Get Ready for November!

October 27, 2009

Dear Families,

We all enjoyed seeing so many of you at Open House and Family Book Night last Wednesday, October 21. If you attended, what did you like best about the evening? What other comments or suggestions do you have? Remember, this is a blog, so you can write back. I’d love to hear from you.

It’s now time to look forward to November. It may sound far away, but it starts next week and it’s an important one for us. The first marking period will end on November 3rd. Thursday and Friday, November 4 and 5 will be half days of school for students in order to provide time for parent teacher conferences. Students will be released at 11:35 instead of 2:35 both days. Our teachers have already sent notices home and requests for times are already coming in. Please contact the school as soon as possible in order to meet with your child’s teacher.

If you’re the parent of a fifth grade student, I’d like to remind you that the statewide social studies assessments are also fast approaching. The students have prepared since September for assessments, and will take them on Monday and Tuesday, November 16 and 17. It’s not easy for anyone to test on a Monday and the teachers have asked me to stress how important it will be for students to arrive from the weekend well rested and focused. We want them to do their best. Please try to be supportive if your teacher sends practice exercises or contacts you regarding your child’s performance in this area.

I’ll write next week with some more news for November. Have a great week and weekend. Don’t forget to set your clocks back!

October 19, 2009

Dear Families,

It is my pleasure to invite all of you to our Open House and Family Book Night this Wednesday, October 21 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our teachers will be ready to greet you in their classrooms and should have a few things on hand to show the types of activities or work the children do each day. Our OPT will be giving a prize to the classroom with the most family visits, so be certain to visit if you can.

We will also announce the winner of the Book Fair coloring contest that evening. Mrs. Scott and I will be judging the entries after school on Wednesday. The winner will receive a gift certificate from the book fair. The book fair will be open throughout the evening if you are interested in browsing their excellent selection of books for sale.

We will close the evening with our first volunteer training of the year, from 7:15 to 8:00 p.m. This training is now required for any parents who wish to participate in activities in the classroom, including field trips. Many of you have indicated an interest in the training. Please respond if you wish to attend Wednesday’s session, for space is limited. We will be providing additional training sessions before each OPT meeting this year at 5:30 p.m. Please refer to your West Side calendar of events for specific meeting dates.

Enjoy this week. Don’t forget that school pictures will be taken on Tuesday the 20th.

This Week's Events!

October 8, 2009

Dear Families:

This quick note is just to remind you of a few special upcoming events. You should have received information about them from your child’s teacher, but just in case:

First of all, this is a holiday weekend. We won’t be in classes on Monday in observance of Columbus Day. The following day is Staff Development Day for our teachers. We’ll see the students back on Wednesday, October 14. Enjoy the two days off.

We’ll still have the school open Tuesday evening for the delivery of pizza from our Little Caesar’s funderaiser. The OPT will be ready to have you pick up your order at school at 5:00 p.m.

Our Fall book fair will also start next week. Flyers that profile some of the books for sale have been sent home. Your child will be bringing home a coloring sheet for the coloring competition to support the fair. Entries will be judged on Wednesday, October 21.

And it’s Grandparents’ Breakfast time! We invite all grandparents of K-2 students to join us on Thursday, October 15. Grandparents with students in Grades 3-5 are invited for Friday the 16th. Please RSVP to the notices we’re sending home.

It’s a short week, but as you can see it’s busy! We hope you enjoy all the different celebrations.

Welcome to October!

Dear Families,

October already! It’s hard to believe that we’ve actually completed a whole month of school. It’s been a very successful one. The school has a busy hum as we start with routines, activities and expectations that in place and easy to follow.

Progress reports will be sent home with your child on Friday, October 2. Please review all the information on the report. You may contact you child’s teacher or me if you have any questions or would like a conference. This is a really busy month with so many activities. Just like last month you will receive a letter from Mrs. Scott with readings and books on responsibility, our October character education theme. We hope you will be able to enjoy some of these readings with your child.

This week we have two special performances for our younger students. On Wednesday, students in Grades K-2 will travel to the high school for a musical performance of 7 different childrens’ books including If You Give a Pig a Pancake. We will transport the students by bus to the high school during the first hour of school. On Thursday morning our Kindergarten students will enjoy a safety presentation by “Buster the Bus”. Buster is always a welcome visitor to West Side and a great way for children to learn transportation safety.

We also have special events for parents. Our first OPT meeting will take place on Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. We invite all of you to join our parent group as they plan our Fall book fair for the 3rd week in October. Family Book Night will take place with our Open House on October 21st.

We will also do our first volunteer training immediately after Open House on the 21st. This year parents must have this training to chaperone field trips or work events like the book fair. You will receive a flyer home as a reminder of the training. Volunteer training will also be offered at 5:30 p.m. before each OPT meeting this year. You may also attend workshops at Fowler or East Side when they are offered. I’ll write again regarding upcoming events this month. We hope you enjoy the beginning of this fine fall season.