
10:00-10:30-Brian
10:30-11:00-Frans
12:00-12:30-Grade 1
3) SIW this week (and next) is Teacher Work Day!
4) Dental Screenings on Monday and Tuesday. I know–SO MANY disruptions! These medical screenings are really important and every year multiple kiddos greatly benefit. We’ll be pulling students throughout both days and we’ll try and work around the various things going on in your classrooms!
5) Speaking of disruptions, Earthquake/Fire Drill on Friday at 10:45am. Then off to lunch…
6) Harvest Festival is this weekend, Saturday fro 4-7pm. As always you are not required to be there but it’s always great to see you there!
7) Grade 5 is off to Tamarack Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday!
8) We will hosting the Jammie Jam once again this year the day after Halloween. We’re sending home pledge sheets this week. Tentatively the event will take place on November 1 between Choice Time and lunch. Thanks for supporting the effort, last year we raised some needed funds!
9) Note about upcoming Tuesday meetings: No Team Collaboration Time this week and no Staff Meeting on October 24. Please use the time to prep for Student Success Meetings this week and to get a jump on Conversations or Conversations prep next week.
Upcoming Dates
October 16-17: Dental Screening
October 17: Teacher Collaboration Time–CANCELED
October 18: Teacher work day SIW
October 18: Student Success meetings
October 20: Earthquake/Fire Drill, 10:45am
October 21: Harvest Festival, 4-7pm
October 24: NO Staff meeting
October 25-27: Conversations (no work on 27th)
October 31: Trick or Treat at the Education Center, 1pm
Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy
Monday AM Notes, October 9 2023
School wide theme: Problem Solving!
Team,
I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed the amazing weekend–Fall at it’s very best! My family had a little surprise Friday night, the early arrival of the latest member of our family–Kahwai Ezekiel. He was born in the back of their Honda Odyssey van in the parking lot of the birthing center! True story! Here he is with his older sister, and below that with Raya.


A few notes to get you rolling:
1) We continue with the Problem Solving roll out this week. Last week I dropped off your slice of the wheel and a small poster to hang in your class.
*Jigsaw Problem Solving Wheel
Starting last week each grade was supposed to introduce the entire wheel to their class but do a deep dive on just one of the strategies and create a skit demonstrating their strategy to share-out to the rest of the school. Skits this week and next:
-Tue 10: 2nd
-Wed 11th: 1st
-Thur 12th: 2nd
-Fri 13th: 5th
-Tue 17th: 4th
-Wed 18th: Kinder
*Skits:
*should be relatively short
*should demonstrate a real-life situation and model an appropriate way of using the strategy
*could be organized into either small groups or presented as a whole class
*could consider collaborating with buddies on this.
*Your class can either tell the audience what the strategy is first and then model it OR they tell them to watch carefully and guess which strategy was used.
*Which grade has which strategy?
Tell them to please stop – Kinder
Compromise – 1st Grade
Feel it and Move on OR Ignore it – 2nd Grade
Find another: space, group, activity – 3rd Grade
Have a conversation + Talk it Out – 4th Grade
Create your own solution – 5th Grade
2) Picture Day on Tuesday. We’ll pull students throughout the morning.
3) Staff Meeting on Tuesday at 2:45pm. We’ll meet in Grade 3. Please remember that this is a collaborative agenda–you can add to the agenda items here: Staff Meetings 23-24
4) SIW this week is Educator Network–good news is we get to stay here to do it! Sara, Brian, and I received some training last week to help us prepare to facilitate this Wednesday. 1:30 in Brian’s room.
5) Bus Evacuation Drill on Thursday at 9am. We need to be at the Ed Center at 9am.
6) Conversations are coming up in two short weeks! We’ll be offering meeting times on Wednesday, October 25 and Thursday October 26 (off on 27th). Please get information out to parents soon so they know the plan and get that Google doc ready to go for sign ups. We know that many families make plans for those 3 extra days off so the sooner you get info out the better!
7) How are Community jobs going?
Kinder/Grade 1: Playground clean-up
Grade 2: Library caretakers
Grade 3: Hallway waste patrol
Grade 4: Green Team waste station
Grade 5: Office and cafeteria support
8) Student Success Meetings are next week–we need to switch from the 19th to the 18th. More info coming soon.
9) Grade 4 hosts Cafe Amity this Wednesday.
Upcoming Dates
October 10: School pictures
October 10: Staff meeting, 2:45-3:30pm
October 11: Educator Network SIW
October 11: Cafe Amity, Grade 4 hosts
October 12: Bus Evacuation Drill, 9am at the Ed Center
October 16-17: Dental Screening
October 17: Teacher Collaboration Time, 2:45-3:30pm
October 18: Teacher work day SIW
October 18:Student Success Meetings, schedule coming soon
October 20: Earthquake/Fire Drill, 10:45am
October 21: Harvest Festival, 4-7pm
October 25-27: Conversations (no work on 27th)
October 31: Trick or Treat at the Education Center, 1pm
Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy