Hello, Families!
I hope you are having a pleasant weekend! I'm sure you're dying to hear about how I'm doing in my fantasy league this year and, well, I don't want to talk about it.
Hopefully you were able to make it to conference with your children's teachers this week. As a teacher I can tell you that it's always nice to be able to sit down and reconnect with you all. I think it's an important reminder for both of us that we are in this together and make up a very powerful team where your children are concerned!
I wanted to thank all of our field trip chaperones who joined us at the Marine Lab. What a wonderful experience for all of us! We have some great photos that are in this google album https://photos.app.goo.gl/LFjJd67PqVhcD7nj8. You probably have to have a google account to see them so I've attached a few of my favorites! How stink'n cute are they in their little white lab coats?!?! This is only the first of many trips we will be taking to the lab. Our students will be working on scientific inquiry all year (every year!) and some of the investigations we will do will take place in the lab's classroom. I'm looking forward to a long and exciting relationship with their team!
This Tuesday, the school is taking a trip to the Pumpkin Patch in Santa Rosa! If you are volunteering to chaperone you should have received your chaperone agreement (yellow sheet) that needs to be signed and returned to your teacher, as well as an overview of the field trip and some specific things we will need you to help with. Every field trip we take from now on will have these two things coming home as soon as you offer your chaperoning services! We want our students to have the best educational experience possible from our field trips and I think the best way to do that is to keep our volunteers informed about what to expect! It's hard enough keeping track of the feral little kittens that the students turn into when we release them into the wild! When you get one of these information sheets, there is a spot at the top which is conveniently sized and located so that you can put a magnet on it and attach it to your refrigerator...this way you won't forget! :)
Your BBS PTA aka BBSHS ( Bodega Bay School Hero Squad. I just made that up to keep the abbreviation thing going but it certainly tracks.) was funded for this trip by the Retired Firefighters of Bodega Bay, so if you see any of these cool cats around town, be sure to thank them!
Do you want MORE good news? Are you sure you can handle it? Okay but if you hurt yourself jumping for joy, don't come crying to me, you've been warned.
The Coast Guard will be on site again on Thursday to finish up our garden fence! I am over-the-moon excited about this project and can't wait to get in there and start growing stuff! Our students are in the investigation phase for plants that they want to grow in the garden, and this will drive the research needed to create the planter "boxes". The older kids have started with learning about the Bodega Bay climate during the growing season. They will then meet up with the younger students to decide what they want to grow so that they know what kind of specifications for the containers they need to meet. Containers will be constructed from upcycled materials ONLY (with the exception of any hardware like screws and nails they might need). When we get to the construction phase (quite possibly not until after our winter break) I will be asking for some volunteers to come help build and paint, if necessary, the containers with the students, so if you are handy with tools, please keep this in mind!
Speaking of....we have 5 more weeks before we start a new round of enrichment classes and I am hoping to find someone to teach a Tool Time class. I thought it would be really useful and engaging to teach kids about the basics of building. Why use a screw instead of a nail? How does a screw actually work? What's a pilot hole? How do we use tools? That kind of thing. I thought the culminating activity at the end could be assembling bird houses (pre-cut) or garden boxes. Let me know if you are interested in something like this (or anything else to teach!). Enrichment classes go for 6 weeks and can be repeated during the next session because they would have a whole new crop of kids!
That's all for this week! Oh, chances are pretty good that we will not have bus service tomorrow and possibly stretching into next week so if your child takes the bus-van, please plan to make other arrangements.
Dates to Remember
- 10/24 - Field Trip to the pumpkin patch @ 10:50 - 2:30 IF YOU ARE CHAPERONING, PACK YOURSELF A LUNCH!
- 10/27 - Bibliobus from 2:30 - 3:30
- 10/31 - Halloween Parade @ 1:15
- 11/1 - NO SCHOOL (You people always keep your kids up too late, feeding them candy all night, so they come to school as ZOMBIES with digestive issues, so we have planned a teacher training and work day on this day!)
- 11/9 - Jog-a-Thon / Turkey Trot @ 11:30 Come watch, cheer and/or run!
- 11/10 - Veteran's Day, observed - NO SCHOOL!
- 11/14 - Superintendent, Adam Jennings, will be onsite from 11:30 - 2:00
- 11/16 - Board Meeting @ WMS @ 6pm
- 11/21 - Make-up Picture Day
- 11/22 - Minimum Day
- 11/23 & 11/24 - NO SCHOOL
- 12/19 - 21 - Minimum Days
- 12/21 - 2nd Annual Holiday Feast!
- 12/22 - 1/8 - WINTER BREAK, NO SCHOOL!
- 1/9 - Return to School!