Survival Swimming!

Dear Families,

I messed up. I wsa supposed to forward the information on Survival Swimming to you, and near as I can tell I did not follow through. Anne had it planned for today and only 8 kids knew about it and came prepared. Anne has agreed to postpone Survival Swimming to next week, so more kids cane be prepared for this important safety lesson.

Here is the note from Anne that I was supposed to forward. So Sorry!

Please let parents know their child should bring clothing to jump in the pool with, and clothing to wear for the day. They will wear a swimsuit under their jumping in clothes. They should also have a bag big enough to accommodate wet clothes. The purpose is to teach them the skills of survival if they ever end up in the water in their clothes. All will be done within the comfort level of the child. Our purpose is not to scare them. We've done this several times and kids are usually nervous before, but love it after. 

So, Survival Swimming next week, Tuesday February 27.

Valentine's Day party!

Dear Families,

Happy Valentine's Day! Thank you to those who signed up to contribute to our party tomorrow and to help clean up. We have the party 2:00-3:00 with sit down snacks, Valentine passing, games and dancing.

Global Play Day rescheduled for tomorrow!

Dear Families,

Well, I was totally taken by surprise by the snow day today! Especially since I turned off my ringer last night at a presentation and forgot to turn it back on! Luckily, I checked my email, but I had to reread it to believe it.

So, the kids must be disappointed, but tell them we have just rescheduled it for tomorrow. So, they don't have to unpack all their toys;) They can consider today to be "Play Day in Training" day.

2 more things...

To add to your calendar:

February 8 is the AAO Coffee House. You have been receiving info from Jayme about that.

February 14, Valentine's Day: We will have a party in the afternoon. Dina will send you a note about how you can help out. Thanks, Dina!

Latest News for Bette's Class

Dear Families,

Here's a summary of upcoming events for the class:

Wednesday, February 7 is Global School Play Day

Global School Play Day is an international event raising awareness of the need for unstructured play. Here is a link to a TED talk by Dr. Peter Gray about the effects of the decline of unstructured play.
Students can bring anything they wish to play with to school on Wednesday, February 7, 2018. The only restrictions: they must bring toys and these toys may NOT require batteries or electricity. No devices.  Some ideas, since today's kids rarely play and often own very few toys: board games, dolls, Legos, blocks, trucks, cars, racetracks, playing cards, empty cardboard boxes, markers, jigsaw puzzles, blankets (for forts), social games (charades, Pictionary, etc.) We participated last year, and it was a wonderful, community building day.

Monday, February 12 is NAAPID (National African American Parent Involvement Day) which was initiated by AAPS teacher Joe Dulin. Our school plans to have Community Gatherings that morning. We are inviting parents or community members to join us in a discussion of how life has changed since their childhood.

February 16 and 19 are No School, giving us all a planned 4 day weekend.

February 28 is another Early Release Day.

Math- We just did some work with Tables and Line graphs, which the kids seem pretty good at. 3rd grade is working on multiplication and division and 4th grade is continuing to work on mastering long division.