Snack, field trip and track it forward. Home projects

Dear parents,

My apologies, but I have misinterpreted the school snack policy. Parents are asked to sign up for providing snack to the classroom once a week. The link to sign up is through the “Track it forward” site, which is the site that the schools uses to register volunteer hours, snack and car pooling and Parent Teacher Conferences. Here is the link: https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/events. When you go to the site, you will see a month, then a list of teachers who are advertising snack on Mondays. Click on “Mr. John’s snack sign up” and then follow the instructions. If you haven’t signed up for the site you will be prompted to do so.

What can I provide for snack? The school asks for healthy snacks to be provided, for example:

  • Mini bagels with cream cheese
  • Fruit (ex. apples, clementines, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, cucumber, melon – cut at home, grapes, cherry tomatoes)
  • Cheese Sticks
  • Veggies (e.g. carrots, broccoli, celery)
  • Crackers with cheese (pre-cut)
  • Granola Bars
  • Fruit Leather
  • Mini-muffins
  • Whole Grain bread with jam

Please DO NOT send popcorn, cereal, chips and salsa or ranch dressing, and colored drinks.

At the moment, snack sign up has been set up till the Christmas break. As soon as it is open after Christmas, I’ll let you know.

Likewise, for Friday 21st on Track it Forward, Ms. Alisha will be advertising for carpooling for the “Freedom’s Light” field trip. Alisha will be emailing you in the near future about this.

Last week, the students were setting up their first home project in school with the expectation of finishing this off at home. The due date is October 3rd and they have been asked to research and produce a presentation on one of the five Native American tribal regions of North America (Eastern Woodlands, Southeast, Great Plains, Southwest and Northwest Coast). Here is a breakdown of the rubric, detailing the areas they should be concentrating on (a focus on at least one of the tribes in the region will be necessary):

  • Name of Native Region (6pts)
  • Label each category (6pts)
  • Housing (13pts)
  • Transportation (13 pts)
  • Food (13pts)
  • Weapons/Tools/Crafts (13pts)
  • Customs/Beliefs (13pts)
  • New Vocabulary Word (13pts)
  • Overall Neatness (10pts)
  • Total (100pts)

As usual, any questions please email me.

Thank you!  – John

Emails, snack, open day

Dear parents,

Thank you for all those parents that donated food for the salsa last Friday. It was delicious! And, talking of food, this year I would like to use a “snack by choice” policy. If your child wishes to eat a snack in the morning, then please provide them with something suitable and relatively healthy. Please, no chips, candy, soda, or drinks with bright coloring (this is due to carpet staining when they are spilled).

We already have three volunteers for driving on the field trip on 21st, but ideally we would need three more. Ms. Alisha would like to advertise this through “Track it forward” which is a site that the school uses for volunteering. To make this effective she would need your email addresses. Please let me know by Thursday, if you DO NOT want me to share your email address with Alisha.

This Thursday September 13th is the school’s Open Day, or Back to School Night. There will be talks  offered by Ms. Lana, the assistant principle, and Ms. Rene, the principal. From Ms. Rene: This will be open house style, but with two opportunities for parents to attend a meeting that Ms. Lana and Ms. René will lead. Parents will be invited to attend a meeting at 6pm and the same meeting again at 7pm. The parent meeting will be 15-20 minutes and take place in the addition commons area (in the new Junior High building). Outside of those times, parents are invited to visit each of their children’s classrooms.

In the classroom I will be providing similar information to the “Sneak a Peak” that was held in the week before school started, along with information that has been covered in the blog. However, I am happy to explain any area of the classroom environment, classroom rules and expectations, field trips, home projects, snacks, planners and using track it forward. If you specifically wanted to discuss matters regarding your child, then I am open to that as well, as long as we can have some privacy. Of course, depending on circumstances, that may not be possible.

Thank you and have a great week!

John

Snack

Dear parents,

I hope that you all got to see the eclipse in some way. An awesome event!

I have made a new snack sign up sheet through wejoinin: https://wejoinin.com/sheets/atpix starting from next week. If this is new to you, then Montessori schools provide a simple snack for children in the morning between 9 and 11 am. This is to provide them with some sustenance for the morning, as well as giving the children the opportunity to prepare and serve the food. Here are some suggested healthy snacks:

  • Celery/carrots/broccoli and ranch dip
  • Pretzels
  • Graham crackers
  • Bagels and cream cheese
  • Strawberries, cantaloupe, oranges, grapes, apples, pears
  • Cheese sticks or cheese pieces
  • Raisins or fruit leather
  • Granola or granola bars
  • Whole wheat crackers
  • Dry cereal (not sugar cereals)
  • Goldfish crackers
  • Rice cakes
  • Jerky
  • Tortilla chips and salsa
  • Tortillas
  • Whole wheat bread and butter

A couple of things to remember when giving snack are:

  1. If you are using something that requires a cup such as salsa, then you will need to provide that as well.
  2. No candy, or sweet, sugary foods.
  3. No popcorn – sorry, it just gets too messy

There are 36 weeks in the year, so if everyone signs up for one slot, we have the year almost covered. Also, you will see that some weeks are shorter than others. Lastly, when you sign up, please remember to put the date in your phone and set a reminder for the Friday before.

Thanks everyone!

John