Monday AM Notes, April 1 2024

School-wide Theme: Stewardship

Hello and welcome back!
I hope you had an amazing break and I’m looking forward to hearing about all your adventures! I spent a few days in Corvallis with the family and stopped at about an hour east of there on the way home…

A few notes to get you going:
1) Conversations next week! Please be sure you send out sign-ups first thing this week if you have not already done so. Have you included some evening times?

2) Short staff meeting this Tuesday. Scott Maben will be here (Tammy is not able to be here) at 2:45pm to share info about the upcoming levy and answer questions. Ray’s room.

3) SIW is a Teacher Work Day–enjoy!

4) Visiting artist April 2 and 9–Sarah Swoofer will be here doing acrylic self portraits with every class during Enrichment time (as a reminder see recent communication about Grades 3/4/5 using the April 9 Enrichment times). Have you secured 3-4 parent volunteers? If not, please do so right away. Thanks!

5) New Student Success Meeting date: April 18. At these meetings we’ll really be focussing on students who have been receiving support and checking in to see how they are doing.

6) You’ll notice that you have a new phone in your room–you must keep this phone plugged in! We have been out of compliance in most of our classrooms and we need to be sure we are keeping these phones plugged in. Ideally, Patti and I should be able to reach out to you using the phone if there is a student who needs to be sent to the office (meds, leaving early, etc). We’ll try to use the phone minimally, but it’s a nice thing to rely on if needed!

7) In preparation for the auction there are a few things going on. Various art projects are underway, and starting this week we’ll be reaching out to Class Leads to get Themed Baskets going for each class. Once themes have been chosen (leads will be getting a list to chose from) the leads will be reaching out to families to start donating. Donated items will be collected in your classrooms and the lead will be responsible for maintaining it. Stay tuned!

8) April is Child Abuse Prevention month and it’s time for our annual abuse prevention lessons. I’ll send more specific info in an email soon, but in the meantime please be thinking about when you will teach the lessons this month (can extend into May but started in April).

9) I have to help out with the annual BLS Job Fair on Thursday so I’ll be leaving school around 11:15am. Call or text if you need anything!

10) April 22 is Earth Day–can we find a way to connect our school-wide theme of Stewardship?

I’ve added lots of dates to the list below which should cover most of what is happening between now and the end of the year. Did I leave anything off the list? Please let me know!

Upcoming
April 2: 3/5 Bend Science Station
April 2: Levy Info at Staff Meeting (short, likely 20 minutes)
April 3: SIW, Teacher Work Day
April 10: SIW, Teacher Work Day/Conversations
April 10/11: Conversations
April 12: No School
April 16: District ICCL, no meeting
April 17: SIW, In house
April 18: Student Success Meetings
April 19: Bread and Jam
April 22: Earth Day!
April 23: Staff meeting (tentative)
April 23: Grade 5 Benham Falls East
April 24: Cafe Amity, Grade 1 hosts
April 24: SIW, Educator Network
April 25: Grade 4 Riley Ranch Reserve
April 26: Grade 3 Caldera Arts Center
April 30: Team Collaboration
May 1: SIW, In house
May 4
: Auction! May the 4th be with you…some type of space related theme
May 8: SIW (Staff meeting combo), In house
May 10: Bread and Jam
May 13: Grades 1/3/4/5 Mary Poppins@Caldera, 9:30-11:15
May 14: Staff Meeting
May 15: Cafe Amity, Kinder hosts
May 15: SIW, Teacher Work Day
May 15: Grade 5 walking field trip (all day)
May 16: Grade 5 Lava Lands
May 17: Grades K/2 Mary Poppins@Caldera, 9:30-11:15
May 21: Team Collaboration Time
May 22: DIBELS (may change)
May 22: SIW, In house
May 22-24: Grader 5 Coast Trip
May 27: No School
May 29: SIW, In house
May 29: Kinder to Miller’s Landing
May 30: Grade 1 Benham Falls East
May 31: Summit High production of The Real Story of the 3 Pigs is coming to Amity, 8:30am.
June 3/4: Camp Amity!
June 4: Staff Meeting (last one of the year!)
June 5: Cafe Amity
June 5: SIW, Teacher Work Day
June 6: End of Year Community BBQ
June 11: Grade 4 Lava Lands/Cave?
June 12: FULL School Day, no early release
June 13: Grade 5 Graduation
June 18: Last day, 1pm release

Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

Monday AM Notes, March 18 2024

Greetings!
I hope you enjoyed the incredible weather this weekend! Only 5 days between you and Spring Break!

A few notes to get you going:
1) SIW this week is all yours!

2) Bree Beal is back again this week as our Visiting Artist. From all accounts the kids really enjoyed their time with her last week!

3) Cafe Amity this Wednesday hosted by Grade 2. If Christine hasn’t reached out yet she will soon!

4) This Wednesday Camp Fire has their annual after school ice skating trip and they’ve asked that we do all we can to get Camp Fire kiddos to them right after school so they can head out. Your help is appreciated!

5) IMPORTANT: On April 2 and 9 we will have another visiting artist, Sarah Swoffer (her organization is called Let’s Paint), and she will be doing acrylic self portraits with every class! She has requested that we get 3-4 parent volunteers to help out with each class. Please reach out to parents this week with the request. Below is the schedule–you’ll notice that April 9th Enrichment time will be used by 3/4/5 since there is no school that Friday.

April 2
K, 1, and 2 will be a regular Enrichment time. K will use the whole hour(ish).

April 9
10:00-11:00am: Grade 3
12:00-1:00pm: Grade 4
1:20-2:20: Grade 5

6) Just and FYI, there is a healthy Tech Talk on Tuesday at 6pm. Grade 4 and 5 families have been invited and many have signed up.

7) On April 2 a district rep will be at our Staff Meeting to provide info about the upcoming levy.

8) My gal is having surgery on Wednesday so at some point in the day I will be heading out-we don’t find out the scheduled time until Tuesday afternoon. I’ll be out on Thursday but back on Friday.

9) As requested I have moved the end of year BBQ to the week before graduation-June 6th.

Upcoming
March 20: Cafe Amity, Grade 2 hosts
March 25-29: Spring Break!
April 2: Levy Info at Staff Meeting
April 10/11: Conversations
April 12: No School
May 4
: Auction! May the 4th be with you…some type of space related theme
May 31: Summit High production of The Real Story of the 3 Pigs is coming to Amity, 8:30am.
June 6: End of Year Community BBQ
June 13: Grade 5 Graduation
June 18: Last day, 1pm release

Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

Monday AM Notes, March 11 2024

Amity Crew,

I hope you had a great weekend! A big thanks to all for the lottery info meeting last week, I always come away from the evening feeling so great about what we do at Amity! Especially after hearing the graduates speak!

A few notes to get you going:
1) SIW this week is in house, 1:30pm in Brian’s room. We’ll have a chance to review data from the survey you took recently, and talk about Stewardship.

2) For the next few weeks we will have Bree Beal, the executive director of Beat Theater, as our Visiting Artist! She will be working with Gina during Enrichment engaging kids in theater and drama games and activities–should be lots of fun!

3) We still have significant Library and ELA funds to spend. Do you have needs or wants? Let’s talk and get you what you’re looking for!

4) SAVE THE DATE: Grade 5 Graduation will be Thursday, June 13. We’ll do the community celebration that morning and the family gathering starting at 5pm.

5) Tammy and Lisa, my bosses, will be at school on Thursday from 10-11am. We’ll be visiting a few classrooms–anyone have something during that time they want us to see?

6) I may be a little late Monday AM dealing with a family matter–I’ll text to let you know.

Upcoming
March 13: SIW, agenda coming soon
March 15: Bread and Jam
March 20: Cafe Amity, Grade 2 hosts
March 25-29: Spring Break!
May 4
: Auction! May the 4th be with you…some type of space related theme
May 31: Summit High production of The Real Story of the 3 Pigs is coming to Amity, 8:30am.

Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy