School will end at 12:45pm this Friday, Sept. 15. Teachers will be engaged in collaborative work for the remainder of the day. It is important to pick up your students on time. Extended care will be available for students whose parents are unable to pick them up at 12:45. Pre-enrollment and pre-payment for this service is required. The fee is $10 for care up until 3:20. After 3:20, regular aftercare billing kicks in. See Carmen in the office to sign your child up and make your payment.

Student/Parent/Teacher Meetings will be held during afternoons next week with your student’s primary teacher. The sign-up list is in the front entryway. These are required meetings and students ARE expected to attend.

A lot has been happening in our community as we discover new friends, old friends and the flow between the classrooms.  We are excited about our upcoming year and are working hard to create a rich, holistic experience for the students.  Our systems focus for our SEER (State Educational Environmental Roundtable) Project has been "Water", and we have offered many activities to involve the children with water play and various forms of experimentation as well as many types of water related art.  Through these experiences, our students are beginning to conceptualize the many different ways we use water, and we will soon be ready to begin our study on bigger water systems. 

Each student has a home group teacher who is your point of communication for your child’s academic and personal needs.  You will soon receive (if you haven't already) a letter from your child's home group teacher, introducing themselves to your family.

The first couple of weeks of school we have also been conducting informal assessments to observe how the students interact with the materials, the knowledge they possess, and their personal interests.  So far the students have expressed a lot of interest in ice cream, swings, dinosaurs, Sharpie, outer space, and money.  The students have started creating an ice cream store and a party store, and are exploring the possibility of making ice cream and selling it.

Here are a couple of friendly reminders: 

• please remember to give your child an extra supply of clothes
• pack extra food for snack and lunch, and something extra if your child is staying in after care

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to all the parents for dedicating their time to help and participate in the classrooms !

Cristina, Shaquanda, Melinda and Tracie

Hey everyone! David and I would like to welcome the new 5/6 group for 2006. We are very excited about the group this year and can't wait for the year to get going. We have a diverse group of students who each bring fantastic ideas and skills to the classroom. At the moment the 5/6 group are working on getting to know each other and how the class can work as a community within the school. We have done activities that encouraged us to work as a whole, and allowed our differences to be our strengths. The 5/6 group is also developing ideas about how the class projects might look and develop as the year unfolds. We have been brainstorming ideas around communities (both local and global) and how they affect us. Our main project or theme will then inform the context for other curriculum areas. We encourage parents to be apart of our project once it gets started, whether it be in field trips or helping out in the classroom.

The 5/6 group has been working as a whole class as well as in smaller home groups. The home groups have been randomly selected to ensure that grade levels, gender groups and personalities are mixed to allow a more dynamic learning environment. Home groups also allow David and I to monitor and be responsible for specific students, especially when housekeeping concerns arise. As we learn more about each other, we hope to incorporate learning styles and the natural environment more often in our investigations.

We hope that the year has started off to such a great start for parents and students as it has been for us. We look forward to working more closely to parents as the year continues and how the learning in our group becomes a operating component in the Pacifica community.

Ramiza

The Fundraising Committee will meet on Thursday, September 21, 2006, on campus, at 3:15pm.  All are welcome.  Following a brief overview of Pacifica Fundraising options and goals, including grants and annual giving, the Agenda is currently scheduled to include delegation of jobs, planning for monthly fundraisers, and organizing for the winter party/silent auction.  Please get on board!  We look forward to your input.

K/1 Park Day – let’s meet after school on Thursdays for an hour or so to let our kids (and us) get to know each other.

Thursdays 3:15-4:30 or so

Culver Park (where Duquesne/Hughes ends at Jefferson)

Siblings Welcome

See you there.

Cheryl Ward

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.