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October 10, 2014 |
The Springer Buzz
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In This Issue:
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Quick Dates for your Calendar:
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Principal’s Message |
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Congratulations to Blach and Egan (and the entire District) On November 10th-11th, both Blach and Egan Intermediate, LASD’s two junior highs, will receive their National Blue Ribbon Awards in Washington DC. This honor should not go underappreciated. Only 287 public schools and 50 private schools, from elementary to high school, will receive this award. The fact that both our our junior highs will receive it is truly awesome. The National Blue Ribbon Award is given to those schools who show tremendous ability to shrink the achievement gap or who consistently score high on state and national testing while keeping standards at a high level. While Blach and Egan are the schools receiving the honor, it really is an achievement of the entire school district. All 7 elementary schools, who feed into Blach and Egan, played a large part in preparing our students for a successful junior high experience. These awards are another example of, how working together, we in LASD are creating an environment where students thrive. Reminders: • On Tuesday, we ran our annual Earthquake drill. In the event of a severe earthquake, you will need to pick up your child through the student check-out located on the blacktop. Now is a good time to check if your emergency pick-up contacts are up-to-date in our database. Legally, we can only check out students to those people listed in our database as emergency pick-up people. Please contact the school office if there are any changes. •Springer has a 3:00pm bell that signals students to clear campus. Unless a student is involved in an after-school activity or being directly supervised by a responsible adult, students need to leave at 3:00pm. Directly supervised is defined as the student is in your direct line of sight and you are responsible for that student. Your cooperation with this is greatly appreciated. •When picking up students, please DO NOT leave your vehicle while waiting along the yellow curb. For some reason, this year we have had more infractions of this policy than most. Please inform your babysitter, relative, or anyone else you might have picking up your child of this policy as well. |
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Come To Walk-a-thon TOMORROW! |
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The Springer ROCK-a-thon is tomorrow -- Saturday, October 11! Registration starts at 9:15; walk from 10-3. If you forgot to turn in your green form, you can do so at the event! Guest walkers can register on-site. Click here for a list of what to bring! We still need afternoon volunteers! Please come by the Volunteer Table at the Walk-a-thon if you can help. Thank you to all our fabulous sponsors! See you at the Walk-a-thon. ROCK ON, SPRINGER! |
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Safe Routes To School Program |
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The City of Los Altos, in coordination with the Los Altos School District, is seeking to improve school travel choice, safety and education by further developing its Safe Routes to Schools (SR2S) Program as part of the comprehensive Pedestrian Master Plan process currently underway. The plan will include updating the existing Suggested Routes to School maps and safety education materials. On Wednesday, October 15th, City of Los Altos staff will hold “office hours” from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. at Springer. During this time, City staff will seek to obtain input and comments from the school parent community on an updated Suggested Routes to School map. Input and comments can include confirming existing routes are still in use, suggesting alternative routes, identifying physical or operational improvements to the transportation network and identifying any barriers in getting to school. The feedback received will be considered and will help staff refine the Suggested Route to School Map. Wade Spenader Principal |
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Project Cornerstone |
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Cornerstone Corner This month’s ABC book, Giraffe’s Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae, tells the story of Gerald the Giraffe who is able to dance to his own tune when he gets some encouraging words from an unlikely friend. Goals of the lesson:
1. Students learn about “personal power”, and practice using their
2. Students learn that making others feel good is a great way to fill their To reinforce this lesson at home: *Create Opportunities for your child to try new things. *Offer praise for their willingness to try.
*Whenever they are in a negative situation, help your child reframe their *Teach your child practical skills such as sew a button, how to cook a meal, change a flat tire. Well prepared young people are more likely to feel a sense of personal power. Common Language and Vocabulary: Personal Power – Personal power is about taking control over one’s own responses to obstacles: your attitudes, actions, and outlook. You can choose how to react/respond. Positive Self Talk – Using words that promote personal power. Everyone has their own list of affirmations that make them feel good about themselves. Tap into the voice inside of you that says, “I can do this!” When you catch kids modeling good behavior, Notice It, Name It, and Celebrate It! |
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LAEF, LASD & PTA: Who Pays For What? |
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Matching deadline extended to October 12th! Not sure why you should donate to BOTH your PTA and LAEF? In short, LASD funds the buildings ("space"), PTAs fund site-specific needs ("stuff"), while LAEF funds the teacher salaries ("staff") that bring smaller class sizes and enrichment programs to all LASD Schools. Donating to both PTA and LAEF are needed to enrich your child's education. An example of how it works for the Springer Library: - LASD provides the library building - LAEF pays for librarians - PTA buys books and reference materials ACT NOW!! MATCHING DEADLINE EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 12!! Make your donation work harder. Until October 12, any NEW and INCREASED donation will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $100,000, by DeLeon Realty and a group of private donors. Make your tax-deductible donation today at www.laefonline.net (or bring a check to the school office) Every *CURRENT* K-8 LASD student benefits from *THIS YEAR'S* LAEF grant so our goal is 100% parent participation. Requested donation per student is $1,000 (or $100 per month for 10 months). Every gift in every amount is appreciated. LAEF Questions? Web: www.laefonline.org. Phone: 650.559.0445 Email: admin@laefonline.org |
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Calling All Young Artists! |
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Original Student Artwork Sought for Exhibition Why it’s Cool to be a Kid in Los Altos The Why it’s Cool to be a Kid in Los Altos exhibition will be launched with opening receptions throughout the downtown for student artists, families and community during the First Friday event on Friday, November 7th from 6-8pm. Submit your artistic view of why you think it’s cool to be a kid in Los Altos and receive a gift. View our flyer for more information. |
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Become a LIVING CLASSROOM docent... share your love of nature with kids! |
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The Living Classroom is looking for docents to help deliver hands-on garden-based lessons to the students of the Los Altos School District. No experience necessary as we provide all the training needed! Our Fall docent training session will take place on Monday mornings from 9 - Noon on September 8th through October 13th. Please click here for more details. Questions? Please contact the Living Classroom at livingclassroom@lasdschools.org or visit our website: www.living-classroom.org. |
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Upcoming Living Classroom Events – All are Welcome to Attend! |
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Living Classroom Family Day at the Chicken Ranch Sunday, October 12 from 10:00am – 3:00pm 160 West Portola, Los Altos, CA 94022 (click here for directions) Please join us on Sunday, October 12th from 10am - 3pm for a fun-filled day at the Chicken Ranch with the folks from the Living Classroom! We’ve got something for everyone - lots of activities for the kids, garden workshops, bee and chicken experts, face painting, a balloon man, good food, and great music from our neighbor, Jim Altoff and his band “Fully Funded” (from 11-1). And don’t forget your checkbook for some awesome raffle and auction items, too! Bring your neighbors and head on over to the Chicken Ranch! All proceed from this event go to support the Living Classroom program who's mission is to inspire children to learn and value our natural world through garden-based education. Please click here to view a flyer of this event. For more information, please contact the Living Classroom at livingclassroom@lasdschools.org or call us at (650) 947-1103. Ohlone Life and Plant Use Presentation by Local Naturalist and Educator Keith Gutierrez Monday, October 20th from 10:00am – Noon Los Altos School District Office Conference Room #2 (next to Covington School) 201 Covington Road, Los Altos, CA 94022 (click here for directions) Please join us for a special Living Classroom sponsored event with local naturalist and educator Keith Gutierrez. Keith will teach about the life of the Ohlone Indians and the many ways that they used various local plants. A fire starting demonstration will highlight this event! Click here to view a flyer for this event. Please RSVP to livingclassroom@lasdschools.org by Thursday, October 16th if you plan to attend. We would love to see you there! |
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Lunch time Fun!visor Program Update |
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This week at noon over a hundred Springer students ran, danced, planted, built and bumped volleyballs in Springers Fun!visor Programs run by parent and student volunteers at lunch. In Arts and Games alone on Wednesdays, we have over 50 fourth, fifth and sixth graders there each week to welcome and work with younger grades on projects including sports and board games, trivia games, and writing. Please encourage your students in younger grades to come! Last week we had a 1:1 ratio of student volunteers to participants making Friendship Bracelets. This week over one hundred students worked together to figure out the names and artists of fourteen Rock and Roll songs in honor of the Walkathon and Project Cornerstone's October book of the month Giraffes Can't Dance. Two classrooms (Mrs. Buck and Mrs. McLean) tied for first place and earned popsicles for their classes with the most participants earning over 90% of their music trivia questions correct. On Friday last week at Run for Your Life, 85 students checked in after they finished their lunches to run the Springer Track! Springer is a great place to be at Lunch! For an overview of Springer's noontime Fun!visor Programs please see the Springer Website: http://springerschool.net/springeres/7097-Fun-visor-Noontime-Student-Activities.html |
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Student Extracurricular Activities: |
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There are after-school activities at Springer for all grade levels. For a list of all of the activities and more information, please go to Springer’s website by clicking here. |
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Parenting Young Innovators |
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How can parents give kids tools they need to create in the modern world? How do you have reflective conversations with your kids? Innovators have the power to improve their world in big and small ways while leading fulfilling lives. Young people who grow into adult innovators will make an impact as professionals, citizens, and community members. They will also have the ability to shape their personal lives in ways that lead to greater happiness and fulfillment. What traits and tools do innovators need to utilize? And what can parents do to help nurture them? Glen Tripp, Founder and CEO of Galileo Learning, will reflect on lessons learned from working with the 200,000 children who have attended Galileo’s innovation-oriented enrichment programs. Parenting strategies will be covered.
An Interactive Workshop To register for the class, click here. |
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Parent Education Opportunities |
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