Pacifica Wednesday Weekly

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October 3, 2007 

IMPORTANT CALENDAR DATES

If you have items to add to the calendar, please e-mail the date and time along with a description to calendar@pacificaschool.org

FIRST MONTHLY COMMUNITY GATHERING, TOMORROW!

Please join us tomorrow evening for the first monthly Pacifica School Community Gathering! We’ll be gathering on Thursday, October 4th,  from 5:30 till 7:00 pm. Come to celebrate the new school year, welcome our new students, families, teachers and director, and hang out with returning community members. Bring finger foods and drinks to share (please bring individual size juices/water). For more information, contact communityaffairs@pacificaschool.org.

PARENT PARTICIPATION COMMITTEE MEETING

The next meeting of the Parent Participation Committee (PPC) will be Monday, October 8th at 6:30 pm. All are welcome!

MATERIALS NEEDED FOR ARTS & CRAFTS EXPLORATION

Dear parents,

Please send any spare cardboard pieces and/or wood glue and miscellaneous items such as paper, glitter, foam pieces, cardboard, popsicle sticks etc. Please help the arts and crafts crew.

Much appreciated…

Brandy and Ramiza

EMERGENCY KITS

Please be sure to collect the materials necessary for constructing your child(ren)’s emergency kits and bring the kits to school as soon as possible.

KNOW YOUR COUNCIL!

As part of our continuing series of introductions of members of Pacifica’s Organization Council, this week, meet your Communications Chairperson:

Glen Eichenblatt

“This is the beginning of the sixth year my son Benjamin has been thriving here at Pacifica. I’ve spent all of those years as a member of the Organization Council, mostly focused on communications issues, technology and governance. Before that, I served on the Board of Directors of a local affiliate of a national non-profit organization, where I did similar stuff. These days, when I’m not tossing together the Wednesday Weekly, fixing school computers or updating Pacifica’s website, etc., I spend a lot of time at my real job as Director of MIS (just a fancy name for “computer guy”) at the ACLU of Southern California, hanging with Benjamin, reading, writing and dancing.

CLASSROOM UPDATES

K-1 Group:

Hello K-1 parents!

The year has gone so fast! We have been so excited about the learning that has been taking place. We are very excited about our "Down at the Pond" project which will kick-off next week after our field-trip. We hope to possibly go to The Douglas Park in Santa Monica next week Wednesday. We will need expert, insured parent drivers. We will have a sign-up sheet and permission slips as soon as possible.

We are also starting a patterns unit and will have a patterns party next week Friday. The students can wear their fabulous patterns attire that day! The students have also been working on number identification and expressing ideas through art and letters. We will be looking at the art of story-telling and how it helps students when they are beginning to write letters. Please share oral stories with your child at home- this is proven to be a valuable connecting and educational time. We will also be working on procedural writing - such as recipes and writing invitations for our own class Halloween Party on October 26th (the day of the Monster Mash). We will need parents to donate healthy food- which students will use to create and make food snacks- such as scary spiders, juicy bugs, hand punch etc....

FYI: We need emergency kits NOW! Please give time and/or support for your child to have breakfast at home. This is really important for your child and his/her being.

We still need parent help! Please see if the following is something you can help with:

Someone to sew a curtain across the back shelves, someone to organize and label library books with picture labels, someone to label the materials on the back shelf, someone to donate/find/make a small shelf (see Ramiza), someone to take photos on a regular basis, parents to manage learning stations over the week etc....

Thanks to all of the parents for their love and support.

K-1 team

1–2 Group:

Hello 1-2 Parents,

We can't believe how fast our weeks are flying by! We are having so much fun in the 1-2 class. We are still working on creating and maintaining tribes, which is also linked with our plant and animal communities unit. We have been exploring like scientists- learning the skills of observing, classifying and sorting and asking questions. We are also getting very excited about the Monster Mash coming up at the end of the month. We will be having our own class Halloween party on October 26th (same day as Monster Mash) and students will be making gruesome healthy spiders, monster brains and the like! We will need food donations at a later stage.

We will be finishing up our focus in writing (choosing a topic to brainstorm ideas about) and moving into procedural writing (recipes etc) and will delve into family literacy- where the students will explore their family and its ancestry. We will also be having a patterns party next week Friday- to celebrate our exploration of patterns.

We still need parent help in the following areas: sewing a back curtain, labeling materials in back shelf, completing word wall and making a few classroom resources/games. Please check-in with Ramiza about how you can help.

2-3 Group:

The 2/3 class is finishing up Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We have a "Chocopalooza" planned for Friday. This will include some fun activities such as creating gourmet apples, watching the movie, dressing up as your favorite character from the book, and discussing how the movie and book are alike and different.

Many thanks to all the parents who are helping our room come together. We couldn't do it without your support!

Jenny and Rita 

4-5 Group:

We have been working hard revising and perfecting our rough drafts for our narrative essays. Please mark your calendars for the afternoon of October 10th. We'll be having our class meeting at 3:30pm. If you are unable to make it, we will be having a make-up meeting at 8:30am on October 11th. All families will be receiving important information for at this meeting. We will be discussing curriculum goals, our new word study program, and more importantly, the students will have their finished narratives on display.  We still have not received all emergency kits. Please turn them in as soon as possible!

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